0:00:05 > 0:00:09'In 1888, a satirical sketch appeared in the Victorian magazine,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11'Funny Folks.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14'It was a send-up of a real-life trial.'
0:00:15 > 0:00:19- You say the prisoner was begging in the Strand?- Yes, Your Worship.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25The policeman's real name was Sergeant Holmes.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28But to the wags at the magazine Funny Folks, he was
0:00:28 > 0:00:33"Constable Robert Emotional". The joke's in the name, you see.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Please, Your Honour, he said he hadn't tasted food
0:00:37 > 0:00:41for two whole days and that he had a starving family at home!
0:00:43 > 0:00:44And so I 'ave, worse luck!
0:00:44 > 0:00:49You hear him, Your Worship! Isn't it...pitiful?
0:00:53 > 0:00:56I must point out, Constable, that these exhibitions
0:00:56 > 0:01:01of feeling are slightly out of place in a police court.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04The prisoner will go to jail for seven days.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06BANGS GAVEL
0:01:09 > 0:01:11A policeman in tears - extraordinary!
0:01:11 > 0:01:13The press had a field day.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17The public were aghast and Robert Emotional became a figure of fun.
0:01:17 > 0:01:23Because, by the 1880s, this sort of behaviour was simply not acceptable.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27English men, and English women, across society
0:01:27 > 0:01:31just didn't get "emotional" in public.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41Nowadays, of course, if we don't show our feelings
0:01:41 > 0:01:44we're said to be cold and labelled repressed.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47We may see the benefits of being more sensitive
0:01:47 > 0:01:50but don't like the thought of being touchy-feely.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Males, for example, are encouraged to act like "new men"
0:01:54 > 0:01:57and then they get told to "man up".
0:01:57 > 0:02:02Are we meant to be "emotional" or not? It's terribly confusing!
0:02:04 > 0:02:08As an English public schoolboy with a Scottish Presbyterian background,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11you can imagine what a representative
0:02:11 > 0:02:13of emotional literacy I am!
0:02:13 > 0:02:15But the Victorians had no such doubts.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20This was the period
0:02:20 > 0:02:22when the ideal of the stiff upper lip reached its zenith.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29It produced a parade of fair-playing heroes, valiant soldiers
0:02:29 > 0:02:30and intrepid explorers.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36It made the people fearless, doubt free, self-confident,
0:02:36 > 0:02:42or heartless, imagination-free and self-denying.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47But how did Britons of all ranks come to buy into the idea
0:02:47 > 0:02:51that repressing your emotions was the way to get through life?
0:02:51 > 0:02:53And what were the consequences?
0:03:18 > 0:03:22It was famously said of the Battle of Waterloo that it was
0:03:22 > 0:03:24won on the playing fields of Eton.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27That was a tribute to the character of men turned out
0:03:27 > 0:03:29by the English public school.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35I'm heading back to my own, which for good or ill,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37undeniably helped shape mine.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41When I used to come back at the beginning of term,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45I was initially... I was always a bit homesick,
0:03:45 > 0:03:50I was leaving my parents, leaving my sister but then there was
0:03:50 > 0:03:53also an excitement. I mean, I was going to see my friends again.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57It certainly made you very independent from an early age,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00the essential attitude was, you know, don't make a fuss about it,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03get on with it. Which we all did.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12This is Ardingly College in West Sussex.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21This is it, where I got dropped off from the ages of 8-18.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24Usually with a trunk, a huge trunk and a tuck box,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28which you had to get someone to help you carry it up the stairs.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33Ardingly may now look like a conservative institution,
0:04:33 > 0:04:39but when it was founded in 1858 it embodied educational reform
0:04:39 > 0:04:43and a progressive mindset.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Public schools in the past, like Eton, Harrow and Rugby,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53had been mainly for the aristocracy.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58But by the 1850s, aspirational parents from the growing
0:04:58 > 0:05:01middle classes thought that their boys,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04if taught the same values, would also measure up.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09A wave of new schools was founded where these boys could be
0:05:09 > 0:05:11taught to be gentlemen.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Ardingly's founder, who set up nine of these schools,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21was very clear on how to do this.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Ah, there he is, the founder,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33Nathaniel Woodard, a severe looking man.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38He wrote a terrific document called A Plea For The Middle Classes,
0:05:38 > 0:05:42and he lays it all out, it's for gentlemen of small incomes
0:05:42 > 0:05:44and by this he includes the sons of clergy,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48sons of army and navy, sons of solicitors, sons of tradesmen
0:05:48 > 0:05:52and the important thing was to get them here.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54He wrote, "The chief thing
0:05:54 > 0:05:56"to be desired is to remove the child
0:05:56 > 0:05:59"from the noxious influence of home."
0:06:04 > 0:06:08So, the suggestion was that these bad influences actually included
0:06:08 > 0:06:12parents, and certainly covered home comforts.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20My dormitory was up there.
0:06:20 > 0:06:2335 boys, one room, no curtains, not much heating.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Very good for you!
0:06:30 > 0:06:33You weren't meant to show emotion in front of your fellows.
0:06:35 > 0:06:36You weren't meant to blub
0:06:36 > 0:06:39when you said goodbye to your mummy at the railway station.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41You weren't meant to blub when people hit you very hard
0:06:41 > 0:06:44with sticks, even though it's a perfectly normal thing to do,
0:06:44 > 0:06:45to blub!
0:06:45 > 0:06:48And therefore, it's probably created the most extraordinary
0:06:48 > 0:06:52psychological types which we still see living with us in England today.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59At public schools across the country in the mid-19th century,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03masters increasingly strove to mould boys into men who would be
0:07:03 > 0:07:08a credit to Britannia, whether serving her at home or in the Empire.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Training began in the classroom, where the key subject
0:07:11 > 0:07:14on the curriculum was Classics - Greek and Latin.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20Aeneas and his men have been wrecked on the shore of Libya
0:07:20 > 0:07:22and he is now about to speak to his men.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24I'll just join in.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Talia voce refert
0:07:29 > 0:07:31curisque ingentibus aeger...
0:07:31 > 0:07:36To learn how to govern, boys were introduced to inspiring role models.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Ancient heroes, like the poet Virgil's Aeneas.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45"Such words he spoke, while sick with deep distress
0:07:45 > 0:07:50"he feigns hope on his face, and deep in his heart stifles his pain."
0:07:52 > 0:07:59What qualities do you think Aeneas is showing as a leader here?
0:07:59 > 0:08:01What is he trying to do for his men?
0:08:01 > 0:08:03He's showing a sense of steadfastness,
0:08:03 > 0:08:05he can't let out his emotions.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09It also says here, "durate", which very modern could be translated as,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13kind of, "man up", putting on a brave face.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15And is that a good quality in a leader?
0:08:17 > 0:08:21I think it's an essential quality for a leader.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23To pretend everything is going fine?
0:08:23 > 0:08:25Well, in this situation, yes.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30It's almost kind of a prototype for how the English
0:08:30 > 0:08:34thought they could act. The young British men
0:08:34 > 0:08:39out in the colonies, for example, would take on the role of Aeneas.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Outside the classroom,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48equally essential lessons in conduct were being taught.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49Here we go. Play.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Good.
0:08:53 > 0:08:54Discipline on the sports field...
0:09:00 > 0:09:02..and morality in chapel.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08A popular new idea summed up the spirit of the age -
0:09:08 > 0:09:12that Godliness need not exclude manliness.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16A combination dubbed "Muscular Christianity".
0:09:18 > 0:09:22There was a worry that hearty, virile boys might see
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Jesus as a bit wet, so his teaching needed beefing up.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30Different class, mate, well done!
0:09:30 > 0:09:35You can't imagine putting Jesus in charge of a hill station in India,
0:09:35 > 0:09:40or a regiment, because obviously the fellow wouldn't have any discipline.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43And so, Muscular Christianity is obviously
0:09:43 > 0:09:46the exaltation of strength.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48It's the idea that a decent person keeps order,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52both over himself and over the world, with help from the Almighty,
0:09:52 > 0:09:57but if the Almighty's not interested then an English person can do it on his own!
0:09:57 > 0:09:59CHEERING
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Everything about schools like Ardingly was designed to work
0:10:05 > 0:10:10together in a sort of social, almost moral engineering project.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12The physical education on the playing field,
0:10:12 > 0:10:17the spiritual education in chapel, a very particular classical education
0:10:17 > 0:10:22in the classroom. All working together to create a product -
0:10:22 > 0:10:27the English gentleman, the British officer, the imperial administrator.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32And, in 1864, a royal commission no less, made it official -
0:10:32 > 0:10:35it declared that the public school, at best, could be used
0:10:35 > 0:10:39as "an instrument for the training of character",
0:10:39 > 0:10:44where boys could learn to govern others and control themselves.
0:10:44 > 0:10:51# Dear Lord and Father of mankind
0:10:51 > 0:10:55# Forgive our foolish ways... #
0:10:55 > 0:10:58From all sides, Victorian boys absorbed the principle
0:10:58 > 0:11:02that while emotions may be felt, they should never be shown.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07# ..in purer lives thy service find... #
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Not that this was always easy.
0:11:09 > 0:11:15# ..in deeper reverence, praise. #
0:11:17 > 0:11:21These are the letters home from a boy called Charles Herbert Shaw,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Charlie, writing to his mother, who he addresses as,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27"Dear Ma, the last three or four days it's been raining.
0:11:27 > 0:11:28"Sunday was very hot.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32"I went out with a master and got some violets and primroses.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34"I send you one of the violets."
0:11:34 > 0:11:36And he's put it in, you can still see the mark of it.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39"The cricketing season is coming on,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41"there's a new railway which is being built.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44"I have nothing more to say. I remain your affectionate son.
0:11:44 > 0:11:45"Charlie."
0:11:47 > 0:11:52A year later, that formal attitude has something rather more serious
0:11:52 > 0:11:57to deal with - "Dear Ma, I have a very sad letter to write to you.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02"During the last week, scarlatina..." - scarlet fever - "..has broke out.
0:12:02 > 0:12:07"One boy named Moore in School House dormitory died very suddenly
0:12:07 > 0:12:09"last Wednesday 23rd.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14"They say another boy is ill and not expected to live.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17"I suppose you've received the circular,
0:12:17 > 0:12:19"which the college has sent?
0:12:19 > 0:12:22"What I want to know is that, am I coming home?"
0:12:22 > 0:12:26He then says, "Thanks for the flags of all nations.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself when you were at Southport."
0:12:31 > 0:12:34A week later he writes again, he hasn't gone home,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36his parents haven't come and picked him up.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39He says, "The fever is still going strong, between 20-30 boys
0:12:39 > 0:12:42"are ill with it, five boys are prayed for.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45"Only 28 boys are left."
0:12:45 > 0:12:50Then having described this rampaging epidemic, he says, "I'm sorry
0:12:50 > 0:12:55"you've got a cold", and then tells his mother, "I'm learning algebra."
0:12:55 > 0:12:58And then he signs off, "Charlie."
0:12:58 > 0:13:02And it is the extraordinary jump in tone. You can almost feel
0:13:02 > 0:13:06the sense of someone learning a process
0:13:06 > 0:13:09of dealing with their emotions.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12These things happen, he's been left there to stick it out,
0:13:12 > 0:13:16because that's what you do, and you do it by restraint.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Unlike several of his classmates,
0:13:24 > 0:13:2814-year-old Charles Herbert Shaw survived the scarlet fever.
0:13:28 > 0:13:34He went on to a career in the army, a successful product of the system.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48The model for Victorian manhood was now established, but it was
0:13:48 > 0:13:51widely believed that a good dose of emotional restraint would
0:13:51 > 0:13:56fortify the women too - despite the less promising raw material!
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Middle class women, conditioned to be wives and mothers,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05were learning how to minister to the shrine of the Victorian home.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07And to preserve a haven of calm
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and happiness no matter what life threw at them.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Their lives were extraordinarily difficult -
0:14:15 > 0:14:17giving birth to any number of children,
0:14:17 > 0:14:23well over five or six, and losing some of them, and suffering
0:14:23 > 0:14:28enormously in childbirth, so they are having to exhibit a steeliness
0:14:28 > 0:14:34on the home front that is basically the equivalent of stiff upper lip.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39They are very good at suffering,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42that's what all the literature about women in this period says.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44Women are very good at maternal altruism,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48sacrificing themselves and suffering in silence.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50This is a very backhanded compliment, of course,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53to say to women, "You're so great at suffering and having no power.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55"Please carry on doing it."
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Women not only had to manage their own feelings,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08they were also expected to steady the ship for those around them.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17This duty was the subject of popular paintings, like this one
0:15:17 > 0:15:22by George Elgar Hicks at the Museum of London.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32This painting is called Companion Of Manhood, and it's
0:15:32 > 0:15:36part of a triptych called Woman's Mission.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40And this is, quite literally, a depiction of what the mission is.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45It is to support the man in every way possible.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48This is a beautifully run home -
0:15:48 > 0:15:51breakfast things are all in order, there are fresh flowers,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54the fire is stoked, the woman has done everything.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57But, as happens in tragic Victorian pictures,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01something awful has happened and we can tell that because the husband
0:16:01 > 0:16:05has opened the letter, dropped the envelope which has a black border,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08so someone has died, there's been some tragedy and his face, which
0:16:08 > 0:16:13you're drawn to up the diagonal, his face is hidden in his hands.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16What we can see is the reaction of the woman.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21Her face there is noble, it's compassionate, it's restrained.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24The implication for the viewer is that without the woman,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29without her solid presence, the man might just lose it,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32he might start blubbing, he might fall apart.
0:16:32 > 0:16:38The woman is there for her husband, offering, quite literally,
0:16:38 > 0:16:40tea and sympathy.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48For these "companions of manhood" across the country, guidance
0:16:48 > 0:16:53was helpfully at hand in the form of instruction manuals.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Not for the women the advice of ancient poets,
0:16:57 > 0:17:02but instead the sage words of a Mrs Sarah Ellis.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14Mrs Ellis urged the women of England to bear pain with cheerfulness
0:17:14 > 0:17:20and resignation and to engage in moral work in a domestic setting.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24And this is clear from the titles of her best-selling books,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Daughters Of England, Wives Of England,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29Mothers Of England, and the works
0:17:29 > 0:17:33are full of words like "influence", "responsibility" and "character".
0:17:33 > 0:17:37But Mrs Ellis also recommends something key to
0:17:37 > 0:17:39the development of the psychology of the stiff upper lip
0:17:39 > 0:17:41in the decades to come.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46"By the mastery of judgment over impulse,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49"she..." - the ideal woman of England -
0:17:49 > 0:17:52"..will be able in time, not only to appear calm,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55"but really to feel so."
0:17:57 > 0:18:00What she's arguing is that by controlling their facial
0:18:00 > 0:18:04expressions and consequently the feelings that give rise to them,
0:18:04 > 0:18:08her readers will be able to train their emotions and bury them
0:18:08 > 0:18:11so deep they don't even have to acknowledge them.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16That level of emotional reserve would later come to be seen
0:18:16 > 0:18:18as emotional repression,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22and once Freud started his work on the human psyche,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25would be considered to be, potentially, extremely damaging.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38Self-control was now becoming a hallmark of
0:18:38 > 0:18:39the British middle class.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50But it would take a violent and bloody event overseas -
0:18:50 > 0:18:56the Crimean War of the 1850s - to demonstrate that this quality
0:18:56 > 0:18:58might also be found in the "lower" orders.
0:19:08 > 0:19:14This is Britain's first public memorial dedicated to all ranks.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17The allegorical figure at the top is Honour, bestowing her
0:19:17 > 0:19:21tributes on three common soldiers.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26These are privates - their faces are carved ideally.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31They are looking determined, resolute and noble.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36Now, for much of Britain's long and extremely martial history,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40the ordinary rank-and-file soldier was not considered to be
0:19:40 > 0:19:45statue material, too often they were perceived as lazy, drunk,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49ill-disciplined, thieving, mutinous or worse.
0:19:49 > 0:19:55The Duke of Wellington once memorably referred to his own army as, "The scum of the earth".
0:19:55 > 0:20:00But this monument shows what changed in the Victorian era -
0:20:00 > 0:20:05it was a more democratic ideal, in tune with the spirit of the times.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Now any Briton could be put on a national pedestal.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17This change in public opinion was not a consequence of anything
0:20:17 > 0:20:20new in how the war was waged,
0:20:20 > 0:20:22but in how it was seen back home.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Thanks to the new medium of photography,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36civilians could see documentary images of the battlefield.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38And with the rapid development of the telegraph,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41news could be sent home in hours.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45Moreover, the reports were not glorified eulogies,
0:20:45 > 0:20:51but damning indictments of a bungled campaign which cost over 20,000 Britons their lives
0:20:51 > 0:20:53on the battlefield and from disease.
0:20:55 > 0:21:02It was total blundering stupidity and incompetence from beginning to end. By the politicians,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05by the senior soldiers and the officer class.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08And indeed, it exposed the officer class
0:21:08 > 0:21:12and the idiotic way in which they'd been running the Army ever since Waterloo.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16In contrast to their officers,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19the character of the ordinary soldiers shone through.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24"Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die."
0:21:26 > 0:21:29That bittersweet line from Tennyson's much loved poem,
0:21:29 > 0:21:36The Charge Of The Light Brigade, epitomised a nation's pride and sympathy for its heroes.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42In 1856 the Queen was moved to create the first medal for
0:21:42 > 0:21:47valour to be awarded to servicemen of any rank, the Victoria Cross.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00A reputation for duty and resilience under fire is one of which
0:22:00 > 0:22:02the British squaddie remains proud.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Of those original Crimean VCs,
0:22:11 > 0:22:148 were awarded to members of the Rifle Brigade.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21Today, the 4th Battalion The Rifles, is based in Bulford near Salisbury.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25If you have a body injury, obviously you can man-up slightly and try
0:22:25 > 0:22:27and limp to the next marker if you've got...
0:22:27 > 0:22:32In 2013 they will be returning to Afghanistan for a second tour of duty.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36..and one man go and get help for a marker or any other of the PC Staff.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Questions? Awesome.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40The idea of the British soldier,
0:22:40 > 0:22:44of you guys, is that you don't complain, you can handle anything,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47you're unflappable, you don't show it...is that what it's like?
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Well, when you're here in the rain, everyone moans, but
0:22:50 > 0:22:53when you're out there you don't moan at all because it's your job.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56You're there to protect the bloke left and right of you,
0:22:56 > 0:22:57so you just have to get on with it.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01And you've got a lot of foreigners around you, you're in someone
0:23:01 > 0:23:04else's country, you've got to be a certain person haven't you?
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Yeah, you've got to put a face on to the public to show them
0:23:07 > 0:23:11that you're strong enough to handle the situation.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14So if you're going out on a patrol and you look scared,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17they aren't going to have confidence in you.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24As a nation we've a lot of respect for those who brave danger
0:23:24 > 0:23:26in war zones in the national interest.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31But we also have a peculiar regard for Brits attempting feats
0:23:31 > 0:23:35that are not just perilous, but arguably pointless.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41And that too dates back to the stiff upper lip's Victorian heyday.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54Meet Captain Matthew Webb.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03A merchant seaman from Shropshire with a fine moustache, and a strong
0:24:03 > 0:24:07competitive streak, he accepted every challenge for its own sake.
0:24:09 > 0:24:15In 1874, Webb took on an unlikely opponent in a swimming contest...
0:24:17 > 0:24:19..a Newfoundland dog!
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Newfoundlands are very popular with fisherman.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31They have a well-deserved reputation for being able to
0:24:31 > 0:24:34stay in water for a long time.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37But Webb boasted that he had greater stamina than any dog.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42So bets were taken and both competitors entered a fairly choppy sea.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44An hour and half later the dog gave up
0:24:44 > 0:24:50and went back to his master's boat whimpering to be let back on board.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Webb was declared the victor.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Never a man to rest on his laurels,
0:24:54 > 0:25:00he then said he would take on the ultimate challenge, he would boldly go where no man had been before.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04The final frontier. France! He would swim the English Channel.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Webb's challenge was deemed impossible by fellow swimmers
0:25:15 > 0:25:18and to the French it was "Une folie Anglaise!"
0:25:21 > 0:25:27When it comes to the display, of the stiff upper lip,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31demonstrating it, performing it, there is something peculiarly British.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38This does have something to do with the sheer enjoyment of the absurdity
0:25:38 > 0:25:44of this kind of survival, of surviving for the sake of surviving.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48It's a kind of masochism.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Masochistic or heroic? You decide.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56On one of the coldest days of the year, Bryn Dymott is here in
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Dover, training to swim the channel in the wake of his hero, Webb.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04- Hi, Bryn.- Oh, hi, Ian.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06What are you putting on yourself?
0:26:06 > 0:26:09A bit of Vaseline, just to help, it's a bit salty in there.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Right, and is that what they would have put on?
0:26:11 > 0:26:14No in the past, swimmers would have used lanolin,
0:26:14 > 0:26:15that's...Channel grease.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17That's what most people would use for a real solo attempt.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20- What about Captain Webb? - Ah, he used porpoise oil.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21Porpoise oil?
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Porpoise oil, really smelly stuff.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27- He believed that it would offer him a little bit of thermal protection - And did it?- I don't know.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31But we do know but we do know it attracted the porpoises and it's rumoured, or written,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34that the porpoises came and had a swim with him during his crossing.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36And Captain Webb, he's a hero of yours?
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Absolutely, he was the very first person to swim the channel, 1875,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43and he did it breaststroke.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Is that a gentlemanly stroke? You could see what you were doing?
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Absolutely and Matthew Webb had all sorts of tricks that he would
0:26:49 > 0:26:52perform in the water, breaststroke, eating, drinking,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55glass of port in one hand, cigar in the other.
0:26:55 > 0:26:56It's true.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Do you do any of that?
0:26:59 > 0:27:01No, why do you have a glass of port handy?
0:27:02 > 0:27:06I'm sorry to ask this but, um...no wet suit?
0:27:06 > 0:27:09- Definitely not. - Is that offensive?
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Well, no, it's not. If you want to use a wet suit, that's fine,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14but Matthew Webb didn't and I want to be a Channel swimmer,
0:27:14 > 0:27:16not someone who has swum the Channel.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18There's a difference, a Channel swimmer doesn't wear a wet suit.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22Fair enough, well, I'm not going to hold you up any further, you must get on.
0:27:22 > 0:27:23Thank you very much.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27- You're not feeling the cold. - You not going to join me then? - No, I am not going to join you!
0:27:27 > 0:27:28Well, nice of you to come down!
0:27:41 > 0:27:46On 24th August 1875 a small crowd gathered here in Dover
0:27:46 > 0:27:49to watch Webb set off for his toughest endurance test yet.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Webb had to battle turning tides, agonizing pains in his muscles
0:27:57 > 0:28:01and being stung by a jellyfish, but he swam on
0:28:01 > 0:28:03at a steady 22 strokes a minute.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07For sustenance the crew in the boat accompanying him handed him
0:28:07 > 0:28:10beef tea, brandy, beer and half way across,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13a nice cold glass of cod liver oil!
0:28:14 > 0:28:16For the last two hours,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19according to a journalist who was along for the ride,
0:28:19 > 0:28:24it was "perfect torture." Webb slowed down to 12 strokes a minute
0:28:24 > 0:28:29and he was heard to cry out "This sea is killing me by inches!"
0:28:34 > 0:28:38After 22 excruciating hours, Webb eventually reached
0:28:38 > 0:28:40the shores of Calais.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45So how did he feel?
0:28:45 > 0:28:48As all good journalists are primed to ask then as now?
0:28:48 > 0:28:49Had he been on a journey?
0:28:49 > 0:28:52Had he given it 110%?
0:28:52 > 0:28:54Had it always been his dream?
0:28:54 > 0:29:00No. All Webb would admit to was, "A peculiar sensation in my limbs, somewhat similar to that
0:29:00 > 0:29:04"which is often felt after the first day of the cricket season."
0:29:04 > 0:29:06The public swooned!
0:29:06 > 0:29:09British understatement, manly humility,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11and a reference to cricket.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15He went straight into the Victorian pantheon of national heroes.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Webb's success was a seen as a trophy for the whole country,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29everything from mugs to matchboxes celebrated his achievement.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34And songs were written in his honour.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39# He said "I'll take no Jersey for there's one already there!"
0:29:39 > 0:29:44# I'll leave alone the Boyton Dress, the Macintosh and flannel
0:29:44 > 0:29:50# And wear a suit of British pluck The one I always wear. #
0:29:50 > 0:29:55No-one would repeat Webb's achievement for 36 years.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00This superman swimmer was proof, to the British at least,
0:30:00 > 0:30:01of their national superiority.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06These tests of endurance that British men are putting
0:30:06 > 0:30:10themselves through in these periods, the exploration,
0:30:10 > 0:30:12swimming the Channel, climbing mountains,
0:30:12 > 0:30:14trying to find the source of the Nile and so on,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17they were an extreme version of the stiff upper lip,
0:30:17 > 0:30:21proving that the Anglo Saxon male could achieve anything,
0:30:21 > 0:30:26could suffer anything, and come out the other end robust and manly.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29And I think it was a bit pathological.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37Webb's ultimate challenge was an attempt to swim across the foot of Niagara Falls.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41But he was dragged under by a whirlpool and died.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45In this case British pluck wasn't enough.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00The British people's supreme confidence in their physical,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03mental and moral hardiness underpinned their achievements
0:31:03 > 0:31:05in the growing Empire.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13This is what so many of those Public Schoolboys had been trained up for.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16They needed to be able to stare danger in the face
0:31:16 > 0:31:18and walk straight towards it.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27No Empire in history had ever expanded further or faster
0:31:27 > 0:31:33or revelled in such exotic battle honours. 1871-72 - The Lushai Campaign.
0:31:33 > 0:31:371873-1874, The Ashanti War...
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Between 1870 and 1900, British territory
0:31:40 > 0:31:42increased by over 50%.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45'..The Battles of Rorke's Drift and Ulundi...'
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Every glorious, far-flung victory seemed to prove
0:31:47 > 0:31:50the very stuff of which those in the fabled thin red line were made...
0:31:50 > 0:31:53'..the Capture of Mandalay...'
0:31:53 > 0:31:57By her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen Empress Victoria
0:31:57 > 0:32:01famously ruled over a quarter of the world's population.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03'..The Battle of Omdurman..'
0:32:03 > 0:32:06In fact, there wasn't a single year in the entire reign
0:32:06 > 0:32:09of Queen Victoria when the British Forces were not
0:32:09 > 0:32:12fighting for the Empire somewhere across the globe.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17And the public back home lapped it up!
0:32:18 > 0:32:21High-spirited adventure stories by the likes
0:32:21 > 0:32:26of Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and the prolific G A Henty thrilled
0:32:26 > 0:32:30a British society increasingly besotted with imperialism.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43Indeed, ordinary British men and women were encouraged to believe
0:32:43 > 0:32:46that they had a stake in something magnificent.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54But the truth was that colonial rule was built on something
0:32:54 > 0:32:56astonishingly flimsy.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03The control of vast populations rested in the hands of only
0:33:03 > 0:33:06a tiny number of men.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11And the illusion that the British were all-powerful was maintained by an extraordinary...
0:33:11 > 0:33:13piece of theatre.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19At the centre of the performance were the iconic figures
0:33:19 > 0:33:23of the unflappable Englishman and his wife, the doughty memsahib.
0:33:23 > 0:33:29It was a grand mask of stoic control played out in inappropriate dress.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33The stiff upper lip gave the British an image of themselves that
0:33:33 > 0:33:35allowed them to feel that, somehow,
0:33:35 > 0:33:38they deserved the benefits of the trade and the conquest.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42That the civilising mission that they talked about, was genuine.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45That there were values behind the military force
0:33:45 > 0:33:47and the commercial enterprise.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50The British would never have described themselves as having
0:33:50 > 0:33:52anything as grand as an ideology.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54But they had an attitude.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58The stiff upper lip kept the whole show, and it was a show, together.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07The days of Empire might be over.
0:34:07 > 0:34:12But its legacy does live on in the 21st century.
0:34:14 > 0:34:20I'm going to see a politician, administrator and adventurer who has
0:34:20 > 0:34:24both studied and in a sense lived a version of the Imperial show.
0:34:28 > 0:34:33MP Rory Stewart was educated at Eton and Oxford and at only 30 was
0:34:33 > 0:34:37the Deputy Governor of two provinces of occupied Iraq.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44It found it one of the most satisfying, exciting jobs I've ever done.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47You get to be a knight in shining armour.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50You get to be a hero from a fairytale.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53Did you, as a child, read any Empire literature?
0:34:53 > 0:34:57Were you taken with tales of Imperial daring-do?
0:34:57 > 0:34:58Yes, definitely.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00And I think it's...it's er, very important
0:35:00 > 0:35:05because I think that sort of history created the culture
0:35:05 > 0:35:09and the unwritten rules by which you knew how to react. I mean,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12I felt, the first time I actually went out, with my compound under
0:35:12 > 0:35:16siege and the heavy machine guns are going and people are trying to crawl over the roof,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19and you feel that somehow your dreams and your early
0:35:19 > 0:35:22childhood reading have suddenly coincided with your life and you
0:35:22 > 0:35:26know exactly what to do and that's an incredibly powerful experience.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29What's clear from your accounts is, you appear to have been unflappable.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33I mean, this is classic British stiff upper lip. Was that important?
0:35:33 > 0:35:35I think incredibly important.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39I mean, when I was attacked in the compound in Iraq,
0:35:39 > 0:35:43and we'd been up, I think by that stage, for about three nights without sleep,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47there were 140 rockets and mortars come into the compound.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51I remember very, very clearly going back to my room
0:35:51 > 0:35:54and how important it was to change my shirt, to put on a tie,
0:35:54 > 0:35:58shave and come back again with a big smile on my face.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02So what does the stiff upper lip mean to you?
0:36:02 > 0:36:05I think the stiff upper lip to me
0:36:05 > 0:36:08has its main quality not in courage but in truthfulness,
0:36:09 > 0:36:13that sense of modesty, of understatement, of seriousness
0:36:13 > 0:36:17which actually made us work, which stopped us being just stiff-fronted buffoons,
0:36:17 > 0:36:23but actually made us some of the most canny, energetic, well informed,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27flexible and successful people of the 19th century.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34There's no doubt that this British attitude was critical to
0:36:34 > 0:36:37the nation's success.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43But as the Empire went from strength to strength, this national
0:36:43 > 0:36:49achievement started to be regarded as somehow racially determined.
0:36:52 > 0:36:59The Imperial mission appeared to be gaining the stamp of scientific credibility.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Anthropologists believed they'd found proof of a racial
0:37:04 > 0:37:07hierarchy, with so-called "savages" at the bottom,
0:37:07 > 0:37:10and "civilised" Anglo-Saxons at the top.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14And how did they arrive at this - to us shocking -
0:37:14 > 0:37:18and suspiciously convenient, conclusion?
0:37:20 > 0:37:21By taking a ruler to the human body!
0:37:28 > 0:37:3219th century scientists were very keen on measuring skulls,
0:37:32 > 0:37:39and this is an authentic piece of apparatus and I come out at 160mm.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43Now, if we compare that with this skull, which is that of an African.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48You see? Mine is much bigger.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51Therefore as a European I have a much bigger brain
0:37:51 > 0:37:52and I'm much cleverer.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54That's science!
0:37:54 > 0:37:58I am simplifying a bit but that was more or less the conclusion.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01And, equally scientific in the 1870s,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03was the theory that not only are native
0:38:03 > 0:38:08and colonial people's brains smaller but their characters are weaker.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12The authority for this was no less a figure than Darwin who said,
0:38:12 > 0:38:14"Englishmen rarely cry".
0:38:15 > 0:38:18He deduced this from comparing the emotional restraint of his
0:38:18 > 0:38:23fellow countrymen with the emotional incontinence of native people.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29He wrote, "Savages weep copiously from very slight causes".
0:38:29 > 0:38:33He gave the example of a native chief in New Zealand who had,
0:38:33 > 0:38:36"Cried like a child because the sailors spoilt his favourite
0:38:36 > 0:38:39"cloak by powdering it with flour."
0:38:39 > 0:38:43Nowadays we might call that a traveller's anecdote
0:38:43 > 0:38:46but in those days that was cold, scientific fact.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50In the emotional survival of the fittest,
0:38:50 > 0:38:51the British were going to win.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04Science seemed to be confirming what the British had suspected all along.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08As the great imperialist Cecil Rhodes is supposed to have said,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11"To be born an Englishman is to win
0:39:11 > 0:39:13"first prize in the lottery of life".
0:39:13 > 0:39:17The new suggestion that national success was based
0:39:17 > 0:39:22not on divine providence but a sort of racial evolution added
0:39:22 > 0:39:26a rather darker side to the triumph of the stiff upper lip.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33In the later 19th century there was a shift from Darwinism to
0:39:33 > 0:39:39what became known as neo-Darwinism or sometimes ultra-Darwinism and, if you like,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43it hardened the scientific racism of the time.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45And you find in writers like Francis Galton,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49the founding father of eugenics, this view that it was
0:39:49 > 0:39:53unfortunate but other races, almost certainly because of their physical,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56emotional and moral weakness, would become extinct gradually
0:39:56 > 0:39:57because of the great superiority
0:39:57 > 0:40:00of the white races that were settling all around the world
0:40:00 > 0:40:02and this was unfortunate but inevitable.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18Whilst across the globe the white man seemed to be forging ahead,
0:40:18 > 0:40:23closer to home it appeared that the Anglo-Saxon race was under threat from within.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29The underbelly of Britain's industrial slums.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36Glasgow was grandly known as the Empire's second city.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42But there were worries about the degenerate stock of its poorest elements,
0:40:42 > 0:40:46and this was a time when Britain needed them to be on side.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56The unfortunate truth was that Britain had taught other nations
0:40:56 > 0:40:58to play up and play the game -
0:40:58 > 0:41:00and now they were vying to beat her at it.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06Germany - all Prussian rigour and awesomely synchronised callisthenics -
0:41:06 > 0:41:09was becoming a military player with real steel.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13And America's can-do spirit and clean-cut zeal
0:41:13 > 0:41:16mirrored its accelerating economic pace.
0:41:19 > 0:41:20It was all a bit worrying.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28If Great Britain wanted to remain top of the league
0:41:28 > 0:41:31and to stay ahead of the serious international competition
0:41:31 > 0:41:37then it desperately needed to improve the quality of its next generation of players.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41The physical and moral health of the urban poor -
0:41:41 > 0:41:45particularly that of adolescents - was considered to be so bad
0:41:45 > 0:41:48as to be endangering the whole national enterprise.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50The raw material just wasn't good enough.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53It needed to be knocked into shape.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58But neither the boys' hard-pressed families nor their basic schools
0:41:58 > 0:42:02nor their uninviting churches were doing the job.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05So what could be done with them?
0:42:06 > 0:42:08TRUMPETS PLAYS
0:42:13 > 0:42:14The solution was obvious -
0:42:14 > 0:42:17the instilment of military discipline,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19moral fibre...
0:42:19 > 0:42:21and a lot of jolly good fun.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Company, fall in.
0:42:26 > 0:42:31Everyone's heard of its more famous cousin, the Boy Scouts established in 1907,
0:42:31 > 0:42:34but 24 years earlier in Glasgow,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39Sunday School teacher, William Smith founded this pioneering group...
0:42:39 > 0:42:40God, our Father...
0:42:40 > 0:42:41..the Boys' Brigade.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49This is 5th Company of Boys' Brigade in Glasgow.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Going strong, since 1885.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02The Boys' Brigade had what was in every sense a mission statement -
0:43:02 > 0:43:05"The advancement of Christ's Kingdom amongst boys,
0:43:05 > 0:43:10"and the promotion of habits of reverence, discipline, self-respect
0:43:10 > 0:43:14"and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness."
0:43:16 > 0:43:21It's the perfect expression of classic Victorian muscular Christianity,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25but this time geared towards the working classes.
0:43:34 > 0:43:40Just like at the public schools before them, misbehaviour was to be averted by a heady dose
0:43:40 > 0:43:45of God and games - fresh air and fair play.
0:43:48 > 0:43:53In 1891 the Brigade's honorary Vice President, Henry Drummond,
0:43:53 > 0:43:59issued every member with an inspirational present.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04This is a special Christmas story that Drummond wrote called
0:44:04 > 0:44:08Baxter's Second Innings, and of course it's about cricket
0:44:08 > 0:44:11or rather it's ostensibly about cricket.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15In fact it's the captain of the cricket team giving a lecture to a boy, Baxter,
0:44:15 > 0:44:20about the great game of life and it's an extended allegory.
0:44:20 > 0:44:26So he tells him that the bowler is temptation throwing sneaky balls at you and you as a boy have
0:44:26 > 0:44:31to guard your wicket with the three stumps of truth, honour and purity.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35He says, "I tell you it's all written down."
0:44:35 > 0:44:39"Where?" "On the scoring-sheet." "What scoring-sheet?"
0:44:39 > 0:44:42"Your scoring-sheet. Your character."
0:44:42 > 0:44:44"Oh," groaned Baxter.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48"Yes," exclaimed the Captain, almost mercilessly, "it's all there,
0:44:48 > 0:44:53"every innings you play and every run you make and every ball you miss.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56"There's not a mistake on that sheet, not an omission.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59"Character cannot lie. Character cannot be taken in.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01"Character hides nothing.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03"It forgets nothing"
0:45:06 > 0:45:11It may seem absurd, a bit contrived, but the boys loved it!
0:45:21 > 0:45:25So what does it feel like wearing the uniform?
0:45:25 > 0:45:28It feels really good because you feel proud,
0:45:28 > 0:45:30that you're a part of something, like community.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35I feel really proud and good in it.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38How much religion is there?
0:45:40 > 0:45:42- There's a lot-ish.- Yeah? A lot-ish?
0:45:42 > 0:45:44- Yeah, a lot-ish. - IAN LAUGHS
0:45:45 > 0:45:51Do you think it's keeping you in check or would you run wild,
0:45:51 > 0:45:53if you weren't here?
0:45:53 > 0:45:55Possibly! Yeah.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58So what does this give you? Somewhere to go?
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Yes, so where to go, something to do, people to be with.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18The Boys' Brigade was a huge success partly because it allowed all
0:46:18 > 0:46:24classes and all backgrounds to share in the idealised national identity.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29The stiff upper lip was in a sense being mass-produced.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31Drummond himself, uses the word "machinery"
0:46:31 > 0:46:35to describe the new movement which was designed for
0:46:35 > 0:46:39"turning out boys rather than savages".
0:46:39 > 0:46:45Yet as the century neared its end, alongside concern about the poverty and the squalor and ugliness
0:46:45 > 0:46:50of the cities, there were stirrings of criticism for this homogenised,
0:46:50 > 0:46:53industrial approach to character building,
0:46:53 > 0:47:00as though it was a process that could be managed, like forging steel or constructing ships.
0:47:00 > 0:47:05Was the spirit of the age crushing the human spirit?
0:47:08 > 0:47:11Some people thought the answer was a passionate "Yes!"
0:47:13 > 0:47:17Towards the end of the century, there were cries of dissent
0:47:17 > 0:47:20against the dehumanising effect of Victorian culture.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26They came first from a group of artists, designers and writers.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33The Aesthetic Movement - as they became known -
0:47:33 > 0:47:39thought human potential could best be developed through art.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42They thought the beauty of a bridge
0:47:42 > 0:47:44was more important than its function
0:47:44 > 0:47:47and they celebrated uniqueness over conformity.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55Their self-appointed spokesman and pin-up and was Oscar Wilde,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59with his flamboyant attire and hedonistic lifestyle.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Wilde described Oxford, where he studied,
0:48:05 > 0:48:07as "the most beautiful thing in England".
0:48:09 > 0:48:11No small praise, because for Wilde,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15nothing could possibly be more important than beauty.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26Looking out over the dreaming spires you can see why Oscar Wilde
0:48:26 > 0:48:30and his fellow Aesthetes became fixated by beauty.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34They were inspired by the work of an Oxford don, Walter Pater,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38who wrote that the key to success in life was "to burn always
0:48:38 > 0:48:43"with this hard gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy".
0:48:43 > 0:48:49For these intellectuals, emotions were not to be suppressed, rather they were the key
0:48:49 > 0:48:53to fulfilment, perhaps the very point of existence itself.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56Nothing could be further from the stiff upper lip!
0:48:57 > 0:48:59The funny thing is that with the cult of beauty that came with
0:48:59 > 0:49:04the Aesthetic Movement, we went back to a large extent
0:49:04 > 0:49:06to the origins of this cult of beauty,
0:49:06 > 0:49:07which was the Romantic Movement,
0:49:07 > 0:49:13which was, obviously, the cult of the emotions, the cult of pathos.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16A world where pathetic didn't mean awful and bad.
0:49:16 > 0:49:22In fact, quite a useful little example there, semantically speaking,
0:49:22 > 0:49:27what other language in the world uses pathetic as a term of abuse.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33Pathos is the feeling that we all cultivate in order to show
0:49:33 > 0:49:36that we're human beings, but the Victorians repressed it.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43The assault on the emotionally restrained establishment
0:49:43 > 0:49:46came not only from arty types,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48it had many champions
0:49:48 > 0:49:50and pursued many shocking new causes...
0:49:52 > 0:49:55At the same time, disturbing continental mood-swings
0:49:55 > 0:49:57were finding their way across the Channel -
0:49:57 > 0:50:01a whole troublesome cocktail of fin de siecle anxieties.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04The turbulence would culminate
0:50:04 > 0:50:08with Freud exposing the strange, unconscious world of the self.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14Even the most sturdy and resolute Englishman might understandably have been overcome.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23One disaffected intellectual,
0:50:23 > 0:50:28who nonetheless understood the deeply conservative nature of the English character,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30was the writer EM Forster.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38In later life, he became a national institution,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41but as a homosexual, writing in Edwardian England,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45Forster's most intense feelings were outlawed by society.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52Perhaps understandably he harboured a desire for a more emotionally open way of life
0:50:52 > 0:50:56and he urged his readers to communicate as human beings.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01His epigraph to the novel Howard's End,
0:51:01 > 0:51:06published in 1910, sums it up with the words, "Only Connect."
0:51:10 > 0:51:13Forster had been to public school, an experience he hated.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16He wrote in later life in an essay on the English character
0:51:16 > 0:51:19that the educational system was adept at producing
0:51:19 > 0:51:24"Englishmen with well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds
0:51:24 > 0:51:26"and undeveloped hearts."
0:51:26 > 0:51:31Forster didn't believe the English were innately unfeeling - it was just that they had been
0:51:31 > 0:51:35taught to, as he put it, "bottle up their emotions."
0:51:37 > 0:51:41And it was this entrenched self-control that Forster saw
0:51:41 > 0:51:45as not only limiting for the individual but also extremely dangerous.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51In his 1907 novel The Longest Journey,
0:51:51 > 0:51:54the hero Rickie, who is being bullied at public school,
0:51:54 > 0:51:59urges a girl whose fiance has just been killed to express her feelings, to "mind".
0:52:01 > 0:52:06"It's the worst thing that can ever happen to you in all your life, and you've got to mind it -
0:52:06 > 0:52:08"you've got to mind it."
0:52:08 > 0:52:11"They'll come saying, 'Bear up, trust to time.'
0:52:11 > 0:52:14"No, no - they're wrong. Mind it."
0:52:17 > 0:52:21These ripples of opposition to the stiff upper lip may have
0:52:21 > 0:52:25begun as a rarefied intellectual critique of establishment values,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28but a decade or so into the 20th century
0:52:28 > 0:52:30they were rapidly gaining momentum.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35And they might have developed into a great wave of dissent
0:52:35 > 0:52:39had not something happened, which would halt the advancing tide.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54In 1914 thousands of young men,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56fresh from the playing fields of Great Britain
0:52:56 > 0:52:59had to prove their mettle on the battlefields of France.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Many hoped they could live up to the soldier heroes
0:53:05 > 0:53:08ingrained in their consciousness.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12And the press fuelled this patriotic resolve.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16An article in The Times to all officers advised,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19"Keep men by you with a stiff upper lip when you're facing
0:53:19 > 0:53:24"the finish, and when nothing remains but the honour of the regiment."
0:53:26 > 0:53:29And resolve was never more necessary than at the front
0:53:29 > 0:53:31when rallying men to go "over the top".
0:53:43 > 0:53:47At 7.30am on 1st July 1916,
0:53:47 > 0:53:51the 8th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment were in their trenches
0:53:51 > 0:53:56here near Carnoy, waiting for the whistle to go over the top
0:53:56 > 0:54:00and attack German positions in the town of Montauban, over there.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03It was the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08The commander of B Company,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12a former public school head prefect and hero of the sports field, Captain Billy Nevill,
0:54:12 > 0:54:18had brought with him his choice of secret weapons - footballs.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22This is one of those very footballs.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26The lettering has rubbed off but one of the balls originally said
0:54:26 > 0:54:34"The Great European Cup - The Final - E Surreys v Bavarians. Kick-off at Zero."
0:54:36 > 0:54:39Captain Nevill kicked one of the balls
0:54:39 > 0:54:42out into no-man's land as the signal to advance.
0:54:42 > 0:54:48A Private Fursey kicked another and the men charged after.
0:54:48 > 0:54:55There was a prize for whichever platoon managed to dribble the ball over enemy lines first.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58They were quite literally treating war as a game.
0:55:05 > 0:55:10To us it seems ludicrous, but to Nevill the football was
0:55:10 > 0:55:14a standard, a rallying point for the troops,
0:55:14 > 0:55:20something familiar and inspiring amidst the noise and the horror and in a sense, it worked.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24They took the village and the German lines.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Incredibly the football survived.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29Captain Nevill didn't.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47Captain Nevill and Private Fursey were killed in the attack,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50along with 145 men from their battalion.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56And it didn't take long for news of the fatal game to reach the public back home.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03The Daily Mail published a verse in tribute on the 12th July...
0:56:05 > 0:56:09"On through the hail of slaughter, Where gallant comrades fall,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13"Where blood is poured like water, They drive the trickling ball,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17"The fear of death before them, Is but an empty name
0:56:17 > 0:56:20"True to the land that bore them, The Surreys play the game."
0:56:23 > 0:56:26It's terrible, but it's terribly moving.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31And you can't stand here without feeling the loss of these young men, the loss of innocence,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34the loss of a certain kind of idealism.
0:56:34 > 0:56:39This poem written back at home safe in England with its jolly,
0:56:39 > 0:56:44jingoistic tone shows that they had no idea of the scale
0:56:44 > 0:56:47of what was happening where Nevill and the Surreys were fighting,
0:56:47 > 0:56:53no idea of the horror, the waste, the volume of death, that was occurring on the Somme.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09Nearly 20,000 British men died on that first day of the Somme alone.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16This stands as the worst loss of life in one day in the history of the British Army.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26It's really hard - in a place like this -
0:57:26 > 0:57:29to know what to think about the stiff upper lip.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34It's difficult not to admire those who adopted it,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37but easy to feel angry at its consequences.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43What had helped us build an Empire had also, perhaps, allowed us
0:57:43 > 0:57:47to sleepwalk into a national catastrophe and keep on walking.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53Surely this was the point that something in the ideal
0:57:53 > 0:57:55of the British character had to change.
0:57:58 > 0:58:03I feel that the First World War proved that the stiff upper lip came with a price.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06Never again was there the same confidence,
0:58:06 > 0:58:11the same swagger about that form of Britishness.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14There was still resistance, fortitude, resilience,
0:58:14 > 0:58:20an ability to survive but it was no longer accompanied by enthusiasm,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24optimism, delight, confidence, swagger, all that...
0:58:24 > 0:58:25all that had gone.
0:58:33 > 0:58:37So was this the end of the stiff upper lip
0:58:37 > 0:58:43or would it prove more resilient and more adaptable than that?
0:58:44 > 0:58:46Can you hold on?
0:58:46 > 0:58:48EXPLOSION
0:58:48 > 0:58:51Next week we keep calm, and carry on.
0:58:53 > 0:58:55Control. Control?
0:59:18 > 0:59:22Subtitles by Red Bee Media