Norman Ackroyd

Norman Ackroyd

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0:00:08 > 0:00:11I don't have any kind of grand plan.

0:00:11 > 0:00:14I just go where instinct takes me.

0:00:17 > 0:00:20And I just wanted to see what they call the "outliers",

0:00:20 > 0:00:23the last little bits of land sticking up out of the ocean.

0:00:41 > 0:00:44I actually feel this is what I should be doing.

0:00:44 > 0:00:45Squeeze the essence out of it

0:00:45 > 0:00:48and put it down in a very elegant and simple way.

0:00:56 > 0:00:59I'm going to take pot luck that I've got it.

0:01:24 > 0:01:27RADIO: '..Forties, Portland, Plymouth, Biscay,

0:01:27 > 0:01:31'FitzRoy, Sole, Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea, Shannon, Rockall...'

0:01:31 > 0:01:34The start of the day is absolutely crucial.

0:01:36 > 0:01:39I'm usually up at about six o'clock, half past.

0:01:45 > 0:01:48The idea that I could make a living out of art was just a joke,

0:01:48 > 0:01:49in a family of butchers.

0:01:57 > 0:01:59It was an incredibly fertile place,

0:01:59 > 0:02:02and the staff stood back and just let it happen.

0:02:02 > 0:02:05It was very experimental.

0:02:15 > 0:02:16You know, the great things of art

0:02:16 > 0:02:19are the human figure and the landscape it lives in.

0:02:21 > 0:02:23I'm just trying to get a resonance of humanity.

0:02:30 > 0:02:31There it is.

0:02:31 > 0:02:33Just help yourself.

0:02:38 > 0:02:40Some days, I have a really big production day,

0:02:40 > 0:02:42and today's one of those.

0:02:42 > 0:02:45I always start off with a good bowl of porridge.

0:02:47 > 0:02:50Porridge was a thing I had every morning before going to school

0:02:50 > 0:02:52from being about the age of three.

0:02:52 > 0:02:55And old habits die hard.

0:02:59 > 0:03:01HE WHISTLES SOFTLY

0:03:02 > 0:03:05It's very important that you get into the right state of mind,

0:03:05 > 0:03:09so I can just really... Really thinking about what I'm going to do.

0:03:11 > 0:03:14I'm actually taking myself back...

0:03:16 > 0:03:19..and remembering being out on the boat

0:03:19 > 0:03:22and remembering the image, remembering the feeling of it.

0:03:22 > 0:03:24Even though I'm here right in the middle of London,

0:03:24 > 0:03:28mentally, I'm right out on the top of the Shetlands.

0:03:51 > 0:03:53When I first came to Bermondsey...

0:03:53 > 0:03:58I was brought up in a very industrial and working-class area

0:03:58 > 0:04:00just south of the bridge in Leeds.

0:04:00 > 0:04:03And this is a similar area.

0:04:05 > 0:04:06It somehow felt

0:04:06 > 0:04:08very much like home, you know?

0:04:08 > 0:04:10I felt very comfortable here.

0:04:13 > 0:04:16It had been a warehouse. Nobody had ever lived in this building before.

0:04:16 > 0:04:20It was incredibly run-down when I first moved in, about 30 years ago.

0:04:20 > 0:04:23But I also wanted somewhere with space.

0:04:23 > 0:04:26An etching studio is a factory, really.

0:04:26 > 0:04:29It seemed to me in this building,

0:04:29 > 0:04:32I could set up a proper etching workshop.

0:04:32 > 0:04:35And we turned the top two floors into a home.

0:04:35 > 0:04:36And so I lived above the shop.

0:04:36 > 0:04:40Which was a great tradition in the Ackroyd family in Yorkshire.

0:04:44 > 0:04:48South Leeds is very much the working-class area of Leeds.

0:04:50 > 0:04:51My father was a butcher.

0:04:54 > 0:04:58And it was...very, very, very hard work.

0:05:00 > 0:05:05It was assumed that we had to help out in the family business.

0:05:05 > 0:05:07That was my childhood.

0:05:09 > 0:05:13My elder brothers and my father, they all thought it was a joke.

0:05:13 > 0:05:16You don't make a living out of art.

0:05:19 > 0:05:22My two great bulwarks were my mother

0:05:22 > 0:05:25and my art teacher at grammar school,

0:05:25 > 0:05:30who had identified me as somebody who really wanted to do it,

0:05:30 > 0:05:32and gave me the keys to the art room

0:05:32 > 0:05:35and the keys to the materials cupboards in the art room.

0:05:35 > 0:05:38That was serious encouragement.

0:05:40 > 0:05:43So, we were told, if we wanted to live in this building,

0:05:43 > 0:05:46that we'd got to put a fire stair here.

0:05:49 > 0:05:53But it also becomes a nice gallery, and one can hang a big picture here,

0:05:53 > 0:05:57see it from up there and see it from down below.

0:05:57 > 0:05:59There's a little etching here

0:05:59 > 0:06:01of Stac Lee and Stac an Armin at St Kilda.

0:06:01 > 0:06:06I let my assistant choose to keep changing what's in here,

0:06:06 > 0:06:09and she brings out things I'd forgotten I'd done sometimes.

0:06:09 > 0:06:11That is the...

0:06:11 > 0:06:13Bishop Rock in the Scilly Isles -

0:06:13 > 0:06:16the most southwesterly point of the British Isles.

0:06:40 > 0:06:43If you go to the extreme northern point of the British Isles,

0:06:43 > 0:06:46which is the northern point of the Shetland Isles,

0:06:46 > 0:06:50there's a little run of rocks

0:06:50 > 0:06:53with a lighthouse on it. It's called Muckle Flugga.

0:06:53 > 0:06:56It's absolutely spectacular.

0:07:03 > 0:07:06And this is really an image that I absolutely love.

0:07:06 > 0:07:10I've been wanting to do this big copper plate of the image

0:07:10 > 0:07:11for a long time.

0:07:12 > 0:07:15Really, I've been drawing on this plate now,

0:07:15 > 0:07:17on and off, for three or four days.

0:07:20 > 0:07:23The first etchings were done on armour.

0:07:23 > 0:07:25The king would have his armour all engraved,

0:07:25 > 0:07:26you know, to make it look good.

0:07:26 > 0:07:29And the next level down in society would have it etched.

0:07:29 > 0:07:32It's a little bit like going to Burton's for your suit.

0:07:34 > 0:07:38Engraving is engraved with a V-shaped tool,

0:07:38 > 0:07:41cutting into the metal, rather than cutting into the metal with acid.

0:07:41 > 0:07:44Etching is engraving with acid.

0:07:50 > 0:07:53It's a great medium. I just love the medium of etching.

0:07:53 > 0:07:57I've never tired of it from when I first did it 50-odd years ago.

0:07:59 > 0:08:02A print from an etching, of course, is a reverse of the plate.

0:08:02 > 0:08:04It prints from the plate. It's a direct print.

0:08:04 > 0:08:07So when you're working from drawings

0:08:07 > 0:08:10or something that needs to be the right way round,

0:08:10 > 0:08:12and you want some kind of reference,

0:08:12 > 0:08:14you've got to take that reference

0:08:14 > 0:08:16in the mirror,

0:08:16 > 0:08:19so that it's the same way round as the plate.

0:08:22 > 0:08:25I don't think about the marks I'm making. I let the marks happen.

0:08:25 > 0:08:30There's a huge desire to make the marks. That's the heart.

0:08:30 > 0:08:32I let the eye look at it

0:08:32 > 0:08:36and the hand just do what the eye and heart wants.

0:08:37 > 0:08:41And I just respond to it, because I feel I want to do it.

0:08:41 > 0:08:43So it's very instinctive.

0:08:49 > 0:08:50I want to...

0:08:50 > 0:08:52just have a look and see...

0:08:53 > 0:08:55I think that's got to be right.

0:08:55 > 0:08:56Got to be right.

0:08:58 > 0:08:59I'm sure I've got it.

0:09:08 > 0:09:13This is almost, to me, you see, a bit like music. It's very abstract.

0:09:13 > 0:09:17Although it's hanging on a particular piece of geology,

0:09:17 > 0:09:20I'm actually after something that is abstract.

0:09:20 > 0:09:22I'm not after representing this.

0:09:22 > 0:09:26Ultimately, everything I do has got an abstract basis.

0:09:26 > 0:09:29I mean, that one is two triangles.

0:09:29 > 0:09:32But it's a very abstract image, if you look at it.

0:09:32 > 0:09:34Do you...?

0:09:34 > 0:09:35I can see it now.

0:09:35 > 0:09:38And there is that kind of...

0:09:38 > 0:09:39something in it.

0:09:39 > 0:09:41You know?

0:09:41 > 0:09:43In most of the things that I do,

0:09:43 > 0:09:45it's got a kind of balance.

0:09:45 > 0:09:48But it's based on something that really exists

0:09:48 > 0:09:50and I quite like that. You know?

0:10:00 > 0:10:02I was very, very lucky

0:10:02 > 0:10:05to arrive at the Royal College of Art in 1961.

0:10:08 > 0:10:11I arrived at the Royal College of Art for my first term,

0:10:11 > 0:10:14and I don't think anybody could understand a word I said.

0:10:15 > 0:10:18There seemed to be all sorts of really fashionable, smart people.

0:10:18 > 0:10:22They'd all been watching too much Noel Coward or something.

0:10:22 > 0:10:23At first, it was quite frightening.

0:10:23 > 0:10:27But I gradually looked at what everybody was doing,

0:10:27 > 0:10:30and thought, "Well, I'm as good as all this lot. Better, maybe."

0:10:33 > 0:10:36The Royal College of Art became the centre of so much

0:10:36 > 0:10:38in the '60s.

0:10:38 > 0:10:42You know...art, music, and everything.

0:10:42 > 0:10:44It was really blossoming.

0:10:44 > 0:10:47People were going off in all sorts of directions.

0:10:47 > 0:10:48It was the Pop Art movement.

0:10:48 > 0:10:51I did all sorts of funny things, like...

0:10:51 > 0:10:56You know, but generally, landscape was always what...

0:10:56 > 0:10:58I'd get excited by.

0:11:01 > 0:11:02Right.

0:11:11 > 0:11:14This really is the etching factory.

0:11:14 > 0:11:19This is where all the acid work goes, the printing.

0:11:19 > 0:11:21Mainly drawing on the floor above.

0:11:21 > 0:11:24Drawing of the plates and things.

0:11:24 > 0:11:27Here, we do all the processing of the copper.

0:11:32 > 0:11:36I've just ground up some very fine pine resin.

0:11:36 > 0:11:40And I want to lay a very fine layer of it on that plate.

0:11:41 > 0:11:45Aquatint is almost like a random half-tone.

0:11:45 > 0:11:48You let the resin fall on the plate very evenly

0:11:48 > 0:11:49and then you melt it.

0:11:49 > 0:11:52I'll be melting it with the gas poker.

0:11:52 > 0:11:55And then it looks like the surface of fine sandpaper.

0:11:55 > 0:11:59And then, when the acid acts on it, it gets in between the dots.

0:11:59 > 0:12:02It's almost like a wash. It's almost like watercolour,

0:12:02 > 0:12:03if you do it properly.

0:12:04 > 0:12:07The resin comes in lumps, like that.

0:12:07 > 0:12:10It's the resin that you rub on violin bows.

0:12:10 > 0:12:11So it's very brittle.

0:12:15 > 0:12:18You can grind it, and then you know that it's really fine and dry.

0:12:18 > 0:12:23Because I want to get a really beautiful, fine aquatint

0:12:23 > 0:12:24on the plate.

0:12:26 > 0:12:28There was always a problem with etching and engraving -

0:12:28 > 0:12:31how to get whole areas of tone.

0:12:31 > 0:12:32In Rembrandt's time,

0:12:32 > 0:12:35Rembrandt just used to cross-hatch by furring up the plate.

0:12:35 > 0:12:38But there's arguments about who first invented aquatint.

0:12:38 > 0:12:40The French say it was them,

0:12:40 > 0:12:45but I've seen aquatints that were done in this county in about 1670.

0:12:47 > 0:12:49So I put some of it in the box,

0:12:49 > 0:12:51and this box, you've got a paddle wheel in it,

0:12:51 > 0:12:54which really activates the resin.

0:12:54 > 0:12:58And it comes out like a beautiful, even layer of snow on the plate.

0:12:59 > 0:13:01And then you wind the paddle wheel.

0:13:06 > 0:13:08That resin that I've just ground

0:13:08 > 0:13:11is now up there.

0:13:11 > 0:13:14When I open the door, you can see the cloud of resin.

0:13:23 > 0:13:26That's...that's perfect.

0:13:27 > 0:13:29Now, it should be ready in about ten minutes,

0:13:29 > 0:13:32but it doesn't matter if it's there for three or four hours.

0:13:32 > 0:13:33All right? All that happens

0:13:33 > 0:13:36is the really fine stuff carries on settling.

0:13:59 > 0:14:01This is Jose's.

0:14:13 > 0:14:14This is my cafe.

0:14:16 > 0:14:17HE CHUCKLES

0:14:19 > 0:14:22By one o'clock, this place is shoulder to shoulder.

0:14:22 > 0:14:26So I've come in while it's quiet, and maybe have a read of the paper

0:14:26 > 0:14:29and think about what I've been doing.

0:14:29 > 0:14:34And then I'm probably going out just as it's getting solid.

0:14:36 > 0:14:38It's absolutely stunning, and it's a great bonus for me,

0:14:38 > 0:14:40because it's just across the road.

0:14:40 > 0:14:43If I've been up since half past five, working,

0:14:43 > 0:14:46sometimes, if I've had a really good morning,

0:14:46 > 0:14:49I think, "Well, that's it."

0:14:49 > 0:14:53And I'll come and have really nice...two or three tapas here

0:14:53 > 0:14:56and then I'll maybe go and do something quieter in the afternoon.

0:14:59 > 0:15:01When people come to see me, I bring them in here

0:15:01 > 0:15:03as well.

0:15:05 > 0:15:07Lovely, thank you.

0:15:07 > 0:15:09I'm thinking maybe a glass of...

0:15:09 > 0:15:11the Flower and the Bee, the Souson?

0:15:11 > 0:15:12I...I'm, er...

0:15:12 > 0:15:14I might not be drinking this lunchtime.

0:15:14 > 0:15:17- OK?- That's fine.- We'll think about it. Thanks.

0:15:17 > 0:15:18Thanks.

0:15:21 > 0:15:24I'm not drinking, because I'm using acid.

0:15:24 > 0:15:26And I might be using the press.

0:15:28 > 0:15:32And, er...it's like drinking and driving. You don't etch and drink.

0:15:34 > 0:15:36This is fantastic ham.

0:15:38 > 0:15:40Have a slice, go on.

0:15:44 > 0:15:47One of the great things about etching is you can't rush it.

0:15:48 > 0:15:51And so there becomes times just like this

0:15:51 > 0:15:54when you've just got to take a break.

0:15:54 > 0:15:55Yeah?

0:15:55 > 0:15:59And that's one of the great bonuses of the process,

0:15:59 > 0:16:02because you've got time to... Again, time to think about it,

0:16:02 > 0:16:04reflect on what you're doing

0:16:04 > 0:16:05and get back in the zone

0:16:05 > 0:16:09about how you're going to use the acid on the plate,

0:16:09 > 0:16:10because...

0:16:10 > 0:16:14the use of the acid, the etching of the plate,

0:16:14 > 0:16:16is absolutely crucial.

0:16:16 > 0:16:20It's got to be done with great delicacy and timing.

0:16:21 > 0:16:23The great disaster is to over-etch,

0:16:23 > 0:16:25over-bite the plate,

0:16:25 > 0:16:28because you just can't go backwards.

0:16:28 > 0:16:31So you really are on a high wire

0:16:31 > 0:16:33when you're using the acid.

0:16:38 > 0:16:42I went and lived in New York for a few months.

0:16:42 > 0:16:44This was about 1970.

0:16:44 > 0:16:46And worked there,

0:16:46 > 0:16:48to see if I...

0:16:48 > 0:16:50At that time, it wasn't out of the question

0:16:50 > 0:16:53that I would actually go and live in America.

0:16:54 > 0:16:56I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

0:16:56 > 0:16:59There was so much going on in America.

0:16:59 > 0:17:02You read about it in the magazines and everything

0:17:02 > 0:17:04and the artists who were over there,

0:17:04 > 0:17:06and what life was like in Manhattan.

0:17:06 > 0:17:08And, er...

0:17:08 > 0:17:12quite a lot of my contemporaries had gone over there,

0:17:12 > 0:17:13were going over there.

0:17:13 > 0:17:15So I really wanted to go.

0:17:15 > 0:17:18MUSIC: "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield

0:17:40 > 0:17:43# Darkest of night With the moon shining bright

0:17:43 > 0:17:47# There's a set goin' strong Lotta things goin' on

0:17:48 > 0:17:51# The man of the hour Has an air of great power

0:17:51 > 0:17:54# The dudes have envied him for so long

0:17:56 > 0:17:58# Oh, Superfly

0:17:59 > 0:18:01# You're gonna make your fortune by and by

0:18:02 > 0:18:05# But if you lose Don't ask no questions why

0:18:07 > 0:18:09# The only game you know is Do or Die

0:18:09 > 0:18:12# Ah, ah, ah... #

0:18:12 > 0:18:14And then I woke up one morning and I think...

0:18:14 > 0:18:18"No, this is too hysterical for my mentality."

0:18:18 > 0:18:19You know?

0:18:19 > 0:18:23And I suddenly... The pull was not just homesickness,

0:18:23 > 0:18:25there was something else.

0:18:29 > 0:18:31Now we're melting that resin.

0:18:36 > 0:18:38We'll see it melting. Can you see it melting?

0:18:41 > 0:18:44And when it melts, it forms into small globules,

0:18:44 > 0:18:46and it's almost like a random...

0:18:47 > 0:18:48..half-tone.

0:18:49 > 0:18:50That is perfect.

0:18:50 > 0:18:52That's done.

0:19:02 > 0:19:05Now the acid's going into the plate, OK?

0:19:06 > 0:19:10The acid is etching between the grains of the aquatint we put on.

0:19:10 > 0:19:12And so it will grip.

0:19:12 > 0:19:15The ink will grip. If we didn't have the aquatint on,

0:19:15 > 0:19:17it would just take the surface of the plate down

0:19:17 > 0:19:20and it wouldn't hold any ink, so there'd be no tone.

0:19:23 > 0:19:25I know this image so well now that I...

0:19:25 > 0:19:28that I can find my way around it, you know?

0:19:29 > 0:19:32It's really on the...on the retina.

0:19:34 > 0:19:36People etch in different ways, OK?

0:19:36 > 0:19:38And so...

0:19:38 > 0:19:42And some people really like knocking the plate flat

0:19:42 > 0:19:47and burnishing it. I prefer treating it almost like painting.

0:19:47 > 0:19:49- OK.- How do you know it's ready?

0:19:49 > 0:19:51It's just a guess.

0:19:51 > 0:19:56I don't have any kind of great career plan. Never have.

0:19:56 > 0:19:58I came back and just got on with it, really.

0:19:58 > 0:20:02Only about six months after I'd come back from Manhattan,

0:20:02 > 0:20:05I decided to go to the Orkney Islands. I remember.

0:20:05 > 0:20:07And I went up and...

0:20:07 > 0:20:11and was absolutely astounded by the Orkney Islands.

0:20:20 > 0:20:22Going round and seeing the Old Man of Hoy emerge.

0:20:25 > 0:20:27Standing there, sentient,

0:20:27 > 0:20:31against the cliffs of St John's Head.

0:20:31 > 0:20:33And you think, "This is spectacular."

0:20:33 > 0:20:36As soon as I got there, I went down to the pub

0:20:36 > 0:20:38and I found the fishermen.

0:20:38 > 0:20:41They said, "Come down at half past three, four o'clock in the morning.

0:20:41 > 0:20:43"Bring yourself a sandwich."

0:20:43 > 0:20:45And we went out into the Atlantic,

0:20:45 > 0:20:49right underneath the Old Man of Hoy and underneath the cliffs.

0:20:49 > 0:20:51It was fantastic.

0:20:51 > 0:20:53And they're shooting lobster creels,

0:20:53 > 0:20:57and I'm sitting up on the top of the housing,

0:20:57 > 0:21:00because they wanted me out of the way, drawing.

0:21:00 > 0:21:03And I thought, "I actually feel...

0:21:03 > 0:21:05"this is what I should be doing."

0:21:05 > 0:21:08I wanted to squeeze the essence out of it

0:21:08 > 0:21:10and put it down in a very elegant and simple way.

0:21:14 > 0:21:17You know, I'm going to take pot luck that I've got it.

0:21:18 > 0:21:21OK? It's a matter of making decisions.

0:21:21 > 0:21:23And you can over-etch, as well.

0:21:23 > 0:21:26And sometimes probably it's better to under-etch.

0:21:28 > 0:21:31The number of times I've finished a plate, not knowing it.

0:21:31 > 0:21:32I've gone on and added another state,

0:21:32 > 0:21:34and I've come back, "God, I've finished it!"

0:21:34 > 0:21:36And you've done too much.

0:21:40 > 0:21:43Oh, God, it's good. It doesn't need to be any further.

0:21:47 > 0:21:49It's a wonderful medium!

0:21:49 > 0:21:51It's absolutely... Look what's happening there.

0:21:51 > 0:21:54That copper - and there's a ghost of an image coming in it.

0:21:54 > 0:21:55Can you see it?

0:21:56 > 0:21:58There's the lighthouse.

0:22:00 > 0:22:01There.

0:22:05 > 0:22:09It could be very, very nice and soft, could this.

0:22:17 > 0:22:22This is a wonderful sea chart of the whole of the British archipelago.

0:22:24 > 0:22:26Each of the pins is where I've actually made etchings.

0:22:26 > 0:22:29The plate that we're working on is right up here,

0:22:29 > 0:22:32the most northerly point of the British Isles.

0:22:32 > 0:22:36The Shetland Islands. The top island of Shetland is Unst.

0:22:36 > 0:22:39And off there is the most northerly rocks.

0:22:42 > 0:22:45I don't have any kind of grand plan.

0:22:45 > 0:22:48I just go where instinct takes me.

0:22:48 > 0:22:52And I just want to see what they call the "outliers",

0:22:52 > 0:22:57the last little bits of land sticking up out of the ocean.

0:22:57 > 0:22:58And, er...

0:22:58 > 0:23:00I just wanted to go to them.

0:23:00 > 0:23:04And then it sort of made a set, it made a group.

0:23:04 > 0:23:08It made a kind of idea that I got quite excited about.

0:23:09 > 0:23:11This little group of islands sitting off the edge of Europe,

0:23:11 > 0:23:14which sits on the end of Asia

0:23:14 > 0:23:17and then you've got 3,000 miles of ocean

0:23:17 > 0:23:19until you come to the Americas.

0:23:19 > 0:23:21So it really is the edge of everything.

0:23:34 > 0:23:36HE WHISTLES SOFTLY

0:23:37 > 0:23:40Ink mix 18, 1, 13.

0:23:40 > 0:23:43It's made out of natural blacks.

0:23:44 > 0:23:46There's bone black, vine black.

0:23:46 > 0:23:49But how you make it... You burn something like bone

0:23:49 > 0:23:54or vine leaves, so you get vine black, bone black.

0:23:54 > 0:23:57Peach black, from peach stones.

0:23:57 > 0:23:58You know?

0:23:58 > 0:24:01And it's not just that they're slightly different colours.

0:24:01 > 0:24:03Some are grittier than others.

0:24:03 > 0:24:05Some are softer.

0:24:05 > 0:24:07This is Beaujeu black. It's a French black.

0:24:07 > 0:24:10But then I'd mix it with some pure carmine pigment.

0:24:10 > 0:24:12And carmine has got a lot of elasticity

0:24:12 > 0:24:16and will stretch through a soft aquatint very nicely.

0:24:16 > 0:24:18So we mix some pure carmine in with it.

0:24:18 > 0:24:21I'm hoping to get something really soft.

0:24:27 > 0:24:31Now, you can start to see the image coming up as it's going to print.

0:24:31 > 0:24:33OK? Hopefully.

0:24:36 > 0:24:37Oh, that's lovely.

0:25:05 > 0:25:08God, it runs so beautifully.

0:25:09 > 0:25:11It's effortless, isn't it?

0:25:12 > 0:25:14I've put a hell of a lot of work into this.

0:25:14 > 0:25:16And it could be a disaster.

0:25:16 > 0:25:19On the other hand, if it's not... If it's...

0:25:19 > 0:25:22If it's a good state on the way...

0:25:23 > 0:25:24..it's, um...

0:25:24 > 0:25:27It's a day well spent.

0:25:51 > 0:25:53It just needs a little bit more nip.

0:25:53 > 0:25:55But it's not bad, you know.

0:25:59 > 0:26:01And it needs another...

0:26:01 > 0:26:03Just a thicker blanket on the back.

0:26:05 > 0:26:06That's a good start.

0:26:08 > 0:26:10There's a few little things need adjusting.

0:26:10 > 0:26:13But as a first state...

0:26:14 > 0:26:16..that'll do.

0:26:16 > 0:26:19There's various things need polishing out here.

0:26:19 > 0:26:21But the general structure of it is...

0:26:21 > 0:26:23is quite nice.

0:26:26 > 0:26:27So it's a good start.

0:26:28 > 0:26:31I'm actually starting to feel very happy with it.

0:26:31 > 0:26:33But it's only just registering.

0:26:33 > 0:26:36I'm starting to feel all right about it.

0:26:39 > 0:26:42It's got a kind of simplicity, hasn't it, really?

0:26:47 > 0:26:50The journey you've taken to get to this stage...

0:26:50 > 0:26:52- It's quite epic.- Yeah.

0:26:53 > 0:26:56But there's not much else to do, is there?

0:26:58 > 0:27:00Keeps me out of bother.

0:27:00 > 0:27:01To some extent.

0:27:05 > 0:27:06It's, er...

0:27:06 > 0:27:09It's a great medium, you know, and it's...

0:27:09 > 0:27:12It's actually fantastic to be able to do it for a living.

0:27:12 > 0:27:13I never forget that.

0:27:13 > 0:27:14You know?

0:27:14 > 0:27:18To be able to do this for a living is just fantastic.

0:27:21 > 0:27:23I do love this map.

0:27:23 > 0:27:26I can live on this map, almost.

0:27:27 > 0:27:30All my life I've wanted to explore it,

0:27:30 > 0:27:33and also, when I got there, I found there was great subject matter.

0:27:35 > 0:27:37HE WHISTLES SOFTLY

0:27:44 > 0:27:46HE HUMS "Sailing By"

0:27:51 > 0:27:54RADIO: 'Becoming variable 4 in southeast Iceland.

0:27:54 > 0:27:57'Wintry showers, moderate or good.

0:27:58 > 0:28:01'Now the weather reports from coastal stations for 2300.

0:28:01 > 0:28:05'Tiree Automatic, west by south 4,

0:28:05 > 0:28:08'five miles, 995, falling slightly.

0:28:08 > 0:28:10'Stornoway northeast 5...'

0:28:10 > 0:28:14So many places I still want to go to and I've never even set foot on.

0:28:14 > 0:28:18There's enough stuff here for a dozen lifetimes.

0:28:18 > 0:28:20You know?

0:28:20 > 0:28:23I'm just...I'm just scratching the surface, really.

0:28:23 > 0:28:27HE WHISTLES

0:28:28 > 0:28:30RADIO: '..falling slowly.

0:28:30 > 0:28:33'Aberdeen, southwest by south 2,

0:28:33 > 0:28:38'16 miles, 994, falling slowly.

0:28:38 > 0:28:43'Leuchars, west-southwest 5, 21 miles, 996,

0:28:43 > 0:28:44'falling slowly.

0:28:44 > 0:28:51'Bulmer, southwest by west 5, ten miles, 999, falling slowly...'

0:28:51 > 0:28:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd