0:00:20 > 0:00:25This is the story of someone I never met but wish I had.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28In some ways we're strangely similar, in other ways
0:00:28 > 0:00:30very, very different.
0:00:30 > 0:00:3350 years ago, he was a household name.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Today, not so many people have heard of him.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40He was my father-in-law and his name is Rory McEwen.
0:00:41 > 0:00:42I loved being with him.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47If I knew I was going to see him, my heart and my spirits would rise.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51He was startling. He was very quick and articulate.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Also a very natty dresser.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55Rory was just sort of magical.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58He had an amazing gift for bringing people together
0:00:58 > 0:01:01for creativity and friendship.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06You cannot explain the genius of someone called
0:01:06 > 0:01:11Rory McEwen by concentrating on only one aspect of what he produced.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15He is a man of many parts. An astonishing artist.
0:01:16 > 0:01:21Here's a guy who draws, you know,
0:01:21 > 0:01:26like nobody has ever seen in the 20th century.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28I was dazzled by the technique.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Rory didn't really do anything that wasn't really beautiful.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Everything he did was very, very beautifully done.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38He was a pioneering television presenter, song-writer
0:01:38 > 0:01:42and ground-breaking musician.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45I think he should fit in at the very beginning of introducing
0:01:45 > 0:01:48the blues to the UK audiences.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52But, as to why this has never been acknowledged, I don't know.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54I think it's time for a renaissance really.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58Every time you think you know where he's going,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01he goes in another direction.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05So here it is - the story of Rory McEwen.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23We begin in 1932, in the Scottish borders,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26where Rory was born into a large aristocratic family.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Rory grew up at this extraordinary place, Marchmont,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37a palladian house near Polworth in Scotland.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39It had a mile-long drive.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44You know, they were part of the real catholic establishment.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47His father was under-Secretary of State for Scotland,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51also a poet, and also a Francophile, so they were very cosmopolitan.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55I think we were hugely privileged.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57He described it as an 18th century upbringing
0:02:57 > 0:02:59and to some extent it was.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04I mean there were still horses and carts and the rest of it.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08We were very much in tune with the aesthetics of nature.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12And the house was always crammed full of flowers.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Rory was taught by a French governess who encouraged him
0:03:17 > 0:03:21to paint flowers, a skill that he'd never forget.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23I think Rory's background at Marchmont was hugely
0:03:23 > 0:03:27important to him, he felt a terrific pride in it, you know.
0:03:27 > 0:03:28They were an amazing family.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35Our eldest brother was a mad keen jazz fan
0:03:35 > 0:03:40and he was also a great influence on Rory
0:03:40 > 0:03:43in terms of his musical tastes because it was there
0:03:43 > 0:03:48that he first heard Leadbelly, Josh White, Big Bill Broonzy.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59I think my father and his younger brother, Alexander, heard this
0:03:59 > 0:04:03music and taught themselves to play guitar
0:04:03 > 0:04:07from listening to the records that Jamie accumulated.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13At Cambridge, in the early '50s, Rory performed
0:04:13 > 0:04:18in The Footlights with other like-minded students.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23I think I gradually became aware of the fact he was a musician
0:04:23 > 0:04:29and played rather brilliant jazz guitar,
0:04:29 > 0:04:34and I can't remember the exact date when we began to associate doing
0:04:34 > 0:04:40cabarets together for those reviews at the end of the year.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44He would play something and I would do something comic,
0:04:44 > 0:04:45and then he would play again.
0:04:45 > 0:04:51We had very amusing times together as this pair of entertainers.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57After Cambridge, Rory
0:04:57 > 0:05:00and younger brother, Alexander, set sail for America - really, the very
0:05:00 > 0:05:04first people from Britain to explore the roots of folk and blues music.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11First stop was New York City, the last home of Rory's idol,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Louisianna-born Huddie Leadbetter,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Leadbelly, king of the 12-string guitar.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Rory was so ahead of his time, and so was his brother.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28They knew the background of the blues.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32And he went to see Leadbelly's widow, Martha.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37They made this pilgrimage. Rory was nervous thinking,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41"she won't like these two Scottish boys singing her late
0:05:41 > 0:05:43"husband's songs", but it was a great success.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46They played Whoa Buck, a wonderful Leadbelly song to which she
0:05:46 > 0:05:50clapped her hands, and then she produced this wonderful guitar,
0:05:50 > 0:05:55this 12-string which he played. So, there he was, he was in the...
0:05:55 > 0:05:58was in the Valhalla, whatever it is,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01he was in the kind of temple of 12-string.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08The McEwen brothers crossed America, playing gigs to growing acclaim.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10These unlikely Scottish stars amazingly
0:06:10 > 0:06:13performed on the network Ed Sullivan Show,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17years before The Beatles did the same, leading the British invasion.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22Back in Britain, Rory was talent-spotted by the BBC's
0:06:22 > 0:06:27Cliff Michelmore when he came to launch the Tonight programme in 1957.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30It will be a program with lots of young people in it.
0:06:30 > 0:06:31One of them, for instance,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34is now back in this country after getting on the Ed Sullivan Show
0:06:34 > 0:06:38in New York whilst singing his way across the United States.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43# On a Monday... #
0:06:43 > 0:06:47They used to have a slot for various folk singers.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52Rory was the main one I connected with because he played
0:06:52 > 0:06:56really good 12-string guitar in the style of Leadbelly.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02When I saw someone actually on TV doing this material,
0:07:02 > 0:07:07I was like, wow! It was one of those moments, it got me into, like,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11taking music seriously because until that point I wanted to be a vet.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Rory was now a rising star and he was given his very own show,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21THE trailblazer for music television to come.
0:07:21 > 0:07:22# Hullabaloo balah baleh
0:07:22 > 0:07:24# He followed my mother all round the town
0:07:24 > 0:07:27# Hullabaloo baleh... #
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Hullabaloo was the first folk show on television, the first one
0:07:31 > 0:07:35actually devoted to folk music, folk and blues.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40Good evening and welcome to Hullabaloo.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42We're going to start the show this evening...
0:07:42 > 0:07:46Rory was the compere, he introduced the acts, and he played.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50And you had this mix of folk singers
0:07:50 > 0:07:54from Glasgow - you know, Sonny Boy Williamson,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58black players that were brought over from America - an extraordinary mix.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02# I'm goin' down to Rosie's, stop at Jessie Mae's... #
0:08:02 > 0:08:03Peter, Paul and Mary.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07# Go tell it on the mountain... #
0:08:09 > 0:08:14He's a missing part of the history of the early days of rock and roll.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17He was a catalyst, he brought people together.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22Now Lisa Turner, Martin Carthy and myself, accompanied by David Graham
0:08:22 > 0:08:26and Pete McGurk, are going to give a new slant to an old song
0:08:26 > 0:08:30and it's called, by Leadbelly, it's called, My Girl.
0:08:30 > 0:08:36To say that he was an enabler doesn't really begin to describe it.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39# In the pines, in the pines... #
0:08:40 > 0:08:45He was somebody who wanted you to be able to do your best.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50He always gave it everything he'd got
0:08:50 > 0:08:53and that made you do the same,
0:08:53 > 0:08:59and he had the capacity for keeping it simple, keeping it basic.
0:09:00 > 0:09:06# His head was found in the driving wheel
0:09:06 > 0:09:11# And his body never has been found... #
0:09:11 > 0:09:14It was focused right down tight
0:09:14 > 0:09:19and I think that was a feature of everything he did, myself.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23He used to sing all the time, I mean walking down the road.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25- Driving us to school! - Driving us to school,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28we used to sing songs the whole way to school,
0:09:28 > 0:09:29you know, just endless.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31It just seemed normal.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36When Jools Holland, my husband,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40started to film "Later...",
0:09:40 > 0:09:42he met Martin Carthy,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44and Martin had a videotape,
0:09:44 > 0:09:49which came through the letterbox and we sat down and watched it.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52And at the end of that first programme, there was a short
0:09:52 > 0:09:54silence and then Jools turned to me and said,
0:09:54 > 0:09:56"you've married your dad!"
0:09:56 > 0:09:59because it's so similar to "Later...", it's just uncanny.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01APPLAUSE
0:10:06 > 0:10:10What an amazing coincidence that decades ago his television
0:10:10 > 0:10:15show was devoted to folk, blues, world and alternative music
0:10:15 > 0:10:18in front of a live audience, with the host sometimes joining in.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24And if that wasn't enough of a coincidence,
0:10:24 > 0:10:29he also made these records, Hootenannie!
0:10:29 > 0:10:32- Hootenannie!- AUDIENCE: Hootenannie!
0:10:32 > 0:10:35But the big difference is I play the piano and
0:10:35 > 0:10:38he played the guitar, and he played it in a beautiful, distinctive way.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44MUSIC: Send For The Doctor by Doc Pomus
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Rory didn't play like a white man trying to play the blues, he had
0:10:52 > 0:10:56his own particular, very convincing, confident kind of style of playing.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01# Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling #
0:11:01 > 0:11:03# Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling...#
0:11:03 > 0:11:05No-one else was playing 12-string
0:11:05 > 0:11:12and also it was very authentic and it was very close to erm...
0:11:12 > 0:11:16how Leadbelly played, which was quite difficult.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18People later on have used 12 strings
0:11:18 > 0:11:23but it wasn't as elaborate as the way Rory played it.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32He'd play it with finger picks and played everything.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35If you had finger picks, they came from America,
0:11:35 > 0:11:36they were called nationals.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39I remember when I first got my finger picks, I slept in them!
0:11:42 > 0:11:45The point about the 12 is that these double strings,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48you get very big sound on each string.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53So, almost as if each string is a chord.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Leadbelly said it should be played like the left hand of
0:12:05 > 0:12:08a barrel house piano player, and Rory took off with this thing,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11actually much more than Leadbelly did.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13He was a very great showman.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19He enjoyed it, you could see he enjoyed it.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21At the height of Hullabaloo's success,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Rory made an extraordinary decision.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27He walked away from television and the world of music.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33He talked about it as if it was a painful decision,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35like letting go of music.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40But what he wanted to be doing was painting,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42and just painting all day long.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45I think that's where he felt he was at his most serious.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49Other people could play music, other people could write,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53but he had this unique brilliance about the way that he painted.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00Rory's focus now turned to botanical painting, his first love.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Every morning he would get up early and he would go and paint.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07It was like a sort of nine-to-five, I mean he just went to the
0:13:07 > 0:13:09studio in the morning and came back in the evening.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Even if he was travelling,
0:13:12 > 0:13:17he always worked a pretty decent day's work, sort of regardless.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23He would just focus down and...and get into it
0:13:23 > 0:13:27and I just remember it being extremely calm,
0:13:27 > 0:13:29for several hours at a time.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32When I first saw Rory's botanical paintings
0:13:32 > 0:13:36I could barely believe it, they were just so incredible.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40The life pulsating through the pictures was quite something.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44Rory's depictions of flowers
0:13:44 > 0:13:47and plants pay close attention to botanical detail.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51But they're more than dry scientific illustrations.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54The paintings have a life and luminosity about them.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56Their beauty is breathtaking.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00His botanical paintings,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03though rigorous and accurate, and conforming
0:14:03 > 0:14:07to those stern disciplines of the botanical artist, had a kind of zen
0:14:07 > 0:14:09lift off, I thought.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12I lived with them and I hung them on my walls,
0:14:12 > 0:14:17and they spoke to me in a different way to other illustrative pictures.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21They...I hung them beside works by Hockney and Kitaj
0:14:21 > 0:14:22and Lucien Freud.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24They sang together.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28I only once saw him paint
0:14:28 > 0:14:31because I don't think he particularly liked people watching
0:14:31 > 0:14:34him painting, but he asked me up to his studio
0:14:34 > 0:14:37and he was wearing spectacles
0:14:37 > 0:14:41and he had these little paints and these tiny brushes, and this really detailed work.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46It was so detailed you could barely see what he was actually doing as he did it.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51It was like watching a watch-maker repairing a mechanism, you know
0:14:51 > 0:14:54they're doing something but you don't know what it is,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57doing these tiny little marks.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02And with complete intensity of focus on the job.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09It was kind of magic, really, watching him do it because of what came out.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15Rory chose to paint on a material rarely used by modern artists,
0:15:15 > 0:15:16vellum.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19When I first discovered that Rory was painting on vellum, which
0:15:19 > 0:15:23in my ignorance I didn't know what it was, but it turns out it's actually
0:15:23 > 0:15:29calf skin. It helps to bring that living matter to life, in a way.
0:15:36 > 0:15:42The way he's just captured the light and the drama in such a simple form.
0:15:44 > 0:15:50Art is about questioning our presence in life,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52and that's what Rory did.
0:15:52 > 0:15:58He's curious, and that comes through in every brush stroke.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01To paint on vellum, it's a very different technique
0:16:01 > 0:16:06to painting on paper because the surface is very smooth
0:16:06 > 0:16:11and the water colour sits on top. It doesn't sink in.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15You have to use tiny little paintbrush marks
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and very, very little water.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And this is called a dry-brush technique.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28This means it takes a long time to build up the layers
0:16:28 > 0:16:33and to make something look as magical as how Rory did in his work.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42# Oh, I'm a country chappy and I'm serving in...#
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Painting botanical art didn't mean life was quiet.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Married to Romana, with a growing family,
0:16:48 > 0:16:53Rory's London home became THE hub of a giddy 1960s scene.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56A million miles from the disciplines of his meticulous art.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Rory was definitely, like, the social, you know...
0:17:02 > 0:17:05He would be out there inviting people back to Tregunter Road,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07where our mother would be catering
0:17:07 > 0:17:13for these sort of crowds of people who would be arriving.
0:17:16 > 0:17:17Everything was changing.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Things were appearing every day, new artists, new musicians.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Most of them turned up in Tregunter Road.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25They must have had a party a night.
0:17:25 > 0:17:26To me, they were just dazzling.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28You know, you go in there and first of all,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31there would be a smattering of quite famous people,
0:17:31 > 0:17:32a lot of very pretty girls.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34There might be a Beatle or two wandering around.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37- Bob Dylan was there. - I met the Everly Brothers there.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40It was so exciting in a way that afterwards, you thought,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43"Was that John Lennon in the corner of the room?"
0:17:43 > 0:17:46I remember going when Ravi Shankar had been playing
0:17:46 > 0:17:48with George Harrison at the Festival Hall or somewhere.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Came back there after a party and suddenly sits down
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and out comes the sitar and starts playing that.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58The sitar was a completely new thing. We hadn't heard about it.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02And we were absolutely in hushed awe.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04That was how cool it was.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08That was how accessible it was to people like Ravi Shankar
0:18:08 > 0:18:12who never played at private concerts ever, but he did play for Rory.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14I remember feeling slightly sort of embarrassed
0:18:14 > 0:18:16because I thought they obviously don't like it
0:18:16 > 0:18:19because they were all shaking their heads.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22We used to give, um...hand things around
0:18:22 > 0:18:24in our dressing gown and pyjamas.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27- Did you...? I mean, I remember doing that.- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30And I remember making a beeline for...
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Because Princess Margaret was there and I was, like,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36"Oh, it'll be obvious which one... She'll have a tiara
0:18:36 > 0:18:38"and maybe wings."
0:18:38 > 0:18:42And then saying, "Where is the Princess?"
0:18:42 > 0:18:47Rory was completely at ease in the middle of all this.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49Not at all frantic.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51And looked like the sort of king of the party
0:18:51 > 0:18:53because he looked so wonderful.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56There was a sort of feeling of excitement and...
0:18:56 > 0:18:58I mean, you did feel this really was
0:18:58 > 0:19:00one of the good things about the '60s,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04parties like this, and that you were very lucky to be there.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09The '60s wasn't all about parties.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12It was a time when art was changing, too.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17Abstract, experimental and pop art were now all the rage.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19Rory's friend, American pop artist Jim Dine,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22was a major influence on Rory at this time.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28I really believed that he was attracted to the fact that
0:19:28 > 0:19:32in our culture, in American culture,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36the kind I grew up in, or New York art-world culture,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39one was able to express themselves
0:19:39 > 0:19:43much more with free association.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45He was very glamoured by New York.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47He was glamoured by the big paintings, by the Met,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51by the...by the sort of show time art.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53And I think he really wanted to be there.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56Because artists want to be seen, they want to make a name.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59And he did want to be up there with big canvases and stuff.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02And indeed, those New York poets who came over kind of thought,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05"What's he doing painting flowers?"
0:20:05 > 0:20:08You know, high-realist paintings.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12I think they were almost embarrassed by it.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16Spurred on to find a bigger, newer platform,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Rory began experimenting with sculpture.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23Working with a range of materials, including glass and Perspex.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28If you look seriously at the kind of mindset
0:20:28 > 0:20:31that an artist like Rory was all about,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34then it should be of no surprise to you
0:20:34 > 0:20:39that he is also experimenting with the nature of light.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Because light is a way of explaining time passing.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48I thought he was wasting his time
0:20:48 > 0:20:52by going to fabricate these glass pieces.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54I thought it was a complete waste of money and time.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58And it really, really made me angry to see a waste like this.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01But there's nothing you could tell him.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05He wanted to be...a so-called modern artist.
0:21:05 > 0:21:06So called.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10So stupid, you know. So stupid.
0:21:12 > 0:21:13# When I was barely...#
0:21:13 > 0:21:16Rory also turned his hand to film-making,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20following German sculptor and performance artist, Joseph Beuys,
0:21:20 > 0:21:21as he completed a live action
0:21:21 > 0:21:24on Rannoch Moor in the Scottish Highlands.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30I think Joseph Beuys was very connected to the earth and the land
0:21:30 > 0:21:37and something that they were appreciative of the same things.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40I mean, they must have been to make that film.
0:21:40 > 0:21:41LAUGHTER
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Sculptures, films.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47Rory did not want to be pigeon-holed
0:21:47 > 0:21:49as a traditional botanical artist.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56I think he was vulnerable.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Because I remember him talking about
0:21:59 > 0:22:03his relationship with people like Jim Dine
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and, um...and the American artists
0:22:07 > 0:22:09who were painting very big paintings.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14And I remember him saying, "It's just so great, the way they...
0:22:14 > 0:22:16"Everything's so big in America
0:22:16 > 0:22:19"and they can do these big paintings."
0:22:19 > 0:22:21And there was a sort of sense of,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24"I wish I could. I wish I could do that."
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Rory's search for the new and the bold did pay off.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33His paintings became more minimalist and more dramatic.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37He now included fruit, vegetables and nature in decay.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41Rory had that incredible capacity
0:22:41 > 0:22:44to show the world in an onion.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48And it carries with that all the kind of miraculous life
0:22:48 > 0:22:51of all the plants in the world in the one thing.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54The onion paintings are so beautiful.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58I mean, when I look at those paintings, I don't see an onion,
0:22:58 > 0:22:59I just see something...
0:22:59 > 0:23:02You know, the paintings are really exquisite.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07It's like a jewel, it's something really precious and amazing.
0:23:09 > 0:23:14All painters, in a way, teach you how to look at the world.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18And Rory's, by showing you the tiniest detail of a leaf,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23was actually teaching you about life and death,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26nature, colour,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29the importance of everything around you.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34He was getting better and better and better.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38Finally coming to terms with this is what he was put on earth for.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41It told what the plant was about,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45rather than just...capturing it.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49It-it-it... Not in an expressionist way,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51but in a deeply human way.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55And it was the best of Rory. Really the best.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02In the late '70s, Rory was diagnosed with cancer.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04He was 45.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08It spurred him on to painting perhaps his greatest works.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13The leaf paintings all have titles of places.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15They don't identify the leaf.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Where he picked the leaf up is what was important.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22I remember when he was ill,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25that he had to walk very slowly.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31And he said how he really enjoyed it
0:24:31 > 0:24:33because he was seeing so much more.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37These leaves, they're memento mori.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40They're specific to a time and a place.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44They're extremely powerful images
0:24:44 > 0:24:46which meant a lot to him in his life.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50It's like a map of his life.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52All those paintings, all the places that he...
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Our mother lived in East 61st Street,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56that's, I think, where he met her.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01By 1982, Rory's cancer returned
0:25:01 > 0:25:05and he was told that his brain tumour was incurable.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09All of his friends were pretty desperate when we knew he was ill
0:25:09 > 0:25:11and he put a very good face on it
0:25:11 > 0:25:16and he used to wear a wonderful turban to hide the operation
0:25:16 > 0:25:18and whatever treatment he'd had
0:25:18 > 0:25:21and carry on as though things were normal.
0:25:21 > 0:25:27I think he was in extreme pain and he was listening to music.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30Walkman cassette machines had just come out.
0:25:30 > 0:25:37And he would listen to either opera, or Indian music, um...
0:25:37 > 0:25:39as a way of dealing with it.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41He couldn't play his guitar, he couldn't sing,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43plus he was in a lot of pain.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46Um...it was miserable.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50And he said, you know, I remember trying to cheer him one day
0:25:50 > 0:25:54and he just said, "It's just, you know, this is a very dark place."
0:26:00 > 0:26:04# High upon Highlands and low upon Tay
0:26:04 > 0:26:06# Bonny George Campbell...#
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Well, I heard that he had left the house,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12walked to South Kensington Tube station
0:26:12 > 0:26:14and put himself under a train.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17I was just completely devastated.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21And, er...I still can't really cope with it.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24I just, you know, I have to go somewhere else, really.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26It's just terrifying.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31I hardly could take it in.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Um...to me, it was gruesome.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40He was such a gentle person
0:26:40 > 0:26:43and the violence of his death
0:26:43 > 0:26:46was such a sort of terrible conflict.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51That has been something very hard to...
0:26:51 > 0:26:54to sort of deal with in a lot of ways.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58He would have been THE last person you would have thought that...
0:26:58 > 0:27:02they would have been put in a position where
0:27:02 > 0:27:05that was their only option.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10And I think... I can only imagine how bad things must have been
0:27:10 > 0:27:13for that to be the case.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16# Home came his good horse
0:27:16 > 0:27:19# But never came he. #
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Rory was just 50 when he died.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28But his story doesn't end there.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36'Rory was, really, my mentor.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38'And he taught me how to play the 12 string.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40'I feel that I'm the sort of...
0:27:40 > 0:27:45'One of the last practitioners of this Leadbelly style.'
0:27:45 > 0:27:48# 18, 19, 20 years ago
0:27:49 > 0:27:53# Took my gal to the country store... #
0:27:53 > 0:27:56'And then when he died, he left me this Guild guitar,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00'which is a beautiful 12 string, and I treasure it.'
0:28:00 > 0:28:03# Whoa, Buck, and gee by the lamb
0:28:05 > 0:28:07# Who made the back band Cunningham. #
0:28:07 > 0:28:13So I never met my father-in-law, this extraordinary man, Rory McEwen.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16He was the first to do so many things.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18As Van Morrison said earlier,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20he was instrumental in bringing the blues to Britain
0:28:20 > 0:28:25and he was the first person to do what I do in television.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29But would I give up my career in music and television as he did?
0:28:29 > 0:28:30The answer is no.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34Because even if I lived to be 1,000 years old, I could never,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37ever paint as beautifully as he did.
0:28:37 > 0:28:42And it is his paintings that are a fantastic legacy.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45I hope you've got a sense of this incredibly-gifted man
0:28:45 > 0:28:48and how he shared those gifts.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51And I hope you've enjoyed his story.
0:28:55 > 0:28:56# Candyman
0:28:56 > 0:29:00# Candyman
0:29:00 > 0:29:02# Candyman
0:29:02 > 0:29:04# Candyman
0:29:05 > 0:29:08# Candyman
0:29:08 > 0:29:10# Candyman
0:29:10 > 0:29:15# I'd do anything in this whole wide world to get my candyman home. #