0:00:10 > 0:00:15We used to picnic where the thrift grew deep and tufted to the edge.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20We saw the yellow foam flakes drift in trembling sponges on the ledge below us
0:00:20 > 0:00:24till the wind would lift them up the cliff and o'er the hedge.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea, sun on our bathing dresses
0:00:28 > 0:00:32heavy with the wet, squelch of the bladder-wrack waiting for the sea,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35fleas round the tamarisk, an early cigarette.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55In the late 1960s, I was an undergraduate at Oxford doing English,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59and I was really into people like TS Eliot, Sylvia Plath,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02and the girls were into Leonard Cohen, of course.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07If you wanted to get anywhere with them, you had to be in with Leonard, too. Very gloomy.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11So the thought of a very optimistic poet like John Betjeman,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14when he was talking about village steeples
0:01:14 > 0:01:19and holidaymakers in the sand, and splendour, splendour everywhere, it would not have worked.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22But I've lived here in Cornwall ever since university,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26and in fact, John Betjeman lived just over Bray Hill over there.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30Everything he wrote about in his poetry, the sun, the sea,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34the larks in the sky, the lark sang melodious, the blue sky,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37it's all in those poems, so no wonder I'm such a fan.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41I feel I've got something in common with Sir John.
0:01:41 > 0:01:47Both our families originated in Germany, and both found a sense of escape in Cornwall.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49My father and uncle built a house here,
0:01:49 > 0:01:54and it became a haven that I was to enjoy for most of my early life.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59John Betjeman's retreat was on the other side of the estuary, but he knew Padstow well.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01I'm getting to know the man behind the poem
0:02:01 > 0:02:07by finding people who knew him and really understood his affection for this part of the world.
0:02:07 > 0:02:13My idea is to cook them a celebratory centenary meal in his honour, the sort of food
0:02:13 > 0:02:16he'd enjoy for himself after a day's surfing at Polzeath Beach,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20or just wondering amongst the tamarisk, searching for a muse.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24It's funny, really. There's loads of books about John Betjeman's life
0:02:24 > 0:02:29and poetry, but not many of them give a clue about what he would like to eat.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31I really hope he liked fish.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41When I was about 15, I started reading John Betjeman's poetry,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44especially his Cornish verse.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48They were so much better read by firelight in the depth of winter.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53They bring to life the sights and sounds and smells
0:02:53 > 0:02:55of a Cornish beach, nobody does it better.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59And it's on that long train journey from Paddington down to Cornwall
0:02:59 > 0:03:03that you get that first exciting glimpse of the sea,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06when the train approaches Dawlish, to disgorge holidaymakers
0:03:06 > 0:03:10from London, the Midlands and all points east.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14It's where the smell of ozone, seaweed and suntan lotion
0:03:14 > 0:03:18fill the carriages with optimism for the family holiday to come.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23He captured the very essence of the British seaside holiday,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26right down to the dinner gong in the guest house,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30days of messing about on deckchairs, sandcastles, rock pools,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34swims before afternoon tea - weather permitting, of course.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38If you continue down the line, you can lose yourself
0:03:38 > 0:03:41in an altogether more solitary and magical place.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52There's something about Cornwall that's always excited artists and writers.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57It's to do with the quality of the light and the wild, romantic nature of the place.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Regardless of where we come from,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Cornwall touches a nerve in all of us.
0:04:03 > 0:04:09Betjeman instinctively knew the sheer joy of just being by the sea.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17George III took the seaside cure for biliousness.
0:04:17 > 0:04:23We need the seaside cure for relief from anxiety and tension.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28We need it to realise there's something greater than ourselves,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31even if it only comes in little things.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Turf, scented with thyme and mushrooms.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The feel of firm sand underfoot.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41The ripple of an incoming tide.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44A salt breeze, the smell of seaweed.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48That's where the cure is, at the sea's edge.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01I've known about this so-called seaside cure all of my life,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03and it's really at the very core of my being
0:05:03 > 0:05:05and my business here in Padstow.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08I was brought up in Oxfordshire a long way from the sea,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11and like John Betjeman, I was sent away
0:05:11 > 0:05:15from home to a boarding school and couldn't wait to tick off the days
0:05:15 > 0:05:17until the summer holidays came around,
0:05:17 > 0:05:22and the family would all troop down to Padstow for the best time ever.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Escape. Escape from the holiday crowds.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35Over Saltash Bridge.
0:05:35 > 0:05:43Saltash Bridge by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 1859,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47the first railway link between Cornwall and England.
0:05:47 > 0:05:53Cornwall - not another county, another country.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57For years, an all-day journey by train,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00and a wild reward at the end of it.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12I happen to know that this was John Betjeman's favourite train journey.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14Well, of course it was.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Going over the Tamar is still a magical experience for me,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19just as it was for him.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22But what he liked particularly was the journey from Waterloo,
0:06:22 > 0:06:28all the way to the utter endness of the end of the line at Padstow.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32In fact, when I was young, I used to do that journey, too.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36It took forever, it took about nine hours, and all the way down,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39you'd be shedding carriages, and the train would get smaller.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44As you went over that last bridge into Padstow, there were just two carriages on it.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48He wrote about it so nicely in Summoned By Bells,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50and here's a bit from it:
0:06:50 > 0:06:55"The long express from Waterloo that takes us down to Cornwall.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58"Teatime shows the small fields waiting,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03"every blackthorn hedge straining inland before the south-west gale."
0:07:03 > 0:07:05He's so good at summing things up.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08I'm right in a Cornish gale, a gale of wind there.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12"The emptying train, wind in the ventilators,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14"puffs out of Egloskerry to Tresmeer,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18"through minty meadows, under bearded trees and hills
0:07:18 > 0:07:23"upon whose sides the clinging farms hold Bible Christians."
0:07:23 > 0:07:28Can it really be that this same carriage came from Waterloo?
0:07:31 > 0:07:37On Wadebridge station, what a breath of sea scented the Camel Valley.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42Cornish air, soft Cornish rains, and silence after steam,
0:07:42 > 0:07:47as out of Derry's stable came the break to drag us up
0:07:47 > 0:07:51those long, familiar hills, past haunted woods,
0:07:51 > 0:07:57and oil-lit farms, and on to far Trebetherick by the sounding sea.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09This is the Camel estuary,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13which provided John Betjeman with much of his inspiration.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16This place gave him a sense of freedom,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19a release from an unhappy childhood in London,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21and he's never really left it.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25He's buried here, in the middle of the golf course,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29in a little graveyard beside his beloved St Enodoc.
0:08:34 > 0:08:40Thanks to that so-called expert on railways in the sixties, Dr Beeching,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44the London train no longer goes to the utter endness
0:08:44 > 0:08:46of the end of the line in Padstow.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49The old railway track is now a cycle trail.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Well, it suits me.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Apparently, the young Betjeman thought nothing of cycling
0:08:54 > 0:08:5815 or 20 miles a day around the lanes of Cornwall,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00searching for wild flowers and churches.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05The open air was warm and heavy with the scent of flowering mint,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08and all the baking countryside was kind.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11I get the feeling he was a bit of a loner as a lad,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15and not too fond of organised games, or organised anything, come to that.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20Like me, he needed a bolt hole, somewhere to be quiet and apart.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22It was the same in later life.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25This was his home in Daymer Lane, here in Trebetherick,
0:09:25 > 0:09:30a welcome retreat from London life where he did a lot of his writing.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37Down the bottom of the lane is St Enodoc church, with its witches hat.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41That's his mother there. And this is Cliff Snell.
0:09:41 > 0:09:47He retired to Wadebridge 20 years ago, and although he never met JB,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49he's become something of an authority,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53and is a popular guide for the many tourists who visit his grave.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56If you go back to the early 1900s,
0:09:56 > 0:10:02he was living a very repressive life in Highgate, going to school,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04which he didn't like particularly,
0:10:04 > 0:10:09and then suddenly to come down here by train, which he adored,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11and he'd come out by horse and cart -
0:10:11 > 0:10:15that's all the taxis were in those days - and then can you imagine
0:10:15 > 0:10:19waking up next morning and running down to the high tide,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21over this particular spot?
0:10:21 > 0:10:24He loved it when it was low tide because he could see
0:10:24 > 0:10:28nobody else had been on that sand at all except himself.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Can you imagine the young boy looking behind
0:10:30 > 0:10:33and seeing his footmarks all the way down to the sea?
0:10:33 > 0:10:36I think the reason I like him so much
0:10:36 > 0:10:39is because I had similar feelings.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42I remember me and my sister squabbling about who'd be
0:10:42 > 0:10:46the first to see the sea when we drove in the old Jaguar.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48It was somewhere between Wadebridge and Padstow.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Because I was older, I knew where I could see the sea,
0:10:52 > 0:10:53and she used to get so cross.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58Can't you remember the sheer joy of suddenly there was the sea,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01as he says, on Wadebridge station?
0:11:01 > 0:11:04"What a breath of sea, the scent of the Camel Valley."
0:11:04 > 0:11:08I can remember that. Suddenly, somewhere, that's the sea.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11And he wasn't on his own, friends used to come as well.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14He preferred going out on his own,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17but he loved to have afternoon picnics on the sand.
0:11:17 > 0:11:23The whole thing was childhood as it should be today but no longer is.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Here I am down in Cornwall.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33It's the most precious fortnight in the year for me.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38I can't help coming down here every year without fail.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43The outline of the hills seen through the windows there,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47and Padstow, far off across the estuary are still the same,
0:11:47 > 0:11:53and so are the smells of sea and thyme-scented turf on these cliffs.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57The Atlantic and the sands are still the same.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00They can't build on them, thank goodness.
0:12:01 > 0:12:08He has captured a whole age of the '20s and '30s, tennis girls,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11gin and lime, the Six o'clock News,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15"Miss J Hunter Dunn, furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun,
0:12:15 > 0:12:19"what strenuous singles we played after tea.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22"We in the tournaments, you against me."
0:12:22 > 0:12:27All those gorgeous things. He talks about going into the cool veranda
0:12:27 > 0:12:32for a lime juice and gin, and then listening to the Six o'clock News.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Of course, when I came here nearly 50 years ago,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40there were hardly any houses, and the fields now are all
0:12:40 > 0:12:45peppered with villas, and I can remember it as just two farms.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50And now, though I'm old and fat and ugly, I can still enjoy
0:12:50 > 0:12:54as intensely as I did when a child all those little things
0:12:54 > 0:12:58that make Cornwall so different from England.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03I see it all as I used to know it in the days of horse breaks,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07and silence, silence except for the sound of the wind
0:13:07 > 0:13:10in the tamarisk and the crash of the waves.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15We weren't Cornish, any of us, we were visitors,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19and we came here for Easter and summer holidays.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24And those gardens, which seemed so enormous then,
0:13:24 > 0:13:29are full of the ghosts of hide and seek and treasure hunts.
0:13:32 > 0:13:38I think most people liked him because he was a popular poet.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42Ordinary people can understand the surface of the poetry.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45If you want to look deeper, you can do,
0:13:45 > 0:13:50and there's usually quite a dark strain underneath.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53A rather melancholy man sometimes. Yes, I think he's melancholy,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55but I mean that in a way I totally understand.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00I just wonder why poetry has to be difficult to be serious.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02Exactly. He was very pleased...
0:14:02 > 0:14:06When he eventually wrote his autobiography, Summoned By Bells,
0:14:06 > 0:14:11which is wonderful, that was received with acclaim the worldwide over.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15I think that took away some of the worry about his previous work
0:14:15 > 0:14:19being dismissed as not very good.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26His peculiarly English light verse always managed to capture a popular mood, and he loved nothing more than
0:14:26 > 0:14:30to have a mischievous dig at middle class pretensions.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35I think the problem with Betjeman is that he can be very funny,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39and it's not considered serious enough in a poet to make us laugh.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42But this just makes me laugh so much.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46He must have written this for Joyce Grenfell. It's called Hunter Trials.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Just listen to some of these verses.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53"It's awfully bad luck on Diana, her ponies have swallowed their bits.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57"She fished down their throats with a spanner, and frightened them all into fits.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02"Just look at Prunella on Guzzle, the wizardest pony on earth.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06"Why doesn't she slacken his muzzle and tighten the breech in his girth?
0:15:06 > 0:15:11"I say, Mummy, there's Mrs Geezer, and doesn't she look pretty sick?
0:15:11 > 0:15:15"I bet it's because Mona Lisa was hit on the hock with a brick."
0:15:16 > 0:15:20"Mrs Blewitt says Monica threw it, but Monica says it was Joan.
0:15:20 > 0:15:26"And Joan's very thick with Miss Blewitt, so Monica's sulking alone."
0:15:26 > 0:15:30I love the bit at the end. It says: "Oh, wasn't it naughty of Smudges?
0:15:30 > 0:15:32"Oh, Mummy, I'm sick with disgust.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37"She threw me in front of the judges and my silly old collarbone's bust."
0:15:41 > 0:15:44It's got to be Joyce Grenfell. You can hear her saying it!
0:15:49 > 0:15:53This is a bit at my expense, but we've just been having some lunch,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56and the crew and David, the producer, have just come up
0:15:56 > 0:16:01with this poem that they think Sir John might have penned himself.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05As you see, it's very much at my expense.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09"And pasty-munching tourists come to gaze at Stein's emporium.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14"With noses pressed to menu board, they work out what they might afford.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17"Hey, Dad, what's salt and pepper squid?
0:16:17 > 0:16:20"Forget it, son, it's 40 quid!"
0:16:20 > 0:16:22I'm not amused.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Like Sir John, I value these cliff walks.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31They are a good way to clear the head.
0:16:31 > 0:16:37It was the same walk to Tregardock that inspired Sir John to write a very dark poem indeed.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41A literary critic had slated his latest volume of poetry.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Well, I know what it feels like when some TV critic
0:16:44 > 0:16:47has a go at me and my dog.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50It really cuts you to the quick.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53They called Betjeman a lightweight versifier
0:16:53 > 0:16:56who kept to traditional verse forms and rhyming schemes -
0:16:56 > 0:17:00the very things we now cherish and celebrate.
0:17:00 > 0:17:06Scenery like this can often lift the spirits but equally can have an adverse effect.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08So he came here to Tregardock.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12It was a drizzly, foggy day which reflected his mood.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16He wrote, "Only the shore and cliffs are clear,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19"gigantic, slithering shelves of slate
0:17:19 > 0:17:24"in waiting awfulness appear like journalism full of hate."
0:17:24 > 0:17:29I think it reflects how depressed he was by these critics
0:17:29 > 0:17:32and he wanted to be a popular poet.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36There is nothing wrong with that. He was completely smashed by that.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38He was almost suicidal.
0:17:38 > 0:17:45The poem ends, "And I on my volcano edge exposed to ridicule and hate
0:17:45 > 0:17:50"still do not dare to leap the ledge and smash to pieces on the slate."
0:17:50 > 0:17:55But wounds heal and brighter moods roll in like the flooding tide.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand
0:18:02 > 0:18:07as they have done for centuries, as they will for centuries to come
0:18:07 > 0:18:14when not a soul is left to picnic on the blazing rocks and seaside is forgotten.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19Still the tides, consolingly disastrous, will return
0:18:19 > 0:18:24while the strange starfish, hugely magnified,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36Just as the dramatic scenery along this coast inspired some of Betjeman's greatest verse,
0:18:36 > 0:18:40it's also been responsible for my ongoing love of the sea
0:18:40 > 0:18:44and a desire to make the most of what comes out of it.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46OK, Chalks, let's try over here now.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51Like John Betjeman, I've been messing around in rock pools all my life.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Every one is a potential treasure trove, and of course,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58when you have a seafood restaurant it comes in very handy too -
0:18:58 > 0:19:02especially when the spider crabs are in season.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04Look at that.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Look at that beauty.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08They are good when cooked the Basque way
0:19:08 > 0:19:13with peppers and breadcrumbs and baked in the oven - sweet as a nut.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16But in Sir John's day, nobody ate spider crabs.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21They were regarded by the fishermen as a blinkin' nuisance and thrown over the side!
0:19:23 > 0:19:28One person who remembers those times on the beach long ago is Sue Harbor,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30the daughter of one of his best friends.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34He grew up with Dad on the beach, hence the crab hooks, prawning net,
0:19:34 > 0:19:40and the seaside poems and north Cornwall recollections. Everything.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44They just grew up... It was a slightly informal
0:19:44 > 0:19:51but very loving group, and that is why he writes about it with such fond memories.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55Waves full of treasure then were roaring up the beach,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59ropes round our mackintoshes, waders warm and dry,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02we waited for the wreckage to come swirling into reach,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Ralph, Vasey, Alastair, Biddy, John and I.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10The poem, Trebetherick, is one where he refers to his closest friends
0:20:10 > 0:20:15which includes Sue's father, so it has a particular resonance for her.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18That's her dad - the little boy at the end.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Blessed be St Enodoc, blessed be the wave...
0:20:21 > 0:20:28I read it at my mother's funeral recently. She and my father were dear friends of John's for ever.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30And reading that last verse,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34"Give to our children the happy times that you gave to Ralph,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36"Vasey, Alastair, Biddy, John and me,"
0:20:36 > 0:20:40really makes you choke because we've had beautiful times.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44We've done the same things with the crabbing, the prawning, looking for cowries.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49It's just handed down from generation to generation.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54Do you think people still look for cowries, and blue and green glass?
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Oh, you know about the blue glass. I was going to tell you about that!
0:20:58 > 0:21:03And it's extraordinary how long one would spend on the beach
0:21:03 > 0:21:06and the hoorahs, and how clever you were
0:21:06 > 0:21:08if you found this tiny speck.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11I imagine it was milk of magnesia...
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Bottles. Bottles. But sometimes it was those glass buoys.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19There were blue ones but they were very rare. They were magic on the tide line.
0:21:19 > 0:21:25That was gold-dust going along there and finding one, and you really were a hero for a week.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Now, all you get is plastic which John hated.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34As long as I can remember, I have come down on to one beach
0:21:34 > 0:21:39to look for cowries, which are very small shells.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44And I know just where to find them on the tide line.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47The shells themselves are coloured pale pink.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52The large shells we hardly notice at all.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55We weren't interested in them. Always looking for the small ones.
0:21:55 > 0:22:02And some of the larger cowries that you find have got freckles on them,
0:22:02 > 0:22:06just like the nose of a tennis girl.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10What was he like? He was so different from anything I'd ever met.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14I think I was really conscious of him, in person, when I was 10.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18He came to stay with us when we were in Bath.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21I grew up in a very
0:22:21 > 0:22:23well-organised, disciplined, naval family,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and everything was on time, and everything.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30John appeared and he burst out of his bedroom before
0:22:30 > 0:22:34he went to change and said, "Sheila, I've forgotten the bottom of my pyjamas!"
0:22:34 > 0:22:36That was the first thing.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Then he had just got an electric razor,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42he bought the razor and not the plug!
0:22:42 > 0:22:46He always had his trousers done up with the tie.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48He never had a belt. Why?
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I don't know. He was obviously eccentric in those days.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57He was gorgeous. He had the best chuckle I've ever heard in anybody.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01When he had a mild stroke in London we went to see him.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05You know when you take people a gift, and we didn't know what to take him
0:23:05 > 0:23:08because we didn't know how bad the stroke was.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Do you know what we took him? A bag of beach.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14We filled a polythene bag of Daymer Bay sand,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17and we put it on the bed and his hand came out
0:23:17 > 0:23:21and he knew what his bag of beach was. I bet he did.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Blessed be St Enodoc, blessed be the wave.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35Blessed be the springy turf, we pray, pray to thee,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39ask for our children all the happy days you gave
0:23:39 > 0:23:42to Ralph, Vasey, Alistair, Biddy, John and me.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53By the end of this programme, I would like to think
0:23:53 > 0:24:00I know enough about Sir John to produce the sort of celebratory centenary meal he loved to eat.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03I am pretty certain he'd like oysters.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08I certainly know he's got a penchant for champagne.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11I've heard he likes Dover sole cooked very simply,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13it's called sole bon femme,
0:24:13 > 0:24:19which means baked in the oven in the style of the good wife of the house.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22I don't know whether that is quite upmarket enough
0:24:22 > 0:24:24for this dinner for all his friends.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27But on the other hand, if I make it too upmarket,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29it will be too elaborate
0:24:29 > 0:24:32and it won't reflect the simplicity of his poetry.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36It is difficult but I think probably Dover sole,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40turbot or lobster has got to feature in it,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43and certainly nothing like a jus.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46I just imagine what he would think of that word.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Or indeed a pyramid of
0:24:49 > 0:24:52elaborate food on a plate.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58It doesn't get more Cornish - splits and jam and clotted cream.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Splits - they are not scones.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06They're the crowning glory of the Cornish cream tea - especially for those in the know.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12And, of course, the tea, Lapsang Souchong, Earl Grey - nah.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15I'd like to think that JB was a plain Typhoo man.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Sweet were the afternoons of treasure hunts
0:25:20 > 0:25:25And in the Oakleys' garden after tea, of splits and cream,
0:25:25 > 0:25:30Under old apple boughs with high tide offering prospects of a bathe,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33the winners had their prizes.
0:25:33 > 0:25:3890-year-old Molly Farmer is one of JB's oldest living friends.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40She remembers those sunny days at Trebetherick.
0:25:40 > 0:25:46I do remember my aunts were not very happy about the whole thing,
0:25:46 > 0:25:50because John was making people come to Trebetherick
0:25:50 > 0:25:55and my aunts didn't really like all these people coming.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57What? His friends or...
0:25:57 > 0:25:59No, these were tourists.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03Oh, I see.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07Oh, yes. That really was the beginning of
0:26:07 > 0:26:10John's poetry.
0:26:10 > 0:26:18He wrote about Trebetherick and all these different places, Polzeath and Padstow.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21And that is what bought the people down.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Good Lord, it's like me with my restaurants.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26I was going to say that. Two of a kind, really.
0:26:28 > 0:26:34But, with John, I would think he wouldn't even think of that. Course not.
0:26:34 > 0:26:41I don't know anything so exciting as getting a perfect surf.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Timing one's shoot-off
0:26:47 > 0:26:49from the waves.
0:26:50 > 0:26:52Riding along on the crest
0:26:52 > 0:26:55and coming far inshore.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02By Jove! That bald-headed fellow - it's me!
0:27:05 > 0:27:08He used to come and have picnics with us on the beach.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11He said the only time he got a good meal was when I came down
0:27:11 > 0:27:18and we would sit on the beach and he would come down in his raincoat, done up with string,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21because he wouldn't sew the buttons on.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24He made himself look like an old man
0:27:24 > 0:27:32and my youngest son once came up to me and said, "Is he so poor he can't put the buttons on?"
0:27:32 > 0:27:34"Can't you put them on?"
0:27:34 > 0:27:40I said, "No, the point of him being like that is so people don't come up and ask for his autograph."
0:27:40 > 0:27:45Even when he was surfing at Polzeath,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48people would wade into the water to get his autograph!
0:27:48 > 0:27:51I know. I am that soldier.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53Do you have that too? Yeah.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01The old harbour at Padstow had walls of slate and the slippery quay,
0:28:01 > 0:28:06made of upended slates, felt warm and smooth to feet that were bare.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11And then the streets of Padstow closed around us.
0:28:11 > 0:28:17That old house on the quay I always thought must once have been a monastery.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25The narrow streets of the fishing town were emptier then,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32but they are still very much the same.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37Though the shops were more resorted to in our day for useful things,
0:28:37 > 0:28:43for oil-lit houses, rather than for the souvenirs which fill them today.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47The popularity of Padstow lies within itself.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53It doesn't need John Betjeman or me, for that matter, to sing its praises.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59I was quite surprised to hear John Betjeman had got it in the neck
0:28:59 > 0:29:04from his Cornish friends and associates that he was popularising the place too much.
0:29:04 > 0:29:10I was also delighted because I had a feeling of affinity with him.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15The more I get to know about John Betjeman, the more I feel close to him,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18because people keep going on about "Padstein",
0:29:18 > 0:29:22because I've got a few modest businesses here.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27I find it quite embarrassing. I think the same thing's happened.
0:29:27 > 0:29:34All that John Betjeman did was to talk about a place he loved and that is exactly what I've done.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39I feel a bit confounded by people that say, "Oh, you made the place too popular."
0:29:39 > 0:29:41You think, what should I do?
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Just say, it's a terrible place, don't come here?!
0:29:50 > 0:29:54Much as I'd have you believe that every day's sunny in Cornwall, of course, it's not.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59It's often like this, where there's an awful lot of people on holiday
0:29:59 > 0:30:01rather bored with not a lot to do.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06And, as ever, John Betjeman summed it up perfectly.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12All put your macs on, run for shelter fast.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14Crouch where you like until it's fine again.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18Holiday cheerfulness is unsurpassed.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Why be put out by healthy English rain?
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Are we downhearted?
0:30:23 > 0:30:31No! We're happy still. We came here to enjoy ourselves, and we will.
0:30:31 > 0:30:37"Our lodging house, 10 minutes from the shore, still unprepared to make a picnic lunch,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41except by notice on the previous day." It's still the same.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46"And still on the bedroom wall, the list of rules. Don't waste the water.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51"It is pumped by hand. Don't throw old blades into the WC.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53"Don't keep the bathroom long.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58"And don't be late for meals. And don't hang swimsuits on the sills.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01"A line has been provided at the back.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04"Don't empty children's sandshoes in the hall.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06"Don't this, don't that."
0:31:06 > 0:31:12"Ah, still the same, the same as it was last year and the year before.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17"But rather more expensive now, of course."
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Queues for the cafes, and the seafront's bleak.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Go to the pictures then.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28I'm not complaining, but didn't I see that film the other week?
0:31:28 > 0:31:31As for our lodgings, we're in quite a fix.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35They never want us back till after six.
0:31:40 > 0:31:46What people really came to Cornwall for was picturesque villages.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Cornwall became an artists' paradise.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52And the amateur photographers' as well.
0:31:55 > 0:32:01The shrewd Cornish - independent, proud - cash in on the foreigners,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03and small blame to them.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06Plenty of car parks on the way to the quay
0:32:06 > 0:32:09and plenty of gift shops on the way to the car parks.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13It's economics, see.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Even in JB's time, holidaymakers would wander the harbour
0:32:17 > 0:32:21eating something that predates the pizza and the hamburger.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26I suppose you could call this the culinary symbol of Cornwall - a Cornish pasty.
0:32:26 > 0:32:32Always should be eaten out of a paper bag. Never with a knife and fork on a plate.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36And I think Sir John would agree with me on that one. Very non-U.
0:32:36 > 0:32:42Other interesting thing about the Cornish pasty is that over here in Padstow, it's pasty.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Over there, with the more well-to-do types in Rock, it's par-sty.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49It's amazing what a bit of water can do.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Pasty here, par-sty there.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01For five months of the year, Padstow is as packed as its rubbish bins.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06JB yearned for the days of sanity to return.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13I'm glad it's quiet again and I'm on foot.
0:33:13 > 0:33:20You know that sort of holy hush there is in the land on Christmas morning, the roads fairly empty,
0:33:20 > 0:33:28the sky almost free of aeroplanes, and you begin to hear and see and smell once more?
0:33:28 > 0:33:34The seaside can be like this if you find an unspoilt stretch of it.
0:33:34 > 0:33:41We don't all want to be organised but, if we aren't, we seem to sprawl everywhere.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46Where yonder villa hogs the sea was open cliff to you and me.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51The many-coloured caras fill the salty marsh to Shiller Mill
0:33:51 > 0:33:57and, foreground to the hanging wood, are toilets where the cattle stood.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02Now, as we near the ocean roar, a smell of deep fry haunts the shore.
0:34:02 > 0:34:09In pools beyond the reach of tide, the Senior Service packets glide.
0:34:09 > 0:34:16And, on the sand, the surf line lists with wrappings of potato crisps.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19The breakers bring, with merry noise,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22tribute of broken plastic toys
0:34:22 > 0:34:28and lichen spears of blackthorn glitter with harvest of the August litter.
0:34:28 > 0:34:36The next bit is, like, easily his most controversial poem, Come Friendly Bombs And Fall On Slough.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39JB was not a fan of caravan sites.
0:34:39 > 0:34:48Perhaps, one day, a wave will break, before the breakfasters awake, and sweep the caras out to sea,
0:34:48 > 0:34:57the oil, the tar and you and me, and leave, in windy crisscross motion, a waste of undulating ocean.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03Out there, it's solitude.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07They can't build on the sea.
0:35:10 > 0:35:16Jonathan Stedall is a documentary film maker who made many remarkable programmes with Sir John,
0:35:16 > 0:35:22including a film adaptation of his verse autobiography, Summoned By Bells,
0:35:22 > 0:35:28and the intimate Time With Betjeman, the last film he did before he died in 1984.
0:35:28 > 0:35:35What started as a stimulating working relationship developed into a strong friendship.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37What happened here?
0:35:37 > 0:35:41This was one of the last sequences I filmed with him.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46It was about two years before he died and he was in a wheelchair by then, so I was pushing him.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48And we came here
0:35:48 > 0:35:50and we were talking about various things.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52It was quite a deep conversation.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55He was talking about eternity
0:35:55 > 0:35:58and I was probing in that kind of area.
0:35:58 > 0:36:05And then I saw a sort of little glisten in his eye and he clearly wanted to change the subject.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09He had a tendency, when things were getting too earnest, to want to lighten things.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13And I said to him, "Do you have any regrets in your life?"
0:36:13 > 0:36:16That was when he made this famous remark.
0:36:16 > 0:36:24John, have you got any regrets about your life at all? Yes.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26What you've done or haven't done? Yes.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28I haven't had enough sex.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34That, I suppose, I'm not allowed to say.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38And that's the remark that people remember almost best from the whole series.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42There's a wonderful line in Summoned By Bells.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45He's talking about himself. "An only child,
0:36:45 > 0:36:50deliciously apart, misunderstood and not like other boys."
0:36:50 > 0:36:52Fantastic.
0:36:52 > 0:36:59I think that "deliciously apart" is a wonderful phrase because, actually, he's not really moaning.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02There's a side in him that's relishing this being an outsider.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Crikey, I've trod on your dog!
0:37:06 > 0:37:07I'm sorry.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10I'm afraid Betjeman wasn't too fond of dogs.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14He had an expression for them. He called them "turd droppers".
0:37:14 > 0:37:16Oh, that's a shame.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19He loved the whole process of filming, you see.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23He liked being in a team. He was interested in people, interested in the crew.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26He loved the jargon. Did he?
0:37:26 > 0:37:28Well, all the funny expressions.
0:37:28 > 0:37:29What, like "fly in the gate"?
0:37:29 > 0:37:32Hair in the gate. Oh, God! I always think it's fly.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34I don't know why.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36And the names for the lights.
0:37:36 > 0:37:41You know, they're called brutes and red heads and blondies. Oh, he would have loved that.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44And then there's a thing that can happen in the cutting room
0:37:44 > 0:37:47when the camera and the sound get out of sync -
0:37:47 > 0:37:50"creeping sync". And he loved the expression.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53He didn't understand what creeping sync was.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55It sounds like some horrible disease.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59No, he was lovely to work with.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02He was interested in everybody.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06I think that was the key to it, really.
0:38:06 > 0:38:11Of course, there are some people who felt that he should have...
0:38:11 > 0:38:15By doing so much television, that his poetry suffered
0:38:15 > 0:38:18and that he should have just concentrated on poetry.
0:38:18 > 0:38:24You know, I think that he brought a kind of poetry, in the wider sense,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27to many, many more people by doing what he did.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29His films are like poems.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32Some he actually wrote the commentary in verse.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34But even if he didn't,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37there is a sort of poetry in the work that he did.
0:38:39 > 0:38:47Then, before breakfast, down towards the sea I ran alone, monarch of miles of sand.
0:38:47 > 0:38:52Its shining stretches satin smooth and veined.
0:38:52 > 0:38:58I felt beneath bare feet the lugworm casts and walked where only gulls
0:38:58 > 0:39:03and oystercatchers had stepped before me to the water's edge.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14Well, it's time to put all I've learnt about the great man to the test
0:39:14 > 0:39:17and cook a meal that he would have approved of.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19And why not fish pie?
0:39:19 > 0:39:23For one thing, it's simple fare but it's not simply won.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27I thought it fitting that I'd use local fish from trawlers
0:39:27 > 0:39:31that JB might have walked by as they tied up in the harbour.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40I searched and searched but Betjeman didn't write a poem about fishing in Cornwall.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Pity, really.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48So what I'm using, in this rather special, luxury version of the fish pie,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52is lightly smoked Cornish haddock and fresh cod.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56I'm going to poach them in milk and Cornish cream,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00flavoured with onions studded with cloves and bay leaves.
0:40:00 > 0:40:07I've only allowed about 10 minutes for that simmering because the fish has to be only just cooked.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12Just enough so it flakes away from the skin and bones easily.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16While that's cooling, I'm going to make the classic Bechamel sauce with butter -
0:40:16 > 0:40:19one of the first things I was taught to cook.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24Loads of butter, plain flour, stirred and cooked out to make a classic roux.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27Then I add the poaching liquor.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32I was thinking about Bechamel sauces and veloutes.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37I love making them. I love stirring like this to get rid of those lumps.
0:40:37 > 0:40:44I've made veloutes ever since I was 18 in large kitchens in big quantities.
0:40:44 > 0:40:51So making a fish pie like this for eight to 10 people is right up my street.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56You just have to add the milk and cream in a few batches otherwise it separates.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00And you have to keep stirring to keep those lumps out the way.
0:41:00 > 0:41:07Next I season the sauce with grated nutmeg, black pepper and flakes of sea salt.
0:41:07 > 0:41:13Now I did say right at the start that this is a luxury fish pie and not the school-dinner version.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15Lobster for this special occasion.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20It has to be firm, sweet chunks of freshly cooked Cornish lobster.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23Look at that. This is my idea of luxury.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26This is real seaside holiday food.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Now for the assembly.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33JB wrote a poem about food as experienced by a town clerk.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36He says, "I can safely say a beautiful England's on the way.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39"Already our hotels are pretty good.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43"For those who are fond of very simple food.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47"Well, cod and two veg, free pepper, salt and mustard,
0:41:47 > 0:41:51followed by nice hard plums and lumpy custard."
0:41:51 > 0:41:53Well, lumpy custard this is not.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55It's creamy mashed spuds enriched
0:41:55 > 0:41:59with the yolks of free-range eggs and hard-boiled eggs to go into the pie.
0:41:59 > 0:42:06A fish pie, in my view, isn't right without the addition of hard-boiled eggs.
0:42:06 > 0:42:13Now put the mashed potatoes on top and then, using the tines of a fork, plough a pattern.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15It's ready for the oven.
0:42:15 > 0:42:21Medium to high for 35 minutes until it's golden brown.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24I think it's the sort of thing that
0:42:24 > 0:42:26JB would like.
0:42:26 > 0:42:33It's wholesome, British, but I'm just gonna try a bit to make sure
0:42:33 > 0:42:36those real lovers of everything to do with Betjeman are gonna eat it.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38It's a little bit hot.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44That's very nice.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48I'm sorry to praise my own food but I was just thinking,
0:42:48 > 0:42:52I know Sir John was talking about St Enodoc golf course
0:42:52 > 0:42:55and Daymer Bay and the estuary beyond, when he said,
0:42:55 > 0:42:57"Splendour, splendour everywhere".
0:42:57 > 0:43:01But this is my splendour, splendour everywhere.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03Here we go. Isn't that wonderful.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05This is where I drop the pie.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11It wouldn't be the first time. I think we should clap.
0:43:11 > 0:43:12This is the main course.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16I started with a fruits de mer of Cornish shellfish -
0:43:16 > 0:43:21langoustines, brown crab, razor clams, mussels and oysters.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25And the guest of honour was Candida Lycett Green, John Betjeman's daughter.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29In fact, it was her idea for us to have this lunch in the first place.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33Now what do you serve with a fish pie?
0:43:33 > 0:43:38In my book, you have to have peas and nothing wrong with frozen either.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41I think he would have approved because he loved the ordinary.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44He saw the world a different way.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48We were very lucky, he came and gave the speech at our wedding.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51We were all expecting great things from this poet.
0:43:51 > 0:43:57We hadn't arranged for a platform so we gave him an old garden bench, which unfortunately was too old,
0:43:57 > 0:44:01and he stood up and we all waiting with bated breath and he said,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04"To the handsome Christopher and the beautiful Susan",
0:44:04 > 0:44:08and disappeared down through the slats of the garden bench.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10He'd had a little bit too much to drink.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15Luckily, he was retrieved by the stewards at the naval establishment and went his way.
0:44:15 > 0:44:16I'm afraid that was his speech.
0:44:16 > 0:44:21Cliff, I just got a feeling he lit up your life really.
0:44:21 > 0:44:28Absolutely. I've been privileged to read his poems for 20 years to the public on Bray Hill.
0:44:28 > 0:44:33I just love that wonderful cast of characters.
0:44:33 > 0:44:38There's a whole era captured in the poetry - the '30s and '40s.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40It's all there, wonderful stuff.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42The only first line I can think of immediately is
0:44:42 > 0:44:46How To Get On In Society - "Phone for the fish knives, Norman,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48"as Cook is a little unnerved.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50"You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
0:44:50 > 0:44:53"And I must have things daintily served.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56"Are the requisites all in the toilet?
0:44:56 > 0:44:58"The rings round the cutlets can wait
0:44:58 > 0:45:01"Till the Major's replenished the cruets
0:45:01 > 0:45:03"And switched on the logs in the grate."
0:45:03 > 0:45:05Isn't it wonderful stuff?
0:45:05 > 0:45:09Why do you think people find him trite?
0:45:09 > 0:45:13There's always this, "Oh, you like John Betjeman, do you?"
0:45:13 > 0:45:19That's simply because it's too easy to like and modern poets are quite complicated.
0:45:19 > 0:45:25Some of them are wonderful, but they have a different way of communicating
0:45:25 > 0:45:29and they don't communicate to the masses, which my dad does.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37I think that's the reason people say he's trite
0:45:37 > 0:45:41and he's not on the school curriculum because he's not complicated.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43I feel passionately about that.
0:45:43 > 0:45:49I think that very profound and complicated things can be said very simply, actually.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53He was brilliant at that in his poetry and in his life all together.
0:45:53 > 0:45:59There was a favourite phrase of John's which comes to mind after this lovely meal.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03He used to say, "Nothing succeeds like excess".
0:46:09 > 0:46:14On a wild, wet May afternoon in 1984 a group of pallbearers,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17including his friend Jonathan Stedall
0:46:17 > 0:46:22slowly carried JB to his final resting place in St Enodoc graveyard.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26He would join those who'd helped make his summers so memorable
0:46:26 > 0:46:28and were now immortalised in his verse.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33We had to walk about a quarter of a mile with the coffin.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35We were absolutely soaked.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39Somebody said when we came into the church, we looked like wreckers.
0:46:43 > 0:46:44Here it is.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Slightly floral, don't you think?
0:46:51 > 0:46:55I think so. I think he'd have liked it. You do?
0:46:55 > 0:46:59Yeah. He was religious, wasn't he?
0:46:59 > 0:47:03Yes. Certainly, his religion was very important to him.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08I think, from my experience, he was also very courageous,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12in the sense that he was able to live with doubt.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15Yeah.
0:47:15 > 0:47:21He used to refer to what we call God as "the management".
0:47:25 > 0:47:27He said he...
0:47:27 > 0:47:31he hoped, rather than believed, that the management was in charge.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35I like to think of him not as somewhere else and us here,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39but that we're actually at one level all together.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41That's my feeling about him.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44I just can't help feeling, with a slight smile,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47what do you think John Betjeman would have to say
0:47:47 > 0:47:50when he heard the serious way we were talking?
0:47:50 > 0:47:55I think he'd probably think it was very funny that I was being so serious about him.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01He'd probably be thinking it's time to go home.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03The poor crew are getting wet.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07How nice.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09Enough.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13It's lovely here.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Finished? Yes.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd, 2006
0:48:48 > 0:48:50E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk
0:48:55 > 0:48:58Why on earth didn't I just go up to somebody
0:48:58 > 0:49:01and complain and make a thing of it?