0:00:02 > 0:00:04JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:00:04 > 0:00:06First of all,
0:00:06 > 0:00:08one part amaretto.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13One part blue Curacao.
0:00:16 > 0:00:17Two parts cranberry juice.
0:00:20 > 0:00:21Two parts pineapple juice.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26One part Southern Comfort.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Shake, don't stir.
0:00:35 > 0:00:43And this is the Bathwater Cocktail, created for and named after
0:00:43 > 0:00:47the so-called "Bath and Bottle Party",
0:00:47 > 0:00:51the most notorious cocktail party in British history.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00It happened in a heat wave
0:01:00 > 0:01:02at the height of the social season
0:01:02 > 0:01:07on the evening of Friday 13th July 1928.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11The hosts, "Babe" Plunket Greene,
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Elizabeth Ponsonby,
0:01:13 > 0:01:15Edward Gathorne-Hardy
0:01:15 > 0:01:16and Brian Howard.
0:01:19 > 0:01:25The venue, St George's Swimming Baths, Buckingham Palace Road, Belgravia.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31The Daily Express gossiped about the "edgy Negro jazz band"
0:01:31 > 0:01:36and costumes of "the most dazzling kinds and colours".
0:01:37 > 0:01:43Even the waiters wore bathing suits as they served the Bathwater Cocktail.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48This was the party that would come to symbolise an era.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52And if you've ever been to a nightclub, drunk a cocktail or taken drugs,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56then you too have been shaken and stirred
0:01:56 > 0:02:00by the frenzied spirit of these extraordinary years.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10In the 1920s, imperial Britannia is sliding from view
0:02:10 > 0:02:13and modern Britain is stumbling out,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17almost like an adolescent, asking endless questions,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21a bit contemptuous of the past, trying everything new.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26The young called themselves the post-war generation.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29They had no idea that another war was on the way.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31And in this age of questions,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35if there's one that underpins all the rest, it's simply this -
0:02:35 > 0:02:39"How best shall we live?"
0:03:09 > 0:03:11CHEERING
0:03:15 > 0:03:19When news of the end of the Great War reached the streets of Britain,
0:03:19 > 0:03:24a massive, heaving party broke out.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30There were wild scenes for three days and nights,
0:03:30 > 0:03:35with drunkenness and even copulation on the streets.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40And at the centre of it all was David Lloyd George,
0:03:40 > 0:03:42"the man who won the war".
0:03:46 > 0:03:50He'd had his share of scandals, but now he was riding high,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54as he called the first general election since 1910.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Pledging a land fit for heroes,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03a new Britain of peace and prosperity,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Lloyd George won by a landslide -
0:04:05 > 0:04:11a crushing personal victory for a man who was dodgy in private, but in public,
0:04:11 > 0:04:16brimmed with plausible promises and sound bites.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Now, we're not yet quite in modern Britain,
0:04:23 > 0:04:28but almost everywhere you look, you can find little flashes,
0:04:28 > 0:04:33glimpses of the more cynical and pleasure-loving country
0:04:33 > 0:04:35that we live in today.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38SWING MUSIC PLAYS
0:04:39 > 0:04:42A great new age of experiment had arrived
0:04:42 > 0:04:44in politics,
0:04:44 > 0:04:45writing, art,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48sex and drugs.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56Nightclubs catered for a new urban scene,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00open to anybody with enough cash and a clean shirt front.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05When the "bright young things" had tired of their latest party,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07they could go along to a club
0:05:07 > 0:05:08and "shimmy",
0:05:08 > 0:05:12"heebie-jeebie",
0:05:12 > 0:05:17do the Camel Walk or the Black Bottom into the early hours.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21And the Queen of the Night was a remarkable woman
0:05:21 > 0:05:25known in clubland as Ma Meyrick.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31A respectable woman, divorced by her husband,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Kate Meyrick said she went into business
0:05:34 > 0:05:37to pay for her daughters' education at Roedean.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Meyrick opened her first nightclub in Leicester Square in 1919.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Soon celebrities were rubbing shoulders
0:05:54 > 0:06:00with new money and old royalty, refugee Russians and gangsters on the make.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06The local gangsters targeted Meyrick herself -
0:06:06 > 0:06:09one even beat her up for refusing him entry.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14And yet her little empire of the night continued to expand -
0:06:14 > 0:06:20the Manhattan, The Little Club, the Silver Slipper and many more.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33In 1921, she opened the most notorious nightclub in Soho -
0:06:33 > 0:06:35The 43.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43If Kate Meyrick was the face of the fun-loving '20s,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46then the round, pink face of disapproval
0:06:46 > 0:06:50belonged to a man known, without affection, as Jix...
0:06:52 > 0:06:56..Sir William Joynson-Hicks, who became Home Secretary in 1924.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08When asked what his job was, Jix replied,
0:07:08 > 0:07:12"It is I who am ruler of England."
0:07:12 > 0:07:18And now he developed an obsession with nightclubs.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28As Home Secretary, Jix had 65 nightclubs raided and prosecuted
0:07:28 > 0:07:30for breaking their alcohol licence,
0:07:30 > 0:07:35and he boasted in the Commons of having 48 clubs closed down.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41But Ma Meyrick's 43 Club seemed strangely,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44and reliably and infuriatingly, immune.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54At long last, the reason became clear.
0:07:54 > 0:08:00A senior member of the Soho Vice Squad was taking bribes to protect her.
0:08:01 > 0:08:07Finally, Jix got his hands on Mrs Meyrick.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Meyrick was sentenced to 15 months' hard labour -
0:08:13 > 0:08:18a physically and mentally shattering ordeal.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21But on her release, she went straight back to work.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27She was sent to Holloway Prison five times.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32But she stares boldly out of photographs with pride.
0:08:35 > 0:08:40And two of her impeccably educated daughters married into the peerage.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49But this kind of social mountaineering was only for a few.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53The vast majority of people lived and died as struggling underdogs.
0:09:04 > 0:09:11In the final days of November 1923, in Pollokshaws, just outside Glasgow,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14a former schoolmaster gave his only overcoat
0:09:14 > 0:09:18to a destitute immigrant from Barbados called Neil Johnson.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24Soon afterwards, the Good Samaritan collapsed from pneumonia.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28His name was John Maclean -
0:09:28 > 0:09:31a hero in Soviet Russia, forgotten here.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Lloyd George once called him "the most dangerous man in Britain".
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Maclean's dreams of a better world were inspired by Marxist thinking
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and the Russian Revolution.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52And in Glasgow, these dreams seemed about to be fulfilled.
0:09:55 > 0:10:01In early 1919, the Red Clydesiders demanded a 40-hour working week
0:10:01 > 0:10:04and threatened to call a general strike.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10Maclean tried to persuade the union leaders
0:10:10 > 0:10:13to postpone the strike for at least a month,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16so the much more politically powerful English coal miners
0:10:16 > 0:10:18could be rallied to the cause,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20but they wouldn't listen.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25On 27th January, 40,000 Glasgow workers came out on strike,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28and by the next day that number had almost doubled.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36The strike leaders sent a deputation
0:10:36 > 0:10:39to persuade the Government to settle the dispute.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Two days later, the Red Clydesiders
0:10:43 > 0:10:47gathered to hear the Government's response.
0:10:47 > 0:10:5160,000 strikers poured into Glasgow's George Square.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59Suddenly, a tramcar ground to a halt on the south side of the square.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03Almost immediately, the police drew their batons, charged on the crowd.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12The police then made a second charge up the east side of the square.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23But there they were met by a wall of demonstrators
0:11:23 > 0:11:26throwing lemonade bottles they'd pulled off a passing lorry.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30GLASS SMASHES
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Inside the City Chambers, the meeting broke up.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40The Sheriff of Lanarkshire rushed out of the building
0:11:40 > 0:11:44and tried to disperse the crowd by reading the Riot Act.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48But before he could get to the end of it, the paper was pulled out of his hand.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55Running battles went on for the rest of the day.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57Strike leaders were arrested.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01A red flag was raised in the square.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Down in London, panicky ministers were meeting to discuss
0:12:10 > 0:12:13what was already being called "Bloody Friday".
0:12:13 > 0:12:17But they were reassured to be told that six tanks
0:12:17 > 0:12:19and a hundred lorry loads of soldiers
0:12:19 > 0:12:23were being sent north by rail that very night.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36The next morning, Glasgow was occupied by English troops.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41Scottish regiments were confined to barracks in case they mutinied.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46During these years, the fear of communist revolution was so great,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50the Cabinet later discussed the military defence of London
0:12:50 > 0:12:52and using RAF squadrons to bomb the workers.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55They needn't have worried.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59Just as John Maclean had feared,
0:12:59 > 0:13:03the strike failed to spread beyond industrial Scotland.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06And when it became clear that the Government was prepared to fight
0:13:06 > 0:13:09and even to kill workers in order to win,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12the strikers began returning to work.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28John Maclean was bitter and close to broken.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32During the war, he'd been to prison five times for inciting rebellion,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36suffering hard labour, sleep deprivation and force-feeding.
0:13:38 > 0:13:44In November 1923, Maclean, who had double pneumonia, finally collapsed.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47He was actually in the middle of making a speech
0:13:47 > 0:13:51and he was carried off the open-air platform and taken home to die.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01Maclean's dreams of political revolution died with him.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04But all over Britain, artistic and sexual revolutionaries
0:14:04 > 0:14:07were already dreaming new dreams.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12MUSIC: "Kashmiri Song" by Amy Woodforde-Finden
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Garsington Manor, in Oxfordshire,
0:14:27 > 0:14:33once the home of an unconventional aristocrat, Lady Ottoline Morrell.
0:14:36 > 0:14:42Nearly six feet tall, with turquoise eyes and thick, red-gold hair,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45she was known around the village as the Gypsy Queen.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53Morrell turned Garsington into the country seat of the Bloomsbury Set.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04You never knew who you were going to run into here.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Virginia Woolf was a regular visitor.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12"At Garsington," she said, "even the cabbages are scented."
0:15:12 > 0:15:15One morning, after swimming in the lake,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19the pacifist philosopher Bertrand Russell emerged, stark naked,
0:15:19 > 0:15:24to find himself confronted by the then Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith,
0:15:24 > 0:15:30who was himself very busy chasing a beautiful young artist.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36Garsington was an exquisite, warm haven for novelists, poets, philosophers,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39politicians and artists,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43and also for the son of a Nottinghamshire coal miner
0:15:43 > 0:15:46called David Herbert Lawrence.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52DH Lawrence was one of the first major novelists
0:15:52 > 0:15:55to rise from the British working class.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00He dreamt of getting back to an earthy, liberated sexuality
0:16:00 > 0:16:06and of a new frankness between modern men and women.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11They became mutually bedazzled,
0:16:11 > 0:16:15the peacocky lady and the cocky young writer.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17It was a very English story.
0:16:17 > 0:16:23They spent hours at a time together, walking in the countryside and talking.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27"Here one feels the real England," said Lawrence.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31"This house of Ottoline's, it is England."
0:16:32 > 0:16:37She said of him, "His vitality and presence
0:16:37 > 0:16:44"seems to make every moment of the day throb with its own intense life."
0:16:44 > 0:16:46And Lawrence on the lady -
0:16:46 > 0:16:52"There is a deep, spiritual bond between us," he said,
0:16:52 > 0:16:53"deep to the bottom."
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Lawrence saw Garsington as a refuge from a country
0:17:06 > 0:17:09brutalised by industry and war.
0:17:09 > 0:17:15Like many of Ottoline's guests, he saw it as a kind of earthly perfection.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22But there was a serpent in paradise.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Ottoline always suspected that she wasn't loved
0:17:25 > 0:17:27quite as much as she'd have liked.
0:17:27 > 0:17:33But she had no idea of the true venom lurking inside the people
0:17:33 > 0:17:35she lavished hospitality upon.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37And then,
0:17:37 > 0:17:42she read Lawrence's new book, Women In Love.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51We have devised an entertainment for you,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55in the style of the Russian ballet.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Lawrence introduces a tall, rich eccentric,
0:18:01 > 0:18:03Lady Hermione Roddice.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12Her home was clearly Lady Ottoline's Garsington Manor,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16and she was unmistakably the real-life Hermione.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22The novel was later made into a film by Ken Russell.
0:18:24 > 0:18:31Lawrence describes Hermione as being "impressive but macabre,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34"remarkable but repulsive".
0:18:36 > 0:18:41It's a merciless character assassination aimed directly at Ottoline
0:18:41 > 0:18:42and everything she stood for.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51Ottoline was stricken with grief,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54and broke off all contact with Lawrence.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01That brief dream of a new kind of British culture,
0:19:01 > 0:19:08where the aristocracy joined hands with the most radical and thrusting artists,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11turned sour almost immediately.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Lawrence's fiery belief in sexual liberation
0:19:22 > 0:19:27would influence Britain right into the 1960s and beyond.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31But the good times at Garsington came to an end in 1927,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35when Ottoline ran out of money, and was forced to sell.
0:19:39 > 0:19:46In May 1928, Lawrence heard that Ottoline was ill with bone cancer.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49By then he was dying himself from tuberculosis,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52and he tried to say sorry.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55In a letter to her he said,
0:19:55 > 0:20:00"You've influenced lots of lives, as you have influenced mine,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05"through being fundamentally generous and through being Ottoline.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07"There's only one Ottoline."
0:20:08 > 0:20:13And he called her "a queen, among the mass of women".
0:20:17 > 0:20:23But the miner's son and the lady never saw one another again.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:20:28 > 0:20:33The high-culture revolutionaries didn't really catch on at the time.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Most people preferred modern crime fiction,
0:20:36 > 0:20:41silent films and the most exciting new technology of the day.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50One evening in June 1920,
0:20:50 > 0:20:55a crowd was gathering outside the Marconi Works in Chelmsford, Essex,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57waiting breathlessly
0:20:57 > 0:21:01for the Australian-born opera singer Dame Nellie Melba.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09Dame Nellie Melba was the most famous singer in the world.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11She was huge.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16Melba toast, peach melba, both named after her.
0:21:16 > 0:21:22She arrived here in Essex for Britain's first ever radio event.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26When she got to the rather primitive studio,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29one of the engineers explained to her
0:21:29 > 0:21:32that her singing was going to be transmitted
0:21:32 > 0:21:37from a 450ft-high tower just outside.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41"Young man," she said,
0:21:41 > 0:21:46"If you think I'm going to climb up there, you are greatly mistaken."
0:21:50 > 0:21:54At 7.10pm, accompanied by a small grand piano,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Dame Nellie directed her voice into the microphone.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59STATIC HISS AND CRACKLING
0:22:04 > 0:22:12# Mid pleasures and palaces
0:22:12 > 0:22:19# Though we may roam... #
0:22:19 > 0:22:23The 30-minute concert, sung in English, French and Italian,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25began with Home, Sweet Home
0:22:25 > 0:22:29and ended with a single verse of God Save The King.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34# ..No place like home... #
0:22:34 > 0:22:38The world's first international broadcast performance
0:22:38 > 0:22:42was picked up by radio pioneers all the way from Chelmsford
0:22:42 > 0:22:46to Paris, Madrid, Berlin, even Newfoundland.
0:22:46 > 0:22:52The next day, the papers reported that the songs came over
0:22:52 > 0:22:56"mellow and perfect, without scratch or jar".
0:22:56 > 0:23:02Radio 1, late-night talk shows, Terry Wogan,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04this is where it all began.
0:23:04 > 0:23:10# ..Ne'er met elsewhere. #
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Christmas, 1918.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Lincoln Prison.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34An Irish prisoner is serving at Mass.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42Choosing his moment, he takes the priest's key from the vestry
0:23:42 > 0:23:45and makes an impression in candle wax.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51One February night, the prisoner used his copied key,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53and walked free from the building,
0:23:53 > 0:23:55and then he escaped through a hole in the fence
0:23:55 > 0:23:59which had been cut for him by an accomplice from the outside.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05The prisoner was Eamon de Valera, the sharp-faced leader of Sinn Fein,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08soon to be Ireland's first President,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12and his accomplice with the wire-cutters was Michael Collins,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16a republican hero, known as the Big Fella.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22That night they were working together.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Soon, they would be mortal enemies,
0:24:25 > 0:24:30as a bloody civil war turned green Ireland red.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32CHEERING
0:24:34 > 0:24:40In January 1919, Sinn Fein declared Ireland's independence
0:24:40 > 0:24:43and formed its own parliament, the Dail.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47This was an assault on the Empire, as well as the United Kingdom.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52INAUDIBLE SPEECH
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Michael Collins set up
0:24:54 > 0:24:59an elite team of IRA assassins known as the Twelve Apostles.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04They efficiently targeted British troops and collaborators.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12The British responded with an MI5-trained team of British agents
0:25:12 > 0:25:15known as the Cairo Gang.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22In November 1919, Collins set out to destroy them.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32At 8.00 one Sunday morning, the Twelve Apostles burst into eight houses
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and shot 14 British agents dead.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39One was killed in his pyjamas trying to escape through the back garden,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43some were shot in bed, some in front of their wives.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46SHOUTING
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Now the violence spread in all directions.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55Sinn Fein and the Dail were outlawed
0:25:55 > 0:25:58and British forces stormed through Ireland.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08After 18 months of terror,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Eamon de Valera and Lloyd George agreed to a truce.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Talks began in October 1921.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18De Valera stayed at home
0:26:18 > 0:26:22and ordered Collins to join the Irish delegation in London.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28If he came back with less than Sinn Fein's full demands,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30Collins knew he'd be the scapegoat.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35As the negotiations began, he said to a fellow republican,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39"You might say the trap is sprung."
0:26:42 > 0:26:45The talks moved towards a compromise,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49with Ireland self-governing, but still inside the British Empire,
0:26:49 > 0:26:54and with the six predominantly Protestant northern counties free to choose
0:26:54 > 0:26:57to remain within the United Kingdom.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01After nearly two months,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04the Irish delegation was still agonising over the deal.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11With a theatrical flourish, Lloyd George arrived, brandishing two envelopes.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16One contained the agreement, the other, the refusal to come to terms.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19"If I send this letter," he said,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23"it's war, and war within three days.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28"Will you give peace or war to your country?
0:27:28 > 0:27:32"We must have your answer by 10pm tonight."
0:27:37 > 0:27:41One by one, the Irish representatives signed the agreement.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Michael Collins believed
0:27:44 > 0:27:49he was giving Ireland something it had wanted for 700 years,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53but that night, in his lodgings, he wrote,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57"Early this morning, I signed my death warrant."
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Back in Dublin, the treaty was narrowly voted through in the Dail.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11But Eamon de Valera denounced it as a betrayal and resigned.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15Collins and de Valera were now enemies
0:28:15 > 0:28:20in a cruel civil war dividing republican families and friends.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22SHOUTING AND GUNFIRE
0:28:23 > 0:28:26MACHINE-GUN FIRE
0:28:32 > 0:28:38In August 1922, Michael Collins, now Chief of the Irish National Army,
0:28:38 > 0:28:42went on a tour of his home county, Cork.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48Collins stopped at this pub to ask a local for directions,
0:28:48 > 0:28:52little realising that the man was an anti-treaty rebel
0:28:52 > 0:28:56whose gun was leaning against a wall just inside the bar.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07That evening, Collins came back along the same road.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12A rebel ambush was waiting. They'd been here for hours,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16and some of them had given up and gone back to the pub, but not all.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19At eight o'clock, the convoy came round the corner.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24GUNFIRE
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Shots rang out. The cars stopped.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Collins jumped out, and returned fire from behind his car.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36When he saw some rebels running up the hill,
0:29:36 > 0:29:37he stood out into the open,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39and standing about here,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43Michael Collins was killed with a single shot to the head.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45GUNSHOT
0:29:51 > 0:29:53Hello, CQ. Hello. Hello, Ash.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Hello, Ash. There may be some jamming.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa! There may be some oscillation. Whee-ew! Sorry?
0:29:59 > 0:30:00Sorry, CQ. Closing down a moment.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Most of Ireland had left the United Kingdom,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11but the British were already beginning to identify themselves
0:30:11 > 0:30:14less by territory than by culture.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23Regular radio broadcasting began in 1922.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28Programmes were planned and scripted here at the Cock and Bell
0:30:28 > 0:30:30in the Essex village of Writtle.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36And all under the guidance of Captain Peter Eckersley,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40ex-RAF engineer, born entertainer and all-round show-off.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46Hello, CQ. Hello, CQ. This is Two-Emma-Toc of Wrrrittle testing.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49This is Two-Emma-Toc of Wrrrittle testing.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51Are the signals OK? No, they're not.
0:30:51 > 0:30:52Wave your hand if it's all OK.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54No waves?
0:30:54 > 0:30:55No waves at all.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57TUNING WHINE
0:30:57 > 0:31:02To start with, Peter Eckersley and his tiny team were only authorised
0:31:02 > 0:31:05to broadcast for half an hour a week, Tuesday nights.
0:31:06 > 0:31:11They'd pile down to this old Army hut from the pub and they'd put on records,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14they'd read out plays,
0:31:14 > 0:31:19made spoof weather announcements - they even had their own theme tune.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23The nearness of a microphone can do strange things to people,
0:31:23 > 0:31:24and as time went on,
0:31:24 > 0:31:30Eckersley's exhibitionist tendencies became more and more pronounced.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34TUNING WHINE
0:31:37 > 0:31:42On one occasion, he promised a night of grand opera.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48But there was no Dame Nellie that time.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53All the arias were sung by Peter Eckersley himself.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57SINGING AND WAILING
0:32:01 > 0:32:05But Captain Eckersley was about to have his wings clipped.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11On 14th November 1922,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14the British Broadcasting Company was established.
0:32:18 > 0:32:26John Reith, a tall, balding Scot with a long scar running down one cheek,
0:32:26 > 0:32:28was appointed General Manager.
0:32:29 > 0:32:35To call John Reith odd would be a wild understatement.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38His father was a Scottish Presbyterian minister
0:32:38 > 0:32:42and he came from a family who all seemed to dislike each other intensely
0:32:42 > 0:32:45and were prone to violent rages.
0:32:45 > 0:32:51Reith himself was almost perpetually furious with somebody.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55He was one of history's great haters,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58and also one of its great puritans.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02And this was the man who now had his hands on the BBC.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Reith appointed Peter Eckersley as his Chief Engineer,
0:33:10 > 0:33:15and set to work shaping the future of British broadcasting.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21Everybody was struggling with two big questions -
0:33:21 > 0:33:24what was broadcasting for,
0:33:24 > 0:33:26and who should control it.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Well, Peter Eckersley was absolutely clear.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35Every week, he and his team would trundle this piano
0:33:35 > 0:33:39down from the Cock and Bell pub to his ex-Army hut,
0:33:39 > 0:33:44essentially because they wanted to entertain their listeners.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49Reith completely disagreed.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53For him, broadcasting was about information,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56education and high culture.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58So who was going to decide?
0:33:58 > 0:34:01Well, that at least was becoming clear.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04John Reith would decide.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07John Reith was in charge.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13And in 1929, Captain Eckersley got divorced
0:34:13 > 0:34:16and John Reith sacked him.
0:34:16 > 0:34:22SINGING AND WAILING
0:34:25 > 0:34:26Ah, well, never mind.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31All across Britain, other young pioneers were on the up.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38In the summer of 1921,
0:34:38 > 0:34:42a teenager called Frank Taylor approached a bank manager in Blackpool
0:34:42 > 0:34:46for a loan of £400.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50It would help him transform the way this country looked.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56Frank needed 400 quid to build two houses -
0:34:56 > 0:35:01349 and number 347 Central Drive, Blackpool.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04They've since been extended into a terrace.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06These are very ordinary houses.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09These are very special houses.
0:35:09 > 0:35:15Frank wanted them for his parents and his Uncle Jack.
0:35:15 > 0:35:21Now, Frank was only 16 years old, but he got the plans approved himself
0:35:21 > 0:35:24and as he said later, he was ready to do anything
0:35:24 > 0:35:30to get these houses built as quickly and as economically as possible.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Taylor set about learning how to build a house with his own hands -
0:35:36 > 0:35:40bricklaying, hod-carrying, carpentry, the lot.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Before these houses were finished, before the roofs were even on,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51passers-by were stopping and asking to buy them.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56Well, he couldn't resist. He sold each of these houses for £1,000.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59That was 100% profit.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04And Frank asked himself,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06"Building houses for the British?
0:36:06 > 0:36:09"Perhaps there's money in this."
0:36:16 > 0:36:21After the war, Lloyd George had coined the catchphrase "Homes for Heroes".
0:36:21 > 0:36:24He had high hopes for a massive State housing boom,
0:36:24 > 0:36:27but money was short.
0:36:27 > 0:36:34In fact, it was Frank's dream - private, not public housing - that led the way,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38producing four million new homes in 20 years...
0:36:42 > 0:36:48..all exactly the same and every one of them different.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Homes with hedges and rose bushes
0:36:51 > 0:36:55and sheds round the back for pottering in.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Modest homes for peaceful heroes.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10Back at the start, Frank Taylor's building business had a problem.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14Frank's lawyer discovered that he was too young to own or sell land.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16To make things legal,
0:37:16 > 0:37:20he'd have to go into a partnership with an adult - and fast.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26"What about Uncle Jack?" said Frank.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28"Jack Woodrow."
0:37:30 > 0:37:35And so Taylor-Woodrow was born, one of the property developers
0:37:35 > 0:37:38who together would build millions of homes
0:37:38 > 0:37:43and help give Britain her distinctive look for the 20th century.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53The '20s produced the triumph of modern private housing,
0:37:53 > 0:37:58but they also gave us a modern political curse -
0:37:58 > 0:37:59sleaze.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05One evening in September 1920,
0:38:05 > 0:38:10a socialist maverick called Victor Grayson walked into a bar in London.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19Grayson ordered a round.
0:38:19 > 0:38:24And then he got a message and he said, "Don't let anyone drink my whisky,"
0:38:24 > 0:38:28picked up his hat and his stick, and walked out into the Strand.
0:38:38 > 0:38:40His friends never saw him again.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49Victor Grayson's last political intervention
0:38:49 > 0:38:55was a speech against Lloyd George and a great cash-for-honours scandal.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00Unlike most politicians of the age,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Lloyd George never had any money of his own.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06And once he became coalition Prime Minister,
0:39:06 > 0:39:10he didn't have a truly national party machine to raise funds, either.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13And so, in order to keep himself in politics,
0:39:13 > 0:39:19he decided to sell honours - peerages, knighthoods, OBEs.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22Now, this was hardly unknown at Westminster,
0:39:22 > 0:39:27but what made Lloyd George different was the blatant nature of it.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29He went into business big,
0:39:29 > 0:39:33and he went into business shamelessly.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40But the Prime Minister didn't want to get his own hands dirty.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42He needed a go-between.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47And he found one in a former spy, blackmailer and rogue -
0:39:47 > 0:39:49complete with monocle.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52His name was Maundy Gregory.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Maundy Gregory would entice potential clients
0:39:57 > 0:40:02to his opulent offices here at 38 Parliament Street.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06And they had a very useful back entrance.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09A kind of menu was quickly established.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11You want to be a baronet?
0:40:11 > 0:40:15Well, in today's money, £1.3 million.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17A knighthood?
0:40:17 > 0:40:19£330,000.
0:40:23 > 0:40:28Many people assumed that he was somehow a senior part of the Government himself.
0:40:28 > 0:40:33In fact, these offices were a kind of clearing house
0:40:33 > 0:40:38for lethal gossip, bribery and kickbacks.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Victor Grayson was determined to blow the whistle
0:40:42 > 0:40:45on Lloyd George's cash-for-honours operation.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Meanwhile, Special Branch had tipped Maundy Gregory off
0:40:49 > 0:40:53that Grayson was "a dangerous communist revolutionary"
0:40:53 > 0:40:55and asked him to keep an eye on him.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06When Victor Grayson realised that Gregory was spying on him,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09he was more than ever determined to expose him.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11And eventually,
0:41:11 > 0:41:13with enormous guts,
0:41:13 > 0:41:17he made a blistering speech in Liverpool in which he said,
0:41:17 > 0:41:22"This sale of honours is a national scandal.
0:41:22 > 0:41:28"It can be traced all the way down from Number 10 Downing Street
0:41:28 > 0:41:33"and to a monocled dandy with offices in Whitehall.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37"I know this man and one day I will name him."
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Now events began to take on a sinister edge.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47In September 1920, Grayson was attacked and beaten up.
0:41:49 > 0:41:50Eight days later,
0:41:50 > 0:41:53he disappeared.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05That evening, Grayson was spotted by a painter called George Flemwell.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09Flemwell was painting a landscape close to a small island
0:42:09 > 0:42:12on the Thames near Hampton Court.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18Two men caught his attention as they passed by in a newfangled invention,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20an electric canoe.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28As it happened, Flemwell had painted Grayson's portrait
0:42:28 > 0:42:30and he recognised him immediately.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35He watched as they moored on the island
0:42:35 > 0:42:41and saw them go into this bungalow, Vanity Fair.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52Vanity Fair belonged to Maundy Gregory.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55The only person on the island with an electric canoe?
0:42:55 > 0:42:57Maundy Gregory.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00Grayson's friends feared that something terrible had happened.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03Either he'd been killed,
0:43:03 > 0:43:06or he'd been encouraged to disappear.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15With Grayson out of the picture,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Lloyd George's honours racket continued.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24One of the nominations for a peerage in his next honours list
0:43:24 > 0:43:29was a convicted South African fraudster called Joseph Robinson.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31The Commons exploded
0:43:31 > 0:43:33and the King was livid.
0:43:36 > 0:43:42Gregory had to break it to Joseph Robinson that the deal was off.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44But Robinson was slightly deaf.
0:43:44 > 0:43:46Sitting in his suite in the Savoy Hotel,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50he first thought he was being asked for even more money,
0:43:50 > 0:43:52and he pulled out his chequebook.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56When he finally grasped that he wasn't getting a peerage at all,
0:43:56 > 0:43:58he demanded his money back.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02The Chief Whip asked Gregory if he knew what had become of it.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06"Of course I know what's become of it," hissed Gregory. "I've spent it."
0:44:11 > 0:44:13One mystery still remains.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16There were occasional claimed sightings of Victor Grayson
0:44:16 > 0:44:19right up until the 1950s
0:44:19 > 0:44:23in Spain, in north London, even in New Zealand.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28But he was never seen for certain ever again.
0:44:28 > 0:44:33To all intents and purposes, Victor Grayson vanished into thin air.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42The rather mucky Welsh Wizard
0:44:42 > 0:44:45was still heading a Conservative-dominated coalition,
0:44:45 > 0:44:49but he was reaching the end of his long political road.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55In October 1922, the Tory backbenchers
0:44:55 > 0:45:00met at the Carlton Club to consider turning on their own party leadership
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and chucking out the Welsh cuckoo.
0:45:08 > 0:45:14Speaking against Lloyd George were two Conservative leaders-in-waiting -
0:45:14 > 0:45:18Andrew Bonar Law, who was ill, and Stanley Baldwin,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21who did the talking.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23INAUDIBLE SPEECH
0:45:23 > 0:45:27Stanley Baldwin's speech was plain but devastating.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30Yes, Lloyd George was a dynamic force.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34"But," he said, "a dynamic force is a terrible thing."
0:45:34 > 0:45:41This one had smashed the Liberals and could smash the Conservatives too.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49They voted by 185 to 88 to cut loose and stand as an independent party.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53And the Conservatives have never forgotten this moment.
0:45:53 > 0:45:59Even to this day, their backbenchers call themselves the 1922 Committee,
0:45:59 > 0:46:06their badge of independence from power-drunk Westminster grandees.
0:46:10 > 0:46:16Britain would be spared another "dynamic force" for many years to come.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20This was an age of political pygmies.
0:46:20 > 0:46:26Over the next two years, Britain had four prime ministers - Bonar Law,
0:46:26 > 0:46:28Stanley Baldwin,
0:46:28 > 0:46:33and Britain's first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35He only lasted ten months.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40Oh, yes, and then Stanley Baldwin again.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47But there was one big beast prowling around.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52After 20 years with the Liberals, Winston Churchill returned to Parliament
0:46:52 > 0:46:55as the Conservative MP for Epping.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00He was hoping Baldwin would offer him a modest Government job.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09In fact, the Prime Minister asked him to be Chancellor of the Exchequer,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12and Churchill was dumbfounded.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16"I should like to have answered, 'Will the bloody duck swim?'"
0:47:16 > 0:47:20But he had a sense of occasion, and in fact said to Baldwin,
0:47:20 > 0:47:24"I shall be delighted to serve you in this splendid office."
0:47:28 > 0:47:32But Churchill was not a splendid Chancellor.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36He had one great decision in front of him and he got it wrong.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48In March 1925, he summoned four economists to dine at the Treasury
0:47:48 > 0:47:53to thrash out the burning economic issue of the day - the gold standard.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57The gold standard simply meant
0:47:57 > 0:48:01fixing the price of national currencies to a certain amount of gold,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04providing a clear, transparent system
0:48:04 > 0:48:08which had underpinned the huge boom in world trade
0:48:08 > 0:48:11in the golden years before the war.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Globalisation with Britain at the centre.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21But during the war, the British economy had been bled dry,
0:48:21 > 0:48:26and the City of London had lost its prime position to New York.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33The radical young economist John Maynard Keynes
0:48:33 > 0:48:35thought that going back to gold
0:48:35 > 0:48:38would devastate Britain's already weakened industry.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44By instinct, Churchill was also against.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46But the Treasury experts said
0:48:46 > 0:48:51that going back to the clear, transparent system of the pre-war world
0:48:51 > 0:48:53would make the City great again.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02But if a system is clear and transparent,
0:49:02 > 0:49:07it is also a ruthless exposer of weakness.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12All very glorious to put on an old suit of armour,
0:49:12 > 0:49:15unless you're too weak to walk in it.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21Churchill brooded as they argued it out over the table,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24but by the end of the meal he'd been won over.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29Britain was going to have to go back on to the gold standard.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31But there was no mood
0:49:31 > 0:49:36of celebration over this dinner - as one of them put it, "It will be hell."
0:49:38 > 0:49:40And hell it was.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44The return to the gold standard made British exports more expensive,
0:49:44 > 0:49:46including coal.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50And with more than a million miners,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54the coal industry was the country's largest employer.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01To stay in business, the mine owners announced a cut in wages
0:50:01 > 0:50:04and an even longer working day.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08An industrial dispute was soon coming to the boil.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10The mine owners stood firm.
0:50:13 > 0:50:19Then, at one minute to midnight on Monday 3rd May 1926,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22the TUC called a general strike.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30Quietly, the Government had been planning for this moment,
0:50:30 > 0:50:33and they now sent telegrams all across the country
0:50:33 > 0:50:36with the single code word, "Action".
0:50:47 > 0:50:51All Army and Navy leave was immediately cancelled.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Two battleships dropped anchor in the Mersey.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02Two infantry battalions marched through Liverpool.
0:51:06 > 0:51:07Bring it on!
0:51:07 > 0:51:10If the revolution was coming,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13the authorities were determined to show they were ready for it.
0:51:29 > 0:51:35On the first morning of the strike, Britain came to a virtual standstill.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC
0:51:47 > 0:51:52But the Government already had a small army
0:51:52 > 0:51:55of strike-breaking volunteers at its disposal.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59City gents shovelled coal at the gasworks.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06The Ranelagh Polo Club patrolled central London
0:52:06 > 0:52:09as special constables on their ponies.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15Titled ladies and debutantes turned up to organise food supplies.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20One posh drama student wrote to her mother
0:52:20 > 0:52:23about the gentleman volunteers on the London Tube.
0:52:23 > 0:52:29"It's perfectly mad to hear a beautiful Oxford voice crying,
0:52:29 > 0:52:34"'Uxbridge and Harrow train,' rather than, 'Uxbridge 'n' 'Arro.'
0:52:34 > 0:52:36"It's perfectly jolly,
0:52:36 > 0:52:41"and such an improvement on the ordinary, humdrum state of things."
0:52:46 > 0:52:50But it was the railways that attracted the real toffs.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55The Honourable Mrs Beaumont led stable duty at Paddington.
0:52:55 > 0:53:00Lord Monkswell was a signalman at Marylebone.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04And the Honourable Lionel Guest successfully drove a train
0:53:04 > 0:53:08all the way from Liverpool Street to Yarmouth.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10TRAIN HOOTS
0:53:31 > 0:53:33After a few days,
0:53:33 > 0:53:38many of the strike-breaking volunteers developed a healthy respect
0:53:38 > 0:53:44for the working classes they had often never come across before.
0:53:44 > 0:53:45One of them said,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49"I found much of my sympathy was more with the men
0:53:49 > 0:53:54"than with the employers or the Government.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59"I had never realised the appalling poverty which existed."
0:54:05 > 0:54:09By the fifth day of the strike, London was running short of flour and bread.
0:54:09 > 0:54:15At 4am, the Government sent a convoy of lorries and armoured cars
0:54:15 > 0:54:18to take food from the docks by force.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25Restless crowds of strikers looked on, but didn't interfere.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28This was the psychological turning point.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37At noon on the ninth day of the strike,
0:54:37 > 0:54:41Arthur Pugh, the leader of the TUC, contacted Baldwin
0:54:41 > 0:54:46to tell him that the strike was to be "terminated forthwith".
0:54:46 > 0:54:49Baldwin wasn't quite sure he'd heard properly.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52"Forthwith," replied Pugh.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55"That means immediately."
0:54:55 > 0:54:59And Baldwin said, "I thank God for your decision."
0:55:08 > 0:55:14The strike was over and, for some, the good times still rolled on.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19In June of 1928, a crudely printed party invitation began arriving
0:55:19 > 0:55:23at some of the best addresses in Mayfair and Belgravia.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27This was to be the most outrageous party of the season,
0:55:27 > 0:55:31and it was being held at the local swimming baths.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42On the guest list was a young Oxford graduate called Tom Driberg,
0:55:42 > 0:55:47later a communist, MI5 spy and Chairman of the Labour Party.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51He'd just started writing for the Daily Express gossip column,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53The Talk Of London.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Writing anonymously as the Dragoman, Tom Driberg reported
0:56:00 > 0:56:06"visions of great rubber horses and flowers floating about on the water".
0:56:06 > 0:56:09Everything was illuminated by coloured spotlights
0:56:09 > 0:56:14and many of the guests had brought two or three costumes to change into
0:56:14 > 0:56:16as the night wore on.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21Driberg kept rushing out to the nearest public telephone to file his copy.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24This was a hoot, but also a scoop.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26DANCE MUSIC
0:56:29 > 0:56:33The guests included the brightest of the bright young things -
0:56:33 > 0:56:38Mayfair debutantes, the children of lords and Government ministers
0:56:38 > 0:56:43and a slender It girl with a weakness for hard drugs
0:56:43 > 0:56:45called Brenda Dean Paul.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55Brenda Dean Paul remembered seeing unshockable old dowagers
0:56:55 > 0:56:57glued to the only available seats
0:56:57 > 0:57:01in the dimly lit cubicles by the side of the pool.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04She said they seemed "quite contented,
0:57:04 > 0:57:09"like plump hens, their lorgnettes fixed on the dripping parade".
0:57:21 > 0:57:23The Bath and Bottle Party would turn out to be
0:57:23 > 0:57:27the beginning of the end for Britain's roaring '20s.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34For an economic storm was brewing across the Atlantic,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37and from the dealing rooms on Wall Street,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42the chilly winds would soon be blowing all the way to Belgravia.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47For the bright young things,
0:57:47 > 0:57:52the end of the Bath and Bottle Party was a premonition.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56Modern times were giving way to hard times,
0:57:56 > 0:58:01and soon the off-colour cocktails and the crushed rose petals
0:58:01 > 0:58:04and the glittering pool were only a memory.
0:58:04 > 0:58:09The good times were drifting away on a thousand bobbing champagne corks.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13And as the sunlight filtered through the skylights,
0:58:13 > 0:58:21Britain's fast set were weaving and wobbling their weary way home.
0:58:35 > 0:58:36In the next programme -
0:58:36 > 0:58:40Black Shirts, green shirts and Gracie Fields,
0:58:40 > 0:58:44Butlins and Mrs Simpson.