0:00:02 > 0:00:05This is the story of popular entertainment...
0:00:05 > 0:00:08..from the music-hall era of the 19th century...
0:00:08 > 0:00:10Don't you know Mrs Kelly?
0:00:10 > 0:00:13..through the golden age of variety...
0:00:13 > 0:00:16..to the working men's clubs of the 1950s.
0:00:16 > 0:00:17I love it!
0:00:17 > 0:00:20I'm Frank Skinner, a comedian.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23And I'm Suzy Klein, a music presenter.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27Together, we plan to celebrate our rich entertainment heritage
0:00:27 > 0:00:31by finding out all we can about the great acts of the past
0:00:31 > 0:00:33and, yes, by having a go ourselves.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35It's harder than it looks.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38So, join us now, as we go back to a time when
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Britain really did have talent.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03Entertainment first burst on to our TV screens in 1955.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07It was a watershed moment and, as a nation, we haven't looked back,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10but how did we get there?
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Our story starts in the emerging world of 19th-century music hall.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21The music hall would come to dominate 19th-century entertainment,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24turning stage performers into household names.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29And to understand a bit more about what it was like for entertainers
0:01:29 > 0:01:32and audiences back then, Suzy and I are going to get
0:01:32 > 0:01:35under the skin of two of the biggest stars of the day.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40I want to find out how a woman like Marie Lloyd battled her way
0:01:40 > 0:01:45through a male-dominated industry to be crowned queen of music hall.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48# If it satisfies their desires... #
0:01:48 > 0:01:52And I'm going to find out about eccentric comedian Dan Leno,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55who many call the grandfather of stand-up.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00But the entertainment industry that made them famous
0:02:00 > 0:02:03had a far-from-glamorous birth.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05It's a world with murky beginnings,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08in the underground basements of 1840s London.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12All that you shall hear Enacted in this humble hall
0:02:12 > 0:02:15'Tis the true tale As you shall hear
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Of poor Maria Marten's fall
0:02:18 > 0:02:20And though we fill you full of...
0:02:20 > 0:02:24The 19th century was a boom time in popular entertainment.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27After the Industrial Revolution, workers flooded into the towns
0:02:27 > 0:02:31and cities and, after a hard day's graft, they wanted a great night out.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Think of 19th-century popular entertainment
0:02:34 > 0:02:36and you think of music hall.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39There was a lot more going on than just that.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45At the start of the 19th century, Britain had become a powerful
0:02:45 > 0:02:49mercantile nation and was expanding its empire.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52And back home, the British stage offered
0:02:52 > 0:02:56some of the finest entertainment in Europe.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00# Let me entertain you! #
0:03:02 > 0:03:06But in the early 1800s, the Industrial Revolution took hold
0:03:06 > 0:03:09and Britain's urban populations tripled overnight.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Entertainment venues popped up in all kinds of places
0:03:14 > 0:03:16to meet the demands of new audiences.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20Oooh!
0:03:20 > 0:03:24At the bottom of the social ladder were the penny gaffs.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Often no more than a makeshift stage in a shop basement,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31they offered home-made entertainment to a local clientele
0:03:31 > 0:03:35of costermongers and factory workers, all for a penny.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41Bloodthirsty melodramas and crude songs about real-life murders
0:03:41 > 0:03:43were all the rage at the gaff,
0:03:43 > 0:03:48including a newly written 1840s horror story, Sweeney Todd.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52Mmm, mmm, mmm...
0:03:52 > 0:03:53Loads of gravy!
0:03:55 > 0:03:56Oh!
0:03:56 > 0:04:00How did a button come into a pie?
0:04:01 > 0:04:05If working-class people needed a break from the penny gaffs,
0:04:05 > 0:04:09they could go to saloon theatres, like the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton.
0:04:10 > 0:04:11Oh.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14It used to be here.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16Oh, no, look, it DID used to be here.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Charles Dickens visited the Britannia Saloon.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24This is what he wrote, "Among the audience were a large
0:04:24 > 0:04:28"number of boys and youths and a great many very young girls,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32"grown into bold women before they had well ceased to be children.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36"These last were the worst features of the whole crowd
0:04:36 > 0:04:39"and were more prominent there than in any other sort of
0:04:39 > 0:04:43"public assembly that we know of, except at a public execution."
0:04:45 > 0:04:46My kind of crowd!
0:04:50 > 0:04:52If you were a bit more posh,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55you could go to a song and supper room, which,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59by the early 19th century, had become known for their celebrity singers.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Sadly, all the song and supper rooms have long gone
0:05:03 > 0:05:05so instead, I'm off to the local gastropub,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09where Michael Kilgarriff is waiting to tell me all about them.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11- Michael.- Frank. Hello.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14- Good to see you. - How are you? All right.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19These were really for the men about town,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21- so they were a little grand, quite grand.- OK.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24That was the audience, the entertainment wasn't so grand.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28It was said that it "appealed to the most depraved propensities,
0:05:28 > 0:05:32"and whenever there was a burst of unwanted enthusiasm,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36"you can be certain that some genius of the place had soared
0:05:36 > 0:05:41"to a happy combination of indecency with blasphemy."
0:05:41 > 0:05:44And the kind of songs... Well, I'll give you some titles.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47There's No Shove Like The First Shove.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49He Did It Before My Eyes.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53And one that still baffles me,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55called The Friar's Candle.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Make of that what you will.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00They were all male, of course, the audiences.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03- OK, so it was a gentleman's club. - It was a gentleman's club, yes.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07- The entertainment was... - Was pretty saucy.- ..not refined.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Pretty raunchy, yes.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11And also, it was very late, you see.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14They were called supper clubs, so the entertainment wouldn't start
0:06:14 > 0:06:17until after the theatre or the opera had turned out.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Were they rough and raucous crowds?
0:06:21 > 0:06:23If you can imagine a stag night,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27I mean, everybody was on stag nights, the way they behaved there.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30- It was a stag night every night. - Every night, yes.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34One of the biggest hits of the song and supper rooms
0:06:34 > 0:06:38was Sam Cowell's song, The Ratcatcher's Daughter.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44IN COCKNEY ACCENT: Ladies and gentlemen, attend ye the tale
0:06:44 > 0:06:47of the poor ratcatcher's daughter.
0:06:50 > 0:06:56# Not long ago in Vestminster there lived a ratcatcher's daughter
0:06:56 > 0:07:00# But she didn't quite live in Vestminster
0:07:00 > 0:07:03# Cos she lived t'other side of the water
0:07:03 > 0:07:05# Her father caught rats
0:07:05 > 0:07:10# And she sold sprats all around and about that quarter
0:07:10 > 0:07:14# And the gentle folks all took off their hats
0:07:14 > 0:07:18# To the pretty little ratcatcher's daughter
0:07:18 > 0:07:21# Doodle-dee, doodle-dum
0:07:21 > 0:07:25# Dum dim-dum doodle-da. #
0:07:25 > 0:07:28HE REPEATS THE PHRASE ON THE PIANO
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Oh, yes.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Always repeat for the audience.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36So, I think what we've probably got here
0:07:36 > 0:07:42is some authentic Cockney, and some exaggeration for comic effect.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44- Yes, yes.- OK.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48But it works beautifully because it creates another world,
0:07:48 > 0:07:53and if you're doing this on stage as a sort of Cockney character,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57if you're not at all familiar with Cockneys, I think
0:07:57 > 0:08:01you take this all in as this colourful land of East London.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04- Yes. Slightly foreign.- Yes, exactly.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09# They both agreed to married be upon next Easter Sunday
0:08:09 > 0:08:12# But ratcatcher's daughter She had a dream
0:08:12 > 0:08:14# That she wouldn't be alive on Monday
0:08:14 > 0:08:18# She vent vonce more to buy some sprats
0:08:18 > 0:08:21# And she tumbled into the vater
0:08:21 > 0:08:25# And down to the bottom all kivered up with mud
0:08:25 > 0:08:29# Went the pretty little ratcatcher's daughter
0:08:29 > 0:08:32- BOTH:- # Doodle-dee, doodle-dum
0:08:32 > 0:08:35# Dee-dum, doodle-da. #
0:08:35 > 0:08:36And again!
0:08:36 > 0:08:38- BOTH:- # Doodle-dee doodle-dum
0:08:38 > 0:08:41# Dee-dum, doodle-da. #
0:08:41 > 0:08:46That's it, so she's drowned in the Thames.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Nothing was funnier, it would seem, to Victorians of this time,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52than people dying.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57There's love and tragedy and blood and drowning,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59and that's what's great about it,
0:08:59 > 0:09:03it's not sanitised like so many songs in later years.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09It's a real thing of beauty, The Ratcatcher's Daughter.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Entertainment venues were starting to respond to the tastes
0:09:18 > 0:09:21of their clientele, and it seems the Victorians loved
0:09:21 > 0:09:24nothing more than tales of death and murder.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29But the one thing that was absolutely forbidden was a play.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Before the 1840s, entertainment was heavily controlled
0:09:32 > 0:09:36by the authorities, and it was illegal for theatres
0:09:36 > 0:09:40to put on a play without a licence, so the smaller theatres responded
0:09:40 > 0:09:43with their own subversive take on the classics.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48I'm going to the Charing Cross Theatre on the Strand,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51the former centre of London's fringe theatre scene,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54where an alternative breed of comedy, called doggerel,
0:09:54 > 0:09:55was gaining popularity.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01- Nice to meet you, how are you doing? - Good to meet you.- Hi.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04So, why was doggerel, and particularly doggerel Shakespeare,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07why was that such a hit with 19th-century audiences?
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Victorians were obsessed with doing Shakespeare, the great national
0:10:11 > 0:10:14playwright, so there was this sense that, "Well, we can,
0:10:14 > 0:10:16"we alternative theatres..." -
0:10:16 > 0:10:19the theatres around the Strand, where we are right now -
0:10:19 > 0:10:22"..we can thumb our noses at the great stewards of culture
0:10:22 > 0:10:25"at Covent Garden and Drury Lane."
0:10:25 > 0:10:27So the smaller theatres said,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30"We're going to do Shakespeare, but on our terms, and we're going
0:10:30 > 0:10:33"to do the great Shakespeare tragedies as if they were comedies.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37"We're going to take something very serious and make it look ridiculous."
0:10:37 > 0:10:40So, who was coming to these theatres?
0:10:40 > 0:10:42What was the audience made up of?
0:10:42 > 0:10:45One-word description of that audience is "bohemian".
0:10:45 > 0:10:49They were people who went to Covent Garden and Drury Lane
0:10:49 > 0:10:51and saw legitimate Shakespeare,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54and then they would go, on the other night,
0:10:54 > 0:10:59to the burlesque and see the travesty or satire version of Shakespeare,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03so imagine going to see Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet
0:11:03 > 0:11:07on a Tuesday night and then on Thursday you go to a small fringe theatre
0:11:07 > 0:11:12in London, and somebody is imitating Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18OK, we're going to do the burlesque balcony scene from Romeo And Juliet.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21I quite like my moustache.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Romeo, are you ready?
0:11:24 > 0:11:26I am. What do you think? Ta-da!
0:11:26 > 0:11:30- Perfect. - But every Romeo needs a Juliet.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31True.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Oh! She's a looker! Oh!
0:11:38 > 0:11:39Ha!
0:11:39 > 0:11:41'Tis he!
0:11:42 > 0:11:45You are still playing in verse, even though it's funny.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48The actors would have done a comic voice and, often, for
0:11:48 > 0:11:53a 19th-century performance, this would have been a regional accent.
0:11:53 > 0:11:54Oh, I can handle that!
0:11:54 > 0:11:55I think you can.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57THEY CHUCKLE
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Ha! 'Tis he!
0:11:59 > 0:12:00Juliet.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Romeo, ah, yes, 'tis he.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05Oh, say that name again.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Oh, me-o, Romeo!
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Wherefore art thou, Romeo?
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Well, 'pon my soul, my love, my sweet ray, dear,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16I haven't got the most remote idea.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20- My father perhaps.- Deny him! - Then my mother.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22- She does... Oh, sorry. - Get off!
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Go, go!
0:12:24 > 0:12:28- Then my mother, she does not know I'm out.- Oh, what a bother.
0:12:28 > 0:12:29What is bother, sweet?
0:12:29 > 0:12:33That you, my Romeo, should be a Montague.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37And I a Capulet, and yet,
0:12:37 > 0:12:38what's in a name?
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Great. That was wonderful!
0:12:40 > 0:12:42CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:12:44 > 0:12:46He looks even tastier in the flesh, I'll tell you.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52I really enjoyed that. Didn't you think it was great?
0:12:52 > 0:12:56I kind of thought that this burlesque would be
0:12:56 > 0:12:59sort of anti-Shakespeare entertainment.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02But in fact, if you love Shakespeare, you love this...
0:13:02 > 0:13:04- It celebrates it, absolutely. - ..even more.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07Exactly, that's what the people who wrote the burlesque said.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Because all the critics in the big theatres said, "How dare you do this?
0:13:10 > 0:13:13"This is a travesty, this is a bastardisation of Shakespeare,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15"this is an insult to Shakespeare."
0:13:15 > 0:13:17And people who did the burlesque said,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20"You've got it all wrong, we love Shakespeare."
0:13:20 > 0:13:22It's a great love letter to Shakespeare.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27The big theatres had lost their control over entertainment.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30By the 1840s, it was the minor theatres,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34penny gaffs and supper rooms that drew in the crowds.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38Popular entertainment was becoming a real money-maker
0:13:38 > 0:13:41and the stage was set for the arrival of...
0:13:41 > 0:13:43music hall.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48The music hall would eventually come to define 19th-century entertainment
0:13:48 > 0:13:51and at one time, there would have been one in every neighbourhood.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55I've come to Wilton's in East London, one of the last remaining halls
0:13:55 > 0:13:59in the country, where many a music-hall star performed.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03But none of it would have been possible
0:14:03 > 0:14:06without one canny Victorian businessmen, Charles Morton.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Fern, Charles Morton was this extraordinary entrepreneurial figure,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14just tell me a bit about him. Who was he?
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Well, we call him the Father of the Halls
0:14:16 > 0:14:19because he really does create music hall for the first time.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22He was a publican and he was an East End boy, Hackney born,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and he'd started as a pub owner.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28He's been going to the Evans' song and supper room, which is kind of
0:14:28 > 0:14:32men singing songs and drinking, and he realises that this is
0:14:32 > 0:14:35a really good way to make money and he thinks, "Well,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38"I could do this but I could do it a little bit differently."
0:14:38 > 0:14:40So, having bought the Canterbury Arms,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42he opens it as the Canterbury Music Hall,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46as a 700-seater hall, and he also allows ladies in,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49so this is doubling his money, doubling his revenue.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52The Canterbury is very like Wilton's.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54It's kind of a free-for-all, so you have long tables,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57you might have short tables, everyone's sitting around.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01There's waitresses with beer and porter, and people bringing in food.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Kids running around, smoke everywhere.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09It is a real mix of classes that you don't see anywhere else
0:15:09 > 0:15:13in Victorian England, and it's our first mass entertainment in the UK.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15We've never seen anything like it.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Music halls were an escape from the living conditions
0:15:21 > 0:15:24of the average 19th-century urban resident.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30City life was poor and crowded, with no running water or heating,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34and night-time for most was seen through the dim flicker of a candle.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41There was a time when a lot of people would have been too scared
0:15:41 > 0:15:44to venture out to a place like the Canterbury after dark,
0:15:44 > 0:15:49but in the early 1800s a revolutionary new invention
0:15:49 > 0:15:53transformed the world of popular entertainment for ever.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59Gas lighting first appeared on Britain's streets in the early 19th century,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03and allowed people to walk safely at night for the first time.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07By the 1850s, as more and more music halls were being built,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10auditoriums were now being lit by gas.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13A trip to the halls for the average punter could be the only time
0:16:13 > 0:16:15they would experience such a luxury.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Combined with the cheap beer and entertainment on offer,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23music halls like the Canterbury became more and more successful.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28This booming business led to a race to build music halls
0:16:28 > 0:16:30all around the country.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Another modern-day survivor of this music-hall boom
0:16:35 > 0:16:40is the City Varieties in Leeds, built above a pub in 1865.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44And just a few years later, City Varieties had the privilege
0:16:44 > 0:16:48of presenting a massive star of the future.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Yes, me.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55I've played City Varieties quite a lot of times
0:16:55 > 0:16:57and have always had a great gig.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02The first time I ever played here, I can see it now from here,
0:17:02 > 0:17:07I dashed out onto the stage, bursting with enthusiasm,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11and stages in theatres like this are tilted forward,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15what they call the rake, so the audience can see better,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18but I hadn't really played anywhere like this before,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21so I ran out on stage and I'm basically running downhill,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25I damn near ran straight off the end of the stage.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27It was a terrifying opening.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30But I always think of that...
0:17:30 > 0:17:33that horrible moment before the show began.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37It was on this very stage that Dan Leno appeared
0:17:37 > 0:17:41as an emerging performer, travelling the country with his act.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45He was born in the slums of King's Cross in 1860,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48but immediately was on the road with his family of entertainers.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51He would go on to perform
0:17:51 > 0:17:53everything from acrobatics, comic singing,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55and pantomime.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58As a touring performer myself,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01I feel a certain kinship with the itinerant Leno.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06And who should be waiting for me in the stalls but Dan Leno expert,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08Caroline Radcliffe.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10- Hello.- Hello.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13- God, I have had crowds like this. - Pleased to meet you.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15THEY CHUCKLE
0:18:17 > 0:18:21So we're in quite a beautiful old music hall.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24What kind of places would the Leno family have been playing?
0:18:24 > 0:18:27He would have gone to local fairs,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31because every local town and village had a fair at that time,
0:18:31 > 0:18:35and there would have been a whole variety of shows
0:18:35 > 0:18:40and performances, and they would have just walked miles and miles,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43knocked on pub doors, played at free-and-easies...
0:18:43 > 0:18:46And a free-and-easy is what comedians would now call a door split -
0:18:46 > 0:18:49you do the gig and it depends on how many people turn up
0:18:49 > 0:18:54- and what they pay.- Yes. So sometimes you wouldn't make anything.- Yeah.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56So you're talking about, you know,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58it's a survival of the fittest, really.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02I have here a lyric from one of the songs he did
0:19:02 > 0:19:06in those early pantomimes, which is very beautiful, I must say.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09"If I had my husband now, I wouldn't thrash him,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12"I'd clasp him in my arms and smash him.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15"His ugly neck I'd dearly like to twist,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18"and prove the strength of a woman's love...
0:19:18 > 0:19:20"and fist."
0:19:20 > 0:19:22- Wow!- Beautiful.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Yeah, it's got that sort of girl power feel to it!
0:19:26 > 0:19:29That's very typical of his humour, I think.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31There's this whole Victorian...
0:19:31 > 0:19:34I guess it makes me think of the penny dreadfuls and all that -
0:19:34 > 0:19:36they like a bit of horror
0:19:36 > 0:19:38and a bit of death in their entertainment.
0:19:38 > 0:19:44His act was basically just a catalogue of domestic violence.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50Really, really aggressive songs about beating each other up at home.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53So it's the sort of musical version of Punch and Judy
0:19:53 > 0:19:56- but with real people.- Actually, yes.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59When you look at the poverty that he came from, it was one step away
0:19:59 > 0:20:05from the workhouse, and that's the humour that he's reflecting.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10His really, really tough poverty.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16Most of the music halls arose in industrial towns.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19You got a lot of factory workers, you got a lot of dockers,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21a lot of sailors.
0:20:21 > 0:20:27It was a really rough clientele that you got in this style of music hall,
0:20:27 > 0:20:33particularly in the 1850s and the 1860s, when Leno's career started.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38There are accounts of huge fights taking place in the music halls.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41If they didn't like an act, they'd just lynch you round the back of
0:20:41 > 0:20:47the music hall, throw a brick at you, or just start a fight.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51So you have to be really tough to deal with that kind of audience.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54I think stand-up comedians now, they have the odd heckler,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58but they don't expect to be beaten up around the back.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05I thought my early audiences were rough, but this lot!
0:21:06 > 0:21:11Luckily, back in the 19th century, there was someone to sort them all out.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Now, you may remember a television programme called The Good Old Days,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20where a very polite audience sat in rather dodgy period costume,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22enjoying some music-hall entertainment.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26Well, the real music-hall crowd was not remotely as sedate as that,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29and it was down to one man to keep them in check.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51My lords, ladies and gentlemen, good evening,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55and welcome to this magnificent melange
0:21:55 > 0:21:57of musicality, magic and mirth,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00in which we transport you back to the good old days of Queen...
0:22:00 > 0:22:03- Queen Vic... You're not Queen Victoria.- I'm Suzy.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Suzy, hello, I thought you might be Queen Victoria.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08I'm sorry to disappoint you.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Wonderfully impressive chairmanship there.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12Well, a little something.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15I may have got the job, I'm not sure.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Johnny, tell me about the role of the chairman.
0:22:18 > 0:22:19When did it come about?
0:22:19 > 0:22:21The middle of the 19th century.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26Usually, they were the landlord or the governor of the pub,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29and his job was purely to introduce the acts
0:22:29 > 0:22:31and keep order, with his gavel,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35and make sure that everybody... make sure they ordered drinks.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38When he says, "Order! Order!" - order the drinks, order the food.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42He would get some talented local amateurs in
0:22:42 > 0:22:45and give them a few bob to sing and he would then compere the show,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49so the chairman developed into a bit of a personality of his own, really.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52So, what would the chairman be doing then when the acts were on stage?
0:22:52 > 0:22:54How did the evening unfold?
0:22:54 > 0:22:58He would be actually facing the audience with a mirror on a table
0:22:58 > 0:23:00and he'd look through the mirror at the acts behind,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03to make sure there was nothing going on on stage that shouldn't be.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06His job, really, is to keep an eye on the audience
0:23:06 > 0:23:08because it was a very rowdy house indeed.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11When you say rowdy, what kind of audience behaviour are we talking?
0:23:11 > 0:23:12Just shouting out?
0:23:12 > 0:23:15Shouting and throwing things. They were very good at throwing things.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18There were lots of acts, there were no breaks
0:23:18 > 0:23:21and if an act didn't turn up - quite a lot of them did
0:23:21 > 0:23:23about two or three shows a night - so if they didn't turn up,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26another act would go in its place, or the chairman would sing,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30and he would say, "Now it's time for the chairman to do his song."
0:23:30 > 0:23:34And we're here in Hoxton Hall, used Macdonald's Music Hall,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37it's got a very fine history, this building.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39So, who would have come to a hall like this?
0:23:39 > 0:23:41It's working-class people.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43It was a people's entertainment
0:23:43 > 0:23:45and they would spend pence on getting in.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Upstairs even cheaper, upper circle, bit more.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Downstairs, food and drink. Occasionally, you'd get the nobs
0:23:52 > 0:23:56from the West End, who would drop in, but that wasn't very regular.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58They had their own music halls to go to.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02It was the people's entertainment and the people came out to see it.
0:24:02 > 0:24:03They loved it.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12Well, I'm glad I won't be facing a 19th-century crowd at the end of this.
0:24:12 > 0:24:17I've certainly got a new-found respect for the stamina of these music-hall performers.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20So, here's a slightly strange thing.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23I'm just off to see, well,
0:24:23 > 0:24:28what I'm told is the closest I'll ever get to Dan Leno live.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31Yes, Dan Leno.
0:24:33 > 0:24:40The tragical, comical history of the hard-boiled egg and the wasp.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45# A hard-boiled egg on the table lay
0:24:47 > 0:24:51# As hard-boiled eggs often do, do, do
0:24:51 > 0:24:55# A gentle wasp charged past that way
0:24:55 > 0:24:59# And in through the open window flew
0:24:59 > 0:25:03# And the wasps saw the hard-boiled egg's pale face
0:25:03 > 0:25:07# As it lay there alone in that lonely place
0:25:07 > 0:25:11# Dearest, I am with you I am by your side
0:25:11 > 0:25:16# Give me just one word of hope That sad wasp cried
0:25:18 > 0:25:22# But not one word said the hard-boiled egg
0:25:22 > 0:25:26# The hard-boiled egg The hard-boiled egg
0:25:26 > 0:25:30# And what a silly wasp for just one word to beg
0:25:30 > 0:25:32# For...
0:25:32 > 0:25:35# You can't get any sense out of a hard-boiled...
0:25:35 > 0:25:37# Hard-boiled...
0:25:37 > 0:25:39# Oh! Boil the egg! #
0:25:44 > 0:25:47- Magnificent.- Good to see you.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Where have I seen you before?
0:25:50 > 0:25:53So, the hat's off, now you become Tony Lidington for a second.
0:25:53 > 0:25:54I can be me again.
0:25:54 > 0:26:00OK, so, Dan Leno, do you think all this stuff you read about him,
0:26:00 > 0:26:05that he was the funniest man on Earth, and all that, is it fair?
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Thousands and thousands of people adored him.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10He was the highest-paid entertainer of the age.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12Fairly eccentric and fairly bizarre.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15I mean, a song about an egg and a wasp
0:26:15 > 0:26:18- in itself is kind of a bit weird. - It's a great combo.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20It's the sort of thing you might get a pub called now.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22The Hard-boiled Egg and the Wasp.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26He came down to London.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31I've sort of come to think of him, with what little I know, as maybe
0:26:31 > 0:26:34the first-ever stand-up comedian.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36Is that a reasonable description?
0:26:36 > 0:26:39He became synonymous with this idea of having
0:26:39 > 0:26:43an interlude in the song, where he would have no accompaniment
0:26:43 > 0:26:47and just deliver his material, his shtick, as it were,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50and so, for that, people often say he was the first stand-up.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54He was alone on stage, no mic, with 2,000, maybe 3,000 people
0:26:54 > 0:26:56in front of him, performing,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58and with the pit band in front of him, maybe nine or more,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and he would be able to top all that, fill the stage.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03But he couldn't do that from the centre,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07he had that same manic energy that, you know, Lee Evans has got now,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10and with that he was able to electrify an audience.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14# My mind's made up I'm going to marry him
0:27:14 > 0:27:17# He'll have to come to church If he don't, I'll carry him
0:27:17 > 0:27:21# For five and twenty years I've had my eye on Jim
0:27:21 > 0:27:24# If he won't marry me then I'll marry him. #
0:27:25 > 0:27:30He portrayed people that were recognisable then and recognisable now.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33They're all people with a kind of lower-middle-class profession,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36and that was the audience that was starting to come,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38that was the mass audience at the end of the 19th and
0:27:38 > 0:27:41start of the 20th century, and they were recognisable. They were real.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45So when he started to play people like Mrs Kelly, which was perhaps
0:27:45 > 0:27:49his most famous character, it's that gossip who lived next door.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53It's like Les Dawson, it's the person who you instantly recognise.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57It is a time before television, it's a time before moving pictures,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01so it's a time before there was any sense of things being focused in.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05You have to create that focus with your acting.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10'I don't want to let Tony or Dan Leno down. The pressure!'
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Is it a good idea?
0:28:14 > 0:28:17# For 25 years I've been doing my... #
0:28:17 > 0:28:18Is that... What's that?
0:28:18 > 0:28:21PIANIST PLAYS TUNE
0:28:21 > 0:28:25# For 25 years I've been doing my best to make Jim Johnson a match
0:28:25 > 0:28:27# I've done everything but ask him point-blank
0:28:27 > 0:28:30# But he won't come up to the scratch
0:28:30 > 0:28:32# Of course I know Jim's very partial to me
0:28:32 > 0:28:34# Though never one word has he said
0:28:34 > 0:28:38# Though this morning I passed where he's building a house
0:28:38 > 0:28:42# And he dropped a large slate on my head... #
0:28:42 > 0:28:44You're there, mate.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47You're within spitting distance.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50Yes, yes, I'm in the same postcode as the melody line,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53but I'm not in exactly the right house.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57So, I really enjoyed meeting Tony.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01I loved watching him perform The Hard-boiled Egg And The Wasp.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04It gave me a sense of what Leno was like, I think
0:29:04 > 0:29:07probably for the first time, because all I've seen is photos
0:29:07 > 0:29:09and heard scratchy old recordings.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13And he was great. And also, his love and enthusiasm
0:29:13 > 0:29:18for Leno provided a sort of a bridge to me, it gave me some access,
0:29:18 > 0:29:22you know, across the years, to this mysterious figure.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25So he was brilliant, really, really helpful,
0:29:25 > 0:29:26and I feel he's kind of...
0:29:26 > 0:29:29he's opened the door for me a bit, which is fantastic.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35While Frank's getting to grips with Dan Leno,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38I'm trying to get under the skin of Marie Lloyd.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42I need to understand how women like her in the 19th century
0:29:42 > 0:29:46managed to defy their social status to take centre stage.
0:29:46 > 0:29:51Two feisty women who paved the way were Jenny Hill and Bessie Bellwood,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55a new breed of female singers called seriocomics.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00# I am a girl what's doing very well in the vegetable line... #
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Seriocomics would tend to portray sort of the market sellers and
0:30:04 > 0:30:06the coster women and the servant girls,
0:30:06 > 0:30:08and would show elements of their lives.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11With Hill particularly, she came from a very working-class
0:30:11 > 0:30:14kind of background, as did Bessie Bellwood,
0:30:14 > 0:30:16and most of the performers at the time, they did kind of then know
0:30:16 > 0:30:19the streets and they knew the people that they were portraying.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22She was asked once by an interviewer about how she got that life-like
0:30:22 > 0:30:25image of an East End girl, and she said, "Well, from life, of course.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28"I go down to the shops and I buy the same clothes
0:30:28 > 0:30:30"and I see what they are doing."
0:30:30 > 0:30:31One more!
0:30:31 > 0:30:33# What cheer, Ria
0:30:33 > 0:30:35# Ria's on the job
0:30:35 > 0:30:37# What cheer, Ria... #
0:30:37 > 0:30:40With Bessie Bellwood, she was very boisterous in her performances
0:30:40 > 0:30:42and she was very good at putting down hecklers, so I think a lot
0:30:42 > 0:30:46of people watched to see how she'd put down hecklers in the crowd
0:30:46 > 0:30:50and she was a very typical kind of coster girl who would,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53you know, sing all of these songs that they'd hear on the market,
0:30:53 > 0:30:58but also, there was an added sort of dimension to her that, in real life,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01she was constantly up on assault charges,
0:31:01 > 0:31:02she was up on all sorts of
0:31:02 > 0:31:05non-payment of bills and things like that,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08so the audiences knew that she was a bit of a bad girl in real life.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12When you think of somebody like Marie Lloyd,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15how huge a star she was, people like Jenny Hill
0:31:15 > 0:31:18and Bessie Bellwood really set the template for that.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Definitely, and the times when she was attending the halls
0:31:22 > 0:31:25and had got the idea of going on stage was when Jenny Hill
0:31:25 > 0:31:28and Bessie Bellwood were at their height, so she would have seen
0:31:28 > 0:31:31these performers and, certainly, she was often praised for
0:31:31 > 0:31:35the fact that she would know exactly what was in a charwoman's handbag,
0:31:35 > 0:31:37so if she got up on stage she could perform the patter perfectly
0:31:37 > 0:31:40and she'd know exactly the right level to lift your skirt up
0:31:40 > 0:31:42to show a particular type of woman.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45She definitely had that realistic sort of side to her but,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48again, she was definitely tabloid fodder as well.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53I'm beginning to understand the toughness of Marie Lloyd now,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56and she really would need it to survive in music hall.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Born Matilda Wood in 1870's Shoreditch, she took to the stage
0:32:00 > 0:32:03as Marie Lloyd aged just 15,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05appearing at places like the Britannia Saloon.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08She continued to scramble her way to the top,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11to be called the queen of the music hall.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14Of course it would be extremely convenient, Suzy, wouldn't it,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17if we could go back in time and actually meet these people?
0:32:17 > 0:32:21Well, I'm going to do the next best thing. It's back to Wilton's.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23I'm told Jan Hunt's there
0:32:23 > 0:32:26and if anyone knows Marie first-hand, it's her.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28# ..Stamped all over them
0:32:28 > 0:32:31# Oh, I felt sorry for the lady and the chap
0:32:31 > 0:32:38# So I says to 'em, 'scuse me If you want to have a cuddle
0:32:38 > 0:32:42# Have a cuddle cos I'm gonna have a nap
0:32:44 > 0:32:49# I always hold in having it if you fancy it
0:32:49 > 0:32:53# If you fancy it That's understood
0:32:53 > 0:32:56# I'll be dreaming while you spoon
0:32:56 > 0:33:01# That I'm on my honeymoon Phwoar!
0:33:01 > 0:33:06# A little of what you fancy does you good
0:33:06 > 0:33:10# Oh, I always hold in having it if you fancy it
0:33:10 > 0:33:12# If you fancy it...
0:33:12 > 0:33:13# Oh, I fancy him!
0:33:13 > 0:33:17# And suppose it makes you fat I don't worry over that
0:33:17 > 0:33:21# Cos a little of what you fancy A little of what you fancy
0:33:21 > 0:33:24# Little of what you fancy does you good. #
0:33:24 > 0:33:26Oh, yeah!
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Fantastic.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35So, what made Marie Lloyd so popular with audiences?
0:33:35 > 0:33:37Why did they love her so much?
0:33:37 > 0:33:41She sang for the people, she sang to them, she didn't sing at them.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45She played every one of them, she took in all the downstairs,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49she took the circle, she took in the gallery.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54And she just made her audience feel that she was there for them.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57And she was vulgar but she was humorous.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59The song about the young girl travelling by train
0:33:59 > 0:34:02on her own for the first time, you know, when she gets to
0:34:02 > 0:34:05the barrier and they ask to see her ticket and she says,
0:34:05 > 0:34:09# I told 'em all, I'd never had me ticket punched before. #
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Well, that can all be a very innocent line but Marie does it...
0:34:12 > 0:34:17# I told 'em all, I'd never had my ticket punched before. #
0:34:17 > 0:34:19And you know exactly what's behind it.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23When you think about the people who came before, the Jenny Hills
0:34:23 > 0:34:26and the Bessie Bellwoods, and then on to Marie Lloyd,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28these were women who were so obviously incredibly talented,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31they could have had a career in straight theatre,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34but evidently working in music hall gave them something else.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36Why did they come to these places?
0:34:36 > 0:34:38Music-hall audiences are very, very important.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41You want them to answer you back, you want them to sing,
0:34:41 > 0:34:45you want them to throw out the ad-libs so that you can come back at them,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49and she sang to the toffs, she sang to those with a bit more money
0:34:49 > 0:34:53but Marie's heart was with the people up in the gallery.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07# I'm a young girl and I've just come over
0:35:07 > 0:35:11# Over from the country where they do things big
0:35:12 > 0:35:16# And amongst the boys I've got a lover
0:35:16 > 0:35:22# Since I've got a lover Why, I don't give a fig... #
0:35:22 > 0:35:26'The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery was the song that first made
0:35:26 > 0:35:30'Marie Lloyd famous as a teenage music-hall performer.'
0:35:30 > 0:35:32# The boy I love is looking down at me... #
0:35:32 > 0:35:34See him.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37# ..There he is, can't you see?
0:35:37 > 0:35:41# Waving his handkerchief... #
0:35:41 > 0:35:43Now to the audience.
0:35:43 > 0:35:51# ..As merry as a robin that sings on a tree. #
0:35:53 > 0:35:56CHEERING
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Dan Leno and Marie Lloyd were treading the boards
0:36:03 > 0:36:06at the very moment that music hall was taking off.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12But it wasn't just the working-class scoundrels like myself in the halls now.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17The allure of music hall was spreading beyond the working class.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20In particular, a new breed of audience member appeared -
0:36:20 > 0:36:22the toffs.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27So, I imagine these toffs, these fashionable icons...
0:36:27 > 0:36:29what did they wear?
0:36:29 > 0:36:33It was flamboyance, gaudiness, being a male peacock.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35Bright colours.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38You'd carry a cane with a silver top to it.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42You would generally flounce about in these garments
0:36:42 > 0:36:46and consider yourself a picture to be looked at.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49And, remember, in the audience you've got young men
0:36:49 > 0:36:51that are wondering what to do with their leisure time
0:36:51 > 0:36:55and they are shopkeepers, clerks, they've got a bit of money.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58They want to emulate that type of person.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02The appearance of the toffs at the music halls inspired
0:37:02 > 0:37:06one of the period's greatest hits, Champagne Charlie.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10It was sung by dashing working-class boy George Leybourne,
0:37:10 > 0:37:14part of a group of male singers called the Lion Comique,
0:37:14 > 0:37:16a sort of Victorian Rat Pack.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24- So, George Leybourne, he was an enormous star.- Yes.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27It was Champagne Charlie that did it for him.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29It grew and grew in popularity
0:37:29 > 0:37:33until it became THE song associated with him.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35It really took him over
0:37:35 > 0:37:38because he just became known as Champagne Charlie.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42He was reported to drink a lot of Champagne, yes,
0:37:42 > 0:37:45- but by the pint, in tankards. - Oh, OK!
0:37:45 > 0:37:47It's fabulous.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50That's what happens when two classes collide!
0:37:50 > 0:37:54It is interesting to me because I was part, not deliberately,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57of a phenomena known as the New Lads in the '90s,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00and it had an element of this, cos it had a laddish, drinking,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04womanising culture, but also, people liked to dress smartly
0:38:04 > 0:38:08and started caring about fashion, so there are definite echoes in this.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14As I'm at Wilton's Music Hall, well, I thought I'd give
0:38:14 > 0:38:16this 19th-century lad culture a go.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22So, are you ready, Frank?
0:38:22 > 0:38:24Yes, I think so.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27DRUMROLL
0:38:36 > 0:38:43# I've seen a deal of gaiety throughout my noisy life
0:38:43 > 0:38:48# For all my grand accomplishments I ne'er could get a wife
0:38:49 > 0:38:55# The thing that I excel in is the PRFG game
0:38:55 > 0:38:58# I noise all night
0:38:58 > 0:39:01# I sleep all day
0:39:01 > 0:39:05# And swimming in Champagne
0:39:05 > 0:39:08# For...
0:39:08 > 0:39:12- # Champagne Charlie is my name - Yes!
0:39:12 > 0:39:17- # Champagne Charlie is my name - Yes!
0:39:17 > 0:39:21# Good for any game at night, my boys
0:39:21 > 0:39:25# Good for any game at night, my boys
0:39:25 > 0:39:29- # Champagne Charlie is my name - Yes!
0:39:29 > 0:39:34- # Champagne Charlie is my name - Yes!
0:39:34 > 0:39:38# Good for any game at night, boys
0:39:38 > 0:39:40# All come and join me on a spree. #
0:39:40 > 0:39:42Let's dance!
0:39:44 > 0:39:49'Just to think I'm treading the same boards as George Leybourne himself.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53'You know, I really could get into Champagne Charlie!'
0:39:53 > 0:39:56Yes, Frank, not sure about the whiskers, though.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02Entertainers like Leybourne weren't just performers, they were stars,
0:40:02 > 0:40:05and their fans expected them to appear at several venues a night,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08so they could see their signature routines.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10That's a lot of Champagne to get through.
0:40:12 > 0:40:18Charles Dickens's son offered advice to potential newcomers to music hall.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21He said, "It's undesirable to visit many of these establishments
0:40:21 > 0:40:25"on the same evening, as it's quite possible to go to
0:40:25 > 0:40:28"four or five halls in different parts of the town and to find
0:40:28 > 0:40:32"widely diverse stages occupied by the same sets of performers."
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Come on, Suzy, put your back into it, we've got another five music halls to get to!
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Yes m'lud.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Not to be outdone by Frank, I'm back to see my mentor Jan Hunt
0:40:52 > 0:40:55to take my Marie Lloyd act up a notch.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Marie didn't always sing sweet songs about boys in galleries.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04By the 1890s, she was really pushing the boundaries
0:41:04 > 0:41:07of what was legally and socially acceptable.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Jan looks a bit different from when I saw her last.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12# I lost me way... #
0:41:12 > 0:41:14- Hello.- Hi, sweetie!- How are you?
0:41:14 > 0:41:16- Nice to see you.- Fine. Lovely to see you.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19- Hi, I'm Suzy.- This is Lawrence. - Hi, Lawrence. Great to meet you.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Jan, I've gone away, I did my homework exactly like you said.
0:41:23 > 0:41:24Ten out of ten!
0:41:24 > 0:41:28I've read up more about Marie, I've listened to some songs
0:41:28 > 0:41:31and the thing I was thinking was, the song we did before,
0:41:31 > 0:41:33The Boy In The Gallery, gorgeous and sweet,
0:41:33 > 0:41:36but the more I've read about her, the more I've realised that,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40as the career went on, she got a bit naughtier, a bit more risque.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42Oh, she did, yes.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45I just thought, is there a song that I could learn that really
0:41:45 > 0:41:47kind of typifies the big, high point of Marie.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49- Expresses the way she was developing, yes.- Yes.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54Well, there is. Well, Morning Promenade is a very good one
0:41:54 > 0:41:56because that's when she gets quite cheeky with her skirts.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59You know, before, it would be a little touch of the skirt.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01Now the skirt develops and it gets higher and higher.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Plus, she would do a lot of this
0:42:03 > 0:42:08so there'd be a little bit of showing the decolletage.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13'Now down to the serious business of rehearsing.'
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Now, how would Marie have sung or said these words?
0:42:18 > 0:42:21- Just give us a...- She would have spoken that.- Go on, then.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24When I take my morning promenade,
0:42:24 > 0:42:28quite a fashion card on the promenade.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30- And then maybe go into the singing. - OK.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34# Oh, I don't mind nice boys staring hard
0:42:34 > 0:42:38# If it satisfies their desire. #
0:42:40 > 0:42:44- So...- BOTH:- When I take my morning promenade,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48quite a fashion card on the promenade
0:42:48 > 0:42:49Oh, I don't...
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Swap the stick over.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54..I don't mind nice boys staring hard...
0:42:54 > 0:42:55Only a little bit.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58..If it satisfies their desire.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00That's it.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04When I take my morning promenade,
0:43:04 > 0:43:09quite a fashion card on the promenade.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13# Oh, I don't mind nice boys staring hard
0:43:13 > 0:43:17# If it satisfies their desire
0:43:17 > 0:43:19Good girl, and then often she used to do...
0:43:19 > 0:43:21# Satisfy their desire... #
0:43:21 > 0:43:22And then a little kick of the foot.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24# Their desire. #
0:43:24 > 0:43:25That's it.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29And then she would walk to include that side of her audience.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32- BOTH:- # Do you think my dress is a little bit
0:43:32 > 0:43:35# Just a little bit
0:43:35 > 0:43:37# Not too much of it?
0:43:37 > 0:43:41# Though it shows my shape just a little bit
0:43:41 > 0:43:45# That's the little bit the boys admire. #
0:43:45 > 0:43:48Then she'd go back.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53You make a statement with the stick at the end, which is lovely.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57- That's great. - It's harder than it looks.- It is.
0:44:02 > 0:44:07- So, I've been trying to practise my Marie Lloyd act.- Oh, yes.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10I probably haven't been doing as much homework as I should,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14being honest, but I'm finding her really difficult.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18It feels something like a very long way away in history.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22I don't know if I just need the dress, or I need the hat,
0:44:22 > 0:44:27or I need something, but trying to do her shtick of funny and naughty
0:44:27 > 0:44:30and a bit kind of classy and yet lowbrow,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33plus movement, plus a song.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35It's a bit of a tough call.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38How's the world of Dan Leno?
0:44:38 > 0:44:40Are you trying it at home, by the way?
0:44:40 > 0:44:44Are the family sort of thinking, "Why is Mum doing that?"
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Yeah, I mean, they're slightly getting used to me
0:44:47 > 0:44:51wandering around with 19th-century teeth, trying to do that.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54I've been wandering around with 19th-century teeth for years.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58How are the teeth with Dan Leno?
0:44:58 > 0:45:01- Is that working out for you? - He never shows his teeth, Dan Leno.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04No, really, Dan Leno always does this Stan Laurel type smile.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09- And...- Maybe his teeth were worse than Marie Lloyd's, if that's possible.
0:45:09 > 0:45:10Maybe there are no teeth.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14What I like about Dan Leno is, he clearly loves words and language.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19You can tell him just enjoying stuff like "chloroform"
0:45:19 > 0:45:21and stuff like that that he just chucks in,
0:45:21 > 0:45:26and I've got that sort of slight obsessiveness about words as well,
0:45:26 > 0:45:28so I'm enjoying that.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32I've found a bit of a common bond, I think, between us.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35And some of the stuff is funny, you don't know why,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38just cos he's chosen exactly the right word, and that's beautiful.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41And you get wear a frock. I can't wait to see you in your dress.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45Yeah, it's... I wouldn't say it was slinky.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47- You can't have everything.- No.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Marie Lloyd and Dan Leno had to work really hard
0:45:53 > 0:45:56to keep their acts fresh for their growing audiences.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01The increased demand for entertainment in turn led to
0:46:01 > 0:46:05the building of Shaftesbury Avenue and the creation of the West End.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09But singing stars like Lloyd and Leno
0:46:09 > 0:46:11were just one part of the entertainment on offer.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18To give you an idea of the sort of variety of acts you might see,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22this is Dickens' Dictionary Of London by Charles Dickens's son.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26He lists some entertainers - the sort of thing you might expect -
0:46:26 > 0:46:28performing animals and ventriloquists,
0:46:28 > 0:46:34but also winners of walking matches, shipwrecked sailors,
0:46:34 > 0:46:38velocipedists, decanter equilibrists,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41living models of marble gems,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45fire princes, mysterious youths,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48spiral bicycle ascensionists,
0:46:48 > 0:46:50flying children and, my own favourite,
0:46:50 > 0:46:54Mexican boneless wonders.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58Oh, Mexican boneless wonders! Couldn't you just eat one of those?!
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Victorian audiences now expected to be astounded as well as entertained.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11Magicians and spiritualists drew in the crowds in the late 19th century
0:47:11 > 0:47:15as theatre-goers became fascinated with invention and the paranormal.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20And even more shocking than Marie Lloyd was the arrival on stage
0:47:20 > 0:47:23of a new scientific discovery.
0:47:25 > 0:47:27Electric acts quickly appeared in the hall.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30Chief among them was Walford Bodie,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33whose speciality act was sending several thousand volts
0:47:33 > 0:47:36of electricity through his glamorous assistants.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38Lights off, please.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44Now, can I establish that you're not actually Walford Bodie?
0:47:44 > 0:47:47I'm not actually Dr Walford Bodie, MD, no.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50- This is just in the style of Walford Bodie.- So, who was he?
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Walford Bodie was one of the highest-paid
0:47:52 > 0:47:55and most popular entertainers of his day.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58In the late 19th century, he was top of the bill in every music hall,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01every theatre in the UK, he was one of the best speciality acts.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05So he was doing, basically, weird stuff on stage.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07He'd charge himself up with the electricity,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11he could do anything, he could cure the sick, he could hypnotise people,
0:48:11 > 0:48:13at least that's what he said on his playbills.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16So electricity was still quite a novelty thing,
0:48:16 > 0:48:18and people weren't used to it,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22so it's kind of like if I did an act now in which I used the sat nav
0:48:22 > 0:48:25and no-one had seen it before and they were going, "Whoa!" and all that.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28That is it, yes. And nobody knew about electricity at that time
0:48:28 > 0:48:30so he really took advantage of it.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33And did he work alone on stage, or did he have what we
0:48:33 > 0:48:37normally would look for in a magician, the glamorous assistant?
0:48:37 > 0:48:39Well, Bodie did use a glamorous assistant,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42he married several of them, actually.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44One of them was called La Belle Electra,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47and La Belle Electra would also get attached to these machines and
0:48:47 > 0:48:50using the power of Bodie's special Bodic force, as he called it,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53she would also withstand the power of electricity.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55Have you got a Bodic force?
0:48:55 > 0:48:57Um, I might develop one during this.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01Did he use dangerous electricity, or did he just pretend to?
0:49:01 > 0:49:05Well, he used machines that... Nowadays, we would consider them quite dangerous.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09The things that I'm using here are the modern versions, producing the
0:49:09 > 0:49:12same amount of electricity, but just a bit less likely to kill anybody.
0:49:12 > 0:49:13OK.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17On a score out of 100, how likely are they to kill somebody?
0:49:17 > 0:49:21Cos I'm thinking that I might actually take the role
0:49:21 > 0:49:24of La Belle Electra. It seems I was born for that.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27- OK, shall I mount the plate? - You certainly can.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30Is there any things I definitely shouldn't do?
0:49:30 > 0:49:32Don't touch the floor.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35No, don't touch the floor, and if you've got a pacemaker, turn it off now.
0:49:37 > 0:49:38Oh!
0:49:38 > 0:49:40That's...
0:49:40 > 0:49:42At last I'm in light entertainment!
0:49:42 > 0:49:45'With 50,000 volts running through my body,
0:49:45 > 0:49:48'I'm starting to think this stuff's got a bit of comic potential.'
0:49:48 > 0:49:49Oh!
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Goalkeeper.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54Sir Edmund Hillary.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56Man with his head trapped
0:49:56 > 0:49:58in a lift door.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01Can you open the... Can you open the...
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Can you just open the door?
0:50:03 > 0:50:09Audiences at the end of the 19th century demanded a wow factor with their entertainment.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13And as the bright lights of Shaftesbury Avenue lit up for the first time,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18music-hall entertainers like Leno and Lloyd were entering a new era.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24But before we say goodbye to the 19th century,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28it's back we go to the gas-lit world of the music hall...
0:50:28 > 0:50:31..where it's finally time to see if Suzy and I
0:50:31 > 0:50:34can bring Dan Leno and Marie Lloyd back to life.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37- Ow!- I'm sorry.- Genuinely ow!
0:50:37 > 0:50:39I'm very sorry. I'm really sorry.
0:50:39 > 0:50:40See how difficult she is!
0:50:40 > 0:50:42He's a bit Cara Delevingne!
0:50:44 > 0:50:50- So, I'm actually playing Dan Leno playing a woman today.- Right.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55I thought I'd up my game and do a double-whammy impression,
0:50:55 > 0:51:00whereas you've taken the easy route of being a woman playing a woman.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02- She's not... - I mean, you are halfway there.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04She's not that easy, Marie Lloyd,
0:51:04 > 0:51:10cos she had total star quality, which...I'm...
0:51:10 > 0:51:13I'm somewhat searching around for.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16The thing I love, I've chosen this Marie Lloyd song,
0:51:16 > 0:51:21which does have that brilliant thing of taking something very biblical,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24you know, what seems like a very nice high Victorian subject
0:51:24 > 0:51:26- and turning it into such filth.- OK!
0:51:26 > 0:51:28It's really smutty.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37I was just trying out my Dan Leno mouth.
0:51:37 > 0:51:38Let's see it.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43- They said that Dan Leno... he had a look.- That looks like...
0:51:43 > 0:51:47- They said Stan Laurel...- I was going to say it's the Stan Laurel smile.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51- They say Stan Laurel took his smile from Dan Leno.- Show us again. Yeah.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56And that Chaplin took... He used to dress, like, in this shabby...
0:51:56 > 0:52:00baggy trousers and a long coat so that Chaplin, he...
0:52:00 > 0:52:04You know, there were all these young comics there watching Leno and...
0:52:04 > 0:52:08not nicking his stuff so much, but being massively influenced by him.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11But it's interesting. You sort of think comedy starts with
0:52:11 > 0:52:14those guys, like Laurel and Hardy and Chaplin, not comedy,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17but the comedy we know, cos it's on record, cos there's films of them.
0:52:17 > 0:52:18Mmm.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23Well, one plus about this is that nobody really knows
0:52:23 > 0:52:27what Dan Leno...what he looked like and what he moved like and
0:52:27 > 0:52:31stuff like that, so they can't really shoot me down for getting it wrong.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35- There might be a plus to being a non-performer.- Really?
0:52:35 > 0:52:39Cos I find that you start doing it and then I'm thinking,
0:52:39 > 0:52:44"Oh, no, that was just me, that was just me doing a line,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47"rather than Dan Leno doing a line,"
0:52:47 > 0:52:51so at least you're coming with a blank page.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55And you are a performer as well, in that you...
0:52:57 > 0:53:00- Communicate, you communicate for a living.- Frank, I talk.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02You do work in a call centre, don't you?
0:53:15 > 0:53:20Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Good evening!
0:53:23 > 0:53:28I bring to you Miss Marie Lloyd.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30CHEERING
0:53:32 > 0:53:35# Fancy the girls in the prehistoric days
0:53:35 > 0:53:39# Each wore a bearskin to cover up her fair skin
0:53:39 > 0:53:43# Lately Salome has charmed us to be sure
0:53:43 > 0:53:48# Wearing just a row of beads and not much more
0:53:48 > 0:53:52# Fancy me dressing like that too
0:53:52 > 0:53:57# I'm sure the Daily Mirror man would love an interview
0:53:57 > 0:54:04# As I take my morning promenade
0:54:04 > 0:54:08# Quite a fashion card on the promenade
0:54:08 > 0:54:12# Now, I don't mind nice boys staring hard
0:54:12 > 0:54:15# If it satisfies their desire
0:54:15 > 0:54:20# Do you think my dress is a little bit
0:54:20 > 0:54:22# Just a little bit
0:54:22 > 0:54:24# Not too much of it
0:54:24 > 0:54:28# If it shows my shape just a little bit
0:54:28 > 0:54:32# That's the little bit boys admire
0:54:32 > 0:54:36# If it shows my shape just a little bit
0:54:36 > 0:54:41# That's the little bit the boys admire. #
0:54:41 > 0:54:43APPLAUSE
0:54:47 > 0:54:49Carrying all before her.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54- I did it! I did it!- Brilliant.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57God, it was actually like standing in the wings at the music hall
0:54:57 > 0:54:59- watching Marie Lloyd.- No, it wasn't.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02It really was how I imagine it would be. Dan Leno waiting to go on.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06I really, totally enjoyed it, it was great.
0:55:06 > 0:55:11Ladies and gentlemen, the delectable Dan Leno.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13APPLAUSE
0:55:13 > 0:55:16Good luck, you're on, you're on, you're on. Good luck!
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Good luck! Go for it.
0:55:23 > 0:55:29# For 25 years I've been doing my best to make Jim Johnson a match
0:55:29 > 0:55:32# I've done everything but ask him point-blank
0:55:32 > 0:55:34# But he won't come up to the scratch
0:55:34 > 0:55:37# Of course I know Jim's very partial to me
0:55:37 > 0:55:40# Though never one word has he said
0:55:40 > 0:55:44# But this morning I passed where he's building a house
0:55:44 > 0:55:49# And he dropped a large slate on my head... #
0:55:51 > 0:55:54Of course he did that more really to draw my attention, you see.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57Oh, but you know, Jim's a totally different man.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59Jim does love me, you know.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02And he's lodging now with Mrs Kelly.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07You know, Mrs Kelly.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09You know Mrs Kelly.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12Don't you know Mrs Kelly?
0:56:12 > 0:56:14Her husband's that little stout man
0:56:14 > 0:56:17always on the corner of the street in a greasy waistcoat.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20Good life, don't look so stupid.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23Don't you... You must know Mrs Kelly!
0:56:23 > 0:56:24Don't...don't...
0:56:24 > 0:56:27don't you know Mrs Kelly?
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Well, of course, if you don't, you don't, but I thought you did
0:56:30 > 0:56:32because I thought everybody knew Mrs Kelly.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Still, here I am talking to you about Mrs Kelly
0:56:35 > 0:56:37and I want to talk to you about Jim.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41# Oh, my mind's made up
0:56:41 > 0:56:43# I'm going to marry him
0:56:43 > 0:56:44# He'll have to come to church
0:56:44 > 0:56:46# If he don't, I'll carry him
0:56:46 > 0:56:50# For five and twenty years I've had my eye on Jim
0:56:50 > 0:56:53# If he won't marry me I'll marry him
0:56:53 > 0:56:56# If he won't marry me... #
0:56:56 > 0:56:58Well, I'll insist upon it and take him to church myself
0:56:58 > 0:57:00if I have to chloroform him.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02Upon my word, I will, I'll have him!
0:57:03 > 0:57:06CHEERING
0:57:32 > 0:57:36'Next time - we enter the golden age of variety...'
0:57:37 > 0:57:38Brilliant!
0:57:38 > 0:57:43'..find out about the extraordinary acts of long-forgotten performers...'
0:57:43 > 0:57:45If you see it done exactly how she would have done it,
0:57:45 > 0:57:47it's still pretty jaw-dropping.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50'..and discover if we've got what it takes...'
0:57:50 > 0:57:51Hi!
0:57:51 > 0:57:55'..to recreate the magic of the era's greatest stars.'
0:57:57 > 0:57:58Pretty good.