The Lost World of the Seventies

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0:00:05 > 0:00:08As a reporter in search of four characters,

0:00:08 > 0:00:10I've come to an underground vault,

0:00:10 > 0:00:13150 feet beneath King's Cross in central London.

0:00:21 > 0:00:26It houses a treasure trove of old films,

0:00:26 > 0:00:28some of them containing unseen footage,

0:00:28 > 0:00:30and four of the iconic figures,

0:00:30 > 0:00:38who each played central roles in the tragicomedy of Britain in the 1970s.

0:00:38 > 0:00:40It was a bad-hair decade.

0:00:40 > 0:00:42Students were revolting...

0:00:44 > 0:00:45..militant unions were striking...

0:00:47 > 0:00:49Get a bloody photograph of this.

0:00:49 > 0:00:51..force was met with force.

0:00:51 > 0:00:53Bastards!

0:00:53 > 0:00:55Asset strippers were flourishing,

0:00:55 > 0:00:59as inflation and unemployment rocketed.

0:00:59 > 0:01:02And there was even talk of the Army taking over.

0:01:04 > 0:01:06It was an age of paranoia,

0:01:06 > 0:01:09with a febrile feeling that Britain was on the brink.

0:01:11 > 0:01:13All four of the characters in this film

0:01:13 > 0:01:15felt, in their very different ways,

0:01:15 > 0:01:18that they had a mission to mend broken Britain.

0:01:18 > 0:01:21The first is a senior general, Sir Walter Walker,

0:01:21 > 0:01:24who was setting up his own private army to save the country

0:01:24 > 0:01:27from the catastrophe of a take over by the Marxists.

0:01:27 > 0:01:30No-one has the guts to do anything.

0:01:30 > 0:01:33Year after year, we are held to ransom.

0:01:33 > 0:01:36We are sick and tired of this lack of leadership.

0:01:36 > 0:01:38Our second character is Lord Longford,

0:01:38 > 0:01:41self-appointed guardian of the nation's morals.

0:01:41 > 0:01:44He pursued his campaign against pornography with such fervour

0:01:44 > 0:01:47that the media christened him Lord Porn.

0:01:47 > 0:01:49Well, I mean, Teenage Perverts -

0:01:49 > 0:01:52I mean, that's presumably not a serious study.

0:01:53 > 0:01:55Well, biased against pornography?

0:01:55 > 0:01:58Surely, every decent person is biased against pornography.

0:01:58 > 0:02:01You might say, simply being biased against filth.

0:02:01 > 0:02:03The third character is Sir Robert Mark,

0:02:03 > 0:02:05who, as London's top policeman,

0:02:05 > 0:02:08was on a mission to clean up Scotland Yard

0:02:08 > 0:02:11and get rid of every corrupt detective.

0:02:11 > 0:02:16A bent detective harms the whole fabric of public confidence in the police.

0:02:16 > 0:02:21And, so far as I'm concerned, he will always be a prime target,

0:02:21 > 0:02:24and he can look to no mercy at all from me.

0:02:24 > 0:02:26The last is Sir Jimmy Goldsmith,

0:02:26 > 0:02:28the tycoon with a complex business and love life,

0:02:28 > 0:02:32who believed the media were plotting to destroy capitalism.

0:02:32 > 0:02:36You lied. That's what I'm trying to show,

0:02:36 > 0:02:39and what I intend to prove on this programme.

0:02:39 > 0:02:40At the time,

0:02:40 > 0:02:44I was making some of these films as a reporter for the BBC.

0:02:45 > 0:02:47Michael Cockerell is down at Downing Street,

0:02:47 > 0:02:49brushing the hair out of his eyes.

0:02:49 > 0:02:53- Michael, good morning again. - Good morning, David.

0:02:53 > 0:02:54What's going on there?

0:02:54 > 0:02:57- We're running out of time, now. - We're running out of time.

0:02:59 > 0:03:01While making documentaries in the 1970s,

0:03:01 > 0:03:06I met or filmed each of the conspicuous characters featured in this programme.

0:03:07 > 0:03:09The inside stories of the four men

0:03:09 > 0:03:13shed new light on the lost world of the '70s.

0:03:27 > 0:03:30My first contentious character from the '70s

0:03:30 > 0:03:33is the British general Sir Walter Walker.

0:03:33 > 0:03:37He was to become notorious when he tried to set up his own private army in Britain.

0:03:37 > 0:03:42Until 1972 he was Commander-in-Chief of NATO's Northern Forces,

0:03:42 > 0:03:46who formed the thin blue line against the Red Army of Soviet Russia.

0:03:47 > 0:03:51I, as a soldier, know there's a great temptation

0:03:51 > 0:03:55to the Soviets towards aggression.

0:03:56 > 0:04:03We've got to close this gap between what we, as soldiers, know to be the position on the ground,

0:04:03 > 0:04:06and what the man on the street is told by the politicians.

0:04:06 > 0:04:09"I'm all right, Jack" is no recipe for survival.

0:04:09 > 0:04:13The Ministry of Defence banned this documentary,

0:04:13 > 0:04:15which has not been seen before on national television.

0:04:15 > 0:04:20General Walker had allowed the cameras to film how NATO prepared for war.

0:04:20 > 0:04:25The headquarters you're about to see is one of these preparations.

0:04:28 > 0:04:31Britain's top military expert on the Soviet threat

0:04:31 > 0:04:34had first made his name fighting communist subversion

0:04:34 > 0:04:36in the jungles of the Far East.

0:04:36 > 0:04:41Now, he was in charge of rehearsing doomsday scenarios

0:04:41 > 0:04:44in case the Cold War was suddenly to turn hot.

0:04:44 > 0:04:48Here, if world war did come, are the men who would fight it,

0:04:48 > 0:04:52and in the chair, General Sir Walter Walker,

0:04:52 > 0:04:54Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces, Northern Europe.

0:04:58 > 0:05:01General Walker retired form the Army to Somerset in the early '70s

0:05:01 > 0:05:05and his conviction that the country was going to the dogs

0:05:05 > 0:05:07grew stronger every day.

0:05:10 > 0:05:14In 1974, you didn't quite need to be a Telegraph-reading General

0:05:14 > 0:05:17to fear that Britain was becoming ungovernable.

0:05:17 > 0:05:21The year had started with a miners' strike, a three-day week

0:05:21 > 0:05:23and regular power blackouts.

0:05:23 > 0:05:25Ted Heath's government had been brought down,

0:05:25 > 0:05:30and Harold Wilson's minority Labour government was seen by many people

0:05:30 > 0:05:35to be at the mercy of communist trade union leaders, militants, and subversives.

0:05:35 > 0:05:39For General Sir Walter Walker, the picture was all too familiar.

0:05:41 > 0:05:45As a soldier, one had to study not only one's external enemy,

0:05:45 > 0:05:48but the enemy within, and I've been studying the enemy within.

0:05:48 > 0:05:53These people defy parliament, they defy the courts,

0:05:53 > 0:05:55and they defy the rules of law.

0:05:55 > 0:06:00And if you plot to destroy this present system,

0:06:00 > 0:06:02what are you doing?

0:06:02 > 0:06:06General Walker's son Anthony, who himself was a regular Army officer,

0:06:06 > 0:06:09has never seen this film of his father before.

0:06:09 > 0:06:14What are you doing? You are committing a form of treason.

0:06:14 > 0:06:19It reminds me of getting a rocket for a bad school report.

0:06:19 > 0:06:21He was very passionate about it

0:06:21 > 0:06:26and I think he just felt that he was probably saying

0:06:26 > 0:06:30what a lot of other people thought but were too frightened to say it.

0:06:31 > 0:06:34General Walker knew something had to be done.

0:06:34 > 0:06:38He wrote a letter to the Daily Telegraph, which the paper published.

0:06:38 > 0:06:42In it he said, "Why is the country in such a mess?

0:06:42 > 0:06:46"The answer is complete lack of inspiring and trusted political leadership.

0:06:46 > 0:06:49"The communist Trojan Horse is in our midst

0:06:49 > 0:06:54"with its fellow-travellers wriggling their maggoty way inside its belly...

0:06:54 > 0:06:57"The country yearns for a true dynamic and patriotic leader.

0:06:57 > 0:07:01"Such a man must be produced before it's too late."

0:07:06 > 0:07:07At his home in Somerset,

0:07:07 > 0:07:11General Walker receives an immediate response to his letter

0:07:11 > 0:07:13from likeminded Telegraph readers

0:07:13 > 0:07:16who contact him from all over the country.

0:07:16 > 0:07:18The fact of the matter is, why did all these people,

0:07:18 > 0:07:22in the first instance, write to me in their thousands,

0:07:22 > 0:07:24and telephone me for three months?

0:07:24 > 0:07:27We were getting a hundred calls a day

0:07:27 > 0:07:29saying, "For goodness' sake, tell us what to do.

0:07:29 > 0:07:33"Organise us into something. We can see what's happening in this country.

0:07:33 > 0:07:36"No-one has the guts to do anything."

0:07:36 > 0:07:40Colonel Patrick Mercer, who served 25 years in the Army

0:07:40 > 0:07:43from the mid '70s onwards, is now a Tory MP.

0:07:43 > 0:07:45"Year after year we are held to ransom.

0:07:45 > 0:07:50"We are sick and tired of this lack of leadership. Will you please organise something?"

0:07:50 > 0:07:52HE CHUCKLES

0:07:52 > 0:07:54Fiery rhetoric - no two ways about that.

0:07:54 > 0:07:57Walter Walker and I, of course, served in the same regiment,

0:07:57 > 0:08:00so I have a great interest in this individual.

0:08:00 > 0:08:04I think that Walter Walker saw himself as being the saviour of the country.

0:08:04 > 0:08:08That as society spiralled downwards, as he would have it,

0:08:08 > 0:08:11that there was going to be this charismatic,

0:08:11 > 0:08:15convincing leader, who was ready to step into the breach.

0:08:15 > 0:08:20A number of people asked me - friends in the Army, or, you know,

0:08:20 > 0:08:22people who, like me, had retired from the Army,

0:08:22 > 0:08:24or just retired from the Army...

0:08:24 > 0:08:26Er, more of a joke, you know.

0:08:26 > 0:08:29What's happening? Is your father going to take over the country?

0:08:29 > 0:08:32It was said more like that.

0:08:32 > 0:08:35A lot of people asked me, and I said, "Actually, I don't know."

0:08:35 > 0:08:39General Walker decides to organise the people who've written to him

0:08:39 > 0:08:41into his own unofficial army.

0:08:41 > 0:08:43It would have regional command centres.

0:08:43 > 0:08:47They'd be run by controllers, hand picked by the general.

0:08:47 > 0:08:50Just to show you the, sort of, cross section...

0:08:50 > 0:08:53Here we have a flying club, with 25 excellent pilots

0:08:53 > 0:08:56and, of course, light aircraft, for communication purposes.

0:08:56 > 0:09:00Here we have, from Reading, a merchant banker

0:09:00 > 0:09:03who has had previous intelligence experience.

0:09:03 > 0:09:06A man from Carmarthen who is in the investigation service,

0:09:06 > 0:09:08previous intelligence experience.

0:09:08 > 0:09:11General Walker's mind goes back to how, as NATO commander,

0:09:11 > 0:09:13he'd organised his fellow generals

0:09:13 > 0:09:15to confront the Soviet nuclear threat.

0:09:15 > 0:09:18He chooses to deploy the same methods

0:09:18 > 0:09:20for the new battle against the enemy within.

0:09:21 > 0:09:23Hello, Peter.

0:09:23 > 0:09:26Nice to see you, thank you for all the bumf.

0:09:26 > 0:09:30Robert, congratulations on that show last night. Absolutely first class.

0:09:30 > 0:09:31- Alex.- Hello, General.

0:09:31 > 0:09:33Thank you very much for coming.

0:09:34 > 0:09:37Surrounded by his top brass, all former comrades in arms,

0:09:37 > 0:09:40the General produces his latest sit-rep.

0:09:40 > 0:09:43Here is the up-to-date situation.

0:09:43 > 0:09:46Now, for example, that packet...

0:09:46 > 0:09:50contains people who, I think, are fit to be controllers,

0:09:50 > 0:09:54which Robert is now placing on the map.

0:09:55 > 0:10:00Um, so, I have sifted the controllers from the non-controllers,

0:10:00 > 0:10:05and it covers England, Scotland and Wales.

0:10:05 > 0:10:08The command group discuss exactly when their unofficial army

0:10:08 > 0:10:14should move into action against the threat of a Marxist take over in Britain.

0:10:14 > 0:10:16I think that we have to decide,

0:10:16 > 0:10:18when does law and order break down?

0:10:18 > 0:10:22Uh, and when, perhaps, it may be dangerous for the...

0:10:22 > 0:10:24For the palace.

0:10:24 > 0:10:27In the Second World War, Major Alex Greenwood

0:10:27 > 0:10:31had been aide-de-camp to General Claude Auchinleck in India.

0:10:31 > 0:10:33There, Auchinleck served under the Queen's uncle,

0:10:33 > 0:10:36Lord Mountbatten, who was then Supreme Commander in Asia,

0:10:36 > 0:10:39and the two big guns became great friends.

0:10:39 > 0:10:42Major Greenwood wasn't prepared to talk candidly

0:10:42 > 0:10:46about what he and Sir Walter Walker had been up to, until recently.

0:10:47 > 0:10:50I thought the trains would fail to run,

0:10:50 > 0:10:52London Airport would not function any more,

0:10:52 > 0:10:55the ports would be stagnant...

0:10:55 > 0:10:58There would be complete chaos in the land.

0:10:59 > 0:11:04And Lord Mountbatten rang up General Sir Walter Walker one evening

0:11:04 > 0:11:08and said, "If you want any help from me, will you let me know?"

0:11:10 > 0:11:14General Sir Walter Walker had prepared a sort of speech

0:11:14 > 0:11:18which the Queen might read out on the BBC,

0:11:18 > 0:11:21ask of the people to stand behind the armed forces,

0:11:21 > 0:11:24as there was a breakdown of law and order

0:11:24 > 0:11:28and the Government could not keep the unions in control.

0:11:28 > 0:11:31The first thing you'd do if you want to control a country

0:11:31 > 0:11:33is to take over the airports,

0:11:33 > 0:11:38take over the BBC and protect Buckingham Palace with the Queen.

0:11:38 > 0:11:41If you've got those three things you're pretty well in control, you know.

0:11:43 > 0:11:46Major Alexander Greenwood, in an interview, said

0:11:46 > 0:11:50Lord Mountbatten rang up General Sir Walter Walker one evening

0:11:50 > 0:11:53and said, "If you want any help from me, let me know."

0:11:54 > 0:11:57I'm sure he did, I'm sure he did. Er, I mean,

0:11:57 > 0:11:59they knew each other from a long time ago,

0:11:59 > 0:12:02going back to Burma days.

0:12:02 > 0:12:05I mean, the suggestion is Lord Mountbatten himself

0:12:05 > 0:12:09might have played a role in some kind of military take over

0:12:09 > 0:12:11and he could be that figure

0:12:11 > 0:12:16that your father was saying was needed, and the strong leader.

0:12:16 > 0:12:18Possibly, yes. He was possibly...

0:12:18 > 0:12:22But, um, again, you know, I can't... I wouldn't comment on that one.

0:12:22 > 0:12:26General Walker publicly denied he was thinking of staging a coup.

0:12:26 > 0:12:28Um, certainly not.

0:12:28 > 0:12:32It is a smear campaign perpetrated by the media

0:12:32 > 0:12:36and perpetrated by the enemy within.

0:12:36 > 0:12:40When General Walker's chief of staff, Colonel Robert Butler,

0:12:40 > 0:12:43arrives with his latest report from the battle front,

0:12:43 > 0:12:45the general has bad news.

0:12:45 > 0:12:50He's discovered a new enemy within, lurking in a most unlikely quarter.

0:12:50 > 0:12:53Jolly glad to see that your letter got in the Telegraph.

0:12:53 > 0:12:55- Did it?- Oh, yeah. - I haven't heard about it.

0:12:55 > 0:12:57No? Well, it's in,

0:12:57 > 0:13:00but unfortunately there's another article in, which really, you know,

0:13:00 > 0:13:04for a right wing paper like the Daily Telegraph, really is beyond the pale.

0:13:04 > 0:13:08This is using ridicule as a weapon. I'm bloody angry.

0:13:08 > 0:13:10However, we can talk about that later.

0:13:10 > 0:13:13You mean they published my letter, all of it, uncut?

0:13:13 > 0:13:16They published your letter, uncut,

0:13:16 > 0:13:19and then this chap came and interviewed me on Saturday night -

0:13:19 > 0:13:21you know, he pressurised me to do it.

0:13:21 > 0:13:27And I thought the Telegraph was trying to alert the public

0:13:27 > 0:13:30to the threat not only from without but from within,

0:13:30 > 0:13:32and he's made the whole thing look ridiculous,

0:13:32 > 0:13:35and this is the first time that any report in the Daily Telegraph

0:13:35 > 0:13:37has betrayed my confidence.

0:13:37 > 0:13:40- So, I'm pretty angry. - I wouldn't have expected it from the Daily Telegraph.

0:13:40 > 0:13:43I would have expected it from certain other papers, maybe.

0:13:45 > 0:13:50If you think Walter Walker sounds like something from the wilder shores of British conspiracy,

0:13:50 > 0:13:53then think again.

0:13:53 > 0:13:57This is Sandhurst, the British Army Officers' training academy.

0:13:57 > 0:14:00I made a film here in 1975 for Panorama.

0:14:00 > 0:14:04One of the officers I filmed was the 19-year-old Patrick Mercer,

0:14:04 > 0:14:06who's now a Tory MP.

0:14:06 > 0:14:10He gave a lecture to his fellow students as part of his training.

0:14:10 > 0:14:14We've seen several different guerrilla groups operate in this country,

0:14:14 > 0:14:18and we've seen what damage and fear they can bring into the country.

0:14:18 > 0:14:23Can you see the point I'm trying to make? It can escalate so easily.

0:14:24 > 0:14:28'The lines of supply which people like the IRA use'

0:14:28 > 0:14:31can be tapped, and there are powers outside this country

0:14:31 > 0:14:33which are willing to let them be tapped,

0:14:33 > 0:14:38who will be glad to see insurgency - civil strife - break out in this country.

0:14:40 > 0:14:44The young officer's scenario of a breakdown of civil order in Britain

0:14:44 > 0:14:47is acted out in a remarkable Sandhurst training exercise

0:14:47 > 0:14:50in internal security techniques.

0:14:50 > 0:14:55The Sandhurst officers arrive at a deserted Army camp in Wiltshire,

0:14:55 > 0:14:59where a sinister picture of Britain in the near future has been created.

0:14:59 > 0:15:03The official Sandhurst narrative for the exercise runs like this...

0:15:03 > 0:15:06Economic and political chaos is reigning in Britain

0:15:06 > 0:15:10due to the failures of consecutive Labour and Tory minority governments.

0:15:10 > 0:15:14Unemployment is rife, and the richer parts of the United Kingdom

0:15:14 > 0:15:16are thinking in terms of independence.

0:15:16 > 0:15:18Scotland has already seceded,

0:15:18 > 0:15:21and the Government has sent the Army to deal with the political violence

0:15:21 > 0:15:25in Ogbourne St George, where two policemen have been killed.

0:15:26 > 0:15:28Michael, you said in your commentary

0:15:28 > 0:15:32that this was a remarkable exercise setting,

0:15:32 > 0:15:35and I think it is remarkable. It is remarkably...

0:15:35 > 0:15:39blunt, it's remarkably unsubtle in the setting

0:15:39 > 0:15:41and it's remarkably frightening.

0:15:41 > 0:15:45Later on in my career, when I was setting these sorts of exercises,

0:15:45 > 0:15:47I wouldn't have dreamed of being so political.

0:15:47 > 0:15:51In the exercise, the Army is trying to keep the peace

0:15:51 > 0:15:55between two political factions in the Wiltshire town.

0:15:55 > 0:15:57One group is led by Eric the Red,

0:15:57 > 0:16:00a union militant who's played by a Sandhurst lecturer.

0:16:00 > 0:16:02I said, "Listen here, sunshine,

0:16:02 > 0:16:05"unless you get your people off the street, there'll be trouble."

0:16:06 > 0:16:08Piss off, Army! Go on!

0:16:09 > 0:16:12They are mainly a left-wing organisation,

0:16:12 > 0:16:15who draw their support from the unemployed and the lower classes.

0:16:15 > 0:16:19The other political faction is the Ogbourne Loyalist Front,

0:16:19 > 0:16:23who are located mainly in this area here.

0:16:23 > 0:16:27They are a principally right-wing organisation,

0:16:27 > 0:16:30and are led by a man called Simpson,

0:16:30 > 0:16:33who is also the member of Parliament for Ogbourne.

0:16:33 > 0:16:38Democracy. Democracy does not come from the barrel of a gun.

0:16:38 > 0:16:41'Democracy comes from you and I...'

0:16:41 > 0:16:44Keith Simpson, who played the neo-fascist MP for Ogbourne

0:16:44 > 0:16:47in the training exercise was a Sandhurst lecturer

0:16:47 > 0:16:48who's now a real-life Tory MP.

0:16:50 > 0:16:55You see, art imitates life and life imitates art.

0:16:56 > 0:17:00And I, as your legal representative, as your member of Parliament,

0:17:00 > 0:17:02will make certain that you get democracy.

0:17:02 > 0:17:04CHEERING

0:17:04 > 0:17:07God, how embarrassing.

0:17:07 > 0:17:10Mind you, some of my colleagues are like that.

0:17:10 > 0:17:14And we have these soldiers here, these super boy scouts,

0:17:14 > 0:17:18who have so far failed to deal with terrorists

0:17:18 > 0:17:20at the other end of the town.

0:17:20 > 0:17:25We shall interpret what "law and order" means.

0:17:25 > 0:17:30Let me tell you, just after this documentary, Panorama, was shown, there were questions in Parliament.

0:17:30 > 0:17:35Some MPs felt the Sandhurst exercise was provocatively party political,

0:17:35 > 0:17:39and showed the Army being trained for possible intervention in Britain.

0:17:39 > 0:17:41But Keith Simpson says the exercise

0:17:41 > 0:17:44was actually aimed at preparing officers for Northern Ireland,

0:17:44 > 0:17:47though he accepts it gave a different impression.

0:17:47 > 0:17:50This was against the background

0:17:50 > 0:17:53of great domestic and international unrest,

0:17:53 > 0:17:56suspicion by people that Harold Wilson and the trade unions

0:17:56 > 0:17:58were controlled by the communists.

0:17:58 > 0:18:02And, of course, there were come ex-military people -

0:18:02 > 0:18:05the famous General Sir Walter Walker,

0:18:05 > 0:18:07some former members of the security service,

0:18:07 > 0:18:10and old Tufton Buftons in clubs in London -

0:18:10 > 0:18:14who muttered about the fact that, you know, "Time for a coup

0:18:14 > 0:18:17"to perhaps get rid of these people."

0:18:17 > 0:18:21And it's interesting to see how an exercise like this,

0:18:21 > 0:18:24which was orientated towards Northern Ireland,

0:18:24 > 0:18:27nevertheless when shown, given the background of 1975,

0:18:27 > 0:18:32the assumption was by a lot of people watching it, which was that,

0:18:32 > 0:18:36yes, the Army was preparing for this kind of thing.

0:18:39 > 0:18:42The passing out parade for the class of '75 at Sandhurst,

0:18:42 > 0:18:46where more than 40 years earlier, Walter Walker had been trained.

0:18:46 > 0:18:49He'd come to see himself as a man on a white horse,

0:18:49 > 0:18:51who would save the country from the Red Terror.

0:18:51 > 0:18:53But the media searchlight revealed

0:18:53 > 0:18:56he was commanding little more than a paper army,

0:18:56 > 0:19:00and, as old soldiers do, General Walker just faded away.

0:19:02 > 0:19:05Our second '70s figure is Lord Longford,

0:19:05 > 0:19:08the great moral crusader of the decade.

0:19:08 > 0:19:10He was a contradictory character,

0:19:10 > 0:19:14an hereditary earl, who identified with the outcasts of society.

0:19:15 > 0:19:17He made headlines in the '70s

0:19:17 > 0:19:20by visiting notorious criminals in prison,

0:19:20 > 0:19:22and for his campaign against pornography,

0:19:22 > 0:19:25when the Sun christened him Lord Porn.

0:19:25 > 0:19:29I don't think I was conscious at all of having any image

0:19:29 > 0:19:32until I got involved with pornography.

0:19:32 > 0:19:35Then I was very much in the news, and taxi drivers, you know,

0:19:35 > 0:19:39they always know who I am. And one of them said to me the other day,

0:19:39 > 0:19:43"I know you're Lord Porn, I never can remember your second name."

0:19:43 > 0:19:46At that point I took off, for good or for ill,

0:19:46 > 0:19:49into the realm of notoriety.

0:19:49 > 0:19:52Lord Longford headed a literary dynasty.

0:19:52 > 0:19:54Both his wife and his eldest daughter were historians.

0:19:54 > 0:19:57Another daughter was a novelist,

0:19:57 > 0:20:00and was asked about her father's anti-porn campaign.

0:20:00 > 0:20:06As it happens, I write novels which have some sort of sexual content...

0:20:06 > 0:20:08- Completely pornographic! - ..and my father

0:20:08 > 0:20:10has never suggested in any way

0:20:10 > 0:20:16that I should alter this, or has ever read them and said to me,

0:20:16 > 0:20:21"This is wrong," or, "You're going to do me harm in this way."

0:20:21 > 0:20:24The same way I would never make any judgment on what he does.

0:20:24 > 0:20:25Hear, hear.

0:20:25 > 0:20:29I published six books during the '70s and I had four babies

0:20:29 > 0:20:33so I wasn't in constant dialogue with him.

0:20:33 > 0:20:36What I do remember is, er,

0:20:36 > 0:20:38when one of my very sensitive novels came out -

0:20:38 > 0:20:41it must have been about my second or third,

0:20:41 > 0:20:43which was a charming, sensitive love story,

0:20:43 > 0:20:45brilliantly written, of course -

0:20:45 > 0:20:48my publishers rang me up and said, "There's a big reveal

0:20:48 > 0:20:51in the Daily Express - you'll be so pleased."

0:20:51 > 0:20:53So, I rushed off and bought it,

0:20:53 > 0:20:59and the headline for the big review was, "Lord Porn's daughter writes sex romp."

0:21:00 > 0:21:01So, it wasn't altogether good.

0:21:01 > 0:21:06Educated at Eton and Oxford, Longford had grown up as a Tory

0:21:06 > 0:21:08but, after their grand wedding,

0:21:08 > 0:21:11his wife converted him to socialism.

0:21:11 > 0:21:13He also became a Catholic convert.

0:21:13 > 0:21:16In the Second World War he suffered a nervous breakdown,

0:21:16 > 0:21:19and was invalided out of the Army.

0:21:19 > 0:21:21He said he felt humiliated at the time,

0:21:21 > 0:21:24but later saw it as a blessing.

0:21:24 > 0:21:26I think working among prisoners,

0:21:26 > 0:21:29or people who themselves have had mental breakdowns,

0:21:29 > 0:21:32drug addicts, anything you like...

0:21:32 > 0:21:34The one way of really making them feel

0:21:34 > 0:21:37there isn't a gulf between you and them

0:21:37 > 0:21:40is when you can say, "I also have been humiliated."

0:21:41 > 0:21:45Longford had campaigned for prison reform since the '30s.

0:21:45 > 0:21:48By the '70s, it seemed he'd allied his moral conscience

0:21:48 > 0:21:51with a taste for the headlines.

0:21:51 > 0:21:55He would visit the most infamous prisoners, like Myra Hindley.

0:21:55 > 0:21:58I think he took literally the line in the New Testament,

0:21:58 > 0:22:00about, "When you visit a prisoner, you visit me,"

0:22:00 > 0:22:04and he always quoted to hate the sin and love the sinner.

0:22:04 > 0:22:07Obviously, you do get publicity

0:22:07 > 0:22:10if you involve yourself with the most notorious ones,

0:22:10 > 0:22:13and he probably did think...

0:22:13 > 0:22:18He certainly thought that it was a good idea to raise public awareness

0:22:18 > 0:22:20of what went on in prisons and the rules.

0:22:20 > 0:22:24The public, of course, know me rather through my connection,

0:22:24 > 0:22:27or friendship indeed, with certain very well-known criminals,

0:22:27 > 0:22:30people who've been convicted of terrible crimes,

0:22:30 > 0:22:34but I have been connected with many prisoners of whom the public know nothing.

0:22:34 > 0:22:37It would be rather unfair to me, if it did get about...

0:22:37 > 0:22:39Well, it has got about - I can't help it -

0:22:39 > 0:22:42that the only prisoners I'm interested in

0:22:42 > 0:22:43are the very sensational ones.

0:22:47 > 0:22:51What really brought Lord Longford to public attention in the '70s

0:22:51 > 0:22:54was his anti-pornography campaign.

0:22:54 > 0:22:57He wanted to stem the tide of sexually explicit material

0:22:57 > 0:23:02that he felt had been released by the Government's permissive legislation of the late '60s,

0:23:02 > 0:23:05when theatre censorship was abolished,

0:23:05 > 0:23:08and the Obscene Publications Act liberalised.

0:23:09 > 0:23:13Longford deplored the rapid spread of adult bookshops in Soho.

0:23:13 > 0:23:15Well, I mean, Teenage Perverts...

0:23:15 > 0:23:20I mean, that's presumably not a serious study.

0:23:20 > 0:23:23And he went to see the erotic revue "Oh! Calcutta!"

0:23:23 > 0:23:26that consciously exploited the new freedoms.

0:23:26 > 0:23:29Hey, Doc, they're a attaching an inter-uterine camera.

0:23:29 > 0:23:33Think yourself lucky it's not a Polaroid Swinger, sonny.

0:23:35 > 0:23:37Lord Longford was appalled by what he'd seen,

0:23:37 > 0:23:40and as the revue played to packed houses,

0:23:40 > 0:23:42he decided to set up his own committee

0:23:42 > 0:23:45to look into the problems of pornography.

0:23:45 > 0:23:46Its members were drawn

0:23:46 > 0:23:49from the seasoned ranks of the great and the good.

0:23:49 > 0:23:51Longford felt he also needed young blood,

0:23:51 > 0:23:54and rang up Gyles Brandreth, who was just down from Oxford,

0:23:54 > 0:23:57where he'd been a publicity-hungry president of the union.

0:24:06 > 0:24:10Lord Longford told me that he was going to investigate

0:24:10 > 0:24:13the question of pornography in our time.

0:24:13 > 0:24:16"I'm forming," he says, "a high-powered committee.

0:24:16 > 0:24:21"I've got a bishop, an archbishop, a rabbi and I need some young people.

0:24:21 > 0:24:23"I thought of you and Cliff Richard."

0:24:23 > 0:24:25I said, "Yes."

0:24:25 > 0:24:27If I can be part of something

0:24:27 > 0:24:33that is going to help combat immorality and so forth, I think I'd like to be part of it, really.

0:24:33 > 0:24:37It doesn't look particularly healthy, the attitude that general

0:24:37 > 0:24:42people have towards pornography and the sort of permissive - so-called - society.

0:24:42 > 0:24:44I'm biased against pornography.

0:24:44 > 0:24:46Surely every decent person is biased against pornography.

0:24:46 > 0:24:50You might say it's simply being biased against filth.

0:24:50 > 0:24:53The question is how to overcome pornography

0:24:53 > 0:24:56and we're not biased about that because we come with very open minds.

0:24:56 > 0:24:58Maybe not quite that open,

0:24:58 > 0:25:01on the evidence of the very first meeting of his committee.

0:25:01 > 0:25:05The meeting began and Lord Longford welcomed us to his "crusade".

0:25:05 > 0:25:07Well, my eyebrows rose at this.

0:25:07 > 0:25:11So far as what he called his anti-pornography "crusade",

0:25:11 > 0:25:14what do you think it was that drove him?

0:25:14 > 0:25:17Well, I think he did genuinely believe

0:25:17 > 0:25:21that people could be corrupted by pornography.

0:25:21 > 0:25:24But possibly the way he went about it was slightly counter-productive.

0:25:26 > 0:25:30Longford and his committee decide to fly to investigate in Denmark,

0:25:30 > 0:25:35where the government had removed all legal restraints on pornography

0:25:35 > 0:25:39and Copenhagen had become the sex capital of the world.

0:25:50 > 0:25:52We come with a fairly open mind

0:25:52 > 0:25:56and we are determined to talk to everybody who can help us

0:25:56 > 0:26:00either through official life or also, of course, the pornographers.

0:26:00 > 0:26:03We want to meet everyone we can in the two days.

0:26:03 > 0:26:05Don't you see yourself subject

0:26:05 > 0:26:07to accusations of voyeurism on your part?

0:26:07 > 0:26:10You mean we're going on a sort of free dirty weekend

0:26:10 > 0:26:12in the middle of the week?

0:26:12 > 0:26:13Yes, indeed. I see the accusation -

0:26:13 > 0:26:15you've just made it - but it isn't justified.

0:26:15 > 0:26:19I'm not anticipating coming back depraved and corrupted.

0:26:19 > 0:26:21When we arrived in Copenhagen we were greeted by an official

0:26:21 > 0:26:24from the British Embassy who, over dinner, gave us a briefing

0:26:24 > 0:26:29on the hottest sex spots in the capital and gave us a run down of

0:26:29 > 0:26:34what we could see, and Lord Longford then distributed £10 to each of us.

0:26:34 > 0:26:36The British Embassy official said,

0:26:36 > 0:26:40"Oh, I think you can get live intercourse for a fiver."

0:26:40 > 0:26:42Lord Longford said to him,

0:26:42 > 0:26:44"You seem to be remarkably well informed!"

0:26:44 > 0:26:48The man from the Embassy replied, "We try to be of service, sir."

0:26:48 > 0:26:52'One of the places the Longford mission visited was

0:26:52 > 0:26:56'the well-equipped film studio where Jens Theander conducts his

0:26:56 > 0:26:59'million-pounds-a-year hardcore film and magazine business.'

0:26:59 > 0:27:00Do we know how we get in?

0:27:04 > 0:27:07You've now made the easy pornography,

0:27:07 > 0:27:10pornography just showing couples making intercourses

0:27:10 > 0:27:12and now we are in the position that

0:27:12 > 0:27:15we would like to put a little more expression,

0:27:15 > 0:27:20a little more feeling, into the magazines, into the films

0:27:20 > 0:27:23to make it better, to make it more professional.

0:27:23 > 0:27:26Longford and his team decide to go and see for themselves

0:27:26 > 0:27:28Copenhagen's live sex shows.

0:27:28 > 0:27:29Can we go in?

0:27:31 > 0:27:36There was a stout businessman seated in the row in front of us

0:27:36 > 0:27:41who's brought up onto the stage and his trousers were lowered

0:27:41 > 0:27:45and the artist, the performing artist...

0:27:45 > 0:27:48Anyway, he became part of the show.

0:27:48 > 0:27:51We didn't quite know where to... We spent most of our time looking at our knees

0:27:51 > 0:27:54and looking nervously at Lord Longford who was sitting there

0:27:54 > 0:27:56with his eyes out on stalks, amazed.

0:27:56 > 0:28:00Then this girl who had been involving the audience

0:28:00 > 0:28:06came toward us and she literally arrived at the side of Lord Longford.

0:28:06 > 0:28:10She was naked, but she was holding a whip...

0:28:12 > 0:28:18..and with this whip she began to encircle Lord Longford's bald pate.

0:28:19 > 0:28:22And clearly she was about to land in his lap.

0:28:23 > 0:28:25He tried to smile agreeably at her

0:28:25 > 0:28:29but as she got as close as she was going to get,

0:28:29 > 0:28:32he got up, made his excuses and left.

0:28:32 > 0:28:37If you ask me for my most rude impression so far,

0:28:37 > 0:28:43I'm afraid it has been the visit to these two ghastly shows,

0:28:43 > 0:28:45the live shows.

0:28:45 > 0:28:47They are far worse even than I expected.

0:28:47 > 0:28:51I thought I was going to be able to take it quite easily

0:28:51 > 0:28:55but this was so utterly evil that, frankly, I'm very glad

0:28:55 > 0:28:57I went out on each occasion after a short while.

0:28:57 > 0:29:01I cannot believe for a moment the British public would ever tolerate

0:29:01 > 0:29:04the sort of thing I saw last night, or indeed the Danish arrangements.

0:29:07 > 0:29:10When the Longford report was published, it recommended

0:29:10 > 0:29:12much stricter laws on pornography.

0:29:12 > 0:29:14The government ignored it.

0:29:14 > 0:29:17But Lord Longford was never to shed his nickname.

0:29:19 > 0:29:22I don't think he was really keen to be Lord Porn -

0:29:22 > 0:29:25I think he was much more serious than that.

0:29:25 > 0:29:26And it was rather sad for me

0:29:26 > 0:29:30that people decided to think that he was a buffoon,

0:29:30 > 0:29:31which he absolutely wasn't.

0:29:31 > 0:29:34He was really a remarkable person.

0:29:34 > 0:29:38When I go in for these things I don't calculate very much.

0:29:38 > 0:29:40I go bald-headed,

0:29:40 > 0:29:45which I think is quite an appropriate phrase in my connection,

0:29:45 > 0:29:49for what seems to be right and leave it to chance or God.

0:29:51 > 0:29:54Our third character was rather different.

0:29:54 > 0:29:57Sir Jimmy Goldsmith was the decade's most buccaneering businessman,

0:29:57 > 0:30:02whose role models were the past captains of British industry.

0:30:02 > 0:30:07All these men who founded these companies were tough,

0:30:07 > 0:30:12ruthless, ambitious and not necessarily likable men,

0:30:12 > 0:30:14but they founded the great companies.

0:30:14 > 0:30:17And they were not founded by committees,

0:30:17 > 0:30:19by collectivism or anything else.

0:30:19 > 0:30:22They were founded by these individuals, likable or not.

0:30:22 > 0:30:26Goldsmith's father, Frank, came from a German-Jewish family.

0:30:26 > 0:30:29He'd been a Tory MP until the First World War.

0:30:29 > 0:30:33Later he married a French woman and they lived in France, where their son Jimmy grew up.

0:30:33 > 0:30:37He was sent to school at Eton, where he distinguished himself as a gambler

0:30:37 > 0:30:42and after a big win on the horses, he left school early.

0:30:42 > 0:30:44Jimmy wasn't English - he was French, you see.

0:30:44 > 0:30:47I know he was half-English but he was something different.

0:30:47 > 0:30:50And I suppose that in a way is what made him so attractive.

0:30:50 > 0:30:52He was different to all the people I knew.

0:30:52 > 0:30:56He was much more French - very proud of his French roots,

0:30:56 > 0:30:58very proud of his Jewish roots -

0:30:58 > 0:31:00but, erm, he wasn't really English, Jimmy, at all.

0:31:00 > 0:31:05Goldsmith was only 20 when he first made big headlines.

0:31:05 > 0:31:08He'd fallen in love with an 18-year-old Bolivian heiress.

0:31:08 > 0:31:12Her father refused to let them marry, so they eloped.

0:31:15 > 0:31:17What are you going to do now?

0:31:17 > 0:31:19Going straight to bed.

0:31:19 > 0:31:21And how do you both feel about all this publicity

0:31:21 > 0:31:23- and all this excitement? - We're both a little tired.

0:31:23 > 0:31:25And how do you feel about it, madam?

0:31:25 > 0:31:27Rather tired too.

0:31:27 > 0:31:30'Bride and groom drink to each other.'

0:31:30 > 0:31:32All looked set fair.

0:31:32 > 0:31:37Their runaway romance was front-page news around the world.

0:31:37 > 0:31:40But within five months, the pregnant Isabel Goldsmith fell gravely ill

0:31:40 > 0:31:44with a brain tumour and her husband watched her die.

0:31:44 > 0:31:46After the funeral,

0:31:46 > 0:31:49Jimmy Goldsmith threw himself into the business of making money.

0:31:49 > 0:31:54He was a risk-taker and came close to bankruptcy several times.

0:31:54 > 0:31:58Starting in cut-price medicines, he moved into confectionery

0:31:58 > 0:32:01and was steadily to build a huge food company.

0:32:01 > 0:32:05He had a sharp instinct for when markets would rise and fall

0:32:05 > 0:32:09and said his private passion for gambling helped him in business.

0:32:10 > 0:32:12'Being a gambler's useful,

0:32:12 > 0:32:15'because being a gambler you know that luck goes and comes.'

0:32:16 > 0:32:19So when things are doing well, you try to benefit from it

0:32:19 > 0:32:22but you also know that they won't continue to do well

0:32:22 > 0:32:23so you try and consolidate.

0:32:23 > 0:32:28He was a gambler, absolutely, but he hated losing.

0:32:28 > 0:32:31When he had lost a lot he used to retire like a wounded lion,

0:32:31 > 0:32:32lick his paws.

0:32:32 > 0:32:35He hated losing. But you know, he did gamble.

0:32:35 > 0:32:37He loved it, he liked all games.

0:32:38 > 0:32:44And he loved going to Clermont and playing backgammon,

0:32:44 > 0:32:46chemin de fer - poker or whatever it is.

0:32:47 > 0:32:51The Clermont Club in Mayfair also housed the ritzy nightclub

0:32:51 > 0:32:53called Annabel's, named after the wife of its owner.

0:32:55 > 0:32:57But the couple grew apart

0:32:57 > 0:33:00and Lady Annabel Birley became Jimmy Goldsmith's mistress in London.

0:33:00 > 0:33:03He would live with her during the week but would return

0:33:03 > 0:33:06to spend the weekends at his Paris home with his second wife.

0:33:06 > 0:33:10IVAN FALLON: Jimmy Goldsmith then decided to marry Annabel

0:33:10 > 0:33:12and divorce his first wife -

0:33:12 > 0:33:14or second wife, as she was.

0:33:14 > 0:33:16Now he has his third wife,

0:33:16 > 0:33:18but then he had another very beautiful girlfriend

0:33:18 > 0:33:21in New York, who became, effectively, his wife.

0:33:21 > 0:33:23So he operated on the basis of three wives -

0:33:23 > 0:33:25all of whom knew about each other.

0:33:25 > 0:33:27There was no secret about it.

0:33:27 > 0:33:29He was a family man.

0:33:29 > 0:33:31He'd ideally have liked all of us to live together

0:33:31 > 0:33:36and that was part of his tribal instinct.

0:33:36 > 0:33:40When you say ALL of you to live together, what - you and the woman

0:33:40 > 0:33:44who was his second wife and then his mistress after he'd married you?

0:33:44 > 0:33:45Yes, he'd like us all to be...

0:33:45 > 0:33:48He would have loved us all to have had holidays together.

0:33:48 > 0:33:50Really?

0:33:50 > 0:33:52But life doesn't quite work out like that!

0:33:52 > 0:33:55It probably would today, but not then.

0:33:55 > 0:34:01Were you hurt when he had a mistress after he had married you?

0:34:02 > 0:34:04Well, everybody's hurt by things like that.

0:34:04 > 0:34:07Of course I was, yes, but I mean

0:34:07 > 0:34:10I had done it to his second wife -

0:34:10 > 0:34:12I should have expected it, you know, in a way.

0:34:12 > 0:34:14It's quite odd to have three households,

0:34:14 > 0:34:17one in Paris, one in London, one in New York.

0:34:17 > 0:34:21I know it does sound a bit odd, but that's the way it was.

0:34:21 > 0:34:26It does sound a bit odd but it did work.

0:34:26 > 0:34:28We all get on very well now.

0:34:28 > 0:34:31Goldsmith himself joked,

0:34:31 > 0:34:34"If you marry your mistress, you create a job vacancy."

0:34:34 > 0:34:38And his business life was just as complex as his love life.

0:34:41 > 0:34:45He built his company into a multinational food empire.

0:34:45 > 0:34:48He was the financial Houdini of the take-over business.

0:34:49 > 0:34:52Although everybody believed he was sailing close to the wind -

0:34:52 > 0:34:54and certainly he shuffled companies

0:34:54 > 0:34:57at a rate that no-one could possibly keep contact with them.

0:34:57 > 0:35:00I wrote the book and that had great charts

0:35:00 > 0:35:03showing one company went that way and one company went that way,

0:35:03 > 0:35:07cos he was splitting them between his French interests and Swiss interests

0:35:07 > 0:35:11and UK interests, for tax reasons and other reasons.

0:35:11 > 0:35:14But there was nothing actually illegal about it.

0:35:14 > 0:35:20And so that suddenly gave the impression that he was, somehow, a bad man.

0:35:20 > 0:35:24Goldsmith was fiercely protective of his business reputation.

0:35:24 > 0:35:26When the BBC's Money Programme

0:35:26 > 0:35:30produced a sharply critical investigation into his methods,

0:35:30 > 0:35:33Sir James went live on the programme the following week

0:35:33 > 0:35:35and launched an explosive counterattack.

0:35:35 > 0:35:41All I'm trying to show is that on every fundamental issue last week,

0:35:41 > 0:35:45be it on capital investment, on new factories,

0:35:45 > 0:35:47be it on dealing in companies,

0:35:47 > 0:35:50be it on the fact that we didn't develop new products, you lied.

0:35:50 > 0:35:52That's what I'm trying to show,

0:35:52 > 0:35:56- and what I intend to prove on this programme.- Sir James,

0:35:56 > 0:35:57almost everybody says you're

0:35:57 > 0:35:59an amazingly charming and persuasive man

0:35:59 > 0:36:01but that you're also ruthless and a bit of a bully

0:36:01 > 0:36:04- in the way in which you deal with things.- I am...- Is that right?

0:36:04 > 0:36:06I tell you what I am bullying you about, yes.

0:36:06 > 0:36:08What I am doing today

0:36:08 > 0:36:11is that last week we saw a programme

0:36:11 > 0:36:14in which you made the following suggestions about Cavenham -

0:36:14 > 0:36:17and you said them specifically.

0:36:17 > 0:36:20You said we patched up old factories, that was the Goldsmith style.

0:36:20 > 0:36:23- You said that when companies... - Can I...- You said it here!

0:36:23 > 0:36:26Now what worries me, Mr Stephenson,

0:36:26 > 0:36:29is when I see a programme come through

0:36:29 > 0:36:32which is nothing but riddled with factual lies -

0:36:32 > 0:36:36lies of which you were appraised because you had the facts before -

0:36:36 > 0:36:38I wonder whether this is indicative

0:36:38 > 0:36:41of a far more malignant and general disease.

0:36:42 > 0:36:46Goldsmith had come to believe he was the target of a media conspiracy,

0:36:46 > 0:36:49a belief intensified by the epic battle

0:36:49 > 0:36:52he had fought against the magazine Private Eye.

0:36:54 > 0:36:56From a sleazy part of Soho

0:36:56 > 0:36:59Richard Ingrams, Private Eye's editor,

0:36:59 > 0:37:02ran the satirical fortnightly from shabby offices

0:37:02 > 0:37:04above a sex shop.

0:37:04 > 0:37:10I think that Goldsmith personified everything that Private Eye ought to be against.

0:37:10 > 0:37:16He was very rich, very ruthless, very right wing.

0:37:19 > 0:37:22Private Eye targeted Goldsmith.

0:37:22 > 0:37:24It depicted him as an asset stripper,

0:37:24 > 0:37:27then as dirty a label as "banker" is today,

0:37:27 > 0:37:30and it alleged he did dodgy deals.

0:37:30 > 0:37:34It also claimed that Goldsmith had helped Lord Lucan,

0:37:34 > 0:37:36his Old Etonian gambling chum,

0:37:36 > 0:37:40to disappear after the sensational murder of his nanny.

0:37:40 > 0:37:42Goldsmith then went nuclear.

0:37:44 > 0:37:46Resuscitating the medieval law of criminal libel,

0:37:46 > 0:37:48he issued a flurry of writs against

0:37:48 > 0:37:52Richard Ingrams and Private Eye's printers and distributors.

0:37:53 > 0:37:56Goldsmith frankly admitted that his aim

0:37:56 > 0:37:59was to send Ingrams and other Eye journalists to jail

0:37:59 > 0:38:00and close the magazine down.

0:38:03 > 0:38:06Goldsmith was deploying the criminal law

0:38:06 > 0:38:08against a satirical magazine

0:38:08 > 0:38:11that he saw as the centre of a concealed conspiracy

0:38:11 > 0:38:14to destroy capitalism.

0:38:14 > 0:38:17All the wit, the satire - which is funny -

0:38:17 > 0:38:19is no more than the sugar coating

0:38:19 > 0:38:21the product, the sheer poison.

0:38:21 > 0:38:23Most of the journalists who work within Private Eye...

0:38:23 > 0:38:27I've found that Private Eye in fact consists of a club of journalists,

0:38:27 > 0:38:30who were not only working in Private Eye, usually anonymously,

0:38:30 > 0:38:32but were also working throughout the press.

0:38:32 > 0:38:37That's why this nation, for so many years, has been fed pus.

0:38:37 > 0:38:38It was quite flattering to me

0:38:38 > 0:38:43to think that I was controlling this conspiracy.

0:38:43 > 0:38:46We had agents throughout the media.

0:38:46 > 0:38:50It was true we had people throughout the media who were sending us stories -

0:38:50 > 0:38:53it was perfectly true -

0:38:53 > 0:38:59but this idea that we were some kind of political conspiracy was...

0:38:59 > 0:39:01lunatic.

0:39:01 > 0:39:07Goldsmith versus Private Eye became the most notorious libel case in modern times.

0:39:07 > 0:39:10It was to involve 20 different judges,

0:39:10 > 0:39:12witnesses who went missing,

0:39:12 > 0:39:14and many bizarre twists and turns.

0:39:15 > 0:39:18It became a field day for the lawyers.

0:39:19 > 0:39:24And mounting legal costs threatened Private Eye with closure.

0:39:24 > 0:39:25Large sums have been quoted

0:39:25 > 0:39:27but there are 90 writs in this case

0:39:27 > 0:39:30and that could obviously lead to large amounts.

0:39:30 > 0:39:33I'm fortunate that I'm really rather rich.

0:39:33 > 0:39:36And I can take them on and they can't harm me any more,

0:39:36 > 0:39:38and therefore as far as I'm concerned

0:39:38 > 0:39:40I'm in a position to take them on and expose them.

0:39:40 > 0:39:44Lady Annabel went with Goldsmith on the first day

0:39:44 > 0:39:45he was due to give evidence.

0:39:45 > 0:39:49I went to court with him every day.

0:39:49 > 0:39:51There was a famous photograph that appeared.

0:39:51 > 0:39:53I was wearing a perfectly respectable dress,

0:39:53 > 0:39:55but it was sort of...

0:39:55 > 0:39:57wrap-over, whatever it is,

0:39:57 > 0:39:59and the wind was quite strong and it blew it open,

0:39:59 > 0:40:01and there was a great speculation

0:40:01 > 0:40:04as to whether I was wearing any pants or not,

0:40:04 > 0:40:05and of course I was actually.

0:40:05 > 0:40:07I do remember going into that court room

0:40:07 > 0:40:09and seeing all these rather hostile people

0:40:09 > 0:40:11and cringing in my seat

0:40:11 > 0:40:13thinking, "This is so awful, I'm not going to like this,"

0:40:13 > 0:40:16and how magnetic Jimmy was in the box, having to be told,

0:40:16 > 0:40:19"Can we have a little less theatrics, Mr Goldsmith?"

0:40:19 > 0:40:23He spoke very loudly and he waved his arms around

0:40:23 > 0:40:25and he jabbed his finger,

0:40:25 > 0:40:28rather like Alastair Campbell with Jon Snow.

0:40:28 > 0:40:33And our lawyer, a very quiet Irishman,

0:40:33 > 0:40:36James Cummins - a lovely man -

0:40:36 > 0:40:41he said, "Isn't your aim, Sir James,

0:40:41 > 0:40:44"to smash Private Eye?"

0:40:44 > 0:40:46And Goldsmith lent across...

0:40:46 > 0:40:50"No, I want them to be more truthful."

0:40:50 > 0:40:53It was bit like the giant taking on the small man.

0:40:53 > 0:40:55This was a small little magazine

0:40:55 > 0:40:58and I found all my friends were trying to make money for the Private Eye fund,

0:40:58 > 0:41:00- when Jimmy...- The Goldenballs fund.

0:41:00 > 0:41:01The Goldenballs fund.

0:41:01 > 0:41:04And it's embarrassing, actually.

0:41:07 > 0:41:09Private Eye's well-heeled supporters

0:41:09 > 0:41:12organised a fund-raising cricket match.

0:41:12 > 0:41:17And there were other social events to help pay the magazine's legal bills.

0:41:18 > 0:41:20Goldenballs?

0:41:22 > 0:41:23What do you like about Private Eye?

0:41:23 > 0:41:25It's made us laugh for years.

0:41:26 > 0:41:30Cheques came into Private Eye's offices every day from readers.

0:41:30 > 0:41:32All those who donated to the Goldenballs fund

0:41:32 > 0:41:35had their name published in the magazine.

0:41:35 > 0:41:39The irony of it is, the more Goldsmith sues us,

0:41:39 > 0:41:42the more publicity we attract to the magazine

0:41:42 > 0:41:44and the more the circulation goes up

0:41:44 > 0:41:47so in a way it's counter-productive.

0:41:48 > 0:41:50Although he sought to make light of it,

0:41:50 > 0:41:53Ingrams didn't relish the prospect of going to prison

0:41:53 > 0:41:54for criminal libel.

0:41:56 > 0:42:00But did Goldsmith think that the mud from the Private Eye case was sticking to him?

0:42:00 > 0:42:03Undoubtedly in England, yes. People have believed it in England.

0:42:03 > 0:42:06Fortunately my life is spread in various countries,

0:42:06 > 0:42:08partially in France and the United States,

0:42:08 > 0:42:10and there they're not taken seriously,

0:42:10 > 0:42:15but here the campaign, which spread to other newspapers, was taken seriously.

0:42:17 > 0:42:20Eventually Goldsmith decided to sue for peace.

0:42:20 > 0:42:24He felt he'd only get fair coverage if he took over a newspaper himself,

0:42:24 > 0:42:28but he found his image as someone seeking to crush one organ of the free press

0:42:28 > 0:42:32was stymieing his chances of a take over.

0:42:32 > 0:42:35He reached a deal whereby Private Eye paid for a full-page newspaper ad,

0:42:35 > 0:42:37totally retracting its story

0:42:37 > 0:42:41about Goldsmith helping Lord Lucan to disappear.

0:42:42 > 0:42:45If the worst had turned out for you and you'd gone to prison,

0:42:45 > 0:42:47what was your greatest fear?

0:42:47 > 0:42:51My main fear was that of Lord Longford coming to visit me.

0:42:53 > 0:42:57Goldsmith later told his wife that the Private Eye libel case

0:42:57 > 0:42:59had been the biggest mistake of his life,

0:42:59 > 0:43:02as it had poisoned the atmosphere against him

0:43:02 > 0:43:06and caused every project he touched in Britain to rot.

0:43:06 > 0:43:08She feels he was much misunderstood.

0:43:08 > 0:43:11Though I know he's always painted as an ogre in the press,

0:43:11 > 0:43:16he had a few bad points, but he was a brilliant man, utterly brilliant.

0:43:16 > 0:43:21At his memorial service Margaret Thatcher said - and, God, she was right -

0:43:21 > 0:43:25"We will not see his like again."

0:43:25 > 0:43:31Because he was larger than life, he was a larger-than-life figure,

0:43:31 > 0:43:35and the thing is, it's wonderful to know him, wonderful to have in your life,

0:43:35 > 0:43:38but, you know, you need a bit of a rest now and then, I think.

0:43:38 > 0:43:41- He could be a bit exhausting. - Yes. He was exhausting.

0:43:42 > 0:43:47Private Eye marked the death of its old foe with this cover.

0:43:47 > 0:43:49His wife says it makes her laugh,

0:43:49 > 0:43:51though whether the man they called Sir Jams

0:43:51 > 0:43:54would have seen the joke is another matter.

0:43:54 > 0:43:58The last of our iconic figures is Sir Robert Mark,

0:43:58 > 0:44:02who became Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1972.

0:44:02 > 0:44:05Faced with evidence of widespread corruption,

0:44:05 > 0:44:08Mark pledged to purge all bent detectives from the force.

0:44:10 > 0:44:14With my colleagues, I have set out to make virtue fashionable.

0:44:15 > 0:44:21A bent detective not only is himself a wrongdoer...

0:44:22 > 0:44:24..not only does he do

0:44:24 > 0:44:27irreparable harm to a body of men

0:44:27 > 0:44:31who little deserve to be discredited in that way,

0:44:31 > 0:44:35but he harms the whole fabric of public confidence

0:44:35 > 0:44:38and the confidence of the courts in the police.

0:44:38 > 0:44:43So far as I'm concerned, he will always be a prime target,

0:44:43 > 0:44:45and he can look to no mercy at all from me.

0:44:45 > 0:44:49Mark had been chief constable of Leicester

0:44:49 > 0:44:52when he was first brought into the Met as assistant commissioner.

0:44:52 > 0:44:55He said later he was made to feel as welcome as a leper

0:44:55 > 0:44:58at a colonial governor's garden party.

0:44:58 > 0:45:01He found Scotland Yard a secretive, Masonic place,

0:45:01 > 0:45:04with its own inbred culture.

0:45:04 > 0:45:06The plain-clothes detectives of the CID

0:45:06 > 0:45:10looked down on the uniformed branch, and it was in the CID

0:45:10 > 0:45:12that corruption had been allowed to flourish.

0:45:12 > 0:45:17In a sting operation, The Times had exposed detectives

0:45:17 > 0:45:21faking evidence, taking bribes and blackmailing criminals.

0:45:21 > 0:45:24And just as Mark took the top job,

0:45:24 > 0:45:27The People produced a damaging splash story.

0:45:27 > 0:45:29It said the head of the Flying Squad, Ken Drury,

0:45:29 > 0:45:32had shared a Mediterranean holiday

0:45:32 > 0:45:34with the Soho porn baron James Humphreys.

0:45:34 > 0:45:37Humphreys had picked up the tab.

0:45:38 > 0:45:42Ken Drury stood down from his job protesting his innocence,

0:45:42 > 0:45:45and claiming he'd actually been in the Mediterranean

0:45:45 > 0:45:48looking for Ronnie Biggs, the Great Train Robber.

0:45:50 > 0:45:52It's no good going to the vicar's tea party

0:45:52 > 0:45:54and trying to gain information

0:45:54 > 0:45:58about the activities of organised teams of robbers.

0:45:58 > 0:46:03If these teams commit highly organised crime,

0:46:03 > 0:46:07they will spend certainly a lot of their proceeds

0:46:07 > 0:46:11in places like the West End or go to Spain,

0:46:11 > 0:46:14getting rid of their ill-gotten gains.

0:46:16 > 0:46:20After lengthy negotiations, Sir Robert Mark, in 1975,

0:46:20 > 0:46:24agreed to give access for TV cameras to film for the very first time

0:46:24 > 0:46:27inside the normally closed secret world of the Met.

0:46:29 > 0:46:33He said I could make a film here at Scotland Yard

0:46:33 > 0:46:35and track the progress of his efforts

0:46:35 > 0:46:39to stamp out corruption at all levels in the CID.

0:46:41 > 0:46:44Mark, who was to become known as the Lone Ranger from Leicester,

0:46:44 > 0:46:49had begun his campaign with a meeting of his top detectives.

0:46:49 > 0:46:52He told them bluntly that he wanted a CID that caught more criminals

0:46:52 > 0:46:54than it employed.

0:46:56 > 0:47:01There wasn't even a discussion. This was an entirely one-sided meeting.

0:47:01 > 0:47:05- It was said that you actually walked out.- Indeed.

0:47:05 > 0:47:09But this was simply because I told them exactly what I wanted them to hear...

0:47:11 > 0:47:12..and then left them.

0:47:12 > 0:47:15I think he overstated the case, if I might say so,

0:47:15 > 0:47:18having been a nailing point as to where he was

0:47:18 > 0:47:20because I was a career CID officer

0:47:20 > 0:47:22of 22 years in the Metropolitan Police.

0:47:22 > 0:47:25John Stevens was to rise through the ranks

0:47:25 > 0:47:29and eventually himself become head of the Met.

0:47:29 > 0:47:32When Sir Robert said, "Basically, all the CID are corrupt,"

0:47:32 > 0:47:35that was, in my view, wrong, because I was not corrupt

0:47:35 > 0:47:37and I knew a lot of my colleagues and friends weren't.

0:47:37 > 0:47:41But I think he said that in order to get some effect in terms of what he was doing.

0:47:41 > 0:47:44There's no doubt that there was corruption at the highest levels

0:47:44 > 0:47:46and through some of the structures in the Yard.

0:47:46 > 0:47:50What did you think the position was and what did you propose to do?

0:47:50 > 0:47:56Well, I thought the position was that the misdeeds of the few,

0:47:56 > 0:47:58and their apparent immunity,

0:47:58 > 0:48:03was harming both the reputation of the bulk of the CID

0:48:03 > 0:48:06and of the force as a whole,

0:48:06 > 0:48:08and that I was prepared to do

0:48:08 > 0:48:11anything that was necessary to correct that.

0:48:11 > 0:48:17It's been said to me that you threatened to put all the CID officers back into uniform

0:48:17 > 0:48:19if it was necessary to correct that.

0:48:19 > 0:48:22Well, I don't regard that as a threat.

0:48:22 > 0:48:24I looked upon it simply as a managerial statement of fact,

0:48:24 > 0:48:27which I would have been perfectly prepared to implement.

0:48:27 > 0:48:32Mark's prime target for reform was the Flying Squad,

0:48:32 > 0:48:35which he saw as a force within a force,

0:48:35 > 0:48:39ever keen to promote its image as the Yard's heavy mob.

0:48:39 > 0:48:41The Flying Squad are a fine body of men.

0:48:41 > 0:48:43They're dedicated, and to do their job,

0:48:43 > 0:48:46they've got to permanently associate

0:48:46 > 0:48:49with people of the criminal fraternity.

0:48:49 > 0:48:51Robert Mark saw it rather differently.

0:48:51 > 0:48:55I said to the detectives, "Of course you must mix with criminals.

0:48:55 > 0:48:59"But the criterion you must adopt is that you must mix with them

0:48:59 > 0:49:02"for the public good, not for your own personal profit."

0:49:04 > 0:49:06We filmed with the team from the Flying Squad,

0:49:06 > 0:49:11keen to be seen as The Sweeney and proud of their underworld contacts.

0:49:11 > 0:49:14Most Flying Squad officers have their own informants.

0:49:14 > 0:49:16This is the way we work - strictly through informants.

0:49:16 > 0:49:18To me, there's no other way to work.

0:49:19 > 0:49:21The team was led by a detective inspector.

0:49:23 > 0:49:26How do you think the criminals regard the Flying Squad?

0:49:26 > 0:49:30I think with a fair amount of awe.

0:49:30 > 0:49:32- How rough is it? - It can be a bit rough sometimes.

0:49:32 > 0:49:36Mind you, I've got two wrestlers on my team. That can't be a bad thing.

0:49:38 > 0:49:39They're good, strong boys.

0:49:39 > 0:49:42They're my bodyguards personally, you see.

0:49:43 > 0:49:44His "good strong boys"

0:49:44 > 0:49:48were Detective Sergeants Mick Howell and Fred Cutts.

0:49:48 > 0:49:51They were proud of their easy access to the sleazier parts of Soho

0:49:51 > 0:49:53in search of information.

0:49:55 > 0:49:57INDISTINCT

0:49:57 > 0:49:58It's very quiet.

0:49:58 > 0:49:59Mind if I have a look around?

0:50:01 > 0:50:06Howell and Cutts also had entree to secret Chinese gambling dens.

0:50:06 > 0:50:11Although Robert Mark had brought in reforms designed to cut back

0:50:11 > 0:50:14on the Flying Squad's close contacts with the underworld,

0:50:14 > 0:50:18the two detectives routinely drank in pubs used by what they called

0:50:18 > 0:50:21"the villains" as their way of finding out what was going on.

0:50:21 > 0:50:24I think the policeman and the villain get on very well.

0:50:24 > 0:50:27We've got something in common which is unique. We think like each other.

0:50:30 > 0:50:32He's looking for ways that he can't be arrested,

0:50:32 > 0:50:36and we're looking for ways where we can arrest him.

0:50:36 > 0:50:38At the end of a hard night's drinking for business,

0:50:38 > 0:50:42the team relaxed, but Robert Mark feared that the Flying Squad

0:50:42 > 0:50:45was always in danger of swallowing its own mythology

0:50:45 > 0:50:48and behaving as if it were a law unto itself.

0:50:48 > 0:50:51What do you say to those detectives who've said to me

0:50:51 > 0:50:56that you are more concerned with catching bent detectives

0:50:56 > 0:50:58than you are with catching criminals?

0:51:00 > 0:51:02Well, I should say they're right!

0:51:04 > 0:51:06And I see nothing improper about that.

0:51:06 > 0:51:10I tried to explain to you that I believe that the effectiveness

0:51:10 > 0:51:14of the Criminal Investigation Department does not depend

0:51:14 > 0:51:19upon mystique or hocus-pocus or any of the nonsense that you've read

0:51:19 > 0:51:23in these fictional autobiographies over the last decade or two.

0:51:23 > 0:51:25It depends on...

0:51:26 > 0:51:30Their effectiveness depends, basically, on professional skill

0:51:30 > 0:51:33and training, and then on integrity.

0:51:33 > 0:51:36Corruption will always be there. It's endemic.

0:51:36 > 0:51:39It's a matter of how you control it, which is the important part of it,

0:51:39 > 0:51:44and if you allow it to grow, then you're in big trouble.

0:51:44 > 0:51:46Sir Robert Mark was all about ensuring that it was kept to

0:51:46 > 0:51:49the limitations that it was, because it's around.

0:51:49 > 0:51:53The sums of money that are around and the temptations are always there.

0:51:53 > 0:51:55But because the CID were always dealing with what

0:51:55 > 0:51:58I would call very convincing corrupters,

0:51:58 > 0:52:02those people who will make it their business to actually try and corrupt

0:52:02 > 0:52:05police officers and bring them in close and, if you like, groom them,

0:52:05 > 0:52:09and unless you're actually aware of that, unless you've got a structure

0:52:09 > 0:52:12that deals with that, and also you've got a very strong anti-corruption branch

0:52:12 > 0:52:16to deal with that, which is what Sir Robert Mark introduced,

0:52:16 > 0:52:19and was one of the first do that, and if you don't do that,

0:52:19 > 0:52:20you'll have problems.

0:52:20 > 0:52:24Mark's new anti-corruption branch called A10

0:52:24 > 0:52:27ended the CID's traditional system.

0:52:27 > 0:52:28PHONE RINGS

0:52:28 > 0:52:30A10 branch.

0:52:30 > 0:52:34The CID alone would no longer investigate corruption charges

0:52:34 > 0:52:36against its own officers.

0:52:36 > 0:52:38A10 was run by the uniform branch,

0:52:38 > 0:52:40although most of its staff were detectives

0:52:40 > 0:52:44who would listen to complaints against police from the public.

0:52:44 > 0:52:47'And consequently, they arrested him and charged him with

0:52:47 > 0:52:53'threatening behaviour, two assaults and criminal damage.

0:52:53 > 0:52:57'And the officers that have arrested him are six foot

0:52:57 > 0:52:59'and as wide as an 'ouse, and it's ridiculous.

0:52:59 > 0:53:02'My brother's only five foot two and weighs about ten stone.'

0:53:02 > 0:53:05In the Flying Squad, A10 was not popular.

0:53:05 > 0:53:07They called it the Gestapo,

0:53:07 > 0:53:11and claimed they had to look over both shoulders at the same time -

0:53:11 > 0:53:14one for the criminals, the other for A10.

0:53:15 > 0:53:18Their views were shared by the man who'd been running the CID

0:53:18 > 0:53:20until Mark took over.

0:53:20 > 0:53:24I'm afraid I'm left with the impression that the whole of

0:53:24 > 0:53:29the CID have been blasted the tar brush across their face.

0:53:29 > 0:53:33Why should police officers have to think that there's

0:53:33 > 0:53:36a sort of spy network watching them

0:53:36 > 0:53:37all the time behind their backs,

0:53:37 > 0:53:42- checking up on them? - They are honest, straightforward men,

0:53:42 > 0:53:44and when they are working these long hours and facing

0:53:44 > 0:53:48dangerous criminals, they expect some support from their senior officers.

0:53:48 > 0:53:52They don't expect to have pins stuck in their backside.

0:53:52 > 0:53:53It had to be done.

0:53:53 > 0:53:56If you actually had the CID investigating themselves,

0:53:56 > 0:53:59I don't think you'd ever get to the bottom of what was going on

0:53:59 > 0:54:01in terms of corruption, particularly the Dirty Squad

0:54:01 > 0:54:06as they were referred to, and some of the senior officers involved in that. It had to be done.

0:54:06 > 0:54:09The Dirty Squad was the Yard's nickname

0:54:09 > 0:54:12for the Obscene Publications Squad.

0:54:12 > 0:54:16Their job was to rid Soho of hard-core pornography,

0:54:16 > 0:54:19and they were umbilically linked to the Flying Squad.

0:54:19 > 0:54:23The biggest single inquiry undertaken by A10

0:54:23 > 0:54:24was into powerful allegations

0:54:24 > 0:54:27against senior Porn and Flying Squad officers,

0:54:27 > 0:54:30that they were effectively running their own protection rackets.

0:54:30 > 0:54:35Sir Robert Mark gave me a fulsome endorsement of the work of A10.

0:54:35 > 0:54:39I should think it's probably the most effective organisation

0:54:39 > 0:54:42for investigating internal wrongdoing

0:54:42 > 0:54:46created by any public service in this country.

0:54:46 > 0:54:51Inside A10, its investigation into the links between Scotland Yard

0:54:51 > 0:54:54and the porn industry was kept tightly secure.

0:54:54 > 0:54:58It was alleged that the top CID men were in the pockets

0:54:58 > 0:55:00of the porn barons of Soho.

0:55:00 > 0:55:03Ironically, Bill Moody, the head of the Dirty Squad,

0:55:03 > 0:55:08had himself been hand-picked to work as a A10 investigator.

0:55:08 > 0:55:11But when the porn baron James Humphreys was arrested,

0:55:11 > 0:55:16he claimed that Moody was one of 40 Dirty and Flying Squad men in his pay.

0:55:16 > 0:55:19Humphreys' wife Rusty supported his story.

0:55:19 > 0:55:23He did pay thousands of pounds out to these people.

0:55:23 > 0:55:28I've been there on occasions where it has been paid out, in this flat.

0:55:28 > 0:55:31My children can tell you it's been like

0:55:31 > 0:55:36Union Station at Christmas time, people getting off and on trains.

0:55:36 > 0:55:39What my husband calls bung day.

0:55:39 > 0:55:42My husband didn't corrupt the police, they corrupted him.

0:55:42 > 0:55:45They come to you for the money, you don't go to them.

0:55:45 > 0:55:48Humphreys himself claimed that Bill Moody

0:55:48 > 0:55:49and other senior CID officers

0:55:49 > 0:55:52even organised their own sales of pornography.

0:55:52 > 0:55:54He said that materials they'd seized in raids

0:55:54 > 0:55:59would be loaded into an unmarked car and driven to a Soho car park.

0:55:59 > 0:56:01Humphreys would arrive there in his Jaguar,

0:56:01 > 0:56:05where he'd pay the detectives half the market price for the porn.

0:56:05 > 0:56:09"I had a flying start, you might say," joked Humphreys.

0:56:09 > 0:56:11When Robert Mark and his top team received

0:56:11 > 0:56:14the results of A10's lengthy investigation into Humphreys' allegations,

0:56:14 > 0:56:17the commissioner took dramatic action.

0:56:19 > 0:56:21In a dawn raid, Bill Moody was arrested.

0:56:21 > 0:56:24He'd been head of the Dirty Squad and worked for A10.

0:56:24 > 0:56:28Also arrested was Ken Drury, the Flying Squad chief

0:56:28 > 0:56:31who'd been on the sunshine holiday with Humphreys.

0:56:31 > 0:56:35And the biggest fish of all was Commander Wally Virgo,

0:56:35 > 0:56:38who was in overall charge of both the Porn and Flying Squads.

0:56:38 > 0:56:43Humphreys claimed he paid Virgo £2,000 in cash every month.

0:56:45 > 0:56:47Throughout the morning,

0:56:47 > 0:56:49cars brought the men to Cannon Row Police Station

0:56:49 > 0:56:51in the shadow of the old Scotland Yard building

0:56:51 > 0:56:53where many of them once worked.

0:56:53 > 0:56:57Some, like Kenneth Drury, former commander and head of the Flying Squad,

0:56:57 > 0:57:00hid under blankets on the back seat.

0:57:00 > 0:57:04So, too, did Alfred Moody, formerly Detective Chief Superintendent

0:57:04 > 0:57:06and head of the Obscene Publications Squad.

0:57:06 > 0:57:10Wallace Virgo, retired commander of the Yard's central office,

0:57:10 > 0:57:12was accompanied by his wife.

0:57:13 > 0:57:18All three top CID officers received lengthy prison terms for corruption.

0:57:18 > 0:57:21They were among the 600 police officers

0:57:21 > 0:57:25who left Scotland Yard prematurely during Robert Mark's five years at the top.

0:57:25 > 0:57:28Many of them had been under investigation,

0:57:28 > 0:57:31and most were what Mark described as shotgun resignations.

0:57:33 > 0:57:35Sir Robert Mark must have gone through hell,

0:57:35 > 0:57:38because he went through some very difficult situations in terms of the top team.

0:57:38 > 0:57:43But as time went on and as I watched his portrayal of policing,

0:57:43 > 0:57:47and he came behind and supported the CID after a period of time,

0:57:47 > 0:57:49because he had to, because he knew how effective

0:57:49 > 0:57:53and how important it was to policing London, that I got to respect him.

0:57:55 > 0:57:59Don't forget, this situation lasted from 1879 until 1972,

0:57:59 > 0:58:03and I was like a surgeon who had to cut out a major cancer

0:58:03 > 0:58:05without killing the patient.

0:58:05 > 0:58:08In other words, I'd got to do great execution amongst the CID,

0:58:08 > 0:58:11whilst at the same time maintaining their morale

0:58:11 > 0:58:14and, to some extent, maintaining public belief in them.

0:58:16 > 0:58:19THEY SING DRUNKENLY

0:58:24 > 0:58:26Of his reformed Flying Squad, Mark says,

0:58:26 > 0:58:29"I don't know what they do to the enemy,

0:58:29 > 0:58:31"but by God, they frighten me."

0:58:33 > 0:58:35Sir Robert Mark and the three other characters in this film

0:58:35 > 0:58:37are now dead.

0:58:37 > 0:58:40But all four of them lived their lives in primary colours,

0:58:40 > 0:58:44compared to most of today's public figures, who are pastel-shaded.

0:58:44 > 0:58:47MUSIC: "Heroes" by David Bowie

0:59:02 > 0:59:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd