0:00:09 > 0:00:15The British Empire lasted over 300 years.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23'It made Britain the most powerful nation in history,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27'it also shaped a fundamental part of the British character.'
0:00:36 > 0:00:39The Empire offered the inhabitants of a grey,
0:00:39 > 0:00:41damp island in the North Atlantic
0:00:41 > 0:00:44the prospect of limitless adventure.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48You might discover a diamond field and become unimaginably rich
0:00:48 > 0:00:52or you might perish in a malarial swamp.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58Either way the thing to do was to play up, play up and play the game.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Wherever the flag was planted went a passion for sport
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and the spirit of fair play.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10Yes, yes, yes!
0:01:10 > 0:01:15But sport was about more than just good, clean fun.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18It was an entire way of looking at the world
0:01:18 > 0:01:24and it was one of the foundations of the empire.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26In its wide open spaces,
0:01:26 > 0:01:30a particular kind of British hero was born.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Exploring the unknown places of the earth,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38hungry for glory and adventure,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40courageous,
0:01:40 > 0:01:41intrepid
0:01:41 > 0:01:44and ruthless.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49For the builders of empire, it was how you played the game
0:01:49 > 0:01:52that mattered more than victory,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55mattered more than life itself.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53To Britons in the mid 19th century,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56the heart of Africa was as mysterious and unexplored
0:02:56 > 0:02:59as the dark side of the moon.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07BIRDS SQUAWK
0:03:11 > 0:03:15It proved a magnet for Victorian adventurers.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19They were drawn by an obsession to get there first
0:03:19 > 0:03:23and to put new names to new places.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30On the 17th of June 1857,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34two Englishmen arrived in East Africa.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Their names were Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke.
0:03:39 > 0:03:45They dreamed of finding what had eluded explorers for millennia.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50Where did the most famous river in civilisation begin?
0:03:50 > 0:03:53What was the source of the Nile?
0:04:03 > 0:04:06The two men could hardly have been more different.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11Burton was 36 and already famous as a charismatic adventurer,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15a man who'd smuggled himself into Mecca disguised as an Arab,
0:04:15 > 0:04:19a man known for liking to charm snakes and wrestling alligators,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23a man who would eventually learn to speak 29 languages.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26He had a slightly sinister expression to his face,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29which wasn't helped by a scar on each cheek
0:04:29 > 0:04:32where a javelin had pierced right through his face.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34But it was the eyes that everyone remembered.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39One poet described them as having, "a look of unspeakable horror."
0:04:43 > 0:04:46His companion was his complete opposite.
0:04:49 > 0:04:55John Hanning Speke was clean living with a taste for tweed suits.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58But he shared with Burton the cast of mind
0:04:58 > 0:05:01that made the early pioneers of empire,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05an obsessive, often fool-hardy, determination.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08BIRDS TWEET
0:05:14 > 0:05:20The pair came to loathe each other and would become bitter rivals.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Together they travelled over 1500 miles
0:05:23 > 0:05:27through swamp, desert and jungle.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31For two years they journeyed into the interior
0:05:31 > 0:05:35battling dysentery, fever and wild animals,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38scorched by the tropical sun.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51You get a sense of how heroic this expedition was
0:05:51 > 0:05:54when you look at this 19th century map of Africa.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57They'd landed on the east coast and various places around here,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Madagascar, Zanzibar, so on, they are known.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04But inside Africa, the whole heart of Africa
0:06:04 > 0:06:06is just marked "unknown parts",
0:06:06 > 0:06:10thousands upon thousands of square miles,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14but somewhere in there was the source of the Nile.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28When Burton went down with malaria, Speke pressed on alone.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43And on the morning of August 3rd, 1858,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45a year after they had set out,
0:06:45 > 0:06:50John Hanning Speke looked out on a vast expanse of water
0:06:50 > 0:06:53which he immediately, of course, named Lake Victoria,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56and which he believed to be the source of the Nile.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19'"I no longer felt any doubt", he wrote,'
0:07:19 > 0:07:23'"that the lake at my feet gave birth to that river
0:07:23 > 0:07:27'"whose source has been the object of so many explorers."'
0:07:30 > 0:07:32It was no more than a hunch,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35though as it later turned out, he was right.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Despite the fact his evidence was really pretty thin,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Speke hastened back to camp
0:07:45 > 0:07:49and six weeks later was reunited with Burton.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52"I found the source of the Nile", he told him,
0:07:52 > 0:07:56to which Burton replied, "Oh no, you haven't."
0:07:56 > 0:07:59The two men agreed it would just be safest
0:07:59 > 0:08:00not to talk about it anymore
0:08:00 > 0:08:03and for the remainder of their time in the jungle,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07they maintained a frosty English silence on the subject.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22Victorian explorers like Speke and Burton
0:08:22 > 0:08:24were the pathfinders of empire.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29Fanatical not for power, but for knowledge and excitement
0:08:29 > 0:08:34and they helped to create the image of the classic British hero.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Their accounts of their travels inspired tales of adventure
0:08:45 > 0:08:48for a British public hungry for excitement.
0:09:04 > 0:09:10King Solomon's Mines was published in 1885 and was a huge bestseller.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Filmed many times since,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15it tells the story of three British adventurers
0:09:15 > 0:09:19who play the game to the hilt.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23Together they cross Africa in search of the lost diamond mines
0:09:23 > 0:09:26of an ancient civilisation.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28King Solomon's mines!
0:09:37 > 0:09:42Its author, Henry Rider-Haggard was an old colonial.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45He'd spent seven years in Southern Africa.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53The British public devoured his thrilling tale
0:09:53 > 0:09:55of danger and exploration.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02It came complete with a map of his hero's journey into the unknown.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08It's written in blood, a very good start,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12on a strip of fabric torn from a dying man's shirt.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17And it shows the route you have to take across the Calacarway river,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19avoiding the bad water,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23between a couple of mountains called Sheba's Breasts,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27to the idols guarding the cave where the treasure is.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45In this quiet country house in Norfolk,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Rider-Haggard produced rip-roaring yarns
0:10:48 > 0:10:52for generations of school boys to read under the bed clothes,
0:10:52 > 0:10:54as well they might.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01His massively popular tale, She, comes with a powerful dash
0:11:01 > 0:11:03of Victorian male fantasy.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12She, or She Who Must Be Obeyed, is an African goddess,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16white as it happens, made immortal by killing her lovers.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26The narrator is at last allowed a peep at her extravagant charms.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31"For a moment she stood still,
0:11:31 > 0:11:33"her hands raised high above her head.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35"And as she did so,
0:11:35 > 0:11:40"the white robe slipped from her, down to her golden girdle,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43"bearing the blinding loveliness of her form".
0:11:45 > 0:11:49This is enough to burst the buttons on your Victorian waistcoat.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53But what it does point up, is the way in which the empire
0:11:53 > 0:11:57opened up the possibility of all sorts of intoxications
0:11:57 > 0:12:00that were quite unknown in respectable old England.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09For Rider-Haggard's heroes, the empire was a vast playground
0:12:09 > 0:12:11for a particular kind of British male.
0:12:15 > 0:12:21He's a fellow with a stiff upper lip, athletic and unpretentious.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27He is fair, he is honest and he's steady.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30He's an amateur, and you can find him all over the empire,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34from Khartoum to Calcutta to Cape Town.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39If you needed three words to sum him up - a decent chap.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53The decent chap was a contradiction.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55Sturdy and self-reliant,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58yet ready to obey orders without hesitation.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05He was nurtured in a place far removed from the heat
0:13:05 > 0:13:09and dust of the colonies - the English public school.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34The public schools heyday was the height of the Victorian era.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38Schools like this took boys
0:13:38 > 0:13:42and turned them into the governing class of empire.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45The future prefects of the colonial world.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49They couldn't expect an easy ride.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58Life in a Victorian public school was specifically designed
0:13:58 > 0:14:01to work against the comforts of family life.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05The chief thing to be desired, said one headmaster,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09is to remove the child from the noxious influence of home.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16There was a good reason for this strict regime.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21It was to make the boys Christian gentlemen.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24"Manly and enlightened, finer specimens of human nature
0:14:24 > 0:14:27"than any other country could furnish".
0:14:27 > 0:14:31The words of Rugby's celebrated headmaster, Thomas Arnold.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49This is the room known as upper bench, where Dr Arnold
0:14:49 > 0:14:52taught some of the sons of the wealthier Victorian middle class.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55But from what they were taught, you would never guess
0:14:55 > 0:15:00that Victorian scientists, engineers, architects and explorers
0:15:00 > 0:15:03were about to forge the modern world.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17It was rather the ancient Romans who provided the model.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Victorian headmasters and politicians
0:15:20 > 0:15:26didn't look forward, but back to the classical world,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30in which civilisation was spread at the point of the sword.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38This is a timetable from 1899,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41and it shows that if you were a 16-year-old
0:15:41 > 0:15:44in the upper middle part of the school,
0:15:44 > 0:15:45this would be what you'd study.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50Divinity, classics, classics, classics, classics, classics,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53maths, natural science, classics, maths, classics, classics,
0:15:53 > 0:15:57classics, classics, classics, French, history, French, maths,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01classics, classics, classics, maths, classics.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06Small wonder that as one visitor to another public school remarked,
0:16:06 > 0:16:11"Not one boy in 10 could tell him where Birmingham was."
0:16:14 > 0:16:16But a public school education
0:16:16 > 0:16:19wasn't really about learning where Birmingham was.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23# Who would true valour see
0:16:23 > 0:16:28# Let him come hither
0:16:28 > 0:16:33# One here will constant be
0:16:33 > 0:16:36# Come wind, come weather. #
0:16:36 > 0:16:41A particular idea of Christian values, discipline,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43respect for rules and ritual,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46these made up the public schools' true mission -
0:16:46 > 0:16:48the moulding of character.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51# His first avowed intent
0:16:51 > 0:16:57# To be a pilgrim. #
0:17:03 > 0:17:06But there was something else fostered here
0:17:06 > 0:17:11that would prove an even more powerful builder of empire.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15The British public school practiced two religions -
0:17:15 > 0:17:19Christianity and sport.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31According to one Victorian headmaster,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35sport was the rock on which Britain's greatness was built.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43Great stuff, great stuff!
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Englishmen, he said, are not superior to Frenchmen or Germans,
0:17:46 > 0:17:51in brains or industry or the science or applications of war.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54In the history of the British Empire
0:17:54 > 0:17:58it is written that England owes her sovereignty to her sports.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06The values of organised games
0:18:06 > 0:18:09were said to express the values of empire.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Physical courage.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16Team spirit.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21And, er, having a go.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27And it was the game of cricket
0:18:27 > 0:18:32which gave rise to one of the most famous of all famous empire poems.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35There's a breathless hush in the close tonight,
0:18:35 > 0:18:3810 to make and the match to win,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41a bumping pitch and a blinding light,
0:18:41 > 0:18:43an hour to play and the last man in.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
0:18:51 > 0:18:56but his captain's hand on his shoulder smoked,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59play up, play up and play the game.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Ah, beautiful, Harry!
0:19:10 > 0:19:14In the poem, the scene shifts from the cricket field
0:19:14 > 0:19:16to a bloody battle in the African desert.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21The schoolboy is now a soldier,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25his comrades in arms dead or dying all around him.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34But then his spirits soar as he hears his captain's voice calling,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37"Play up, play up and play the game."
0:19:41 > 0:19:45It's majestic and it's idiotic at the same time,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48to our eyes at least, because war isn't a game.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52And yet the fact that the poem could be written in that way
0:19:52 > 0:19:54tells us something rather profound
0:19:54 > 0:19:57about the way that the British viewed their empire.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05The battle which had inspired the poem
0:20:05 > 0:20:07was fought by British troops
0:20:07 > 0:20:09in the biggest country in Africa, Sudan.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12In such remote outposts,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16the heroes of empire achieved sometimes mythical status.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46In 1884, the empire found a hero
0:20:46 > 0:20:51who played the game with a passion that bordered on madness.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55He was a soldier who showed that heroic failure
0:20:55 > 0:20:57could be even more inspiring than victory.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Charles Gordon was a maverick,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09a general who disobeyed orders and wrote his own.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14He became an imperial martyr
0:21:14 > 0:21:18in one of the strangest episodes in the history of empire,
0:21:18 > 0:21:20the Siege of Khartoum.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27The capital was surrounded by thousands of Islamic warriors,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31followers of a religious leader sworn to end British rule.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36He called himself the Mahdi, the expected one.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43The man sent from Britain to stop the Mahdi, roared on by the London
0:21:43 > 0:21:49newspapers, was already a legendary soldier and a fervent Christian.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02General Charles George Gordon was an extraordinary man.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07He was thin, he was 51, he was unmarried
0:22:07 > 0:22:10and he had blue eyes with a far away look in them.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Other places they'd have just called him a crank.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18But as it was, the British public whipped up by the press,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21came to share his unshakeable self belief.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24General Gordon could save Khartoum.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31Gordon's orders weren't to fight,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34but to evacuate the British force there.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39But Gordon himself had something rather more heroic in mind.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45From the governor's palace he announced he'd hold out
0:22:45 > 0:22:49against the Mahdi until reinforcements were sent.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54The siege of the city began.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00The British government, furious with Gordon's disobedience,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03refused to act.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06The press were outraged at this treatment of their hero.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Gordon had been deserted they cried, he must be rescued.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22General Gordon was a hero, not just because he was a remarkable
0:23:22 > 0:23:27human being, but because he seemed to express Britain's moral purpose.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29The newspapers twigged that
0:23:29 > 0:23:33in a way that the Prime Minister, William Gladstone, didn't.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Gladstone didn't want a war,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43but the press and public opinion forced his hand.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50The army hastily assembled a relief force but by now it was too late.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54After ten months under siege,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57every scrap of food in Khartoum had been eaten.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01The dead lay in the streets, the Mahdi's men were at the gates,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04the water level of the Nile protecting the city
0:24:04 > 0:24:06dropped further every day.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Holed up in the governor's palace, Gordon was relishing the part
0:24:19 > 0:24:22he'd given himself in this imperial tragedy.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26He lit candles in his rooms,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31almost offering himself as a target to the Mahdi's snipers.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34A companion begged him to stop.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42When God was portioning out fear to the people of the world, he told
0:24:42 > 0:24:48him, at last it came to my turn and there was no fear left to give me.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53Go tell all the people of Khartoum that Gordon fears nothing,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56because God has created him without fear.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05When the attack came, it was unbelievably savage.
0:25:07 > 0:25:13The siege had lasted 317 days.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16It ended in a blood bath.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Gordon was killed in the battle.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23The Mahdi's followers bought him
0:25:23 > 0:25:27Gordon's head as a trophy and the general's body was never found.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34Khartoum and the Sudan belonged to the Mahdi.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02The Mahdi's great grandson still lives in the city.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Ah, good morning, good morning, good morning.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Good morning, Imam. Good morning.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11- Welcome to Sudan. - Thank you for having us.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15What sort of a man was your great grandfather?
0:26:17 > 0:26:19The Mahdi was a world-denying figure.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Although he wanted to change the world,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26he really wanted to change it in favour of the next world.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30So actually he was world-denying,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34almost with aspirations of a mystic.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Whatever kingdom he had in mind was the kingdom in heaven not here.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39When you think about it,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42they're pretty similar individuals, aren't they?
0:26:42 > 0:26:45They're both religious, they were both ascetic men.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Gordon too was a man who mortified the flesh and denied the world.
0:26:49 > 0:26:50Indeed, indeed.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54And he was a great hero in Britain in the way that the Mahdi
0:26:54 > 0:26:56was a popular hero here.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Indeed, that's why there is this tragedy
0:26:59 > 0:27:03that there was this conflict between people
0:27:03 > 0:27:07who in a world differently organised, could have been very close friends.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09What do you feel about General Gordon?
0:27:09 > 0:27:14He had no business combating people who were asserting themselves.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19The whole basis is that power corrupts and if you have power,
0:27:19 > 0:27:26it's very difficult for you to accept other human beings as your equal
0:27:26 > 0:27:35because you feel that very powerful situation makes you some kind of god.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39Then you make the rules, then you make everything.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44You decide everything. And this, of course, is a great human failure.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04If General Gordon had only done as he was told and evacuated Khartoum,
0:28:04 > 0:28:09he'd never have become the imperial hero he immediately turned into.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13Even though he'd have saved thousands of lives, his own included
0:28:13 > 0:28:17The people of Britain didn't much care whether or not Sudan was in
0:28:17 > 0:28:23the British Empire, but this wasn't about a place it was about an idea.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30That idea was summed up in the famous painting,
0:28:30 > 0:28:32Gordon's Last Stand, by George W Joy.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40Gordon waits at the top of the steps careless in the face of death,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43he makes no attempt to defend himself,
0:28:43 > 0:28:50his pistol hangs loosely in his hand his sword remains sheathed.
0:28:50 > 0:28:55He looks his killers in the eye - "Do what you have to do".
0:28:58 > 0:29:01This wasn't the death of an imperial conqueror.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04This was a martyrdom,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08sanctifying the empire with heroism and personal sacrifice.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28The memory of Gordon's solitary end refused to fade.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Even after the death of the Mahdi, the British public
0:29:32 > 0:29:36and the British press continued to thirst for revenge.
0:29:36 > 0:29:42The task fell to a man of a very different kind from Charles Gordon.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50Even by his own men, Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener
0:29:50 > 0:29:53was often described as a man with no soul.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57The Daily Mail dubbed him "The Machine of The Sudan".
0:30:14 > 0:30:19On 1st January 1897, a meticulously organised force
0:30:19 > 0:30:23left Egypt for Khartoum, over 600 miles to the south.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38The British force advanced steadily across the desert
0:30:38 > 0:30:40laying a railway line behind it
0:30:40 > 0:30:43at the amazing rate of a mile and a half a day.
0:30:43 > 0:30:49On the train which followed, came guns and troops and supplies
0:30:49 > 0:30:53and three gunboats which had been built on the Thames, disassembled
0:30:53 > 0:30:57and shipped up here to be put back together on the banks of the Nile.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00It was a relentless progress.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12This was a new kind of warfare,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15the moment the empire entered the machine age.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28Waiting in Khartoum were the Sudanese warriors, the Dervishes,
0:31:28 > 0:31:30sometimes known as whirling Dervishes
0:31:30 > 0:31:33after their ecstatic religious dance.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38CHANTING
0:31:45 > 0:31:49Dervishes still gather on holy days in Khartoum
0:31:49 > 0:31:52to pray, celebrate and dance.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03The great poet of empire, Rudyard Kipling,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07wrote about them in the imagined words of an ordinary British soldier
0:32:07 > 0:32:11who recognised that, in some strange foreign way,
0:32:11 > 0:32:16the Dervishes too played up, played up and played the game.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25Kipling's soldier raises an imaginary glass to his fearless foe.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31"So here's to you, Fuzzy Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Sudan,
0:32:31 > 0:32:36you're a poor benighted 'eathen but a first-class fighting man."
0:32:46 > 0:32:50The Dervishes might play the game in the old fashioned way,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52but the empire had moved on.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56Kitchener would rely on
0:32:56 > 0:32:58rather more than fighting spirit to win in battle.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07The British like to think of their military history in events
0:33:07 > 0:33:11like the Spanish Armada or the Battle of Britain, when, outnumbered
0:33:11 > 0:33:16and outgunned, Britain survived by virtue of guts and ingenuity.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19But the truth is, in most of Britain's empire wars,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Britain's inventiveness in science
0:33:22 > 0:33:27and industry had simply given it much better ways of killing people.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36On Kitchener's desert train had come machine guns
0:33:36 > 0:33:39and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44At Omdurman, near Khartoum, the stage was set
0:33:44 > 0:33:47for one of the bloodiest battles in the history of empire.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58The British forces were drawn up down by the Nile over there,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01and the Mahdi's men held the high ground.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Winston Churchill was a young officer with Kitchener
0:34:04 > 0:34:06and he described coming out one morning
0:34:06 > 0:34:08and seeing the entire hillside moving.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12Thousands upon thousands of Dervishes advancing on a front
0:34:12 > 0:34:17he reckoned was four miles wide, under innumerable banners,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20and with the sun glinting on the tips of their spears.
0:34:28 > 0:34:34Spears against machine guns, the result was never in doubt.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44Kitchener was watching the battle from horseback.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48At about 11:30, so five hours after the fighting began,
0:34:48 > 0:34:50he put his binoculars away
0:34:50 > 0:34:54and remarked that the enemies seem to have been given "a good dusting".
0:34:54 > 0:34:56They then broke for lunch.
0:35:02 > 0:35:09The casualties were about 10,000 Sudanese dead to 48 British.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22The body of General Gordon's foe, the Mahdi,
0:35:22 > 0:35:26was dug up and thrown into the Nile.
0:35:32 > 0:35:38Kitchener was presented with the Mahdi's skull as a trophy of war.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42The story went that he planned to use it as an ink stand.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Queen Victoria was not amused.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Ornamental skulls weren't her idea of fair play,
0:35:54 > 0:35:58even if Kitchener had added one million square miles to her empire.
0:36:00 > 0:36:06Where Gordon had failed, Kitchener had succeeded spectacularly.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10But it wasn't Kitchener, the Machine of the Sudan,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12who became the empire's romantic hero.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16That role belonged to Charles George Gordon -
0:36:16 > 0:36:22idealistic, reckless and slightly deranged, and now very dead.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26That was how the empire really liked their heroes.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36Heroic disaster always seemed to stir British hearts
0:36:36 > 0:36:38quite as much as victory.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Whether it was the explorer Captain Cook,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46killed by Hawaiian islanders in 1779.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53Or Sir John Franklin, frozen to death trying to find
0:36:53 > 0:36:55the northwest passage through the Arctic.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05Or the Charge of the Light Brigade riding fearlessly and pointlessly
0:37:05 > 0:37:07into enemy cannon fire in the Crimea.
0:37:12 > 0:37:17They all played up, played up and played the game.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31Tales of heroism provided spectacular stories for the citizens
0:37:31 > 0:37:35of what was soon calling itself, "The Mother Country".
0:37:36 > 0:37:40Publishers were churning them out well into the 20th century.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47One of the main outlets for this kind of material would have been
0:37:47 > 0:37:49the market of Sunday school prizes.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54Giving things as gifts to good spellers in class.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56The Romance of Colonization.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59Wouldn't be a title of a book you'd see today.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02I don't think you would see that very often, no.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04Woah, there are loads of them!
0:38:04 > 0:38:07I think it very much reflects the way that people saw the world
0:38:07 > 0:38:10and one of the major elements was, of course,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13Britishness, patriotism, excitement in the empire.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16I think that the striking thing is certainly the message of the text
0:38:16 > 0:38:19which is all about bringing civilisation to the nighted parts
0:38:19 > 0:38:23of the world, but then just the glorious and alluring images.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Society was awash with this kind of comic
0:38:25 > 0:38:28or cigarette card collection, annuals.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30A lot of people would find this stuff unspeakable now,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33wouldn't they? Ghastly racist propaganda.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36I think it tells us a lot about the world view at the time.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39It's also interesting in magazines like Chums,
0:38:39 > 0:38:40there were so many of these.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43"Chums". What a great name. At the mercy of the witch doctors!
0:38:43 > 0:38:46This one, of course, is full of the militaristic heroism
0:38:46 > 0:38:49of the British armed forces, and, of course, the standard themes
0:38:49 > 0:38:54about English history and the wider world and the empire.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57"A fight with the Zulus".
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Here for example there are copies of the wider world, which are,
0:39:01 > 0:39:05to all intents and purposes, the same stuff yet again.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08When you start looking in the magazine, and you get adverts
0:39:08 > 0:39:12for Canadian Club Whiskey, or Burlington Belt Trusses
0:39:12 > 0:39:16or Briar Pipes that you realise the target audience.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18Chap who needs a truss is going to be damn all use
0:39:18 > 0:39:20in some of these situations.
0:39:24 > 0:39:30Such tales might satisfy the armchair imperialist at home,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33but out in the colonies
0:39:33 > 0:39:37playing the game was something to be done more energetically.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46For the British, sport was part of the civilising mission of empire.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51The gift of the mother country to her colonies.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Whether it involved chasing a ball,
0:39:57 > 0:40:02smashing it with a racket or whacking it with a club.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10The sporting gospel was carried
0:40:10 > 0:40:12to the farthest-flung corners of the empire.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52Hong Kong's life as a British Colony
0:40:52 > 0:40:57began in the 1840s as a trading post for nearby China.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01Even here there was always a place
0:41:01 > 0:41:05for one of the empire's great obsessions, horse racing.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14They used to say that when the French took a colony,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16they built a restaurant,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19when the Germans took one, they built a road,
0:41:19 > 0:41:23and when the British pitched up, they built a racecourse.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Happy Valley Racecourse in the heart of Hong Kong
0:41:34 > 0:41:36is a legacy of the days of empire.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45Over 20,000 people come here every Wednesday night.
0:41:55 > 0:42:00It was the British who developed the razzmatazz of the modern turf.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08Today's inhabitants are such enthusiastic gamblers
0:42:08 > 0:42:11that bookies here take as much money in one night
0:42:11 > 0:42:13as in the whole of Ascot week.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20I'm going with number seven, Something Special, in the next one.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23Let's find out what the minimum bet is.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25Can I have ten dollars, about a pound,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28ten dollars on Something Special, number seven, in the 8.10.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32- Thank you.- Number seven, right?
0:42:32 > 0:42:34Number seven, Something Special.
0:42:54 > 0:42:55BELL RINGS
0:43:29 > 0:43:30Whoo!
0:43:30 > 0:43:34I can't believe it, that's amazing!
0:43:34 > 0:43:37I won, I won, it's amazing!
0:43:37 > 0:43:41I won! First time.
0:43:42 > 0:43:4636 dollars, which is about just over three quid.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50We're not even going to get a round of drinks out of it!
0:44:05 > 0:44:08Wherever in the empire sport was played,
0:44:08 > 0:44:13it was supposed to bind subject peoples to their colonial masters.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16But the spirit of fair play
0:44:16 > 0:44:20and the interests of empire would eventually clash head on.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48The West Indian island of Jamaica
0:44:48 > 0:44:50had been a British colony since 1655.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04The British introduced cricket to Jamaica in the 1830s.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08It soon seemed to enter the bloodstream of the island.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14He's got a good eye, that boy in the yellow shirt, hasn't he?
0:45:18 > 0:45:20- How old are you?- Ten.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23Ten? Do you play much cricket?
0:45:23 > 0:45:27Who's the best cricketer here? You are?
0:45:27 > 0:45:30- No, him.- Who's the best? You're the best cricketer, are you?
0:45:30 > 0:45:32- Me.- You're the best one?
0:45:32 > 0:45:34- Him!- And him.- And me. - You're the two champs.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46But there was a problem here.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49How could a game, which prided itself on fairness,
0:45:49 > 0:45:54work in an empire divided between rulers and ruled,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56and therefore very obviously unfair?
0:46:05 > 0:46:09Cricket in the West Indies would become not a unifying force
0:46:09 > 0:46:11but a symbol of oppression.
0:46:15 > 0:46:21In 19th century Jamaica, whites owned the land, blacks worked on it.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27While cricket was supposed to be good for subject races,
0:46:27 > 0:46:31at that time, black and white rarely played together.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42It's a practise day at Sabina Park,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46the home of Jamaica's Kingston Cricket Club.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57When it was formed in 1863,
0:46:57 > 0:47:01it was a place for white men to play the game.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Even when black and white began to play on the same side,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07racial tensions in the game remained.
0:47:11 > 0:47:16No black player was ever selected to captain the national team.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Whites were chosen to bat,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22while blacks were relegated to bowling or fielding.
0:47:29 > 0:47:30It wasn't quite the done thing
0:47:30 > 0:47:34for white men to do a lot of running around in the tropics,
0:47:34 > 0:47:37besides which there was a distinction between brawn,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40bowling, and brains, batting.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42Batting was for white men.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Change had to come.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57It arrived in the person of Frank Worrall, who, in 1960,
0:47:57 > 0:47:59became the first black player
0:47:59 > 0:48:03to captain the West Indies team for an entire series.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06When Worrall brought his team to England,
0:48:06 > 0:48:11they showed they could play the game rather better than their hosts.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15The Oval can never have heard of a scene like this.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17Victory in the series by three matches to one
0:48:17 > 0:48:22confirmed the West Indies as the most powerful side in the world.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29It was generally said, that here is the right person at last
0:48:29 > 0:48:34to lead a West Indies team because I think, before, there wasn't unity
0:48:34 > 0:48:39based on who was appointed captain or who was appointed vice captain.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Now it was felt that the players have a captain they can fight for.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45So it was greeted with cheers throughout the entire Caribbean
0:48:45 > 0:48:47and I think many people were saying,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50"At last, we have the right man to lead."
0:48:50 > 0:48:53- Like a Mandela moment!- It certainly was, that's why I said that.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57- Free at last, free at last.- Free at last, at last, at last!
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Students now become the teachers.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05England taught the West Indies cricket,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09and had a grand opportunity for the students now to reverse that process
0:49:09 > 0:49:12and in the mind of many of the West Indian players,
0:49:12 > 0:49:17this was, you know, the turning point I think for everyone.
0:49:17 > 0:49:18Sort of like sweet revenge.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21CROWD CHEERING
0:49:24 > 0:49:28In the end, the British idea of fair play
0:49:28 > 0:49:32undermined the very notion of empire itself.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36If a black cricket captain, why not a black prime minister?
0:49:37 > 0:49:40In 1962, Jamaica became the first
0:49:40 > 0:49:44Caribbean island to gain independence,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47and through the 1960s, all over the empire,
0:49:47 > 0:49:52from the West Indies to Fiji, the Union Jack came down.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02As the empire crumbled,
0:50:02 > 0:50:06so did reverence for the things and attitudes it held dear.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11# Everybody's doing a brand new dance now
0:50:11 > 0:50:14# C'mon, baby, do the locomotion! #
0:50:14 > 0:50:16The uniforms...
0:50:18 > 0:50:19..the flag...
0:50:23 > 0:50:25..the moustaches!
0:50:26 > 0:50:29This wasn't playing the game, this was having a laugh.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34# So c'mon, c'mon, do the locomotion with me. #
0:50:35 > 0:50:39A laugh at military valour,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42at sporting prowess,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45at the thrill of adventure and exploration.
0:50:48 > 0:50:49The empire was gone.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54The only way to cope with its loss was to see its absurdity.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58So ladies, shall we retire?
0:50:58 > 0:51:04We'll be in to spank you later, you firm buttock young amazons, you.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15I'm terribly sorry. I don't know what came over me.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18All right, Morrison, I think you know what to do.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20THEY LAUGH
0:51:20 > 0:51:21Yes. Yes, of course, sir.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26I apologise to you all.
0:51:32 > 0:51:33GUNSHOT
0:51:37 > 0:51:40- Silly really, seemed a nice enough young chap.- Yes.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43Now, why is this...why is it funny?
0:51:43 > 0:51:47Because I think it's such an absurd thing that they're doing
0:51:47 > 0:51:51and yet they're all taking it absolutely seriously
0:51:51 > 0:51:54and that's what the empire was all about, really.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57Doing very, very strange things absolutely seriously.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00- Clive, what ARE you doing? - I say Cooper, what's going on?
0:52:00 > 0:52:03Oh, er, it's nothing really, sir.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05He was just explaining to me about...
0:52:05 > 0:52:09I was passing the port from left to right.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13This sort of thin veneer of control of which passing the port is one,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16and being gallant about ladies is the other, you know.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19If that starts to crack, the whole thing just collapses.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22I think it's just because of the formality of it.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24And the fact that they go and shoot themselves,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28which is the ultimate logical end to letting down the empire.
0:52:28 > 0:52:29GUNSHOT
0:52:30 > 0:52:34Where did the idea of ripping yarns come from?
0:52:34 > 0:52:37Well, really from all those books. It was a literary idea.
0:52:37 > 0:52:42It was all those books that were written in the '20s and '30s
0:52:42 > 0:52:45and maybe before the war even, which I vaguely knew about,
0:52:45 > 0:52:49which were all stories of pluck, heroism, courage, duty.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51So why did you find it funny?
0:52:51 > 0:52:53Was it because you were young and truculent?
0:52:53 > 0:52:55When I started to think about this
0:52:55 > 0:52:58with the sort of clear light of the '60s upon us all
0:52:58 > 0:53:02and suddenly we were free to talk about anything we wanted to
0:53:02 > 0:53:06and I suddenly thought, "Yes it was, it was really absurd,"
0:53:06 > 0:53:10and it was a rich vein, and a lot of people kind of obviously
0:53:10 > 0:53:13shared that literary upbringing
0:53:13 > 0:53:17and understood quite...understood what we were on about.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19What's funny is being funny
0:53:19 > 0:53:22in a place where you're not supposed to be funny.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24GUNSHOT
0:53:27 > 0:53:31So, is all that's left of empire just a bit of a joke? Not entirely.
0:53:31 > 0:53:36Hello, you boy in the corner there, you ought to be a boy scout.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39You're a fine looking fella and I know you'd make a jolly good
0:53:39 > 0:53:42back woods man by the look of you. You're ugly enough anyway.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48Robert Baden Powell founded the boy scouts in 1907.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53This die-hard imperialist wanted
0:53:53 > 0:53:57to enlist ordinary British boys to the service of the empire,
0:53:57 > 0:54:01not just the officer class of the great public schools.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10He gave them military style uniforms and funny rituals
0:54:10 > 0:54:14so these boys, too, could play up, play up, and play the game.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22Ah, good!
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Today the scouts are going as strong as ever.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32Here, at an annual camp in Norfolk,
0:54:32 > 0:54:37boy scouts and girl scouts learn about living in the wild...
0:54:37 > 0:54:38Oh good!
0:54:40 > 0:54:41..staying healthy...
0:54:44 > 0:54:47..and becoming more confident.
0:54:51 > 0:54:56Baden Powell had toyed with the idea of calling his organisation
0:54:56 > 0:54:58"Young Knights of the Empire".
0:54:58 > 0:55:02But, by the time I joined it, it had nothing to do with empire.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05What it fed on and continues to feed on,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08is young people's appetite for adventure.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11For sleeping out, for cooking under the stars,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15for cleaning your teeth with a twig in a stream.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22Can I join your breakfast?
0:55:22 > 0:55:26- Yes, if you want, sit down.- Good. What do you think you learn
0:55:26 > 0:55:29in scouts that you wouldn't learn somewhere else?
0:55:29 > 0:55:34It's like some things you learn in school, like English and Maths,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37but, like, you don't learn that at scouts. It's like other things,
0:55:37 > 0:55:42like adventure and other things that just might come in handy in life.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45- Do you still do knots? - Yeah, we do knots.- Pioneering.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Who's got a bit of rope?
0:55:47 > 0:55:51You can all demonstrate your knots.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54- Put your hand in there.- OK, go on.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58That's it.
0:55:58 > 0:55:59Very good.
0:56:00 > 0:56:01Get me out!
0:56:03 > 0:56:07And do they still have that, you know the...what's it called,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10the scout oath or the scout promise?
0:56:10 > 0:56:12- Promise, yeah.- And how does it go?
0:56:12 > 0:56:15ALL: I promise to do my best to God and the Queen,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19to help other people and to keep the scout law.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22- Do you have a good deed every day? No?- Sometimes.- Aren't you supposed
0:56:22 > 0:56:26- to help little old ladies across the road?- No, they can do it themselves!
0:56:26 > 0:56:28LAUGHTER
0:56:37 > 0:56:42The scout movement now numbers over 41 million boys and girls
0:56:42 > 0:56:47from North America, to Europe, to Africa.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57The scouts were set up to protect the empire
0:56:57 > 0:57:02from the fleshy corruption, which Baden Powell saw threatening it,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05but they've turned into something entirely different.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09International and inclusive, while still fostering
0:57:09 > 0:57:13the same spirits of self reliance and public spiritedness.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16And here's to 'em, I say.
0:57:32 > 0:57:33Next time:
0:57:33 > 0:57:35The empire's roots.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39Piracy in the Caribbean.
0:57:43 > 0:57:44Empire's riches.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48How it grew into a global money machine.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54And empire's shame.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Profits from opium...
0:57:58 > 0:58:00..and slavery.
0:58:10 > 0:58:18To order a free Open University poster exploring the legacy of Britain's empire, go to:
0:58:18 > 0:58:23Or call:
0:58:33 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd