Tyrants Portillo's State Secrets

1,000 years of history

under one roof,

the National Archives -

a treasure house of secrets...

..the records of extraordinary times and people.

These files are this nation's story,

our shared past.

Documents housed here were highly classified,

intended for the eyes of only the privileged few,

protected from your sight for decades,

but not now.

I've been granted special access to files once kept hush-hush.

I'll unearth amazing tales from our hidden history.

Forget what you've been told,

these documents tell the truth.

Coming up in this programme,

tyrants, despots and dictators.

The desperate search for proof that the Nazi leader was dead.

There's an x-ray that was used.

That x-ray shows Hitler had catastrophically bad teeth.

Of course, it's the teeth that ultimately identify Hitler.

A self-proclaimed king snubbed by our Queen.

How a Commonwealth leader caused a Royal diplomatic crisis.

Should Her Majesty be sending a Christmas card to Idi Amin?

We would've certainly have said no, because things were very bad then.

And our own home-grown tyrant.

Why this was the most ruthless of our monarchs.

Henry VIII is a bona fide clinical psychopath.

Britain has often had to wrestle with dictators.

To ensure victory, you have to understand your opponent,

and that can mean getting right inside his mind...

'..and even getting inside the body.

'British intelligence officers did just that in the 1940s.

'They compiled an extraordinary medical dossier

'hidden away for nearly 50 years.'

This is the x-ray of a skull of a 55-year-old male patient

who consulted his doctor complaining about a pain in his sinus

and they wanted to discover just why that was,

but the general cause was perfectly clear.

This man had recently narrowly, miraculously survived

an explosion at close quarters.

This x-ray and extensive medical reports

are part of a secret British military file

because this man was of intense interest

to the British government.

His name was Adolf Hitler.

His miraculous escape came in July 1944

when a bomb exploded in Hitler's headquarters,

killing four people.

He survived the assassination attempt,

but the blast left him with a perforated eardrum.

The x-ray was part of a thorough medical examination...

..both physical and psychiatric.

Psychiatric data on Hitler,

"No phobias or obsessions."

Oh, "emotionally very labile",

I think that means unsteady.

"Likes and dislikes were very pronounced."

And then, amazingly, there is a list of the drugs

that Hitler was taking.

28 of them. 28 of them!

"Orchicrin, a combination of all hormones of males,

"potency is increased by the addition of extracts of testes

"and prostate of young bulls.

"This has been prescribed to combat fatigue and depression",

from which I imagine Hitler was very much suffering at that time.

The details in the file are fascinating,

but the date that's stamped on it is even more so.

It was put together in December 1945,

that's eight months after Hitler's body was found.

So why compile a dossier on his health following his death?

Ah. "This information has been published

"in order to provide medical data

"useful for the identification of Hitler, or his remains,

"and the knowledge needed to expose those frauds

"who in later years may claim to be Hitler."

HE SPEAKS IN GERMAN

So they weren't completely sure that Hitler was dead

and they were very worried about future imposters

claiming to be the tyrant.

But why the official doubt about the German Fuhrer's death?

Hadn't Russian soldiers found his body?

Hadn't the news reels carried accounts of his grizzly end?

'An SS man says he saw the body soaked in petrol

'and watched them burn.

'Is this the end of the Hitler legend,

'or is it just another story?'

The trouble was that the Russians had taken away the charred remains.

And their leader, Joseph Stalin, didn't like sharing information

with Britain or the other allies.

He could have produced the definitive proof

that the body was Hitler's,

but he chose not to.

Why?

Stalin was a very secretive and,

er, lying dictator

and he played around

with the information

that he had at his disposal.

So, er, this was part of his game.

And he had a number of reasons for that.

One was to catch them off their guard.

He loved to be the monopolist,

to have all of the information,

but not to let them know until it was in his interest.

So when in the summer of 1945

Stalin astonished the allies by claiming that Hitler was alive,

the British had to be ready.

If Adolf Hitler or an imposter turned up,

our military intelligence needed a foolproof method

of testing his identity.

What evidence could be entirely reliable?

The answer came in a letter of September 1945

from a radiographer - Graham Hodgson -

who said that an x-ray of the skull would do the trick.

"No two people have the same-shaped sinuses or mastoid processes."

An x-ray of the skull was as reliable as a fingerprint.

The result of that letter,

according to war author Roger Moorhouse,

was the effort by British intelligence

to obtain an x-ray of Hitler.

The logic of that idea is absolutely perfect,

erm, if you can find an x-ray,

and then you can compare it to any evidence that turns up.

Alternatively, it could be used to disprove

any imposter cropping up in 1946 or '47

and saying "I am Hitler."

Erm, but the logic of that, using the x-rays, is absolutely impeccable,

whether you could identify via the sinuses

or, as would be more probable, certainly by his teeth.

Ah, yes, the teeth.

They more than anything could identify the real Nazi leader.

Hitler had catastrophically bad teeth.

Erm, a lot of the accounts of people who met him

testified to his quite revolting halitosis.

By the end the war, er,

he has a total of five natural teeth in his mouth,

everything else is gold crowns and porcelain veneers.

And, of course, it's the teeth that ultimately identify Hitler.

For many years,

the Soviets wouldn't confirm whether the body found in Berlin

was that of Adolf Hitler.

And so for decades after the war ended,

Britain couldn't be certain whether the Nazi dictator was dead or alive.

MILITARY MUSIC PLAYS

It emerged, eventually, that in 1970,

the head of the KGB had ordered the Fuhrer's remains

to be incinerated and scattered into a river

for fear that they'd be sanctified by Nazis.

Still, in 1993, a jawbone and fragments of skull

were unearthed in Moscow.

They finally confirmed that the body had been Hitler's.

My next story is about a Christmas card list.

How contentious can that be?

JAZZ VERSION OF JINGLE BELLS PLAYS

Well, if it's a card from Her Majesty the Queen,

and it's addressed to a murderous, unstable, bloodthirsty tyrant,

then the answer is...very contentious.

And it's fair to say that the man at the centre of this next document

ticked all those boxes.

He was Idi Amin.

He had seized power in a military coup in Uganda.

At first, he was regarded as a genial buffoon,

but over a period of time,

he came to be seen as a genocidal butcher.

And that dilemma of how to see him

is reflected in Foreign Office files of the time.

Ah, here we are, a "popular and natural leader of men,

"but simple and practically illiterate.

"A man of the people, an imposing presence.

"6 foot 3 high in height, once a good heavyweight boxer.

"London has been very appreciative of his strong pro-British sympathies

"and has expressed appreciation in the tangible form of a loan."

The good will didn't last long,

because it soon became clear that Amin was corrupt, cruel

and quite possibly mad.

He jailed his opponents, persecuted minorities

and murdered his rivals.

But he was still the leader of a Commonwealth country

and etiquette demanded that every Christmas,

there should be an exchange of cards with the Queen.

Behind closed doors, the civil servants began to fret.

Here's a memo from Mrs Drummond,

who's in the Protocol and Conference Department.

She says, "We spoke today about

"the advisability of recommending to the Palace

"that Her Majesty should not send a Christmas card to President Amin."

There's a bit of to-and-fro about this.

Erm, here's another, er, official

who replies in manuscripts saying,

"I do not think that the Queen should be advised

"to send a card to General Amin."

As a rather funny postscript to all of this,

here is a memo from the British High Commission in Kampala

enclosing Christmas cards from President Amin

to the Queen and to the Prime Minister Edward Heath,

but I don't suppose he sent them the year after.

The documents give a flavour of Amin, the man,

but what was it like living under the dictator?

Henry Brind was Britain's acting High Commissioner in Uganda

in the early 1970s

and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown grew up in its capital - Kampala.

I'd met him as a young teenager,

erm, and I'd found him really frightening

and very arrogant, very, erm, frightening,

and I was still a little girl and a big man.

You must have felt rather put down, to say the least.

I was scared, he was a scary presence.

I never thought he was a joke figure.

I wanted to be very friendly to entire world community.

Thank you very much.

The first time I met him was, er, Armistice Day in '71,

and, er, I found myself sitting next to him.

We had quite a long, a very friendly chat.

So what is your impression of the man

when you were sitting next to him, having lunch?

A dangerous man, erm...

and, erm...quite ruthless.

'The pressure is not only on foreign Asians,

'but also on those who are citizens of Uganda.

'His policy is based squarely on racial discrimination.'

In 1972, Amin caused international outrage

when he ordered the expulsion of Uganda's Asian community.

Around 50,000 people were given just 90 days to leave.

Their main interest has been to exploit

the economy of Uganda

and, er, Ugandan Africans.

Yasmin's family was amongst those caught up in the crisis.

People were paranoid, people were afraid,

er, and, erm, it was a very difficult time.

We were not safe. We had nowhere to go and we were not safe,

er, and it was terrible.

The responsibility of Asians in Uganda,

it is a responsibility of Great Britain.

As many of the Asian's living in Uganda

hailed from other Commonwealth countries,

Amin said that Britain should take them in.

Over half of them did flee to the United Kingdom,

but it wasn't an easy departure.

There were some terrible times when we had to queue up

for day after day after day

to get the stamp to come here.

And all his driving licence, tax...

We really didn't know how many there were.

I mean, there were Asians with British passports.

In the end, it was about 20,000, I think.

We had to deal with those in the three months.

You must ask President Mobutu,

he's the one who will answer these questions.

By the late 1970s, Britain's row with Amin

had gone way beyond a Christmas card snub.

Diplomatic relations were broken off completely.

In response, he declared himself Conqueror of the British Empire

and even King of Scotland.

But by 1979, he'd made too many enemies in Africa.

The former soldier whom the British had originally helped into power

was forced into exile.

If you were writing a reference,

what would you say of Idi Amin?

Over-promoted.

What would you say?

That everybody misjudged him.

The British thought they would put a buffoon in power

and he would be their friend.

The British really misjudged him for a long time

until they woke up.

The grubby realities of diplomacy

dictate those that you must deal with

on the international stage.

Unfortunately, that can mean being civil to monsters and to madmen...

and yes, even to remembering them at Christmas.

Had someone asked you your opinion,

should Her Majesty be sending a Christmas Card to Idi Amin?

We would've certainly have said no,

because things were very bad then.

Tyrants don't always come from abroad.

Here in the Archives is a document that gives a fascinating hint

about the personality of a home-grown monster.

We are what we eat.

How often have you told yourself that

as you shovel in the chips or the sticky toffee pudding?

Traditionally, vast quantities of food were used

to offer boundless hospitality and to display wealth.

And so it was when a young Henry VIII, in 1518,

just nine years into his reign,

entertained an important set of French dignitaries.

These fascinating documents were never intended for publication.

These are exchequer records,

and they set out in minute detail

all the food that was provided on that occasion.

The script is very difficult to read.

I can make out beef and mutton

and...hog in grease and pig.

Anyway, I have asked an expert

if he would make some highlights here on my tablet

of what is contained in these records.

3,000 loaves of bread, three tonnes of wine and six tonnes of ale,

188 pounds of sugar, along with 3,000 pears...

one gallon of rose water,

26 pounds of prunes, 32 pounds of...

50 dozen crayfish, 27 dozen chickens...

ten and three quarter carcasses...

..fields, saffron and liquorice.

16 and a half gallons of cream, six gallons of mustard

and seven gallons of curd!

Well, lavish entertaining indeed.

In European politics, Henry VIII was on his way to becoming Mr Big.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Henry's love of feasting and entertaining

may on the surface suggest a benevolent nature.

But in reality, he used these grand occasions

to cement his commanding position.

I want to find out more about Henry's taste for food

and appetite for power.

So I've become to what became the King's favourite party venue -

Hampton Court.

Henry occupied this magnificent palace on the Thames

in the later part of his reign.

From here, he ruled supreme.

Here, he held fabulous feasts,

And here, he developed his reputation

as the most terrifying of tyrants.

Dr Tracy Borman, Joint Chief Curator of Hampton Court,

is taking me on a tour.

First stop, the Great Hall.

Tracy, I am awestruck, starstruck,

this is absolutely amazing.

Tell me what went on in here.

Well, this was Henry's centre piece really at Hampton Court.

It's where he showed off his wealth, his magnificence,

as you might imagine.

TRIUMPHANT CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

There would be special occasions here when ambassadors were visiting,

and there would be great parties, revelries, entertainment

on the feast days of the year.

But actually, most of the time,

it was pretty much like the staff canteen.

Er, it was filled with about 600 courtiers

who were entitled to, er, take their meals here twice a day.

And so it was quite routine,

just the business of feeding the court.

And in the most formal occasions,

I take it the King would've been sitting there at the top.

That's right, on the raised table there, right at the end,

in full display to his courtiers,

but only on special occasions.

He actually was quite a private man when it came to dining.

It's not the image we have of him, you know,

throwing the chicken leg over his shoulder.

He was very fastidious, he liked to dine in private.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

An invitation to dine at the Great Hall

would've signalled that you were part of the King's inner circle.

And below stairs, innumerable servants toiled

to meet every demand for culinary excess.

Tracy, these are the most wonderfully...

conserved kitchens, aren't they?

-Abso...I mean, you really get the feel of history in here.

-You do.

What kind of size are we dealing with here?

Well, this is the largest surviving Tudor kitchen in the world.

It's extraordinary.

Erm, food was very important,

it was the way in which Henry could display

his wealth, his sophistication.

You know, they were cooking some quite complex dishes

here in the Tudor kitchens

with rich spices and different ingredients

from all over the world.

They would've been incredibly expensive,

and Henry wanted to show off in that way.

HORSE NEIGHS

Feasting helped to maintain Henry's political power,

but eventually weighed more heavily on him than his crown.

It's generally believed that a specific incident

changed his body and his mind,

possibly propelling him towards fully fledged tyranny.

The pivotal moment is, in 1536,

Henry has a dreadful accident whilst jousting.

HORSE NEIGHS AND COLLAPSES

Before that time, it didn't matter that he'd eaten a lot

because he exercised a lot,

he was a very sporting king.

But after that accident,

he could do very little by way of exercise,

and he couldn't joust any more,

and so he grew enormously fat.

He was constantly in pain with an ulcerous leg,

and this did affect his character.

He was incredibly bad-tempered

and almost despotic, I think, by the end of his reign.

Ah, and so, actually, there is a connection here

-between the food and what the man becomes.

-Absolutely.

There's a direct connection.

You can over complicate it

and look at all sorts of psychological analysis,

but I think it came down to the fact that Henry couldn't exercise

and he ate too much and he was in pain.

In the years after the jousting accident,

Henry's physical appearance changed dramatically.

His once athletic figure ballooned to 28 stone.

His behaviour as king altered too,

becoming more erratic and despotic.

It must have been exhilarating

to be a member of King Henry VIII's court.

To enjoy his glorious wines, his sumptuous food,

the music, the dancing,

the glow of the fire, the glow of His Majesty.

But as you dined, your heart would have been in your mouth,

because one day, he might take your hand,

and the next day, he might take your head.

So did Henry VIII really turn from being a benevolent leader

into an unhinged tyrant?

Professor Kevin Dutton from Oxford University

is author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths.

What is a psychopath?

When most people hear the word psychopath,

they instantly think of Hannibal Lecter

and a whole raft of Hollywood bad guys.

But when psychologists like myself talk about psychopaths,

we're actually referring to a distinct subset of individuals

with a distinct cluster of personality traits,

a specific, erm, syndrome.

Let's get to it.

In the case of Henry VIII, what did we find?

In the case of Henry VIII, it's very interesting,

because in the early stages,

he seems to be, er, a rather pious, politically inclusive individual.

The later part of his reign seems to be completely different.

He then seems to have transformed into

a rather paranoid, cruel and impulsive individual

who presided over a period of, er, dramatic and often whimsical change.

So does the professor also think

that this might be linked to the jousting accident?

There are clues and it does appear that that accident

put him in a coma for two hours.

The Royal physicians thought he was going to die,

and when this news was conveyed to Anne Boleyn,

she went into such a state of shock

that she actually lost a child that she was bearing,

that was a male child.

Oh, no.

And it seems plausible to me, as a psychologist,

that that accident might have triggered damage

to his frontal lobe in his brain,

which might then have precipitated

a profound transformation in personality.

But was it enough to turn him into a psychopath?

Kevin has developed a personality test

which he's used to profile

some of history's most infamous characters.

I handed out a specially devised psychometric, er, test

to the official biographers of some of the biggest names in world history

and got them to fill it out, not on their own behalf, of course,

but on behalf of their subjects.

OK.

So, you've got to be honest. OK, so...

'So might I be a psychopath?

'The professor's test will tell.'

I'm a spur of the moment kind of person.

Zero.

It doesn't matter to me

if I have to step on other people to get what I want.

One.

Driving fast cars, riding roller-coasters and skydiving

appeal to me.

Two.

'Well, I'll keep the extent of

'my psychopathic tendencies to myself.

'And anyway, this isn't about me,

'it's about our corpulent king.

'How did he score?'

Henry VIII is one of the highest scorers,

he is top of the psychopath stakes.

Erm, a person who, at the moment,

I would feel quite confident in saying

was a bona fide clinical psychopath.

Henry loomed large at the head of a banqueting table

and larger still as head of both Church and State.

Anyone who didn't accept his authority was for the chop.

There was no violent end for this tyrant

when he died aged 55.

The waist of this mountainous king had expanded to 54 inches.

maybe his gluttony had done for him.

Today's journey has brought me face-to-face with three tyrants.

All are now safely dead.

But as I read these secret documents,

their horrors seem to rise again from the grave.

Walking the corridors of power here at Hampton Court,

it struck me that few things are more likely

to shorten your life

than being a friend of King Henry VIII.

Accept, of course, being one of his wives.

I felt almost queasy

holding that x-ray of the skull of Adolf Hitler,

looking through a transparency

of the genocidal mind of a modern tyrant.

Britain badly underestimated the evil of President Idi Amin,

and leaving him off the Queen's Christmas card list

was insufficient to deflect him from his murderous villainy.