0:00:04 > 0:00:08MUSIC: Jumpin' Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones
0:00:11 > 0:00:17This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21One Sunday evening in 1967,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24a minivan raced towards a country house.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29# I was born in a crossfire hurricane... #
0:00:29 > 0:00:33The men packed into the van were on their way to a party.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35Their destination, Redlands -
0:00:35 > 0:00:39home of the Rolling Stones' lead guitarist Keith Richards.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43There was only one problem though, they weren't on the guest list.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46# Jumpin' Jack Flash It's a gas, gas, gas... #
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Richards had spent the weekend at his country retreat
0:00:49 > 0:00:51with Mick Jagger and friends.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55They'd been walking in the woods, listening to music,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57and dropping acid.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03In fact, they'd been having so much fun they didn't hear
0:01:03 > 0:01:07the tyres screeching outside or the hammering on the door.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09TYRES SCREECH
0:01:09 > 0:01:13When Keith finally opened up, he got the shock of his life,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17for there on the doorstep he saw a group of dwarves all wearing
0:01:17 > 0:01:22identical blue outfits and tall shiny hats.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27But then Keith was a bit confused and more than a little stoned,
0:01:27 > 0:01:31because his unexpected visitors weren't dwarves at all,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33they were the West Sussex Police Force.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38It was to Redlands, the expensive Tudor-style house at the end
0:01:38 > 0:01:42of this drive, that a 15-strong squad of policemen arrived
0:01:42 > 0:01:46armed with a search warrant issued under the Dangerous Drugs Act.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49You know what really rankled with the policemen who came roaring
0:01:49 > 0:01:54down here that evening in 1967, it wasn't the drugs, it was the house.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58A thatched Elizabethan farm house with its own gardener,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01its own chauffeur and even its own moat.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06The very last place that you would expect to find a 23-year-old
0:02:06 > 0:02:08tearaway from suburban Dartford.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15The Redlands drugs bust showed how the self-made stars of the '60s
0:02:15 > 0:02:20were changing from Street Fighting Men to Lords of the Manor.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Ever since the '60s, we've been told that our pop culture, our music and
0:02:24 > 0:02:29films, books and TV has been a great levelling force, undermining
0:02:29 > 0:02:34the establishment and tearing down the barriers of birth and breeding.
0:02:34 > 0:02:35But I'm not so sure.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40There has been no greater inspiration for Britain's
0:02:40 > 0:02:44popular culture than the icons of the old order.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47From country houses and boarding schools, to royal sagas
0:02:47 > 0:02:49and establishment heroes.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55And the British elite has proved remarkably good at absorbing
0:02:55 > 0:02:59and deflecting the irreverent energy of our modern culture.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04I think that far from overthrowing the old elite,
0:03:04 > 0:03:09our popular culture has often romanticised it and reinforced it.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13So this is the story of British culture that you don't often hear.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17It's the story of how outsiders became insiders
0:03:17 > 0:03:20and of the triumph of the old order.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Imagine being an estate agent in the 1960s.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48I quite fancy this one, Jacobean country house in East Sussex.
0:03:48 > 0:03:5320 rooms, 35 acres, 18 fireplaces and four lakes.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Sold to Roger Daltry.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01Or this one. Neogothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames,
0:04:01 > 0:04:06it comes with a 120 rooms, a subterranean cave network
0:04:06 > 0:04:10and a 20,000 tonne replica of the Matterhorn mountain.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Sold to George Harrison.
0:04:12 > 0:04:18Or this one, a 15th-century manor in Suffolk. It comes with its own title,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Lord of the Manor of Gedding and Thornwood.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Sold! Arise Lord of the Manor, Bill Wyman.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Rock and roll stars weren't supposed to live like country gents.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35They were meant to be the scourge of the establishment.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38Exploding on to the scene armed only with their ability,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42these were the standard bearers of a new generation
0:04:42 > 0:04:46who remade the world of the British imagination.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50This was a new aristocracy - the talent class.
0:04:51 > 0:04:57We've had nothing really, except our own talent.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02I think we can say Twiggy is the mini queen of
0:05:02 > 0:05:04the new social aristocracy.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08They might claim to be changing the world.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12But they were actually treading a well-worn path.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15And following in the footsteps of their predecessors,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18the self-made men of the Industrial Revolution.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26Here in Cromford in 1771, the great industrialist
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Sir Richard Arkwright had built the first water-powered mill.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33And as the father of the modern factory and mass production,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36he really did change the world.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40You know, Sir Richard Arkwright was the absolute
0:05:40 > 0:05:42epitome of the self-made man.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46Born the youngest of 13 children to a humble Lancashire tailor,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49he ended his days as one of the richest men in the country
0:05:49 > 0:05:52and the father of the Industrial Revolution.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58But even as Arkwright's inventions led the world forward,
0:05:58 > 0:05:59he was looking backwards.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05To mark his ascent into Britain's social elite,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08he built himself a piece of the past.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Arkwright was buying into a vision of Britain as a pastoral Eden,
0:06:15 > 0:06:20an old-fashioned social hierarchy based on the country house.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24And that's a vision that has proved remarkably enduring.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30The dream of owning a whacking great pile somewhere in the countryside
0:06:30 > 0:06:34isn't confined to Britain's rock aristocracy,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37indeed the very idea of the country house is deeply
0:06:37 > 0:06:41embedded in our popular culture, as the setting for family
0:06:41 > 0:06:46melodrama, class conflict and pure Sunday night entertainment.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59"We drove on and in the early afternoon came to our destination.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01"We were at the head of a valley,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03"and below us, half a mile distant,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07"grey and gold amid a screen of boscage
0:07:07 > 0:07:11"shone the dome and columns of an old house.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14"'Well,' said Sebastian, stopping the car."
0:07:16 > 0:07:18Well?
0:07:20 > 0:07:21Well?
0:07:23 > 0:07:24What a place to live in.
0:07:27 > 0:07:33Evelyn Waugh's book Brideshead Revisited was published in 1945.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36At the time, houses like this seem doomed to decay.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Waugh's book was a hymn to the aristocratic past at the very
0:07:41 > 0:07:45moment that Britain was turning to social democracy.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50It offered a window into an "enchanted palace"
0:07:50 > 0:07:53from which most people had always been shut out.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01When Granada Television adapted Brideshead Revisited
0:08:01 > 0:08:04for the small screen in 1981,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08this was Brideshead. Castle Howard in Yorkshire.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11Granada could hardly have found a more magnificent setting.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15And almost overnight, millions of viewers fell in love with
0:08:15 > 0:08:19what Waugh himself had called "the cult of the country house."
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Charles, we are going to have a heavenly time alone.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31This was the country house as a lost Arcadia.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36If it was mine, I couldn't live anywhere else.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40A prime-time tribute to upper-class glamour.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44Chateau Lafite 1899.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49And once we'd tasted it, we wanted more.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58Downton Abbey is merely the latest example of an
0:08:58 > 0:09:00extraordinarily successful genre.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03But the real attraction isn't the aristocratic household
0:09:03 > 0:09:05or its army of servants.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07It's Downton Abbey itself,
0:09:07 > 0:09:09magnificently played by Highclere Castle.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14With a global audience of 120 million,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17the show has been a huge success both at home...
0:09:17 > 0:09:19The new valet has arrived, my lord.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21..and abroad.
0:09:21 > 0:09:22Grazie, Carson.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24HE CLEARS THROAT
0:09:24 > 0:09:25Che c'e?
0:09:25 > 0:09:29The enduring appeal of the country house drama says a great
0:09:29 > 0:09:33deal I think about our culture, and about us.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36This is a little corner of the television schedules in which
0:09:36 > 0:09:39we can freely indulge our long running obsessions with
0:09:39 > 0:09:44hierarchy, nostalgia and social class.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49As it is, my lord, we may have to have a maid in the dining room.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Cheer up, Carson. There are worse things happening in the world.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54Not worse than a maid serving a duke.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00Upstairs is the domain of the aristocracy, all fancy frocks
0:10:00 > 0:10:05and cut glass accents, only occasionally interrupted by nagging
0:10:05 > 0:10:09anxieties about the subversive novelties of the 20th century.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12I couldn't have electricity in the house,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15I wouldn't sleep a wink, all those in vapours seeping about.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20And downstairs, the world of the servants,
0:10:20 > 0:10:25endlessly scrubbing the floors, polishing the silver and, like
0:10:25 > 0:10:29their masters, fretting about their place in the social hierarchy.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33What will the butler say, whatever will Cook think
0:10:33 > 0:10:36and where did I put those oysters with mignonette sauce?
0:10:36 > 0:10:41The duke went berserk for your anchovy pinwheels.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44He's hardly the king though, is he?
0:10:44 > 0:10:46I mean, I've seen him coming out the bank.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Just think in a few hours from now the king of England's...
0:10:50 > 0:10:53..posterior shall occupy this very chair.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55This is hardly the moment for such reflections, Rose.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58You've still got the flowers to do, the coffee tray,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01the polishing in the front hall, the landing and the drawing room.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04The popular appeal of the country house drama goes I think
0:11:04 > 0:11:07well beyond nostalgic escapism.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12In an anxious individualistic age, what dramas like Brideshead and
0:11:12 > 0:11:18Downton offer is a reassuring vision of a paternalistic social hierarchy.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23This is Britain as an extended family, in which we all have a role
0:11:23 > 0:11:29and we all know our place, even it is just cleaning the master's boots.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36It's no accident that these dramas all enjoyed success
0:11:36 > 0:11:38at a time of deep economic anxiety.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43The oil crisis just added fuel to the coal crisis
0:11:43 > 0:11:45and gave us the three-day-week.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48'70s audiences preferred Upstairs, Downstairs
0:11:48 > 0:11:50to the three-day-week.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52Grease 'em up again, Mrs Bridges.
0:11:52 > 0:11:53SHE SHRIEKS
0:11:53 > 0:11:56To tune out the recession of the early '80s,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58people tuned in to Brideshead.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03And to help us forget the credit crunch,
0:12:03 > 0:12:04Downton Abbey.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Indeed, their appeal is so attractive
0:12:10 > 0:12:14that it goes well beyond the small screen.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19Because we don't just want to watch these dramas in our living rooms.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22We want to visit their living rooms.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27MUSIC: Us And Them by Pink Floyd
0:12:30 > 0:12:35On the left is Henry VIII. Well-known face. And up above him,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39less well known, is King Charles I. Sorry, King James I.
0:12:39 > 0:12:40Slipping a monarch.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43And at the same time they replaced the roof,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45but unfortunately that was destroyed.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50Every year, more than a third of the population visits a country house.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53It's become one of the great middle-class rituals,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56from the gift shop to the gardens.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Well, naturally, I see them walking in the gardens.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06They used to start by asking for my autograph. Well it's impossible
0:13:06 > 0:13:10to give an autograph to 2,000 people who come around here.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14You do it for one, you have to do it for another,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17so I gave up that idea soon after the house was open.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26The owners didn't let us in out of generosity.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30They needed our money.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Death duties had forced their hand.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38And it was their changing fortunes that inspired one of the BBC's
0:13:38 > 0:13:40most successful sitcoms.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Penelope Keith plays Audrey Forbes-Hamilton,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55forced after the death of her husband to sell her ancestral home.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Oh, thank you, Rector, it was a lovely funeral,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59we must have one again sometime.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02To the upstart Richard DeVere.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Indeed, from Audrey's point of view, DeVere could hardly be worse,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09because not only is he of Czechoslovakian descent,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13but he made his money in, of all things, supermarkets.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16- This is Mr DeVere. - How do you do?
0:14:16 > 0:14:18My condolences, Mrs Hamilton.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21How kind, it was a great shock, but life must go on.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23Do help yourself to a drink.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25It's Mr DeVere of Cavendish Foods.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29Oh, the caterers. In that case, help everyone else to a drink.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32LAUGHTER
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Almost uniquely among country house dramas,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38To The Manor Born is set not in the romanticised past
0:14:38 > 0:14:41but squarely in the present. And at its heart is the story
0:14:41 > 0:14:45of a country house struggling to come to terms with social and
0:14:45 > 0:14:50economic change, much to displeasure of the old upper-class elite.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54But the show is also unusual in that it doesn't present that change
0:14:54 > 0:14:59as a terribly bad thing. Sir Richard DeVere might be nouveau riche, but
0:14:59 > 0:15:02he's also a thoroughly decent chap, whereas Audrey really is the most
0:15:02 > 0:15:07dreadful snob. And in that sense, To The Manor Born is not just the most
0:15:07 > 0:15:11honest of country house dramas but it might just be the most radical.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15To the Manor Born ends with the fairy-tale marriage
0:15:15 > 0:15:18of the old blood and the new money.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20And the audience loved it.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23When Audrey and Richard tied the knot,
0:15:23 > 0:15:2524 million people were watching.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Ladies and gentlemen, the bride and groom.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32But the biggest country house drama of all is, of course...
0:15:34 > 0:15:36The Windsors.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41No show on Earth has obsessed the nation
0:15:41 > 0:15:44quite as much as our royal family.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46And their story could hardly be more deeply
0:15:46 > 0:15:50embedded at the heart of our popular culture, from novels
0:15:50 > 0:15:54and paintings to films, television and - yes - even pop music.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02The Royal Variety Performance in 1963 has gone down in history
0:16:02 > 0:16:05as the night the Beatles dared to tease their royal audience.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11For our last number, I'd like to ask your help.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14For the people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18And the rest of you, if you just rattle your jewellery.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25Still, I'm not sure about John Lennon's scripted quip really
0:16:25 > 0:16:28counts as one of history's greatest witticisms.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37And for all the cultural turbulence of the '60s and '70s,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40the monarchy remained extraordinarily popular.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46God save the Queen.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49The year was 1977.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51As the nation was putting up bunting
0:16:51 > 0:16:53and looking forward to the Queen's Silver Jubilee,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56one group of excitable youngsters
0:16:56 > 0:16:58was planning its own special tribute.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01# God save the Queen
0:17:01 > 0:17:03# She ain't no human being... #
0:17:03 > 0:17:06The Sex Pistols' single God Save The Queen
0:17:06 > 0:17:08could hardly have been better timed.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11# And England's dreaming... #
0:17:11 > 0:17:17But this wasn't just cheeky, this was positively blistering.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19# There's no future
0:17:19 > 0:17:20# No future... #
0:17:20 > 0:17:24As a publicity stunt to accompany the song, the Pistols' management
0:17:24 > 0:17:27had planned a parody of the Queen's river pageant.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34They hired this boat, the Queen Elizabeth,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38as a floating stage for the band to perform their confrontational
0:17:38 > 0:17:40single in the very heart of Westminster.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46Things didn't get off to a very good start. As the Sex Pistols
0:17:46 > 0:17:48were boarding, the captain said,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50"It's not one of those punk bands, is it?"
0:17:50 > 0:17:54"Oh, no, no," said the management, "It's not a punk band, it's a
0:17:54 > 0:17:58"German synthesizer band very heavily influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach."
0:18:11 > 0:18:13I can't wait for it to get dark.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18The plan was for the Pistols to start playing by the time they
0:18:18 > 0:18:21reached the Houses of Parliament,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24but as they were approaching the Palace of Westminster
0:18:24 > 0:18:27they realised they being pursued by a police boat.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32On board, the atmosphere was electric with tension and
0:18:32 > 0:18:36excitement, and then, as the Pistols finally took to the stage...
0:18:36 > 0:18:38bedlam.
0:18:38 > 0:18:39# We're so pretty
0:18:39 > 0:18:42# So pretty
0:18:42 > 0:18:44# Pretty vacant
0:18:44 > 0:18:46# We're so pretty
0:18:46 > 0:18:49# Oh, so pretty
0:18:49 > 0:18:50# Vacant
0:18:50 > 0:18:54# Don't ask us to attend cos we're not all there
0:18:54 > 0:18:57# Oh, don't pretend cos I don't care... #
0:18:57 > 0:19:01The boat trip ended with the power being switched off, and a
0:19:01 > 0:19:05punch-up between the police and the band's manager, Malcolm McLaren.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10This was pop culture at its least deferential, deliberately
0:19:10 > 0:19:14bating the establishment in a week of pomp and pageantry.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Indeed the Sex Pistols are a very good example of a subversive
0:19:18 > 0:19:22strain in British pop culture, outraging respectable opinion
0:19:22 > 0:19:26and taking on the orthodoxies of the political elite.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31The irony though is, in a sense, the Pistols really needed the Queen,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33they needed something to kick against,
0:19:33 > 0:19:39a target who would ensure maximum shock value and maximum publicity.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42After all, God Save The President
0:19:42 > 0:19:44doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?
0:19:47 > 0:19:50The Pistols might have needed the Queen,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53but the Queen certainly didn't need them.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57And the jubilee spirit wasn't diluted in the slightest.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Punk did, of course, have a potent cultural legacy -
0:20:02 > 0:20:05not so much musically as aesthetically,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07in the worlds of design and fashion.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15For all its irreverent energy, though,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18it never seriously challenged the popularity of the monarchy.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26But almost exactly 20 years later,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29the Palace was rocked to its very foundations.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34Within the last few moments, the Press Association has
0:20:34 > 0:20:36reported that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52The death of Princess Diana in 1997 saw a genuinely extraordinary
0:20:52 > 0:20:56outpouring of national grief.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Never in our modern history have the monarchy seemed
0:20:59 > 0:21:03quite as vulnerable as it did in the days after Diana's death. Indeed,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07for me, this was an even bigger crisis than the abdication of 1936.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13There will much pressure for public mourning for the Princess
0:21:13 > 0:21:17who captured many hearts, and in her sudden, unexpected death,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20continues to attract great public attention.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24The royal family needed to find the right tone for their response
0:21:24 > 0:21:26to Diana's death.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Or risk alienating the millions mourning "their" heroine.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32She was different to the rest of royal family.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34I felt I probably could've been a friend of hers,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36but obviously we were worlds apart.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41We have lost our princess, the world has lost a princess.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46As public hysteria reached boiling point, the royal family were
0:21:46 > 0:21:50widely pilloried as cold, unfeeling and out of touch.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52But then came the funeral.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55A moment of a national catharsis remembered
0:21:55 > 0:22:01today for something that most people could never have dreamed they would
0:22:01 > 0:22:03see on such a solemn royal occasion.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06# Goodbye, England's rose
0:22:06 > 0:22:09# May you ever grow in our hearts
0:22:09 > 0:22:13# You were the grace that placed itself
0:22:13 > 0:22:14# Where lives... #
0:22:14 > 0:22:16For the first time in history,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20pop music provided the soundtrack to a sombre State occasion.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24And in Elton John's Candle In The Wind,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28millions found emotional release after days of tension.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36Originally released in 1974, the song had been written as a tribute
0:22:36 > 0:22:40to the Hollywood movie star Marilyn Monroe who died at the age of 36.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43# Like a candle in the wind Never knowing... #
0:22:43 > 0:22:48And now, two decades later, Elton John reworked his '70s hit
0:22:48 > 0:22:52as the defining tribute to another troubled 36-year-old blonde.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57The single version of the Elton John song that you will be able to
0:22:57 > 0:22:59buy from this Saturday.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03It sold 33 million copies worldwide.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06And became the bestselling single in musical history.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Given that Candle In The Wind had originally been written
0:23:13 > 0:23:17about one of the biggest global celebrities of the century, her life
0:23:17 > 0:23:22a tangled web of glamour, sex appeal, loneliness and tragedy,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24it didn't really take much tweaking
0:23:24 > 0:23:27to turn it into a song about Princess Diana.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30But as a moment, there could hardly have been a more powerful
0:23:30 > 0:23:35symbol of the closely intertwined relationship between our royal family
0:23:35 > 0:23:37and our popular culture.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41TRUMPETS PLAY PEOPLE CHEER
0:23:46 > 0:23:51Buckingham Palace had now grasped the PR power of popular music.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55And so, at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58it was pop that provided the soundtrack.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00How are you feeling, London?!
0:24:01 > 0:24:03# Life's too short for you to die
0:24:03 > 0:24:05# So grab yourself an alibi
0:24:05 > 0:24:09# Heaven knows your mother lied, mon cher... #
0:24:09 > 0:24:12This wasn't exactly Anarchy In The UK.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20Please welcome Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highnesses,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27From Paul McCartney to Shirley Bassey,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29they all answered the royal call.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36One of the night's highlights was the appearance of the ska hit makers
0:24:36 > 0:24:41Madness performing Our House on the roof of Buckingham palace.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46# Our house, in the middle of our street
0:24:46 > 0:24:50# Our house, in the middle of our
0:24:50 > 0:24:54# Our house, in the middle of our street
0:24:54 > 0:24:57# Our house, in the middle of our... #
0:24:57 > 0:25:00For some observers, the moment Madness
0:25:00 > 0:25:02appeared on the roof of Buckingham Palace,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04turning their house into Our House,
0:25:04 > 0:25:09marked the definitive triumph of pop over privilege.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12But I think that's to get things completely the wrong way around.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15The moment Madness stepped out on that roof
0:25:15 > 0:25:18wasn't a victory for the people, it was a victory for the royal family.
0:25:18 > 0:25:23After all, you could hardly find a better illustration of the monarchy's
0:25:23 > 0:25:27endless capacity to absorb and appropriate
0:25:27 > 0:25:30the democratic energies of our popular culture.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36The Diamond Jubilee was more than just a pop concert.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40It was the supreme recognition of the Queen's 60 years
0:25:40 > 0:25:44on the throne - and her place at the centre of our national history.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47# God save the Queen... #
0:25:47 > 0:25:51The royal story is the ultimate family melodrama.
0:25:55 > 0:26:01A story of fallible human beings with some very familiar failings.
0:26:04 > 0:26:05I meet you today...
0:26:08 > 0:26:09..in...
0:26:12 > 0:26:15..in circumstances which are...
0:26:15 > 0:26:18The film The King's Speech is an intimate
0:26:18 > 0:26:21portrait of our queen's father, George VI.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28It's the true story of his struggle to overcome a terrible stammer.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32And in exposing his weakness, it made him all the more likeable.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37No independent British film has ever made more money.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43In fact, British cinema owes a tremendous debt to the royal family.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Look at that.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53For it was Charles Laughton's portrayal of Henry VIII in 1933
0:26:53 > 0:26:58that helped British cinema storm Hollywood for the very first time.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00There's no delicacy nowadays.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06And no consideration for others.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11Indeed, Henry VIII is virtually an industry in his own right.
0:27:11 > 0:27:12Every time I felt like it, it was,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15"Not tonight, dear. I've got a headache, a bellyache."
0:27:15 > 0:27:17No wonder your marriage is deteriorating,
0:27:17 > 0:27:18you didn't consummate it.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Marvellous, isn't it? After six months of married life
0:27:21 > 0:27:23the only thing I'm having off is her head.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Henry believes God won't give him sons
0:27:27 > 0:27:31because he and Catherine were never truly married.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34He's just noticed? After 18 years?
0:27:34 > 0:27:35He's reading his Bible.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42Henry VIII is of course merely the most colourful of a vast cast
0:27:42 > 0:27:47of kings and queens whose stories we love to tell again and again.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49From Richard III and Elizabeth I
0:27:49 > 0:27:52to Charles II and Queen Victoria.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56This is British history as pure royal soap opera,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59full of feuding and bloodshed,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02narrative twists and national glory.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06And what all this does is to confirm the very principle of monarchy
0:28:06 > 0:28:10as one of the essential pillars of our cultural and political life.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18But the cultural appeal of British history goes
0:28:18 > 0:28:20well beyond our own shores.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24HBO's spectacular fantasy series Game Of Thrones has been
0:28:24 > 0:28:29one of the great cultural success stories of the 21st century.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32It's written and made by Americans.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36And yet the story seems strangely familiar.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39You know, it really isn't difficult to spot
0:28:39 > 0:28:43the parallels between the feuding families in Game Of Thrones -
0:28:43 > 0:28:45the Lannisters and the Starks -
0:28:45 > 0:28:50and the rival dynasties in England's Wars of the Roses -
0:28:50 > 0:28:51Lancaster and York.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56The King of the North!
0:28:56 > 0:28:59- ALL CHANTING:- The King of the North.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04The King of the North...
0:29:05 > 0:29:09What Game Of Thrones offers is British history
0:29:09 > 0:29:12gently fictionalised for a global audience.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15And with the blood and thunder and, of course,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17the nudity turned up to the maximum.
0:29:21 > 0:29:22Don't get up.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24- My lord.- Should I explain to you
0:29:24 > 0:29:26the meaning of a closed door in whorehouse, Brother?
0:29:28 > 0:29:32And there's another ingredient that seems remarkably familiar to
0:29:32 > 0:29:33British audiences.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39Magic.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46All this seems strikingly reminiscent of the oldest
0:29:46 > 0:29:49and greatest royal story of them all.
0:29:51 > 0:29:57# A legend is sung of when England was young
0:29:57 > 0:30:02# And knights were brave and bold... #
0:30:02 > 0:30:05This is Walt Disney's cartoon version of the legend
0:30:05 > 0:30:08of King Arthur, released in 1963.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Another American tribute to the lasting appeal of perhaps
0:30:12 > 0:30:17the most powerful story in our entire cultural history.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30Disney's film was inspired by the book The Sword In The Stone,
0:30:30 > 0:30:34written by this man, Terence Hanbury White.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39First published in 1938,
0:30:39 > 0:30:44it reinvented the Arthurian legend for the 20th century.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47White's best known work is The Sword In The Stone,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50which tells, in agreeable anachronistic terms,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54of the education of the young Arthur by the magician Merlin.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Merlin - a testy old patriarch fond of practical jokes - seems
0:30:58 > 0:31:01to have been compounded in equal parts of Aristotle,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03Kipling and Tommy Handley.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09I first read TH White's books as a boy and I was absolutely captivated
0:31:09 > 0:31:14by the adventures of a young lad called Wart and his friend Merlin,
0:31:14 > 0:31:16the wizard who guides him to greatness.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19What I never really picked up on though was just how much
0:31:19 > 0:31:21White romanticises the values of the past.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25White was a child of Empire,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29the son of a civil servant in colonial India.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31But after a Cambridge education
0:31:31 > 0:31:36he became an eccentric recluse, living in an almost feral state.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40And in the legend of Arthur, White found not only a riveting story
0:31:40 > 0:31:43but a parable for the modern world.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46By reviving the story of King Arthur, TH White
0:31:46 > 0:31:50was following in the footsteps of some very eminent Victorians.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53Chief among them was the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56whose book The Idylls Of The King effectively kick-started
0:31:56 > 0:32:00the Victorian romance with all things Arthurian.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04Now, when Tennyson and the Victorians looked at Arthur's Camelot
0:32:04 > 0:32:08they saw a lost paradise of heroic knights and beautiful maidens,
0:32:08 > 0:32:14a world untouched by the dark Satanic mills of industrial modernity.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18And in White's version of the Arthurian legend,
0:32:18 > 0:32:22he too evoked the lost values of a bygone age.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27Well, you see, I'm middle class Edwardian Englishman.
0:32:27 > 0:32:28Why are you writing about Arthur?
0:32:28 > 0:32:36Because my grandfather was a judge, a very upright, just, good old man
0:32:36 > 0:32:39who believed in right and wrong
0:32:39 > 0:32:44and he had these standards of value
0:32:44 > 0:32:50which King Arthur and Victoria and good people have.
0:32:50 > 0:32:55I think the core of White's vision could hardly be more conservative.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Like those other bestselling writers of his generation,
0:32:58 > 0:33:03JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, he was effectively using historical
0:33:03 > 0:33:08fantasy as a way of criticising the values of the modern world.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12And he looked back to a lost paradise of hierarchy and tradition
0:33:12 > 0:33:17ruled by a king who one day will return
0:33:17 > 0:33:20to lead us into a new golden age.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25This land shall be God's kingdom on Earth
0:33:25 > 0:33:28until the darkness falls again.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Now kneel to your king.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40White's version of Victorian medievalism
0:33:40 > 0:33:43proved enormously popular.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47Go down to the lake, King Arthur, take your sword.
0:33:49 > 0:33:54And the story of a young man being taught by a wise old man -
0:33:54 > 0:33:56with a beard - would live on.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02It's not difficult to spot the striking similarities
0:34:02 > 0:34:05between the legend of King Arthur and the Harry Potter stories.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07Harry, said JK Rowling,
0:34:07 > 0:34:11is the spiritual descendant of TH White's Young Arthur.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16Like Arthur, Harry is a young man being taught by a wise old man -
0:34:16 > 0:34:19with a beard - to groom him for leadership.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23And by sending Harry to Hogwarts, Rowling was embracing
0:34:23 > 0:34:28one of the most potent and enduring themes in all our popular culture -
0:34:28 > 0:34:31the British boarding school.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36MUSIC: Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Jimmy Buffet
0:34:43 > 0:34:46# I was tired of my lady... #
0:34:46 > 0:34:50In the summer of 1979, here in the seaside town of Selsey,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54West Sussex, Paul Weller - lead singer of the Jam -
0:34:54 > 0:35:00came to this caravan park to enjoy a traditional British seaside holiday.
0:35:00 > 0:35:05Fish and chips, bucket and spade, and a copy of the Socialist Worker.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12While Paul Weller was basking in the summer sunshine, he became intrigued
0:35:12 > 0:35:17by the story of a confrontation between protestors and public
0:35:17 > 0:35:21schoolboys outside one of Britain's most prestigious institutions.
0:35:24 > 0:35:25A few weeks earlier,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30hundreds of union-backed right-to-work demonstrators had left
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Liverpool on a protest march to the Houses of Parliament.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37On the way, they had marched through Windsor, walking straight
0:35:37 > 0:35:41past a place at the very heart of the British establishment.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45As Weller himself later put it,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48this seemed an irresistibly great scene.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52A crowd of left-wing demonstrators marching past
0:35:52 > 0:35:55one of Britain's most expensive educational establishments.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58And being jeered at by these wankers.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00His words, by the way, not mine.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03So Weller decided to write about one of the most provocative
0:36:03 > 0:36:06four-letter-words in the English language.
0:36:06 > 0:36:07Eton!
0:36:10 > 0:36:14MUSIC: Eton Rifles by The Jam
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Weller entitled his song The Eton Rifles.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21But its message was strikingly unromantic.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25Because in the song, it's not the socialist marchers who win the day.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27It's the public schoolboys.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30# Thought you were smart when you took them on
0:36:30 > 0:36:33# But you didn't take a peep in their artillery room
0:36:33 > 0:36:36# All that rugby puts hairs on your chest
0:36:36 > 0:36:39# What chance have you got against a tie and a crest?
0:36:41 > 0:36:42- # Hello - Hurray
0:36:42 > 0:36:47# What a nice day for the Eton Rifles, Eton Rifles
0:36:47 > 0:36:48- # Hello - Hurray
0:36:48 > 0:36:53# I hope rain stops play for the Eton Rifles, Eton Rifles... #
0:36:56 > 0:36:58There's a nice irony in the fact that
0:36:58 > 0:37:02although Weller is an outspoken socialist, one of his best known
0:37:02 > 0:37:06songs is about Britain's most exclusive boarding school.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10What better example of the enduring resonance
0:37:10 > 0:37:11of the boarding school story.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16# ..to the Eton Rifles, Eton Rifles. #
0:37:16 > 0:37:18From songs and films to books and comics,
0:37:18 > 0:37:22boarding school stories play a central role
0:37:22 > 0:37:24in our collective imagination.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26The remarkable thing, though, is that they are enjoyed by
0:37:26 > 0:37:30so many people who have never been anywhere near one.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34Today, only one-in-100 children goes to a boarding school.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38And yet, from Victorian bullies to boy wizards, we just can't get
0:37:38 > 0:37:42enough of them. If you can judge the character of a nation from its
0:37:42 > 0:37:46popular culture, then maybe, deep down,
0:37:46 > 0:37:48we are all public schoolboys at heart.
0:37:51 > 0:37:56Boarding school stories have always been extraordinarily popular.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59From Billy Bunter to Harry Potter,
0:37:59 > 0:38:03they've never failed to find an enthusiastic audience.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07Like country house dramas, school stories are set in
0:38:07 > 0:38:11a closed world dominated by hierarchy and tradition.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15And they too tend to follow a tried and tested formula.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21Our hero is a kind of boyish everyman with an ordinary
0:38:21 > 0:38:25unremarkable name - Brown, Jennings, Potter.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28His parents are never seen or removed from the action
0:38:28 > 0:38:32in chapter one se he can get on with having an adventure
0:38:32 > 0:38:35without somebody telling him to wash his hands for tea.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39And through his nervous eyes we are introduced to a strange new
0:38:39 > 0:38:43world of arcane rituals, avuncular school masters
0:38:43 > 0:38:46and terrifying, though always cowardly, bullies.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54The public school story was born in the 19th century,
0:38:54 > 0:38:56here at Rugby School in Warwickshire.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03In 1828, Dr Thomas Arnold arrived here as headmaster.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06He revolutionised education not just in Rugby
0:39:06 > 0:39:09but in the entire public school system.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13And it's the sheer force of Arnold's moral vision that I think
0:39:13 > 0:39:17explains the lasting power of the public school story
0:39:17 > 0:39:18in our popular culture.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Dr Arnold was a man of extraordinary evangelical zeal.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27Indeed, in many ways, his was the guiding spirit
0:39:27 > 0:39:29of the entire Victorian age.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33Now, Arnold believed education was a moral duty
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and what he sought to produce were boys not just to run the
0:39:37 > 0:39:41growing British Empire but to fly the flag for muscular Christianity.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45As Arnold himself put it, his priorities were, first,
0:39:45 > 0:39:47religious and moral principle,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50second, gentlemanly conduct
0:39:50 > 0:39:53and third, academic ability.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59Arnold's vision of the ideal Christian gentleman was to prove
0:39:59 > 0:40:01tremendously influential,
0:40:01 > 0:40:04because one of the young men he taught
0:40:04 > 0:40:08was so inspired that he wrote a book based on his experiences at Rugby.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15"Tom's heart beat quick as he passed the great school field
0:40:15 > 0:40:19"and he began already to be proud of being a Rugby boy as he passed
0:40:19 > 0:40:23"the school gates with the oriel window above and saw the boys
0:40:23 > 0:40:26"standing their looking as if the town belonged to them."
0:40:28 > 0:40:32This must be the most famous school story ever written.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37Tom Brown's Schooldays, published by Thomas Hughes in 1857.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41No novel in history, I think, has ever had a greater
0:40:41 > 0:40:44impact on the lives of generations of schoolchildren,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47not just in Britain but all over the world.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51It's been said just as Charles Dickens invented Christmas,
0:40:51 > 0:40:56so it was Thomas Hughes who invented the public school spirit.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05In 1971, the BBC turned the book into a Sunday afternoon family serial.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Millions tuned in to watch the coming of age
0:41:11 > 0:41:13of a very proper little man.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19Ah. Here he is now. Matron, let me introduce Brown.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22- Brown, this is Matron. - How do you do, ma'am?
0:41:22 > 0:41:24Welcome to Rugby School, Master Brown.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26Matron is a present help in time of trouble.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28So be sure and keep in her good books.
0:41:28 > 0:41:29I'll do my best, ma'am.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31Of course he will.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36The story charts Tom's evolution from a cheeky little urchin
0:41:36 > 0:41:41into a sportsman, a Christian and, above all, an Englishman.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47Thomas Hughes once said that he wrote the book to
0:41:47 > 0:41:49"get the chance of preaching."
0:41:49 > 0:41:52And it's hard to think of any book that better captures Victorian
0:41:52 > 0:41:58values, or that more completely embodies the essential British hero -
0:41:58 > 0:42:02decent, honourable, patriotic and unflappable.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04The perfect gentleman.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08There is, however, one public school character who epitomises
0:42:08 > 0:42:10none of those virtues.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14Somebody sadly expelled from Rugby for blatant drunkenness.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18And who was, by his own account, a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20a thief, a coward.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23And, oh, yes, a toady. And those were just the good points.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25His name was Harry Flashman.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30For that impertinence, Brown, you'll get double honours.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33We're going toss you until we kill you.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37Harry Flashman was the bully in Tom Brown's schooldays.
0:42:37 > 0:42:38But in the 1960s,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42the writer George MacDonald Fraser spotted his potential.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45And he plucked the arch rogue from the original novel
0:42:45 > 0:42:48and turned him into a grown-up, arch rogue.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51'I need not tell you of the dauntless heroism
0:42:51 > 0:42:55'he displayed in Afghanistan.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59'Of the matchless gallantry of his defence of Piper's Fort.'
0:42:59 > 0:43:04In reviving this bully as a Victorian antihero, Fraser created
0:43:04 > 0:43:08one of most entertaining characters in modern British fiction.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12And in 1975, he put Flashman on the big screen,
0:43:12 > 0:43:16writing the screenplay for the film Royal Flash.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19Here, take the bloody thing, I don't want it. Take it.
0:43:21 > 0:43:22Oh.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Fraser's Flashman is even more of a bully and a coward than ever.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Still, he never lets it hold him back.
0:43:29 > 0:43:30There's a British officer there.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33'With his countrymen, nay, his country's honour,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36'clasped to his wounded body.'
0:43:36 > 0:43:37He's alive.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40One of the great things about the Flashman books is that
0:43:40 > 0:43:43although he spends all his time running away from one
0:43:43 > 0:43:47imperial disaster after another, everybody else insists
0:43:47 > 0:43:50on believing the very best of him. So, despite being a thoroughly
0:43:50 > 0:43:56bad egg, he ends his days as one of Victorian Britain's greatest heroes.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58To be fair to Flashman though,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01he is very good with women and with horses.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05Indeed, by book nine, he's bedded almost 480 of them.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08Women that is, not horses.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11Lola what?
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Montez.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19Lola Montez, ain't that a dago name?
0:44:21 > 0:44:22You looks a bit dago.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26- Thank you.- Why didn't you...?
0:44:26 > 0:44:29Harry Flashman and Tom Brown could hardly be more different and
0:44:29 > 0:44:33yet both of them are unmistakably products of their times.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37Tom Brown, of course, is the quintessentially Victorian hero,
0:44:37 > 0:44:42the embodiment of Christian manliness in the heyday of Empire.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47Flashman, however, is a hero for a cynical, post-imperial age.
0:44:47 > 0:44:51Selfish and lecherous, his adventures shining an unsparing
0:44:51 > 0:44:55light on the hypocrisies of Britain's colonial past.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58And if you put those two characters together,
0:44:58 > 0:45:02the noble-hearted gentleman and the sardonic womaniser,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07then what you get is the best known British hero of them all.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15James Bond was a public school hero for the modern age.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18# Never know how much I love you
0:45:18 > 0:45:20# Never know how much I... #
0:45:20 > 0:45:23A publishing sensation in the '60s,
0:45:23 > 0:45:25Bond became the star of the longest running -
0:45:25 > 0:45:30and one of most successful - film franchises of all time.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33But for all his gadgets, his girls, his conquests
0:45:33 > 0:45:38and his cocktails, he remains a supremely patrician figure.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Indeed, for all his apparent classlessness, Bond was
0:45:41 > 0:45:46essentially a mouthpiece for his Old Etonian creator, Ian Fleming.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53These observations are all really observations of my own,
0:45:53 > 0:45:55which I have put into Bond's mouth.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58The son of a rich Tory MP,
0:45:58 > 0:46:03Fleming spent much of his childhood at the family estate, Joyce Grove.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08And like Fleming, Bond enjoys a gilded existence. Educated at Eton.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12He drives a Bentley and plays for high stakes.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17From the start, Fleming wanted David Niven to play his gentleman spy.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20But he didn't get his way.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23The producers of the first Bond film were very anxious that
0:46:23 > 0:46:27worldwide audiences might be put-off by an upper-class English gent.
0:46:27 > 0:46:32So they looked for somebody harder, tougher. A cold-blooded killer.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33Not a simpering fop.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37- Anybody want a dainty custard cream? - Yeah.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39They picked someone completely different.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42A muscular milkman from the tenements of Edinburgh.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44Connery had the look.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46But not the manners.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49So the producers handed him over to Terence Young,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53the public-school-educated director of the first Bond film.
0:46:53 > 0:46:54And he gave Connery a makeover.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01Young took him to his Savile Row tailor and got him a suit.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04He took him to dinner and showed him how to talk, how to walk,
0:47:04 > 0:47:06and even how to eat.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12What Terence Young did was to transform Sean Connery
0:47:12 > 0:47:16into the suave establishment hero that James Bond remains today.
0:47:16 > 0:47:21And so a Scottish bodybuilder became the ultimate gentleman adventurer.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25Hold it.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28'May we call your attention to Mr Bond's impeccable
0:47:28 > 0:47:33'tailoring from London's Savile Row? The shirt is hand tailored in
0:47:33 > 0:47:36'Indian madras, also the cravat
0:47:36 > 0:47:39'hand-woven of Javanese batik.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41'This is 007.'
0:47:42 > 0:47:45If you carry a double-0 number, it means you're licensed to kill.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49Now properly attired, Connery's Bond was ready to enjoy the high life.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Something hugely attractive
0:47:52 > 0:47:56and unimaginably glamorous to audiences in the early '60s.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04"Connery was not quite the idea I had of Bond," said Ian Fleming,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07"But he would be if I wrote the books over again."
0:48:07 > 0:48:09I have to leave immediately.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Just as things were getting interesting again.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17After Connery finally hung up his Walther PPK,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20the series started to acquire more and more
0:48:20 > 0:48:24of Harry Flashman's irrepressible patrician style.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27So, to me, Roger Moore's Bond is basically the embodiment
0:48:27 > 0:48:32of effortless superiority and a unreconstructed imperial hero
0:48:32 > 0:48:37with an eyebrow knowingly raised and a quip for every occasion.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40All that's really missing are the bushy whiskers
0:48:40 > 0:48:41and the flashing sabre.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50And in The Spy Who Loved Me, Moore's Bond has never been more
0:48:50 > 0:48:52splendidly Flashmanesque.
0:48:52 > 0:48:53007!
0:48:53 > 0:48:55Triple-X.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57Bond, what do you think you're doing?
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Keeping the British end up, sir.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04# Nobody does it better... #
0:49:04 > 0:49:08Not only is Roger Moore's Bond much funnier than Connery's,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10he's also even more patrician.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14And far from disguising their hero's upper-class background,
0:49:14 > 0:49:18the later Bond films placed it centre stage.
0:49:18 > 0:49:23In Skyfall, we finally get to see James Bond's ancestral home,
0:49:23 > 0:49:27an imposing Scottish manor house - complete with staff.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33M, this is Kinkade. Gamekeeper here since I was a boy.
0:49:33 > 0:49:34Pleased to meet you, Emma.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36Mr Kinkade.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40The truth is that, apart from his womanising, Britain's greatest
0:49:40 > 0:49:44fictional hero might have been written in the 1850s - a public
0:49:44 > 0:49:49schoolboy taking on the bullies on behalf of a grateful nation.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54Yet right from the beginning, Bond was a fantasy.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57Even as Fleming's first books hit the shelves,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Britain's power was fast ebbing away.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04Bond was an imperial hero for a country without an empire.
0:50:04 > 0:50:09And the collapse of British prestige was to have unexpected
0:50:09 > 0:50:11cultural consequences.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:50:24 > 0:50:28In 1961, a rangy young man was walking through the seedier
0:50:28 > 0:50:32parts of Soho, looking for a dodgy nightclub.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45The comedian Peter Cook had long dreamed of opening a cabaret
0:50:45 > 0:50:50club in London, like the satirical clubs he'd visited in West Germany.
0:50:50 > 0:50:51But he needed a venue.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58And here in Greek Street, he came across Club Tropicana, a former
0:50:58 > 0:51:03all-girl strip revue that had been closed down after a police raid.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06He immediately sent a telegram to his business partner.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09"Have Premises. Stop travelling."
0:51:12 > 0:51:14Cook named his new club after the very people
0:51:14 > 0:51:17he was planning to satirise.
0:51:17 > 0:51:23And so, in October 1961, The Establishment Club was born.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27And in its sights were the small group of upper-class men
0:51:27 > 0:51:30who dominated politics, business, the law and the military.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34Is your target here the establishment?
0:51:34 > 0:51:37It is must be largely. Most of the establishment has joined,
0:51:37 > 0:51:38and I'm glad to have them there.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41They'll be here every night, and we can get at them.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Britain has a rich tradition of scathing social
0:51:44 > 0:51:46and political satire.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49From the cartoons of Hogarth and Gillray
0:51:49 > 0:51:52to the novels of Jonathan Swift and Charles Dickens.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57But the 1950s had been an age of relative deference and conformity.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01And what people like Peter Cook and his friends represented was
0:52:01 > 0:52:04not just the revival of the old tradition but the emergence
0:52:04 > 0:52:08of a generation shaped by something entirely new, the experience
0:52:08 > 0:52:13of economic affluence, mass education and social mobility.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Today their material looks pretty tame.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19But in 1961, it was anything but.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22- Perkins.- Sir.- I want you to lay down your life.
0:52:22 > 0:52:23Yes, sir.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26We need a futile gesture at this stage.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28LAUGHTER
0:52:28 > 0:52:30It will raise the whole tone of the war.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32- Get up in a crate, Perkins. - Sir.- Pop over to Bremen.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34- Yes, sir.- Take a shufty.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36- Yes, sir.- Don't come back. - Right you are.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Their chief targets were the old guard at the top.
0:52:41 > 0:52:42From the men who'd won the war
0:52:42 > 0:52:45to the men who ran the government.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50Good evening, I have recently been
0:52:50 > 0:52:53travelling round the world...
0:52:53 > 0:52:56LAUGHTER
0:52:56 > 0:53:00..on your behalf and at your expense.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05For a short time in the early 1960s,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08it really was fashionable to stand up on this stage
0:53:08 > 0:53:11and make fun of Britain's politicians.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14And this, I think, was the beginning of a profound
0:53:14 > 0:53:18shift in our attitude towards our governing classes.
0:53:18 > 0:53:24The disaster of the Suez Crisis in 1956 had shattered forever
0:53:24 > 0:53:27the illusion of Britain's politicians as masterful statesmen
0:53:27 > 0:53:31who'd never make a mistake and certainly never tell a lie.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33And as our empire slipped away
0:53:33 > 0:53:37and our economy fell behind its European rivals,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41so it became more and more tempting to point a mocking and accusing
0:53:41 > 0:53:46finger at our political elite who seemed shifty,
0:53:46 > 0:53:49self-interested and all too fallible.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Our other bouquet for the week goes to the government
0:53:52 > 0:53:55for its sensitive handling of the half a million unemployed.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Only yesterday, Mr Maudling received a delegation of the unemployed
0:53:59 > 0:54:02and after talking to them for ten minutes, he got up
0:54:02 > 0:54:06and said, "Well, I don't know about you, but I've got work to do."
0:54:06 > 0:54:08It might not have been side-splittingly funny,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12but the new mood of anti-establishment irreverence
0:54:12 > 0:54:14proved enormously influential.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21And by the early 1980s, satire had acquired a much harder edge,
0:54:21 > 0:54:23reflecting the end of '60s optimism
0:54:23 > 0:54:26and a new atmosphere of conflict and confrontation.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31What do we call it when people going around
0:54:31 > 0:54:33stealing other people's property?
0:54:33 > 0:54:35- GROANS - You!
0:54:35 > 0:54:38- A free market economy?- Rubbish.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42In the mid-80s, Spitting Image attracted some 15 million viewers.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45Satire was now mainstream.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49The irony though is that the more people laughed at Spitting Image,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51the less impact it actually had.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Because the show did not make the slightest bit of difference
0:54:54 > 0:54:57to Margaret Thatcher's popularity.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59On the one hand, the jokes merely confirmed
0:54:59 > 0:55:02the prejudices of the people who hated her already.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05And on the other, among her supporters,
0:55:05 > 0:55:09the image of Margaret Thatcher as a ball-crushing strongman,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12well, that was the kind of prime minister they wanted.
0:55:12 > 0:55:18Although I work a 20-hour day organising the affairs of Britain,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22nothing I do gives me greater pleasure than
0:55:22 > 0:55:27the simple domestic ritual of waking my husband with a pot of tea.
0:55:29 > 0:55:30HE SCREAMS
0:55:30 > 0:55:33Come on, pigeon brain! Are you going to lie there all day?
0:55:34 > 0:55:38After half a century of satire and scandal,
0:55:38 > 0:55:42respect for politicians is now in tatters.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45And today's best satires reflect an almost total
0:55:45 > 0:55:47contempt for politics itself.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52- Is that your chair? - Oh, God, yes. It's cool, isn't it?
0:55:52 > 0:55:55It's got lumbar support.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58Bin it. People don't like their politicians to be comfortable.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01They don't like you having expenses. They don't like you being paid.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03They'd rather you lived in a fucking cave.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05OK, fine.
0:56:05 > 0:56:06So what should I be sitting on?
0:56:06 > 0:56:09Should I just get an upturned KFC bucket?"
0:56:09 > 0:56:12A fucking normal chair, right.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15Not a fucking massive vibrating throne.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18There's no doubt, I think, that Britain's satirical culture
0:56:18 > 0:56:23helps to keep our politicians honest - well, reasonably honest.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26But it hasn't changed the world.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30In fact, its real legacy has been to gnaw relentlessly away
0:56:30 > 0:56:33at our trust in Westminster politics.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37Back in the 1960s, it had been thought a bit daring to
0:56:37 > 0:56:41suggest our politicians didn't know what they were doing.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45These days, the really daring thing would be to suggest that they do.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Joking about corrupt politicians has become
0:56:48 > 0:56:51our equivalent of joking about your mother-in-law.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56And what all this does it to erode our faith in politics itself,
0:56:56 > 0:57:00because if they are all equally corrupt and inept, then why bother?
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Why try to change anything when you can just laugh at them instead?
0:57:04 > 0:57:06Perhaps Peter Cook had it right all along.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08"Britain," he once said,
0:57:08 > 0:57:12"is in danger of sinking giggling into the sea."
0:57:14 > 0:57:19Because while we've been giggling, very little has changed.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Westminster remains the domain of a gilded political elite,
0:57:23 > 0:57:27ever more detached from the people they claim to represent.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29Indeed, at the height of the satire boom,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33few people would have imagined that 21st-century Britain
0:57:33 > 0:57:36would be, in many respects, a more unequal country than ever.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43And I think the explanation lies not just in the halls of Westminster
0:57:43 > 0:57:46but in our books and our films, our music and our television.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49From Downton Abbey and Harry Potter
0:57:49 > 0:57:51to James Bond and Elton John.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54It's not just that so much of our culture openly celebrates
0:57:54 > 0:57:58the old order, it's that even when it kicks against it,
0:57:58 > 0:58:00it somehow ends up reinforcing it.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04We may like to think of our popular culture as democratic
0:58:04 > 0:58:07and inclusive, but I don't think there has ever been a better
0:58:07 > 0:58:10advert for the British establishment.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15How Britain's culture still grapples with
0:58:15 > 0:58:18the obsessions of the Victorians.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20From our moral mission,
0:58:20 > 0:58:22to the perils of progress.
0:58:24 > 0:58:25And beyond.