0:00:04 > 0:00:07I'm getting ready to do something I've never done before.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17I'm not sure I'm going to like this.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23It's actually quite disgusting.
0:00:30 > 0:00:36Outside, my collaborators are preparing for the big moment.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40OK, if you lean forward a bit.
0:00:46 > 0:00:51It's all rather uncomfortable and a bit baffling
0:00:51 > 0:00:55but then I am entering the world of modern art.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Roll camera!
0:00:59 > 0:01:01And action!
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Where am I?
0:01:09 > 0:01:10Where am I?
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Am I outside?
0:01:16 > 0:01:18GRUNTING
0:01:23 > 0:01:26- WOMAN:- Help me with the face, please, Cadmus.
0:01:26 > 0:01:27Cadmus!
0:01:29 > 0:01:31Put the hammer down and go and get changed.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Changed?
0:01:34 > 0:01:37This is the beginning of the 20th century.
0:01:37 > 0:01:38Alphabet?
0:01:38 > 0:01:41The 20th century, not the 1st.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Help me.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54We can control the modern age with this face.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56- CADMUS:- Face.
0:01:56 > 0:01:57Face!
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Be careful with it, Cadmus.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Cadmus play with face.
0:02:03 > 0:02:04Be careful with it, Cadmus!
0:02:07 > 0:02:10- Eye-balling... - DAVID: Excuse me!
0:02:10 > 0:02:13It's slipping. Help me keep it together.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Now, what shall we make it say?
0:02:18 > 0:02:19- CADMUS:- Mouth!
0:02:19 > 0:02:21MUFFLED: Would you mind not...?
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Mouth! Kisses!
0:02:23 > 0:02:25Take your hand out of my mouth!
0:02:25 > 0:02:26Cadmus!
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Ah...!
0:02:43 > 0:02:48I'm part of a work of art by the contemporary artist, Nathaniel Mellors.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53He's used film, sculpture, performance
0:02:53 > 0:02:57to make a comment on the role of television in modern society.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Whatever you make of it, it shows how much art has changed
0:03:01 > 0:03:05in the last 100 years from pictures hanging in the walls of galleries
0:03:05 > 0:03:07to this.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11The 20th century was an age of ambition,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14when we turned our society upside down,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17when people felt freed from the old traditions
0:03:17 > 0:03:20to experiment as they chose with their lives.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25And these changes were reflected, as always, in our art.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05At the beginning of the 20th century,
0:04:05 > 0:04:09Britain was intent on throwing off the shackles of the Victorian era.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16We were an urbanised, industrialised nation,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19where new forms of transport and communication
0:04:19 > 0:04:23promised to change everyone's life for the better.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41But the century had hardly started before we were knocked off course
0:04:41 > 0:04:45by an event which changed the direction of our history.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02Modern Britain was forged in the trenches of the First World War.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05When it started in 1914, people thought it would only go on
0:05:05 > 0:05:09for a few months, but it lasted over four years.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13And in the slaughter of British forces alone,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16nearly a million lost their lives.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25The brilliant technology designed to improve the quality of life
0:05:25 > 0:05:28was perverted to the service of death.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Man had made the machines.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Now he was destroyed by them.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52As always, artists were sent to the front line to record the scene.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56But what they saw there defied their imagination.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03It was beyond anything they'd experienced before.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11It soon became clear that traditional painting couldn't capture
0:06:11 > 0:06:13the full horror of modern warfare.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16One elderly painter, who'd made a career
0:06:16 > 0:06:18of battle scenes, cavalry charges and the like
0:06:18 > 0:06:21put it rather well, saying, "The gallant plumage,
0:06:21 > 0:06:28"the glint of gold and silver had given way to universal grimness."
0:06:28 > 0:06:32It took a new generation of painters to rise to the challenge.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34They were known as modernists,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36and, for them, modernism meant
0:06:36 > 0:06:39having the courage to look at the harsh reality of the world,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41however grim it was,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45and then to paint not precisely what they saw, but what they felt.
0:06:50 > 0:06:51GUNFIRE
0:07:13 > 0:07:19And up here at this end is perhaps the grimmest painting of the First World War,
0:07:19 > 0:07:21Paul Nash's Menin Road.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Nash had served as a soldier,
0:07:37 > 0:07:41and this shows the battlefield of Flanders as it was
0:07:41 > 0:07:43once war had passed over it.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46The soft green fields obliterated
0:07:46 > 0:07:51and, instead, a kind of horrific moonscape of mud,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55pitted with shell holes full of fetid water
0:07:55 > 0:07:58and strange bits of detritus in it.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03The trees, their branches all gone, just standing,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07forlorn trunks, robbed of life.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Even the colours are unreal.
0:08:12 > 0:08:18This sort of pink box there floating in the water.
0:08:18 > 0:08:24And then these shafts of blue and greeny-blue light
0:08:24 > 0:08:28coming through the black clouds.
0:08:28 > 0:08:29A burst of smoke
0:08:29 > 0:08:32from a shell here and a shell there.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37And there's nobody in this landscape
0:08:37 > 0:08:40except for these four figures,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44stumbling back to what they hope will be safety.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53Nash said that with this painting, he wanted to rob warfare
0:08:53 > 0:08:58of its last shred of glory and its last shine of glamour,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01and he certainly succeeds.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22The war had taken its toll on everyone in Britain -
0:09:22 > 0:09:26men and women of all classes of society.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28When it ended,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32the plan was that everyone would share in the fruits of victory.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Britain would become "a land fit for heroes".
0:09:39 > 0:09:41New homes were built.
0:09:46 > 0:09:52Technology was harnessed to liberate families from domestic slavery,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54able to enjoy new freedoms.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Of all the freedoms of the 20th century,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11the most valued was the freedom of the open road.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Cars had been around since the end of the previous century,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21but they were only for the rich.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23And then along came this...
0:10:26 > 0:10:30...the Austin Seven, one of the greatest cars ever made.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44The Austin Seven was designed by Herbert Austin.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46He'd been an armaments manufacturer in the war
0:10:46 > 0:10:50and decided that after the war what was needed was a small family car
0:10:50 > 0:10:53and nothing as small as this had ever been seen.
0:10:58 > 0:11:04In 1922, when it came out, the Austin Seven sold for £165.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07"Motoring for the million," it was called.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11"So cheap to run, it makes walking foolish."
0:11:12 > 0:11:14And the astonishing thing about it is
0:11:14 > 0:11:18that though from the outside it looks so tiny,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20actually, when you get inside,
0:11:20 > 0:11:22it's really very comfortable.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28Let's see how it goes.
0:11:28 > 0:11:29HORN HOOTS
0:11:39 > 0:11:44The Austin Seven is a work of art in its own right - simple and beautiful.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Oh!
0:11:47 > 0:11:53Its admirers still club together to go on nostalgic trips into the past.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Poop-poop! TOOTING
0:12:06 > 0:12:09The first car I ever owned was an Austin Seven like this.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13Mine didn't have a roof, so you were always out in the open.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17You could hear the birds sing, you could smell the fields going past,
0:12:17 > 0:12:19and when it rained, you got wet.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21And when it snowed, you were well advised to give up.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29If you got to a very steep hill, you had to go up in reverse,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32because reverse gear was lower than first gear.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04In the same year the Austin Seven was launched,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07another miracle of technology appeared,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11one that would open a window on the world about us.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16'Hello, radio terminal. BBC here. Are you getting ready for our broadcast?'
0:13:17 > 0:13:22A group of pioneering companies came together to form the BBC.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26'This is the National Programme.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30'The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Adrian Boult,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34'will play Beethoven's 5th Symphony.'
0:13:36 > 0:13:38ORCHESTRA STRIKES UP
0:13:43 > 0:13:45# LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5 In C Minor
0:13:58 > 0:14:02From the start, radio captured the public imagination.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04Many more people subscribed for licences
0:14:04 > 0:14:07than was expected. I don't know what it was.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10Maybe it was the magic of voices coming over the airwaves,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14perhaps it was regular news bulletins, weather forecasts,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17maybe it was something as simple as everybody in the country
0:14:17 > 0:14:21for the first time being able to set their clocks and watches by Big Ben.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Whatever it was, radio became the new religion,
0:14:24 > 0:14:30a spirit reflected in the design of the BBC's first headquarters.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45Broadcasting House, completed in 1931,
0:14:45 > 0:14:47was a hymn to modernity.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54It was designed in the fashionable Art Deco style,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57often described as an ocean liner
0:14:57 > 0:15:00anchored at the top of London's Regent Street.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08The BBC called it "a temple to the arts",
0:15:08 > 0:15:11and, like all temples, it wasn't just functional,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15it had to have decoration to say what its purpose was.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Here, the sculptor Eric Gill was commissioned to make two figures
0:15:19 > 0:15:21that stand over the doorway.
0:15:21 > 0:15:28Some people looking at it think it's the figure of God and Christ,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32but in reality it's from Shakespeare's Tempest,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35the figure of Ariel and Prospero.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Ariel, the fairy spirit, carrying the radio waves around the world,
0:15:39 > 0:15:44guided by Prospero, who presumably is the broadcaster.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16This is where it all began.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20This is the very first BBC radio transmitter.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24BEEPING, DISTANT VOICES
0:16:28 > 0:16:31- AMERICAN MAN: - 'I received that signal. It is OK.'
0:16:31 > 0:16:34- BRITISH MAN:- 'Will you go ahead five seconds from now?'
0:16:34 > 0:16:40It started broadcasting on the evening of the 14th of November 1922
0:16:40 > 0:16:45with the famous call sign "2LO calling, London calling."
0:16:45 > 0:16:46'This is 2LO calling.'
0:16:46 > 0:16:48'This is London calling.'
0:16:48 > 0:16:50'This is the BBC Home And Forces Programme.'
0:16:50 > 0:16:53'This is the BBC Home Service...'
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Now, the way it was received to start with was not the radio set,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05of course, but the crystal set.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08This is a typical crystal set
0:17:08 > 0:17:11that most people had at the beginning in the '20s.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13I had one of these when I was at school.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15They were very, very difficult to get to work.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18You fiddled around with that till you got a signal.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21You put the headphones on, you spun the dial
0:17:21 > 0:17:25and if you were lucky, you could very faintly pick up music
0:17:25 > 0:17:27or the sound of a voice.
0:17:27 > 0:17:33Quite soon, that gave way to these impressive machines.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37These are full-blown radios with valves inside.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41The whole family could sit in the living room listening to the radio.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44And that was the point - it became a family event.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46And the design of them was important too,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50because the design had to carry the message of what radio was about.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53Radio is about light entering your world.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58A sun with the rays of sunlight through the clouds.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03Radio is about a beacon transmitting like a lighthouse does.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06So here's the lighthouse and the rays of light.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11But this perhaps is the most beautiful of all.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14This is the circular radio,
0:18:14 > 0:18:19designed by the architect Wells Coates in 1932.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22He was obsessed with things being beautiful,
0:18:22 > 0:18:23not just functional.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27So, whether it was a house or a flat or the design of a radio,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32it had to look good, it had to look exciting, it had to please the eye.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36It's a kind of shrine to radio, this.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38It's rather magical,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42because you almost feel you could listen carefully
0:18:42 > 0:18:47and hear all these voices of the past coming out of these sets.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49- EDWARD VIII:- 'A few hours ago,
0:18:49 > 0:18:55'I discharged my last duty as King and Emperor...'
0:18:55 > 0:19:01ADOLF HITLER SPEAKING ON RADIO
0:19:01 > 0:19:04- NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN: - 'As long as war has not begun,
0:19:04 > 0:19:06'there is always hope that it may be prevented.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Just think how many voices these radio sets must have transmitted.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14- WINSTON CHURCHILL:- 'I speak to you for the first time as Prime Minister
0:19:14 > 0:19:19'in a solemn hour for the life of our country and, above all,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21'of the cause of freedom.'
0:19:27 > 0:19:29WHISTLE BLOWS
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Broadcasting was a revolutionary idea -
0:19:40 > 0:19:42culture for the people.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48The problem was very little was actually known about the people.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51Who were they? What did they want?
0:20:01 > 0:20:03In 1937,
0:20:03 > 0:20:09an odd combination of a poet, a painter and an anthropologist
0:20:09 > 0:20:13came together and agreed that not enough was known
0:20:13 > 0:20:16about the real people of Britain.
0:20:16 > 0:20:17And they decided to set up
0:20:17 > 0:20:21what they called a "science of ourselves".
0:20:21 > 0:20:24The idea was to record in detail
0:20:24 > 0:20:27the minutest observations of ordinary life.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29What people did, how they talked,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33how they drank and ate, and where they went, and all the rest of it.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36It was called Mass Observation.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49Mass Observation chose for its base the industrial city of Bolton.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54They gave it a code name - Worktown.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59It stood as an example of the great cities of the North,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02which supplied much of the nation's wealth,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05but had a long history of being ignored by the South.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15The founders of Mass Observation had an absolutely insatiable appetite for facts.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20Every day, they sent out teams of volunteers with a question to be answered.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25One time, it was how many people in the high street are wearing brown shoes
0:21:25 > 0:21:27and how many are wearing black?
0:21:27 > 0:21:29And another time, it was how many chips are there
0:21:29 > 0:21:32in the average portion of takeaway?
0:21:32 > 0:21:36The answer was 25 and one sixth.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39You see, nothing was too trivial for them to note it down.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51The spies employed by Mass Observation eavesdropped
0:21:51 > 0:21:54and recorded what they heard.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58They wanted to know what people talked about.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11Armed with concealed cameras, photographers took pictures of
0:22:11 > 0:22:15people going about their business, unaware they were being watched.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39'This is a film about the way people spend their spare time.'
0:22:39 > 0:22:44The pioneering use of documentary film also served the cause,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47this one by one of the founders of Mass Observation -
0:22:47 > 0:22:49Humphrey Jennings.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54'Between work and sleep comes the time we call our own.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57'What do we do with it?'
0:22:58 > 0:23:00'As things are, spare time
0:23:00 > 0:23:03'is a time when we have a chance to do what we like,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06'a chance to be most ourselves.'
0:23:08 > 0:23:11GENERAL CHATTER
0:23:13 > 0:23:17One of Mass Observation's obsessions was with public houses.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22They worked out that more time and more money was spent in pubs
0:23:22 > 0:23:25than was spent in churches, dancehalls, meeting places,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27politics...all put together.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32And they published a book, The Pub And The People,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35which analysed the way people behaved in pubs.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41They wrote down the statistics of how many people got drunk,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44how many people smoked in the pub.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47They talked about the way people spat in pubs.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51They even talked about people flirting with the barmaids.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56It was a complete record of human life as seen through the public bar.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59Does this happen in your pub?
0:23:59 > 0:24:03"Man, aged about 40, says, 'I drink beer, cos I think it does me more good
0:24:03 > 0:24:07"'than doctor's medicine. It keeps my bowels in good working order.' "
0:24:07 > 0:24:08I'm sure it will!
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Mass Observation's very interesting. It began as a kind of curiosity
0:24:21 > 0:24:25of artists wanting to know what other people were like,
0:24:25 > 0:24:31an element of sort of slightly nosy curtain-twitching about it.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35It ended rather impressively as something that got the attention
0:24:35 > 0:24:38of governments and made not just artists, but politicians,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41realise you couldn't just tell people what to do.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45You actually had to listen to what they were saying.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47SIREN WAILS
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Halfway through the 20th century,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54progress was once again halted by war.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00It lasted from 1939 to 1945.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07For the first time in 1,000 years,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11British people were under foreign attack in their own homes.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18They faced the mass bombing raids called the Blitz.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30People were desperate to escape the death raining down on them from the skies.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34If you had a back garden, you could build a shelter.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37But most people didn't - they lived in blocks of flats.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39The government came in with a scheme
0:25:39 > 0:25:43to build public shelters in the street which families could go to.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46But they were overcrowded, they were unsanitary.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Above all, though, they were unsafe.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53They'd been so badly built that some people died while taking shelter in them.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55As public anger grew,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58people decided to take matters into their own hands.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16For those who lived in London, the obvious solution
0:26:16 > 0:26:20was to take cover in the network of tunnels that made up the Underground.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28The government had originally forbidden the use of
0:26:28 > 0:26:31the underground as a shelter, but people got round it.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34They simply came to the station, bought a ticket,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37went down to the platform and refused to leave.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Realising they couldn't win, the government gave way.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12At the height of the Blitz, nearly 200,000 people
0:27:12 > 0:27:16would cram into tube stations for a night's sleep.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29One evening in late 1940, at the very height of the Blitz,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33the artist Henry Moore got trapped down in the tubes by an air raid.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37He spent an hour down here and he was transfixed by what he saw.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41He described it later as like seeing a whole city
0:27:41 > 0:27:43in the bowels of the Earth.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47He said the rows and rows of people reminded him of slaves
0:27:47 > 0:27:54being transported from Africa to America, with no control over their own lives.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58He was so moved by the sight that time and again
0:27:58 > 0:28:03he returned underground and filled books of drawings with what he saw.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13Moore's pictures reveal a subterranean world.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Ghostly figures huddled together for comfort.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24People sleeping in long lines along the tunnels.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49Henry Moore's pictures were put on show at the National Gallery at the time
0:28:49 > 0:28:51and they were immensely popular.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56They might have shown a kind of dismal scene underground,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59but they had a warmth and humanity about them.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03And they embodied what people thought of as a kind of Blitz spirit.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06They might spend the night here under attack,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10but in the morning, they'd rise again and not be defeated.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18- Good morning.- Good morning.
0:29:18 > 0:29:19- See you tonight.- Rightio.
0:29:19 > 0:29:20Come on, Betty.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24The wartime mood of shared suffering,
0:29:24 > 0:29:29of making do, inspired the radical notion of a welfare state,
0:29:29 > 0:29:36where every citizen would be looked after from cradle to grave.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40At the very height of the Blitz, the economist William Beveridge
0:29:40 > 0:29:44was asked to work out how this might be delivered.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54The famous Beveridge Report of 1942 came up with a whole host of ideas
0:29:54 > 0:29:57about how Britain might emerge from the war
0:29:57 > 0:30:00into the sunlit uplands of a better society.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Among the many recommendations it made was a key one,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07that there should be free medical support for everybody,
0:30:07 > 0:30:12one of the jewels in the crown - the National Health Service.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22After the war, the dream became a reality.
0:30:22 > 0:30:27The National Health Service Act of 1946 led to the creation
0:30:27 > 0:30:32of state-funded hospitals where anyone could be treated.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46One artist who was particularly passionate about the NHS was Barbara Hepworth.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50It wasn't just because she supported it politically, which she did,
0:30:50 > 0:30:51but she was grateful to doctors
0:30:51 > 0:30:56who'd operated on her own daughter, who had a dangerous bone disease.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00And so, in 1947, when the NHS was being set up,
0:31:00 > 0:31:05she sought and was given permission to shadow surgeons at their work.
0:31:16 > 0:31:17In just two years,
0:31:17 > 0:31:22Hepworth produced over 100 pictures of operating teams.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29She celebrates surgeons and nurses
0:31:29 > 0:31:33as though they were saints in an Italian Renaissance painting.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44She focuses on the eyes and hands of the surgeons and nurses,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48rather than the blood and guts on the operating table.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56Barbara Hepworth wrote,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59"From the moment I entered the operating theatre,
0:31:59 > 0:32:03"I became completely absorbed by the beauty of purpose
0:32:03 > 0:32:08"and co-ordination between human beings dedicated to the saving of life."
0:32:08 > 0:32:12And she captured with almost religious intensity
0:32:12 > 0:32:16the power and the mystery of healing
0:32:16 > 0:32:21and, of course, her thrill at the setting-up of the NHS.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Reserve segments five and eight.
0:32:36 > 0:32:37Pick up six and seven.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Can I ask what you're doing or is it not a good moment?
0:32:41 > 0:32:43No, it is, you're very welcome to ask.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46I'm marking the line of division of the liver now.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49- This is where you're going to cut? - Where I'm going to divide the liver.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52When Hepworth was doing her studies of surgery,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55she talked about the co-ordination,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59how beautiful the co-ordination was between the team.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Is that at the heart of it, co-ordination?
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Yes, I think it is. It's a team effort. Everyone has a role.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07You rely on everybody else to do their bit.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09Very much so.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12I couldn't do this job without the people I work with.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18And is she, to you, just a body or have you met her?
0:33:18 > 0:33:21No, no, no, I've seen her and counselled her in great detail
0:33:21 > 0:33:23about what we're going to do.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26- So you know whose liver this is? - Oh, yes, very much so.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29I think the day you start working as a factory worker,
0:33:29 > 0:33:33you should go and be a factory worker. It's not that kind of job.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36MONITOR BEEPS
0:33:36 > 0:33:39- I think I'd better leave you to it. - That's OK.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41- Thank you very much indeed. - You're very welcome.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06By the end of the 1940s, a kind of socialist idea of art
0:34:06 > 0:34:11was widely accepted, that the artist should be at the service of society.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Then came along a new generation who said that was all claptrap.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18They had no intention of serving society -
0:34:18 > 0:34:22they wanted to be artists in their own right, doing what they wanted to do.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25And their stamping ground was right here, in Soho.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43We take self-expression for granted now, but in the '40s and '50s,
0:34:43 > 0:34:48Soho was one of the few places where you could be and do what you liked.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Here, there was a mix of cultures and people...
0:34:57 > 0:34:59..continental restaurants...
0:35:01 > 0:35:03..nightclubs, dancing till dawn.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08A magnet for free spirits.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11Oh, lovely.
0:35:11 > 0:35:12No, I'm filming, actually,
0:35:12 > 0:35:14so I can't come and see your naked ladies.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16Very nice offer, all the same.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23RINGS DOORBELL
0:35:41 > 0:35:43There's your Sex on the Beach, David.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45Thank you, Trisha.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Drinking clubs were at the very heart of Soho's culture.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51Back in the '40s, the licensing laws meant
0:35:51 > 0:35:53pubs couldn't stay open in the afternoon,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55to stop excessive drinking,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59and so a whole host of private drinking clubs opened up -
0:35:59 > 0:36:03down a flight of stairs, into a dark room,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07and it stayed open all afternoon, a kind of vampire's lair.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09And it was in clubs like this
0:36:09 > 0:36:14that dissatisfied artists of that generation started to meet.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24The king of Soho's drinking clubs was Francis Bacon,
0:36:24 > 0:36:29a troubled and rebellious genius who became recognised as
0:36:29 > 0:36:32one of the greatest painters of the 20th century.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48In a warehouse, one of Bacon's works
0:36:48 > 0:36:53is waiting to be rehung by the Tate, after returning from a show abroad.
0:36:55 > 0:37:01It was first exhibited at the end of the war in 1945, just as Britain
0:37:01 > 0:37:06was discovering the grim reality of Nazi concentration camps.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18This is possibly Francis Bacon's greatest work.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20It's certainly the work that made his name.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28It's called Three Studies For Figures At The Base Of A Crucifixion.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31He used the idea of the crucifixion
0:37:31 > 0:37:35to talk about man's inhumanity to man,
0:37:35 > 0:37:43and these horrendous, repulsive figures show what man is capable of.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50You can't at first glance tell what they are, they're so grotesque.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54Here's a strange figure with hair over its face, I suppose,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58and a bit of nose there, on a sort of platform.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05And here, these teeth bared out at you and the blindfold,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09so whatever this creature is, it can't see what it's pursuing,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12but just baring its teeth.
0:38:12 > 0:38:18And here, one letting out a terrible, almost primeval scream or yowl.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24Bacon was obsessed with the mouth.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28He wanted to paint mouths, he said once, like Monet painted sunsets.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38All art reflects in some way or other the world as it is,
0:38:38 > 0:38:43it doesn't just come from nowhere, and these paintings by Bacon
0:38:43 > 0:38:46do reflect a particular attitude to the world,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49a kind of mixture of despair
0:38:49 > 0:38:54at the horror of what man does to man, a fear about the future.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58And it chimes not just with the mood after the Second World War,
0:38:58 > 0:39:03but of course with our mood today, when we look at the world as it is.
0:39:03 > 0:39:09And that's why Bacon still has a hold over our imagination.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22With his horrific but exciting work,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26Bacon was an artist ahead of his time.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33For the most part, though, the '50s were a dull,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35stick-in-the-mud decade,
0:39:35 > 0:39:39where to be young was already to be middle-aged,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41and I was no exception.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47I was a teenager in the 1950s,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50and in a way it was rather a dreary time to be growing up.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54Britain was rather impoverished after the war, still posing as a great power,
0:39:54 > 0:39:59and the result was a kind of conformity, a staid way of living.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02You were expected to toe the line.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06It couldn't last, of course, because as the economy picked up,
0:40:06 > 0:40:08the young rebelled.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10They had more money in their pockets
0:40:10 > 0:40:14and they used it in an explosion of energy.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19# We-e-e-e-e-ell
0:40:19 > 0:40:22# You know you make me wanna shout
0:40:22 > 0:40:23# Look, my hand's jumping
0:40:23 > 0:40:25- # Shout - Look, my heart's pumping
0:40:25 > 0:40:26- # Shout - Throw my head back
0:40:26 > 0:40:28- # Shout - Come on now... #
0:40:28 > 0:40:31The result was the so-called Swinging Sixties,
0:40:31 > 0:40:36a social revolution led by the young that touched every walk of life.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42At the heart of it was a craving to cut free from the past.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45It would change fashion...
0:40:47 > 0:40:49..and design...
0:40:51 > 0:40:55..a popular culture which gave its name to a new style of art.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00Artists like David Hockney
0:41:00 > 0:41:03sought to reflect the values of the world around them,
0:41:03 > 0:41:06however shallow they might seem.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08- # Shout! - All right!
0:41:08 > 0:41:10- # Shout! - All right!
0:41:10 > 0:41:11- # Shout! - All right!
0:41:11 > 0:41:15- # Shout! - Well, I feel all-ll right! #
0:41:15 > 0:41:17And things could only get weirder.
0:41:22 > 0:41:23GLASS SMASHES
0:41:24 > 0:41:26We have no taste.
0:41:26 > 0:41:27We are artists.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29For 40 years,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33Gilbert and George have described themselves as "living sculpture",
0:41:33 > 0:41:37insisting they themselves are works of art.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44In their pictures, they relish confronting taboos.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Ah...!
0:41:49 > 0:41:53With their resolutely conventional dress but outlandish behaviour,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57they look like two bank clerks in the grip of a nervous breakdown.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05# Bend it, bend it, just a little bit
0:42:05 > 0:42:09# And take it easy, show you like it... #
0:42:12 > 0:42:14KEYS RATTLE IN LOCK
0:42:17 > 0:42:19Good afternoon.
0:42:19 > 0:42:20Good afternoon.
0:42:20 > 0:42:21How do you do?
0:42:21 > 0:42:25- This is a very exciting moment for me.- It's thrilling that you're here.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27To meet living sculpture.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30- It's wonderful. Come through, please.- Thank you.
0:42:41 > 0:42:46Do you see your work in the same tradition as artists, painters,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48sculptors of the 19th century?
0:42:48 > 0:42:51In the visual tradition, visual art, yes.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54It's figuration, it's pictures.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56For years and years, the artists were the slaves
0:42:56 > 0:42:58of the Church and then of the toffs,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01and then suddenly artists would go into their studio
0:43:01 > 0:43:05and say, "What do I want to say to the world today?" And we're part of that.
0:43:05 > 0:43:06Who do you work for?
0:43:06 > 0:43:09We believe an artist should be working as a service,
0:43:09 > 0:43:14providing thoughts and feelings for anyone, wherever they lived in the world.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16We want to confront ordinary people with our work,
0:43:16 > 0:43:19to say yes or no, and that's why
0:43:19 > 0:43:22we are doing all this very big... what are called museum shows
0:43:22 > 0:43:25that are totally confrontational.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28We do believe that we're dealing with all of the basic elements
0:43:28 > 0:43:30that lie inside everybody, wherever they live,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33- whatever their educational background.- What kind of elements?
0:43:33 > 0:43:38- BOTH:- Death, hope, life, fear, sex, money, race, religion.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40That's all we deal with.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Beautifully said in unison, because you've thought this out.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46- No, we know it, because it's what we do.- That's what we always do.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Are people very shocked by your works, still?
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Because a lot of it is quite shocking.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12But you look...as if butter wouldn't melt in your mouth, so sweet...
0:44:12 > 0:44:14You're right about that.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19.so elegantly dressed, so polite, and yet you do pictures of people defecating,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23of yourselves defecating, of things that many people would think
0:44:23 > 0:44:25were disgusting and quite against your nature.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28It's very human. That's it. That's why we want to use it.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32We want to make it more de-shocking and making it normal.
0:44:32 > 0:44:38We had a lovely letter from a lady last week, saying that she was 82 years of age,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41she admired our work and she particularly wanted to congratulate us
0:44:41 > 0:44:43on her favourite pictures, The Naked Shit Pictures,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46"Because they make me sit up and think more openly," she said.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48- Isn't that extraordinary? - It is extraordinary.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Wonderful. "Think more openly" - that's the whole secret to the whole thing,
0:44:52 > 0:44:54that people can be more open.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56So people come to terms with what they are, you mean,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00so people accept that anything they do or think or feel is normal,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02because it's what they are like.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08Just before we go, can I become part of living sculpture
0:45:08 > 0:45:11with your famous dance? Would that be possible?
0:45:11 > 0:45:14- You may try, of course. - Only if you want to.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16- I want to! - In that case, you must.
0:45:16 > 0:45:17Show me what to do.
0:45:17 > 0:45:23# Bend it, bend it, just a little bit And take it easy... #
0:45:23 > 0:45:25Am I doing it all right?
0:45:25 > 0:45:27- Very good.- Very good.
0:45:27 > 0:45:29I don't remember how to do it, but I do it!
0:45:31 > 0:45:34# DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH: Bend It!
0:45:34 > 0:45:36Very haphazard!
0:45:37 > 0:45:39You can make it up as you go along.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44- That's it.- Good.
0:45:44 > 0:45:45Thank you very much.
0:45:49 > 0:45:54Where beauty and craftsmanship were what counted to artists in the past,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56shock and outrage
0:45:56 > 0:45:59seem to be as important to the ambitious artist of today.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Hello. It's David Dimbleby. I've come to see Tracey Emin.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05DOOR ENTRY SYSTEM BUZZES Thank you.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13Tracey Emin is famous for the way her work confronts sex.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Most notorious was her tent with the names of every person
0:46:28 > 0:46:31she'd slept with sewn on the inside...
0:46:32 > 0:46:37..and her unmade bed, with its deliberate portrayal
0:46:37 > 0:46:39of a dissolute life.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Do you think, 50 years ago,
0:46:46 > 0:46:49you'd have been as successful as you are today?
0:46:49 > 0:46:50No.
0:46:51 > 0:46:52Because...?
0:46:52 > 0:46:55Because 50 years ago,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59the education system was radically different from what it is now,
0:46:59 > 0:47:01I mean, from when I was at school.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03Number one, there wasn't so much equal rights.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Obviously, there was no equal rights for women around that time.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09Was it something about attitudes to women
0:47:09 > 0:47:12that changed or that have changed in your lifetime?
0:47:12 > 0:47:14What actually changed is that in the '70s,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17there were a group of women called feminists that worked really hard
0:47:17 > 0:47:21for women like me to be legacies... as we could then do what we wanted.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24And there was these women
0:47:24 > 0:47:28that were just really pissed off with the situation that decided
0:47:28 > 0:47:33to drive a great big stake into the heart of art and change things.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37So your idea is that men have a different approach to art
0:47:37 > 0:47:40and, I suppose, a different approach to life from women?
0:47:40 > 0:47:42Yes. They have a different approach towards sex, as well,
0:47:42 > 0:47:44so it's a kind of primal thing.
0:47:44 > 0:47:45Women, they want more.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49Women will want to keep coming and keep coming
0:47:49 > 0:47:52and keep coming, and that's what a female artist is like.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55You know, she's not happy with the one big...
0:47:55 > 0:47:57Like me, I made my tent, I made my bed.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59I'm quite happy
0:47:59 > 0:48:02with all the little ones in-between, and it kind of keeps me going.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06I'm quite happy to diversify with my life and with my art.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10I'm not always looking for the big kill, you know, the big come.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20But I tell you what, I should turn the lights out, as well.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22I'll turn the lights out.
0:48:22 > 0:48:23That's it.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26- When did you make this? - Oh, this summer.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31Emin's latest work continues to provoke a shocked reaction.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35It's a woman masturbating.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37So it seems.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40DAVID: But rather ferociously.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43The reason why she's doing it so fast and so ferociously
0:48:43 > 0:48:47is because the animation is actually quite crude, and I wanted it to be
0:48:47 > 0:48:50super-crude, because I want you to be able to see each drawing.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54Or not each drawing, it just moves fast. And I'd made two different
0:48:54 > 0:48:57kind of versions of it, filmed it in different ways, one that was much
0:48:57 > 0:49:01more smoother, and it actually didn't look how I wanted it to.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04I liked the crudeness of it, I liked the jerky...cos it jerks,
0:49:04 > 0:49:06which then, for me, makes it more mesmerising,
0:49:06 > 0:49:08like a kind of spider thing.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11You kind of forget the image that you're actually looking at.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14Because if you did it slower, it'd be pornographic, wouldn't it?
0:49:14 > 0:49:17Whereas this is a series of fierce...
0:49:17 > 0:49:18- Yeah.- ...images.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20It reminds me of those drawings
0:49:20 > 0:49:23you used to do as a child on the corner of a book,
0:49:23 > 0:49:27you know, where you did lots of drawings and then you riffled through the pages.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29Yeah, like a flick book.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32Yes, like a flick book. But I don't think we drew this kind of thing.
0:49:32 > 0:49:37We drew people jumping over hurdles, which maybe is much the same!
0:49:43 > 0:49:48Many people find modern art too obscure, too exclusive,
0:49:48 > 0:49:50to be worth bothering with.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55One artist who has managed to be distinctly modern
0:49:55 > 0:49:59but to produce works that attract a wide audience is Anish Kapoor.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05- Hello.- Nice to see you. - Good to see you.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09I've watched people going round this exhibition
0:50:09 > 0:50:12- with smiles on their faces... - That's always good.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14- ..and a look of astonishment. - That's even better!
0:50:20 > 0:50:26Anish Kapoor's recent show was one of his most ambitious and most popular.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32His work bombards us with size,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35colour
0:50:35 > 0:50:37and optical illusion.
0:50:47 > 0:50:54This is an astonishing room. Can't make out these shapes.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56Well, they're made by a machine -
0:50:56 > 0:51:00a highly sophisticated, computerised machine -
0:51:00 > 0:51:03that oozes this cement paste.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07- They look like piles of turds. - Indeed they do!
0:51:07 > 0:51:09Well, that's this part of that process,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12and there's a different way of using it and a different way over there and so on.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14- Worms and...- Exactly.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17So it's as if they could have been made by an animal.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33This is astonishing. So this goes up and down all day long.
0:51:33 > 0:51:34Yup. Yup.
0:51:34 > 0:51:40What I did was cast a block of wax that's bigger than the doors.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42There's about 40 tonnes of wax there.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46And of course, in there is a motor, an engine,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51that drives the whole wagon through the doorways very, very slowly.
0:51:51 > 0:51:57And as it does so, it sort of skims itself, it sorts of flays itself
0:51:57 > 0:51:59and pushes itself through the building.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Now, the idea is that that's one way to make sculpture,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06is to push something through something else.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11But the curious thing is,
0:52:11 > 0:52:13as an artist, you couldn't sell this, could you?
0:52:13 > 0:52:16I mean, nobody can buy this and put it in their house.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19You make it for public display and...poof!
0:52:19 > 0:52:24Yeah, but not everything has value because of its economic value,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28especially in an art world or in a world - never mind the art world -
0:52:28 > 0:52:34which measures all things by economic value.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36I think it's rather good that there are things
0:52:36 > 0:52:39that step outside that and might have other values.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41Yes. Yes.
0:52:46 > 0:52:51The highlight of the exhibition was a great cannon that fired cylinders
0:52:51 > 0:52:54of red wax against the gallery wall.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Whoa! God! That was a good one.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05That was a very good one.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09It's loathsome, the way it slides down the wall.
0:53:09 > 0:53:15Yeah. So it's, again, a kind of horrible, fleshy skinning.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19What gave you the idea for this? Nightmares in your head?
0:53:19 > 0:53:21It's a terrible nightmare, isn't it?
0:53:21 > 0:53:23Blood and guts and gore and...
0:53:23 > 0:53:24Indeed. Indeed.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28..placenta and anything you care to say, really.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30Exactly. Sometimes one makes works
0:53:30 > 0:53:33that take you to places that you don't expect to go,
0:53:33 > 0:53:37and I think one has to have the courage to go there fully and truly.
0:53:50 > 0:53:55I began this series looking at what art tells us about ourselves
0:53:55 > 0:53:58and our past.
0:53:58 > 0:54:04Today's art, like our modern world, can be confusing and troubling.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11But one thing's clear - the prize for a successful artist
0:54:11 > 0:54:13has never been greater.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21- Hello!- Hello!
0:54:21 > 0:54:23- Very nice to meet you. - Good to meet you.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28- This is a fantastic space. - It's big.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30What are you working on?
0:54:30 > 0:54:32I thought I might do a cabinet of flies,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36because there's that great joke of the way the guy walks into the pet shop
0:54:36 > 0:54:39and says, "Can I buy a fly?" And he says, "We don't sell flies.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43"This is a pet shop." He says, "You've got one in the window."
0:54:52 > 0:54:56Damien Hirst's success lies in using entertainment and humour
0:54:56 > 0:55:00to set against the inevitability of death.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06In 2007,
0:55:06 > 0:55:12he reportedly sold a skull studded with diamonds for £50 million,
0:55:12 > 0:55:14which would make it the most expensive
0:55:14 > 0:55:16work of art by a living artist.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21Things like that were made by kings and emperors, you know?
0:55:21 > 0:55:23It's nice to think that an artist can do that in
0:55:23 > 0:55:25the world we live in today, and I think that'll be...
0:55:25 > 0:55:29if nothing else, that'll seem important.
0:55:29 > 0:55:30Did you pay for all the diamonds, then?
0:55:30 > 0:55:31Yeah, yeah.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34I mean, we lived in a really good time over the last ten years,
0:55:34 > 0:55:35we were making so much money.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38As an artist, you always make work from what's around you,
0:55:38 > 0:55:41and money was around me. And then I thought, well, what could I do
0:55:41 > 0:55:43while this money is here that I wouldn't be able to do...?
0:55:43 > 0:55:46It's like you think, "I could do something really amazing."
0:55:46 > 0:55:49How much did you spend on the diamonds before you finished?
0:55:49 > 0:55:53It was about 12 million in the end.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55But there was a lot of fluctuating prices as we went,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58and the big one in the middle was three or four.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07So what's this?
0:56:07 > 0:56:09Spin machine. Spin art.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13Yeah. When I was at school, we had summer fetes where you used to
0:56:13 > 0:56:17be able to go in and pay, like, 20p, 50p or something, and make a spin painting.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20- Do you want to make one? - I'd love to.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22Come on, then.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27- So, what do you want? - I like the skull.
0:56:27 > 0:56:28The skull's good.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33So...first of all, we have to pin it on.
0:56:34 > 0:56:35How does it go?
0:56:35 > 0:56:38We're just going to spin it, and just have no fear -
0:56:38 > 0:56:40the machine does the work.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46Is this a Damien Hirst or is it a David Dimbleby?
0:56:46 > 0:56:48How much do I have to pay you to sign it?
0:56:48 > 0:56:51If it's good, I take the credit. If it's crap, you get the blame.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54Do you want to try a butterfly?
0:56:57 > 0:56:59I want it yellow with black spots.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Jeez!
0:57:01 > 0:57:03- OK, stop.- Is that OK?
0:57:05 > 0:57:07I'm meant to be doing this, not you.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10I'm sorry! I just can't help it - it's like a disease!
0:57:10 > 0:57:12- So if I put black there...- Yeah.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14Yeah, that's what I'll do.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17Cool, I like that!
0:57:17 > 0:57:19OK, now spin it.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21WHIRRING
0:57:23 > 0:57:24Not too much.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26- Ah! - One black wing, one yellow wing.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28That's what I wanted.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30- Then put some more yellow on here. - OK.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34OK, spin it again. That's got to work.
0:57:36 > 0:57:37OK, stop.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41- What do you think of that? - It's destroyed it!
0:57:41 > 0:57:43- Oh, it's come off the side! - You've ruined it!
0:57:43 > 0:57:45"You've ruined it!" I love that!
0:57:45 > 0:57:48That's what my kids say. They won't let me touch 'em.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52Lovely.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55What are they worth?
0:57:55 > 0:57:57You've got to put them on eBay to find out.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01And what do they say about modern Britain?
0:58:01 > 0:58:05They say we're here for a good time, not a long time.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09They certainly had a good time.