0:00:05 > 0:00:12This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15# Walk on by... #
0:00:15 > 0:00:18In the middle of the 19th century, Britain's most celebrated author
0:00:18 > 0:00:24began to take long walks through the streets of the nation's capital.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29Britain's Industrial Revolution had transformed the world economy
0:00:29 > 0:00:32and Britain's empire now encircled the globe.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39But what Charles Dickens saw in his own back yard shocked him.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44"The filthy and miserable appearance of this part of London
0:00:44 > 0:00:46"can hardly be imagined.
0:00:46 > 0:00:51"Wretched houses with broken windows patched with rags and paper,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54""every room let out to a different family."
0:00:54 > 0:00:58The poverty that Charles Dickens saw on these streets would inspire
0:00:58 > 0:01:01some of the greatest scenes in all English fiction,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05scenes that reflected a very Victorian anxiety
0:01:05 > 0:01:07about the plight of the poor.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12What Dickens's writings captured were the moral obsessions
0:01:12 > 0:01:14of the Victorian mind,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17and the things that troubled Dickens
0:01:17 > 0:01:20are still at the heart of our popular culture.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22From grinding poverty...
0:01:22 > 0:01:24- SOBBING:- Where's me money?
0:01:26 > 0:01:28..to juvenile crime.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34"One of the worst sights I know in London," said Dickens,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37"is to be found in the children who prowl about this place
0:01:37 > 0:01:39"and dart at any object they think
0:01:39 > 0:01:42"they can lay their thieving hands on."
0:01:44 > 0:01:49That fear of lawlessness still haunts our collective imagination.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55And we share our predecessors' anxieties about the dangers
0:01:55 > 0:01:57of scientific progress.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04The Victorians felt they had a moral mission to spread civilising
0:02:04 > 0:02:08British values into every corner of the world.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10As Dickens himself wrote,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14"I have not the least belief in the Noble Savage,
0:02:14 > 0:02:19"I call him a savage, and I call a savage a something highly desirable
0:02:19 > 0:02:22"to be civilised off the face of the Earth."
0:02:22 > 0:02:27And like the Victorians, we love stories about crusading heroes
0:02:27 > 0:02:31taking British values into the furthest reaches of the universe.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34The circle is broken, the Ood can sing!
0:02:37 > 0:02:42When it comes to our culture, we're still living in the Victorian age.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44We dream the same dreams
0:02:44 > 0:02:47and we have the same nightmares.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11In the early hours of July the 13th, 1985...
0:03:11 > 0:03:16crowds were gathering for one of the biggest events in music history.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25CHEERING
0:03:27 > 0:03:32With some 70,000 people lining the old stands here at Wembley
0:03:32 > 0:03:36and more than 1.5 billion watching on TV around the world,
0:03:36 > 0:03:42Live Aid was the most ambitious live music event ever attempted.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia
0:03:46 > 0:03:49and around the world it's time for Live Aid!
0:03:49 > 0:03:51CHEERING
0:03:51 > 0:03:55# Ah, giddy-up and giddy-up and get away... #
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Over the next 16 hours the audience went from ecstasy...
0:03:59 > 0:04:04# We will, we will rock you! # One more time!
0:04:04 > 0:04:08- AUDIENCE:- # We will, we will rock you! #
0:04:11 > 0:04:12..to despair.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18This was a supremely powerful formula,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22raising £150 million for famine relief.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28But there was more to Live Aid than just the money.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33Live Aid was popular culture as an old-fashioned moral crusade,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36with Britain leading the world response
0:04:36 > 0:04:39to a terrible humanitarian crisis.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43Here, rekindled for a new generation,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47was the missionary spirit of the Victorian Age.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54And for post-imperial Britain that was a refreshing change.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01Since the Second World War, British power had been in headlong retreat.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06Good evening. I want to talk to you tonight about a new country
0:05:06 > 0:05:09that has come into being today.
0:05:09 > 0:05:10It's called Ghana.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13- Hip-hip-hip! - CROWD:- Hurray!
0:05:13 > 0:05:16As one colony after another declared independence,
0:05:16 > 0:05:20the British Empire had rapidly crumbled into dust.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25But although the Empire had disappeared,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29its missionary spirit lived on.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32The Victorians had believed that Britain had a moral duty
0:05:32 > 0:05:34to improve the world,
0:05:34 > 0:05:39and as Live Aid suggested, that urge was still as strong as ever.
0:05:39 > 0:05:46But the idea of using popular culture as a force for good wasn't new.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49In 1981, a well-known rock star
0:05:49 > 0:05:52was approached to take part in a charity show.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56Since the producer had already secured both Eric Clapton and Sting
0:05:56 > 0:05:59he was naturally confident of getting another yes.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02What he actually got was this -
0:06:02 > 0:06:04- "It's a- BLEEP- waste of- BLEEP- time.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07- "You- BLEEP- hippies. All the- BLEEP- same.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10- "You- BLEEP- think you're going to- BLEEP- change the- BLEEP- world
0:06:10 > 0:06:14- "with your- BLEEP- stupid- BLEEP - charity show."
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Well, after a full and frank exchange of views, the rock star
0:06:18 > 0:06:21was persuaded to change his mind.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Perhaps it's just as well that he did,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25because for Sir Bob Geldof
0:06:25 > 0:06:28life would never be the same again.
0:06:28 > 0:06:34Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44The night that changed Bob Geldof's mind,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48and British music history, was the Secret Policeman's Ball,
0:06:48 > 0:06:53held here at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1981.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57It brought together some of Britain's best known comedians and rock stars
0:06:57 > 0:07:01to raise money for Amnesty International.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Ladies and gentlemen, before we start the show...
0:07:03 > 0:07:05It had all begun in 1976
0:07:05 > 0:07:10when John Cleese arranged a charity comedy gig with a few pals.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13We really do want to thank each and every one of you,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16even those of you right up the top there.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18LAUGHTER AND CHEERING
0:07:18 > 0:07:24Who only paid the-the... Well, the minimum of £6. Thank you.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27- MAN:- £3.50.
0:07:27 > 0:07:28What?
0:07:28 > 0:07:30£3.50.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34You bastards! I mean, people...
0:07:34 > 0:07:36LAUGHTER
0:07:36 > 0:07:39..people being tortured to death all over the world
0:07:39 > 0:07:41and you're prepared to cough up the price of a prawn cocktail!
0:07:45 > 0:07:49Comedians and rock stars were increasingly seeing themselves
0:07:49 > 0:07:52as actors on the world stage.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Britain's government might have retreated from empire,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59but they believed that they had the power and even the duty
0:07:59 > 0:08:01to change the world.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night
0:08:07 > 0:08:11on the plain outside Korem, it lights up a biblical famine.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16Ethiopia is turning into the worst human disaster for a decade...
0:08:16 > 0:08:20In 1984, the shocking pictures of Ethiopia's famine
0:08:20 > 0:08:24reawakened their sense of moral duty.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27We'll go for one more - now!
0:08:27 > 0:08:31And within a matter of weeks, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure
0:08:31 > 0:08:34had put together a Christmas single.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Britain's brand-new number one - Band Aid,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Do They Know It's Christmas Time?
0:08:39 > 0:08:43# Feed the world... #
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Whether Band Aid and Live Aid actually did any good
0:08:46 > 0:08:48is still hotly debated.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51But they certainly struck a chord with the British public.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54And how much would you like to donate?
0:08:54 > 0:08:56And if nothing else, they illustrated rock music's
0:08:56 > 0:08:59extraordinary sense of moral mission.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Here we have the untapped power of rock music
0:09:02 > 0:09:05and, let's face it, it has been untapped for 25 years or so.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10It's all now been unleashed on behalf of one cause.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18Live Aid was one of the defining events of the 1980s
0:09:18 > 0:09:22and yet the impulses behind it were surprisingly old-fashioned.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Bob Geldof was effectively an updated version
0:09:26 > 0:09:27of the Victorian philanthropist,
0:09:27 > 0:09:32a moral crusader for the MTV generation.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35Take the money out of your pocket. Don't go out to the pub, please!
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Stay in and give us the money, there are people dying now!
0:09:39 > 0:09:42So give me the money. Here's the number...
0:09:42 > 0:09:44A century earlier, the Victorians had sent missionaries
0:09:44 > 0:09:48out to Africa to save souls.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51And in 1985, as this souvenir programme pointed out,
0:09:51 > 0:09:57we were sending rock stars out on stage to save lives.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00# We could be heroes
0:10:00 > 0:10:03# Just for one day... #
0:10:03 > 0:10:06That missionary impulse has never gone away.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09From Comic Relief to Children In Need,
0:10:09 > 0:10:14our cultural heroes can rarely resist a moral crusade.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18But Victorian Britain didn't just send out missionaries
0:10:18 > 0:10:21armed with their Christian zeal,
0:10:21 > 0:10:26it sent explorers, driven by a thirst for knowledge and adventure.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42This is one of the most extraordinary museums in Britain.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48A collection of the weird and the wonderful
0:10:48 > 0:10:52gathered by the Victorian explorer Augustus Pitt Rivers.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Today this museum stands as a monument to the curiosity,
0:10:56 > 0:11:01the courage and the sheer love of adventure of the Victorian age.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06And it's precisely those values that drive surely the best-loved explorer
0:11:06 > 0:11:08in television history.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21For more than 50 years, Doctor Who has taken us on an epic journey
0:11:21 > 0:11:23through time and space.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27# Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world... #
0:11:27 > 0:11:30It all started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and now it's turned out to be quite a...
0:11:33 > 0:11:36quite a great spirit of adventure.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38I spend all my time exploring new worlds
0:11:38 > 0:11:40and seeking the wonders of the universe.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43- But you don't know what's out there. - Then let's find out!
0:11:43 > 0:11:45Come on, let's explore.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51For a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54the Doctor has an oddly predictable taste in clothes.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56He might change his face
0:11:56 > 0:11:59but never his style.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05Whether sporting a fetching cravat or cricket whites...
0:12:05 > 0:12:07There you are, good.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12..the Doctor remains every inch the Victorian adventurer.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15# Let me take you on a little trip
0:12:15 > 0:12:17# My supersonic ship's at your disposal.. #
0:12:17 > 0:12:21This is the story of an old-fashioned gentleman explorer...
0:12:23 > 0:12:28..on a civilising mission to the darkest corners of the universe.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30Would you like a Jelly Baby?
0:12:31 > 0:12:35It's the story of an indomitable force for good,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39who hates violence and always stands up for the underdog.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43The ideal hero for a post-imperial age.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47FUNKY MUSIC PLAYS
0:12:52 > 0:12:54- I don't think we should interfere. - Interfere?
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Of course we should interfere!
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Always do what you're best at, that's what I say. Now, come on.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05But Doctor Who is not just the story of a liberal interventionist
0:13:05 > 0:13:07gleefully meddling in alien affairs.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12It's also the story of Earth's greatest champion
0:13:12 > 0:13:16standing up to the threat of alien invasion.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21When you go back to the stars and tell others of this planet,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23when you tell them of its riches,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26its people, its potential,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29when you talk of the Earth...
0:13:29 > 0:13:32then make sure that you tell them this -
0:13:32 > 0:13:35it is defended!
0:13:38 > 0:13:40But the fear of invasion is nothing new.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47To the Victorians and Edwardians, the threat of invasion had seemed so real
0:13:47 > 0:13:53that in 1905 they passed an Aliens Act to safeguard Britain's borders.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55But, of course, when they talked about aliens they didn't mean
0:13:55 > 0:14:00green-skinned body snatchers from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05No, their aliens, as they called them, were immigrants - Irish, Jews,
0:14:05 > 0:14:10Chinese - flooding into the capital of the world's greatest empire.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14- Don't I know you? - I think not.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16I've seen you somewhere before.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19I understand we all look the same.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Like any other fictional hero, the Time Lord was,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28if you'll forgive the pun, a man of his time.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Good evening, sir.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32You know this young female, sir?
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Oh, yes, yes, we were attacked by this little man
0:14:34 > 0:14:36and four other little men.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39And when I started watching at the turn of the 1980s
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Doctor Who remained an essentially monochrome show.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47You see, the Doctor, the Master, the Time Lords, the companions,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49they all had one thing in common -
0:14:49 > 0:14:53they were all almost exclusively white.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05Yet even as I was cowering behind the sofa, Britain was changing.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12By now, decades of mass immigration had begun to reshape our country.
0:15:19 > 0:15:20And yet, for many immigrants,
0:15:20 > 0:15:25their new home was not quite as welcoming as they might have hoped.
0:15:25 > 0:15:26What of the present?
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Too many families in houses designed for another age,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33a high concentration of immigrants in miserable conditions.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Not surprisingly, people are trying to make their political voice heard.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40REGGAE MUSIC PLAYS
0:15:54 > 0:15:56For many of the immigrants who settled in Britain
0:15:56 > 0:16:01in the post-war years, daily life was blighted by prejudice.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05And what it produced was a cultural voice unlike any other -
0:16:05 > 0:16:08raw and alienated and angry.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Far from meekly accepting the legacy of empire,
0:16:15 > 0:16:20many of the newcomers' outspoken voices, such as the dub-reggae poet
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Linton Kwesi Johnson, vigorously railed against it.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27You say we are in for some "pretty dread times."
0:16:27 > 0:16:28What exactly do you mean by that?
0:16:28 > 0:16:32I think things will probably get worse for blacks in this country
0:16:32 > 0:16:35before they can get better, because we've made some progress over
0:16:35 > 0:16:37the last 30 years for ourselves,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41we're beginning to establish some kind of permanency in this country,
0:16:41 > 0:16:47and...there are various political forces which are trying to rob us
0:16:47 > 0:16:49of the progress we've made over the years.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55Inglan is a bitch
0:16:55 > 0:16:59A noh lie mi a tell, a true
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Inglan is a bitch
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Y'u haffi know how fi survive in it.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15But during the 1980s and 1990s, the outsider's voice
0:17:15 > 0:17:20moved from the margins to the mainstream.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22# Workin' so hard like a soldier
0:17:24 > 0:17:26# Can't afford a thing on TV
0:17:28 > 0:17:31# Deep in my heart I am warrior
0:17:31 > 0:17:34# Can't get food for them kid
0:17:34 > 0:17:39# Good God, we gonna rock down to Electric Avenue... #
0:17:39 > 0:17:43By the end of the century, resentment at racial discrimination
0:17:43 > 0:17:45had evolved into something rather more positive -
0:17:45 > 0:17:48the celebration of diversity.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50# Back to life
0:17:50 > 0:17:53# Back to the present time... #
0:17:53 > 0:17:56No longer the voice of minority Britain,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59this was now the voice of modern Britain.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02And it could be heard in everything from music and film
0:18:02 > 0:18:04to literature and comedy.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09Yes, it is me, Africa's leading Irish man, Katanga.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12HE SQUEALS
0:18:12 > 0:18:16# If you hurt what's mine
0:18:16 > 0:18:19# I'll sure as hell retaliate
0:18:19 > 0:18:21# I was looking, I was, I was looking
0:18:21 > 0:18:24# To see if you were looking... #
0:18:24 > 0:18:27And what drove this new multiculturalism was not
0:18:27 > 0:18:31so much the moralistic lectures of Britain's politicians
0:18:31 > 0:18:36as the moralising example of our popular culture.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39And in the vanguard, yet again, was the Doctor.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41Are you alien?
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Yes.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46- Is that all right? - Yeah.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51When the BBC relaunched Doctor Who for a 21st-century audience,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54the producers turned it into a well-meaning advertisement
0:18:54 > 0:18:56for a diverse Britain.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58There we go, perfect landing!
0:19:00 > 0:19:03The all-white casts of old were gone
0:19:03 > 0:19:07and soon the Doctor had even acquired his first black British companion.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09- What are you doing here?! - I'm returning this.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11- Thought you might need it. - How did you...?
0:19:11 > 0:19:13I heard the explosion, I guessed it was you.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18In 20 years the voice of Britain's immigrant communities
0:19:18 > 0:19:22had become a fundamental part of our cultural identity.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26But Doctor Who's commitment to diversity goes well beyond race
0:19:26 > 0:19:31or religion. Because no cultural phenomenon on Earth has done more
0:19:31 > 0:19:35to break down the prejudices that for far too long have blighted
0:19:35 > 0:19:39relationships between ordinary British women
0:19:39 > 0:19:42and lesbian crime-fighting lizards.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46'I can't do it. I can't.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49'Be brave, my love.'
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Back in the '60s and '70s, few people could have imagined that one day
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Doctor Who would give us TV's first inter-species kiss.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Share with me.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05What better example, though, of British culture's adaptability,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09its inclusiveness, its moralising mission?
0:20:14 > 0:20:16But while the Doctor grappled with sapphic reptiles
0:20:16 > 0:20:18and the legacy of empire,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22another enormously popular series of the early 1960s
0:20:22 > 0:20:25had more mundane concerns.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Social change was remaking the landscape of '60s Britain
0:20:29 > 0:20:32and at last television was catching up.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35# It's my life and I'll do what I want
0:20:35 > 0:20:39# It's my mind and I'll think what I want... #
0:20:39 > 0:20:45One day in 1960, a young scriptwriter arrived at Granada Studios,
0:20:45 > 0:20:49demanding to write about something new.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53The story goes that Tony Warren was sitting up on the filing cabinet,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55kicking his heels in frustration,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59when his boss finally pointed out of the window and said,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03"OK, write me a story about a street out there."
0:21:03 > 0:21:06And this is what Warren came up with -
0:21:06 > 0:21:10the very first episode of a new series called Florizel Street.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Now, if you haven't heard of Florizel Street, don't worry,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16because they changed the title just before broadcast
0:21:16 > 0:21:21after a Granada tea lady told them that it sounded like a disinfectant.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24They called it Coronation Street
0:21:24 > 0:21:27and, unlike so much TV drama of the 1950s,
0:21:27 > 0:21:32this was a show about ordinary people leading ordinary lives
0:21:32 > 0:21:36on an ordinary street in the north of England.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39# It's my life and I'll do what I want
0:21:39 > 0:21:43# It's my mind and I'll think what I want
0:21:43 > 0:21:45# Show me I'm wrong... #
0:21:45 > 0:21:49And that's because, like its creator, Coronation Street was the product
0:21:49 > 0:21:52of an era defined by economic affluence,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55free education and the welfare state.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58# It's my life and I'll do what I want
0:21:58 > 0:22:00# It's my mind... #
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Tony Warren was a walking advertisement
0:22:03 > 0:22:07for the new opportunities of Britain in the post-war years.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Born in a non-descript street in a Manchester suburb,
0:22:10 > 0:22:12he was a grammar school boy
0:22:12 > 0:22:17who'd landed a job as a TV scriptwriter by the age of 23.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21And what he really wanted was to put his own experience on television,
0:22:21 > 0:22:26to write about people like himself and to give audiences a show that
0:22:26 > 0:22:32captured the new social realities of Britain in the age of opportunity.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35# There's a crack up in the ceiling
0:22:35 > 0:22:39# And the kitchen sink is leaking... #
0:22:39 > 0:22:42At first, Granada's bosses were worried that a drama
0:22:42 > 0:22:47about working class life would be commercial suicide.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50All right, stand by, then, please.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55But despite their misgivings, a trial series was commissioned.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00And on December 9th, 1960,
0:23:00 > 0:23:05the first episode flickered on to television sets across the nation.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09CORONATION STREET THEME PLAYS
0:23:16 > 0:23:19- Sauce, Kenny? - No. No, thank you.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21Aw, but I got it specially.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24At the heart of the first episode is a confrontation
0:23:24 > 0:23:27that perfectly captures the anxieties of the era.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29- What's up? - Nothing.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33- What's that snooty expression for, then?- What snooty expression?
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Young Ken Barlow is studying for a degree
0:23:36 > 0:23:38but his father is worried
0:23:38 > 0:23:41that he might be turning into a bit of a snob.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43Don't they do this at college, then?
0:23:43 > 0:23:46- I bet they don't eat in their shirt sleeves, either?- What do you mean?
0:23:46 > 0:23:48Oh, I've been noticing you looking at me.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51- I don't know what you're talking about.- Oh, yes, you do - we're not
0:23:51 > 0:23:54- good enough for you.- Look, I never said a word and he starts.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57The tension inside a family divided by social aspiration
0:23:57 > 0:24:01would in 1960 have struck a chord at dinner tables
0:24:01 > 0:24:03up and down the country.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05As Tony Warren knew very well,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10education and affluence were steadily eroding the old tastes and loyalties
0:24:10 > 0:24:12of the British class system.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18I wasn't born in Coronation Street, but it was there in my background,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22my grandparents still lived in Coronation Street.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Looking back, I suppose at the time Kenneth Barlow was the nearest thing
0:24:26 > 0:24:30to me. Strangely enough, it seems hard to believe nowadays,
0:24:30 > 0:24:31Kenneth was the rebel.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Well, he said that yesterday and then again tonight.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36Why do we have to have cups of tea with our food?
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Well, I'll tell you for why, I like my food swilled down proper,
0:24:39 > 0:24:40that's why.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44But even though the Barlow family's anxiety feels like a reflection
0:24:44 > 0:24:48of life in '60s Britain, it actually had a much longer pedigree.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53A century earlier, Charles Dickens had imagined a very similar situation
0:24:53 > 0:24:56in his book, Great Expectations.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Well, um, this is my friend, Herbert Pocket.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07In the book, social climber Pip has an uncomfortable visit
0:25:07 > 0:25:10from his brother-in-law, Joe Gargery.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Oh, beg your pardon sir, your servant, sir.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17For Pip, newly trained in the airs and graces of polite society,
0:25:17 > 0:25:22Joe's rather rough-hewn manners come as a considerable embarrassment.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26- Sugar, Mr Gargery? - Oh, er, thank you, sir.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Like Tony Warren, Dickens was fascinated by the texture
0:25:32 > 0:25:35of working class life. And, like Tony Warren,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39he was writing at a time of profound social change.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42But Dickens' novels were far more than
0:25:42 > 0:25:44hand-wringing social documentaries.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Dickens' genius was to find those telling moments
0:25:48 > 0:25:50of tear-jerking melodrama
0:25:50 > 0:25:55that would throw the anxieties of the age into sharp relief.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59And it's Coronation Street's fidelity to that Dickensian formula,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02social realism meets high melodrama,
0:26:02 > 0:26:07that helps to explain its phenomenal popular success.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09- But we don't need sewers round here...- Aye, but there is
0:26:09 > 0:26:12something wrong with a woman that can't hang onto her husband!
0:26:12 > 0:26:14By gum, all this and the Sally Army, too!
0:26:14 > 0:26:17On the show's first birthday, the Spectator magazine
0:26:17 > 0:26:22argued that Coronation Street was consistently wittier, healthier
0:26:22 > 0:26:26and quite simply better than any of television's
0:26:26 > 0:26:28supposedly respectable series.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30And the public clearly agreed,
0:26:30 > 0:26:35for by now it was the most popular show on British television.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39- Hello, love.- Hello, Mrs Walker. - You do look happy.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41Oh. Er, can I have 20 cigarettes?
0:26:41 > 0:26:44- Best?- Please. - Evening.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Coronation Street was soon playing a central part
0:26:47 > 0:26:49in our national imagination.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Oh, I love it, I love it, yeah.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53It typifies us, the north, doesn't it?
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Just like life, let's face it, it's like an everyday life.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00But I think one of the real keys to the extraordinary success
0:27:00 > 0:27:03of the world's longest running soap opera
0:27:03 > 0:27:07is the fact that it faces two ways.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Coronation Street is not just about the here and now.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15It's always looking back over its shoulder to the reassuring nostalgic
0:27:15 > 0:27:18certainties of the recent past.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29At heart, then, Coronation Street is not so much social realism
0:27:29 > 0:27:32as pure romantic nostalgia.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34And in a world of dizzying change,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37that was exactly what many people wanted.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45But while Coronation Street offers us a rose-tinted vision
0:27:45 > 0:27:48of Northern life, one of Britain's best selling authors
0:27:48 > 0:27:50specialised in the opposite -
0:27:50 > 0:27:55the violence and poverty of life in the working-class North.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58One day just before the First World War,
0:27:58 > 0:28:02a little girl called Katie McMullen came running into the kitchen
0:28:02 > 0:28:05of her terraced house in Jarrow.
0:28:05 > 0:28:06"Granda," she said, "Granda!
0:28:06 > 0:28:09"You know that little man who that sits on the wall in Ireland
0:28:09 > 0:28:14"no bigger than your hand? Well, I've seen him, Granda!"
0:28:14 > 0:28:17"You know what you are, Katie?" her grandfather said,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20"it's a stinking liar you are,
0:28:20 > 0:28:25"but go on, go on, don't stop for one day it will get you some place,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29"either into clink or into the money!"
0:28:29 > 0:28:30# Dreamer
0:28:30 > 0:28:34# You know you are a dreamer... #
0:28:34 > 0:28:36And how right he was.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Katie McMullen rewrote herself as Dame Catherine Cookson -
0:28:40 > 0:28:46a multimillionaire who sold more than 120 million books.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52Hello. Our guest in Heroes this week is easy to describe.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55She is simply Britain's bestselling writer.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57# Oh-oh
0:28:57 > 0:29:00# What a day for you... #
0:29:00 > 0:29:05At the height of her success in the 1980s, a third of all the books
0:29:05 > 0:29:09borrowed from Britain's libraries had her name on the cover.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13And waiting lists for her latest titles
0:29:13 > 0:29:16were more than three years long.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19Despite her enormous popular success,
0:29:19 > 0:29:21Catherine Cookson has never really had the respect
0:29:21 > 0:29:23that I think she deserves.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25Banished to the romance section of the library,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29she is too often dismissed as Tyneside's answer to Mills & Boon,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32all cloth caps and heaving bosoms.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36Now, it's true that she was never afraid of a little bit of romance
0:29:36 > 0:29:39or a heart-warmingly happy ending.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42Here's the final paragraph of The Fifteen Streets -
0:29:42 > 0:29:46"His arms, telling his hunger, crushed her to him.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50"The faint perfume of her body mingled with the acrid smell
0:29:50 > 0:29:54"of iron ore, and in the ever increasing murmur of his endearments
0:29:54 > 0:29:58"and the searching of his lips her words were lost."
0:29:58 > 0:30:01# I really need you tonight... #
0:30:01 > 0:30:06Mary, if I had enough money would you marry me?
0:30:06 > 0:30:08Yes, you know I would.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14And when her books were adapted for TV at the end of the 1980s,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18producers naturally played up the romantic angle.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21# A total eclipse of the heart... #
0:30:21 > 0:30:24But although romance is certainly a fundamental part
0:30:24 > 0:30:26of Catherine Cookson's bestselling formula,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29I don't think it should define her.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33Because her books also offer an account of working class poverty
0:30:33 > 0:30:38and ambition that is just as honest and as moving as anything produced by
0:30:38 > 0:30:40Britain's great social chroniclers.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45"My books," she once said, "are social histories of the north.
0:30:45 > 0:30:50"Full of the bitterness of reality and no fancy frills."
0:30:50 > 0:30:53There, in the north, are your characters.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56All the substance,
0:30:56 > 0:30:58all the love and the hate and the jealousy,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01all the tragedy of life.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08The sheer bleakness of Cookson's settings reflected the poverty
0:31:08 > 0:31:12of her own childhood in Edwardian Jarrow.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14And unlike Coronation Street
0:31:14 > 0:31:19she never romanticised her working-class communities.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23Set in the industrial heartland of South Tyneside,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26her books are steeped in the sweat of hard labour.
0:31:26 > 0:31:32# She weaves a story of her life... #
0:31:32 > 0:31:36In Cookson's world, industry is a monstrous machine,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40an endless cycle of low pay, unreliable hours
0:31:40 > 0:31:43and sheer hard labour.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47"It was funny," she once said, "but that was all life amounted to -
0:31:47 > 0:31:49"working for food and warmth
0:31:49 > 0:31:52"and when the futility of this was made evident,
0:31:52 > 0:31:54"blotting it out with drink."
0:31:54 > 0:31:58Her characters are exploited and expendable,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02brutalised by a working world that drives some of them
0:32:02 > 0:32:04to acts of shocking violence.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11The world of The Fifteen Streets is often horrifyingly brutal.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19With its uncompromising scenes of violence and abuse,
0:32:19 > 0:32:24The Fifteen Streets lays bare the emotional cost of life
0:32:24 > 0:32:27in industrial Britain.
0:32:27 > 0:32:28And in that respect,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32Catherine Cookson's really not so different from Charles Dickens.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Not just in her taste for sentimental endings,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39but in her unsparing honesty about the dehumanising effects
0:32:39 > 0:32:43of poverty on Britain's working classes.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50But even as Cookson's books were chronicling the harsh realities
0:32:50 > 0:32:56of industrial life, heavy industry itself was in terminal decline.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00And by the 1990s, some writers were asking what would happen
0:33:00 > 0:33:05to working-class communities when there was no more work?
0:33:05 > 0:33:09MUSIC: Lust For Life by Iggy Pop
0:33:09 > 0:33:11Choose life, choose a job,
0:33:11 > 0:33:13choose a career, choose a family,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars,
0:33:16 > 0:33:20compact disc players and electrical tin openers.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22TYRES SCREECH
0:33:22 > 0:33:28Trainspotting exploded into Britain's cinemas in 1996
0:33:28 > 0:33:32and it captured the imagination of a whole generation.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43Despite the controversy over its scenes of graphic drug use,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47Trainspotting was more than just a film about heroin.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52It was also about WHY so many people felt driven to take it.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Choose your future, choose life.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59# Here comes Johnny in again
0:33:59 > 0:34:01# With liquor and drugs... #
0:34:01 > 0:34:04But why would I want to do a thing like that?
0:34:08 > 0:34:12I chose not to choose life, I chose something else.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21Set in the bleak estates north of Edinburgh, Irvine Welsh's book -
0:34:21 > 0:34:24and the subsequent film - portrayed a world where choosing life
0:34:24 > 0:34:27wasn't the most obvious option.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32Welsh grew up on the Muirhouse estate in the 1960s
0:34:32 > 0:34:35when heavy industry still dominated the local economy.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38But by the 1980s, all that had changed.
0:34:45 > 0:34:4750 years ago you go to Muirhouse
0:34:47 > 0:34:51and it'd be pretty much the same, so pretty drab housing schemes,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53not a lot there. But most people would have a bit of work,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57and, you know, there'd be a chance to move into something different
0:34:57 > 0:34:59and moving on, you know, whatever.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01But now that's just been completely cut off,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04it's become much more a kind of sort of ghetto.
0:35:12 > 0:35:14By the mid-'80s, many of the people who lived here
0:35:14 > 0:35:18were bereft of what Welsh called "the drama of work",
0:35:18 > 0:35:22leaving them to seek their highs elsewhere.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25"Workplaces," he once said, "are packed with narratives.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27"If you're not getting them at the workplace
0:35:27 > 0:35:30"then you're getting them on the street."
0:35:30 > 0:35:32And what more compelling narrative
0:35:32 > 0:35:36than the ecstasy and the agony of heroin?
0:35:40 > 0:35:43When you live here, you've left school, you no got a job,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46you've nae money, you're bored to death.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49A lot of people take smack, heroin.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54We stole drugs, we stole prescriptions, or bought them,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57sold them, swapped them, forged them, photocopied them.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00The streets are awash with drugs you can have for unhappiness and pain
0:36:00 > 0:36:05and we took them all. Fuck it, we would have injected vitamin C
0:36:05 > 0:36:07if only they'd made it illegal.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18With its infectious soundtrack and jet-black humour,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22the film of Trainspotting rapidly became a cult classic,
0:36:22 > 0:36:27sweeping audiences along on its nihilistic thrill-seeking ride.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30But I think the tone of the book is a little bit darker -
0:36:30 > 0:36:35an unrelenting exploration of the moral extremes
0:36:35 > 0:36:37to which desperate people are driven.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41And nothing captures that better than, for me, the most moving scene
0:36:41 > 0:36:44in the whole book, and one that doesn't appear in the film at all.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Our narrator, Renton, is walking with the psychotic thug Begbie
0:36:56 > 0:36:58to his flat.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02They pass through an abandoned station,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05frequented only by drunks and addicts.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13In the station they come across an old wino, bottle in hand.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17"What are you doing, lads?" he says. "Trainspotting, eh?"
0:37:17 > 0:37:20Begbie looks strangely uncomfortable
0:37:20 > 0:37:22and it's then that Renton realises
0:37:22 > 0:37:25that the old wino is Begbie's father.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29A little later, they are walking down the road in silence and then,
0:37:29 > 0:37:32"We came upon a guy in Duke Street.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34"Begbie hit him in the face and he fell.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36"The expression the guy had
0:37:36 > 0:37:39"when he looked up at Begbie was more one of resignation than fear.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42"The boy understood everything."
0:37:42 > 0:37:45# Every day I spend my time
0:37:45 > 0:37:49# Drinking wine, feeling fine... #
0:37:49 > 0:37:52In his inarticulate anger and terrifying aggression,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56the monstrous Begbie somehow speaks for a generation,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00sentenced to life on the post-industrial scrapheap.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02# Don't push your luck too far... #
0:38:02 > 0:38:05And for all Trainspotting's humour and energy,
0:38:05 > 0:38:10at its heart is a bleak honesty about life at the bottom.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13# In a broken dream... #
0:38:16 > 0:38:17What Irvine Welsh understood
0:38:17 > 0:38:21was that for people living in emptiness and chaos,
0:38:21 > 0:38:25the usual moral conventions just didn't apply.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27If you've nothing else to live for,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31why wouldn't you choose drugs and violence and crime?
0:38:31 > 0:38:35And in that sense, I think Trainspotting IS a very moral book -
0:38:35 > 0:38:39a book that squarely confronts the monsters
0:38:39 > 0:38:42waiting to be unleashed when society loses its way.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51Trainspotting passed a blistering verdict on post-industrial Britain.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54But it also played on much older fears
0:38:54 > 0:38:57of crime and violence and social breakdown.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02The Victorians had been haunted by the fear of crime,
0:39:02 > 0:39:07their anxieties fuelled by the rise of Britain's new industrial cities
0:39:07 > 0:39:09and the shock of social and cultural change.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16But what if the demons of violence and anarchy
0:39:16 > 0:39:19broke out of the teeming cities
0:39:19 > 0:39:22and into the heart of the gentle English countryside?
0:39:24 > 0:39:28Welcome to the strange and twisted world of Agatha Christie -
0:39:28 > 0:39:30the queen of crime.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35Her books reflect a gnawing anxiety
0:39:35 > 0:39:38at the fraying of the old social bonds.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44You see, in the old days, everyone knew each other.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48And if someone new came to the village,
0:39:48 > 0:39:50then they brought letters of introduction.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53They had either been in the same regiment or the same ship
0:39:53 > 0:39:58or the same colony as someone already living in the village, you see.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02- And that no longer applies? - Oh, gone forever, I suspect.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04MUSIC: Black Night by Deep Purple
0:40:06 > 0:40:08For more than half a century,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12Agatha Christie played on the fears of Britain's middle classes.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19It all seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22And in order to reflect a changing Britain,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Christie began to rewrite the rules
0:40:25 > 0:40:28of the Sherlock Holmes-style Victorian detective story.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33# Black night is not right... #
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Christie's first innovation
0:40:35 > 0:40:38was to ditch her competitors' gentlemen detectives
0:40:38 > 0:40:42with their pipes and monocles and old-school ties.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46Her great detectives were outsiders - a Belgian immigrant...
0:40:46 > 0:40:48Bonjour!
0:40:48 > 0:40:52- ..and an elderly spinster. - Ah, the redoubtable Miss Marple!
0:40:52 > 0:40:55Christie's killers very rarely leave a smoking gun.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Her murder weapons are rather more mundane.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05A golf club, a paperweight, even a meat skewer -
0:41:05 > 0:41:08this is murder by domestic accessory,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12the violence of the 20th century brought into the heart
0:41:12 > 0:41:15of the middle-class household.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17# Got a black magic woman... #
0:41:19 > 0:41:21For behind the genteel good humour...
0:41:23 > 0:41:25Have you ever met a real criminal?
0:41:25 > 0:41:27Ah, maybe.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32..was a very dark imagination indeed.
0:41:34 > 0:41:35SHE SCREAMS
0:41:41 > 0:41:44For Christie's books don't just play on our fears
0:41:44 > 0:41:47of a changing social order.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51At their heart is an outstandingly pessimistic view of human nature
0:41:51 > 0:41:56and of man's enduring capacity for evil.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00I've long held that Miss Marple has
0:42:00 > 0:42:03what I would call forensic intuition developed to the point of genius.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05- Ooh, really.- The result,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08she tells me, of a lifetime's education in an English village.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11Well, one does see so much evil, I fear.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16In a changed and changing world,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18Christie was quite brilliant
0:42:18 > 0:42:21at tapping her readers' social anxieties.
0:42:21 > 0:42:26Again and again the same theme - trust no-one.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30And it's this wary, suspicious, even paranoid atmosphere
0:42:30 > 0:42:35that hangs over her most successful book, And Then There Were None.
0:42:48 > 0:42:5312 strangers are brought together for a house party on an island
0:42:53 > 0:42:55just off the coast of Devon.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57On arrival, they gather for a drink.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01The butler puts on a record,
0:43:01 > 0:43:07and then as the 1945 film version shows, the nightmare begins.
0:43:07 > 0:43:08Silence, please!
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Ladies and gentlemen, this is your host, Mr Owen, speaking.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16You are charged with the following crimes.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20General Sir John Mandrake, that you did deliberately
0:43:20 > 0:43:25send your wife's lover, Lieutenant Arthur Masefield, to his death.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29Thomas and Ethel Rogers, that you brought about the death
0:43:29 > 0:43:33of your invalid employer, Mrs Jennifer Brady.
0:43:33 > 0:43:34SHE SCREAMS
0:43:34 > 0:43:36Emily Brent...
0:43:41 > 0:43:45By the time the message ends, each of them has been accused of murder.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49From the doctor to the secretary, they all have blood on their hands.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54And this, I think, is Agatha Christie's really disturbing insight.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56We're all flawed, we're all sinners,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00and, potentially, at least, we're all killers.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08In an age struggling to explain man's weakness and wickedness,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Agatha Christie looked deep into the human soul.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17To me, what makes Agatha Christie feel so enduringly modern
0:44:17 > 0:44:20is her unflinching honesty about the nature of evil.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24Or as she put it, the "lust for cruelty" within us all.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27You know, you can walk into any bookshop today
0:44:27 > 0:44:30and you'll find hundreds of blood-splattered thrillers,
0:44:30 > 0:44:35but you won't find any author who's quite as dark and as clever
0:44:35 > 0:44:38and as quietly effective as Agatha Christie.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48What Christie's books also reflect, though, are the Christian principles
0:44:48 > 0:44:52she'd learned as a girl in the last years of the 19th century.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57But in the 20th century, those values would be challenged
0:44:57 > 0:45:02by state-sponsored evil on a scale unprecedented in human history.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07LOUD ARTILLERY FIRE
0:45:14 > 0:45:16After the slaughter of the two world wars,
0:45:16 > 0:45:21there could be no doubts about the depths to which humanity could sink.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28The horrors of those conflicts
0:45:28 > 0:45:31hung like a shadow over Britain's post-war culture.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37And one book above all
0:45:37 > 0:45:41reflected the 20th century's fascination with power and evil.
0:45:41 > 0:45:46The Lord Of The Rings is a novel steeped in the pity of war.
0:45:46 > 0:45:51Its author, JRR Tolkien, had seen action at the battle of the Somme.
0:45:51 > 0:45:56By 1918, he said later, "all but one of my close friends were dead."
0:45:58 > 0:46:0020 years later, with Britain poised to enter
0:46:00 > 0:46:03a second and even deadlier world war,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07Tolkien began work on his great epic of good and evil.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10CROWD: Heil Hitler!
0:46:14 > 0:46:17This was the age of the dictators,
0:46:17 > 0:46:21in which rival despotisms were tearing Europe apart.
0:46:21 > 0:46:22And at its heart,
0:46:22 > 0:46:26The Lord Of The Rings is a book about the temptation
0:46:26 > 0:46:28and the arrogance of power.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33Tolkien's epic revolves around one of the great
0:46:33 > 0:46:38symbols of evil in all 20th-century fiction - the ring.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42Not just a magic weapon of incalculable power,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45but the perfect metaphor for what Tolkien saw
0:46:45 > 0:46:50as mankind's greatest flaw - our lust for supremacy,
0:46:50 > 0:46:54not just over one another, but over nature itself.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59In effect, the ring is the embodiment of that great Victorian saying -
0:46:59 > 0:47:04"power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
0:47:04 > 0:47:07MUSIC: Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin
0:47:09 > 0:47:11For Tolkien, a devout Catholic,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15the carnage of the world wars was a chilling reminder
0:47:15 > 0:47:18of the darkness and the demons lurking within us all.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24But The Lord Of The Rings is not just a book about the legacy of war.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Tolkien's story begins in the Shire,
0:47:29 > 0:47:34a lost paradise of ancient woods and sparkling streams.
0:47:36 > 0:47:41In the last years of the 19th century, Tolkien had grown up here
0:47:41 > 0:47:46in the leafy tranquillity of the north Worcestershire countryside.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49And in his loving description of life in the Shire,
0:47:49 > 0:47:52we hear his hymn to rural England -
0:47:52 > 0:47:56pastoral, peaceful and untouched by modernity.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02These are limes.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05However old they are, they are lovely green in spring.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11I have always for some reason been enormously attracted by trees,
0:48:11 > 0:48:14I should have liked to be able to make contact with a tree
0:48:14 > 0:48:17and find out what it feels about things.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24But in the last pages of his novel,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Tolkien presents a very different vision of the Shire.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Chimneys and quarries blight the landscape.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37The trees have been felled, the ancient hedgerows destroyed.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45For many readers, the scouring of the Shire feels a bit unsettling.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48And, of course, the films left it out completely.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52But I think it was one of the most revealing things Tolkien ever wrote.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54His hobbits have destroyed the ring
0:48:54 > 0:48:58and they have made their way back home and you think that it's all going to be
0:48:58 > 0:49:01back-slapping and parties and dancing round the maypole.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06But while they've been gone, their country has changed.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11Their pastoral Eden has gone, a victim of industry.
0:49:16 > 0:49:21At the heart of the new society is its brutal new water mill.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25A temple to mechanical progress, wheels and contraptions,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29smoke and stench all in the name of profit.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34"It was one of the saddest hours in their lives.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37"The great chimney rose up before them
0:49:37 > 0:49:41"and they saw the new mill in all its frowning and dirty ugliness."
0:49:41 > 0:49:44You could hardly want a more powerful metaphor
0:49:44 > 0:49:47for the dangers of modernisation.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51In a way, it's a very Victorian thought - the dark Satanic mill
0:49:51 > 0:49:55at the heart of England's green and pleasant land.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59But it's also a remarkably prescient warning
0:49:59 > 0:50:01about the fragility of our environment
0:50:01 > 0:50:05and about the heavy price that we're still paying for progress.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15And for Tolkien, this was personal - a protest against the concrete
0:50:15 > 0:50:17and tarmac that now smothered the Midlands countryside
0:50:17 > 0:50:19he'd loved as a boy.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25For me, the real enemy in The Lord Of The Rings is our shared obsession
0:50:25 > 0:50:28with power and with progress.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32Tolkien believed that in our technological hubris,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36we were sowing the seeds of our own destruction.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42And to Tolkien, the news of the first atomic bombs only confirmed
0:50:42 > 0:50:48his belief that scientific arrogance would lead one day to catastrophe.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51He was "stunned", he wrote, by "the utter folly
0:50:51 > 0:50:54"of these lunatic physicists calmly plotting
0:50:54 > 0:50:57"the destruction of the world!"
0:50:57 > 0:51:01MUSIC: Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones
0:51:02 > 0:51:07Only one thing, he thought, would be left standing - "the Machines".
0:51:11 > 0:51:15And that fear of technology takes us back to Victorian Britain.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23The 19th century had been an age of extraordinary
0:51:23 > 0:51:28scientific advances, from Darwin's theory of evolution
0:51:28 > 0:51:31to radical new developments in medicine and genetics.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38But while some people found progress thrilling,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42others saw only the terrifying dangers.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46Modernity, they argued, threatened the moral and physical health
0:51:46 > 0:51:52of the human race, heralding a future of degeneration and decline.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05And it's that fear that has inspired
0:52:05 > 0:52:09some of post-war Britain's most chilling visions of the apocalypse.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14A man wakes up in a deserted hospital.
0:52:22 > 0:52:23Hello?
0:52:25 > 0:52:27HELLO!
0:52:29 > 0:52:33So begin both Danny Boyle's film 28 Days Later
0:52:33 > 0:52:37and John Wyndham's novel, The Day Of The Triffids.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48There is, I think, something oddly unsettling about a hospital.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50It's a place of safety and sanctuary, yes,
0:52:50 > 0:52:55but it's also one of decrepitude, disease and death.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58Where better to kick off a terrifying journey
0:52:58 > 0:53:02into the darkest corners of the imagination?
0:53:02 > 0:53:04And there's something else, too.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07This is a temple to medical science
0:53:07 > 0:53:10and in the debris abandoned on the hospital floor there is,
0:53:10 > 0:53:15I think, a subtle clue to the origins of the apocalypse.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20In 28 Days Later, it's our scientific curiosity
0:53:20 > 0:53:22that brings civilisation down.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26In a top-secret laboratory, scientists have deliberately
0:53:26 > 0:53:29infected apes with a terrifying virus.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33- The chimps are infected! - Infected with what?
0:53:33 > 0:53:36- In order to cure, you must first understand!- Infected with what?!
0:53:38 > 0:53:39Rage.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45When animal rights activists try to free one of the apes,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49the virus crosses into humans and practically overnight,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52almost all of Britain's population
0:53:52 > 0:53:56are transformed into slavering blood-crazed zombies.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59You could hardly find a more visceral example
0:53:59 > 0:54:03of a scientific experiment gone disastrously wrong.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Stop! You have no idea!
0:54:09 > 0:54:11SCREAMING
0:54:11 > 0:54:14And in The Day Of The Triffids, the premise is remarkably similar,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18only this time, the scientists have delivered an oil-rich plant,
0:54:18 > 0:54:23a Triffid, which turns into a man-eating monster.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29Yet again, it is our thirst for knowledge that proves our downfall.
0:54:32 > 0:54:33BOY YELLS IN PAIN
0:54:40 > 0:54:42In both cases,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45mankind faces a terrible price for trying to play God...
0:54:46 > 0:54:48THROATY GROWLING
0:54:50 > 0:54:52..which can only be paid in blood.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58Man-eating plants and rampaging zombies
0:54:58 > 0:55:01might sound a little bit far-fetched, but for me,
0:55:01 > 0:55:06the real resonance of The Day Of The Triffids and 28 Days Later
0:55:06 > 0:55:10lies in their chilling vision of a very British
0:55:10 > 0:55:13and very domestic apocalypse.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19'You carry your invention
0:55:19 > 0:55:22'to a point where'
0:55:22 > 0:55:24it is acceptable to your reader.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26For instance, your English reader
0:55:26 > 0:55:29does not care for the idea of spaceships.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31I don't quite know why he does.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33Your American reader loves spaceships.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40As Wyndham knew, the more plausible your nightmare,
0:55:40 > 0:55:42the more frightening it becomes.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46And that is why 28 Days Later and The Day Of The Triffids
0:55:46 > 0:55:50are much more disturbing than any big-budget Hollywood apocalypse.
0:55:54 > 0:55:55Hello!
0:55:57 > 0:56:01The premise that we could be eviscerated by ourselves, really,
0:56:01 > 0:56:07is an absolutely plausible one. One of the reasons the film works, I think,
0:56:07 > 0:56:09is that people do connect with it
0:56:09 > 0:56:11to a kind of malaise they feel about life at the moment.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13And certainly a kind of threat,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17amongst ourselves as human beings of what we are doing to each other.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25In both cases, the real architects of disaster are us.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29It's our curiosity, our folly, our arrogance,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32that brings down nemesis upon us.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34Her birth caused a sensation -
0:56:34 > 0:56:38Louise Brown was the world's first test-tube baby.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40Many have been horrified by Dolly,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43saying that this time scientists have gone too far
0:56:43 > 0:56:46in manipulating the fabric of life.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48For centuries,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51British scientists have been at the forefront of progress.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55But every new breakthrough awakens fresh anxieties.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01What are the costs of our meddling with nature?
0:57:01 > 0:57:05And at what point will we finally have gone too far?
0:57:10 > 0:57:14And it's those questions that hang in the air as the heroes
0:57:14 > 0:57:16of The Day Of The Triffids
0:57:16 > 0:57:19and 28 Days Later wander through their abandoned cities.
0:57:22 > 0:57:23It is, I think, no coincidence
0:57:23 > 0:57:27that both open in an eerily empty London,
0:57:27 > 0:57:31its streets deserted and its population vanished.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34There could be no better symbol, after all, of the precariousness,
0:57:34 > 0:57:39or the sheer fragility of our supposedly mighty civilisation.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42And all this, you know,
0:57:42 > 0:57:46would have struck our Victorian predecessors as distinctly familiar.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49Today we tend to remember the 19th century
0:57:49 > 0:57:53as an age of supreme cultural self-confidence.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57And yet their imagination, just like ours, was haunted
0:57:57 > 0:58:02by the anxieties of progress, and a dread of inevitable disaster.
0:58:03 > 0:58:04Like the Victorians,
0:58:04 > 0:58:09we live in an age of extraordinary social and technological change.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11They grappled with the rise of industry
0:58:11 > 0:58:13and the consequences of empire.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16while we have had to confront the decline of British manufacturing
0:58:16 > 0:58:18and the eclipse of British power.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23But when it comes to our culture, we really haven't changed a bit.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26We may like to pride ourselves on our fashionable modernity,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28but in our dreams and our nightmares,
0:58:28 > 0:58:32we still live in the shadow of the Victorians.
0:58:41 > 0:58:43Next time - how British culture celebrates
0:58:43 > 0:58:46the triumph of the individual.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50Stories of self-expression,
0:58:50 > 0:58:54self-realisation and sheer individual genius.