0:00:04 > 0:00:08In the summer of 2012, millions of people, including me,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10stood by the Thames in the teeming rain
0:00:10 > 0:00:13to watch the Diamond Jubilee Pageant.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16An unmistakeably British and rather odd event.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24No-one witnessing the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
0:00:24 > 0:00:26standing for five and a half hours
0:00:26 > 0:00:31in a howling gale, or watching the choir sing on as the mascara ran
0:00:31 > 0:00:36and hypothermia followed, wouldn't ponder whether, for better or worse,
0:00:36 > 0:00:42the stiff upper lip still plays some part in our national story.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Actually, I hadn't expected to be quite so struck by that afternoon.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53The weather in Britain
0:00:53 > 0:00:58does traditionally bring out a sort of stirring, sodden stoicism.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02But is this famed national characteristic really just
0:01:02 > 0:01:05fit for putting in historical pageants?
0:01:05 > 0:01:09After all, since its Victorian heyday, over the last 100 years,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12Britain has become more and more self-conscious,
0:01:12 > 0:01:17and more and more self-critical about the value of its stiff upper lip.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23When the battle-weary and damaged troops
0:01:23 > 0:01:27returned from the World War One trenches, leaving nearly
0:01:27 > 0:01:31a million British dead, it seemed the stiff upper lip was finished.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33The imperial swagger gone for good.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39But, since then, we've been nonchalant.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41We've been steadfast.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45And, in more recent times, we've let it all out.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48And out even more.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55There's no question that in our times, the stiff upper lip has taken one hell of a battering.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00It's wobbled and it's crumbled. But is it now history?
0:02:00 > 0:02:05Or does its history suggest that we may still find some use for it?
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Believe it or not, there was a time
0:02:29 > 0:02:33when the British Prime Minister didn't come from Eton and Oxford.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35It was Harrow and Cambridge.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41And in 1926, Stanley Baldwin faced a crisis.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45But pipe as ever in hand, he appealed to the British
0:02:45 > 0:02:48character to see us through a favourite theme of his.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54'As a nation, we have a curious sense of humour,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59'and the more difficult times are, the more cheerful we become.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02'We have staying power, we are not rattled.'
0:03:05 > 0:03:11Baldwin often spoke of the value of this sense of national sang-froid.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Only a few years earlier, he'd described it as "absence of worry",
0:03:14 > 0:03:19an innate ability to remain "serene in difficulties".
0:03:19 > 0:03:25So, in 1926, he took to the airwaves, urging Britons again
0:03:25 > 0:03:28to display their characteristic resolve.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31He said, "Let all good citizens
0:03:31 > 0:03:34"bear with fortitude and patience
0:03:34 > 0:03:40"the hardships with which they have been so suddenly confronted."
0:03:40 > 0:03:44So what was this severe test of the national character?
0:03:46 > 0:03:49'This is London calling the British Isles. Crisis!
0:03:49 > 0:03:52'We regret to have to announce
0:03:52 > 0:03:57'that a general strike will begin tomorrow at midnight.'
0:03:58 > 0:04:00On 4th May 1926, more than two million
0:04:00 > 0:04:04factory workers, train drivers and dockers downed tools
0:04:04 > 0:04:07and the country was brought to a standstill.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12They had walked out in solidarity
0:04:12 > 0:04:14with Britain's one million coal miners,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17whose wages were being cut while their hours were being extended.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24But although the General Strike was,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and remains, the most widespread and most serious labour crisis
0:04:28 > 0:04:29Britain has ever faced, it was also,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32on all sides, a very British affair.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39People responded to calls by people like Baldwin to...
0:04:39 > 0:04:41hold tight, to hold firm.
0:04:41 > 0:04:47The British people retained the sense that we have a parliamentary
0:04:47 > 0:04:51democracy, that we comport ourselves
0:04:51 > 0:04:53in a particular restrained way,
0:04:53 > 0:04:58and that this is actually a real positive thing for Britons.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07On one side were the middle and upper classes, many of whom
0:05:07 > 0:05:08rolled up their sleeves
0:05:08 > 0:05:10and pitched in to keep the country going.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22I've got a page here of the special Strike Edition
0:05:22 > 0:05:25of the society magazine Tatler.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27And the headline reads, "Were we downhearted?
0:05:27 > 0:05:30"The answer is in the negative."
0:05:30 > 0:05:33And instead of the usual pictures of debutantes' dresses
0:05:33 > 0:05:36and May Balls and court functions, it's quite different.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Here we have Captain Peebles Chaplin bringing out the coal,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45and the Honourable Mrs Guy Westmacott, in pearls, serving tea
0:05:45 > 0:05:50in the Scotland Yard canteen, from what looks like a giant silver urn.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53The upper classes were knuckling down together,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57doing their bit, and it was all "great fun".
0:06:03 > 0:06:05But beneath this light-hearted veneer,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08the establishment was also frightened.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16What if those on the other side, the three million strikers,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19didn't behave with British dignity and decency?
0:06:20 > 0:06:24What if they became enthusiastic, hotheaded,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28frenzied, like their European counterparts?
0:06:32 > 0:06:36In recent years, continental Europe had witnessed a wave of
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Communist revolution, flooding out from Russia,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42into Germany and Hungary.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Then there was Fascism in Italy,
0:06:44 > 0:06:45an independent Ireland.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Indeed, trouble just about everywhere.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52And perhaps the General Strike
0:06:52 > 0:06:54was signalling that all this
0:06:54 > 0:06:55foreign radicalism
0:06:55 > 0:06:57was now heading our way.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02In preparation, the authorities stationed
0:07:02 > 0:07:0480,000 troops around the country.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10So was Britain on what Baldwin dubbed The Road to Anarchy?
0:07:13 > 0:07:14Not entirely.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18A story was told about a French journalist who was
0:07:18 > 0:07:22sent across the Channel to cover the "English Revolution."
0:07:22 > 0:07:27When he got here, he found himself reporting not on a popular insurrection,
0:07:27 > 0:07:31but on a football match between strikers and the police.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34"You English are not a serious people,"
0:07:34 > 0:07:39he's said to have shouted in disgust, before heading straight back to France.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42The tale of the disillusioned
0:07:42 > 0:07:44French journalist may be apocryphal,
0:07:44 > 0:07:45but the football match
0:07:45 > 0:07:48did take place, in Plymouth.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52The Chief Constable's wife kicked off, it was a close-fought game,
0:07:52 > 0:07:56and the strikers eventually beat the police 2-1.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Despite the strikers' very real grievances, somehow,
0:08:04 > 0:08:09the spirit of British fair play tempered disorder and militancy.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15Nine days into the strike, King George V noted in his diary,
0:08:15 > 0:08:17"Our old country can well be proud of itself.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22"not a shot has been fired and no-one killed.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24"It shows what a wonderful people we are."
0:08:25 > 0:08:29Their point made, but their demands unmet,
0:08:29 > 0:08:31most strikers soon returned to work.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38But the miners, all one million of them, stayed out.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46And among them were the men
0:08:46 > 0:08:48of the Lewis Merthyr Colliery in South Wales.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Now three months into their strike, with food running short
0:08:54 > 0:08:56and prospects bleak,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58this whole community took to the streets together.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02But it wasn't to demonstrate.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09It was to stage a carnival.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21Ivor England's father was one of the striking miners who joined the parade.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28I'm amazed that the men, they had collars and ties on, they had their
0:09:28 > 0:09:32flat caps on, they had a laughter in them, didn't they? A humour in them.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36My father, my grandfather, told me people dressed up as all kinds of things.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40There were gorillas, and there were tramps,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43there were horses, with people boxing on the back of them.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Even the police seemed to enjoy it, you know!
0:09:47 > 0:09:49My father dressed up as a child!
0:09:52 > 0:09:53Ivor's father, Will,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55is seen here on the right,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58dressed up in his child's sailor suit.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Why did they think they could survive anything?
0:10:04 > 0:10:08I think it was because of their character, that strength was there.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13And I think that strength is endemic in places like this.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20Regardless of their resilience and their grit,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23the miners' efforts ultimately failed.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27After six months, desperate for a wage,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29they were forced to return to the pits.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34There is still an argument about whether a more militant approach
0:10:34 > 0:10:37would have served them better.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41But whilst the stiff upper lip might have helped hold Britain
0:10:41 > 0:10:45back from all-out revolution, it was no longer
0:10:45 > 0:10:48an unquestioning expression of a set of shared values.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55In the 1920s, the unifying national stoicism of the war years,
0:10:55 > 0:10:59the all-in-it-together, had been split into conflicting class variants,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03setting versions of endurance and doggedness
0:11:03 > 0:11:07against each other, rather than working in a common cause.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Yet the huge problems of the coming decade would demand a more
0:11:10 > 0:11:13coherent national persona.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17The British stiff upper lip would have to be refashioned,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20reintegrated, reaffirmed.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29The 1930s saw the Great Depression spread across the globe.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34The fervent rise of Nazism in Germany,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37with Britain in a quandary how to respond.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44And across the Empire, discontent growing at British rule.
0:11:52 > 0:11:53But, in response,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56instead of stiffening before the many challenges,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Britain arguably loosened up and tried to have a good time.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05# Stiff upper lip, stout fellow
0:12:05 > 0:12:08# Carry on, old bean
0:12:08 > 0:12:12# Chin up, keep muddlin' through... #
0:12:12 > 0:12:14The national character in the 1930s
0:12:14 > 0:12:16did shift in subtle ways,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20to become a bit more gentle, a bit more domesticated,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22inward-looking, and also more humorous.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28And that was when Gershwin wrote his song about the stiff upper lip,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32and it became an international symbol of a slightly silly Englishman
0:12:32 > 0:12:36who couldn't express his feelings, but wanted to rule an empire.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38# ..Sober or blotto
0:12:38 > 0:12:39# This is our motto
0:12:39 > 0:12:42# Keep muddlin' through. #
0:12:56 > 0:12:58It wasn't just foreigners like Gershwin
0:12:58 > 0:13:01who saw the increasingly anachronistic side
0:13:01 > 0:13:04to British national identity as something to laugh at.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10This is Canterbury, home to the British Cartoon Archive.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24In April 1934, a 25-year-old cartoonist, Graham Laidler,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27who worked for Punch magazine under the pen name Pont,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31began a series he called The British Character.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34It was a huge success.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41This is the first cartoon in a series of about 100 drawings.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46It's called Adaptability to Foreign Conditions.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50The joke being that they haven't adapted in the slightest.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53There are four Brits abroad playing Bridge
0:13:53 > 0:13:56in the middle of the African jungle.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58The three gentlemen are in black tie, obviously,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01dressed for dinner, and the lady is in hat and jewellery.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04And the detail of the picture is absolutely fantastic.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06If you look closely outside the tent,
0:14:06 > 0:14:11there's a toothbrush in a little pot and there's a welcome mat
0:14:11 > 0:14:13at the opening of the tent.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16And they are maintaining this show.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20And the most extraordinary thing is the look on the men's faces,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23almost as though they hadn't noticed that they were abroad.
0:14:23 > 0:14:24And it's just Bridge as usual.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Of course, by the mid-1930s, as Pont is deftly revealing here,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39confidence in Britain's global standing had begun to wobble.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45This spectacle was becoming less convincing,
0:14:45 > 0:14:50the illusion of power is actually quite fragile,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52and the characters are more fallible.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54And, of course, that's why it's so funny.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Like Britain itself in the era of Appeasement,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Pont's British characters seem oblivious to events.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14But is it admirable or wrong-headed
0:15:14 > 0:15:17to carry on regardless when the ship may be sinking?
0:15:28 > 0:15:30This was published in 1938.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32"The British Character.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34"Ability to be Ruthless."
0:15:34 > 0:15:37And it shows two parents taking back a very sad
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and worried-looking small boy to boarding school.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43And they're keeping their distance away from him,
0:15:43 > 0:15:45showing no emotion at all.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50A very resonant cartoon for those of us who went off to boarding school.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The question unwritten is, well, the boy doesn't want to
0:15:54 > 0:15:58go back to school, but he must go, and it didn't do me any harm.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And I'm sure it's up in a number of therapists' waiting rooms.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Pont's work struck such a chord with his readers that he received
0:16:12 > 0:16:14torrents of fan mail,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18including lots of suggestions for future cartoons.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28This is a letter from Margaret George.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31And she said, "When this snapshot was developed, it was so like
0:16:31 > 0:16:34"your British Character series of drawings that we felt we should
0:16:34 > 0:16:39"send it to you. We call it The Tendency to Picnic in All Weathers."
0:16:40 > 0:16:42And there's Margaret and her friend
0:16:42 > 0:16:45resolutely having a good time.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Only a couple of months later, this cartoon appeared in Punch,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53called The Picnickers.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58And there they are in the driving rain, trying to enjoy themselves.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Is it life imitating art, art imitating life, or both?
0:17:11 > 0:17:13A wartime air raid.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Panic, as civilians run for their lives.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22'Go home! Go home! Get out of the square!
0:17:23 > 0:17:25'Get out of the streets! Go home!
0:17:25 > 0:17:26'Get out of the streets!'
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Not much evidence of keeping calm in a crisis here.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41But this is fiction.
0:17:44 > 0:17:50This terrifying footage is taken from the 1936 film Things to Come,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54written by HG Wells, adapted from one of his own novels.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59An unnamed enemy is attacking an unnamed English city.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05But everyone who saw the film knew perfectly well
0:18:05 > 0:18:09that the city was London and the enemy were the Germans.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16It wasn't just Wells who thought in the face of enemy attack,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18Britons would go to pieces.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22In April 1939, the government received
0:18:22 > 0:18:25a report from a specially commissioned team of psychiatrists.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30They warned that air attacks on the Home Front could create
0:18:30 > 0:18:34three times as many mental casualties as physical ones,
0:18:34 > 0:18:39thus swamping their institutions with millions of psychiatric cases.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42One director of an Institute said he would be unable to deal with,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47"more than a few teaspoonfuls of the casualties that would undoubtedly occur"
0:18:47 > 0:18:51The truth was that no-one really knew what would happen
0:18:51 > 0:18:53until the bombs began to fall for real.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10The Imperial War Museum holds evidence of how the government
0:19:10 > 0:19:13tried to prepare Britons for the worst.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19As Baldwin had urged earlier, they were encouraged once again
0:19:19 > 0:19:24to draw on that invaluable national resource, themselves.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27At the very beginning of the war,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29the Ministry of Information concluded
0:19:29 > 0:19:34that the way to avoid civil chaos was to put up some posters.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36And this is the first one, it says, "Your courage.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40"Your cheerfulness. Your resolution will bring us victory."
0:19:41 > 0:19:44Now, I can't imagine a lot of German propaganda posters of the time
0:19:44 > 0:19:45emphasising cheerfulness.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50This is the second poster that went out
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and this one's rather more strident.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54"Freedom is in peril.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56"Defend it with all your might."
0:19:56 > 0:19:58And the third in the series
0:19:58 > 0:20:00is the best known of all.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03"Keep calm and carry on."
0:20:03 > 0:20:07We don't know who came up with this incredibly snappy, alliterative
0:20:07 > 0:20:11distillation of hundreds of years of British sang-froid, but it was
0:20:11 > 0:20:15so catchy and has become so popular that it's now everywhere.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21What's less well known is that this poster was never used.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25It was to be deployed only in the eventuality of a catastrophic
0:20:25 > 0:20:29air strike, or the invasion of Britain itself.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39On 7th September 1940, the Blitz began for real.
0:20:42 > 0:20:43So how did Britons cope?
0:20:47 > 0:20:49The nightly siege of London has begun.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54Here they come.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Certainly, audiences both here and abroad were presented with
0:21:02 > 0:21:04a portrait of a nation unflappable under fire.
0:21:09 > 0:21:10'Never in history has an entire people
0:21:10 > 0:21:13'borne so frightful an ordeal so bravely.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16'Yes, England can take it!'
0:21:21 > 0:21:26The propaganda machine was all about the Stiff Upper Lip.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33There is a wonderful film called Fires Were Started where this woman
0:21:33 > 0:21:35is on the telephone, and all of a sudden, a bomb drops
0:21:35 > 0:21:38just behind her, and she dives under the table.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Then just a second later, you see her crawling out
0:21:41 > 0:21:42and she carries on doing her business.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Oh, yes, I'm sorry for the interruption,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47we have another message for you...
0:21:47 > 0:21:50But, of course, these images of resilient Londoners
0:21:50 > 0:21:52can't be taken entirely at face value.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59This is a photograph from October 1940,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02showing the morning after a German bombing raid.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05It became one of the most iconic images of the entire war
0:22:05 > 0:22:07and you can see why.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11The message is absolutely clear.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Whatever the Luftwaffe can throw at Britain, it will pick itself up,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18dust itself down, and carry on as normal.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20And, in fact, better than normal.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24There's a defiant jauntiness to the milkman in the picture,
0:22:24 > 0:22:26the angle of the arm, the smile on his face
0:22:26 > 0:22:28as he strides over the rubble.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30But it isn't a milkman.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33It's the photographer's assistant.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38He's borrowed the coat and he's using the bottles as a prop.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40Now, the firemen in the background are real,
0:22:40 > 0:22:44they are putting out a fire, they are carrying on as normal.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49But the photo itself, the image, is a curious mixture of fact
0:22:49 > 0:22:52and fiction, of the truth and propaganda.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00What was increasingly important was that these constructed images
0:23:00 > 0:23:04of the cheery milkman, or the plucky telephonist, were inspiring.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08They embodied a version of themselves
0:23:08 > 0:23:10with which Britons were proud to identify.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16And this encouraged them to live up to their own ideal.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25This is Walworth, South London.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30It's a neighbourhood which suffered heavy bombing.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37At the start of the Blitz, the crypt of St Peter's Church
0:23:37 > 0:23:41had been turned into a public air raid shelter.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51On October 29th 1940,
0:23:51 > 0:23:5518-year-old George Parsons had decided to remain at home nearby.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01It was a heavy night, heavy raid.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Then my elder brother came running through the house.
0:24:03 > 0:24:10He said, "The church has been hit and Mum's down there."
0:24:11 > 0:24:16And my father, who was already here, they allowed him to go to the crypt.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20And he just came back to us and he said,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24"I'm afraid Mother's been killed. She's died."
0:24:25 > 0:24:29But my sister was all right, she survived.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32And how did your father react?
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Badly.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39As we did ourselves, very bad.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43We'd lost the kingpin of the family.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Yes. It was terrible.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49But it was just a case of carrying on as normal.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52And how did you manage to do that?
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Well, we just have to get on with life.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59And you've got to go to work, you've got to live.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03So we just carried on night after night, and morning after morning.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09And did everybody feel that this was somehow what the British did?
0:25:09 > 0:25:12Yes, exactly.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17- How you behaved. - This was the British all over.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Yes, that is what we did think, that way.
0:25:22 > 0:25:2667 people were killed that night at the church -
0:25:26 > 0:25:30among 67,000 British civilians who lost their lives during the War.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39But despite such heavy losses,
0:25:39 > 0:25:44the psychiatrists' pre-war fears of mass hysteria never materialised.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Trying, however, to untangle the truth from the legends
0:25:53 > 0:25:56surrounding the Blitz spirit remains a challenge.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04Wartime propaganda portrayed Britons as fearless, unflinching,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06and carrying on regardless.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Revisionists now want us to believe this was all a myth,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12covering up much less heroic behaviour,
0:26:12 > 0:26:17profiteering, looting - the kind of thing which DID go on.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22I think it would have been astonishing
0:26:22 > 0:26:24if everybody at the time had behaved
0:26:24 > 0:26:28as if they were in a Noel Coward film or a Pathe newsreel.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31The fact remains, and this is not just nostalgia,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34that under extreme circumstances,
0:26:34 > 0:26:39the majority of the blitzed population behaved admirably.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43In the Second World War, huge numbers of people gained strength
0:26:43 > 0:26:47from the idea of the stiff upper lip as a national characteristic
0:26:47 > 0:26:51and it served them, and ultimately us, pretty well.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02In the immediate post-war period -
0:27:02 > 0:27:05a time of rebuilding, rationing and austerity -
0:27:05 > 0:27:09the authorities still expected Britons to maintain a stoic front.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15In this climate, grumbles, anxieties and fears
0:27:15 > 0:27:18were all to be kept firmly inside.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24But in the 1950s, as prosperity increased,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27and a new consumer-driven culture started to develop,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31tensions began to emerge.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35And there were signs that the "battened down" approach of the past
0:27:35 > 0:27:39might be out of step with the impulses of the modern age.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46'Sorry, just a little interruption. Can we hold it for a minute, please?
0:27:46 > 0:27:49'Hello there. How are you? We've got a special message for somebody,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53'and it's for you, Anna Neagle, because This Is Your Life.'
0:27:53 > 0:27:55This Is Your Life was a new television format,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58imported from the United States,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01and broadcast live into millions of British homes.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we bring you the story
0:28:06 > 0:28:09of the First Lady of the British screen.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13In February 1958, overwhelmed by the emotion of it all,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17actress Anna Neagle was reduced to tears.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20Surely, understandable behaviour?
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Well, no, not in the 1950s.
0:28:25 > 0:28:26Now, the moving story...
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Today, a TV celebrity choking back the tears
0:28:29 > 0:28:32is what every TV director seems to want.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35But then, the British press was scathing.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40The Daily Mail condemned "this revolting, maudlin mush!"
0:28:40 > 0:28:43And the presenter, Eamonn Andrews, was singled out for criticism
0:28:43 > 0:28:47for failing to rein in Anna Neagle's distress.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50The Guardian's TV critic advised him,
0:28:50 > 0:28:52when confronted with a distraught woman,
0:28:52 > 0:28:55"The only thing is to hiss some taunt
0:28:55 > 0:29:00"that will make her so cross that anger will dry her tears."
0:29:02 > 0:29:04Goodnight, Vienna opposite Jack Buchanan.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07In the ultimate insult, the Guardian remarked,
0:29:07 > 0:29:09"It's all very American."
0:29:10 > 0:29:13Now, I think we've been able to show some of the qualities
0:29:13 > 0:29:17that have not only made up Anna Neagle the star,
0:29:17 > 0:29:19but Anna Neagle the woman.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24Critics may have cringed, but this kind of television was here to stay.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27We're just... I hope you're feeling as happy as we are.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32Old boundaries were being rejected,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35as a new generation grew up in the '60s,
0:29:35 > 0:29:37awash with the luxuries of peace and prosperity,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40greater social mobility and sexual freedom.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47No wonder that the relevance of the stiff-upper-lipped approach to life
0:29:47 > 0:29:50began to be questioned.
0:29:54 > 0:29:55Perhaps surprisingly,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59it was a set of rather conservative-looking Oxbridge graduates
0:29:59 > 0:30:02who were amongst the first to put the boot in -
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15On the 10th May 1961, their controversial show
0:30:15 > 0:30:17opened at the Fortune Theatre in London.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21It was called Beyond The Fringe.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25In times of times of trouble and sorrow and hopelessness
0:30:25 > 0:30:27and despair,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30amid the hurly-burly of modern life,
0:30:30 > 0:30:33if ever you're tempted to say,
0:30:33 > 0:30:34"Oh,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36"stuff this for a lark...!"
0:30:36 > 0:30:38LAUGHTER
0:30:39 > 0:30:41The Beyond The Fringe team
0:30:41 > 0:30:44made fun of clergymen, judges, politicians,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47they even laughed at the Prime Minister.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Yet perhaps most daring of all,
0:30:50 > 0:30:52they decided that Britain's "Finest Hour"
0:30:52 > 0:30:54was a suitable subject for comedy.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57Perkins.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00- Sorry to drag you away from the fun, old boy.- That's all right, sir.
0:31:00 > 0:31:01War's not going very well, you know.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Oh, my God!
0:31:04 > 0:31:06We are two down, and the ball's in the enemy court.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08War is a psychological thing, Perkins,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10rather like a game of football.
0:31:10 > 0:31:11You know how in a game of football,
0:31:11 > 0:31:13- ten men often play better than eleven?- Yes, sir.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17- Perkins, we are asking you to be that one man.- Sir.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20Perkins, I want you to lay down your life.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22Yes, sir.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24We need a futile gesture at this stage...
0:31:24 > 0:31:26LAUGHTER
0:31:26 > 0:31:30As a small boy, I listened to the record that my parents had bought
0:31:30 > 0:31:34of this show, and thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37And as I see the Aftermyth of War sketch as I get older,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41I find it not only funny, but curiously moving.
0:31:41 > 0:31:42'Goodbye, Perkins.'
0:31:42 > 0:31:45God, I wish I was going, too.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48Goodbye, sir. Or is it "au revoir"?
0:31:48 > 0:31:49No, Perkins.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52LAUGHTER
0:31:57 > 0:32:01I asked the sketch's co-author, Alan Bennett,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05about taking a pot-shot at one of the nation's most sacred cows.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09How did the audience react to that sketch about the war?
0:32:09 > 0:32:11Well, badly.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15In the sense that occasionally, I would be hissed,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19which, because I was so pleased with myself,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22I was rather gratified by
0:32:22 > 0:32:27and felt that this was true satire and that I'd actually hit home.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31I had a pretty quiet war, really.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35I was one of the few. We were stationed down at Biggin Hill.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38One Sunday, we got word Jerry was coming in...
0:32:38 > 0:32:41'We were used to people walking out
0:32:41 > 0:32:43'because when we were on tour,'
0:32:43 > 0:32:45the tour finished at Brighton
0:32:45 > 0:32:49and Brighton couldn't stand it at all -
0:32:49 > 0:32:51the seats were going up
0:32:51 > 0:32:53like pistol shots throughout
0:32:53 > 0:32:56and...and people were outraged.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59England lay like a green carpet below me.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01The War seemed worlds away.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03'It was ripe for it, in the sense that
0:33:03 > 0:33:06'it had been the stuff of private comedy'
0:33:06 > 0:33:07before it went public.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09Until that time, nobody had thought
0:33:09 > 0:33:11that you could do it on the stage
0:33:11 > 0:33:14and, as it were, make money out of it, really.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17I remember that last weekend I'd spent there
0:33:17 > 0:33:19with Celia, that summer of '39.
0:33:19 > 0:33:20LAUGHTER
0:33:20 > 0:33:21The Queen came here to see...?
0:33:21 > 0:33:25Yes, she did. Yeah, she came and she sat in about the fourth row.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28But in those days, a royal party
0:33:28 > 0:33:32in a theatre was an absolute frost.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34It absolutely killed the audience stone dead,
0:33:34 > 0:33:36there wasn't a laugh
0:33:36 > 0:33:37from start to finish.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39She was not amused at all?
0:33:39 > 0:33:41I don't know... Nobody else was.
0:33:41 > 0:33:42If she was, I don't know.
0:33:42 > 0:33:43AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:33:43 > 0:33:47Suddenly, Jerry was coming at me out of a bank of cloud.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51I let him have it, and I think I must have got him in the wing
0:33:51 > 0:33:54because he spiralled past me out of control.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57As he did so - I'll always remember this -
0:33:57 > 0:34:00I caught a glimpse of his face.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02You know...he smiled.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04Funny thing, war.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06LAUGHTER
0:34:09 > 0:34:12This kind of satire wasn't Pont's gentle send-up
0:34:12 > 0:34:15of "the British character" of the 1930s.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18It felt more like a final curtain call
0:34:18 > 0:34:21for something whose time had definitely passed.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25So, goodbye, stiff upper lip,
0:34:25 > 0:34:26or is it "au revoir"?
0:34:37 > 0:34:39It was all very well for young Oxbridge satirists
0:34:39 > 0:34:44to smash the cut-glass understatement of their parents' generation.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48But traditional reserve and endurance
0:34:48 > 0:34:51still informed the way many ordinary people dealt with tragedy.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55What was changing, however,
0:34:55 > 0:34:58was that the line between the personal and the public
0:34:58 > 0:34:59was being eroded.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02Now we were all watching.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08And even 50 years on,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11relating for this film what happened in this community in South Wales
0:35:11 > 0:35:15in October 1966 is unsettling.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20It still feels uncomfortable, intrusive.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23REPORTER: Just after nine o'clock this morning,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26this mountain of coal slag, half a mile high
0:35:26 > 0:35:28and soaked with two days' rain,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31began to slide towards the little town of Aberfan.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41240 children were in the school.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43Within seconds, they were engulfed.
0:35:51 > 0:35:52One of those children
0:35:52 > 0:35:54was Brian Williams.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58I think it was about 9:15.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01All that I remember hearing was...
0:36:01 > 0:36:03an aeroplane coming in to land,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06and the noise getting louder and louder and louder.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10And we actually watched the classroom wall
0:36:10 > 0:36:13split from bottom to top.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17And then, for about 30 seconds,
0:36:17 > 0:36:19complete silence,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22and then, um, a lot of crying,
0:36:22 > 0:36:24a lot of screaming.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34REPORTER: Everybody now is calling for quiet.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36And we'll see if anything can be heard.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45Local people, many of them parents, mounted a rescue operation.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51Their calm, as the tragedy unfolded, seemed extraordinary.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55Every moment was captured by camera crews.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Well, I know where my son is at the moment -
0:36:59 > 0:37:03he's buried in that end classroom up there.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05And what about your other child?
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Well, she's all right, she is. My little girl is all right.
0:37:08 > 0:37:09Have you got anybody in the school?
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Yes, a little boy.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13- How old is he?- Ten.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15Do you know what's happened to him?
0:37:15 > 0:37:17No, I'm afraid he's underneath the...the rubble.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26There were 144 people killed that day -
0:37:26 > 0:37:30116 of them were children.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34The compilers of such grim statistics
0:37:34 > 0:37:38record that it was not the highest number of children's deaths
0:37:38 > 0:37:40in a single British disaster.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42In 1883, for instance,
0:37:42 > 0:37:47over 180 children were crushed to death in a theatre stairwell
0:37:47 > 0:37:51in the Victoria Hall in Sunderland, after watching a magic show.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Then, too, there were shocked reports in the newspapers.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57There were letters from Britons all round the country
0:37:57 > 0:37:59offering condolences.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01There was a memorial fund set up.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05There was a heartfelt tribute from the Queen, Queen Victoria.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07But there was no television.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11There were no victims addressing YOU directly,
0:38:11 > 0:38:17there were no reporters asking those victims to tell YOU how they felt.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19REPORTER: Standing with me here,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22we have one of the luckiest little girls in the village,
0:38:22 > 0:38:24because she was one of four children
0:38:24 > 0:38:26who escaped from her class.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29How do you feel now? Are you a bit better?
0:38:29 > 0:38:30Yes, thank you.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32Are you feeling all right now?
0:38:33 > 0:38:35What about your friends?
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Many members of the public felt reporters had gone too far...
0:38:44 > 0:38:47..and there were angry letters to The Times.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51One woman wrote complaining that reporters were parading
0:38:51 > 0:38:53the community's grief,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56even they were seeking crude entertainment.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00Huw Wheldon, who was Controller of Programmes at the BBC,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03wrote back defending the Corporation's coverage.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05"The nation wanted to know,
0:39:05 > 0:39:08"and had the right to know what was happening.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10"It wanted, even in some measure,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13"to share the storm of grief that was descending on the valley,
0:39:13 > 0:39:18"or, if there was to be any hope, to share that hope."
0:39:18 > 0:39:24Events here in Aberfan were starting a still-unfinished debate
0:39:24 > 0:39:25about media intrusion
0:39:25 > 0:39:29and about how appropriate it is for the British public
0:39:29 > 0:39:33not to stand back, but to join in someone else's grief.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43Meanwhile, for the survivors, there was little professional help
0:39:43 > 0:39:47and little clarity about whether sharing their emotions
0:39:47 > 0:39:49or keeping them in was the best way to cope.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57Brian Williams was trying to come to terms
0:39:57 > 0:39:59with the death of his elder sister, June.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04I do recall a gentleman
0:40:04 > 0:40:06coming to our house
0:40:06 > 0:40:08and my mother saying to me,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11"Brian, do you want to speak to this gentleman about..." Blah, blah, blah.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13"..about what happened?"
0:40:13 > 0:40:15And I... Basically, what I said to him was,
0:40:15 > 0:40:16"Well, can you fetch my sister back?"
0:40:16 > 0:40:18And he said, "No."
0:40:18 > 0:40:20I said, "There's nothing really
0:40:20 > 0:40:22"I can talk to you about, then."
0:40:22 > 0:40:26So I found myself, and a lot of my friends found as well,
0:40:26 > 0:40:30is that we dealt with it between each other
0:40:30 > 0:40:34and we looked after each other, and that's how we got through it.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44# O Cyrmu, O Cyrmu... #
0:40:44 > 0:40:48In 1968, encouraged by their wives,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51who'd set up their own support group,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54grieving fathers formed the Ynysowen Male Voice Choir.
0:40:57 > 0:40:59Brian Williams, like his father before him,
0:40:59 > 0:41:01is a dedicated member.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07The choir was everything then to my dad,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10so going twice a week to practice and going away
0:41:10 > 0:41:13with the boys, you know, it was everything.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16It's done so much for so many people, I think,
0:41:16 > 0:41:20kept them going, perhaps where a lot would have given up.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24Keeps the spirit alive.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33# ..O Cyrmu, O Cyrmu... #
0:41:33 > 0:41:36The choir is clearly an extraordinary vehicle
0:41:36 > 0:41:39for both emotional control and emotional release.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44It's also a testament to the fact that genuine self-help
0:41:44 > 0:41:46and a traditional strength of character
0:41:46 > 0:41:49have enabled this community to survive.
0:41:59 > 0:42:06MUSIC: "Love To Love You, Baby" by Donna Summer
0:42:06 > 0:42:09Across the world, in California,
0:42:09 > 0:42:13they were putting a whole new spin on feelings.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15And we were watching with interest.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23Because by the early '70s, repression was on the way out
0:42:23 > 0:42:25and self-expression coming in.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Opening up, letting out, sharing!
0:42:31 > 0:42:34At retreats like this, California's Esalan Institute,
0:42:34 > 0:42:38psychotherapists were instructing thousands of eager visitors
0:42:38 > 0:42:41that the way to live a more happy and contented life
0:42:41 > 0:42:44was to be honest about your emotions.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50As this British documentary revealed,
0:42:50 > 0:42:54we were mesmerised by this new panacea, a good hug.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01'At Esalan, they believe that one day, this sort of thing will be
0:43:01 > 0:43:03'a regular feature of our daily life.'
0:43:05 > 0:43:09That wasn't, yet, the case back in Britain.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11But it wouldn't be long.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15And one of the best ways to spot this seismic shift in values
0:43:15 > 0:43:18is to look back at what women were reading.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23This is the February 1972 edition of Good Housekeeping
0:43:23 > 0:43:27and it's largely devoted to good housekeeping,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32being the perfect wife and mother in a beautiful home.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35And there's a typical feature here.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39"Don't dash away with the smoothing iron because it gives you back and knuckle ache."
0:43:39 > 0:43:42And then a very helpful family meal.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Here we are, kidney flambe.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48"It's simple when you know how."
0:43:48 > 0:43:53But hidden away amidst this traditional fare is an advertisement
0:43:53 > 0:43:56for a very different sort of magazine.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00"Cosmopolitan, a sensational new magazine for women."
0:44:00 > 0:44:03But "What sort of Woman?" Cilla Black, yes.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08Mary Whitehouse, no.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Barbra Streisand, yes.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14Mrs Thatcher, no.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Tell me, where did you get the idea to come here for your holidays?
0:44:20 > 0:44:24'Cosmopolitan, a sensational new magazine for women
0:44:24 > 0:44:26'who are interested in men, love, fashion,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29'travel, films, beauty, and themselves.'
0:44:31 > 0:44:36Like hugging your way to happiness, Cosmopolitan was an American import.
0:44:36 > 0:44:41When the first UK edition for March 1972 was released,
0:44:41 > 0:44:42it sold out in under 24 hours.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46The Times reported,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50"A mighty orgasmic roar could be heard throughout the land."
0:44:55 > 0:44:58This is the very first edition of Cosmopolitan
0:44:58 > 0:45:01and it contains many of the features you'd expect to see now.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04There's diet, there's fashion, there's sex.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08There's even Michael Parkinson talking about his vasectomy.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11But there was more to Cosmo than this.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15The raunchiness was a big part of it,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18but Cosmo wouldn't have happened without some serious feminism.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22And the fashion and sex tips were coupled with heavyweight advice
0:45:22 > 0:45:27from leading psychiatrists for a newly liberated generation.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32This article, from July 1973,
0:45:32 > 0:45:36was urging Cosmo's readers to tell the truth.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40"No man or woman can ever hope to find self-contentment
0:45:40 > 0:45:46"until that person is content to be truly and simply himself or herself,
0:45:46 > 0:45:50"without artifice and without deception."
0:45:50 > 0:45:56And that kind of thinking influenced a whole "Me" generation.
0:45:59 > 0:46:00Cosmopolitan.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05All of a sudden, we turn ourselves from a society
0:46:05 > 0:46:07which is about civic contribution
0:46:07 > 0:46:12to...the notion of individuality is where it's at.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17Now, with individuality, how do you express your individuality?
0:46:17 > 0:46:20Part of the way you express your individuality
0:46:20 > 0:46:23isn't only through clothes and occupation,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26it is through genuine forms of emotional expression.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36In the 1970s, even some men started talking from the heart
0:46:36 > 0:46:38about themselves.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43Opening up about your childhood,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45your relationships,
0:46:45 > 0:46:47your self-esteem,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51and your sex life
0:46:51 > 0:46:56would free you up and was bound to produce a happier, healthier you.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01I think the most powerful arguments against the stiff upper lip
0:47:01 > 0:47:04were really medical ones. It was bad for you.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07This was the rise of a sort of therapy culture,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09but, both physically and mentally,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11having a stiff upper lip, being repressed, was bad for you.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14This was a Freudian view, it becomes the absolutely standard view.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23The stiff upper lip had been based on the premise that
0:47:23 > 0:47:27suffering in silence was a service to society.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29But from the 1970s onwards,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32popular culture has been championing the idea
0:47:32 > 0:47:36that an individual's first duty is to listen to themselves.
0:47:38 > 0:47:39Critics of this cultural shift
0:47:39 > 0:47:42claimed that all this self-examination
0:47:42 > 0:47:46would only make us dissatisfied with ourselves and less happy
0:47:46 > 0:47:50and, in the process, we would lose our traditional backbone,
0:47:50 > 0:47:55our national ability to keep going, to not throw in the towel.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58Theirs, however, was not the general view.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01The overwhelming historical momentum
0:48:01 > 0:48:05was towards greater public emotional openness,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09towards more display of shared, communal feeling.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16One personality, more than any other,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19seemed to represent this change.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24She was the incarnation of a new emotionally literate nation.
0:48:25 > 0:48:31Diana wasn't cold or stuffy, she seemed warm and inclusive.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35And people felt they knew her. She seemed to behave like one of them.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38And in that sense, she was a very unroyal Royal.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41She didn't comply with their established,
0:48:41 > 0:48:43very formal code of conduct,
0:48:43 > 0:48:48and she refused increasingly to play the traditional role
0:48:48 > 0:48:51of dutiful wife, mother and princess.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53Instead of tolerating her unhappiness,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56she was candid about it. She went on television
0:48:56 > 0:49:00and forced back the tears whilst talking about her failed marriage
0:49:00 > 0:49:02and her intimate private life.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06And people loved her, or not, for exactly that.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16'This is BBC Radio in London.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19'A French government minister has said within the past few minutes
0:49:19 > 0:49:22'that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25'He said she was killed in a car crash in central Paris.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29'I'll repeat that. Diana, Princess of Wales, has been killed in a car crash
0:49:29 > 0:49:31'in the centre of Paris...'
0:49:34 > 0:49:37I was driving back in the early hours of the morning,
0:49:37 > 0:49:42turned on the radio and I heard the announcement that Diana was dead.
0:49:43 > 0:49:48Ballet dancer Daniel Jones was a personal friend of Diana's.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51We thought, we have to do something, what can we do?
0:49:51 > 0:49:55And we stopped off at a garage and bought some really pathetic flowers,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58the only ones that they had in there,
0:49:58 > 0:50:00and we came to Kensington Palace
0:50:00 > 0:50:03and we literally popped these flowers in the gate.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12Little did Daniel know what he had started.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18More than a million bouquets, cards and messages
0:50:18 > 0:50:22from people she didn't know piled up outside the palace,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25alongside that first floral tribute from Daniel.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Indeed, in death, Diana seemed even more influential
0:50:31 > 0:50:32than she'd been in life.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37Did you get the feeling they'd come from everywhere,
0:50:37 > 0:50:38as though Britain had converged?
0:50:38 > 0:50:40Yes, it was all walks.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42It was the very, very wealthy, it was the very, very poor.
0:50:42 > 0:50:48I mean, the cultural diversity, the age range, everybody was touched.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52But they really did feel that they knew her.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56It was the life that they were all reading in the papers and magazines,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59and the impact that she'd had was incredible.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02And to try and understand it, it was virtually impossible,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06it just sent you into this kind of trance about - who am I,
0:51:06 > 0:51:08what am I, why am I here?
0:51:08 > 0:51:12And what did you make of the people who weren't feeling as sad as you?
0:51:12 > 0:51:16I suppose I felt a bit sorry for them. Ha-ha!
0:51:16 > 0:51:18'In truth, I was one of those
0:51:18 > 0:51:20'that Daniel would have
0:51:20 > 0:51:22'felt sorry for. At the time,'
0:51:22 > 0:51:25it was almost sacrilegious to admit
0:51:25 > 0:51:28that Diana's death didn't affect us all in the same way.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33And in my entire time as Editor,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36there's never been an edition of Private Eye
0:51:36 > 0:51:38that's caused as much controversy.
0:51:42 > 0:51:48This is the cover that we published on 5th September, 1997.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50The headline was, "Media To Blame,"
0:51:50 > 0:51:53which had fast become the general consensus.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56We chose to run it with a picture of the crowd outside
0:51:56 > 0:52:00Buckingham Palace, with bubbles coming from the crowd.
0:52:00 > 0:52:01One saying, "The papers are a disgrace!"
0:52:01 > 0:52:03"Yeah, I couldn't get one anywhere."
0:52:03 > 0:52:06"Borrow mine, it's got a picture of the car."
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Now, inside, we spent a lot of time attacking the hypocrisy
0:52:09 > 0:52:13of the papers who, only days before Diana's death, were presenting her
0:52:13 > 0:52:16as some sort of wastrel and strumpet,
0:52:16 > 0:52:18hanging around in the Mediterranean with playboys,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21and then, as soon as she died, were saying she was a saint
0:52:21 > 0:52:23and she was the Queen of Hearts.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27But it wasn't having a go at the press that got us into trouble,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30it was this suggestion that the general public,
0:52:30 > 0:52:34some of our readers, might perhaps, in some way,
0:52:34 > 0:52:38be complicit in that hysterical hypocrisy.
0:52:38 > 0:52:43And essentially, what we'd done was to hurt their feelings.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48We received an avalanche of letters and I printed two pages of them
0:52:48 > 0:52:53in the next issue of the magazine, split into anti and pro.
0:52:53 > 0:52:54This is the tone of the antis.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57"Shitbag. The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales,
0:52:57 > 0:53:02"has brought home to me what a truly shitty magazine you've become.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07"You're what creeps out covered in green slime from beneath large flat stones.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10"By God, I wish you ill!"
0:53:10 > 0:53:13"The laugh's on you, this time, arsehole!"
0:53:13 > 0:53:16And one of our readers offering his own satirical comment.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19"Your wholly inappropriate and pathetic attempt
0:53:19 > 0:53:21"at ridiculing the nation's very real
0:53:21 > 0:53:25"and deeply-felt grief plumbs new depths of tastelessness.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27"You leave me with no alternative
0:53:27 > 0:53:30"but to renew my subscription with immediate effect."
0:53:32 > 0:53:36In this atmosphere of heightened emotion,
0:53:36 > 0:53:39the Monarch's behaviour also split opinion.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43"Where is Our Queen?" screamed The Sun,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46because she chose to stay in Balmoral
0:53:46 > 0:53:48with her grieving grandsons who'd lost their mother,
0:53:48 > 0:53:50rather than rushing back to London
0:53:50 > 0:53:53to offer succour to her distraught subjects.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00But blaming the Queen for coldness irritated others.
0:54:01 > 0:54:06I certainly wasn't in any way sympathetic to the people demanding
0:54:06 > 0:54:08that she should "Go mourn-about,"
0:54:08 > 0:54:11I think I said, and that she should
0:54:11 > 0:54:13meet the crowds and dab her eyes
0:54:13 > 0:54:15and show obvious signs of grief.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18But I am sure that's temperamental to other people, you know,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22make a lot of what my father would call 'splother'.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29But I was brought up to avoid 'splother',
0:54:29 > 0:54:33and I hope I do, really.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37# Goodbye, England's rose
0:54:37 > 0:54:40# May you ever grow in our hearts
0:54:40 > 0:54:45# You were the grace that placed itself... #
0:54:45 > 0:54:48However they expressed it, when it came to the funeral,
0:54:48 > 0:54:50many people found the day very moving,
0:54:50 > 0:54:52and for all sorts of reasons.
0:54:52 > 0:54:58# ..And you whispered to those in pain
0:54:58 > 0:55:00# Now you belong to heaven
0:55:00 > 0:55:03# And the stars spell out your name... #
0:55:03 > 0:55:09A public event is given life because it allows the individual
0:55:09 > 0:55:13to tap into something that's real for them,
0:55:13 > 0:55:15either in relation to that figure,
0:55:15 > 0:55:20or in relation to a sort of ensemble of emotions
0:55:20 > 0:55:22that are represented by that.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27We make a conversation that has to relate to our own questions,
0:55:27 > 0:55:32griefs, early deaths, sorrows, guilts, and so on.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40Events around Diana's death have been credited with proving
0:55:40 > 0:55:43the final demise of the stiff upper lip.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48But whilst the headlines focused on
0:55:48 > 0:55:50the most demonstrative public mourners,
0:55:50 > 0:55:52paradoxically, at the heart of it all,
0:55:52 > 0:55:54was an example of old-fashioned restraint.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59I felt out of kilter with the public mood.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02And then I watched the funeral and I was moved.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06But ironically, I was most moved not by Elton John's song,
0:56:06 > 0:56:11or by Earl Spencer's eulogy, but by the sight of those two young boys
0:56:11 > 0:56:15in suits solemnly walking behind their mother's coffin.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19Their composure, their attempts to hold it all together
0:56:19 > 0:56:24in the midst of the public spectacle, I found deeply affecting.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40Today, we've become so accustomed to people showing their emotion
0:56:40 > 0:56:44in public that we tend to forget how recently things were very different.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55You've given me something that I can't cope with.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01But such is the power of television
0:57:01 > 0:57:03and so accepted is the contemporary wisdom
0:57:03 > 0:57:06about the unhealthiness of any emotional repression
0:57:06 > 0:57:11that it sometimes seems that today's unfettered displays of feeling
0:57:11 > 0:57:15have entirely replaced the old expectation to try and control them.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19Oh, darling! Look, if ever a room deserved to be cried over...
0:57:22 > 0:57:27But I think that in moments of real crisis or adversity,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30some residual impulse of the stiff upper lip
0:57:30 > 0:57:32does still quietly kick in.
0:57:34 > 0:57:35You saw that in London,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39as it dealt with and recovered from the 7/7 bombings.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42There was just this explosion in the carriage next door
0:57:42 > 0:57:45and then there was all this smoke and you couldn't breathe.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49You saw it again in the response in the capital
0:57:49 > 0:57:52to the summer riots of 2011.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56I felt like helping out, it's pretty much as simple as that.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02I don't think it's entirely coincidental
0:58:02 > 0:58:06that THE catchphrase of our day, resurrected from 70-plus years ago,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09is - Keep Calm and Carry On.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Yes, it's funny, and it's easy to parody,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19and it's become an ubiquitous post-modern joke.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22But I think there's a hint of admiration in the laughter,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26a hint of envy in the nostalgia,
0:58:26 > 0:58:29because, despite its faults
0:58:29 > 0:58:33and its failings, British reserve, stoical sang froid,
0:58:33 > 0:58:37grinning and baring it, might still have something to recommend it.
0:58:37 > 0:58:39But perhaps I'm wrong.
0:58:39 > 0:58:42Perhaps the stiff upper lip is finished, it's over,
0:58:42 > 0:58:45rightly consigned to the history books.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48And if that's the case, no point in making a fuss about it,
0:58:48 > 0:58:51no point in crying, we'll have to deal with it,
0:58:51 > 0:58:53sort ourselves out, and get on with it!
0:59:14 > 0:59:18Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd