0:00:02 > 0:00:04I'm sure you've heard all the stories before. I mean,
0:00:04 > 0:00:06I've such a limited repertoire.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11I always write on odd bits of paper.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15This is part of a cheque book.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21"The most a writer can hope from a reader
0:00:21 > 0:00:23"is that he or she should think...
0:00:24 > 0:00:28" 'Here is somebody who knows what it is like to be me.' "
0:00:29 > 0:00:32I don't know why that looks...
0:00:32 > 0:00:34CHUCKLES: No. Anyway...
0:00:49 > 0:00:52These are all pictures of me.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This is my diary and the notes I keep.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30- DIRECTOR:- Is it daily? Is it...? - No, I don't keep it every day,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32because so little happens to me,
0:01:32 > 0:01:37but if there's anything I think is interesting, I write it down.
0:01:37 > 0:01:44I've got odd diaries going back to the 1960s and earlier than that.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Some of the earlier ones are so embarrassing, I destroyed them.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56"October 27th - to record Private Passions,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00"Michael Berkeley's Radio 3 programme, which I have always liked
0:02:00 > 0:02:04"as a more relaxed and less formulaic Desert Island Discs.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08"Mind you, I have always resisted Private Passions too
0:02:08 > 0:02:12"if only because my musical appreciation is so adolescent and
0:02:12 > 0:02:16"tied to memory, with no specialised musical knowledge to it."
0:02:16 > 0:02:18Sorry it's so laborious.
0:02:18 > 0:02:19- PRODUCER LAUGHS:- No!
0:02:19 > 0:02:22So, Alan, this is Michael Berkeley, who I think you've met before?
0:02:22 > 0:02:24- Oh, we've met before. - We've seen each other.
0:02:24 > 0:02:25We met at Downing Street.
0:02:25 > 0:02:26ALL LAUGH
0:02:26 > 0:02:28- That's a good line.- Where else?
0:02:32 > 0:02:35'Alan Bennett really needs no introduction.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39'We all think we know him. He's the much-loved playwright and diarist
0:02:39 > 0:02:43'who has been entertaining and moving us
0:02:43 > 0:02:45'since Beyond The Fringe in 1960.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49'I'm glad to say, though, Alan, that there's one aspect of you
0:02:49 > 0:02:51'that is perhaps rather less known
0:02:51 > 0:02:54'and that is the importance of music in your life.'
0:02:54 > 0:02:56Well, I always feel, if I could have written music,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59I wouldn't have written plays.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04But some people can write to music, I mean, with music playing.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06I can't do that.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09What I tend to do is write and then,
0:03:09 > 0:03:15if it's gone well, I then put some music on and even, um...
0:03:16 > 0:03:20..well, not quite dance about, but nevertheless...
0:03:21 > 0:03:24..unsuppress myself, as it were, to the music.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28MUSIC: Gold And Silver Waltz by Franz Lehar
0:03:39 > 0:03:41These are family photos.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45That's my dad in the bowler hat. He always wore a bowler hat.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49There's pictures of him on the sands with us as kids
0:03:49 > 0:03:51and he's still got his bowler hat on.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56I remember that shirt and hating it.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03There was music right from my earliest childhood,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07because my father was a very good amateur violinist
0:04:07 > 0:04:12and his fiddle was always on the sideboard.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16And when it was in its case, it seemed to me like
0:04:16 > 0:04:21the most expensive and luxurious item in the house.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24And we were never allowed to touch it, my brother and I,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28except when my father made an abortive attempt to teach us
0:04:28 > 0:04:29how to play, which we couldn't.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32So this first music takes you back to him,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34to your father on the violin?
0:04:34 > 0:04:36Yes, he... It was the kind of thing
0:04:36 > 0:04:39he would pick up his violin and play along to.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44Music from Lehar's Gold And Silver Waltz conducted by Michael Dittrich.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46MUSIC CONTINUES
0:05:06 > 0:05:08Now this, this is the thing about the barbers.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13"September 23rd, 2015.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18"A minor breakthrough today when I go to my barbers,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21"Ossie's in Camden Town,
0:05:21 > 0:05:26"and for the first time in my life and at the age of 81,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30"license Azak, my barber, to trim my eyebrows.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35"It's a cosmetic refinement I've always resisted in the past
0:05:35 > 0:05:38"on the assumption that once trimmed,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41"the eyebrows would grow more luxuriantly
0:05:41 > 0:05:45"and I feared I would end up looking like Bernard Ingham,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47"Mrs Thatcher's press secretary
0:05:47 > 0:05:51"or - and I mention him in the interests of balance
0:05:51 > 0:05:54"although he's only just left us -
0:05:54 > 0:05:57"Denis Healey." Um...
0:05:57 > 0:05:59Does that make sense?
0:05:59 > 0:06:00Hmm. Mm-hmm?
0:06:01 > 0:06:06"However, as I say, I'm getting on and so there will hardly be time for
0:06:06 > 0:06:11"the development of such overhanging thickets, so today I'm tidied up.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15"The last time I remember being plagued with similar thoughts
0:06:15 > 0:06:19"was when I was 17 and had not yet begun to shave.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24"Though most of my contemporaries had been shaving for years,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28"being fair and rather behind the rest, I reasoned that in my case
0:06:28 > 0:06:32"there was no need and that once I started, I would have to go on.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37"But a few months later, I was in the Army
0:06:37 > 0:06:40"and so the decision was taken out of my hands."
0:06:46 > 0:06:47I enjoyed doing drill.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53When it was going well and when you knew what you were doing,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55it was, I suppose, a bit like a dance.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05That's a picture of me in 1988.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09I don't know how that's got in there, but anyway.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14- It's not actually a book? It's loose?- No, it's loose.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17But it's freehand because that's how I write anyway.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22This then goes to a lovely woman called Sue Powell,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25who types the whole thing.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28She knows more about me than anybody, really, because
0:07:28 > 0:07:32there's everything in the diaries. I don't censor my diaries.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34If they were printed in their entirety,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37I don't think it would do me any good at all!
0:07:37 > 0:07:38HE CHUCKLES
0:07:40 > 0:07:45I go to his house to pick up the next instalment
0:07:45 > 0:07:46and I'm usually simultaneously
0:07:46 > 0:07:50delivering the last year that I've done
0:07:50 > 0:07:54so we probably actually only meet about once a year.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58I'll receive a file full of papers like this
0:07:58 > 0:08:01and sometimes it's a little bit tatty and disordered
0:08:01 > 0:08:03and I just make my way through.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05I live in fear of dropping it...
0:08:06 > 0:08:09..and it scattering all over the floor and I have to work out
0:08:09 > 0:08:12the order in which it needs to go back. No, they're not numbered.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17This is just the way he writes them and they come to me.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19I suspect that he writes it and puts it away
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and doesn't think about it again, really,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24until it comes to the next entry.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27So, as far as I'm aware, this is unedited.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34And then I've gone through the manuscripts to see
0:08:34 > 0:08:36what I'm happy to see published.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39I mean, for instance, I wouldn't necessarily put..
0:08:41 > 0:08:44..very personal things in straightaway, whereas, you know,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47ten years on, it doesn't matter, really.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53This is Dinah Wood, who's my editor at Faber.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55I don't care for dogs much, but...
0:08:55 > 0:08:56but she's lovely.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Hi.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19- Hi.- Hello.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23Now, I've got my homework.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24Very good.
0:09:32 > 0:09:37Now, that's the one we thought for the cover.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42- Right...- Right. Great.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45There's one or two things I've still not decided on.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49What about the piece about the National Theatre?
0:09:49 > 0:09:51That's in there.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53I think it should go in, but you weren't...
0:09:53 > 0:09:57- No, I assumed that was going in. - Oh, OK. Good, good.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00- DIRECTOR:- So this is, what - ten years?- Yeah.- Mmm.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02And Alan did the original selection?
0:10:02 > 0:10:07Yeah. All these Post-it Notes are all homework for Alan, who then
0:10:07 > 0:10:10does crosses or ticks beside things
0:10:10 > 0:10:14and so this pile gets bigger and bigger as new printouts
0:10:14 > 0:10:17with things resolved get added.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20I occasionally put a question mark,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23but that's about as strong, as rigorous as it gets!
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Does it have a different mood to the other two volumes, this one?
0:10:27 > 0:10:30I don't... Doesn't seem to me much different.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34The one that was the most...fraught,
0:10:34 > 0:10:41I suppose, was the one when I'd had cancer in 1997 and so,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45that was always, until it gradually became plain
0:10:45 > 0:10:50that I was going to survive, that was fairly...
0:10:50 > 0:10:52on the edge of things.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57So Alan highlighted all the bits to add and I added all those and then
0:10:57 > 0:11:00I read the whole lot again
0:11:00 > 0:11:05and I largely added descriptions of robins!
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Yes! Dinah particularly liked the glimpses of wildlife
0:11:08 > 0:11:11- in the diary.- There's a lot of...
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Seeing the occasional bird out of the window.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Because Untold Stories, you're sitting at your window looking out
0:11:17 > 0:11:22- and you're looking at drug dealers, builders, teenagers.- That's right.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25As I used to be looking at Miss Shepherd when she was there.
0:11:29 > 0:11:30That's Miss Shepherd.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37That's the van when it was in the street, or one of them.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41The windows had gone, so she had curtains there.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55"May 21st, 2015.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00"To Hay-on-Wye with Nick Hytner and Dinah Wood.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03"A much longer ride in time terms
0:12:03 > 0:12:06"than the one to Leeds that I'm used to, though it's much nearer.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12"The atmosphere, a busy tented enclosure, is like a county show,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15"with literature standing in for husbandry
0:12:15 > 0:12:18"and authors being led about like pedigree cattle."
0:12:24 > 0:12:29Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to this very special
0:12:29 > 0:12:32preview of The Lady In The Van.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37The story is broadly about a woman who was known as Mary Shepherd
0:12:37 > 0:12:41who came, for a short while, in her van, to live outside Alan's house
0:12:41 > 0:12:43and in fact stayed for 15 years.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49I keep a diary, not a daily diary, but if anything droll happened
0:12:49 > 0:12:53or anything sad or whatever, I would write it down.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56And I'd no notion how long she was going to be there
0:12:56 > 0:13:02and I knew I certainly couldn't write about her while she was alive.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04The reason I did do it was that
0:13:04 > 0:13:08it happened that she died just before The London Review Of Books
0:13:08 > 0:13:12had its tenth anniversary and they said would I write something,
0:13:12 > 0:13:14and so that was the only thing I could write about.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16- The disciple whom Jesus loved? - No. The name's Bennett.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22An educated woman and living in a van.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24I'm studying incognito...
0:13:24 > 0:13:27- She had her own political party, didn't she?- Oh, yes, she did.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29She founded something called...
0:13:29 > 0:13:30- MAN:- Ukip!
0:13:30 > 0:13:32LAUGHTER
0:13:32 > 0:13:34She was well to the right of Ukip. She was...
0:13:36 > 0:13:39She was very, very much opposed to the Common Market, as it was then...
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Ukip!
0:13:41 > 0:13:45..and used to sell pamphlets outside Williams & Glyn's Bank
0:13:45 > 0:13:46in Camden High Street
0:13:46 > 0:13:51with chalked notices about the evils of the Common Market.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55And then she founded a political party called...
0:13:55 > 0:13:58- Oh...- Fidelis. - Fidelis Party, that's right.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00She only had about six members, of which I was one.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02LAUGHTER
0:14:03 > 0:14:08But she immediately went from having founded a political party
0:14:08 > 0:14:11to assuming that she would be elected Prime Minister,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15but if she were elected Prime Minister, she came and asked me
0:14:15 > 0:14:17in all seriousness whether
0:14:17 > 0:14:22I thought that she could live in the van outside Downing Street...
0:14:22 > 0:14:23LAUGHTER
0:14:23 > 0:14:26..rather than in Downing Street itself.
0:14:26 > 0:14:32This was about the time when Mrs Thatcher was in the ascendant
0:14:32 > 0:14:37and the notion of a wilful woman living in a van
0:14:37 > 0:14:41with Cabinet ministers queuing up to be told what to do
0:14:41 > 0:14:43had some reality to it.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50This is when she got a Reliant Robin, which,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52unlike the van, did used to go.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55I mean, it made a hell of a din.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58The other van would be over there in the garden.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05The story told by this film took place 40 and more years ago
0:15:05 > 0:15:08and Miss Shepherd is long since dead.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11She was difficult and eccentric...
0:15:12 > 0:15:15..but above all, she was poor.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19And these days particularly, the poor don't get much of a look-in.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23Poverty is as much a moral failing today as it was under the Tudors.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26"If the film has a point,
0:15:26 > 0:15:31"it's about fairness and tolerance and, however grudgingly,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33"helping the less fortunate,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36"who are not well thought of these days
0:15:36 > 0:15:39"and now likely to be even less so."
0:15:39 > 0:15:41That was written just after the election
0:15:41 > 0:15:46but I don't kid myself and think it would do any good.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54This is my Grandad Peel,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58who drowned himself when he was unemployed
0:15:58 > 0:16:02in...1926, I think.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21And that's Mam and Dad at the back of 92A Otley Road,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23where Dad's shop was.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29You went into the house, up this passage
0:16:29 > 0:16:32and you went straight into the sitting room, which always
0:16:32 > 0:16:34deeply embarrassed me as a boy.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41I took that in 1953.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Once you were a teenager, Alan,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58you started going to weekly concerts in Leeds Town Hall, I think,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02and sat in what was probably the cheapest seats,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04behind the orchestra.
0:17:04 > 0:17:10Well, it really characterised my youth, going to those concerts.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13It was the real bones of my youth
0:17:13 > 0:17:15going every week and sometimes twice a week,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18because they sometimes gave concerts on Wednesday as well.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21I remember a boy called Michael Fielder,
0:17:21 > 0:17:23who was a very talented pianist,
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and they were going to play at the concert
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Brahms' Second Piano Concerto, which I had never heard,
0:17:28 > 0:17:35and Michael Fielder sang me the opening theme of the Brahms.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40HE HUMS THE TUNE
0:17:47 > 0:17:50And I can hear him singing it now
0:17:50 > 0:17:55and that would be 1951 that I first heard it.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59MUSIC: Piano Concerto Number 2 by Johannes Brahms
0:18:26 > 0:18:28All my life I've worn a tie.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31Mam... It sounds terrible cos it sounds so disciplinarian,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33but it wasn't like that,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37but she never let us wear open-necked shirts,
0:18:37 > 0:18:41because she thought somehow, that made you more prone to TB.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45But TB was the great scourge.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50I mean, two people next door to us in Otley died of TB.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03That's my dad when he was put to butchering by his stepmother
0:19:03 > 0:19:07when he was 12, I think, for which he never really forgave her.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10My father was such a gentle soul
0:19:10 > 0:19:14but he never had a good word for his stepmother.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17She was always known in the family for having said to my brother,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20"Get off that stool or I'll kick you off!"
0:19:22 > 0:19:25My brother and I get on very well,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29and he and Ruth come to my plays and whatever,
0:19:29 > 0:19:34but he's never wanted anything to do with show business
0:19:34 > 0:19:37or what my father would have called splother.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39How much older is he?
0:19:39 > 0:19:43He's three years to the day. Our birthdays are on the same day.
0:19:47 > 0:19:48That's Dad in the shop.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Gordon and me used to help make the sausages,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56only...well, my sausages, anyway, used to burst.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58I didn't quite get the hang of it!
0:20:08 > 0:20:13This is May 8th, and it's the day after the election, I think.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17"A feeling of bereavement in the street.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23"I shop for supper and, unprompted, a grey-haired woman in the fish shop
0:20:23 > 0:20:28"bursts out, 'It means I shall have a Tory government
0:20:28 > 0:20:30" 'for the rest of my life.'
0:20:30 > 0:20:34"In the library, they say, 'Good morning,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37" 'though we've just been trying to think what's good about it.' "
0:20:38 > 0:20:40"May 9th, my birthday.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46"A nice woman in a leopardskin coat who always speaks
0:20:46 > 0:20:48"wishes me a happy birthday.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52"I say that I wish it was. 'Why, what's happened?'
0:20:52 > 0:20:55" 'Last Thursday, the election.'
0:20:55 > 0:20:59" 'Oh, you don't want to worry about that. They're all the same.'
0:20:59 > 0:21:03"At which point - we're in Shepherd's, the grocers -
0:21:03 > 0:21:07"I hear myself, as very rarely, shouting at the top of my voice,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11" 'No, they are not all the same. This lot are self-seeking liars!
0:21:11 > 0:21:13" 'The Cabinet included.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16" 'And we're landed with them for another five years.'
0:21:16 > 0:21:20"She tries to calm me down but I tell her not to bother,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23"with other customers peeping round the shelves
0:21:23 > 0:21:25"to see who's making all this din.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28"She's waiting outside the shop
0:21:28 > 0:21:33"with a cake she's bought me for my birthday, and I kind of apologise.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37"But as I walk back home, I wonder how long it will be
0:21:37 > 0:21:40"before this crew turn their attention to the BBC."
0:21:43 > 0:21:44Well...
0:21:45 > 0:21:47I love the detail of the cake.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52Yes, I know! It made me feel terrible. Anyway...
0:21:55 > 0:21:59So, are you still shouting at people in Shepherd's?
0:21:59 > 0:22:01I very, very rarely shout...
0:22:03 > 0:22:06I'm too self-conscious to shout.
0:22:06 > 0:22:07But...
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I don't know, it seemed appropriate then.
0:22:16 > 0:22:22This is Beyond The Fringe, which was 1960 or '61.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25APPLAUSE
0:22:32 > 0:22:36How will it be, this end of which you have spoken, Brother?
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Aye, how will it be?
0:22:38 > 0:22:42And photographs of us taken by Lewis Morley.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44I can't bear to think of it now.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49- Why?- Well, it was just embarrassing, you know.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Four, three, two, one...
0:22:51 > 0:22:53zero.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59- ALL CHANT:- Now is the end. There is the world.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09It was GMT, wasn't it?
0:23:09 > 0:23:11LAUGHTER
0:23:11 > 0:23:14That's Dudley Moore. And that's me.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17That's Peter Cook and that's Jonathan Miller.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19And this is Brighton Pier.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Brighton was the only place which hated it
0:23:23 > 0:23:26and the theatre was only half full,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29and then by the end, it was even a quarter full
0:23:29 > 0:23:31because everybody'd left.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40'Welcome to the 1405 Virgin Trains service to Leeds.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42'Train guard Bob Taylor speaking.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45'We shall be calling at Peterborough, Doncaster,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48'Wakefield Westgate, Leeds...'
0:23:48 > 0:23:51We go up home, I call it home,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54but we go up to Yorkshire every fortnight.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57So there's often stuff on the train.
0:23:57 > 0:23:58This is one of those.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04"21st May, 2012.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09"A plumpish young man gets off the train at Leeds just behind me.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11" 'Aren't you famous?'
0:24:11 > 0:24:14" 'Well, I can't be, can I, if you don't know my name?'
0:24:14 > 0:24:17" 'It's, uh... It's Alan something.'
0:24:17 > 0:24:19" 'Yes.'
0:24:19 > 0:24:20" 'From Scarborough?'
0:24:20 > 0:24:22" 'No.'
0:24:22 > 0:24:23" 'So, which Alan are you?'
0:24:25 > 0:24:26" 'I'm another Alan.'
0:24:28 > 0:24:30" 'Are you just a lookalike?'
0:24:30 > 0:24:33" 'Well, you could say so.'
0:24:33 > 0:24:37"He pats my arm consolingly. 'Be happy with that.' "
0:24:39 > 0:24:43It's the patting of the arm that I liked!
0:24:43 > 0:24:45My whole life being consoled.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48'..passengers who have joined this Virgin Trains service
0:24:48 > 0:24:50'at Peterborough...'
0:24:51 > 0:24:57"May 15th. Shortly after the East Coast franchise had been sold off
0:24:57 > 0:25:00"to a tie-up between Virgin and Stagecoach,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04"I'm sitting waiting for Rupert on Leeds Station
0:25:04 > 0:25:06"when this notice is flashed up."
0:25:06 > 0:25:10" 'Hello, Leeds. Meet Virgin Trains.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14" 'We've just arrived and we can't wait to get to know you.'
0:25:15 > 0:25:19" 'And to take you for every penny you've got.' "
0:25:20 > 0:25:25MUSIC: Act III trio from Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss
0:25:54 > 0:26:02I heard Der Rosenkavalier in the Grand Theatre in Leeds in 1951.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06I was a very naive boy.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09I mean, it starts off with Octavian,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11who is the lover of the Marschallin,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13and they're having breakfast together.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17And I just thought he'd called by for tea and toast.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20I didn't realised he'd been spending the night with her.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23But at the same time, the last act anyway, certainly,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28is all about renunciation and about the impossibility of love
0:26:28 > 0:26:31and this I didn't need explaining.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33I understood that at 17,
0:26:33 > 0:26:37and I felt that was what my life was going to be like.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16But I know the music and I play the music,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19but I've never wanted to see another production.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24It must have gone home to me, because I came out and I think the theatre
0:27:24 > 0:27:25had recently been repainted
0:27:25 > 0:27:30and my hands were covered in the gilt from the bar of the gods
0:27:30 > 0:27:33that I'd been gripping during the music.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48"September 11th.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52"David Cameron has been in Leeds, preaching to businessmen
0:27:52 > 0:27:55"the virtues of what he calls the smart state.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58"This seems to be a state that
0:27:58 > 0:28:02"gets away with doing as little as possible for its citizens
0:28:02 > 0:28:05"and shuffling as many responsibilities as it can
0:28:05 > 0:28:08"onto whomever thinks they can make a profit out of them.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12"I'm glad there wasn't a smart state
0:28:12 > 0:28:14"when I was being brought up in Leeds.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16"A state that was un-smart enough
0:28:16 > 0:28:20"to see me and others like me educated free of charge
0:28:20 > 0:28:24"and sent on at the city's expense to university,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27"provided with splendid libraries, cheap transport
0:28:27 > 0:28:32"and a terrific art gallery, not to mention the city's hospitals.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36"Smart, to Mr Cameron, seems to mean
0:28:36 > 0:28:41"doing as little as one can get away with and calling it enterprise.
0:28:41 > 0:28:47"Smart, as in smart aleck, smart of the smart answer,
0:28:47 > 0:28:49"which I'm sure Mr Cameron has to hand.
0:28:50 > 0:28:51"Dead smart."
0:28:53 > 0:28:57Well, I believe in the state because I owe everything to the state.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00And that's not the sentimental view,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03but the notion that the state is some sort of villain...
0:29:04 > 0:29:09I know it sounds absurd, and I hate the phrase "nanny state",
0:29:09 > 0:29:12but I can see the state as maternal.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14I don't think that's foolish.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37It's one of my life's regrets that we've never kept a donkey.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40I don't know whether that's worthwhile saying.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Well... I'd long for a donkey.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50I used to go and stay with Alec and Merula Guinness in Hampshire.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54And there was a donkey in the next field.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58I remember once I was sitting there, feeling rather sorry for myself,
0:29:58 > 0:30:04I don't know why. But this donkey came up and licked my head.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10And I thought, how wonderful to have a sympathetic creature like that,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14because they are, they just are immensely sympathetic.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16You do a rather famous Eeyore.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18Yes, I know, but that's...
0:30:18 > 0:30:23That's less to do with a donkey than me being a miserable sod!
0:30:27 > 0:30:30MUSIC: I Can Give You The Starlight by Ivor Novello
0:30:34 > 0:30:39"Rupert, having spent most of the evening watching Wuthering Heights,
0:30:39 > 0:30:44"turns to me at the finish and says, 'You're rather like Heathcliff.'
0:30:44 > 0:30:48"Me, gratified: 'Really?'
0:30:48 > 0:30:49"Rupert: 'Yeah.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53- " 'Difficult, Northern, and a- BLEEP.'- "
0:30:56 > 0:31:00I don't think he wanted it repeating.
0:31:02 > 0:31:08# Has changed my ways and taught me
0:31:08 > 0:31:13# And brought me... #
0:31:13 > 0:31:17So, this is I Can Give You The Starlight by Ivor Novello,
0:31:17 > 0:31:19sung by Mary Ellis.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24My partner of 23 years, he's Welsh.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28And he claims to be distantly related to Ivor Novello.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31But then I suspect lots of people in Wales do that.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36But it reminds him of his grandma and it reminds me of mine.
0:31:37 > 0:31:44# I can give you the ocean
0:31:44 > 0:31:51# Deep and tender devotion... #
0:31:54 > 0:31:59These are pictures of our civil partnership...
0:31:59 > 0:32:00If I can get the box open.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04..which was in 2006...
0:32:07 > 0:32:09..at Camden Registry Office.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12# Call and I shall be
0:32:12 > 0:32:18# All you ask of me
0:32:18 > 0:32:23# Music in spring
0:32:23 > 0:32:28# Flowers for a king
0:32:28 > 0:32:40# All these I bring to you. #
0:32:42 > 0:32:45That's Kate, Jonathan Miller's daughter,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47who's Rupert's best friend.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50And that's Owen, who's Rupert's younger brother.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56You can't see, but behind them are Diana and Graham, Rupert's parents.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05The registrar wanted to zhuzh it up a bit, rather,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08and said, "Are you having music?" "No, we're not having music."
0:33:09 > 0:33:11"Are you having flowers?"
0:33:12 > 0:33:13"Not really."
0:33:13 > 0:33:18I think Rupert would have been happy to have much more of a do,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21but it was the simplest possible occasion.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25They might be at a funeral, I mean...
0:33:25 > 0:33:26HE LAUGHS
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Everybody very serious.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31It was only afterwards I realised
0:33:31 > 0:33:35that it was virtually a rerun of the way my parents got married.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37But anyway...
0:33:38 > 0:33:39..it's lasted.
0:33:39 > 0:33:40HE LAUGHS
0:33:40 > 0:33:43I don't know whether we even went out to supper.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48Probably we were trying not to make it feel different, really.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51I felt we were just trying to make it ordinary.
0:33:53 > 0:33:54Why did you want to do it, then?
0:33:54 > 0:33:56Well, there were all sorts of reasons.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58Particularly with me getting on
0:33:58 > 0:34:00and the fact that I'm much older than Rupert. If I died,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03I wanted my estate to go to him.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07So that was one reason. But the other reason was...
0:34:07 > 0:34:09I think even at that time,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13you felt you were making some sort of a declaration, really.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27We're going to move now to what some people think of as an almost perfect
0:34:27 > 0:34:30musical expression of Christian faith,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33the St Matthew Passion by Bach.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37They did the St Matthew Passion at Leeds Parish Church
0:34:37 > 0:34:40in the Monday in Holy Week.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43And I used to go with the church youth club.
0:34:43 > 0:34:45I was very religious at the time.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The chorales were what appealed to me.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51And I think in the parish church,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55they were treated as hymns and the audience joined in and sang.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59Hymns particularly are something you never really get rid of, really.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01They're always there.
0:35:01 > 0:35:06And they're the thing that reduces me to tears, or can do.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10CHOIR SINGS: St Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach
0:35:48 > 0:35:52Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a very warm welcome to Clapham,
0:35:52 > 0:35:54if this is your first time here.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56It's so lovely to see a full church.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58LAUGHTER
0:35:58 > 0:36:02If you'd like to come at 11 o'clock tomorrow, you'll be most welcome.
0:36:02 > 0:36:03I'm the churchwarden.
0:36:04 > 0:36:09But it is really lovely to be able to celebrate the wonderful people
0:36:09 > 0:36:10that we have in our village.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13So will you please welcome Mr Alan Bennett?
0:36:13 > 0:36:16APPLAUSE
0:36:16 > 0:36:21They never say to me, "Oh, it's good this year." There's never...
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Am I the only person who tells us a little bit like that?
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Telling a story is always a difficult problem.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33I've never been very good at plots. I can do dialogue fairly happily,
0:36:33 > 0:36:39but I can never think of any reason why anybody should come on the stage
0:36:39 > 0:36:42and when they should go off the stage. And so,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45my confidence in my own storytelling isn't good.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52'I don't have much left in the way of belief,
0:36:52 > 0:36:57'certainly not in the way of petitioning God for anything,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01'but when I do miss God is'
0:37:01 > 0:37:03not having anyone to thank
0:37:03 > 0:37:08when I've had a deliverance or a stroke of luck.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13I just feel I want to be grateful to someone
0:37:13 > 0:37:15and there's no-one to be grateful to.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21'You were quite a pious young person.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24'As a boy, I was very religious, but none of that is left.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28'Although I'm more religious than Rupert,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31'who is very hot on any evidence,
0:37:31 > 0:37:35'any remnant of religious belief on my part.'
0:37:35 > 0:37:39If we go into old churches, which we do quite a bit,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43until middle life, I think, I would kneel down or I would sit anyway
0:37:43 > 0:37:45and maybe say something,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47but not any more.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49HE CHUCKLES
0:37:49 > 0:37:53And Rupert dislikes any church which has too much evidence of religion
0:37:53 > 0:37:57about it. He prefers a church that's absolutely plain.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01He'll maybe run to a cross on the altar but not much more than that.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05- Enjoy your dinner.- Thank you.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09MUSIC: Symphony Number 1 by William Walton
0:38:19 > 0:38:22Music from the first movement of William Walton's Symphony Number 1
0:38:22 > 0:38:26in B flat minor in a recording made, actually, in Leeds Town Hall.
0:38:26 > 0:38:27Right!
0:38:30 > 0:38:34The first time I heard it, I was absolutely mystified by it.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37I mean, I think I spent the time counting the organ pipes
0:38:37 > 0:38:38because I was just so bored.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42And then the next time, I was at home with it, you know,
0:38:42 > 0:38:44so it had gone in.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Yes. I remember going in there.
0:39:14 > 0:39:15So, what was this?
0:39:15 > 0:39:19This was the grown-ups' library.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23And you went into the children's library through there.
0:39:23 > 0:39:24- Hi.- Hello.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30I was saying, the thing where you had your books stamped,
0:39:30 > 0:39:34- we used to be in the centre of the room.- Oh, right.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Yeah. But it was quite an intimidating place to come into
0:39:37 > 0:39:40- when you were a child.- Really?- Yeah.
0:39:40 > 0:39:47There was a British Legion man with lots of medals
0:39:47 > 0:39:51and if you made any noise at all, he would shout at you.
0:39:51 > 0:39:52THEY LAUGH
0:39:56 > 0:39:59"I've always been happy in libraries,
0:39:59 > 0:40:02"though without ever being entirely at ease there.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08"A library, I used to feel, was like a cocktail party,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11"with everybody standing with their back to me.
0:40:11 > 0:40:12"I could not find a way in.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18"The first library I did find my way into was the Armley Public Library
0:40:18 > 0:40:23"in Leeds, where a reader's ticket cost tuppence in 1940.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26"Not tuppence a time or even tuppence a year.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29"But just tuppence.
0:40:29 > 0:40:30"That was all you ever had to pay."
0:40:38 > 0:40:39- Hi.- Hello there.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44- Photocopying, I'm afraid. - That's all right.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46What have you got?
0:40:51 > 0:40:53- Bye.- Bye.- Bye.- See you later.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56"5th March, 2014.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00"On my walk, I passed the Primrose Hill Community Library,
0:41:00 > 0:41:04"which is closed to borrowers today but open for children,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08"who throng the junior library, some of them sitting with an adult,
0:41:08 > 0:41:13"presumably learning to read, others in groups being told stories,
0:41:13 > 0:41:16"and at every table, children reading on their own.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21"This library is one of those institutions that Mark Littlewood,
0:41:21 > 0:41:24"the head of the right-wing think tank
0:41:24 > 0:41:26"the Institute of Economic Affairs,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30"said would make a useful retail outlet,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32"a facility and a building for which
0:41:32 > 0:41:34"there was no longer a social purpose.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39"As a so-called economist, Littlewood presumably thinks
0:41:39 > 0:41:42"the place would be better used as a Pizza Hut."
0:41:44 > 0:41:46Hmm.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52The Institute of Economic Affairs, it shelters behind this title -
0:41:52 > 0:41:56people will think it's a...
0:41:56 > 0:41:59you know, an apolitical organisation, but it's not,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02it's a right-wing pressure group.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14And then there's the letter from the New York Public Library
0:42:14 > 0:42:16about becoming a Library Lion.
0:42:34 > 0:42:35- Hi.- Hi.
0:42:37 > 0:42:38What happened?
0:42:38 > 0:42:42Oh, I don't know. I'm totally confused.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46I mean, I thought we were to be presented with this medal
0:42:46 > 0:42:48but in fact, they said, "Put this on."
0:42:50 > 0:42:52Where is everybody? Where's your entourage?
0:42:52 > 0:42:56Well, they were supposed to come at seven, you see, so, I mean...
0:42:56 > 0:42:58They'll be here. In due course.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01Have you met your fellow Lions?
0:43:01 > 0:43:06No. I think Gloria Steinem is the one in bobble trousers.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10But other than that, I don't know.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17I didn't know until I was packing that it was a black-tie affair
0:43:17 > 0:43:22and I'd got so far on with my packing, I couldn't face unpacking,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24and so I'm just wearing a suit.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26That's the nice thing about getting older.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29If I were 18 and I'd found that out,
0:43:29 > 0:43:34I'd have moved heaven and earth not to be conspicuous.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38But when you're older, you don't care, so it's all right.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40APPLAUSE
0:43:41 > 0:43:43The primary purpose, though, tonight
0:43:43 > 0:43:48is to recognise our five outstanding Lions and their inspired
0:43:48 > 0:43:51contributions to our world.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57They include award-winning author and playwright Alan Bennett...
0:43:57 > 0:43:59APPLAUSE
0:43:59 > 0:44:01Yes, I think it's a fundraiser.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05Though I can't imagine many people would pay much to come and see me!
0:44:07 > 0:44:10Do you know what people have to pay?
0:44:10 > 0:44:12I think... I don't like to say,
0:44:12 > 0:44:17but I think it's 100,000 a table, I think.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23MUSIC: Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered by Rodgers and Hart
0:44:23 > 0:44:26# After one whole quart of brandy
0:44:26 > 0:44:30# Like a daisy, I'm awake
0:44:30 > 0:44:34# With no Bromo-Seltzer handy
0:44:34 > 0:44:38# I don't even shake... #
0:44:38 > 0:44:43This was when Nicholas Hytner did Private Passions in 2002.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48One of the records he chose was
0:44:48 > 0:44:53Ella Fitzgerald singing Bewitched, which I think is from Kiss Me Kate.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55And I'd never heard it...
0:44:56 > 0:44:58I never listened to the words, really.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03And the words are wonderfully, wonderfully funny
0:45:03 > 0:45:08and it was one of the strands that came together in The History Boys,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11the play about school that I wrote,
0:45:11 > 0:45:15when it was sung by Sam Barnett, as a...
0:45:17 > 0:45:22..as a gay song, really, and...
0:45:22 > 0:45:27and was very both funny and touching, really, in the play.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30- SAMUEL BARNETT:- # I'm wild again
0:45:30 > 0:45:32# Beguiled again
0:45:33 > 0:45:38# A simpering, whimpering child again
0:45:38 > 0:45:46# Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I... #
0:45:47 > 0:45:50"11th June, 2006, New York.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55"Back here for the second time in six weeks,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58"to Lynn's 16th Street apartment,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02"which is the penthouse of a small 1930s skyscraper
0:46:02 > 0:46:04"with a balcony all the way around
0:46:04 > 0:46:08"and views uptown to the Chrysler Building and Central Park
0:46:08 > 0:46:12"and to the west the Hudson and the Jersey shore.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16"It's warm and windy, and sitting in the bedroom with the door open,
0:46:16 > 0:46:20"I can see the Empire State Building reflected in the mirror opposite."
0:46:20 > 0:46:25# I'll sing to him, each spring to him
0:46:25 > 0:46:33# And worship the trousers that cling to him
0:46:35 > 0:46:36# Bewitched... #
0:46:36 > 0:46:39"We have a long brunch at the Odeon,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43"then walk back to 16th Street to prepare for the Tonys this evening.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48"In the event of our winning the Best Play award,
0:46:48 > 0:46:50"we had agreed beforehand that
0:46:50 > 0:46:53"the boys should all come up to receive it, which indeed they do.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58"And then bundled out through a back door and across the street
0:46:58 > 0:47:00"to Rockefeller Plaza,
0:47:00 > 0:47:04"where a whole floor has been given over to the press.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08"I'm thrust blinking onto a stage facing a battery of lights while
0:47:08 > 0:47:11"questions come out of the darkness, the best of which
0:47:11 > 0:47:16"is, 'Do you think this award will kick-start your career?'
0:47:18 > 0:47:22"News of my lacklustre performance on this podium must have got round
0:47:22 > 0:47:26"quickly, because I'm then taken down a long corridor off which
0:47:26 > 0:47:29"various TV shows and radio shows have mics and cameras
0:47:29 > 0:47:31"and there's more humiliation.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35" 'Do you want him?' asks the PA at each doorway,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38"the answer more often than not being, 'Nah'.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42"So, I only score about four brief interviews
0:47:42 > 0:47:45"before I'm pushed through another door and find
0:47:45 > 0:47:47"I'm suddenly back in the street in the rain
0:47:47 > 0:47:49"and it's all more or less over."
0:47:52 > 0:47:56MUSIC: Alto Rhapsody by Johannes Brahms
0:48:21 > 0:48:25Kathleen Ferrier's voice in the Alto Rhapsody,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27it is a voice like no other.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29It's so rich and yet it's austere.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37My parents heard her very, very early on, I suppose, in her career
0:48:37 > 0:48:39in about 1946,
0:48:39 > 0:48:45when she came to Leeds and did a concert at Brunswick Chapel
0:48:45 > 0:48:47in the slums of South Leeds.
0:48:47 > 0:48:54And they came home full of this young woman they'd heard singing,
0:48:54 > 0:48:59and Kathleen Ferrier's voice drifting out over the grimy snow
0:48:59 > 0:49:03is really what music means to me, in a way.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23And that's in Yorkshire, in their garden,
0:49:23 > 0:49:25when they were retired.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27So that's the house you now have.
0:49:27 > 0:49:28Yes. Yes.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34So, when did you buy the house in Clapham?
0:49:34 > 0:49:361966.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41Which was when my dad was able to give up the shop.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46So, have you been going up there since '66, really?
0:49:46 > 0:49:47Yeah, yeah.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53Well, it had a difficult start because my mother, in her...
0:49:53 > 0:49:57what...60s, I suppose, began to suffer from depression.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03Her first onset of depression came,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06I suppose, with the stress of moving, really,
0:50:06 > 0:50:11so for the first four or five weeks, she was in hospital
0:50:11 > 0:50:15and then recovered very quickly and came back
0:50:15 > 0:50:19and she thought it was the most wonderful place when she was better.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22But in some ways,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25it was the happiest time of their lives then.
0:50:48 > 0:50:54- Hiya, are you all right? - "Easter Saturday, Yorkshire.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58"With a bad ankle,
0:50:58 > 0:51:02"I edge my way carefully down the stairs
0:51:02 > 0:51:04"and delicately round the garden.
0:51:05 > 0:51:10"I still have the absurd notion that, as with any other ailment,
0:51:10 > 0:51:14"age and infirmity will run its course and I will recover from it.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18"But there is no recovery, or only one,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20"it doesn't always occur."
0:51:26 > 0:51:29That's me in the garden. I'm not a gardener.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31That's about all I'm fit for -
0:51:31 > 0:51:35cutting down the Alchemilla mollis, this is.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Dad loved having a garden, which he'd never had all his life.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44Did he live long there?
0:51:44 > 0:51:49No. From 1966 till 1974.
0:51:53 > 0:51:54And Mam was...
0:51:54 > 0:51:58She began to suffer from depression, you can see it in her face.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00You know, she is not well.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03But she did live there on her own for a while, did she?
0:52:03 > 0:52:04Yes, she did.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06But it wasn't easy.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10I mean, it can never be easy anyway if you have been married to somebody
0:52:10 > 0:52:12for nearly 50 years, you know.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16But at that time, depression wasn't really talked about.
0:52:16 > 0:52:23It was a total mystery to me and my father and my brother.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28Somebody totally transformed, their personality just altered.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33CLOCK CHIMES THE HOUR
0:52:33 > 0:52:35The tree is not very old,
0:52:35 > 0:52:38but the fairy...
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Well, she must be all of 84 years old, really.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46She's been refurbished in various ways.
0:52:46 > 0:52:52I mean, she lost her wings and my mam made her wings out of foil
0:52:52 > 0:52:55and a skirt out of a lampshade fringe.
0:52:57 > 0:52:58My mother used to make lampshades,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01it was a thing she liked doing.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04But she always looks to me,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07whenever I see her every Christmas, as being really terrified.
0:53:07 > 0:53:12Terrified of being hung by the neck on the Christmas tree, I imagine.
0:53:17 > 0:53:27# Softly and gently
0:53:27 > 0:53:34# Dearly ransomed soul... #
0:53:34 > 0:53:38Softly And Gently Dear Parted Soul.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43This is a piece which I know is quite important to you.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46It's The Dream Of Gerontius, by Elgar.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49I wonder, when you listen to this, what you think,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52and whether this too takes you back.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54Well, again, it's to Leeds Town Hall.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57Elgar, I wouldn't have been sitting behind the orchestra when I heard it
0:53:57 > 0:54:00because when there was a chorus,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04we were all displaced and had to sit in the body of the hall.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09It somehow embodies for me the North
0:54:09 > 0:54:12and a choral society in the North.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17MUSIC CONTINUES
0:54:24 > 0:54:29This is an entry for 2007 about my father,
0:54:29 > 0:54:34who, during the war, eked out his Co-op butcher's income
0:54:34 > 0:54:37by making fretwork toys
0:54:37 > 0:54:41which he sold to a smart toy shop down County Arcade in Leeds.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44Penguins were his speciality.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48He used to paint them and they would be totally featureless
0:54:48 > 0:54:52until he put the eye in and then they became creatures.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57But I wrote about this in my diary in the London Review Of Books
0:54:57 > 0:54:59and a woman wrote to me,
0:54:59 > 0:55:04saying that her late husband collected penguins and they had one
0:55:04 > 0:55:08that they thought might be one that my father had made.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12And she sent me a picture and it was one of my dad's penguins.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14And then she sent me the actual penguin.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19So it's one of the few relics I have of my father.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21But it's a cheerful piece.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23I smile when I look at it.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40This is a picture by Anthony Crolla
0:55:40 > 0:55:44and it's on the cover of the book which is currently
0:55:44 > 0:55:48and maybe will end up being called Keeping On Keeping On.
0:55:48 > 0:55:53Rupert says, "As long as it's not called Banging On Banging On,"
0:55:53 > 0:55:56which some of it is, but anyway...
0:55:56 > 0:55:58That's part of keeping on.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03And that's the final entry for the diaries
0:56:03 > 0:56:06- because it makes it a bit more of a conclusion.- Yeah.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10It's December 31st, 2015.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16"Wanting to wind up this year with something resounding, I'm at a loss.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22"It's that flat time after Christmas when nothing happens
0:56:22 > 0:56:27"and on this last afternoon of 2015, little occurs.
0:56:29 > 0:56:30"I'm now 81,
0:56:30 > 0:56:32"which, though it has been a long time coming,
0:56:32 > 0:56:34"is still a bit of a surprise.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38"I'm comforted, as I have been in the past,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41"by something said by the Argentinian author Borges.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45" 'All the books I have ever written
0:56:45 > 0:56:48" 'fill me only with a complex feeling of repentance.'
0:56:50 > 0:56:53"I take this to mean that he's never written the perfect book...
0:56:54 > 0:56:55"..as who has?
0:56:56 > 0:56:59"So, we keep on keeping on."
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Perfect!
0:57:01 > 0:57:06MUSIC: Softly And Gently by Elgar
0:57:44 > 0:57:47I think about the boy I was,
0:57:47 > 0:57:51listening to that and to other stuff in Leeds Town Hall,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54and I think, if I could come up behind myself,
0:57:54 > 0:57:59as I was then and as a boy wondering what life had in store,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03I think I'd just say, "It's going to be all right."
0:58:05 > 0:58:06And it has been all right.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09I've been very lucky.
0:58:32 > 0:58:33Hm.
0:58:39 > 0:58:41"Postscript.
0:58:41 > 0:58:47"Thursday, June 23rd, 2016, the day of the referendum,
0:58:47 > 0:58:50"I spend sitting at the kitchen table,
0:58:50 > 0:58:53"correcting the proofs of these diaries,
0:58:53 > 0:58:55"finishing them on Friday morning
0:58:55 > 0:58:58"before going off to Yorkshire in despair.
0:59:00 > 0:59:04"I imagine this must have been what Munich was like in 1938.
0:59:04 > 0:59:08"Half the nation rejoicing at a supposed deliverance,
0:59:08 > 0:59:13"the other half stunned by the country's self-serving cowardice.
0:59:14 > 0:59:17"Well...we shall see."