0:00:24 > 0:00:26Towards the end of the 19th century,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29something strange began happening to the gentlemen of Britain.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43An elite form of self-defence started a trend
0:00:43 > 0:00:45that was to fascinate us for the next hundred years.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Men and women, irrespective of class or race, would be
0:00:51 > 0:00:55drawn into something that became a British obsession.
0:00:55 > 0:01:01It would take a century but in the end, everybody was kung fu fighting.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Victorian London could be a dangerous place.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Beyond the fashionable and respectable streets,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17trouble lurked in the shadows.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21A gentleman had to learn to protect himself.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Victorian London. This was the height of the Industrial Revolution.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42It was a time when people were flooding into the big cities
0:01:42 > 0:01:43from rural areas.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46A lot of people were very poor. There was a lot of poverty
0:01:46 > 0:01:50and there was a lot of street crime. This was a violent society.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Also you had a greater social mobility. The underground.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58There was a fear that criminals could perhaps travel from East to West
0:01:58 > 0:02:00and come and attack you on your door.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07There were what they called the garrotting panics. Garrotters were urban gangsters
0:02:07 > 0:02:12who would operate in groups of three or four or five.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16One of them would sneak up behind a pedestrian, garrotte them
0:02:16 > 0:02:19around the neck and strangle them almost into unconsciousness.
0:02:19 > 0:02:20And their confederates would come up
0:02:20 > 0:02:25and steal the pedestrian's pocket watch and wallet and so forth.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30So there was a perception that you had to be able to defend yourself.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35And the whole concept of gentlemen in society needing to have
0:02:35 > 0:02:38a smattering of self-defence skills, at least,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40goes all the way back to the Middle Ages.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42It was always assumed that gentleman led the way.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47They needed to prove that they were well-read and intelligent
0:02:47 > 0:02:51and courageous, that they could dance one minute and sword-fight the next.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59The search for a perfect method of self-defence
0:02:59 > 0:03:02led thousands of miles away, to the Far East.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08There were rumours in the Western world of this mysterious
0:03:08 > 0:03:10Japanese art of unarmed combat, of wrestling.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15But there was really very, very little known about it at the technical level.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19For the Victorians, Japan was a strange and mysterious land.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23The famous samurai warrior caste had been abolished in the 1860s,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27but some of their unique unarmed combat skills had survived.
0:03:30 > 0:03:37The samurai did have this huge tradition of martial arts.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39This embraced everything
0:03:39 > 0:03:41from horseback archery to this bare-handed
0:03:41 > 0:03:45fighting that they learned so they could cope with an enemy
0:03:45 > 0:03:48when they were disarmed on the battlefield.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54This was jujitsu, battlefield jujitsu.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59And it was a series of techniques that were designed to be lethal.
0:04:03 > 0:04:061890s Japan had only recently opened up to the West
0:04:06 > 0:04:08and was desperate to modernise.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14There were opportunities to be had for the businessmen of Britain.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16The engineer Edward Barton-Wright,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20a self-defence fanatic, took the opportunity to work there.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23The thing about Barton-Wright was, I think, that he
0:04:23 > 0:04:27became very impressed with the concepts that the Japanese
0:04:27 > 0:04:32had preserved from their medieval martial arts.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Barton-Wright, photographed here,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42was one of the very first Westerners to learn the secrets of jujitsu.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48With a lifelong interest in a diverse range of self-defence systems,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52to come across this extremely sophisticated form of unarmed combat,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54I think he must have been fascinated.
0:04:54 > 0:05:01He certainly was enough to train as often as he could for those three years.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Barton-Wright was determined to master jujitsu.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10But as an entrepreneur, he also saw its commercial potential.
0:05:10 > 0:05:11After training for several years,
0:05:11 > 0:05:15he combined jujitsu with the Western arts of boxing, wrestling
0:05:15 > 0:05:19and cane fighting, to create an all-new martial art.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23He called it "bartitsu".
0:05:23 > 0:05:27He came back over to Britain in the late 1890s
0:05:27 > 0:05:30and he imported this martial art that he'd created
0:05:30 > 0:05:35and turned it into a brand name, a must-have for the English gentleman.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39Barton-Wright was his surname, and BARTitsu,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Barton formed part of the name,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43"Itsu" coming from jujitsu.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51What Barton-Wright was aiming for was the complete
0:05:51 > 0:05:56method of self-defence, taking the best that the East and West had to offer.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01His brilliant innovation was,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04"what we should do is combine all of these systems together."
0:06:04 > 0:06:07We should establish Bartitsu as a method of crosstraining
0:06:07 > 0:06:08between these styles.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13So in essence, I would say, it was an experimental process.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Bartitsu was aimed squarely at the elite of British society.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23I think bartitsu appealed to a lot of Victorian gentleman simply
0:06:23 > 0:06:27because the way Barton-Wright synthesised the techniques,
0:06:27 > 0:06:34it pandered to the Victorian concept of a sort of upright,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37officer class kind of a martial art.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40It was all about having a lot of bearing.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Balance, yes, but bearing as well.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47If you look at the cane fighting, it was all about standing up straight,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50about evading your opponent simply by sliding
0:06:50 > 0:06:54sideways and then whacking them with a cane while you...
0:06:54 > 0:06:57while they are off-balance, you stand up straight,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00you maintain that gentlemanly poise.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05Bartitsu caught the attention of Arthur Conan Doyle.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14The writer was under pressure to bring back his most famous creation.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19By 1903, the legendary Sherlock Holmes had been missing
0:07:19 > 0:07:23from the pages of British literature for 10 years...
0:07:25 > 0:07:29seemingly killed off by his creator in a battle to the death
0:07:29 > 0:07:30with master criminal Moriarty.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38Readers were led to believe both had plummeted
0:07:38 > 0:07:41to their deaths in the Reichenbach Falls.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46For Holmes to return, he needed a trick up his sleeve.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Conan Doyle's greatest hero, the most famous
0:07:51 > 0:07:54and best-loved English detective, Sherlock Holmes,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58went to battle with his arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Both of them are teetering on the brink, on this tiny little path,
0:08:04 > 0:08:09where the water is gushing on either side and they could slip at any moment.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Conan Doyle turned to Barton-Wright's martial art,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17which he had read about in the pages of The Times, misspelled as "baritsu".
0:08:19 > 0:08:23In The Adventure Of The Empty House, he revived his star detective.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27"We tottered together upon the brink of the fall.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31"I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese
0:08:31 > 0:08:35"system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38"I slipped through his grip and he, with a horrible scream,
0:08:38 > 0:08:43"kicked madly for a few seconds, clawed the air with both his hands,
0:08:43 > 0:08:49"but for all his efforts, he could not get his balance and over he went.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54"With my face over the brink, I saw him fall for a long way.
0:08:54 > 0:09:01"Then he struck a rock, bounced off and splashed into the water."
0:09:01 > 0:09:04LOUD SCREAM
0:09:13 > 0:09:17But for all that, Barton-Wright's creation never caught on.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Edwardian Britain became more interested in the martial art
0:09:20 > 0:09:23that had started it all off, Japanese jujitsu.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30And it was to find some unlikely participants at the beginning of the new century -
0:09:30 > 0:09:31the suffragettes.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43The suffragettes were fighting for votes for women
0:09:43 > 0:09:47and they were very frustrated because, in the 19th century,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51the male electorate had doubled under the 1867 Reform Act
0:09:51 > 0:09:56and what they were frustrated by was also the way in which many
0:09:56 > 0:09:59anti-suffragists were arguing that women didn't deserve the vote
0:09:59 > 0:10:01because they weren't strong enough,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04weren't physically capable of defending the country.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08So actually, the suffragettes wanted to show that in fact,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12women could be tough and strong but dainty at the same time.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18# You'd be so nice to come home to
0:10:19 > 0:10:23# You'd be so nice by the fire... #
0:10:26 > 0:10:28These photographs show suffragette Edith Garrud,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31who was trained in jujitsu by Japanese instructors.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35She later set up a school of her own,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38specialising in teaching women's classes,
0:10:38 > 0:10:43and became eventually the jujitsu instructor for a group of,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47in fact, a secret society of women who were attached to
0:10:47 > 0:10:49the militant suffragette movement.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53The suffragettes needed jujitsu as a way in which to defend
0:10:53 > 0:10:57themselves against male aggression, whether that's from the police,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59or whether that's from male hecklers.
0:10:59 > 0:11:05Jujitsu was a minimal force response to male violence.
0:11:05 > 0:11:06So there was certainly that going on.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10But there's also, it chimed in quite nicely with ideals of femininity,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12because jujitsu was elegant.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15It was show, it was feminine and so, actually,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18it was kind of the ideal form of self-defence.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21At the height of suffragette unrest,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25Emmeline Pankhurst was being constantly arrested
0:11:25 > 0:11:29and so a jujitsu squad was formed to prevent this happening.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31The point of this was actually to protect
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Emmeline Pankhurst from rearrest.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36So once she was released from jail,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40she would go off and do her speeches and her unlawful activities and then,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44there was a corps of bodyguards, around, probably 25 women.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48And they would be swinging clubs, they would be using jujitsu,
0:11:48 > 0:11:53they would be arming themselves with cardboard body armour,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57under their dresses, and they would be distracting the police
0:11:57 > 0:11:59and get into a bit of a fight with the police,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03while Emmeline Pankhurst was whisked away in a cab to safety.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10The jujitsu bodyguard helped keep Emmeline Pankhurst on the front
0:12:10 > 0:12:14pages until the First World War ended all militant activity.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20Martial arts had gained a toe-hold amongst
0:12:20 > 0:12:22the well-to-do of Britain.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24In the final years of the First World War,
0:12:24 > 0:12:29a new self-defence art with its own distinctive philosophy arrived.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33But this time, it was brought here by the Japanese themselves.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Judo was an evolution of jujitsu
0:13:03 > 0:13:06and was introduced to Britain as the thinking man's martial art.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10It was a modern style which had been developed in Japan
0:13:10 > 0:13:14over 40 years by its founder, Jigoro Kano.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20I think that the significance of Kano was that he was
0:13:20 > 0:13:24a sort of Marquis of Queensbury figure.
0:13:25 > 0:13:33The Marquis of Queensbury took a British martial art, boxing,
0:13:33 > 0:13:38cleaned it up and turned it into more of a sport.
0:13:38 > 0:13:44Kano did for jujitsu what the Marquis of Queensbury did for boxing.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Kano worked with a padded floor.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Queensbury worked with a padded fist.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56Kano removed the more dangerous techniques of traditional jujitsu.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57For the first time,
0:13:57 > 0:14:02practitioners could train at full speed without injuring themselves.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05What that meant was, by taking out some of the dangerous bits,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08it could be used as a form of training, sparring.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11It's a bit like putting two boxes out and saying, OK,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14you don't have to go full out but hit them as best you can.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18So judo was the same. He created this free-fighting system
0:14:18 > 0:14:19and people could do it for hours and hours.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47With judo, martial arts broadened its appeal into the professional classes of Britain.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49It was something which was intended
0:14:49 > 0:14:51for middle-class consumption.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55So it was regarded as both scientifically refined
0:14:55 > 0:14:57and safe, something that would be, as it were,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01appreciated by middle classes the world over.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05So the whole outreach in this country was to appeal to a middle-class
0:15:05 > 0:15:11audience, putting forward the whole idea of a dynamic, safe,
0:15:11 > 0:15:16modernised martial art, with antiquitarian roots,
0:15:16 > 0:15:21but very much streamlined and brought up-to-date for modern consumption.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29It attracted people from English, London society,
0:15:29 > 0:15:36who were from the professions, they were barristers, doctors,
0:15:36 > 0:15:44people with time and finance to be able to indulge their interest in the East.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50All of the traditional elements of Japanese politesse were
0:15:50 > 0:15:51retained for judo,
0:15:51 > 0:15:56but along with that ritualistic sense of politeness,
0:15:56 > 0:16:01what Kano wants very, very much to put forward is the idea that A, it was safe,
0:16:01 > 0:16:02B, it was sporting.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05It could be used for sporting competition.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10Within a code of sporting ethics, which was very, very much analogous to the sporting
0:16:10 > 0:16:15ethics that you would find in the British approach to sportsmanship.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20So all of that was a meeting point for people from both sides to
0:16:20 > 0:16:23enjoy this particular art or sport.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25It was a hybrid art or sport.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46Japan was very, very much on the Allied side during World War I,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49unlike in World War II, of course.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52And there was very, very much an outreach to Europe,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56an understanding that for the future of Japan there needed to be this
0:16:56 > 0:17:01kind of close cooperation and an understanding of European culture.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04At the same time, there was a real drive to find
0:17:04 > 0:17:09a method of exporting the values of Japanese culture to Europe.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17As part of that drive, a group of Japanese businessmen had
0:17:17 > 0:17:21emigrated to Britain and joined the effort. One of them was Gunji Koizumi.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26Koizumi set up a Japanese cultural centre opposite
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Buckingham Palace called the Budokwai, which celebrated everything from
0:17:30 > 0:17:35tea ceremony to flower arranging, but especially the study of judo.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37It was an instant hit.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39It was exotic.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43Because Japan in those days meant Fujiyama, geisha girls,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47you know, little paper umbrellas, you know, tea ceremony.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51That was all part of the package. So it was exotic.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53But at the same time, the guys who did it had cauliflower ears
0:17:53 > 0:17:57and broken noses, so there was this bizarre mix.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01Martial arts have always evolved.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04And one of the first British innovations was designed to
0:18:04 > 0:18:07keep Western students motivated.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Koizumi invented a not-so ancient martial arts tradition -
0:18:10 > 0:18:13the coloured belt system.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17That's how the judo people get you addicted.
0:18:17 > 0:18:18It's very wicked.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23So everyone is climbing up the ladder with its coloured rungs.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27And all they want is the black.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32And, as soon as they get to the black, they've suddenly learned,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36really, how extraordinarily complicated judo is,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38that they actually know nothing.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42It's like learning a language - you just learn more
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and more refinement and you never know it all.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Koizumi, seen here teaching,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55was to be at the centre of British martial arts for the next 45 years.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03With its emphasis on safety,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07judo became the art of choice for women interested in self-defence.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Your aim is to get your opponent off his balance
0:19:15 > 0:19:18and then to push or pull him in the direction his body inclines.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20I'll have that bag...
0:19:20 > 0:19:22Because of the way judo had been developed,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25strength and size were less important than technique.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27I'll smash you for that!
0:19:38 > 0:19:41One of the pioneers of the art was Sarah Mayer.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Sarah started judo at the Budokwai with Koizumi, late 1920s.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51In 1934, she decided to travel to Japan.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Very unusual for a woman of that time.
0:19:56 > 0:20:03She went via Bombay and through China, and ended up in Kobe,
0:20:03 > 0:20:08and she was carrying with her introductions from Koizumi
0:20:08 > 0:20:12to various jujitsu schools and judo establishments in Japan.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17Mayer was able to train with the very best that Japan had to offer.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Last week, I met Professor Kano for the first time.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23I'd expected to meet a very aloof person,
0:20:23 > 0:20:28for everyone seems to stand in such awe of him that I felt quite nervous.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Instead, I found a charming old gentleman with European manners,
0:20:32 > 0:20:35who greeted me warmly and made me feel quite at home.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38He seems most anxious to help me.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42The Japanese were regarded as the gold standard of judo.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45It was difficult for any Westerner, let alone a woman.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47But Sarah Mayer trained with the men.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50I practised with him once at the Kodokan
0:20:50 > 0:20:52and often sit and watch him. He is extraordinary.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56Very frail and delicate. Very small and looks quite old.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59He was in a playful mood when I practised with him.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02He just threw me round the room as if I were an Indian rubber ball.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06And when I tried any throw, he simply wasn't there any longer.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11In March 1936, Mayer became
0:21:11 > 0:21:15the first Western woman to be awarded a black belt in Japan.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17For a woman to achieve a black belt
0:21:17 > 0:21:22and for that to have been achieved in Japan, really sets out
0:21:22 > 0:21:26the stall for women's judo and says, look, we have arrived.
0:21:26 > 0:21:27We are to be taken seriously.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33And that's how, I think, generations of female judoka,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36subsequently, have a debt of gratitude to Sarah.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45In the 1930s, judo was becoming popular right across Europe.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Including Nazi Germany.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Sieg heil! Sieg heil!
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Before long, Britain was fighting the Nazis for real.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04In World War II, martial arts would take on an entirely different,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06far less sporting face.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11It would leave the gymnasium and return to its battlefield roots.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Desperate times called for desperate measures.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31For the martial artist in wartime,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34any notion of fair play had to be left in the gym.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Unarmed combat called for a more brutal approach.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42There are no Marquis of Queensbury rules in guerrilla warfare.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47It is a simple matter of kill or be killed, capture or be captured.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51This is All-In Fighting by WE Fairbairn.
0:22:51 > 0:22:57This is the book that was issued to commandos
0:22:57 > 0:23:03and other allied forces as their official unarmed combat syllabus.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07William Fairbairn, who looked more like a vicar than a man
0:23:07 > 0:23:10who could kill with his bare hands, had written a manual that
0:23:10 > 0:23:15included everything a soldier needed to know about fighting dirty.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17This was not a nice book. Not a nice manual.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21It was simply...
0:23:21 > 0:23:25elements of the martial arts stripped down to purely "kill the enemy".
0:23:28 > 0:23:30Fairbairn, who featured in these films,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33was a good man to have in a tight spot.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Knee to the pit of the stomach and that's that.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42He was a judo and jujitsu black belt and for 32 years,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45he served as a policeman in Shanghai,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47the roughest city in the world.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49'and Gerry sails through space once more.
0:23:49 > 0:23:50'And just to make sure...'
0:23:50 > 0:23:55He had taken part in over 800 incidents,
0:23:55 > 0:24:00most of which involved firearms or knives or bottles.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04That's probably more combat than a lot of soldiers have seen.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07'The little finger can be seized and bent savagely backwards.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10'Then, turning with seized arm, edge of the hand blows are applied
0:24:10 > 0:24:12'with great gusto and paralysing results.'
0:24:15 > 0:24:19When war broke out, Fairbairn was enlisted to train both British
0:24:19 > 0:24:23and American covert troops in skills they would need behind enemy lines.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26'In this phase of the instruction period,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29'the student is taught the gentle art of murder.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32'The technique of killing or crippling his opponent
0:24:32 > 0:24:34'with his two hands at close quarters.'
0:24:34 > 0:24:37He combined the streetfighting tactics he'd encountered in Shanghai
0:24:37 > 0:24:39with his sporting martial arts skills.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43'Grasp the pistol and deflect it toward him.'
0:24:44 > 0:24:49He knew that there was a difference between what was done on the mat
0:24:49 > 0:24:53and what was done in real life, so he decided to adapt, look at certain
0:24:53 > 0:24:57techniques that you could use while you were scared out of your wits.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00"If possible, bite his ear. Even although not successful,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04"this will cause him to bend forward into a position from which
0:25:04 > 0:25:08"you can seize his testicles with your right hand."
0:25:08 > 0:25:10You've got to think like a gutter fighter.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14You've got to be ruthless, you've got to be cruel.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16"With all the strength of your arms,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18"assisted by the forward movement of the upper part of your body,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22"smash him down on your right knee and break his spine."
0:25:22 > 0:25:24He called it All-In Fighting.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30To use a modern phrase, it does exactly what it says on the tin.
0:25:30 > 0:25:36You use everything available in the course for a fight to win.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40'If your adversary hold you up from the rear, turn away from the gun,
0:25:40 > 0:25:42'falling into him.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45'Pin his gun arm and lock it with your left, at the same time,
0:25:45 > 0:25:50'jabbing to his the chin and eyes and bringing the knee up to his testicles.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53'As he falls, go with them, keeping your knee in his groin.'
0:25:54 > 0:25:57For Fairbairn, survival was an easy calculation to make.
0:25:59 > 0:26:0280% intent, 20% technique.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06The intent is "I'm going to win.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12"You're going down. I intend to hurt you. I intend to win."
0:26:22 > 0:26:24But coming out of the Second World War,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27it was American troops based in Okinawa that
0:26:27 > 0:26:30would have the biggest impact on British martial arts.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33They had found a new secret weapon in self-defence.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52Karate differed from judo and jujitsu as it concentrated on ways
0:26:52 > 0:26:57of striking, punching and kicking, rather than grappling and throwing.
0:26:57 > 0:26:58In terms of martial arts,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02the most significant event was to do with the American
0:27:02 > 0:27:06occupation of Japan, Okinawa, after the Second World War because,
0:27:06 > 0:27:07during that time,
0:27:07 > 0:27:13you saw American servicemen learning, en masse, Japanese martial arts
0:27:13 > 0:27:15and then taking them back to America
0:27:15 > 0:27:20and these are the martial arts that find their way into popular consciousness.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23And it wasn't long before Britain was exposed to it too.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29Most Brits after the Second World War would have first
0:27:29 > 0:27:33encountered Asian martial arts in general through the films, and
0:27:33 > 0:27:37it was first of all through karate moves in films, the karate chop.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43The first time British people as a general filmgoing audience would
0:27:43 > 0:27:45have seen martial arts
0:27:45 > 0:27:50would have been in the one or two post-war film noirs.
0:27:50 > 0:27:57The big sequence is a scene with Spencer Tracy in Bad Day At Black Rock.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02A film like Bad Day At Black Rock, which is a 1955 film,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05in that fight scene, you've got the chop.
0:28:10 > 0:28:11HE GASPS
0:28:18 > 0:28:21There is a chop to the neck, a chop to the lower back.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28It's amazingly appealing and it symbolises in a very, very
0:28:28 > 0:28:32easy and small form, the other, the strange, the exotic.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35I suspected that that scene in Bad Day at Black Rock would have
0:28:35 > 0:28:41had enormous impact, just because it was so shocking.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43I understand that before it was filmed,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46Spencer Tracy read the script and said, "This is ridiculous.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51"There is no way a guy with one arm could defeat a big thug,"
0:28:51 > 0:28:55and the martial arts adviser put his hand in his pocket
0:28:55 > 0:28:58and then beat Spencer Tracy up with one arm.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02And Tracy said, "OK, I believe that," and was very keen to learn the moves.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07It started out with those weird little newsreel clips
0:29:07 > 0:29:11of people breaking bricks and head-butting boards.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15And then the mythology sort of built up around it
0:29:15 > 0:29:20and it started appearing in sort of cool movies.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23I think Elvis became a karate guy.
0:29:26 > 0:29:27Come on! Come on.
0:29:27 > 0:29:28No, no! That's karate.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32The public perception of karate at the time,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35other than those people who were actually doing it,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38was, again, it was this devastating fighting skill
0:29:38 > 0:29:41where you could chop somebody with the with the side of your hand
0:29:41 > 0:29:43and they'd fall down dead.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Of course, you know and I know that it's not like that,
0:29:46 > 0:29:47but that was the perception.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51It was something Oriental and mysterious,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54and you don't argue with karate guys.
0:29:54 > 0:29:55Or girls.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Martial arts were the must-have skill for TV action stars.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06You can see the advance in fashions of martial arts styles
0:30:06 > 0:30:08in the Avengers heroines.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Honor Blackman became very good at judo.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15But when Diana Rigg came in, for her, it was karate.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28Oyuka!
0:30:34 > 0:30:36You attacked her as a woman.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39But she has the skill of a man.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43In fact, her fight sequences are a combination of karate and ballet,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46which is really quite striking and very influential.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49Action movie heroines still do that,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52the sort of ballet kicks and karate chops.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57That still seems to be a good way of taking down five bad guys.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08Unlike the elite samurai roots of judo,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10karate was originally developed
0:31:10 > 0:31:15as a means of self-protection for peasants and workers in rural Japan.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23In Japan itself,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26you would find that karate had a very much more working-class environment
0:31:26 > 0:31:31and certain forms of karate were even more working-class than other forms,
0:31:31 > 0:31:36like kyokushinkai with its very much more manly or rougher edge.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39The knockdown ethos of kyokushinkai
0:31:39 > 0:31:42appealed to a very, very working-class environment.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45It was almost inevitable that in this country,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48it would also appeal to a working-class environment.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56Yeah, I come from the East End of London,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59lived in a sort of two-up two-down.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04Ticky Donovan, seen training here, took up karate as a teenager.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09Fighting then, it was sort of a common thing in the East End,
0:32:09 > 0:32:12so it was... My mother didn't want me to do it,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15but I wanted to learn to protect myself.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17As karate entered popular culture,
0:32:17 > 0:32:19clubs began to spring up across the country.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22When I first started going to the club in Clapham Common,
0:32:22 > 0:32:26it'd be packed and the Japanese would have free fighting,
0:32:26 > 0:32:28and next week you'd go, it was half empty
0:32:28 > 0:32:33cos people wanted to do the moves but didn't want to get up and fight.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37But coming from the East End, we just loved the fighting side of it.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42As a Glaswegian, I've always been very interested in fighting,
0:32:42 > 0:32:44purely for survival reasons.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48However, I think karate gave opportunities
0:32:48 > 0:32:51for the young people of the time
0:32:51 > 0:32:56to do something different from the sort of rather grey surroundings.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00Most of my friends were taking the mickey out of me, you know,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03as I went into Wimpy, they'd go, "Oh, here comes Ticky, chop-chop!"
0:33:03 > 0:33:05I just couldn't get enough of it.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08I mean, I pulled every muscle I think I own.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11I pulled my hamstrings, pulled everything, you know,
0:33:11 > 0:33:13with the stretching and kicking,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15but I just loved every minute of it.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Haa!
0:33:17 > 0:33:20MUSIC: "Dazed And Confused" by Led Zeppelin
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Karate's tough reputation didn't put off women either.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33This is the other side of Pauline Fuller.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36Housewife, mother,
0:33:36 > 0:33:40and Europe's top woman karate expert.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43Down at the gym, Pauline sheds her feminine qualities
0:33:43 > 0:33:45along with her blouse and skirt,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49and becomes five foot nothing of blonde ferocity.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52I was the first woman in England to do karate. I used to be scared stiff.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55I used to hide and creep out when the lesson started.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58But, I thought, "Well, here goes," so I took it up.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06For the next ten years, karate was the martial art of choice
0:34:06 > 0:34:11but its deadly image would eventually prove unpalatable to the media.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13We've all heard of judo
0:34:13 > 0:34:17but here, in Tokyo, there is another form of self defence
0:34:17 > 0:34:21in which Japan leads the world. It's called karate.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26It's a method by which a hand, a fist,
0:34:26 > 0:34:29can be more deadly than any cosh
0:34:29 > 0:34:32and a Japanese can kill at one blow
0:34:32 > 0:34:35by striking seven vulnerable points of the body.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Now, when you've learnt how to kill people with one blow,
0:34:40 > 0:34:43- what are you going to do with that? - I don't know.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47I was going to tell the other people in England about it
0:34:47 > 0:34:50but I'll have to think it over, I think.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52Already with an image problem,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55karate was about to be struck a heavy blow.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07We had a major problem occur in '67, I think it was.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12A kitchen hand called Anthony Creamer
0:35:12 > 0:35:16had bought a book called What Is Karate? by Masutatsu Oyama.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19It's quite a violent form of the art
0:35:19 > 0:35:22and he fell out with one of the waiters
0:35:22 > 0:35:24in an establishment he worked at
0:35:24 > 0:35:27and apparently, within three seconds,
0:35:27 > 0:35:29he'd killed a man stone dead
0:35:29 > 0:35:32and quite rightly, he was put away for it.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34But the fallout was very bad.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36The judge in the court...
0:35:38 > 0:35:40..said something in the region of,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44"I am so appalled at what I've heard here that I think this..."
0:35:44 > 0:35:48The words he used was, "vicious and evil skill
0:35:48 > 0:35:51"should be banned in this country."
0:35:51 > 0:35:54Self-taught Anthony Creamer had broken the golden rule
0:35:54 > 0:35:58that martial arts should only be used for self-defence.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02Their moral and ethical foundation was publicly called into question.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07But martial arts were also being challenged from within
0:36:07 > 0:36:10by those who wanted to move them into a new arena.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19By the 1960s, martial arts had begun
0:36:19 > 0:36:23to leave their traditional roots behind and turn into pure sports.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27Judo was the first to change.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Old school self-defence took a back seat to competition.
0:36:32 > 0:36:33For the first time,
0:36:33 > 0:36:38British martial artists began looking to the West for inspiration.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41You look to other sports. You see what other sports are doing,
0:36:41 > 0:36:43what boxing is doing, what wrestling is doing,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46all Olympic sports, and of course, you want to join them.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49The father of British judo, Gunji Koizumi,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52had always tried to prevent this transition
0:36:52 > 0:36:54into a solely sporting pursuit.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57It was peculiar. Koizumi didn't believe in sport judo
0:36:57 > 0:37:00and the reason he didn't like sport judo
0:37:00 > 0:37:04was because he thought it produced conceited individuals
0:37:04 > 0:37:06whose only focus was on winning, that was it.
0:37:08 > 0:37:09My understanding is that
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Koizumi really saw judo very much
0:37:11 > 0:37:14as this intellectual and moral education
0:37:14 > 0:37:16and much less so as a sport.
0:37:16 > 0:37:22But the process of turning judo into a sport had become unstoppable.
0:37:22 > 0:37:27Syd Hoare represented Britain in the first Olympics to feature judo,
0:37:27 > 0:37:29Tokyo, 1964.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32You go in the stadium and you're looking at these thousands of people
0:37:32 > 0:37:35all waving flags and shouting and screaming.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37You're in a big, open field
0:37:37 > 0:37:38and then, your name is called out
0:37:38 > 0:37:40and then you go up on the mat
0:37:40 > 0:37:43and there's somebody on the far side walking on
0:37:43 > 0:37:45and you may know him, you may not,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47you know, "I wonder what this one's going to be like."
0:37:47 > 0:37:51Scary. It's very scary to step on a mat
0:37:51 > 0:37:55and face your opponent and look them in the eye.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01Once you go on the mat, you're handcuffed to someone.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04It's like you've been handcuffed to a running machine.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07You've just got to keep going.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10You can't... There's no ball to pass to anyone else.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12It just keeps happening to you
0:38:12 > 0:38:16and this is often terrifying, which is always very interesting.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21You can win by throwing someone flat on their back,
0:38:21 > 0:38:25by getting a submission from a lock on the elbow or from a strangle.
0:38:34 > 0:38:35For British judo fighters,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38the world stage was a chance to take on the best,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41and the best were the Japanese.
0:38:43 > 0:38:48In the early days, the Japanese were completely pre-eminent.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51I mean, nobody could beat them.
0:38:53 > 0:38:59And then emerged a very big Dutchman called Anton Geesink,
0:38:59 > 0:39:05who was very large and very powerful
0:39:05 > 0:39:08and very, very good at judo.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Geesink's golds at the '61 World Championships
0:39:11 > 0:39:15and the '64 Tokyo Olympics opened the floodgates.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17The Japanese were no longer unbeatable
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and the chance for British competitors had arrived.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23This was a kind of cataclysmic moment
0:39:23 > 0:39:28in the history of international judo, you know,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31and an astonishing achievement.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35Japan was just devastated by this loss.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37I mean, people weeping in the streets.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40The fact that Geesink won
0:39:40 > 0:39:45really allowed Westerners to have a renewed sense of self-belief
0:39:45 > 0:39:49about their ability to compete with the Japanese.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53I think, prior to Geesink, there was certainly a sense
0:39:53 > 0:39:56that if you drew a Japanese, you probably were going to lose.
0:39:56 > 0:39:57A couple of years later on,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00there were Russians winning world championships,
0:40:00 > 0:40:02French winning world championships,
0:40:02 > 0:40:04there were Brits winning world championships,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06all coming in at different times.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08CHEERING
0:40:10 > 0:40:13For women, the development of competitive judo
0:40:13 > 0:40:16was a slow journey that began in the West.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18But for Britain, it was worth the wait.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Woman's judo was quite late getting started,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27and indeed, the first contests
0:40:27 > 0:40:30were conducted behind a curtain in some leisure centre
0:40:30 > 0:40:35because it was felt that the public wasn't quite ready to cope with...
0:40:37 > 0:40:40..you know, the sight of woman on the mat,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43but I think that's kind of changed.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47106-pound final. 48 kilos.
0:40:47 > 0:40:52Jane Bridge of Great Britain against Anna de Novellis of Italy.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57Bridge wearing 107, Anna wearing 110 on the back of her gi.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04Our early woman's teams used to beat the Japanese all the time,
0:41:04 > 0:41:09and the first women's world champion was a Brit.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12Jane Bridge of Great Britain the gold medal winner
0:41:12 > 0:41:14in the 106-pound category.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18And that win gave Jane Bridge
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Britain's first ever gold medal in world championship judo.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24Indeed, in any world level competition, not even Brian Jacks,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26Dave Starbrook, Keith Remfry or Neil Adams have achieved that.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30Judo club members and friends also turned out to welcome her back
0:41:30 > 0:41:32after a competition in which
0:41:32 > 0:41:35she not only became the world champion at her weight
0:41:35 > 0:41:37but also the award which carried
0:41:37 > 0:41:40the grand conscription "Best Stylist on Earth".
0:41:40 > 0:41:42After the official welcome, the band led a procession
0:41:42 > 0:41:45through the streets of the town to her parents' chip shop.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48There, her tearful granny had laid on a fish and chip supper,
0:41:48 > 0:41:51something Jane normally doesn't touch when she's in training.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01Karate followed a similar trajectory.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04It became something Britain excelled at.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10At first, there were barely any competitions outside Japan.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14When karate first come in,
0:42:14 > 0:42:16it was just traditional, you know,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18it was a self defence.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21People went to learn karate to protect their self.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24Judo was already a sport then.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29In the early days, the Japanese dominated the competition scene
0:42:29 > 0:42:31but in a few short years,
0:42:31 > 0:42:34British teams were mounting a credible challenge.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51When we first started fighting the Japanese,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53we could only mimic them,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56so we tried to fight the same way as they did,
0:42:56 > 0:43:00and they were faster and more supple than us,
0:43:00 > 0:43:02and they was beating us every time.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06As it went on, we started developing our way of fighting.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09We started using our strength and our reach,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12and we moved. The Japanese fought in a very straight line
0:43:12 > 0:43:16because they very traditional. We started moving from side to side,
0:43:16 > 0:43:19and bouncing around more, like boxing.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24By evolving their style, the British were able to break through in 1975,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27finally getting the Japanese at their own game,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30and the victories kept coming.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33We won in '82 in Taiwan,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36then we won in '84 in Holland,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40then we won again in '86 in Australia,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43then '88 in Egypt,
0:43:43 > 0:43:45and then 1990 in Mexico.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49Great Britain won the World Championships five times in succession,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52which no other country has ever done
0:43:52 > 0:43:56and which, I'm pleased to say, I got the OBE off the Queen for.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01Even the Japanese couldn't achieve what the British teams had
0:44:01 > 0:44:03but in spite of giant-killing sporting success,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06martial arts were always more popular with fellow practitioners
0:44:06 > 0:44:08then the general public.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19For martial arts to break into the mainstream,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23it would take a secret fighting art that came from China, not Japan.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38During the late '50s and '60s,
0:44:38 > 0:44:43Chinese immigrants began to arrive in Britain from Hong Kong.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46Unlike the English-speaking middle-class Japanese migrants
0:44:46 > 0:44:50that had brought judo, the Chinese were largely poor and working-class
0:44:50 > 0:44:55and the vibrant and insular Chinatowns of the British cities they came to
0:44:55 > 0:44:57were closed communities.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01I think it took the Chinese community in this country a long time
0:45:01 > 0:45:04to come to the collective decision
0:45:04 > 0:45:08to integrate with local society, the host society,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11so that this applied also to the martial arts.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Kung fu literally means "special skill" and is a blanket term
0:45:21 > 0:45:25for hundreds of different styles of Chinese martial art.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29Some of these techniques were brought to Britain by immigrants.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34There was an embargo, a literal embargo against teaching Europeans
0:45:34 > 0:45:36for many, many long years.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38The last defence of the Chinese,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42as it were, against the strange, alien outside world
0:45:42 > 0:45:46with which they were having to grapple,
0:45:46 > 0:45:48there was always, as it were, this secret reserve -
0:45:48 > 0:45:51"At least we can outfight these guys if we have to."
0:45:53 > 0:45:57Kung fu master Austin Goh came to Britain to study.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59In the '70s,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02there was a lot of racism because Chinese are not...
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Obvious, I'm small, people would pick on you.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06So I had loads of fights, I have scars from knives.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11I got quite a lot of practices every day, my being Chinese.
0:46:11 > 0:46:12They picked on the wrong man, then?
0:46:12 > 0:46:15They pick on the wrong man sometimes, pick on the wrong man.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24The secrets of Chinese kung fu were unlocked for Britain
0:46:24 > 0:46:27mostly thanks to the influence of one man.
0:46:32 > 0:46:38Bruce Lee is probably the coolest man on the planet, of all time.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42Bruce Lee is cooler than Elvis Presley by far.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44Bruce Lee is cooler than Jimi Hendrix.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47Bruce Lee is as important as Che Guevara.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51It wasn't until Bruce Lee burst onto the cinema screens
0:46:51 > 0:46:55that people had any idea, any conceptual understanding
0:46:55 > 0:46:57of, "Wow, that's kung fu!
0:46:57 > 0:47:00"Oh, this is really different. We want some of that."
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Bruce Lee, shown here fighting,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09combined an acrobatic screen combat style with real-life fighting skill.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15His American films were made during a time
0:47:15 > 0:47:19when Hollywood cinema was becoming more tolerant of violence on screen.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Despite the hard-edged tone of his films
0:47:25 > 0:47:27and little being known about Chinese martial arts,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30kung fu became a point of common interest
0:47:30 > 0:47:33between the Chinese community and the rest of the British public,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36many of whom were fascinated to know more.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39DRUMMING
0:47:39 > 0:47:42I think this will introduce some of the Chinese culture
0:47:42 > 0:47:44to the Western people,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47especially during Chinese New Year like that.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54Bruce Lee grew up in a middle-class family in Hong Kong.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57When he wasn't training wing chun kung fu,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00he was a cha-cha dance champion,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04but after a move to the USA, his kung fu skills landed him a part
0:48:04 > 0:48:08as a TV sidekick in the series Green Hornet.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10After a number of Hong Kong films,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14he got his first Hollywood hit - Enter The Dragon.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17When you see Bruce Lee on the screen,
0:48:17 > 0:48:19you know that you're seeing someone who can actually fight.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21He's doing amazing things
0:48:21 > 0:48:24that none of the people in the movies before Bruce Lee could do,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27so before that, you could see people do a karate chop or a throw
0:48:27 > 0:48:30but Bruce Lee's doing things that an athlete couldn't do,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33he's doing amazing things that a ballet dancer couldn't do.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36So the thrilling effect of seeing that,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40you're looking at someone fighting and you know it's choreographed
0:48:40 > 0:48:41but you know it's real,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44you know that Bruce Lee is a martial artist, you can tell.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49It was an amazing, amazing sensation for everybody.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53I mean, no-one had seen a man, a little guy who'd jump and scream
0:48:53 > 0:48:56and beat the hell out of anybody, and we men love that.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59We men love it. We all wanted to be like him, big, small,
0:48:59 > 0:49:01so he had a great...
0:49:01 > 0:49:05He had an amazing impact to the world, and to me, to everybody,
0:49:05 > 0:49:07to my master, to everyone,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11because he shows the world what a human being can do,
0:49:11 > 0:49:13regardless of Chinese, black or white,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16that you can achieve things through hard work and training,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20and it was through that philosophy that everybody went crazy for him.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28By the time his signature film Enter The Dragon was released in Britain,
0:49:28 > 0:49:29Bruce Lee had already died,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33but with his fighting style emphasised in slow motion,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35he had a lasting impact.
0:49:35 > 0:49:36CRUNCH
0:49:36 > 0:49:41In the '70s, people went to see Enter The Dragon.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43It was the first martial arts film they had ever seen
0:49:43 > 0:49:45and coming out of the cinemas,
0:49:45 > 0:49:49children were doing the catcalls, the screams, the kicks,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52they were trying to do Bruce Lee immediately,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55so the effect of Bruce Lee was immediate and lasting
0:49:55 > 0:49:58and it was everywhere. Everyone wanted to be Bruce Lee.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02Following their hero, many fans are fancying themselves
0:50:02 > 0:50:05as instant kung fu champions, do-it-yourself style.
0:50:05 > 0:50:06It was absolutely unbelievable.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09The whole town, the whole city was crazy.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12We all came jumping out of the cinemas,
0:50:12 > 0:50:14pulling muscles, and flying kicks.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17# Everybody was kung fu fighting... #
0:50:18 > 0:50:20For the first time in Britain,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23martial arts had broken through to a wider public.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27# In fact it was a little bit frightening... #
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Kung fu fighting, the Carl Douglas novelty hit, I think we have to say,
0:50:31 > 0:50:33a definition of one-hit wonder, isn't he?
0:50:33 > 0:50:37It was one of those songs that was played forever
0:50:37 > 0:50:41and actually, I'm sure every single documentary about martial arts
0:50:41 > 0:50:43uses it on the soundtrack somewhere,
0:50:43 > 0:50:45so he's probably still getting royalties.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48# And I kicked him from the hip
0:50:48 > 0:50:50# Everybody was kung fu fighting... #
0:50:50 > 0:50:52For one brief moment,
0:50:52 > 0:50:55martial arts had mass market appeal.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59They became a source of parody in popular comedies such as The Goodies
0:50:59 > 0:51:00and featured in TV ads.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04Hi-yah! Hi! Hi-yah!
0:51:04 > 0:51:06Yaah!
0:51:06 > 0:51:08Hi-yah! Hi!
0:51:08 > 0:51:10Be careful how you use it.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13It became a fashion statement to learn kung fu,
0:51:13 > 0:51:14it was a subculture that developed
0:51:14 > 0:51:19and everybody wanted to be in on the latest fad, the latest craze.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24People started opening clubs all over the place.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26Even people that weren't back belts
0:51:26 > 0:51:28were just putting on black belts and opening a club.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32I mean, in the early days, anyone wearing a pair of silk pyjamas
0:51:32 > 0:51:35could put a poster in local paper shop saying, "Kung Fu Classes."
0:51:35 > 0:51:37The first class was in Time Out magazine,
0:51:37 > 0:51:39remember the old magazine in London
0:51:39 > 0:51:42and it was listed, just said, "Kung Fu" and the address. That was it.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45Ten. Eleven...
0:51:45 > 0:51:50Some unqualified instructors have made as much as £30,000 a year
0:51:50 > 0:51:53by setting up classes, charging exorbitant fees
0:51:53 > 0:51:57and then disappearing without giving more than a few lessons.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59A lot of them came out of the woodwork.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01A lot of them were cooks and chefs and stuff
0:52:01 > 0:52:02and because we didn't know,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06if he looked Chinese, he could be a martial art master, so we enrolled.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11We thought it was kung fu, and we had no idea,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14no books, no videos, nothing,
0:52:14 > 0:52:16so we had to take it on face value,
0:52:16 > 0:52:18and it was a lot of jumping around and press-ups,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20and we thought that was it.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27Until now, martial arts had largely been practised by white people
0:52:27 > 0:52:29but kung fu changed that too.
0:52:33 > 0:52:38This was something that spread, the idea of martial arts,
0:52:38 > 0:52:41to a very, very wide black community.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44Bruce Lee's ethnicity is really, really important to remember.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46Bruce Lee is not white.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50Bruce Lee is not black, but he's not white,
0:52:50 > 0:52:54and the importance of Bruce Lee on the screen at that time,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56when non-white faces were such a rarity
0:52:56 > 0:52:58or they were in minor positions,
0:52:58 > 0:53:02here you get this small, non-white guy, beating white guys
0:53:02 > 0:53:04and beating everyone.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07That has a really important status.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09Bruce Lee was the hero.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12He was the hero the way Clint Eastwood was the hero,
0:53:12 > 0:53:14the way Humphrey Bogart was the hero,
0:53:14 > 0:53:16the way Alan Ladd was the hero.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18He was absolutely the centre of the film. He got the girl
0:53:18 > 0:53:20and in the end, he won.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22No compromise.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26He didn't have to die so his white best friend could move on.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33In Britain, Bruce Lee is still THE great martial arts hero,
0:53:33 > 0:53:35all these years later,
0:53:35 > 0:53:39and now he has the James Dean early death thing going for him as well.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42He didn't hang around to make lots of increasingly terrible films
0:53:42 > 0:53:44and tarnish his reputation.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Bruce Lee didn't just popularise kung fu
0:53:56 > 0:53:58but all the traditional martial arts.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02But his own style was anything but traditional.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05It was a hybrid system called jeet kune do.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13I think that Bruce Lee is part of the tradition,
0:54:13 > 0:54:15which is the martial arts tradition
0:54:15 > 0:54:19of trying to find something that works and that works best,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22how do you construct the ultimate martial art?
0:54:22 > 0:54:26And this has always been the question - how do you do it,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28which way do we do it, does it work?
0:54:28 > 0:54:32And Bruce Lee's answers are different
0:54:32 > 0:54:35but maybe not essentially different from the answer given by bartitsu,
0:54:35 > 0:54:38which is a hybrid martial art of East meets West.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42Bruce Lee's jeet kune do is a combination of big long kicks,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45of western fencing techniques
0:54:45 > 0:54:48and copying off the punching style of Muhammad Ali,
0:54:48 > 0:54:52which is a pretty hybrid kind of an influence.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57The final fight scene with Chuck Norris in the Way of the Dragon
0:54:57 > 0:55:00is the best showcase of Lee's practical style,
0:55:00 > 0:55:02using whatever works best.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17In the years that followed, martial artists took note
0:55:17 > 0:55:20of Bruce Lee's ideas about effective fighting.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23A new sport that was focused solely on practical technique,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27at the limits of what was legally and socially acceptable,
0:55:27 > 0:55:28was introduced from America.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Mixed Martial Arts, sometimes referred to as cage fighting,
0:55:36 > 0:55:38was a combination of Hollywood spectacle
0:55:38 > 0:55:41and the rougher end of fighting sports.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43# Oh, this life
0:55:43 > 0:55:47# Has knocked me down to my knees... #
0:55:47 > 0:55:50It had shed the need for Eastern tradition,
0:55:50 > 0:55:52replacing it with a Western mindset
0:55:52 > 0:55:55of finding whatever was needed to win.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00But martial arts have also evolved in the opposite direction
0:56:00 > 0:56:04towards methods that seem as far away from combat as possible.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09Tai chi can be a slow moving, Zen-like type of exercise
0:56:09 > 0:56:14for those least inclined to want to know anything at all about fighting.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17Martial arts in Britain,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20as they are everywhere in the world, continues to evolve,
0:56:20 > 0:56:25so I think the key thing is not to take any part of it as sacrosanct,
0:56:25 > 0:56:26as fixed in time.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Nothing in this world is fixed in time anymore
0:56:29 > 0:56:32and the martial arts will continue to be popular
0:56:32 > 0:56:35because the martial arts will continue to dynamically evolve.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43Martial arts are no longer the sole property of the nations that created them.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46From Barton-Wright's first experiments,
0:56:46 > 0:56:49they gradually became ingrained in British culture too.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57Jujitsu provided a way for women to confront violence in society
0:56:57 > 0:57:00and let the politicians know that they weren't to be messed with.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07The middle classes took up judo
0:57:07 > 0:57:10for its highly disciplined Japanese approach to sport.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16Martial arts in Britain
0:57:16 > 0:57:19have responded to the social needs of each generation.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27Karate became the stronghold of working-class Britons,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30some of whom went on to be the best in the world.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39And kung fu burst through the cinema screens,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42making martial arts a part of everyday life.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49Martial arts may have sent out mixed messages
0:57:49 > 0:57:52since they first arrived in Britain,
0:57:52 > 0:57:55but they remain underpinned by an extraordinary idea.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00The underlying principle that one must sort of remember,
0:58:00 > 0:58:05which is the sort of truth that the great Kano discovered, was
0:58:05 > 0:58:08people would get on so much better
0:58:08 > 0:58:11if only they spent more time trying to strangle each other
0:58:11 > 0:58:13and throw each other on the floor.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16He believed this, and it's sort of true.
0:58:42 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd