0:00:08 > 0:00:10This idyllic seaside village,
0:00:10 > 0:00:13perched on the northwest coast of Wales,
0:00:13 > 0:00:15is a popular tourist town.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22# Out in the country
0:00:22 > 0:00:26# Far from all the soot and noise of the city
0:00:26 > 0:00:28# There's a village... #
0:00:28 > 0:00:33But for one man in the late 1960s, it became a living nightmare.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38Where am I?
0:00:38 > 0:00:39In the Village.
0:00:39 > 0:00:40Who are you?
0:00:42 > 0:00:43The new Number Two.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46You are Number Six.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50I am not a number! I am a free man!
0:00:50 > 0:00:54LAUGHTER
0:00:54 > 0:00:57The Prisoner was the ultimate cult hit.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00A TV series about a secret agent who is kidnapped
0:01:00 > 0:01:04and held captive in the mysterious Village - his name,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08his very identity, erased and replaced with a number.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10He is Number Six.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12And from the Village,
0:01:12 > 0:01:14there is no escape.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20Wait, wait, stop! Turn back.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25MAN SCREAMS
0:01:25 > 0:01:29At the heart of The Prisoner is a simple but very powerful message -
0:01:29 > 0:01:33repeated at the beginning of every episode.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36I am not a number! I am a free man!
0:01:38 > 0:01:41Then he must no longer be referred to as Number Six.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Or a number of any kind.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47He has gloriously vindicated
0:01:47 > 0:01:51the right of the individual to be individual.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56The cult of the individual has been THE central
0:01:56 > 0:01:59theme of our post-war culture.
0:01:59 > 0:02:00From the celebrated actor
0:02:00 > 0:02:02to the celebrity artist,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04the bestselling author
0:02:04 > 0:02:07to television's endless talent shows,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09from pop stars...
0:02:09 > 0:02:10to Popstars.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17This constant emphasis on the value and potential of the individual,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20on the importance of identity and self-realisation
0:02:20 > 0:02:22feels excitingly modern.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25But as with so much of our popular culture,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28the foundations were laid by the Victorians.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Hello, and welcome to The Voice.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48As the competition intensifies...
0:02:48 > 0:02:51The coaches go all out to grab the best talent.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53I want to be your coach!
0:02:53 > 0:02:57# I got all my sisters with me... #
0:02:58 > 0:03:00The Saturday night talent show.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04A prime time orgy of highly personal successes...
0:03:04 > 0:03:09CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:03:09 > 0:03:11..and crushing disappointments.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15The BBC's version, The Voice, features gladiatorial
0:03:15 > 0:03:18battle rounds in which ambitious young men
0:03:18 > 0:03:23and women try to turn their talent into fame and fortune.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25# Just beat it. #
0:03:25 > 0:03:28APPLAUSE
0:03:30 > 0:03:36The modern talent show is based on one simple, fundamental principle -
0:03:36 > 0:03:37the idea that all of us,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40irrespective of our education or our background
0:03:40 > 0:03:43and armed with only a little talent,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46can make something of ourselves.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48As the judges are always telling the contestants,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52all you need to do is to work hard and to believe in yourself.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55# I am the one and only... #
0:03:55 > 0:03:58You can go the whole way in, I'm not kidding you,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00but you have to believe in your own talents.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02# I am the one and only... #
0:04:02 > 0:04:05The first thing you have to do is believe in yourself or you
0:04:05 > 0:04:06won't get it across to the people.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13You see, success isn't just about being able to sing -
0:04:13 > 0:04:17it's about self-belief, self-confidence and sheer hard work.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19As one guru put it,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23"The difference between one boy and another consists not
0:04:23 > 0:04:26"so much in talent as in energy."
0:04:26 > 0:04:30But you know the man who said those words wasn't Simon Cowell or
0:04:30 > 0:04:32indeed any other talent show judge
0:04:32 > 0:04:36but a much earlier advocate of individual self-improvement.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49In the early 1850s, the Scottish writer Samuel Smiles came here
0:04:49 > 0:04:52to what was then the Mechanics Institute
0:04:52 > 0:04:54at Woodhouse, in Leeds.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57# Strange brew
0:04:57 > 0:05:01# Killin' what's inside of you... #
0:05:01 > 0:05:05He had come to give a speech to an assembly of local working men.
0:05:05 > 0:05:06# Strange brew
0:05:06 > 0:05:09# Kill what's inside of you... #
0:05:09 > 0:05:14The lecture that Samuel Smiles gave here that day was entitled,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16with typical Victorian directness,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19The Education Of The Working Classes.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23And what it reflected was Smiles' fervent belief
0:05:23 > 0:05:28in the power of education and in the importance of self-fulfilment.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The central message was this -
0:05:31 > 0:05:35every human being has a great mission to perform,
0:05:35 > 0:05:41noble faculties to cultivate, and a vast destiny to accomplish.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44MUSIC: Fame by David Bowie
0:05:44 > 0:05:47As messages go, this was pretty powerful.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50And in 1859, Smiles committed it to print.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56His book was called
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Self Help - With Illustrations Of Character And Conduct.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04And appropriately enough, Smiles self-published.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11Smiles' book was basically a series of examples of poor boys made good,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13from the playwright William Shakespeare
0:06:13 > 0:06:16to the industrialist Richard Arkwright.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18But the Victorians loved it.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20It sold a quarter of a million copies
0:06:20 > 0:06:22and made Smiles a national hero.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27And at its heart was a simple but very powerful idea -
0:06:27 > 0:06:30that with the right ambitions and the right work ethic,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34you could do anything.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38MUSIC: Teenage Kicks by The Undertones
0:06:39 > 0:06:44For Smiles, the foundation for individual success was very simple -
0:06:44 > 0:06:45education.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Only education for all, he argued,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53would give people the confidence to change their own lives.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59- I'm going to stay on at school and try and get my GCE.- Why?
0:06:59 > 0:07:03Well, I think I'll have a better chance of getting a job
0:07:03 > 0:07:04if I have that behind me.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09And after 1945, Smiles' dream became a reality,
0:07:09 > 0:07:14as post-war Britain provided more and more educational opportunities,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17from grammar schools to universities.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20But there was one particular part of our educational system
0:07:20 > 0:07:24that stood out - a remarkable engine of creativity,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27fostering some of our brightest cultural stars.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Could we have some quiet, please?
0:07:29 > 0:07:32I've called this assembly because, as you probably know,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36we are in a critical time for art education.
0:07:36 > 0:07:42In September 1957, a precocious and perhaps rather self-absorbed young
0:07:42 > 0:07:47man arrived here for his first term at the Liverpool College of Art.
0:07:47 > 0:07:48From the very beginning,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52he was determined to stand out from the crowd.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55The other students all wore baggy jumpers and duffel coats,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59but he was dressed as a teddy boy, with greased back hair,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02a drape jacket, and drainpipe trousers.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04Here was an ambitious young man
0:08:04 > 0:08:08absolutely determined to make his mark.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12# I'm in with the in crowd
0:08:12 > 0:08:14# I go where the in crowd go... #
0:08:14 > 0:08:17The young man was John Lennon,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20soon to become the Beatle who was bigger than Jesus.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24# And I know what the in crowd don't know... #
0:08:24 > 0:08:28And the place where he began his long march to stardom...
0:08:28 > 0:08:30was art college.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35If there was one place that fuelled the young John Lennon's
0:08:35 > 0:08:37burning ambition and rebellious individualism,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39then it was art school.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42But in many ways, that was what it was for.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44The Liverpool College of Art had grown out of
0:08:44 > 0:08:47the Liverpool Mechanics Institute - one of those
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Victorian institutions for the education of working men.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55Samuel Smiles himself had once given a talk in this building.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59It was - and it remains - an institution devoted to giving
0:08:59 > 0:09:03ordinary people a sense of self-worth and self-belief.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08The art college has had a transformative
0:09:08 > 0:09:10effect on our popular culture...
0:09:11 > 0:09:14..producing an assembly line of talent,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16and not just in the realm of fine art.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20It has produced a roll-call of artists,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23musicians and designers.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24Jimmy Page.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28Vivienne Westwood.
0:09:29 > 0:09:30Jarvis Cocker.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Eric Clapton.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34Brian Ferry.
0:09:34 > 0:09:35David Hockney.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37David Bowie.
0:09:37 > 0:09:38Ray Davies.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40Mary Quant.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Keith Richards.
0:09:42 > 0:09:43Pete Townshend.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46To name but a few.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50I think art college was a place for working class teenagers who
0:09:50 > 0:09:53had rejected a working-class future.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56And what they fostered was a sense of self-belief -
0:09:56 > 0:10:00of belonging to a new creative elite -
0:10:00 > 0:10:03that was to produce some of the best-loved artworks, films
0:10:03 > 0:10:06and music in our modern history.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14And it was here that John Lennon began to pursue the one thing
0:10:14 > 0:10:15he really cared about.
0:10:17 > 0:10:18Himself.
0:10:18 > 0:10:23MUSIC: Get Back by The Beatles
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Lennon may have become famous as one quarter of The Beatles, but
0:10:27 > 0:10:32he always seemed the odd one out, the most outspoken, the most angry.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Seems a bit silly to be in America and for none of them
0:10:37 > 0:10:40to mention Vietnam, as if nothing was happening.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42You can't just keep quiet about anything that's going on
0:10:42 > 0:10:46in the world, unless you're a monk.
0:10:46 > 0:10:47# Get back, Jojo... #
0:10:47 > 0:10:51And the place that honed and strengthened his sense of
0:10:51 > 0:10:54self-possession was art college.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57The story goes that one day Lennon's tutor sent the class off to
0:10:57 > 0:10:59paint Liverpool docks.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And when they all got back, they dutifully handed in their pictures
0:11:02 > 0:11:06of the dockside in the style of LS Lowry or Stanley Spencer.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08All of them, except one.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12You see, John Lennon had decided to do something a bit different.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Lennon had painted a picture of a docker's boot.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17You see, Lennon wasn't really interested in the
0:11:17 > 0:11:20industrial landscape, and still less in the people.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25What he saw was an opportunity to show off his singularity.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28And it worked. Everybody knew John Lennon.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Everybody knew he was going to do something unusual,
0:11:32 > 0:11:33something different,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36that he had - in Samuel Smiles' words -
0:11:36 > 0:11:40"a vast destiny to accomplish."
0:11:40 > 0:11:43MUSIC: Come Together by The Beatles
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Lennon left art school to focus on The Beatles.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55But that single-minded drive, that individualistic streak that the
0:11:55 > 0:11:59institution had instilled was never far from the surface.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05In July 1968, John Lennon came here to
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Mayfair, in London, for the opening of a new art exhibition.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12The show's title was You Are Here,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14and it was already the talk of the town.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17But what made it so eagerly anticipated wasn't the
0:12:17 > 0:12:21quality of the work, it was the name of the artist.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23John Lennon himself.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27This was Lennon's first foray into the rarefied
0:12:27 > 0:12:30and sometimes frankly absurd world of high art.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35MUSIC: Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles
0:12:35 > 0:12:37By this stage,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40internal frictions were taking their toll on The Beatles.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45And Lennon's relationship with the Japanese conceptual artist
0:12:45 > 0:12:51Yoko Ono would see the musician move in increasingly strange directions.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55As the highlight of the opening, John and Yoko released
0:12:55 > 0:12:58365 white helium balloons,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03each with an attached card inviting the finder to send it back
0:13:03 > 0:13:07to the gallery with a handwritten message for Lennon himself.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09The cards came back in their hundreds,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13but the messages weren't quite what Lennon was expecting.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16They laid into him for leaving his wife, Cynthia,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19they savaged him for shacking up with Yoko Ono,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23and they criticised him for his long hair, his money, his politics
0:13:23 > 0:13:25and his artistic pretensions.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29The message was clear - the man on the street wanted Lennon to
0:13:29 > 0:13:32stop messing about, and get back to being a Beatle.
0:13:32 > 0:13:39MUSIC: How Do You Sleep? by John Lennon
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Alas, the man in the street was too late.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46Lennon's course was set.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50And a year later, he told the rest of the band that it was all over.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56"I always wrote about ME when I could," Lennon once said.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59"I didn't really enjoy writing third person songs.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02"I like first person music."
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Now he was free to pursue his obsession.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09There was, I think, always a fundamental tension
0:14:09 > 0:14:12between John Lennon's role as one of four Beatles
0:14:12 > 0:14:16and his long-cherished self-image as a man apart.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19And in that respect, perhaps, even being in the world's most
0:14:19 > 0:14:22successful band was never really going to be enough for him.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26You know, people often blame Yoko Ono for breaking up The Beatles.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29But I think that Yoko or no Yoko,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32John Lennon was always on his way out.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35# As soon as you're born
0:14:35 > 0:14:37# They make you feel small
0:14:40 > 0:14:41# By giving you no... #
0:14:41 > 0:14:45And his first solo album included the clearest expression
0:14:45 > 0:14:48yet of his simmering, restless anger.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53# Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all... #
0:14:53 > 0:14:56No song better captures John Lennon's disaffected
0:14:56 > 0:14:59individualism than Working Class Hero.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02It's a bitter, blackly ironic description
0:15:02 > 0:15:06of growing up in a society that demands convention and conformity.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10And underpinning it is Lennon's fierce belief in the right
0:15:10 > 0:15:15of the individual to reject the expectations of his elders.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18"There's room at the top, they're telling you still,"
0:15:18 > 0:15:23he says, "but first you must learn to smile as you kill."
0:15:23 > 0:15:27# But first you must learn how to smile as you kill... #
0:15:28 > 0:15:30The sentiment seems brutal.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34But - like Lennon's streak of individualistic ambition -
0:15:34 > 0:15:38it actually reflected a much broader cultural phenomenon.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42# A working class hero is something to be... #
0:15:44 > 0:15:48John Lennon was far from alone in his single-minded obsession
0:15:48 > 0:15:50with making something of himself.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54But he was a product of a very particular moment in Britain's
0:15:54 > 0:15:57post-war history, when bright, young, working-class men,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01determined that their lives would be different from their fathers,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03were striking out for new horizons.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06And this was a theme that dominated the books,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08the plays and the films of the '50s.
0:16:13 > 0:16:14Is that what you really want?
0:16:14 > 0:16:16A clerk's dream?
0:16:16 > 0:16:18A girl with a Riviera tan and a Lagonda?
0:16:22 > 0:16:23That's what I am going to have.
0:16:28 > 0:16:34# I'm so tired of working every day... #
0:16:34 > 0:16:39The authors of these works became known as the Angry Young Men.
0:16:39 > 0:16:45They included John Braine, Alan Sillitoe, Kingsley Amis
0:16:45 > 0:16:48and the playwright John Osborne,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52whose 1956 play Look Back In Anger gave them their name.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58What the term captured was a very distinctive post-war mind set.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01The Angry Young Men always hated the label.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04By and large, they weren't angry, most of them weren't even young.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07They were men, I suppose.
0:17:07 > 0:17:08The Men.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Well, as labels go, it's not exactly very catchy.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13What united them, I suppose, was their outlook.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17Like John Lennon, writers such as John Braine and Alan Sillitoe
0:17:17 > 0:17:22dreamed of throwing off the fetters of class, convention and community.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26And it was precisely this restless, driving ambition that
0:17:26 > 0:17:30propelled the heroes of their most successful books.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34Look, Joe, there's the top. That's where the money is.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Lots of lovely houses up there, you know, Joe.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39I'll have one of those.
0:17:39 > 0:17:40I'm going to have the lot.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43- LAUGHING:- Oh, no you're not. Not in local government you're not.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45Did you ever work it out, brother?
0:17:45 > 0:17:47In 20 years' time, you could be sitting in Hoylake's chair,
0:17:47 > 0:17:49and that's as high as you could go.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53And that means a thousand a year, a semidetached down town
0:17:53 > 0:17:56a second-hand Austin and a wife to match, if you know what I mean.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58I know damn well what you mean.
0:17:58 > 0:17:59That's why I am going to have the lot.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01- HE CHUCKLES - Oh, no...
0:18:01 > 0:18:03Well, first of all, there has been a change from what
0:18:03 > 0:18:07I once called a wet hero to the dry and reasonably...
0:18:07 > 0:18:09reasonably tough hero,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12but most important...most important of all,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16at last, I mean, English novelists are doing
0:18:16 > 0:18:19what the American novelist has always been doing.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24And that is to say that they now feel themselves free to write about
0:18:24 > 0:18:26any part of the country
0:18:26 > 0:18:29and about any kind of person,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31any class of person whatsoever.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33And this is a definite advance.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37MUSIC: The Boy With A Thorn In His Side by The Smiths
0:18:37 > 0:18:40And the key to this advance was the new social landscape
0:18:40 > 0:18:42of post-war Britain.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45# The boy with a thorn in his side
0:18:45 > 0:18:47# Behind the hatred... #
0:18:47 > 0:18:50For working class boys like John Braine,
0:18:50 > 0:18:51if they had the right talent
0:18:51 > 0:18:56and they worked hard enough, there was now a way out.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59# How can they look into my eyes...#
0:18:59 > 0:19:01With grammar schools and full employment
0:19:01 > 0:19:04came a growing sense of individual opportunity.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09A sense that bright, working class boys and girls could do a lot better
0:19:09 > 0:19:12than follow their parents into the factory or down the pit.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15So this was an age not just of social mobility
0:19:15 > 0:19:17but of unashamed aspiration.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20The novelist John Braine was once asked about his great
0:19:20 > 0:19:22ambition as a writer.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24"What I want to do," he said,
0:19:24 > 0:19:29"is to drive through Bradford in a Rolls-Royce with two naked
0:19:29 > 0:19:33"women on either side of me covered in jewels."
0:19:33 > 0:19:38MUSIC: Let's Stick Together by Bryan Ferry
0:19:39 > 0:19:43But social mobility brought with it a growing tension
0:19:43 > 0:19:46between the individual and the collective.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53And it was this changing balance that would come to
0:19:53 > 0:19:55define our modern culture.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05The Victorian period had been the heyday not just of liberal
0:20:05 > 0:20:08individualism but of the co-operative spirit,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11symbolised above all by the new trade unions.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15For Samuel Smiles and his Victorian contemporaries,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18this ethos of collective cooperation,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21of working together for the greater good, had been an important
0:20:21 > 0:20:25counterweight to the idea of individual self-improvement.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30But over the next 150 years, as our collective institutions began to
0:20:30 > 0:20:37decay, so our culture focused more and more tightly on the individual.
0:20:37 > 0:20:43THEY SHOUT INSULTS
0:20:43 > 0:20:48In late 1984, the miners' strike had become one of the longest
0:20:48 > 0:20:52and most divisive disputes in modern British history,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56characterised by violent clashes between the police
0:20:56 > 0:20:58and striking miners.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00These men were fighting for their livelihoods,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03for their very identity.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06And it was against this violent, masculine backdrop that
0:21:06 > 0:21:11one 11-year-old boy decided that his destiny lay elsewhere.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15He would become a ballet dancer.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Regardless of what his family thought.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23Ballet?
0:21:23 > 0:21:24What's wrong with ballet?
0:21:24 > 0:21:26What's WRONG with ballet?
0:21:26 > 0:21:29It's perfectly normal.
0:21:29 > 0:21:30Perfectly NORMAL?
0:21:32 > 0:21:34I used to go to ballet.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35See?
0:21:35 > 0:21:40Aye, for your nanna. For girls. Not for lads, Billy.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Lads do football, or...
0:21:43 > 0:21:45..boxing, or...
0:21:47 > 0:21:48..wrestling.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51Not frigging ballet!
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Billy Elliot is the story of one boy's struggle to overcome
0:22:00 > 0:22:03the expectations, the constraints
0:22:03 > 0:22:05and the prejudices of his local community.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10To leave these rundown streets in search of something better.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14It's a funny and moving tale of individual self-expression
0:22:14 > 0:22:19and self-realisation, worthy of Samuel Smiles himself.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Although when Smiles wrote that "every human being has a great
0:22:22 > 0:22:27"mission to perform," I'm not sure this is quite what he meant.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31MUSIC: Town Called Malice by The Jam
0:22:46 > 0:22:49The film's turning point comes when Billy's father,
0:22:49 > 0:22:51returning from the pub one night,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54finds his son dancing in the local community hall.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Instead of retreating, Billy dances on.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08It's a wonderful scene.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13Initially outraged by Billy's ambition to be a ballet dancer,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18his father suddenly understands that his boy has a gift.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26And that he has the chance of a better future
0:23:26 > 0:23:28than a life down the mines.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33The principle of the individual having - in Samuel Smiles' words -
0:23:33 > 0:23:36"a vast destiny to accomplish" is the central,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39driving theme of Billy Elliot.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41But 40 years earlier,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45another Billy was wrestling with a very similar idea.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48In 1959, the journalist Keith Waterhouse had
0:23:48 > 0:23:52published his first novel, Billy Liar.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55It tells the story of Billy Fisher,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59a young lad who grows up in an obscure fictional Yorkshire town
0:23:59 > 0:24:03and dreams of breaking free of his family and of his class.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08Now, for Billy Fisher, escape comes not in the form of ballet
0:24:08 > 0:24:11but in the exaggerated fantasy world of his imagination.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14For God's sake, Billy, why don't you tell the boring little man
0:24:14 > 0:24:17where to stick his job?
0:24:17 > 0:24:22And in his enduring ambition to move down south to London.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27Because for Billy Fisher, London represents freedom.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30"A man," he says, "can lose himself in London."
0:24:35 > 0:24:37- Hello, Liz.- Hello, Billy.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41Billy's yearning for London becomes the crux of the story -
0:24:41 > 0:24:44a point of deliberate contrast between Billy
0:24:44 > 0:24:46and his free-spirited girlfriend, Liz.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49- I've been offered a job in London, script writing.- No!
0:24:49 > 0:24:50Well, when're you going?
0:24:50 > 0:24:53- Oh, soon.- When's soon?
0:24:53 > 0:24:55Well, as soon as I can manage.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58It's a bit vague, isn't it? Why don't you go now?
0:24:58 > 0:24:59Why, it's difficult.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01No, it's not. It's easy.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03You get on a train, and four hours later, there you are in London.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06It's easy for you. You've had the practice.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10MUSIC: London Calling by The Clash
0:25:10 > 0:25:14For all Billy Fisher's daydreams, London remains eternally
0:25:14 > 0:25:19out of reach - four hours by train, but it might as well be on the moon.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25But 40 years later, Billy Elliot achieves what Billy Fisher -
0:25:25 > 0:25:27and his own father - never could.
0:25:30 > 0:25:31So what's it like, like?
0:25:35 > 0:25:36What's what like?
0:25:38 > 0:25:39London.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45I don't know, son. I've never made it past Durham.
0:25:47 > 0:25:48Have you never been, like?
0:25:49 > 0:25:51Why would I want to go to London?
0:25:51 > 0:25:53It's the capital city.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Well, there's no mines in London.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03Christ. Is that all you think about?
0:26:03 > 0:26:05# London calling
0:26:09 > 0:26:13# I never felt so much alike, alike, alike. #
0:26:13 > 0:26:17The two Billys effectively bookend the post-war period
0:26:17 > 0:26:20and I think their different experiences are very revealing
0:26:20 > 0:26:24about the changing balance between the individual and the collective.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Now, both Billys want to get on,
0:26:27 > 0:26:29they both want to better themselves and liberate
0:26:29 > 0:26:34themselves from the shackles of family, class and social obligation.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37In Billy Elliot, the community is fracturing around him
0:26:37 > 0:26:42and the old collective loyalties are rapidly disintegrating.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46He knows, as we know, that they won't survive.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50But Billy Liar was written in the 1950s, and Billy Fisher's community
0:26:50 > 0:26:55is still strong - ultimately too strong for him to break free.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02MUSIC: Every Day Is Like Sunday by Morrissey
0:27:03 > 0:27:07Billy Liar ends at the railway station, where Billy has
0:27:07 > 0:27:12arranged to join Liz, the girl he loves, on the last train to London.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20For Billy Fisher, freedom is so close that he can almost touch it.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24But then the moment comes and he just can't do it.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28He can't bring himself to board the train.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30The leap is simply too great.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39But while Billy Fisher can't turn his dreams into reality,
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Billy Elliot can and does.
0:27:42 > 0:27:43And the reason, I think,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46is that in the decades that separate the two Billys,
0:27:46 > 0:27:48something has changed.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52The old ties of class and place have come undone.
0:27:52 > 0:27:58And so Billy Elliot is free, free to pursue his destiny as an individual.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01MUSIC: Swan Lake Op 20
0:28:01 > 0:28:03In the final scene of Billy Elliot,
0:28:03 > 0:28:09a grown-up Billy steps on stage in London to play the lead in Swan Lake.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12- Billy, your family are here.- Thanks.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Watched by his father and brother.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25In Billy Elliot, set at the height of Thatcherism
0:28:25 > 0:28:29but made in the warm glow of New Labour inclusiveness,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33the triumph of the individual - over apparently insurmountable odds -
0:28:33 > 0:28:37provides the suitably uplifting climax to the film.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40And so a joyous audience applauds the sentiment
0:28:40 > 0:28:42that anyone can do anything.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50But there is a less joyous side to Billy Elliot's triumph.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55He may have escaped the constraints of class and community...
0:29:01 > 0:29:05..but for the people left behind, the outlook was bleak.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14With the collapse of industry came the collapse of community,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17and the fraying of the old collective bonds.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21In a colliery village, over the years,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23we've all looked after each other.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26And that'll go as people move away.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29It's breaking up a community spirit.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32MUSIC: Straight To Hell by The Clash
0:29:32 > 0:29:37Millions found themselves abandoned on the scrapheap of unemployment.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42The growing power of individualism in our culture -
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and in our society - has come at a price.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50But, for better or worse, it has been an unstoppable force,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54transforming our attitudes not just to class and community
0:29:54 > 0:29:57but to something even more personal.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04MUSIC: Everybody's Talkin' by The Beautiful South
0:30:15 > 0:30:18On the evening of 20th October, 1953,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22Britain's finest stage actor was strolling home
0:30:22 > 0:30:26after a late night dinner when he felt a call of nature.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29# Only the shadows of their eyes... #
0:30:30 > 0:30:32Ducking into a public lavatory,
0:30:32 > 0:30:36he found himself face-to-face with a handsome young man.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40Looks were exchanged. A glance. A smile.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42And before he knew what had happened,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45he'd been arrested for soliciting.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48The handsome young man was an undercover policeman.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52So the actor quickly gave a false name. Arthur.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Arthur...Gielgud.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57Let me see.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00As pseudonyms go, this was not a good one.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Not least in light of the fact that Arthur was John Gielgud's
0:31:03 > 0:31:05actual first name.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Here hung those lips which I have kissed I know not how oft.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11Where be your jibes now?
0:31:12 > 0:31:16In fact, only months earlier, he had been knighted by the Queen,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19becoming Sir Arthur John Gielgud.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Sir Arthur John Gielgud was charged.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27The very next morning he attended Chelsea Magistrates' Court,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30where he was fined ten pounds and ordered to see his doctor the moment
0:31:30 > 0:31:32he left the courtroom.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Unfortunately for Gielgud,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37a Fleet Street reporter was also in the building that day,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40and he could scarcely believe his luck when he heard the most
0:31:40 > 0:31:45distinctive voice in British theatre echoing down the corridors.
0:31:45 > 0:31:46A few hours later,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50the Evening Standard carried the news on its front page.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54For Gielgud, it was a disaster.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58In 1953, homosexuality was still illegal,
0:31:58 > 0:32:01and it would remain so for another 14 years.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06Public lavatories like this one were notorious cruising spots - places
0:32:06 > 0:32:10where gay men could take their pleasures quickly and anonymously.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13But they were also the target of regular police raids.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18In the early 1950s, the police were making some 10,000 arrests a year.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23For Gielgud, the public humiliation was almost too much to bear.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25He even contemplated suicide.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29At the very least, he thought, his acting career was over.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34MUSIC: The Show Must Go On by Pink Floyd
0:32:34 > 0:32:37'Arriving to the show is that great Shakespearian actor,
0:32:37 > 0:32:39'Sir John Gielgud.'
0:32:40 > 0:32:45Gielgud had just finished rehearsing a new play, A Day By The Sea,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48in which he was starring opposite Dame Sybil Thorndike.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54It was due to open here, at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool,
0:32:54 > 0:32:56only days after his arrest.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58The house was packed.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01# Must the show go on? #
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Gielgud stood here in the wings, waiting nervously for his cue.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11And then the moment came, and he couldn't move.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14He was paralysed by nerves.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17On stage, Dame Sybil Thorndike saw him standing there,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20and she strode across to the wings, grabbed him,
0:33:20 > 0:33:22and whispered fiercely in his ear,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25"Come on, John, darling, they won't boo me,"
0:33:25 > 0:33:28and she led him out on stage.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33# The show must go on. #
0:33:36 > 0:33:39The response was overwhelming.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41When Gielgud stepped out here, the audience gave him
0:33:41 > 0:33:43a standing ovation.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46The message could hardly have been more clear.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48They didn't care about his private life,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51they loved him as an actor.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55APPLAUSE
0:33:57 > 0:34:02For Gielgud, it was a moment of indescribable relief.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04But it also had a wider significance.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10John Gielgud was an early, and very reluctant, example
0:34:10 > 0:34:13of a phenomenon which has become more and more pronounced over the years.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17The increasing prominence and acceptance of gay performers.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21From Stephen Fry and Rupert Everett to Boy George and Elton John,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24I don't think there's any other country in which gay artists
0:34:24 > 0:34:29and gay entertainers are quite as visible as they are in Britain.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34Ours is a culture of tolerance, driven by individual talent.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37It's all done in the best possible taste.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41# You say you want a revolution
0:34:41 > 0:34:44# Well, you know... #
0:34:44 > 0:34:48And it is this cultural tolerance that has helped drive a wider
0:34:48 > 0:34:50social tolerance.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53If somebody says to me, "Are you gay?" - "Are you bent?"
0:34:53 > 0:34:55is the used expression in the East End -
0:34:55 > 0:34:56I'd say, "Yes, I am."
0:34:56 > 0:35:01From the legalisation of homosexuality to gay marriage.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04If you want a good example of the power of popular culture,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07then just think about the actor Ian McKellen.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12McKellen came out in 1988 to fight the Section 28 legislation
0:35:12 > 0:35:16that effectively banned schools from promoting homosexuality.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19McKellen was well aware of his influence as an actor.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22"People," he said, "might take comfort that
0:35:22 > 0:35:25"if Ian McKellen was on board, then perhaps it would be all
0:35:25 > 0:35:28"right for other people to be as well, gay and straight."
0:35:28 > 0:35:32In fact, I think the key figures in the fight for gay equality weren't
0:35:32 > 0:35:38Parliamentary politicians, they were actors, artists and musicians.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Police in Los Angeles have confirmed that they've arrested the
0:35:41 > 0:35:44singer George Michael on suspicion of committing a lewd act of...
0:35:44 > 0:35:4845 years after Gielgud's brush with the law, George Michael was
0:35:48 > 0:35:51arrested in a public toilet in Los Angeles
0:35:51 > 0:35:53for the very same offence.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58But his response, unlike Gielgud's, was neither despair nor shame.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Instead, he went on CNN to fight his corner.
0:36:03 > 0:36:10And I feel reckless and weak for having allowed my sexuality
0:36:10 > 0:36:14to be exposed this way. But I don't feel any shame whatsoever.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16# Let's go outside
0:36:16 > 0:36:18# In the sunshine... #
0:36:18 > 0:36:21And for his very next single, Outside,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24he filmed a deliberately provocative video.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26# In the moonshine
0:36:26 > 0:36:28# Take me to the places that I love best... #
0:36:28 > 0:36:32He released it on an album with a truly inspired title.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34Ladies And Gentlemen.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40By the late 20th century, the Victorian ideology of liberal
0:36:40 > 0:36:46individualism had evolved into an ethos of individual liberation.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Britain had entered the world of identity politics,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53and the new emphasis on individual talent was eroding the old
0:36:53 > 0:36:55prejudices about sexuality.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57Or indeed, sex.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01You know, the Victorians hadn't even given women the vote,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04but it was their belief in ambition, hard work
0:37:04 > 0:37:08and self-fulfilment that fuelled the rise of the independent woman.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15Yorkshire.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21"Glens shut in by hills, bluff, bold swells of heath...
0:37:22 > 0:37:26"Long grass undulating in waves to the breeze."
0:37:29 > 0:37:31This bleak landscape was the unlikely
0:37:31 > 0:37:34inspiration for a very unlikely superstar.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Because these moors fired the imagination of a brilliant
0:37:38 > 0:37:41young woman, and inspired one of the finest -
0:37:41 > 0:37:44and best loved - works in all our cultural history.
0:37:44 > 0:37:45An epic.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Written against the odds, and published in a society -
0:37:48 > 0:37:52and an industry - dominated by men.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56MUSIC: Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush
0:37:59 > 0:38:03# Out on the wiley, windy moors
0:38:03 > 0:38:07# We'd roll and fall in green
0:38:07 > 0:38:11# You had a temper like my jealousy... #
0:38:11 > 0:38:16In January 1978, Kate Bush released Wuthering Heights.
0:38:16 > 0:38:17# How could you leave me
0:38:17 > 0:38:19# When I needed to possess you... #
0:38:19 > 0:38:23It took her to number one, making her the first woman to top
0:38:23 > 0:38:27the British charts with a song she'd written herself.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29She was 19 years old.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33# Told me I was going to lose the fight
0:38:33 > 0:38:38# Leave behind my Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights
0:38:38 > 0:38:42# Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy
0:38:42 > 0:38:43# I've come home... #
0:38:43 > 0:38:45With Wuthering Heights,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48Kate Bush had achieved something genuinely extraordinary.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51It was a song utterly unlike anything else in the charts
0:38:51 > 0:38:53in the late 1970s.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55And it seemed to have come fully formed
0:38:55 > 0:38:57from the mind of a teenage girl.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01What was really remarkable about it, though, was the subject matter -
0:39:01 > 0:39:05a haunting Victorian novel by the young Emily Bronte.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09And it's very tempting to see the parallels between two young women -
0:39:09 > 0:39:14separated by more than a century - defying prejudice and making their
0:39:14 > 0:39:19mark through the sheer force of their talent and their self-belief.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27The novel Wuthering Heights is a classic of Victorian literature.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30A tale of love, loss and jealousy
0:39:30 > 0:39:34set on the desolate expanse of the West Yorkshire Moors.
0:39:34 > 0:39:39A novel about a young woman struggling to express herself.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43Well, I saw a series on the television about ten years ago.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46It was on very late at night and I caught literally
0:39:46 > 0:39:49the last five minutes of the series where she was at the window
0:39:49 > 0:39:50trying to get in.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52Let me in.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55No. For God's sake. Away.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Let me in.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00It just really struck me, it was so strong.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03Yeah, I read the book before I wrote the song
0:40:03 > 0:40:05because I needed to get the mood properly.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08# I'm looking for a hard-headed woman... #
0:40:10 > 0:40:13What attracted Kate Bush to the novel was, she said,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16the thought of this girl, "in an era when the female role was
0:40:16 > 0:40:21"so inferior, coming out with this passionate, heavy stuff."
0:40:21 > 0:40:23You know, when Emily Bronte published
0:40:23 > 0:40:26Wuthering Heights in 1847, she was still only 29.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30She was only able to do it by adopting a deliberately
0:40:30 > 0:40:32ambiguous pen-name, Ellis Bell.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36But while Bronte was writing in an era when women were often seen
0:40:36 > 0:40:41but not heard, Kate Bush was riding the wave of '70s feminism.
0:40:45 > 0:40:50The '70s marked a watershed in the battle for sexual equality.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52By the middle of the decade,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56almost two thirds of Britain's women were in the workplace.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58MUSIC: Give Me An Inch by Hazel O'Connor
0:40:58 > 0:41:00Do you like being the boss?
0:41:00 > 0:41:02- Oh, yes, revel in it. - SHE LAUGHS
0:41:05 > 0:41:07And women were in politics...
0:41:09 > 0:41:10..in popular culture...
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Good evening, and welcome once again to Top Gear.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16..and on our television screens like never before.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19You devoted the whole of your life to improving the lot of women,
0:41:19 > 0:41:21not just politically but socially, too.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24I wonder what do you think of women's liberation?
0:41:26 > 0:41:27There seemed no limit.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34Kate Bush was in a position to demand control over her own destiny.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36When her record company, EMI,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40announced plans to release the song James And The Cold Gun
0:41:40 > 0:41:44as her debut single, the 18-year-old Kate dug in her heels.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47It simply had to be Wuthering Heights.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49And so, it was.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54A year later, she set up her own management and publishing companies
0:41:54 > 0:41:57to ensure complete control over her own career.
0:41:57 > 0:42:03And ever since, Kate Bush has made music entirely on her own terms.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09# Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Unbelievable... #
0:42:09 > 0:42:12She may have appeared a guileless young girl,
0:42:12 > 0:42:14soon to be devoured by the music industry,
0:42:14 > 0:42:19but beneath the innocent exterior, was a core of pure steel.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25I think the main reason why they listen to me is
0:42:25 > 0:42:29because I'm paying the wages and it's my music.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32And I think they have enough respect for me, I hope, not to
0:42:32 > 0:42:35turn around and say, "You don't know what you're talking about."
0:42:35 > 0:42:40# They open doorways that I thought were shut for good... #
0:42:40 > 0:42:43It has been this combination of single-minded ambition
0:42:43 > 0:42:46and raw talent that has seen Kate Bush's career
0:42:46 > 0:42:50flourish for more than 35 years.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52# And get him to swap our places... #
0:42:52 > 0:42:54# Here I go... #
0:42:54 > 0:42:58And she remains the only female artist to have had
0:42:58 > 0:43:03top five albums in the British charts in five successive decades.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05# Going deep South
0:43:05 > 0:43:08# Going down, down... #
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Kate Bush is, for me, the outstanding example of perhaps
0:43:11 > 0:43:15the most striking cultural trend of the last half-century -
0:43:15 > 0:43:18the feminisation of our popular culture.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21From her debut album, The Kick Inside,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25to songs like Breathing and Army Dreamers, her music makes no
0:43:25 > 0:43:29bones about seeing the world through the eyes of a woman.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32And by the 1990s, when The Spice Girls turned
0:43:32 > 0:43:36girl power into a gleeful, high-kicking marketing slogan,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39the trend had become irreversible.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43From our art and literature to music and even video games,
0:43:43 > 0:43:47the female voice has become stronger and stronger.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50And what I think underpins this feminisation of our popular
0:43:50 > 0:43:56culture is that Victorian idea about individual self-fulfilment.
0:43:56 > 0:44:01# Who cares if I wear heel trainers?
0:44:01 > 0:44:05# Who cares if I like little girl games?
0:44:05 > 0:44:07# Who cares if I run... #
0:44:07 > 0:44:10Today, the principle of female self-fulfilment,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14driven by education, ambition and self-belief,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17has become one of the central pillars of our popular culture.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24And Kate Bush's emphasis on a consciously individual, female
0:44:24 > 0:44:27perspective has become a mainstay of Britain's music industry.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30# I wear my mum's clothes Pretend to be old... #
0:44:30 > 0:44:33This is the BRIT School,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37which opened its doors in 1991 with a distinctly Victorian mission -
0:44:37 > 0:44:42to nurture outstanding talent in the performing arts.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44You know, the school motto really says it all.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Original, Responsible, Ambitious.
0:44:47 > 0:44:51And what it's most famous for is its production line
0:44:51 > 0:44:55of internationally successful solo, female talent.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57# You had my heart and soul... #
0:44:57 > 0:45:00Adele.
0:45:00 > 0:45:01Amy Winehouse.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03# We only said goodbye with words... #
0:45:03 > 0:45:04Kate Nash.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06# My fingertips are holdin'... #
0:45:06 > 0:45:07Jessie J.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10# It's not about the money, money, money... #
0:45:10 > 0:45:11Katie Melua.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13# This is the closest thing to crazy... #
0:45:13 > 0:45:14Leona Lewis.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17# I don't care what they say... #
0:45:17 > 0:45:18Katy B.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21# Oh, when we erupt... #
0:45:21 > 0:45:22Imogen Heap.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25# Who's getting scared now... #
0:45:25 > 0:45:30Basically, Samuel Smiles meets Fame Academy.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33# But not in the presence... #
0:45:33 > 0:45:37And while the gospel of liberal individualism was making
0:45:37 > 0:45:40Britain's popular culture more open and meritocratic,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44so our culture, in turn, was sending a very clear message -
0:45:44 > 0:45:47you can be whoever you want.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53MUSIC: Who Are You? by The Who
0:45:54 > 0:45:59And for some people, that was a genuinely life-changing idea.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03In the years after the Second World War,
0:46:03 > 0:46:08this little corner of East London had entered a long, slow decline.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11But then, something entirely unexpected happened.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Fleeing war and genocide in their native Bangladesh
0:46:14 > 0:46:17and dreaming of a better life here in Britain,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20tens of thousands of Bengalis moved to London.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23And they brought with them their language, their food,
0:46:23 > 0:46:25their religion and their culture.
0:46:25 > 0:46:30And at the heart of their new community was Brick Lane.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33# Who are you?
0:46:33 > 0:46:35# Who, who, who, who?
0:46:35 > 0:46:37# Who are you... #
0:46:37 > 0:46:41'More than 40,000 Bengalis live their closely packed lives
0:46:41 > 0:46:43'in and around Brick Lane, in London's East End.'
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Brick Lane is today synonymous with multicultural Britain.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53East London meets South Asia.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57But for many of the Bengali immigrants who arrived
0:46:57 > 0:47:01here in the 1970s and '80s, there was a tension between the
0:47:01 > 0:47:04expectations of their own - relatively conservative -
0:47:04 > 0:47:09cultural tradition, and the apparent freedoms on offer in liberal Britain.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16This tension between old and new was the premise
0:47:16 > 0:47:20for Monica Ali's bestselling and controversial book, Brick Lane,
0:47:20 > 0:47:22which was published in 2003.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26It tells the story of Nazneen - a young Bengali woman whose
0:47:26 > 0:47:30arranged marriage catapults her from a dusty village in rural
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Bangladesh to a cramped council flat in East London.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37The year is 1985, and Nazneen -
0:47:37 > 0:47:39who speaks not a word of English -
0:47:39 > 0:47:43finds herself adrift and alone, caught between the bewildering
0:47:43 > 0:47:46cultural freedoms of her new homeland,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50and the often stifling expectations of her fellow Bengalis.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57Largely confined to her flat,
0:47:57 > 0:48:01she finds imaginative escape by watching ice-skating on television.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Mesmerised by the grace, the movement, the freedom,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10she begins to understand that her life could be different.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17The novel's opening chapter describes how,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20as a struggling new-born baby,
0:48:20 > 0:48:22Nazneen was left to her fate.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24Instead of taking her to hospital,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27her mother allowed nature to take its course.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Now, Nazneen survived, but that theme of surrendering meekly
0:48:31 > 0:48:35to your fate plays a central part in the novel.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38"Fighting against one's fate," Nazneen says at one point,
0:48:38 > 0:48:40"weakens the blood."
0:48:40 > 0:48:44But in the course of the novel, she begins to discover that,
0:48:44 > 0:48:46like the heroes of the great Victorian novels,
0:48:46 > 0:48:50she can take control over her own story.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53"She could not wait," says the narrator at one point,
0:48:53 > 0:48:59"for her story to be revealed but had to make it for herself."
0:48:59 > 0:49:03MUSIC: Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd
0:49:09 > 0:49:14Brick Lane is about self-discovery and self-realisation.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18It's about Britain - for all its problems - as a land of opportunity.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23After all, in modern Britain, there have been few better
0:49:23 > 0:49:28examples of individual drive, ambition and self-improvement
0:49:28 > 0:49:30than among our immigrant communities.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37As the story unfolds, Nazneen takes control over her life.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40She has an affair with a much younger man.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42When her husband decides to go back to Bangladesh,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44she insists on staying in London.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48And by the end of the book, she's even started her own business,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52making saris with her friend Razia and supplying them to local shops.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56For the first time, she is living entirely on her own terms.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04Brick Lane also reflects a much wider cultural context.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08Since the late 1950s, the experience of immigration has become
0:50:08 > 0:50:11a central theme of our popular culture.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15From novels and TV series like The Buddha Of Suburbia...
0:50:15 > 0:50:18I am looking forward to this evening very much.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21I very much want to learn about your culture.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23Where are you from?
0:50:25 > 0:50:26Bombay.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32..to feature films like Bend It Like Beckham.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39CHEERING
0:50:39 > 0:50:43These works are often described in terms of a culture clash.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45But they're richer than that.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47They are about a sense of self,
0:50:47 > 0:50:51how individual identity emerges from a cultural melting pot.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02In the final scene of Brick Lane, Nazneen's two daughters and her
0:51:02 > 0:51:05friend Razia take her ice skating,
0:51:05 > 0:51:09something that she has dreamed about ever since she first came to England
0:51:09 > 0:51:11and saw Torvill and Dean on TV.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15And the book's very last words are the perfect encapsulation
0:51:15 > 0:51:18of the idea that you make your own fate.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21"Nazneen turned round.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24"To get on the ice physically - it hardly seemed to matter.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27"In her mind, she was already there.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30"She said, 'But you can't skate in a sari.'
0:51:30 > 0:51:35"Razia was already lacing her boots. 'This is England,' she said.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37"'You can do whatever you like.'"
0:51:49 > 0:51:54And this belief in the right to do whatever you like takes us
0:51:54 > 0:51:58back to Samuel Smiles and his creed of liberal individualism.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05At the heart of liberal individualism is a simple
0:52:05 > 0:52:07but revolutionary idea
0:52:07 > 0:52:11that individuals should be free to pursue their destinies -
0:52:11 > 0:52:14men and women, rich and poor, black and white.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18It's an idea not merely reflected in our popular culture,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20but driven by our popular culture.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24And by embracing this principle, Britain - from Samuel Smiles
0:52:24 > 0:52:27and the Victorians to the writers of the 21st century -
0:52:27 > 0:52:31has become a nation defined by its freedoms.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40By the end of Brick Lane, Nazneen has overcome her fears
0:52:40 > 0:52:44and her upbringing to take control of her own destiny.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48And it's exactly that theme that lies at the heart of perhaps
0:52:48 > 0:52:50our most celebrated cultural success story.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59Edinburgh. Home of the Enlightenment.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03University city to the young Samuel Smiles.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08And home to a later writer who would come to embody
0:53:08 > 0:53:13his principles of self-help to a quite astonishing degree.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17The year was 1994, and in this Edinburgh cafe, the staff
0:53:17 > 0:53:21would often notice a solitary figure sitting in the corner, nursing
0:53:21 > 0:53:26a cup of coffee or a glass of water and scribbling furiously with one
0:53:26 > 0:53:30hand and, with the other, rocking a pushchair with a sleeping baby.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34It's an image that's gone down in our modern cultural folklore,
0:53:34 > 0:53:39because the figure in the corner was JK Rowling and the furious
0:53:39 > 0:53:44scribbling was her first book, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48# Could it be magic now
0:53:48 > 0:53:49# Now... #
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Harry Potter became a publishing sensation,
0:53:52 > 0:53:57making JK Rowling rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01Hers is the ultimate rags-to-riches tale.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04What was it like when you saw your first book in the shop?
0:54:04 > 0:54:06That was the best moment of all.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08Better than anything that has come since was seeing it,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12and it was a real book, in a proper, real bookshop, and it was wonderful.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Today, the story of JK Rowling is very well known.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20A single mother, living in an Edinburgh council flat
0:54:20 > 0:54:23and - by her own admission - "as poor as it is possible to be
0:54:23 > 0:54:26"in modern Britain, without being homeless,"
0:54:26 > 0:54:29she is today our most successful living author.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33And she did it by virtue of her own talent, ambition,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36determination and sheer hard work.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40"So far from poverty being a misfortune, it may,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44"by vigorous self-help, be converted even into a blessing."
0:54:44 > 0:54:48So said Samuel Smiles. And if he were updating his
0:54:48 > 0:54:52Illustrations Of Character, Conduct And Perseverance for the
0:54:52 > 0:54:5721st century, I rather think that JK Rowling would be top of his list.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04Even her own comments about her success have a distinctly
0:55:04 > 0:55:05Smilesean flavour.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10You will never truly know yourself, or the strength
0:55:10 > 0:55:14of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Such knowledge is a true gift,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20for all that it is painfully won,
0:55:20 > 0:55:24and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28There is in JK Rowling's story another nice echo
0:55:28 > 0:55:30of the Victorian era.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33Like the Bronte sisters, or George Eliot, who'd felt compelled
0:55:33 > 0:55:38to publish their books under male pen names, Joanne Rowling
0:55:38 > 0:55:43published as JK precisely to hide the fact she was a woman.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46The feminisation of British culture had, it turned out,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48only gone so far.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Little boys, according to her publishers,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53are perfectly happy to buy books by men,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57but they drew the line at adventure stories written by a woman.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00At least, until they'd read them.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04# Every little thing she does is magic
0:56:04 > 0:56:06# Everything she do just turns me on... #
0:56:06 > 0:56:12Having sold some 400 million books, JK Rowling is now worth more
0:56:12 > 0:56:17than the Queen - with an estimated fortune of £570 million.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25And the Harry Potter phenomenon has been good news for the British
0:56:25 > 0:56:29film industry, too - with roles for almost every household
0:56:29 > 0:56:30name in the business.
0:56:37 > 0:56:38That was bloody brilliant!
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Well, thank you for that assessment, Mr Weasley.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47Harry Potter himself is the perfect symbol of self-reliance
0:56:47 > 0:56:49and self-determination.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53Like the young heroes of Victorian novels such as David Copperfield
0:56:53 > 0:56:57and Great Expectations, he starts out right at the bottom -
0:56:57 > 0:57:00in his case, sleeping under the stairs in shabby,
0:57:00 > 0:57:01second-hand clothes.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04There's no such thing as magic!
0:57:06 > 0:57:10But like the great Victorian heroes, he never gives up.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13And thanks to his character and his courage,
0:57:13 > 0:57:16he defies the odds and emerges triumphant.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20You know, you could hardly find a better advert for Victorian values.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24Except, I suppose, for JK Rowling herself.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29MUSIC: Virginia Plain by Roxy Music
0:57:31 > 0:57:35And Harry himself is no longer just the hero of a bestselling
0:57:35 > 0:57:37series of books.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39He is now a global brand.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42From feature films...
0:57:42 > 0:57:43to theme parks...
0:57:45 > 0:57:49..he has taken on a life far beyond his humble
0:57:49 > 0:57:51beginnings in an Edinburgh cafe.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00The story of Harry Potter and JK Rowling is not just a testament
0:58:00 > 0:58:05to the power of individualism, both moral and materialistic.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08It's also become an outstanding example of Britain's new
0:58:08 > 0:58:10cultural patriotism.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14It's through our culture that we now define ourselves.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18And it's through our culture that the world now sees us.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21A century ago, Britain was still a land of factories
0:58:21 > 0:58:24and shipyards, of miners and dockers.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28But the mines have closed and the docks have fallen silent.
0:58:28 > 0:58:33One thing, though, roars on unabated, driven by the brilliance of
0:58:33 > 0:58:36our writers and artists, our actors and musicians -
0:58:36 > 0:58:40the greatest workshop of its kind anywhere on the planet -
0:58:40 > 0:58:43the great British dream factory.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47# Oh, I can't keep it in I can't keep it in
0:58:47 > 0:58:50# I've gotta let it out
0:58:50 > 0:58:53# I've gotta show the world World's gotta see
0:58:53 > 0:58:56# See all the love Love that's in me
0:58:56 > 0:58:58# I said, why walk alone?
0:58:58 > 0:59:02# Why worry when it's warm over here?
0:59:02 > 0:59:05# You've got so much to say Say what you mean
0:59:05 > 0:59:08# Mean what you're thinking And think anything
0:59:08 > 0:59:10# Oh, why... #