Andrew Lloyd Webber: Memories

0:00:00 > 0:00:02ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER:"I fell in love with Perseus instantly."

0:00:08 > 0:00:10"When I was around seven,

0:00:10 > 0:00:13"I asked if I could take him on a lead to Thurloe Square."

0:00:18 > 0:00:19"Both Mum and Granny said yes."

0:00:21 > 0:00:24"How trusting parents were in those days!"

0:00:26 > 0:00:28"So I became a regular spectacle,

0:00:28 > 0:00:30"walking Perseus like a dog

0:00:30 > 0:00:32"across the old zebra crossing...

0:00:34 > 0:00:36"..that led to the train station...

0:00:38 > 0:00:40"..and the only bit of greenery Julian and I knew."

0:00:40 > 0:00:43MUSIC: Memory from Cats

0:00:49 > 0:00:53Cats have always had a special place in the life of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

0:00:56 > 0:01:00It was the family cat, Perseus, and the poems of TS Eliot

0:01:00 > 0:01:02that inspired the hit musical

0:01:02 > 0:01:04loved by audiences round the world.

0:01:06 > 0:01:09What's going on here? What is happening here?

0:01:10 > 0:01:12He's a big thug, this cat.

0:01:12 > 0:01:19And like all thugs, he becomes a pussycat when anybody is near him.

0:01:19 > 0:01:21Andrew has turned 70.

0:01:21 > 0:01:25And to mark the occasion, he's written a memoir.

0:01:27 > 0:01:30# Memory

0:01:30 > 0:01:34# All alone in the moonlight

0:01:34 > 0:01:39# I can smile at the old days

0:01:39 > 0:01:44# I was beautiful then

0:01:44 > 0:01:54# I remember the time I knew what happiness was

0:01:54 > 0:01:59# Let the memory

0:01:59 > 0:02:07# Live again. #

0:02:09 > 0:02:14Andrew Lloyd Webber's autobiography is a candid account of his childhood

0:02:14 > 0:02:18and the early influences that led to a string of hit musicals.

0:02:19 > 0:02:22From make-believe shows he created with brother Julian...

0:02:22 > 0:02:25"Ten glorious hit musicals." "Ten glorious hit musicals."

0:02:25 > 0:02:28..to the legendary hits he wrote with Tim Rice.

0:02:30 > 0:02:33And that was when Argentina happened.

0:02:34 > 0:02:37And I remember saying to Tim, "I think I've got a way in."

0:02:37 > 0:02:41# All through my wild days

0:02:41 > 0:02:44# My mad existence

0:02:44 > 0:02:47# I kept my promise

0:02:47 > 0:02:50# Don't keep your distance... #

0:02:54 > 0:02:56MUSIC: Phantom of the Opera Overture

0:03:02 > 0:03:04Phantom of the Opera is celebrating a birthday too.

0:03:09 > 0:03:11It's been running for 30 years,

0:03:11 > 0:03:14making it the longest-running Broadway musical of all time.

0:03:19 > 0:03:24With two big birthdays to mark, this is a perfect moment to look back.

0:03:35 > 0:03:39So, what prompted you to write this book?

0:03:39 > 0:03:41I have to say, I'm terribly boring.

0:03:41 > 0:03:43I mean, I really...

0:03:43 > 0:03:46I wrote, in truth, in my preface, that Andrew Lloyd Webber

0:03:46 > 0:03:49is the most boring person that I've ever written about.

0:03:49 > 0:03:50So were you unmask...

0:03:50 > 0:03:53Was it a kind of confessional, then, as well?

0:03:53 > 0:03:54Yes, it's a sort of confessional.

0:03:54 > 0:03:57I mean, because I think one of the things is

0:03:57 > 0:04:00that one's career is not always up.

0:04:00 > 0:04:03I mean, there are many bumps along the way. But I...

0:04:03 > 0:04:05Explain yourself. I'm explaining myself

0:04:05 > 0:04:07by saying that I know quite a few things that

0:04:07 > 0:04:10probably I shouldn't really ever print.

0:04:10 > 0:04:13But, luckily, I've been able to be, I think,

0:04:13 > 0:04:15as truthful as I can remember.

0:04:15 > 0:04:17The problem is memory, isn't it, you know?

0:04:17 > 0:04:19Not the song, my brain.

0:04:19 > 0:04:20I hope I've got things right.

0:04:24 > 0:04:2870 years ago, bomb-damaged and down-at-heel,

0:04:28 > 0:04:30London was slowly recovering from the Blitz.

0:04:33 > 0:04:35Andrew's mother, Jean, taught the piano

0:04:35 > 0:04:38at the Royal College of Music in South Kensington,

0:04:38 > 0:04:42and it was here that she met a young composer called William.

0:04:42 > 0:04:45They married in 1942.

0:04:45 > 0:04:48Lloyd Webber sounds like some posh derivation of some sort.

0:04:48 > 0:04:50There is no posh derivation at all.

0:04:50 > 0:04:56It was that my father became known as a composer as "Lloyd Webber"

0:04:56 > 0:04:59and it just stuck as the family name.

0:04:59 > 0:05:04Well, the story of your childhood, the first sentence in your book is,

0:05:04 > 0:05:05"Before me there was Mimi."

0:05:05 > 0:05:07Yes, Mimi, a monkey.

0:05:08 > 0:05:10Mimi didn't like me, apparently.

0:05:10 > 0:05:12Apparently attacked my mother's tummy.

0:05:12 > 0:05:15Therefore, I'm able to say that she was the first person

0:05:15 > 0:05:18to take a huge dislike to me. And she had to be got rid of.

0:05:18 > 0:05:19When was she got rid of?

0:05:19 > 0:05:21Well, presumably before I was born.

0:05:23 > 0:05:27My mother used to go around South Kensington, where we lived,

0:05:27 > 0:05:29round the back of South Kensington station,

0:05:29 > 0:05:31with this monkey on her shoulder.

0:05:31 > 0:05:33And goodness knows what everybody thought.

0:05:36 > 0:05:40After Mimi came Andrew, who was born in 1948.

0:05:42 > 0:05:45The family lived in a mansion flat in Harrington Court,

0:05:45 > 0:05:49which they shared with Jean's mother, Granny Molly.

0:05:50 > 0:05:53Here she is on the roof with Mimi.

0:05:53 > 0:05:56Granny basically kept the family. I mean, she paid for everything

0:05:56 > 0:05:58out of the little bit of money that she had,

0:05:58 > 0:06:01because my dad didn't earn any money from anything much. I mean,

0:06:01 > 0:06:04he was professor of composition at the Royal College of Music,

0:06:04 > 0:06:06but he wasn't earning a lot of money.

0:06:06 > 0:06:08So I think she really, more or less, kept everything afloat.

0:06:12 > 0:06:14So this is home?

0:06:14 > 0:06:16This, on the top floor, somewhere in the middle up there,

0:06:16 > 0:06:19just towards the end, there, was our flat.

0:06:19 > 0:06:21On the top floor, what it then was,

0:06:21 > 0:06:24because they've put these rather smart-looking penthouse,

0:06:24 > 0:06:27I suppose they probably call them, on the top of it.

0:06:27 > 0:06:30But it was... It's very different to what it was then.

0:06:30 > 0:06:31So it looks like that's it.

0:06:31 > 0:06:34Yes, it would be. And it had a balcony.

0:06:34 > 0:06:38Outside of the place looks exactly the same, apart from the top of it.

0:06:38 > 0:06:40I'm quite pleased to see, now that bus has moved,

0:06:40 > 0:06:43that the greengrocer that used to be there is still there.

0:06:43 > 0:06:45Oh, that's funny.So that's the one,

0:06:45 > 0:06:47that must be the one family business that's survived.

0:06:49 > 0:06:50And it was pretty much all of this bit,

0:06:50 > 0:06:52South Kensington station itself...

0:06:52 > 0:06:54There used to be an Italian restaurant there.

0:06:54 > 0:06:56That's pretty much as it was when I was a kid.

0:06:56 > 0:06:58In fact, it's almost exactly the same.

0:07:03 > 0:07:08A few years later, the family at Harrington Court expanded to six,

0:07:08 > 0:07:11with the arrival of a Siamese cat called Perseus,

0:07:11 > 0:07:14and a second son called Julian.

0:07:15 > 0:07:19The words Harrington Court suggest quite a posh environment.

0:07:19 > 0:07:21No.

0:07:21 > 0:07:24There was a lift there that never worked.

0:07:24 > 0:07:27A completely broken-down old lift, which stank of pee most of the time.

0:07:27 > 0:07:30You see, in those days, there were no entry phones,

0:07:30 > 0:07:32so you could just walk straight in the place.

0:07:32 > 0:07:33And people did.

0:07:39 > 0:07:41We're in already.Right.

0:07:41 > 0:07:43OK, so which floor?

0:07:43 > 0:07:44Well, we were on the fourth floor,

0:07:44 > 0:07:47but I think they've got an extra floor now on it.

0:07:47 > 0:07:49Five.It wasn't like this.

0:07:49 > 0:07:52It was one of those big, open lifts that, you know,

0:07:52 > 0:07:54you put your hand out, you'd get your hand chopped off.

0:07:54 > 0:07:56Well, Julian told me what this lift was like.

0:07:56 > 0:07:58He said it had a smell.

0:07:58 > 0:08:00Well, I... Yes, you say...

0:08:00 > 0:08:03that he said that.

0:08:03 > 0:08:05I don't remember it, really, particularly smelling,

0:08:05 > 0:08:08but maybe Julian has a better nose than I.

0:08:08 > 0:08:10Shall we get out?Shall we get out?

0:08:12 > 0:08:15I don't think this level existed.

0:08:16 > 0:08:19So where do we go from here? Do you recognise any of this?

0:08:19 > 0:08:21Well, no, I mean, it's not as I remember at all.

0:08:23 > 0:08:24I don't believe...

0:08:24 > 0:08:27After you.This didn't exist.

0:08:27 > 0:08:30I mean, it couldn't be more different.

0:08:34 > 0:08:37The roomy mansion flats have long gone,

0:08:37 > 0:08:40and have been converted into luxury serviced apartments.

0:08:42 > 0:08:46But in the Lloyd Webbers' day, it was a place filled with music,

0:08:46 > 0:08:50and under the influence of their parents both brothers started young.

0:08:52 > 0:08:55Is that the first instrument your mother placed in your hands, really?

0:08:55 > 0:08:58Well, that... We're not looking at that, actually.

0:08:58 > 0:09:01Why not?No, we don't really approve of that.

0:09:01 > 0:09:04Why don't we approve of it?That's me on the front of Nursery World,

0:09:04 > 0:09:07when my mum insisted on my playing the violin.

0:09:07 > 0:09:10So she tried to get you to play the violin?

0:09:10 > 0:09:13Yeah, yeah, she tried to turn me into a protege, you see?

0:09:13 > 0:09:15And then, thank God, Julian turned up.

0:09:15 > 0:09:17Thank heavens Julian turned up, yes.

0:09:17 > 0:09:20Now, look, here you are... That's Julian and me...with Julian.

0:09:20 > 0:09:22You see, that was the only really outside space we had.

0:09:22 > 0:09:26So Julian's taken with, I suppose it would be a quarter-sized cello.

0:09:26 > 0:09:29I mean, God help us if we'd got Britain's Got Talent in those days

0:09:29 > 0:09:30with my mother around.

0:09:30 > 0:09:34CELLO SCALES

0:09:39 > 0:09:41I was four when I got a cello.

0:09:41 > 0:09:43He says three in the book.

0:09:43 > 0:09:46That's a little exaggeration, you know.

0:09:46 > 0:09:49Because you can't do much with a cello at three, to be honest.

0:09:49 > 0:09:54I saw this cello in a concert I was taken to at Festival Hall,

0:09:54 > 0:09:56and I asked if I could play that,

0:09:56 > 0:09:58thinking that I'd be allowed to give up the piano

0:09:58 > 0:10:00if I took up a different instrument.

0:10:00 > 0:10:02So, yeah, I was four when I saw the cello.

0:10:02 > 0:10:05And I really loved playing it. I enjoyed it.

0:10:05 > 0:10:07I never went near the piano unless I was forced to,

0:10:07 > 0:10:09but I just used to like sitting with a cello

0:10:09 > 0:10:12and trying to get a decent sound out of it,

0:10:12 > 0:10:14which took a few years, I must say.

0:10:16 > 0:10:20Andrew did take up the piano, somewhat reluctantly.

0:10:20 > 0:10:23His piano teacher, mother Jean, was a strict disciplinarian

0:10:23 > 0:10:26when it came to her children's music lessons.

0:10:26 > 0:10:29But Andrew had other ideas.

0:10:29 > 0:10:31She had to give up on me pretty early because...

0:10:31 > 0:10:34I did learn the piano with her, but,

0:10:34 > 0:10:39anyway, she soon realised that I had another interest in my life,

0:10:39 > 0:10:43which was... Well, it was, in those days, ruined buildings.

0:10:45 > 0:10:48I remember I took a trip up to Doncaster,

0:10:48 > 0:10:51and then from there I made my way across to Hull,

0:10:51 > 0:10:55and up to Beverley where the marvellous minster is.

0:10:56 > 0:11:00And then I made my way up through Whitby

0:11:00 > 0:11:02and up then to Newcastle,

0:11:02 > 0:11:04and then back to London again,

0:11:04 > 0:11:06over a school half-term.

0:11:06 > 0:11:09And, you know, there was me with my little suitcase,

0:11:09 > 0:11:11and I was only, like, 14.

0:11:11 > 0:11:16I mean, staying in, you know, B&Bs, and nobody batted an eyelid.

0:11:16 > 0:11:21I mean, I don't think you'd let a kid go round today.

0:11:21 > 0:11:23As well as trips alone,

0:11:23 > 0:11:26Andrew dragged his family into his burgeoning interest

0:11:26 > 0:11:29in England's national heritage.

0:11:29 > 0:11:33And we... Every holiday, I used to take him

0:11:33 > 0:11:37to see these places. We got stuck in lanes and fields,

0:11:37 > 0:11:41and I think I got to know every ancient ruin in the country.

0:11:43 > 0:11:46If you open this Pandora-like box here,

0:11:46 > 0:11:50you'll discover my early literary efforts.

0:11:50 > 0:11:53He wasn't just a seasoned traveller at the age of 14,

0:11:53 > 0:11:56but the writer of a travel journal.

0:11:56 > 0:11:59The descriptions of the old buildings are neatly typed up

0:11:59 > 0:12:01and the photographs pasted in.

0:12:01 > 0:12:03And, yes, he's kept them to this day.

0:12:03 > 0:12:06Can I hold it?You can, yes, yes.

0:12:06 > 0:12:10"A survey of the ruined castles open to the public in Glamorgan."

0:12:10 > 0:12:12You see, this... "The author of".

0:12:12 > 0:12:15I love the way you're good at promotion.

0:12:15 > 0:12:17The author of Ancient Monuments in England and Wales,

0:12:17 > 0:12:19Ancient Monuments in the Home Counties,

0:12:19 > 0:12:21and Roman Remains in England and Wales.

0:12:21 > 0:12:22People would like to know that!

0:12:22 > 0:12:25I'm sure.Then, you've got Welsh border castles.

0:12:25 > 0:12:28This is a pretty thick tome.

0:12:28 > 0:12:30A hefty one.Look at this -

0:12:30 > 0:12:32this is big stuff here.

0:12:32 > 0:12:34But that's not all he was up to.

0:12:34 > 0:12:37A love for another kind of architecture was blossoming -

0:12:37 > 0:12:39the theatre.

0:12:39 > 0:12:42I mean, I remember going around the bombsites and, you know,

0:12:42 > 0:12:46going to school and seeing bombed buildings and things,

0:12:46 > 0:12:48even in the late '50s.

0:12:48 > 0:12:50I mean, I remember getting into the Bedford in Camden Town

0:12:50 > 0:12:53and there was a hole in the roof. I've got the pictures I took of it.

0:12:53 > 0:12:57And it made a really profound impression on me.

0:12:57 > 0:13:00EXPLOSION, AIR-RAID SIREN

0:13:00 > 0:13:04Dozens of theatres were damaged or lost during the Blitz.

0:13:04 > 0:13:05But unlike the Bedford,

0:13:05 > 0:13:09London's most popular theatre escaped unscathed.

0:13:09 > 0:13:11Come up and see me sometime.

0:13:11 > 0:13:13I'm Dame Clod.

0:13:13 > 0:13:16Like any kid, I think I was taken to the Palladium pantomime

0:13:16 > 0:13:18and thought it was wonderful.

0:13:18 > 0:13:21And I think, again, sort of,

0:13:21 > 0:13:23the feeling of that sort of Victorian building...

0:13:23 > 0:13:26The whole thing just captivated me.

0:13:26 > 0:13:31MUSIC: Wouldn't it Be Loverly? from My Fair Lady

0:13:38 > 0:13:42# All I want is a room somewhere

0:13:42 > 0:13:46# Far away from the cold night air

0:13:46 > 0:13:50# With one enormous chair

0:13:50 > 0:13:54# Now, wouldn't it be loverly? #

0:13:54 > 0:13:56My Fair Lady came to London,

0:13:56 > 0:13:59and of course everybody had to go and see My Fair Lady,

0:13:59 > 0:14:01so I was taken to a matinee.

0:14:01 > 0:14:07I loved it and I said to... It was my granny who took me to it,

0:14:07 > 0:14:10I said, "I'd very much like to hear something else."

0:14:10 > 0:14:12And it was the same time that Gigi was coming out,

0:14:12 > 0:14:16so I was slunk in, because I think Gigi was an A certificate.

0:14:16 > 0:14:20And that wonderful overture, which is just extraordinary.

0:14:20 > 0:14:22# That since the world began

0:14:22 > 0:14:24# No woman or a man

0:14:24 > 0:14:27# Has ever been as happy as we are

0:14:27 > 0:14:31# Tonight! #

0:14:33 > 0:14:36But also, almost exactly at the same time,

0:14:36 > 0:14:40West Side Story came to London, and I was taken to that too.

0:14:40 > 0:14:43I thought, "Well, this is the most fantastic world."

0:14:43 > 0:14:44# Immigrant goes to America

0:14:44 > 0:14:47# Many hellos in America

0:14:47 > 0:14:49# Nobody knows in America

0:14:49 > 0:14:51# Puerto Rico's in America! #

0:14:54 > 0:14:58Trips to see these new American musicals

0:14:58 > 0:15:02cemented a passion for melody in Andrew Lloyd Webber -

0:15:02 > 0:15:04something he shared with his father.

0:15:07 > 0:15:10William was a professor at the Royal College of Music,

0:15:10 > 0:15:13but his secret love was writing melodies -

0:15:13 > 0:15:14like this one.

0:15:27 > 0:15:28Dad always remembers

0:15:28 > 0:15:32being played Some Enchanted Evening for the first time.

0:15:32 > 0:15:35And Dad played it to me because he saw me

0:15:35 > 0:15:37getting so obsessed with musicals and everything.

0:15:37 > 0:15:40Go on, sing Some Enchanted Evening. I don't think we really want that.

0:15:40 > 0:15:42Yes, we do.Well, we can play it...

0:15:42 > 0:15:45# La da da da-da dum... #

0:15:45 > 0:15:50CRACKLY VINYL RECORDING: # Some enchanted evening

0:15:50 > 0:15:54# You may meet a stranger

0:15:54 > 0:16:02# You'll meet a stranger across a crowded room... #

0:16:03 > 0:16:04It's that...

0:16:04 > 0:16:06PLAYS "SOME ENCHANTED EVENING" MELODY

0:16:06 > 0:16:08Rogers loved the tritone.

0:16:10 > 0:16:12And he does it in a...

0:16:14 > 0:16:19Doesn't he? But, Rogers, I mean, that outpouring of melody.

0:16:19 > 0:16:22I'm sorry, what anybody may say, that to me...

0:16:22 > 0:16:25Melody is, I think, the thing that really, really gets me.

0:16:25 > 0:16:28And I'm afraid that I was as taken by my father

0:16:28 > 0:16:31with Some Enchanted Evening. Which I think, I still think,

0:16:31 > 0:16:34is the greatest song ever written for a musical.

0:16:34 > 0:16:36MUSIC: Some Enchanted Evening

0:16:57 > 0:17:00While American musicals dominated London's West End,

0:17:00 > 0:17:03it was television that brought them into the sitting-room

0:17:03 > 0:17:05at Harrington Court.

0:17:05 > 0:17:08Ironically for me, television is how I saw these theatres.

0:17:08 > 0:17:10Sunday Night at the London Palladium, yes.

0:17:10 > 0:17:12I mean, you saw shots of the audience

0:17:12 > 0:17:15and then the famous London Palladium revolve,

0:17:15 > 0:17:17which used to go at the end of the programme

0:17:17 > 0:17:19with everybody waving goodbye.

0:17:19 > 0:17:21I mean, of course, that made a huge impression.

0:17:27 > 0:17:29Andrew brought the magic and glamour of the Palladium

0:17:29 > 0:17:32into the living room of the Harrington Road flat.

0:17:37 > 0:17:41With the help of Julian, he built a miniature theatre,

0:17:41 > 0:17:46for which he wrote no less than ten hit musicals.

0:17:46 > 0:17:49"Ten GLORIOUS hit musicals." Ten glorious hit musicals.

0:17:49 > 0:17:52I don't think anybody ever has come up with that kind of collection.

0:17:52 > 0:17:55I mean, really, following The Land of Twart with The Queen of Sheba,

0:17:55 > 0:17:57I mean... It hasn't been done.

0:17:57 > 0:18:01He called it the Pavilion Empire Variety,

0:18:01 > 0:18:04and even typed up theatre programmes

0:18:04 > 0:18:07to accompany the - ahem - productions.

0:18:07 > 0:18:11I mean, it was a sort of Victorian variety house, basically.

0:18:11 > 0:18:13With the most massive stage you've ever seen,

0:18:13 > 0:18:16compared to the actual auditorium.

0:18:16 > 0:18:17And it was put together with...?

0:18:17 > 0:18:21It was sort of toy bricks, and it had a kind of tea tray of a roof.

0:18:21 > 0:18:23And it was then all painted... It was very gold,

0:18:23 > 0:18:27and there were lots of wallpaper samples I got from Sanderson's.

0:18:27 > 0:18:29Mostly wallpaper that looked as if

0:18:29 > 0:18:30it should be in an Indian restaurant.

0:18:30 > 0:18:35How much space did it take up? Oh...From about here to the end...

0:18:35 > 0:18:37It was the whole nursery.

0:18:37 > 0:18:40I mean, it wasn't half measures.

0:18:40 > 0:18:42Nobody else could get in there.

0:18:42 > 0:18:45Lovely make-believe soldiers filled up the audience so that, you know,

0:18:45 > 0:18:47box office never, never, ever wavered.

0:18:47 > 0:18:52My career has absolutely taken a dump since those days.

0:19:00 > 0:19:01Oh!Let's have a look.

0:19:01 > 0:19:04Yeah, this is definitely a level up from where we were.

0:19:05 > 0:19:10We would have been a floor below this, as it used to be.

0:19:10 > 0:19:12Because I remember one could look straight into

0:19:12 > 0:19:14the windows of the hotel over there.

0:19:14 > 0:19:16Do you know, I'd never been in the hotel in my life,

0:19:16 > 0:19:19until we went for this programme today.

0:19:19 > 0:19:22Never been in it. There's a rather nice view

0:19:22 > 0:19:25of the Natural History Museum from up here, isn't there?Yes.

0:19:25 > 0:19:27And the old Imperial Institute.

0:19:27 > 0:19:30Incredible view, because actually you can see St Paul's Cathedral.

0:19:30 > 0:19:32Yeah.Now that's something I never knew before.

0:19:32 > 0:19:35If we'd got up on our roof, we could have done that.

0:19:35 > 0:19:38But it's... It'd have been rather nice if we'd had this view.

0:19:38 > 0:19:41That's been pedestrianised, but I would imagine...

0:19:41 > 0:19:43That's all been pedestrianised,

0:19:43 > 0:19:45that was where the cat used to walk with me.

0:19:45 > 0:19:47There used to be a pedestrian crossing down there...

0:19:47 > 0:19:49Ah, that's it there, yeah. And then we'd walk down past

0:19:49 > 0:19:51where the underground sign is,

0:19:51 > 0:19:55down Thurloe Place, and Thurloe Square is just beyond.

0:19:55 > 0:19:56So that's where Perseus...

0:19:56 > 0:19:58So that is the route that Perseus would take.

0:20:04 > 0:20:07Taking Perseus for walks round Kensington Gardens,

0:20:07 > 0:20:11trips to the theatre, and building one of your own,

0:20:11 > 0:20:14sounds like an idyllic childhood.

0:20:14 > 0:20:16And in some ways, it was.

0:20:18 > 0:20:22But life at Harrington Court was about to change

0:20:22 > 0:20:25when eight-year-old Julian brought home a fellow pupil

0:20:25 > 0:20:28from the Royal College of Music, where he was studying.

0:20:30 > 0:20:31I got to know John Lill.

0:20:31 > 0:20:34We were playing in the junior department orchestra

0:20:34 > 0:20:38and I got talking to him and mentioned him to my mother.

0:20:38 > 0:20:41And he was the big star student. He was seven years older than me.

0:20:42 > 0:20:45And we invited... I invited him back.

0:20:45 > 0:20:48He said, "My mother wants to invite you for lunch."

0:20:50 > 0:20:53And I was a bit shy, a bit reluctant.

0:20:55 > 0:20:58But, in the end, I said, "OK, that would be very nice indeed,

0:20:58 > 0:21:00"thank you." And that's when I met the family.

0:21:03 > 0:21:07Julian's mother, Jean, took a special interest in John.

0:21:10 > 0:21:15She'd dedicated her life to teaching music and helping young talent,

0:21:15 > 0:21:19a passion born out of a childhood tragedy.

0:21:20 > 0:21:24She was a very serious-minded classical musician.

0:21:24 > 0:21:28And all her training was that, and all her interest was that.

0:21:28 > 0:21:30And she had, really, it has to be said,

0:21:30 > 0:21:34a kind of obsession about young male talent.

0:21:34 > 0:21:37And I think it came because of the very premature death

0:21:37 > 0:21:41of her elder brother, who was drowned at sea.

0:21:41 > 0:21:44PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

0:21:48 > 0:21:53The brother was called Alistair, and he died aged 18.

0:21:53 > 0:21:55And I think that when John Lill came along,

0:21:55 > 0:21:57this was like a godsend to her,

0:21:57 > 0:21:58because here was someone, you know,

0:21:58 > 0:22:02who was a fabulous pianist and from a very, very poor background,

0:22:02 > 0:22:06and absolutely in the mould of the kind of person she wanted to help.

0:22:06 > 0:22:08ORCHESTRA PLAYS

0:22:25 > 0:22:30Jean's help even extended to moving John into the family home.

0:22:30 > 0:22:35She lavished a huge amount of attention and care and concern

0:22:35 > 0:22:38about my playing. And she'd move the earth to help me.

0:22:38 > 0:22:43It was extremely...generous of her and, well,

0:22:43 > 0:22:46I was often embarrassed by the degree of kindness

0:22:46 > 0:22:48she and her husband showed.

0:22:48 > 0:22:54And my mother really sort of took him in and he became like her son.

0:22:54 > 0:22:57I mean, she really, really, really just lived for John Lill.

0:22:57 > 0:23:00Did you feel slightly sort of left out of things?

0:23:00 > 0:23:03Well, I did, I did feel that we had an older brother now

0:23:03 > 0:23:07who was not really ours. I mean, I liked John a lot, but...

0:23:07 > 0:23:11No, I sort of felt that, certainly in my mother's eyes,

0:23:11 > 0:23:14that he was the one and he was the favourite.

0:23:20 > 0:23:24"Towards the close of the Easter holidays, I was deeply depressed.

0:23:24 > 0:23:25"Mum's John Lill obsession

0:23:25 > 0:23:28"was making her increasingly moody and erratic."

0:23:34 > 0:23:38"Home was a cauldron of overwrought emotion and jealousy.

0:23:38 > 0:23:40"My adolescent hormones told me I'd had enough."

0:23:43 > 0:23:46"One morning, I headed for the underground station.

0:23:46 > 0:23:48"I bought a one-way ticket."

0:23:50 > 0:23:53I'd taken the old underground out to as far as it went to in Essex

0:23:53 > 0:23:58and, I think it was Ongar station, I saw a bus going to Lavenham.

0:23:58 > 0:23:59And I thought, this is the end,

0:23:59 > 0:24:02I'm really going to go into a hedge somewhere

0:24:02 > 0:24:05and just take all these pills I'd collected up.

0:24:12 > 0:24:15"The ancient bus trundled through the Essex countryside,

0:24:15 > 0:24:17"and as we hit Suffolk, the sun came out."

0:24:19 > 0:24:21"By the time we arrived at Lavenham,

0:24:21 > 0:24:25"an overcast morning had turned into a glorious spring day."

0:24:29 > 0:24:34"Lavenham. I'd never seen such an unspoiled English village before."

0:24:36 > 0:24:40"But it was the church that did it. All I remember now

0:24:40 > 0:24:43"is sitting inside for what must have been two hours

0:24:43 > 0:24:45"and saying, 'Thank God for Lavenham.' "

0:24:48 > 0:24:52So I changed my mind very, very quickly, and all was well.

0:24:52 > 0:24:53And you wrote about...Yes.

0:24:53 > 0:24:55..what was, could have been a suicide attempt?

0:24:55 > 0:24:58Well, it was. It was a suicide attempt.

0:24:58 > 0:25:01I remember reading the letter he wrote his mother,

0:25:01 > 0:25:03that he was going to put an end to his life.

0:25:03 > 0:25:06And it wasn't very pleasant reading, especially for her,

0:25:06 > 0:25:08as you can imagine.

0:25:08 > 0:25:10Andrew learned to live with his adopted brother,

0:25:10 > 0:25:12and grew to like him.

0:25:12 > 0:25:14But mother Jean was right about one thing -

0:25:14 > 0:25:18John Lill was unquestionably talented, and went on to win

0:25:18 > 0:25:23the International Tchaikovsky Prize for piano at just 26.

0:25:24 > 0:25:27ENTHUSIASTIC APPLAUSE

0:25:34 > 0:25:37During these trying teenage years, Andrew needed an escape.

0:25:43 > 0:25:45And he found one.

0:25:48 > 0:25:53In Weymouth Street in Marylebone, home to his mum's sister, Auntie Vi.

0:26:02 > 0:26:04You could not invent Auntie Vi.

0:26:04 > 0:26:08Central Casting could not come up with Auntie Vi.

0:26:08 > 0:26:11She was possibly, without any question or doubt,

0:26:11 > 0:26:16the funniest and also the rudest person I've ever met in my life.

0:26:16 > 0:26:18And I absolutely adored her.

0:26:18 > 0:26:22And you've even dedicated the book to Auntie Vi.Yes, hard not to.

0:26:22 > 0:26:25Hard not to dedicate a book to somebody who once said,

0:26:25 > 0:26:27"Too many cocks spoil the breath."

0:26:27 > 0:26:32Auntie Vi gained minor notoriety writing a series of cookbooks.

0:26:33 > 0:26:39One was so risque she published it under a male pen-name, Rodney Spoke.

0:26:39 > 0:26:42It was inspired by the comedy of the time.

0:26:42 > 0:26:45What can we do for you?Well, actually, I'm looking for a pet.

0:26:45 > 0:26:46Oh...

0:26:48 > 0:26:50There's Cyril, he's half and half, you know.

0:26:50 > 0:26:52LAUGHTER

0:26:56 > 0:26:59Half King Charles spaniel, half fox terrier.

0:26:59 > 0:27:01We call him a Fox Cocker.

0:27:02 > 0:27:05She decided that she wanted to write a gay cookbook.

0:27:05 > 0:27:07Now, I suppose... You see, at that time,

0:27:07 > 0:27:10you had Kenneth Williams and you had all that Polari

0:27:10 > 0:27:13and all of that, Round The Horne, and it was all really quite funny.

0:27:13 > 0:27:17Recipes on offer included coq-up,

0:27:17 > 0:27:19ducky a l'orange,

0:27:19 > 0:27:20seedy queen cakes,

0:27:20 > 0:27:23and poof pastry.

0:27:23 > 0:27:25It is screamingly funny,

0:27:25 > 0:27:29and she was very much the one who kind of freed me, I guess.

0:27:29 > 0:27:33# Food, glorious food... #

0:27:33 > 0:27:38Astonishingly, Andrew was just 17 when he went in search of an agent.

0:27:40 > 0:27:44Such was his determination to make it as a musical composer,

0:27:44 > 0:27:45he soon found one.

0:27:47 > 0:27:51Desmond Elliott not only took Andrew on but had a musical project too.

0:27:53 > 0:27:58Called The Likes Of Us, it was about the children's charity Barnardo's,

0:27:58 > 0:28:02and was an attempt to cash in on the current hit of the time, Oliver.

0:28:02 > 0:28:04MUSIC: Consider Yourself from Oliver

0:28:04 > 0:28:07Now all Andrew needed was a lyricist.

0:28:07 > 0:28:09I'm going to read you your letter.

0:28:11 > 0:28:13"Dear Andrew, I have been given your address

0:28:13 > 0:28:16"by Desmond Elliott of Arlington Books,

0:28:16 > 0:28:19"who I believe has told you of my existence.

0:28:19 > 0:28:23"Mr Elliott told me that you were looking for a with-it writer

0:28:23 > 0:28:25"of lyrics for your songs.

0:28:25 > 0:28:28"I wondered if you'd consider it worth your while meeting me.

0:28:28 > 0:28:32"I may fall far short of your requirements,

0:28:32 > 0:28:35"but anyway it would be interesting to meet up.

0:28:35 > 0:28:37"Hoping to hear from you, yours, Tim Rice."

0:28:37 > 0:28:40Well, Andrew was already working on this musical called The Likes Of Us,

0:28:40 > 0:28:42which was about the life of Dr Barnardo,

0:28:42 > 0:28:46and it had some great tunes in it, but it was very derivative,

0:28:46 > 0:28:49not melodically, but style of...

0:28:49 > 0:28:51a cross between Lionel Bart, primarily,

0:28:51 > 0:28:53I would say, and Richard Rogers.

0:28:53 > 0:28:55And it kind of went...

0:28:55 > 0:28:57HE PLAYS JAUNTY TUNE

0:28:59 > 0:29:01It was one of that sort of...

0:29:01 > 0:29:03It was a real Broadway number, but...

0:29:03 > 0:29:05# Da da da-da... #

0:29:05 > 0:29:07But I was rather pleased with that.

0:29:07 > 0:29:10There was one which we used in the Barnardo song, which went...

0:29:10 > 0:29:12SIMPLE TUNE PLAYED SMOOTHLY

0:29:15 > 0:29:18This was done as a kind of a Russ Conway...

0:29:18 > 0:29:20TUNE REPEATED WITH MORE COMPLEXITY

0:29:23 > 0:29:27Like that, you know? And so, I, we...

0:29:27 > 0:29:29There were quite a few in there.

0:29:29 > 0:29:33And I knew by then, academic career was not for me.

0:29:33 > 0:29:37# In your life you can see Just how sad you can be

0:29:37 > 0:29:41# If you stay by yourself all alone... #

0:29:41 > 0:29:44In the autumn of 1965, Andrew Lloyd Webber

0:29:44 > 0:29:48started at Magdalen College, Oxford, to study history.

0:29:48 > 0:29:51He was there just one term,

0:29:51 > 0:29:54spending most of it agonising over the prospect

0:29:54 > 0:29:57of three years away from Tim and his music.

0:29:57 > 0:30:01In December, Andrew called his father to say he was returning home.

0:30:01 > 0:30:05# ..You can never make it alone... #

0:30:05 > 0:30:07It was rather a difficult time,

0:30:07 > 0:30:11and I think lots of other people were more disappointed than I was,

0:30:11 > 0:30:13because I felt that, with Andrew,

0:30:13 > 0:30:15that it would be quite hopeless

0:30:15 > 0:30:17if you tried to make him do something he didn't want to do.

0:30:18 > 0:30:22It would only just come back on him and oneself.

0:30:22 > 0:30:26So I played it as coolly as possible.

0:30:26 > 0:30:29There followed quite a serious family row afterwards,

0:30:29 > 0:30:33with both my mother and grandmother saying, this is absolutely terrible,

0:30:33 > 0:30:35he's ruined his life, what a ridiculous thing to do,

0:30:35 > 0:30:39he's never going to make any money out of music - ha-ha!

0:30:39 > 0:30:43And, you know, my father was saying, well, look,

0:30:43 > 0:30:47that's where his interests lie, he's talented, he can write tunes,

0:30:47 > 0:30:49you've got to let him do it.

0:30:53 > 0:30:57Andrew returned to the crowded hothouse atmosphere

0:30:57 > 0:30:58of Harrington Court.

0:30:58 > 0:31:02With John Lill and Granny Molly still living there, space was tight.

0:31:04 > 0:31:07The family decided to rent the flat next door.

0:31:07 > 0:31:10There was a spare bedroom going,

0:31:10 > 0:31:12so it made sense for Tim to move in too.

0:31:14 > 0:31:17So, that's your dad. Yes, that's my dad.

0:31:17 > 0:31:20That looks like Julian. That's John Lill. That must be me.

0:31:20 > 0:31:24And that's my mother.You seem to be a bit stuck for space, don't you?

0:31:24 > 0:31:26Yes. I just don't know where...

0:31:26 > 0:31:30It looks rather cramped!I think it must have been our kitchen.

0:31:30 > 0:31:34That's Julian with his hand on, sort of pushing John Lill away.

0:31:34 > 0:31:35Yes.

0:31:35 > 0:31:38I took that. I don't know what we were doing.

0:31:38 > 0:31:41We were just having a fight or something.

0:31:41 > 0:31:42It's a great picture.

0:31:42 > 0:31:44It was just a bit chaotic.

0:31:44 > 0:31:47And it took me a while to get used to people padding around

0:31:47 > 0:31:50with no shoes on and, you know...

0:31:50 > 0:31:52It was just... It was fun.

0:31:52 > 0:31:55It was a bit like living in a student flat with grown-ups,

0:31:55 > 0:31:57which was weird.

0:31:57 > 0:32:00But it was a bit of a madhouse, to tell you the truth.

0:32:00 > 0:32:03But I felt very sorry for nearby neighbours.

0:32:03 > 0:32:04But they didn't seem to complain.

0:32:04 > 0:32:08Perhaps they'd all been driven deaf - who knows?

0:32:08 > 0:32:09It was completely bohemian.

0:32:11 > 0:32:14There were lots of girlfriends around,

0:32:14 > 0:32:17in various states of undress, you know?

0:32:17 > 0:32:19And our grandmother in the middle of all this.

0:32:19 > 0:32:21It was bizarre.

0:32:24 > 0:32:27With such a racket going on,

0:32:27 > 0:32:29it's a miracle that Andrew and Tim emerged

0:32:29 > 0:32:31with their first musical success.

0:32:31 > 0:32:34Did you do any work here, during that period?

0:32:34 > 0:32:37Yeah, I'd do a bit of writing here. I mean, we had the piano,

0:32:37 > 0:32:39which we sort of shared.

0:32:39 > 0:32:44But, yes, I would have done quite a bit of Joseph here.

0:32:44 > 0:32:48And...so the original sketches of Joseph and everything would have,

0:32:48 > 0:32:51without doubt, have been done here at Harrington Court.

0:32:51 > 0:32:55# May I return May I return

0:32:55 > 0:32:59# To the beginning? #

0:32:59 > 0:33:03In the spring of 1967, Andrew and Tim were approached

0:33:03 > 0:33:05by a local music teacher to write something

0:33:05 > 0:33:08for a concert at Colet Court School.

0:33:08 > 0:33:10They'd spent a year writing The Likes Of Us,

0:33:10 > 0:33:12but it was going nowhere.

0:33:12 > 0:33:15# We are still waiting... #

0:33:15 > 0:33:19Writing for a bunch of school kids was hardly the dream,

0:33:19 > 0:33:21but they agreed.

0:33:21 > 0:33:23# Any dream will do. #

0:33:25 > 0:33:28Tim thought it was a bit of a come-down, to put it mildly,

0:33:28 > 0:33:31because our West End debut was not going to be.

0:33:31 > 0:33:34And to then do something in a school

0:33:34 > 0:33:38was not exactly what we thought was going to be our launch on the world.

0:33:38 > 0:33:42# Such a dazzling coat of many colours

0:33:42 > 0:33:46# How I love my coat of many colours... #

0:33:46 > 0:33:49Stuck for inspiration, they turned to a children's book

0:33:49 > 0:33:52of Bible stories, and decided on Tim's favourite -

0:33:52 > 0:33:57the revenge and forgiveness story of Joseph and his coat of many colours.

0:33:58 > 0:33:59Well, originally, Joseph -

0:33:59 > 0:34:02talk about starting on the button - started as...

0:34:02 > 0:34:05# Way, way back, many centuries ago. #

0:34:05 > 0:34:08It just even started like that - straight in with the children.

0:34:08 > 0:34:11And then eventually we wrote, I did the big fanfare...

0:34:18 > 0:34:21But of the coat of many colours, you know... # Joseph...

0:34:21 > 0:34:23# He was Jacob's favourite son

0:34:23 > 0:34:27# Of all the family, Joseph was the special one... #

0:34:27 > 0:34:30That's, again, Tim getting into the story immediately,

0:34:30 > 0:34:33knowing that he had to engage those children

0:34:33 > 0:34:36and we couldn't have any fat anywhere.

0:34:36 > 0:34:39# Jacob, Jacob, Jacob

0:34:39 > 0:34:44# Jacob and sons. #

0:34:44 > 0:34:47And Andrew kept coming up with wonderful tunes.

0:34:47 > 0:34:49I'd say, "We need a tune for the coat,"

0:34:49 > 0:34:51and Andrew writes this wonderful tune.

0:34:51 > 0:34:54It was a pleasure to stick words onto them.

0:34:54 > 0:34:56And writing allegedly funny words,

0:34:56 > 0:34:59I've always found much easier

0:34:59 > 0:35:02and much quicker than writing romantic words.

0:35:02 > 0:35:06And there weren't any romantic songs as such in Joseph,

0:35:06 > 0:35:08but there were a couple of fairly serious songs.

0:35:08 > 0:35:11But we did have Close Every Door To Me.

0:35:13 > 0:35:18# Hide all the world from me Bar all my windows... #

0:35:21 > 0:35:23I've always...

0:35:26 > 0:35:29I've always felt, you know, that that is the heart of Joseph.

0:35:29 > 0:35:33And, despite everything else that's going on around it,

0:35:33 > 0:35:37all the fun and everything, that's the central moment of it, I think.

0:35:42 > 0:35:47The 1st of March 1968 was dull, grey and wet -

0:35:47 > 0:35:49the day Joseph was first performed.

0:35:51 > 0:35:56The audience loved it and demanded a repeat performance.

0:35:56 > 0:36:00Among the parents was a Sunday Times journalist who was so impressed,

0:36:00 > 0:36:03he gave Joseph a glowing review.

0:36:03 > 0:36:05And Derek Jewell reviewed it.

0:36:05 > 0:36:08Yeah, he was great... He said, "It was fresh as paint,

0:36:08 > 0:36:12"irresistibly melodic, clever beyond mere wittiness."

0:36:12 > 0:36:15His son was at the school and he'd come along,

0:36:15 > 0:36:19and he was so taken with it, he reviewed it in the Sunday Times,

0:36:19 > 0:36:24which meant that we had record companies and music publishers

0:36:24 > 0:36:26keen to find out about it.

0:36:26 > 0:36:31One year later, in 1969, Joseph was released as an album.

0:36:31 > 0:36:34# I closed my eyes

0:36:35 > 0:36:39# Drew back the curtain... #

0:36:39 > 0:36:42It did poor business, but proved to be the calling card

0:36:42 > 0:36:46that attracted the attention of an agent producer called David Land.

0:36:46 > 0:36:49He offered the pair a three-year writing deal.

0:36:52 > 0:36:56While the Old Testament story of Joseph launched Lloyd Webber

0:36:56 > 0:37:00and Tim Rice's careers, the New Testament and a Bob Dylan song

0:37:00 > 0:37:04would be the inspiration for what they would do next.

0:37:04 > 0:37:06Bob Dylan, who I was a very early fan of -

0:37:06 > 0:37:10I'd even been to see him way before he went electric -

0:37:10 > 0:37:12and they did With God On Our Side on television,

0:37:12 > 0:37:14and it really, I thought,

0:37:14 > 0:37:15"Wow, this is a fantastic song,"

0:37:15 > 0:37:18and beautifully sung and a very powerful lyric.

0:37:18 > 0:37:21It had that line, "Did Judas Iscariot have God on his side?"

0:37:21 > 0:37:23A great line.

0:37:23 > 0:37:29# Did Judas Iscariot have God on his side? #

0:37:31 > 0:37:35That made me think that you can write songs about people like Judas.

0:37:37 > 0:37:40Tim's fascination with Judas gave them the way in.

0:37:40 > 0:37:44Now they had the story, Andrew set about writing the music.

0:37:44 > 0:37:47Jesus Christ Superstar, it's constructed

0:37:47 > 0:37:50to the very, very last bar.

0:37:50 > 0:37:55Only through the construction of the music and the storytelling

0:37:55 > 0:37:58could we engage an audience.

0:37:58 > 0:38:01And I think maybe that's my kind of architectural interest again,

0:38:01 > 0:38:05you know, coming through. I think the construction of a musical,

0:38:05 > 0:38:09the actual architecture of a musical is the most important thing.

0:38:09 > 0:38:13When we got to the moment of the money lenders in the temple,

0:38:13 > 0:38:15and we have, you know...

0:38:15 > 0:38:18HE HUMS THE MELODY

0:38:21 > 0:38:25It's in 7/8 time, so it's... One, two, three, four, one, two, three...

0:38:27 > 0:38:30And it's very deliberate, because if it had been...

0:38:34 > 0:38:36How boring would that be?

0:38:36 > 0:38:38Right.So it was very...

0:38:38 > 0:38:41What it does is it immediately gets it going...

0:38:41 > 0:38:46And I love using time signatures

0:38:46 > 0:38:49like seven and five and things in places,

0:38:49 > 0:38:52because it just keeps something dramatic.

0:38:52 > 0:38:56# Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ

0:38:56 > 0:39:00# Who are you, what have you sacrificed? #

0:39:00 > 0:39:04Like Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar started life as an album.

0:39:04 > 0:39:07But at first, it didn't take off.

0:39:07 > 0:39:09It wasn't a big hit, that's true.

0:39:09 > 0:39:11We didn't get a hit single in England.

0:39:11 > 0:39:14We got to number 39 or something.

0:39:14 > 0:39:16I was slightly surprised, actually,

0:39:16 > 0:39:18because it sounded good on the radio.

0:39:18 > 0:39:21But in America, whoosh! You know, it was extraordinary.

0:39:21 > 0:39:25# Tell me what you think about your friends at the top

0:39:25 > 0:39:28# Who'd you think, besides yourself, was the pick of the crop? #

0:39:28 > 0:39:30The success of the album in the US

0:39:30 > 0:39:33led to a summons from the pop promoter Robert Stigwood -

0:39:33 > 0:39:36the man behind the careers of Eric Clapton,

0:39:36 > 0:39:38the Bee Gees and David Bowie.

0:39:40 > 0:39:44On the table was both a Broadway AND a movie deal for Superstar.

0:39:44 > 0:39:47They could hardly say no.

0:39:47 > 0:39:51INTRO PLAYS

0:39:54 > 0:39:59Jesus Christ Superstar opened on Broadway in October 1971.

0:40:05 > 0:40:08But while the angels that adorned both the album and posters

0:40:08 > 0:40:12would become the first mega-logo in musical theatre history,

0:40:12 > 0:40:15the Broadway audience were turned off,

0:40:15 > 0:40:18as Christians took offence and accused the show of blasphemy.

0:40:18 > 0:40:21I think what annoyed them, funnily enough,

0:40:21 > 0:40:24was the concept of rock music,

0:40:24 > 0:40:29which was associated with drugs and sex and all these evil things -

0:40:29 > 0:40:32that being associated with Jesus was the problem,

0:40:32 > 0:40:34not so much what it said.

0:40:37 > 0:40:40When the show opened in London the following year,

0:40:40 > 0:40:42there were no protests,

0:40:42 > 0:40:45and despite the cool reception of the album in the UK,

0:40:45 > 0:40:47the stage version was a massive hit.

0:40:50 > 0:40:52Everyone loved it.

0:40:52 > 0:40:55Even the composer Shostakovich loved it.

0:40:55 > 0:40:58He saw the show two nights running, and confessed that,

0:40:58 > 0:41:02but for Joseph Stalin, he would have written similar work.

0:41:04 > 0:41:06MUSIC: Superstar

0:41:28 > 0:41:33The movie of Superstar started filming, and Andrew got married.

0:41:33 > 0:41:35He'd met Sarah Hugill when she was 16.

0:41:35 > 0:41:40She turned 18 in 1972, the year they chose to tie the knot.

0:41:42 > 0:41:46# Oh, what a circus Oh, what a show... #

0:41:46 > 0:41:49As Prime Minister, I want to speak to you

0:41:49 > 0:41:53simply and plainly about the grave emergency

0:41:53 > 0:41:54now facing our country.

0:41:56 > 0:41:59The idea for their next project was born during the early '70s,

0:41:59 > 0:42:02when the IRA stalked the mainland

0:42:02 > 0:42:06and Britain was crippled by strikes and economic meltdown.

0:42:07 > 0:42:12Britain in 1974, it was not a particularly nice place to be.

0:42:12 > 0:42:15I mean, we'd just come out of the three-day week,

0:42:15 > 0:42:19then the stock market sort of absolutely collapsed,

0:42:19 > 0:42:23and the IRA were blowing up London and cities all around the place.

0:42:23 > 0:42:28It was a time that I don't believe people really think happened.

0:42:29 > 0:42:31Tim Rice was driving one day.

0:42:31 > 0:42:36On the car radio was programme about the actress Eva Peron.

0:42:36 > 0:42:40Eva Peron, in that old cinema cliche, went from rags to riches.

0:42:40 > 0:42:45The man she captured, Peron, became the boss of Argentina.

0:42:45 > 0:42:47And not content merely to be his wife,

0:42:47 > 0:42:51Eva Peron manoeuvred her way past an oligarchy which hated her

0:42:51 > 0:42:55to become the most powerful woman Latin America has ever known.

0:42:55 > 0:42:58And I'd got a vague idea who she was,

0:42:58 > 0:43:01I remembered her from my stamp collection as a kid.

0:43:01 > 0:43:06And I heard this radio programme and I thought, "This is a great story."

0:43:11 > 0:43:11The parallels between the trade union-led revolution

0:43:11 > 0:43:14The parallels between the trade union-led revolution

0:43:14 > 0:43:19that swept Peron to power in 1946 and the industrial unrest

0:43:19 > 0:43:23that gripped '70s Britain struck a chord.

0:43:23 > 0:43:29The thought that an extremist could get power in a democracy was

0:43:29 > 0:43:34very, very much uppermost, certainly in MY mind,

0:43:34 > 0:43:39and I thought of Evita as a really interesting cautionary tale.

0:43:40 > 0:43:45I thought, I've got to find some angle on this, musically,

0:43:45 > 0:43:48that means that I can say to Tim,

0:43:48 > 0:43:50"Yes, I think I know how I can do this."

0:43:50 > 0:43:53And I thought about it for a long time,

0:43:53 > 0:43:56and I remembered, just after I left school,

0:43:56 > 0:43:59I went to see Judy Garland in The Talk Of The Town,

0:43:59 > 0:44:02and it was pretty much the last thing she ever did,

0:44:02 > 0:44:06I think it might even have been the last performance she ever gave.

0:44:06 > 0:44:08Anyway, she was drunk, she was out of it, you know,

0:44:08 > 0:44:10the audience turned on her.

0:44:10 > 0:44:12And she tried to sing Over The Rainbow,

0:44:12 > 0:44:16and it was like seeing a little bird crushed in front of you.

0:44:16 > 0:44:18It was just awful.

0:44:18 > 0:44:23And I thought, if I can find a melody or situation

0:44:23 > 0:44:29where I could create an anthem for Eva Peron that could turn on her,

0:44:29 > 0:44:33and I could use it in a completely different way,

0:44:33 > 0:44:36then I'm on the case.

0:44:36 > 0:44:40And I remember, in Bristol, it was, that I was writing, I wrote...

0:44:40 > 0:44:42And that is when Argentina happened.

0:44:44 > 0:44:49I remember saying to Tim, "I think I've got a way in."

0:44:49 > 0:44:51# All through my wild days

0:44:51 > 0:44:54# My mad existence... #

0:44:54 > 0:44:58Like Joseph and Jesus Christ Superstar,

0:44:58 > 0:45:01they started by releasing a concept album.

0:45:01 > 0:45:03Julie Covington sang the title song.

0:45:05 > 0:45:07We never thought that Don't Cry For Me Argentina had a hope as a single,

0:45:07 > 0:45:09because it was five minutes long,

0:45:09 > 0:45:12Julie Covington was not an automatic record seller.

0:45:12 > 0:45:15But the single came out and was a massive success,

0:45:15 > 0:45:17um, to our surprise.

0:45:17 > 0:45:22# And as for fortune and as for fame... #

0:45:22 > 0:45:26As Evita rose up the charts, Lloyd Webber sent a copy

0:45:26 > 0:45:30to the only director he felt was up to the job of staging the story -

0:45:30 > 0:45:32the legendary Hal Prince.

0:45:32 > 0:45:36I've always thought that unusual settings, unusual subjects,

0:45:36 > 0:45:39the sort of thing that people say, "Wait a minute, is that a musical?"

0:45:39 > 0:45:46and then you give them that and it's unexpected and they respond.

0:45:46 > 0:45:51# Don't cry for me, Argentina... #

0:45:52 > 0:45:54Nicknamed the Prince of Broadway,

0:45:54 > 0:45:57Hal Prince boasted a string of credits

0:45:57 > 0:46:01that included West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and Cabaret.

0:46:02 > 0:46:05Hal assumed they'd already found their lead actress,

0:46:05 > 0:46:08after the success of Julie Covington's hit single.

0:46:09 > 0:46:13We thought she'd be perfect to play Eva, but she didn't want to do it.

0:46:13 > 0:46:15Which actually, in the end, was a plus,

0:46:15 > 0:46:18because we then got enormous publicity,

0:46:18 > 0:46:23the press love disaster, so it was, you know, "Julie turns down Evita."

0:46:23 > 0:46:26You know, implying that the show was going to be a total disaster.

0:46:26 > 0:46:28And how did you find Elaine?

0:46:28 > 0:46:31Well, the normal procedure of auditions.

0:46:31 > 0:46:34We had huge...

0:46:34 > 0:46:39..interest in it. And literally hundreds of ladies came along,

0:46:39 > 0:46:41some of them quite well-known.

0:46:44 > 0:46:49The audition period for me for Evita was LONG and tedious.

0:46:49 > 0:46:52I must have auditioned eight, nine, I don't know, ten times.

0:46:54 > 0:46:57Everybody - the world and his wife - auditioned for this role.

0:46:57 > 0:47:00You know, many of them were very good but, you know, it's difficult.

0:47:00 > 0:47:03And of course we... They all sang Don't Cry For Me Argentina.

0:47:03 > 0:47:07Faye Dunaway, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand,

0:47:07 > 0:47:09all these names were being bandied about.

0:47:09 > 0:47:13# Peron, Peron, Peron, Peron Evita, Evita... #

0:47:13 > 0:47:18Elaine Paige made the final shortlist of three.

0:47:18 > 0:47:21She just got through on merit, like the cup final.

0:47:21 > 0:47:25She got through all the rounds and saw off the opposition.

0:47:27 > 0:47:32My doorbell went about midnight and, to my surprise, it was my agent.

0:47:33 > 0:47:35"The role of..."

0:47:35 > 0:47:37"Yes, yes, yes, get on with it, Libby!"

0:47:37 > 0:47:39"..Eva Peron is..."

0:47:39 > 0:47:40"Yes, yes, just tell me!"

0:47:40 > 0:47:42"..yours."

0:47:42 > 0:47:45# Evita. #

0:47:45 > 0:47:47OK. Here we go.

0:47:47 > 0:47:52# Don't cry for me, Argentina... #

0:47:54 > 0:47:57Evita opened in London in June 1978,

0:47:57 > 0:48:01but the cautionary tale about economic crisis and the fragility of

0:48:01 > 0:48:06democracy failed to resonate when it opened on Broadway a year later.

0:48:08 > 0:48:12"Stench is a stench on any scale." That's the first sentence.

0:48:12 > 0:48:13And they go on...

0:48:13 > 0:48:16"If you want to fill the coffers of these two amoral,

0:48:16 > 0:48:20"barely talented whippersnappers" - this refers to you and Tim -

0:48:20 > 0:48:23"and their knowing or duped accomplices,

0:48:23 > 0:48:26"by all means see this artfully produced monument

0:48:26 > 0:48:28"to human indecency."

0:48:30 > 0:48:32Well, that's not a very good review, really, is it?

0:48:33 > 0:48:35Well, he's an idiot. What can I say?

0:48:37 > 0:48:43The Americans had no clue of the context in which Evita was written.

0:48:43 > 0:48:48I mean, Britain nearly fell apart, and people forget that.

0:48:48 > 0:48:50But we opened in September,

0:48:50 > 0:48:53and it was that Christmas that Russia invaded Afghanistan.

0:48:53 > 0:48:57And you started to hear people talking about politics again

0:48:57 > 0:49:00in America. But something happened in the zeitgeist,

0:49:00 > 0:49:03and by the time the Tonys happened, eight months later,

0:49:03 > 0:49:06I mean, Evita was the toast of the town.

0:49:06 > 0:49:10# Don't cry for me, Argentina... #

0:49:10 > 0:49:13Evita garnered award after award,

0:49:13 > 0:49:17including an Olivier for Best Musical in 1978.

0:49:17 > 0:49:19Now, the winner is...

0:49:19 > 0:49:21Oh, my nerves!

0:49:21 > 0:49:22..Evita.

0:49:22 > 0:49:25APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

0:49:28 > 0:49:30The ceremony was badly organised,

0:49:30 > 0:49:34and during his acceptance speech, Lloyd Webber quipped that Hal Prince

0:49:34 > 0:49:37would have made a much better job of the Oliviers

0:49:37 > 0:49:39than that year's producer.

0:49:39 > 0:49:43Unbeknownst to Andrew, the producer was Cameron Mackintosh who,

0:49:43 > 0:49:45up to this point, he'd never met.

0:49:45 > 0:49:49I was furious! And I went after him...

0:49:49 > 0:49:52"I'm going to kill him." And I bump into David Land, who's the wonderful

0:49:52 > 0:49:56agent who had Tim and Andrew under his wing, and I said,

0:49:56 > 0:49:59"David, where's Andrew, where's Andrew?!"

0:49:59 > 0:50:03He said, "You're looking for Andrew?" "Yes, I want to kill him."

0:50:03 > 0:50:04"I want to kill him!"

0:50:04 > 0:50:07And he went, "No, no, no, no, no, don't do that."

0:50:07 > 0:50:10I said, "Why not?" He said, "Because you'll make a few bob out of him."

0:50:12 > 0:50:16MUSIC: Theme Tune to Thomas The Tank Engine

0:50:16 > 0:50:19David Land's advice to Cameron was prophetic.

0:50:19 > 0:50:24Just a year earlier, Andrew had parted company with Robert Stigwood

0:50:24 > 0:50:27to take ownership of both the creative and commercial control

0:50:27 > 0:50:29of future productions.

0:50:30 > 0:50:32The name of Lloyd Webber's new company

0:50:32 > 0:50:37was inspired by another childhood passion - Thomas The Tank Engine.

0:50:37 > 0:50:41It was called The Really Useful company.

0:50:41 > 0:50:45So Cameron's decision to forgive Andrew's slight at the Oliviers

0:50:45 > 0:50:48was probably the shrewdest of his career.

0:50:50 > 0:50:53I got a sweet letter from Andrew afterwards

0:50:53 > 0:50:58saying, "I'm really sorry." And then cut to, I think, 1980,

0:50:58 > 0:51:00and Andrew said, would I like

0:51:00 > 0:51:03to come and have lunch with him at the Savile Club?

0:51:03 > 0:51:05So, we met at one o'clock,

0:51:05 > 0:51:09and at half-past six, my secretary was phoning the Savile Club to say

0:51:09 > 0:51:12had this man killed me, because I'd not gone home!

0:51:12 > 0:51:14Because we got on so well and started to...

0:51:14 > 0:51:19I mean, it was hysterical, we just laughed and laughed and laughed.

0:51:22 > 0:51:26It was during the second bottle of wine that Andrew Lloyd Webber

0:51:26 > 0:51:31mentioned TS Eliot's anthology of poems, the Book Of Practical Cats.

0:51:31 > 0:51:33So, at the end of it he said,

0:51:33 > 0:51:40"Well, would you come home to my house and I'd love to play you a few

0:51:40 > 0:51:43"of the songs that I've set from TS Eliot."

0:51:48 > 0:51:51Andrew, of course, always loved cats,

0:51:51 > 0:51:55and TS Eliot's playful poems were favourite bedtime reading

0:51:55 > 0:51:57when he was a child.

0:51:59 > 0:52:02He would often take Perseus, the family cat,

0:52:02 > 0:52:05on daily walks from their flat in Harrington Court

0:52:05 > 0:52:07to Thurloe Square Gardens nearby.

0:52:09 > 0:52:13And this would be... We're exactly tracing the route Perseus would go.

0:52:13 > 0:52:15Exactly tracing it.

0:52:15 > 0:52:18A few distractions, you know, other people's gardens and things,

0:52:18 > 0:52:22but this is where he would most definitely have walked.

0:52:26 > 0:52:30Thurloe Square is the only garden we ever really got to play in.

0:52:30 > 0:52:35I remember the square as being a lot rougher than it is now,

0:52:35 > 0:52:38cos I'm pretty sure we used to ride our bicycles around here,

0:52:38 > 0:52:40and we were allowed to do that.

0:52:42 > 0:52:46But to use the poems as a basis for a stage musical,

0:52:46 > 0:52:49he required permission from TS Eliot's widow, Valerie.

0:52:51 > 0:52:55He didn't have far to go, as Valerie lived in Kensington too,

0:52:55 > 0:52:59right in the heart of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer territory.

0:53:01 > 0:53:03My big away win with Valerie Eliot

0:53:03 > 0:53:06was when I sort of took my life in my hands, really,

0:53:06 > 0:53:08and I just said to her, "Look,

0:53:08 > 0:53:13"have you seen Hot Gossip on the Kenny Everett Show?

0:53:13 > 0:53:16"Cos I think the cats ought to be much more like that,

0:53:16 > 0:53:18"I don't think they should be pussycats."

0:53:18 > 0:53:20And she just said, "Tom would have liked that."

0:53:26 > 0:53:28Kids, 20-year-olds and things,

0:53:28 > 0:53:33were all hugely taken by what Arlene Phillips was doing with Hot Gossip,

0:53:33 > 0:53:36which was considered to be rude and naughty by Mary Whitehouse,

0:53:36 > 0:53:39and once Mary Whitehouse intervened and made a huge kerfuffle about it,

0:53:39 > 0:53:42everybody watched. And what Arlene really was doing was,

0:53:42 > 0:53:46it was sexy, yes, but it was modern dance that, really,

0:53:46 > 0:53:50the majority of us in Britain hadn't seen in this country.

0:53:53 > 0:53:57Valerie Eliot gave her permission, and at their next meeting,

0:53:57 > 0:54:00she brought along some unpublished work -

0:54:00 > 0:54:04a poem that TS Eliot thought was too sad for children.

0:54:06 > 0:54:08Once beautiful and adored,

0:54:08 > 0:54:10Grizabella is the sad and lonely cat

0:54:10 > 0:54:14who remembers the glamorous days of her youth.

0:54:15 > 0:54:19Grizabella was a story that made you care.

0:54:20 > 0:54:22And I remember going absolutely cold,

0:54:22 > 0:54:25and Cameron was there and I said,

0:54:25 > 0:54:27"Cameron, Cameron, we've got something bigger."

0:54:27 > 0:54:31And Cameron saw this and he said, "We have, haven't we?"

0:54:32 > 0:54:34And, oh, God...

0:54:34 > 0:54:37I immediately was getting...

0:54:37 > 0:54:40HE PLAYS AND HUMS MELODY

0:54:40 > 0:54:44# She haunted many a low resort

0:54:44 > 0:54:48# From the grimy road of Tottenham Court... #

0:54:48 > 0:54:50It all flowed immediately.

0:54:50 > 0:54:51# She flitted about the no-man's land

0:54:51 > 0:54:54# From The Rising Sun to The Friend At Hand. #

0:54:54 > 0:54:57And with that, there was such a different tone quality

0:54:57 > 0:54:58to the whole piece.

0:54:58 > 0:55:01It was that moment that the musical Cats was born.

0:55:03 > 0:55:07But some good tunes and a bunch of verses by a dead poet

0:55:07 > 0:55:11failed to persuade any investors or convince Tim Rice

0:55:11 > 0:55:14that his services were required.

0:55:14 > 0:55:17Why did Cats not seem to you to be the right thing for you?

0:55:17 > 0:55:19Well, I wasn't needed. I mean, the lyrics were there already.

0:55:19 > 0:55:21So, simple as that.

0:55:22 > 0:55:24So, what could I have done?

0:55:24 > 0:55:26Chess.Well, I did that, yes.

0:55:26 > 0:55:29# Wasn't it good? Oh, so good

0:55:29 > 0:55:32# Wasn't he fine? Oh, so fine... #

0:55:32 > 0:55:36While Tim teamed up with ABBA to write Chess,

0:55:36 > 0:55:39Tim's literary replacement, TS Eliot,

0:55:39 > 0:55:42started to attract some blue-chip names,

0:55:42 > 0:55:46including the Royal Shakespeare Company's Trevor Nunn,

0:55:46 > 0:55:50Judi Dench, and the choreographer Gillian Lynne.

0:55:50 > 0:55:55# I lost my heart to a starship trooper... #

0:55:55 > 0:55:58With no money and not even a theatre,

0:55:58 > 0:56:03the search began for that impossibly rare breed in 1980s Britain -

0:56:03 > 0:56:05dancers who could sing and act.

0:56:05 > 0:56:09First stop, Arlene Phillips, the founder of Hot Gossip.

0:56:09 > 0:56:14Arlene suddenly says to me, "There's a girl in my dance troupe,

0:56:14 > 0:56:18"her name's Sarah Brightman, she has the voice to take on anyone."

0:56:18 > 0:56:20I remember she mentioned Barbra Streisand.

0:56:20 > 0:56:24She said, "But that girl is going to change the course of your life."

0:56:24 > 0:56:26And so I thought, "Huh?"

0:56:26 > 0:56:29And you'd just got Starship Trooper out,

0:56:29 > 0:56:31which I thought was a great pop record, but I never thought...

0:56:31 > 0:56:33So I thought nothing more of it.

0:56:33 > 0:56:37Yes.And then, of course, Cats came along.

0:56:37 > 0:56:40And I remember the first time we met, I played appallingly,

0:56:40 > 0:56:45and you came round to my flat, cos I couldn't really believe it was you.

0:56:45 > 0:56:47You were so lovely. I remember sitting on your sofa,

0:56:47 > 0:56:51looking at you, you were so lovely and you were really quite nervous.

0:56:51 > 0:56:53I was extremely nervous. And I was nervous too.

0:56:53 > 0:56:56I don't normally have people coming round to my flat with blue hair.

0:56:56 > 0:56:59Good morning, everybody. Can you all come onstage, please?

0:57:00 > 0:57:04We'll do a little bit of cat warm-up! Cat dip.

0:57:04 > 0:57:06Sarah clearly impressed,

0:57:06 > 0:57:10and secured the role of a cat called Jemima.

0:57:10 > 0:57:11Once the cast was assembled,

0:57:11 > 0:57:15the next challenge was for Gillian Lynne to make them feline.

0:57:15 > 0:57:18I gave them a long and difficult class every day

0:57:18 > 0:57:23so that we could find a way to be cats, cos it's a tough show.

0:57:23 > 0:57:29And unless you have people going flat-out and really, you know,

0:57:29 > 0:57:34practically breaking their leg and really being very daring and brave,

0:57:34 > 0:57:36and at the same time you are being a cat,

0:57:36 > 0:57:40which is not the same as being a human, it's tough.

0:57:47 > 0:57:52I remember when you came on, you played all these tunes for Cats,

0:57:52 > 0:57:55and I was thinking, "How is this going to work?

0:57:55 > 0:57:57"There's a director from the Royal Shakespeare Company,

0:57:57 > 0:57:59"there's Andrew playing these..."

0:57:59 > 0:58:02I could not envisage at all...

0:58:02 > 0:58:05And we still really didn't have a theatre.

0:58:05 > 0:58:08And we looked at all... You know, we looked at Her Majesty's,

0:58:08 > 0:58:12at Drury Lane and everything. Then one day, at the tender age of 12,

0:58:12 > 0:58:15Andrew was doing his second This Is Your Life...

0:58:15 > 0:58:18Tonight, Andrew Lloyd Webber, this is your life.

0:58:18 > 0:58:19Thank you very much.

0:58:24 > 0:58:29This Is Your Life was recorded in the West End's New London Theatre.

0:58:29 > 0:58:33Back in the '80s, it was used as a television studio.

0:58:33 > 0:58:36But it wasn't the parade of friends and relatives that captivated Andrew

0:58:36 > 0:58:39that evening. It was the theatre.

0:58:39 > 0:58:41He'd found his cats a home.

0:58:44 > 0:58:47Problem was, there was no money to hire it.

0:58:47 > 0:58:49We couldn't get the money for it.

0:58:49 > 0:58:52There was an incredible meeting, quite late on in the process.

0:58:52 > 0:58:56And Andrew said, "Well, we haven't got the money,

0:58:56 > 0:59:00"so we've all got to go home tonight and anyone who knows anyone with any

0:59:00 > 0:59:01"money, try and get at them."

0:59:07 > 0:59:09Desperation set in,

0:59:09 > 0:59:12so Lloyd Webber raised a second mortgage on his house

0:59:12 > 0:59:14to secure the theatre.

0:59:16 > 0:59:20Two weeks before the first preview, they moved into the New London,

0:59:20 > 0:59:23at which point Judi Dench, who was playing Grizabella,

0:59:23 > 0:59:26snapped her Achilles tendon.

0:59:26 > 0:59:29They had to find a replacement, and fast.

0:59:30 > 0:59:32PIANO PLAYS

0:59:36 > 0:59:37Damn!OK, thank you.

0:59:37 > 0:59:41Luckily, Elaine Paige happened to be free,

0:59:41 > 0:59:44and agreed to take on Judi Dench's role.

0:59:45 > 0:59:48But all the mishaps and delays that had plagued the production

0:59:48 > 0:59:50had taken their toll.

0:59:50 > 0:59:53We'd just seen a run-through the night before.

0:59:53 > 0:59:55We both said, "There'll be just ridicule."

0:59:55 > 0:59:59Cameron and I said, "People are just going to... It's just hopeless."

0:59:59 > 1:00:02So we sat Trevor down and we said, "We're closing the show."

1:00:02 > 1:00:04And Trevor said, "No, no, no,

1:00:04 > 1:00:07"we'll just carry on rehearsals tomorrow morning and..."

1:00:07 > 1:00:11And Trevor's quite powerful, and there's Cameron, you know,

1:00:11 > 1:00:15now the powerful producer, and me, the so-called powerful composer...

1:00:15 > 1:00:17We just said, "OK."

1:00:17 > 1:00:19And that was that!

1:00:33 > 1:00:37The first preview night finally arrived,

1:00:37 > 1:00:41and, nervously, Andrew and Cameron stood in the wings of the New London

1:00:41 > 1:00:44and looked out at the expectant crowd of theatre critics

1:00:44 > 1:00:46who were sharpening their knives.

1:00:47 > 1:00:50And it was an extraordinary thing, really,

1:00:50 > 1:00:53cos we were all waiting here for the cats to go on

1:00:53 > 1:00:55and none of us had a clue, none of us had a clue

1:00:55 > 1:00:57what the reaction was going to be.

1:00:57 > 1:01:00We bade them good luck and off they went,

1:01:00 > 1:01:04and we went straight down to the bar and ordered large drinks,

1:01:04 > 1:01:07because we thought that was it, it was going to be a disaster.

1:01:11 > 1:01:15We did the overture and, of course, we revolved the audience

1:01:15 > 1:01:18and, of course, I suppose now, with hindsight,

1:01:18 > 1:01:20nobody expected that that would happen - I mean,

1:01:20 > 1:01:22it had never, ever been done before,

1:01:22 > 1:01:25with a whole load of people actually physically moving

1:01:25 > 1:01:27through a building.

1:01:27 > 1:01:30And they didn't realise that they were moving either,

1:01:30 > 1:01:34that was the thing. So suddenly, when the first cat came out,

1:01:34 > 1:01:37we were in a totally different environment

1:01:37 > 1:01:38to that that we started with.

1:01:38 > 1:01:42# Jellicles would and Jellicles can

1:01:42 > 1:01:44# Jellicles can and Jellicles do

1:01:44 > 1:01:47# Jellicle cats and Jellicles would

1:01:47 > 1:01:49# And Jellicles do... #

1:01:51 > 1:01:53And the overture, I remember,

1:01:53 > 1:01:58was actually greeted with a big round of applause, and people were,

1:01:58 > 1:02:01I think, genuinely, utterly blown away.

1:02:03 > 1:02:06And we heard the first cheer.

1:02:06 > 1:02:10And then we listened a bit longer and we heard this real...

1:02:10 > 1:02:13You could feel the warmth coming, you know?

1:02:13 > 1:02:17So we crept back up and the audience was going mad.

1:02:17 > 1:02:20So we rushed straight back to the bar and had another one...

1:02:21 > 1:02:22To celebrate.

1:02:22 > 1:02:24# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats

1:02:24 > 1:02:27# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats

1:02:27 > 1:02:30# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats

1:02:30 > 1:02:32# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats

1:02:32 > 1:02:34# Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats. #

1:02:35 > 1:02:39And at the end, it was just like everybody rose up,

1:02:39 > 1:02:42the whole theatre, and just applauded and screamed,

1:02:42 > 1:02:45and it was like, "God, nobody expected that."

1:02:45 > 1:02:49Already you could tell the show was going to be a hit.

1:02:49 > 1:02:52What we didn't know, until a few weeks later,

1:02:52 > 1:02:54was it was going to become a phenomena.

1:02:55 > 1:02:57# Touch me

1:02:57 > 1:03:02# It's so easy to leave me

1:03:02 > 1:03:07# All alone with the memory

1:03:07 > 1:03:13# Of my days in the sun... #

1:03:13 > 1:03:16The phenomena was not just box office.

1:03:16 > 1:03:20Within days of the opening, there were long queues for Cats T-shirts,

1:03:20 > 1:03:23signalling a merchandising sensation

1:03:23 > 1:03:26that musical theatre had never seen before.

1:03:26 > 1:03:31# A new day

1:03:31 > 1:03:41# Has begun. #

1:03:45 > 1:03:49On October the 7th, 1982, Cats opened on Broadway.

1:03:49 > 1:03:51It was a huge hit.

1:03:53 > 1:03:55But success was tinged with sadness.

1:04:01 > 1:04:04Back home, Mum rang to say Dad's operation had gone well.

1:04:07 > 1:04:10I bought dad a Walkman plus a few cassettes,

1:04:10 > 1:04:12including Rachmaninov's First Piano Concerto.

1:04:17 > 1:04:19Dad donned the headphones

1:04:19 > 1:04:21and was thoroughly enjoying the first movement,

1:04:21 > 1:04:24when he suddenly said, "Andrew, what key is this in?"

1:04:26 > 1:04:27I said, "G flat minor."

1:04:28 > 1:04:30Dad shook his head.

1:04:30 > 1:04:32"Have you still not learned the difference

1:04:32 > 1:04:34"between G flat and F sharp?"

1:04:35 > 1:04:38These were the last words I remember him saying to me.

1:04:42 > 1:04:44William died the next day.

1:04:44 > 1:04:47He was only 67.

1:04:47 > 1:04:52But his legacy was to be the guiding spirit of Andrew's next project.

1:04:55 > 1:05:00# Pie Jesu

1:05:00 > 1:05:07# Pie Jesu... #

1:05:07 > 1:05:11In the winter of 1982, Andrew's life began to unravel.

1:05:11 > 1:05:14He was grieving for his father...

1:05:17 > 1:05:20..and then fell in love with one of his Cats.

1:05:22 > 1:05:25Then I began writing the Requiem Mass

1:05:25 > 1:05:28and, of course, you were beginning to really, really...

1:05:28 > 1:05:31I would lock you in your room, do you remember that?

1:05:31 > 1:05:35I do."Just keep at it," I said, "it's all there, it really is."

1:05:35 > 1:05:38It's the one piece, you know, that I'd love to go over again,

1:05:38 > 1:05:40because I don't think I got it completely right.

1:05:40 > 1:05:43And you were very, very passionate about the piece.

1:05:43 > 1:05:46Um, and I think that's what shines through,

1:05:46 > 1:05:49through moments of it, and especially the Pie Jesu.

1:05:55 > 1:05:58You know, the thing that I always think when I look back at it is

1:05:58 > 1:06:02how extraordinary that Pie Jesu, which I never thought of, you know,

1:06:02 > 1:06:06as anything that would ever be a stand-alone...Piece, yes.

1:06:06 > 1:06:08And, of course, that's really the piece

1:06:08 > 1:06:10everybody remembers from it now.

1:06:10 > 1:06:17# Qui tollis peccata mundi

1:06:17 > 1:06:26# Dona eis requiem... #

1:06:26 > 1:06:30Pie Jesu reached number one in the UK charts, and its income alone

1:06:30 > 1:06:33could have kept the composer living relatively comfortably

1:06:33 > 1:06:35for the rest of his life.

1:06:37 > 1:06:38The melody...

1:06:46 > 1:06:49I mean, I was on my own turf with that, but I didn't...

1:06:51 > 1:06:54Anyway, it would have been lovely sung by the Everly Brothers.

1:06:54 > 1:06:56I mean, could you imagine...

1:06:56 > 1:06:59..their harmonies on that?

1:07:02 > 1:07:03I mean, that absolutely fits...

1:07:10 > 1:07:12Can you imagine Don and Phil doing that?

1:07:12 > 1:07:13That really would have been something.

1:07:17 > 1:07:21In November 1983, Andrew divorced Sarah Hugill,

1:07:21 > 1:07:23his wife of nearly 12 years,

1:07:23 > 1:07:29and married Sarah Brightman on the afternoon of March the 27th, 1984...

1:07:31 > 1:07:36..the very same day that Starlight Express opened in London.

1:07:36 > 1:07:39# Starlight Express

1:07:39 > 1:07:41# You must confess

1:07:41 > 1:07:45# Are you real? Yes or no? #

1:07:45 > 1:07:48Performed entirely on roller skates,

1:07:48 > 1:07:52it's the story about a child's dream in which his toy train set

1:07:52 > 1:07:53comes to life.

1:07:53 > 1:07:55# There are dark days ahead... #

1:07:55 > 1:07:57With the opening of Starlight,

1:07:57 > 1:08:01Lloyd Webber now held the record of three shows on Broadway

1:08:01 > 1:08:02and four in London.

1:08:02 > 1:08:06But his marriage to Sarah Brightman would be the catalyst

1:08:06 > 1:08:09for his next show - a project that would eclipse

1:08:09 > 1:08:11everything he'd written before.

1:08:11 > 1:08:13I was sitting in the bath one day,

1:08:13 > 1:08:16one morning, and Andrew says,

1:08:16 > 1:08:20"Cameron, what do you think about us doing Phantom of the Opera?"

1:08:28 > 1:08:31Andrew came across a copy of the French novel while

1:08:31 > 1:08:34working with Sarah on Requiem. He thought his new wife

1:08:34 > 1:08:37would be perfect in the lead role of Christine.

1:08:37 > 1:08:41I remember reading it and it ending up with Christine's ring

1:08:41 > 1:08:44being on the Phantom's finger and I thought, "Oh, my God,

1:08:44 > 1:08:47"it's a high romance."It's a romance. It is a high romance.

1:08:51 > 1:08:56And it was a huge risk for a composer to say,

1:08:56 > 1:08:59"I've written a show,

1:08:59 > 1:09:01"but my wife's going to star in it."

1:09:01 > 1:09:05And I think Sarah was the remarkable catalyst,

1:09:05 > 1:09:09the fact that she and Andrew had this extraordinary relationship,

1:09:09 > 1:09:13all touched on the ingredients that were necessary to explode this

1:09:13 > 1:09:16and give him a reason for writing it.

1:09:20 > 1:09:22The story of Phantom is about

1:09:22 > 1:09:26a beautiful soprano called Christine, who becomes the obsession

1:09:26 > 1:09:31of a mysterious, disfigured composer who haunts the labyrinth

1:09:31 > 1:09:34of passageways beneath the Paris Opera.

1:09:34 > 1:09:37And so, I mean, there I was,

1:09:37 > 1:09:39faced with the possibility of writing the kind of melodies

1:09:39 > 1:09:42I've always wanted to do. So, I mean, out comes All I Ask Of You...

1:09:45 > 1:09:47I mean...

1:09:52 > 1:09:55I mean, it's wonderful. I'm doing all the sort of...

1:09:55 > 1:09:57..all those kind of harmonies.

1:09:57 > 1:09:59And I just let myself go.

1:09:59 > 1:10:04# All I ask for is one love

1:10:04 > 1:10:07# One lifetime... #

1:10:07 > 1:10:11And then, you see, I had this idea that wouldn't it be great

1:10:11 > 1:10:13if we started in an old, old opera house

1:10:13 > 1:10:15which was deserted for some reason,

1:10:15 > 1:10:17and they were auctioning off the contents

1:10:17 > 1:10:20and one of the items was a chandelier...?

1:10:22 > 1:10:25MUSIC: Overture from Phantom Of The Opera

1:10:28 > 1:10:32So, what if it's in pieces on the stage and it reassembles

1:10:32 > 1:10:35and rises up over the audience?

1:10:43 > 1:10:45And I just thought, "Oh, yeah!"

1:10:45 > 1:10:46And that's, of course, when I got...

1:10:46 > 1:10:50PLAYS MAIN MOTIF

1:10:50 > 1:10:52I thought, "We're off to the races now."

1:10:52 > 1:10:54PLAYS MAIN THEME

1:10:55 > 1:10:57And so on.

1:10:57 > 1:11:00And it still is a moment, I have to say, every time I see it,

1:11:00 > 1:11:02it still is the moment I think that I'm never going to top

1:11:02 > 1:11:04that as a theatrical idea.

1:11:09 > 1:11:11Lloyd Webber started working on Phantom

1:11:11 > 1:11:14with the Starlight writer Richard Stilgoe.

1:11:14 > 1:11:16But after months of rewrites,

1:11:16 > 1:11:19the pair agreed that Andrew should find another lyricist.

1:11:27 > 1:11:31His name was Charles Hart and he was only 25.

1:11:32 > 1:11:35It was a cauldron, really, of tension,

1:11:35 > 1:11:36because there was so much at stake.

1:11:36 > 1:11:39But at the same time, it became apparent to me

1:11:39 > 1:11:41as I worked on it that I had,

1:11:41 > 1:11:44of all the people involved in it, the least to lose.

1:11:44 > 1:11:46Because the worst thing that could happen to me

1:11:46 > 1:11:48would be I would go back to signing on,

1:11:48 > 1:11:50which is what I was doing at the time.

1:11:51 > 1:11:54While Lloyd Webber took a big risk with the lyricist,

1:11:54 > 1:11:59he entrusted the staging of Phantom to a safe pair of hands -

1:11:59 > 1:12:02the Evita director, Hal Prince.

1:12:03 > 1:12:06The problem was, Hal had no Phantom to direct.

1:12:08 > 1:12:11Andrew called from London and said, "I've got an idea,

1:12:11 > 1:12:15"and I think it's a terrific one."

1:12:15 > 1:12:18And he said, "Michael Crawford."

1:12:18 > 1:12:21And I said, "Michael Crawford? Can he do this sort of thing?"

1:12:21 > 1:12:23He said, "Get on a plane and fly over

1:12:23 > 1:12:25"and we'll have him sing for us."

1:12:25 > 1:12:27So I did, immediately.

1:12:27 > 1:12:30And so he sang a little for us and you thought, my God, he's terrific.

1:12:30 > 1:12:31That's it.

1:12:32 > 1:12:34Frank!

1:12:34 > 1:12:38The decision to cast Michael Crawford was a bold move.

1:12:40 > 1:12:43In the '80s, he was best known to UK audiences

1:12:43 > 1:12:48as the hapless Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do Have 'Em.

1:12:48 > 1:12:50The question was how to make him say yes.

1:12:50 > 1:12:52It didn't take a lot of persuading,

1:12:52 > 1:12:55because when I played him the overture, which I'd recorded,

1:12:55 > 1:12:58and told him about the chandelier idea, he was in.

1:12:58 > 1:13:03# Night-time sharpens

1:13:03 > 1:13:08# Heightens each sensation

1:13:08 > 1:13:11# Darkness wakes

1:13:11 > 1:13:16# And stirs imagination... #

1:13:16 > 1:13:19The whole point of The Phantom of the Opera

1:13:19 > 1:13:23is that Christine is obsessed by the Phantom.

1:13:23 > 1:13:26It's a relationship that is there, made through music.

1:13:26 > 1:13:30And also, she finds him incredibly, incredibly charismatic.

1:13:36 > 1:13:39There's nothing very likeable about him, really. He's a...

1:13:40 > 1:13:45He's an... You know, an egocentric who kills people,

1:13:45 > 1:13:47mesmerises, virtually date-rapes women,

1:13:47 > 1:13:51and in the end his only saving grace really is his sense of decor.

1:13:51 > 1:13:53You know? His pad is amazing.

1:14:00 > 1:14:03Amazing as the Phantom's pad was,

1:14:03 > 1:14:06the sinister opulence of the Paris Opera House,

1:14:06 > 1:14:08populated by swinging chandeliers,

1:14:08 > 1:14:12floating gondoliers and a grand staircase,

1:14:12 > 1:14:15presented a whole host of technical challenges.

1:14:16 > 1:14:18As a set, it's quite simple.

1:14:18 > 1:14:21It's a black box with bits and pieces in it.

1:14:21 > 1:14:23But those bits and pieces moved... Had to move...

1:14:23 > 1:14:24..quite complicatedly.

1:14:24 > 1:14:26Yes, at the time, because of course, nowadays,

1:14:26 > 1:14:28with technical things that we have, it's easier.

1:14:28 > 1:14:31But then... Because the dress rehearsals

1:14:31 > 1:14:33were quite hairy, weren't they?

1:14:33 > 1:14:36Well, because of the sets, and it was the chandelier...

1:14:36 > 1:14:38Yes...which was the main fear.

1:14:38 > 1:14:40And the costumes, the costumes were wonderful,

1:14:40 > 1:14:42but, of course, they were complex.

1:14:42 > 1:14:45They were very real and they had to...

1:14:45 > 1:14:47Everything had to move, it was all moving parts, all the time.

1:14:47 > 1:14:50Everything. That's the thing about the whole production...

1:14:50 > 1:14:53And it was very voluptuous, so it had to move seamlessly.

1:14:53 > 1:14:57And I think that was where... That was the problem,

1:14:57 > 1:14:58was getting it to do all of that.

1:15:07 > 1:15:10September the 27th, 1986,

1:15:10 > 1:15:13was the night when the infamous Phantom dress rehearsal

1:15:13 > 1:15:15entered into West End mythology.

1:15:16 > 1:15:18The chandelier got stuck.

1:15:19 > 1:15:21Many took this as an ill omen.

1:15:21 > 1:15:23But on the opening night,

1:15:23 > 1:15:28the set moved like clockwork and Phantom became a musical legend

1:15:28 > 1:15:30and a once in a generation smash hit.

1:15:36 > 1:15:40# Let your soul take you

1:15:40 > 1:15:50# Where you long to be

1:15:50 > 1:15:58# Only then can you belong to me... #

1:16:03 > 1:16:05It was a nuclear explosion...

1:16:06 > 1:16:11..of heightened emotion.

1:16:11 > 1:16:13But if it hadn't had that,

1:16:13 > 1:16:16if he hadn't found a way of channelling all things,

1:16:16 > 1:16:19both in his private life and his creative life, into that,

1:16:19 > 1:16:22I don't think the show, however beautiful, however well staged,

1:16:22 > 1:16:24would have ever had the life it did.

1:16:37 > 1:16:41Three, two, one...

1:16:48 > 1:16:51Fast forward three decades to January 2018.

1:16:56 > 1:16:59Phantom has reigned on Broadway for 30 years,

1:16:59 > 1:17:02and Andrew and Cameron are in town to throw a party.

1:17:06 > 1:17:08As birthday celebrations go,

1:17:08 > 1:17:09they don't come much bigger

1:17:09 > 1:17:11than lighting up the Empire State Building.

1:17:15 > 1:17:18Many award-winning and critically acclaimed shows followed -

1:17:18 > 1:17:22Aspects of love, The Woman in White,

1:17:22 > 1:17:23Sunset Boulevard,

1:17:23 > 1:17:26and Love Never Dies -

1:17:26 > 1:17:28but none would match the success of Phantom.

1:17:31 > 1:17:33Andrew's relationship with Sarah Brightman

1:17:33 > 1:17:35didn't last the course.

1:17:35 > 1:17:38It ended after publicity over her affair

1:17:38 > 1:17:40with the Phantom keyboard player.

1:17:41 > 1:17:42A few years later,

1:17:42 > 1:17:47he spotted the woman who would become his lifelong partner on TV.

1:17:48 > 1:17:50She was a professional rider.

1:17:50 > 1:17:52She was a three-day eventer.

1:17:52 > 1:17:55And I remember once seeing a race before the Grand National,

1:17:55 > 1:17:59and I remembered this girl in the pouring rain underneath

1:17:59 > 1:18:01the old Becher's Brook fence,

1:18:01 > 1:18:04which was about three times her size,

1:18:04 > 1:18:06being very funny and saying, "Where's my hair and make-up?"

1:18:10 > 1:18:14Andrew and Madeleine have been together now for nearly 30 years,

1:18:14 > 1:18:16and since their marriage,

1:18:16 > 1:18:19Madeleine has played an increasingly active role

1:18:19 > 1:18:21in the running of The Really Useful Company.

1:18:22 > 1:18:26All in all, it would seem that he's led a charmed existence.

1:18:26 > 1:18:29But the last few years have proved challenging.

1:18:31 > 1:18:33I think I got very depressed when, recently,

1:18:33 > 1:18:35when I really was pretty ill.

1:18:35 > 1:18:37I mean, I had...

1:18:37 > 1:18:40I don't want to bore anybody with it,

1:18:40 > 1:18:42but after I got cancer, I then...

1:18:42 > 1:18:44That was fine, and that was cured.

1:18:44 > 1:18:47But I then had issues with my back.

1:18:47 > 1:18:53# Stephen Ward, your friendly osteopath

1:18:53 > 1:18:57# I can fix your lower back for you... #

1:18:57 > 1:18:59The timing couldn't have been worse.

1:18:59 > 1:19:02Andrew was working on the musical Stephen Ward,

1:19:02 > 1:19:04a miscarriage of justice story

1:19:04 > 1:19:07about the man who became a public scapegoat

1:19:07 > 1:19:10during the Profumo affair in 1963.

1:19:10 > 1:19:12# 1963! #

1:19:12 > 1:19:14Stephen Ward.Hello.

1:19:14 > 1:19:15Do you mind coming with us, sir?

1:19:15 > 1:19:18I don't see why I should have to take the rap for your bit of fun.

1:19:18 > 1:19:22# Sometimes that's what pain can do... #

1:19:22 > 1:19:25Stephen Ward was an osteopath by profession.

1:19:25 > 1:19:28That was an irony not lost on Lloyd Webber,

1:19:28 > 1:19:31suffering severe back pain at the time.

1:19:31 > 1:19:33When I was doing Stephen Ward, I was...

1:19:33 > 1:19:35I mean, I was doing the musical on morphine.

1:19:35 > 1:19:40And I advise you not to do a musical on morphine, actually.

1:19:40 > 1:19:41It's not the most brilliant idea.

1:19:41 > 1:19:44It doesn't actually help the mind hugely.

1:19:45 > 1:19:48It didn't help the box office either.

1:19:48 > 1:19:51The reviews were mixed and the audience didn't come.

1:19:52 > 1:19:57When Stephen Ward opened in December 2013, it ran for just four months.

1:19:59 > 1:20:02I think to myself, "Why did I get so low?" But it was just the pain.

1:20:02 > 1:20:07And, you know, it was not being able to move half the time.

1:20:07 > 1:20:09And I just thought, "It's all over."

1:20:09 > 1:20:12And I thought, "If I can't do my musicals

1:20:12 > 1:20:15"and I can't do any more, why bother?"

1:20:16 > 1:20:21Despite these dark periods, Andrew did manage to recover.

1:20:21 > 1:20:23He was full of energy once again

1:20:23 > 1:20:26and rediscovered his passion for musical theatre.

1:20:29 > 1:20:31# Stick it to the man! #

1:20:31 > 1:20:35His wife, Madeleine, gave him the idea for a new musical.

1:20:37 > 1:20:39The School of Rock was Andrew Lloyd Webber's comeback.

1:20:44 > 1:20:48It follows Dewey Finn, an out-of-work rock guitarist

1:20:48 > 1:20:51who pretends to be a teacher at a private school.

1:20:57 > 1:21:00That's great. Well done. Bravo, guys.

1:21:00 > 1:21:04Try something for me. Why don't you come in, around, for the beginning?

1:21:04 > 1:21:08Just come in. So it's all very, very cosy, and it's all very smile,

1:21:08 > 1:21:10lots of smiles to each other, but it's all this,

1:21:10 > 1:21:13and then when you get to the big moment with the drum solo,

1:21:13 > 1:21:15go back to your marks and then rock out.

1:21:15 > 1:21:18When we started out with School of Rock on Broadway,

1:21:18 > 1:21:21the audience didn't think that the children were playing live.

1:21:21 > 1:21:25But I tell you, every single note that those children play is live.

1:21:25 > 1:21:28And that's the joy of it, because, in the end,

1:21:28 > 1:21:32the very simple message of School of Rock is that music empowers.

1:21:36 > 1:21:38A few miles north of London's West End

1:21:38 > 1:21:41can be found another school of rock.

1:21:43 > 1:21:46This is Highbury Grove,

1:21:46 > 1:21:49which hosts an extraordinary, pioneering project

1:21:49 > 1:21:51called the Music in Secondary Schools Trust.

1:21:53 > 1:21:54Partly funded by Lloyd Webber,

1:21:54 > 1:21:57the school uses music to teach life skills,

1:21:57 > 1:22:01improve exam results and combat gang culture.

1:22:03 > 1:22:05# Produced on this road

1:22:05 > 1:22:09# A famous music man and the one you should know

1:22:09 > 1:22:13# I think of all the cattle that pass by the place... #

1:22:17 > 1:22:19Great, now... Well done, brilliant.

1:22:19 > 1:22:23Now, it's fun that you're doing it all on real instruments as well.

1:22:23 > 1:22:26But I always think that the one thing to remember

1:22:26 > 1:22:30with real instruments is, you can just play them, you know?

1:22:30 > 1:22:34You don't have to feel at all inhibited.

1:22:34 > 1:22:36In the end, the one thing about music is

1:22:36 > 1:22:39that you don't have to be a professional musician.

1:22:39 > 1:22:41I mean, I don't know if any of you ever would want to be.

1:22:41 > 1:22:46But music is the one thing that keeps us all together, I believe.

1:22:46 > 1:22:51And I'm just thrilled to hear you having such a good time with it all.

1:22:51 > 1:22:53Andrew Lloyd Webber has never forgotten

1:22:53 > 1:22:56the strong foundation music gave him as a child,

1:22:56 > 1:23:00and is now determined that as many children as possible

1:23:00 > 1:23:03get similar opportunities, in a world where music education

1:23:03 > 1:23:06is seriously under threat.

1:23:06 > 1:23:09What really impressed me, Truda, about what you were doing here

1:23:09 > 1:23:13at Highbury was not that you were turning these kids into musicians,

1:23:13 > 1:23:15but that you were using music to empower them.

1:23:15 > 1:23:18Absolutely. So it's a vehicle for transformation,

1:23:18 > 1:23:21that what it's teaching young people is discipline -

1:23:21 > 1:23:24they have to practise, they have to bring their instrument,

1:23:24 > 1:23:25they have to look after it.

1:23:25 > 1:23:28Every child in this school has had three years

1:23:28 > 1:23:30of classical music education. That is amazing.

1:23:30 > 1:23:33Everybody does it, and when everybody does it,

1:23:33 > 1:23:34kids don't opt out.

1:23:34 > 1:23:37It's normal. It has normalised for every child

1:23:37 > 1:23:39what classical music is.

1:23:45 > 1:23:47So you have no... I have no Government funding.

1:23:47 > 1:23:51I've had nothing, and we've reached 5,000 young people.

1:23:51 > 1:23:53Wow.All through philanthropists

1:23:53 > 1:23:56and people who are absolutely passionate.

1:23:56 > 1:24:01It is a tragedy, what's happening currently in our secondary schools.

1:24:01 > 1:24:02Well, I completely agree.

1:24:02 > 1:24:05I mean, I'm lucky, because it was around me in my family

1:24:05 > 1:24:08and music was around me and the theatre was around me.

1:24:08 > 1:24:11But you see what happens when you take kids sometimes

1:24:11 > 1:24:13who've never been near a theatre for the first time...Yes.

1:24:13 > 1:24:17And I despair that, you know...

1:24:17 > 1:24:20I mean, we just make a passionate plea that someday,

1:24:20 > 1:24:22sometime, people will understand just how vital it is.

1:24:22 > 1:24:25And the work you've done here, Truda, is extraordinary.

1:24:25 > 1:24:27Thank you.Election broadcast.Yes!

1:24:29 > 1:24:33So, now he feels it's time to give something back.

1:24:33 > 1:24:36And not just through music education, but to theatre too.

1:24:38 > 1:24:43It's no small irony that Andrew now owns seven major West End theatres,

1:24:43 > 1:24:46including the London Palladium and the Cambridge Theatre.

1:24:50 > 1:24:53But his favourite is the Theatre Royal Drury Lane,

1:24:53 > 1:24:56where he first fell in love with musicals.

1:24:58 > 1:25:02And his passion for architecture and theatre has finally come together

1:25:02 > 1:25:04in an ambitious restoration project

1:25:04 > 1:25:06which he's working on with Simon Thurley.

1:25:07 > 1:25:09What we're walking in today

1:25:09 > 1:25:12is this incredible sort of Regency palace, really.

1:25:12 > 1:25:14And it was a palace because, as you know,

1:25:14 > 1:25:18it was designed for the Royal family to come here to the theatre.

1:25:18 > 1:25:20Drury Lane has been a working theatre

1:25:20 > 1:25:22since the reign of Charles II,

1:25:22 > 1:25:25but it's also a shrine to some of the great writers

1:25:25 > 1:25:27whose work has been staged here.

1:25:27 > 1:25:31Well, let's go through into the great rotunda.

1:25:31 > 1:25:34I mean, wow. That's wow factor.

1:25:36 > 1:25:40I quite like it. It's a sort of Cenotaph to all these famous actors.

1:25:40 > 1:25:43Yes.You've got these statues of Garrick,

1:25:43 > 1:25:45and it's a bit odd having the statue of Shakespeare,

1:25:45 > 1:25:47because obviously, he never was involved here.

1:25:47 > 1:25:50But you have these incredible figures,

1:25:50 > 1:25:52all of whom trod the boards at the Lane.

1:25:52 > 1:25:55Yeah. So where do we go from here? We go the King's Route, I assume?

1:25:55 > 1:25:58Let's go the... Yeah. Well, you can go the King's Route.

1:25:58 > 1:25:59Thank you. I will.

1:26:02 > 1:26:06Front of house, the plan is to turn this beautiful Regency room,

1:26:06 > 1:26:11the grand saloon, into a social space with a bar and restaurant.

1:26:11 > 1:26:13But most of the money and effort

1:26:13 > 1:26:16will be spent redesigning the auditorium.

1:26:17 > 1:26:19I don't suppose you remember

1:26:19 > 1:26:22where you are sitting when you watched... came to see My Fair Lady?

1:26:22 > 1:26:23I think it was the upper circle.

1:26:23 > 1:26:25I'm pretty sure it was the upper circle.

1:26:25 > 1:26:27And I have to say,

1:26:27 > 1:26:30My Fair Lady looked pretty good, because it was a great big show.

1:26:37 > 1:26:41So, the whole purpose of what I want to achieve here

1:26:41 > 1:26:44is to make this an 1,800, 1,900-seater auditorium,

1:26:44 > 1:26:48which is hugely more intimate than it is today,

1:26:48 > 1:26:51because if you look at this, this is a vast, great cavern here,

1:26:51 > 1:26:55and there is this gap between the audience and the stage

1:26:55 > 1:26:57which needs to be removed.

1:26:57 > 1:27:02And the whole circle on both levels here will come forward,

1:27:02 > 1:27:04so the feeling of the auditorium

1:27:04 > 1:27:08will be infinitely more intimate than it is today.

1:27:08 > 1:27:11We have got to recognise it's a working theatre,

1:27:11 > 1:27:14and it's got to be a theatre that I leave fit for purpose

1:27:14 > 1:27:16for the next couple of hundred years.

1:27:22 > 1:27:24That's long-term planning for you.

1:27:25 > 1:27:27But it's not so surprising.

1:27:27 > 1:27:29With brother Julian's help,

1:27:29 > 1:27:32he started building his first theatre in Harrington Court

1:27:32 > 1:27:35over 60 years ago.

1:27:35 > 1:27:37Nothing much has changed since then.

1:27:39 > 1:27:43Andrew's love of melody and passion for musicals

1:27:43 > 1:27:45has barely wavered since childhood.

1:27:47 > 1:27:49It's a kind of weird moment for me, actually,

1:27:49 > 1:27:52because I've got all of this material sitting there...

1:27:53 > 1:27:56..like kind of waifs and strays looking for a home.

1:27:56 > 1:28:00Yes, I think we've always... The Lloyd Webber family,

1:28:00 > 1:28:04especially from my mother's side, has always loved a project.

1:28:04 > 1:28:07If we don't have a project, we're restless and we're not happy.

1:28:07 > 1:28:09And Andrew...

1:28:09 > 1:28:11..is very much like that. He needs a subject,

1:28:11 > 1:28:15and he will passionately find and seek that subject.

1:28:15 > 1:28:19So, Andrew has another show in him.

1:28:19 > 1:28:21I have another show. And there's a show after that too.

1:28:21 > 1:28:26I just think we need to keep working.

1:28:26 > 1:28:29Have you got an idea that you're not telling me about?Yes.

1:28:31 > 1:28:36Absolutely. I can't. It's an idea that I need to meet with,

1:28:36 > 1:28:38because the character is very much alive,

1:28:38 > 1:28:41and I would need to talk to that person.

1:28:42 > 1:28:47MUSIC: Memory from Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber