0:00:16 > 0:00:18Terry meets Julie.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Waterloo station.
0:00:20 > 0:00:21Every Friday night.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25Terry also shares a flat with Michael.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Who is an understudy for Peter.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35And chases the same girls as another Peter.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41And is also good friends with Sean.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45None of these actors had been famous in the 1950s.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49All were international stars in the '60s
0:00:49 > 0:00:54thanks to films like Dr No and Dr Strangelove and Doctor Zhivago.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59And whilst the swinging London of the 1960s
0:00:59 > 0:01:04may have partly been a media created myth,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08there was definitely a sense that everyone who was anyone
0:01:08 > 0:01:12knew everybody else.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15These young British actors would become iconic figures
0:01:15 > 0:01:18who symbolised the decade,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22leaving the film world shaken and stirred.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24I admire your luck.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26- Mr?- Bond.
0:01:28 > 0:01:29James Bond.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36Sean Connery was the Bond bombshell
0:01:36 > 0:01:40and perhaps the most iconic of the lot.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45He was the cinema's hottest ticket of the '60s.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49And by the time of 1964's Goldfinger, it was Connery
0:01:49 > 0:01:53who seemed to be the man with the Midas touch.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56A few minutes ago you were having a pretty tough time, I saw,
0:01:56 > 0:01:59in a dungeon. I'm glad you've fought your way out to talk to us.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01Do you find this side of filming particularly strenuous?
0:02:01 > 0:02:05Well, no more strenuous than some of the digs I was in in Manchester.
0:02:08 > 0:02:09No, it's all pretty well worked out.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13It's not advisable on top of a heavy breakfast.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16Or a hangover. Otherwise it's all right.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18This is your third James Bond picture.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20I'm sure that as far as picture goers are concerned
0:02:20 > 0:02:23they could see more and more, but how do you feel about this yourself?
0:02:24 > 0:02:28I think it's splendid. I think it's very good entertainment.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31They obviously like it. And one every year, 14 months,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35is a, sort of, good healthy issue rate.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Now James Bond really conjures up a picture of blondes,
0:02:38 > 0:02:39bullets and booze.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Do you find that people expect you to be like this in real life?
0:02:46 > 0:02:48I don't meet a great deal of people, really.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50I've been so busy. I'm on my fourth film in one year,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53so the chances of meeting people are pretty remote.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55And other than going to the theatre,
0:02:55 > 0:03:00or going out to a restaurant to eat or something, or driving somewhere,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03I leave the house at seven in the morning
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and get back at seven at night. So the chances of boozing with blondes
0:03:06 > 0:03:08and bullets are pretty remote.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Connery made spying sexy and sophisticated.
0:03:16 > 0:03:22But in 1965, Bond producer Harry Saltzman thought a less glamorous
0:03:22 > 0:03:27alternative to 007 could also prove profitable.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32And so the Harry Palmer series was born.
0:03:32 > 0:03:38Saltzman cast Michael Caine as an everyman hero who was down to earth,
0:03:38 > 0:03:43even down, and wore specs instead of a tux.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Morning.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49'The hero is not necessarily a man who is six foot three and can
0:03:49 > 0:03:54ride a horse and shoot a gun straight and all this sort of thing.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57The hero is just anybody who does something heroic.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02What I was was just anybody who didn't even bother
0:04:02 > 0:04:04to do anything heroic
0:04:04 > 0:04:09and was just against the normal type of screen hero that one saw.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14As a young man, sitting there, with glasses, very thin, rather pimply,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18I used to watch the screen and all the men were so big and broad
0:04:18 > 0:04:19and suntanned and handsome
0:04:19 > 0:04:24that they were actually insulting the people they were aimed at,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27which was namely me, and I like to think of myself,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30as complementing the people I'm aimed at.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32Is that my B107, sir?
0:04:32 > 0:04:33As if you didn't know.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36And it makes awful reading, Palmer.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39You just love the Army, don't you?
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Oh, yes, sir, I just love the Army, sir.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44I was in a restaurant and Harry Saltzman,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47who was the partner of Cubby Broccoli in making the Bonds,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50came in. And he sent a note over, it said,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52"Would you have a drink with me?" So, I went over.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54He said, "Have you read The Ipcress File?"
0:04:54 > 0:04:57I said, "I'm reading it now. Isn't it great?"
0:04:57 > 0:05:00He said, "Would you like a part in it?" I said, "Yeah."
0:05:00 > 0:05:05And he wanted to make a spy who was a bit more really like a real spy.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08I've played a lot of winners who look like losers.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Harry Palmer looked like a loser.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13You knew he wasn't going to go up against the Russians
0:05:13 > 0:05:16and win for Pete's sake, but he did. But, I mean,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19we carried it to such an extent that we scared the executives.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24First of all, I wore glasses.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28You know. And then I'm shopping in a supermarket for button mushrooms.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30And everybody's going, oh, so sissy.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Champignon.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36You're paying 10p more for a fancy French label.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40If you want button mushrooms you'll get better value on the next shelf.
0:05:40 > 0:05:41It's not just the label.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43These do have a better flavour.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46- Of course.- You're quite a gourmet, aren't you, Palmer?
0:05:46 > 0:05:50And then, the final straw was when I cooked a meal for the girl.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57You're very professional.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59Yeah, so are you.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Do you need all that?
0:06:04 > 0:06:06Well, it's as easy to cook for two as it is for one.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08I thought you might join me.
0:06:10 > 0:06:11No, thanks.
0:06:12 > 0:06:13I'm not hungry.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Bond was the spy as a hero.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22The Ipcress File and the Harry Palmer series
0:06:22 > 0:06:23was the spy as victim.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27How he equated me with Harry Palmer, I don't know,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29but I think what he liked was I wore glasses.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31He wanted a hero with glasses.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34This is typical of what a real spy does.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37He just sits in a car for hours doing absolutely nothing,
0:06:37 > 0:06:38waiting for something to happen.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43These guys are lonely people.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Caine wasn't lonely in his next role.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55He took off the glasses and made a lot of passes,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58playing a confident cockney Casanova.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Well, you all settled in? Right, we can begin.
0:07:01 > 0:07:02- My name is...- Alfie!
0:07:04 > 0:07:05Alfie.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14Michael Caine always seems totally comfortable with movie stardom.
0:07:14 > 0:07:15A natural.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19Someone with a more complicated relationship with fame
0:07:19 > 0:07:21was his good friend Peter Sellers.
0:07:23 > 0:07:24As one of The Goons,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Sellers had turned British comedy on its head.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32He'd enjoyed movie success in films like The Ladykillers
0:07:32 > 0:07:34and I'm All Right, Jack,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37but the '60s saw his movie career really take off.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42There were two highly praised performances
0:07:42 > 0:07:47in the Stanley Kubrick films Lolita and Dr Strangelove.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51But it was the bumbling French detective, Inspector Clouseau,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54that really made him an international star.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Clouseau's a special sort of character, you know.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01There are people like Clouseau all over the world.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04He's a sort of man with great in-built dignity, you see.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Great, great dignity.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08He's an idiot but he knows that.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10But he wouldn't let anyone else know that, you see.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12He's very, very keen.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14So that if something goes wrong, you see,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17if he falls over or something awful happens,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22he immediately suspects that someone said, yeah, bleeding idiot.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24But, you see, he wouldn't let that disturb him.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26He would say, "What was that, what is that you say?
0:08:26 > 0:08:28"I heard that. What was that?"
0:08:28 > 0:08:29And someone, you know, some schlepper,
0:08:29 > 0:08:30would say, "Nothing, sir."
0:08:30 > 0:08:34He'd say, "Yes, of course, nothing, yes, yes."
0:08:34 > 0:08:35Like if there's a phone call and they say,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37"There's a phone call for you, Inspector."
0:08:37 > 0:08:40He'd say, "Ah, that will be for me," because, you know...
0:08:40 > 0:08:41LAUGHTER
0:08:41 > 0:08:44He wants to be one up all the time, you see.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46An awful lot of people like that about.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49I believe everything.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51And I believe nothing.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54I suspect everyone.
0:08:54 > 0:08:55And I suspect no-one.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59I gather the facts.
0:08:59 > 0:09:00Examine the clues.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07And before you know it, the case is solved.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10Oh, yes, there is much here that does not meet the eye.
0:09:10 > 0:09:11That is quite obvious.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17What was that you said?
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Nothing, monsieur.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21All right.
0:09:21 > 0:09:22You can go now.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28There is a famous story about how Michael Caine
0:09:28 > 0:09:34discovered the Swedish actress Britt Ekland had just arrived in London
0:09:34 > 0:09:39and dashed to her suite at the Dorchester Hotel, hoping for a date.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45When he knocked on the door, Peter Sellers answered,
0:09:45 > 0:09:46saying, "Too late, Mike.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49"You've got to be quicker off the mark than that."
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Ten days later, Sellers and Ekland were married.
0:09:56 > 0:10:02A whirlwind romance so extraordinary even BBC News was fascinated.
0:10:03 > 0:10:10Less than two months later, Sellers suffered a huge heart attack,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13which meant a year away from Hollywood
0:10:13 > 0:10:16but not from the news cameras.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21Peter, when you had your heart attack last year
0:10:21 > 0:10:22you were very close to death.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24Now, this must have changed the tempo of your living.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28Has it changed your way of thinking, your approach to your career?
0:10:28 > 0:10:32No. Of course, one has to go through a year of convalescence, really,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35to get back to normal, completely back to normality.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39Where I'm pleased to say I am now.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42A year of concentrated exercise and all kinds of things, you know.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Has it affected your sense of humour, for example?
0:10:45 > 0:10:47Are jokes about death no longer funny?
0:10:47 > 0:10:48No, it hasn't at all.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50I think they're even more funny.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53When you play these characters, or someone like Inspector Clouseau,
0:10:53 > 0:10:58are you consciously amused by the character while you're playing him?
0:10:58 > 0:11:00Yes, that's a great problem with me.
0:11:00 > 0:11:01I'm a terrible giggler.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04And if I dare stop to think about the character being funny
0:11:04 > 0:11:06I'm finished.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09I can't go through it. I just have to do it until I'm sick of it
0:11:09 > 0:11:12and then try and get down to it.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15For example, Clouseau amuses me, not because he falls over things,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19but because he's so serious and has such great dignity.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21Great integrity.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23He thinks. He thinks he's the greatest detective in the world.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27And it's because of this that I find him amusing, you know.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29It must be... This habit of yours of giggling over the character
0:11:29 > 0:11:32you're playing must be easier when you're shooting a film,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35the one you've just done, for example, What's New Pussycat?
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Now, I've heard this is a kind of surrealist farce.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Are you breaking new ground again in comedy here?
0:11:40 > 0:11:42I honestly don't know what it is.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44It certainly will be very new.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50And certain parts of it will be certainly very surrealistic,
0:11:50 > 0:11:55I should think. It's a potpourri of all kinds of things.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Is it true that you do a send-up of Sir Laurence Olivier?
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Yes, in one, Peter O'Toole has a nightmare,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05and I wear this long wig that looks like a Richard III wig.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08In fact, Sir Laurence Olivier wore in Richard III.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11But except I do it in a German accent.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14I do now is the winter of our discontent, in a German accent.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17I haven't seen any of it,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21but they all seem pretty happy about it so I hope it turns out well.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27It didn't turn out particularly well,
0:12:27 > 0:12:31especially for Sellers co-star, Peter O'Toole,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34who many critics said should avoid comedy
0:12:34 > 0:12:37and stick to what he did best.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41And there was no denying that O'Toole was one of the best
0:12:41 > 0:12:43when it came to straight acting.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48On screen and off, he had a magnetic quality,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50and the role that transformed his life
0:12:50 > 0:12:55was that unforgettable portrayal of Lawrence of Arabia,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58in David Lean's 1962 classic.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05I'll give an example of how I came to it.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09I remember...
0:13:11 > 0:13:17..sitting in a black tent in a place called El Jaffa.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19And we were talking about Lawrence to a lot of Arabs.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24And someone said Abdi would know better
0:13:24 > 0:13:28and they shouted for this man,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32and in clanked a huge Sudanese gentleman of about 80.
0:13:34 > 0:13:40And he was a slave, a now freed slave, whom Auda Abu Tayeh,
0:13:40 > 0:13:42who was one of Lawrence's chief warriors,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44gave to Lawrence to look after him.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49And someone said, "What did Lawrence look like?"
0:13:49 > 0:13:51And he pointed at me and said, "Him."
0:13:53 > 0:13:58Well, needless to say I grabbed him. We talked and talked and talked.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01He worked on the picture. He made the coffee, in fact.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04And one day I was playing a scene.
0:14:06 > 0:14:07And he said...
0:14:11 > 0:14:13I was sort of talking to someone,
0:14:13 > 0:14:18being rather remote and looking all over the place. And he said...
0:14:18 > 0:14:24"A batal" - a hero - "doesn't look here or there or up or down.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26"He gives someone the plane of his face."
0:14:26 > 0:14:30And I remember two things I'd read.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33One Graves told me, that Lawrence apparently never looked at anybody.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36He made a sort of inventory of everyone's clothes.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40But Kennington, the sculptor,
0:14:40 > 0:14:45who sculpted him a lot and did all the illustrations for Seven Pillars,
0:14:45 > 0:14:47said this remarkable thing which I'd never understood before,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52which was that Lawrence reminded him of a middleweight boxer.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57And at that moment something very important clicked.
0:14:58 > 0:15:04And I knew exactly what Abdi meant by the plane of his face.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Which was this.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14And the eyes didn't travel over the clothes
0:15:14 > 0:15:16but they were aware of the hands.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20And aware of everything that was going on.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23And it was at once withdrawn, as a boxer must be,
0:15:23 > 0:15:27and at the same time very penetrating.
0:15:27 > 0:15:28And this one physical thing...
0:15:31 > 0:15:35..really clicked and it made a whole difference to the way I played him.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Now this is the way I work. I can't work a sort of...
0:15:38 > 0:15:39- A sort of exact science.- Yes.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43GUNSHOTS
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Jiminy!
0:16:03 > 0:16:05Never seen a man killed with a sword before.
0:16:06 > 0:16:07Why don't you take a picture?
0:16:07 > 0:16:08Wish I had.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12What about his height, Peter?
0:16:12 > 0:16:15He was a very short man and you're a very tall man.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20Do you make any effort as an actor to think like a small man?
0:16:22 > 0:16:24No, no. I've always said whenever anyone asks me about Lawrence,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27his inches. I always say it's a question for his tailor,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30not his interpreter. And that's probably a bit flip.
0:16:30 > 0:16:31But there's nothing I can do.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34I don't think it's really all that important, anyway.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37And I'm certainly sure he never thought as a small man.
0:16:37 > 0:16:38And I happen to be eight foot five,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41as you clearly imply.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43I can't chop off my legs and roam around on bloody stumps,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45so I've really had to disregard.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51O'Toole was another key member of the acting clique
0:16:51 > 0:16:54that dominated the decade.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57A drinking buddy of Caine, Albert Finney,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Richard Harris and Terence Stamp.
0:17:00 > 0:17:05Stamp's big break came in the 1962 film Billy Budd,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08directed by Peter Ustinov.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11He was a new type of heart-throb
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and success changed his life completely.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32When I started, Tony Curtis was good-looking,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35and Rock Hudson was good-looking.
0:17:37 > 0:17:38And curly hair was good-looking.
0:17:38 > 0:17:39So I wasn't...
0:17:41 > 0:17:43I was really an ugly duckling.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45I think the style changed
0:17:45 > 0:17:48and I woke up and I was good-looking.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50I imagined that it would be,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53that famous people would live in another world.
0:17:53 > 0:17:59And when I became famous I would be somehow magically moved
0:17:59 > 0:18:05to this other world where everything would be somehow more glamorous
0:18:05 > 0:18:07and more colourful.
0:18:07 > 0:18:14And on the morning that I woke up and I was famous and the phone rang,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18I expected it to be Brigitte Bardot, in fact.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20And it was my mother.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22LAUGHTER
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It brought me back to a kind of reality.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35Stamp did end up going on a blind date with Bardot years later,
0:18:35 > 0:18:37but it was a one-off.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45His most enduring relationship was with the model Jean Shrimpton,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and together they made one of the decade's most glamorous couples.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56Before Shrimpton, he'd also dated Julie Christie,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00arguably the actress who best captured the spirit
0:19:00 > 0:19:03of swinging London in the 1960s.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09There were bigger names out there
0:19:09 > 0:19:12but Julie Andrews was too wholesome,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16Liz Taylor too glamorous and removed.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Julie Christie just had it.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22I suppose the...
0:19:22 > 0:19:25I go back to the Beatles, I mean, really, isn't it?
0:19:28 > 0:19:31You know, we were lucky enough that they were quite cool and hip.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34And there weren't an awful lot of cool, hip people around.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36Not a majority.
0:19:36 > 0:19:37And they became idols.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39And like any idol they were copied.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44And so...that's why London paps is now cool and hip.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Christie's big film breakthrough came in 1963's Billy Liar
0:19:53 > 0:19:55alongside Tom Courtenay.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00But things really came to a head two years later,
0:20:00 > 0:20:07Life magazine calling 1965 "the year of Julie Christie."
0:20:08 > 0:20:14She starred in David Lean's very important film Doctor Zhivago,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16and Darling, playing a model
0:20:16 > 0:20:19who rises through London's jetset society.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25The role earned her an Oscar for Best Actress,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29and meant a level of fame that she wasn't entirely happy with.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Miss Christie, you yourself recently said, "I am a bit of a fluke,
0:20:37 > 0:20:39"just a passing fad."
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Even if you fear that this might be true, you must hope it's not.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47Isn't it perhaps a form of self protection saying things like this?
0:20:47 > 0:20:49Um, well, yes, of course.
0:20:52 > 0:20:59Um... Why I said I was a passing fad is because it's quite extraordinary,
0:20:59 > 0:21:05as I said, this sort of constant flight of mine upwards,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07which has culminated in the Oscar,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09which is, does...
0:21:09 > 0:21:11doesn't seem to have any real explanation.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15You feel it can't last, is this the feeling inside your bones?
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Well, I've got to a point now where I've got to come down and start,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21I hope, to carry on just absolutely normally.
0:21:21 > 0:21:22But I hope it'll last.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24But there's every chance of it not doing so.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28I mean, I have 50 for me, 50 against, really.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31This normality, isn't this going to be increasingly difficult?
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Because although you will rather loudly proclaim
0:21:34 > 0:21:35how much you hate all this star stuff
0:21:35 > 0:21:37and project a sort of anti-star image,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40the fish and chips round the corner with your mates and so on,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43isn't this a lost battle now that you're a famous face?
0:21:44 > 0:21:46I hope not, because...
0:21:48 > 0:21:52I do... I hope you can go on just working at your job and not getting
0:21:52 > 0:21:54embroiled in all the publicity and star system.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56I shall certainly go on trying
0:21:56 > 0:21:59because I wouldn't be very happy if I lost the battle.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02But you see, inevitably aren't you a product of the system
0:22:02 > 0:22:03and aren't you a part of it?
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Don't you have to adjust to the realities of this new situation?
0:22:06 > 0:22:09I don't think so any more. I think that's unnecessary.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14The only thing that's difficult is sort of denying the press
0:22:14 > 0:22:18what they want so much, and they seem to want an awful lot of me.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21- What's that?- Well, you.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Me. I mean, they seem to want me of me.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26- What, a sort of carcass, you mean? - Yes.- To devour you?
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Yes, and that's what's difficult but I don't think it's necessary.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31I don't think it's in the least bit necessary.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34Obviously you hate that. What are the other things that you hate most
0:22:34 > 0:22:36about being suddenly projected into this glare of publicity?
0:22:38 > 0:22:40Well, it's that. It's the fear it's bred.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45The fact that you can be praised as well as criticised,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49but with no retort of any sort from yourself.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54So just by remote control you can be criticised and praised,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58and I don't mean, sort of, my work. I'm not talking about my work now -
0:22:58 > 0:23:01that's my job, to be criticised and so forth, in my work.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04But when your private life is scrutinised
0:23:04 > 0:23:06and made public and everything,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09that absolutely terrifies me and I seem to have no defence against it.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Miss Christie, are you an ambitious person?
0:23:11 > 0:23:15I mean, how would you like to think life is going to be for you
0:23:15 > 0:23:16in, say, ten years' time?
0:23:19 > 0:23:20I'm not particularly ambitious.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23I'd like things to not go downwards, to stay upwards,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26but I really don't know.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28I don't know what happens in ten years' time.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31You can't go on being what they call "a symbol of one's generation"
0:23:31 > 0:23:32forever and ever.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39In 1967, Julie Christie and Terence Stamp were reunited on screen
0:23:39 > 0:23:43for the first film adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Far From The Madding Crowd, directed by John Schlesinger.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Christie played the beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59Stamp was the dashing rogue, Sergeant Frank Troy,
0:23:59 > 0:24:04a bit of casting that Stamp's female fans approved of strongly.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13I think that... I think Hardy is a really, you know...
0:24:15 > 0:24:19..he's a really romantic writer, and his stories
0:24:19 > 0:24:22are for the true romantics.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27And I think... I think women are sort of more romantic
0:24:27 > 0:24:29than men at the end of the day.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34One of the film's most famous moments,
0:24:34 > 0:24:40as Sergeant Troy dazzling Bathsheba with his sword skills,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43the scene that very nearly ended in disaster.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47- You're the enemy, right?- No!
0:24:48 > 0:24:49You're not scared, are you?
0:24:51 > 0:24:55- No.- Because if you're scared, I can't perform.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58I promise I won't touch you. Don't move.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Is it very sharp?
0:25:01 > 0:25:02No, it's got no edge at all.
0:25:04 > 0:25:05Hold still.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Ooh-la!
0:25:14 > 0:25:19Schlesinger had discovered that cavalrymen at that point
0:25:19 > 0:25:23were not left-handed, and so I had to...
0:25:23 > 0:25:24And I am a natural lefty,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28so I had had to learn all that sabre stuff with my right hand.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31When we started, I was really proficient.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34I felt really comfortable with the sabre.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38I had also built a very good relationship with Nicholas Roeg.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41- The cinematographer?- Yeah, I didn't get on too well with Schlesinger.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44And I heard that he pushed you in that scene
0:25:44 > 0:25:47to slice so close to her face that you almost touched her face?
0:25:47 > 0:25:51I did, I did. He just kind of...
0:25:51 > 0:25:54He saw that I was very adept with the sabre
0:25:54 > 0:25:58and during this scene where I slice a piece off her hair,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00he kept saying, "Surely you can get closer than that,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03surely you can get closer than that." And at a certain point,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06I actually slashed and I felt the sword hit something...
0:26:08 > 0:26:11..and she was...
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Christie was a real trouper, like, she didn't move,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17and I nearly passed out.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19I knew I'd hit her face.
0:26:19 > 0:26:25And in fact, I'd cut the skin, and I just touched the bone.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27But an eighth of an inch shorter,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30I would have probably broke her jaw, because they are very heavy,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32those Victorian sabres, you know?
0:26:32 > 0:26:34And I hope Schlesinger felt really guilty?
0:26:34 > 0:26:36I don't think so. He used the shot.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40You know, the shot where I hit her is the shot that he used.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Miss Everdene, you do forgive me, don't you?
0:26:45 > 0:26:49- I do not.- How can you blame me for your looks?
0:26:51 > 0:26:55A woman like you does more damage than she can conceivably imagine.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Please go away, I'd rather you didn't talk to me again.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Madding Crowd was...
0:27:02 > 0:27:06It was the end of an era for me, because it was...
0:27:08 > 0:27:13I suddenly... I'd done everything that I wanted to do.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17All my fantasies that I'd had as a boy had been realised,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21and with the ending of Madding Crowd, I...
0:27:22 > 0:27:25I had to rethink my life, really.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Because I thought this is what I've always wanted and in fact,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32having lived it,
0:27:32 > 0:27:34I discovered that it wasn't what I always wanted.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39I didn't... It didn't give me a great...
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Yes, it didn't give me any real happiness.
0:27:42 > 0:27:47It was nice and it was wonderful for a while, and then when,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50about the time of Madding Crowd, I began to wonder...
0:27:52 > 0:27:56..you know, what else I had to do in order to feel right.
0:28:00 > 0:28:06Terence Stamp wasn't the only star who was feeling disillusioned.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08By the second half of the 1960s,
0:28:08 > 0:28:12Bondmania was second only to Beatlemania.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16Its influence was clear to see in television,
0:28:16 > 0:28:18and in other films of the period.
0:28:19 > 0:28:25The posters for 1967's You Only Live Twice declared,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28"Sean Connery is James Bond."
0:28:29 > 0:28:31But the man himself had other ideas.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39I've had a long sort of innings,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42as it were, a very intense innings,
0:28:42 > 0:28:46and I wanted to change direction now and take another breath
0:28:46 > 0:28:48and do something else.
0:28:48 > 0:28:49So, this is your last Bond film?
0:28:49 > 0:28:51Yes.
0:28:51 > 0:28:52I'm very tired, because I've been...
0:28:52 > 0:28:55As I say, it's a long uphill grind.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04The man given a licence to follow Connery
0:29:04 > 0:29:11was 29-year-old Australian model, and a former used-car salesman,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15George Lazenby. Not an actor, and out of his depth.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21On Her Majesty's Secret Service has grown in reputation
0:29:21 > 0:29:27since its release in 1969, but the public didn't take to Lazenby.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30There were reports that he'd fallen out with his leading lady,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34Diana Rigg, so badly that she deliberately ate garlic
0:29:34 > 0:29:37before one of their love scenes.
0:29:38 > 0:29:43And the fact that he wore a beard for the film's premiere
0:29:43 > 0:29:48was seen as an indication of how out of step with the Bond world
0:29:48 > 0:29:49he truly was.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56What about the reports that you were deliberately awkward and hostile?
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Well, they were true, in a way,
0:29:58 > 0:30:02because I was very uptight lots of the time
0:30:02 > 0:30:05because I didn't understand exactly what was going on.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08And the only person you could ask,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11the only person who knew what was going on, was the director,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14and the director was very busy with his technical things
0:30:14 > 0:30:18and has control of two units and a whole lot of things,
0:30:18 > 0:30:23and he didn't really feel that an actor was important in the role.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26He felt that you could get any guy,
0:30:26 > 0:30:28I think he mentioned it on BBC Radio,
0:30:28 > 0:30:30that you could get any guy, put him in that part
0:30:30 > 0:30:33and make him James Bond, providing he looked similar
0:30:33 > 0:30:36to what the public feel James Bond looks like.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39And this came, that vibration,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41came off the director on to me all the time.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45One of the biggest examples of that so-called hostility was the very
0:30:45 > 0:30:48much-publicised rift between you and your co-star Diana Rigg.
0:30:48 > 0:30:49Now, what was the truth behind that?
0:30:49 > 0:30:52I said to the director, "Diana doesn't speak to me."
0:30:52 > 0:30:55He said, "I think you had an upset with her some time,
0:30:55 > 0:30:57why don't you apologise?" And I did and it was a bit late
0:30:57 > 0:31:00then to apologise and the whole thing didn't work,
0:31:00 > 0:31:01and it was down.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04But since then, we do speak.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07You know, we have spoken since and...
0:31:07 > 0:31:11It was pretty bad that that came up but that came up just by
0:31:11 > 0:31:15remarks from the studio about that garlic thing, which she had...
0:31:15 > 0:31:20But it wasn't as troublesome as it was all made out to be.
0:31:20 > 0:31:21I mean, it didn't bother me!
0:31:21 > 0:31:23This was when she had eaten garlic before a love scene?
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Well, like, she took precautions, like she said.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30But it was all built up into a big thing and it was nothing.
0:31:30 > 0:31:35You know, I... I enjoyed the whole scene anyway.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40I love you. I know I'll never find another girl like you.
0:31:45 > 0:31:46Will you marry me?
0:31:57 > 0:32:00- You mean it?- I mean it.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14You went on a publicity tour of the United States,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17which you paid for yourself. Why?
0:32:19 > 0:32:20On principle.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24I was promised a tour of the United States to publicise the film.
0:32:24 > 0:32:25I was looking forward to it.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29Because of my beard and long hair, I wasn't allowed to go.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33I was allowed to go on the condition I would like James Bond,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36and I said, "Well, anyone can understand that James Bond
0:32:36 > 0:32:40"isn't a real person and they're not going to mind the fact
0:32:40 > 0:32:42"that I haven't had a shave for a month."
0:32:42 > 0:32:44Everyone knows that James Bond must have a beard,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48even though you never see it on the film, if he doesn't shave!
0:32:48 > 0:32:51And anyway, it all ended up they sent Diana Rigg.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55So I went on afterwards and arranged my own tour,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58which was fun and games, because I've never been to America
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and I was more or less going up to television companies
0:33:01 > 0:33:03and knocking on the door and saying, "Hey, excuse me,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05"can I go on your television show?"
0:33:05 > 0:33:07And they would say, "Who are you?!"
0:33:07 > 0:33:09I said, "Well, I've got this film coming out in a month."
0:33:09 > 0:33:11They said, "But you haven't done anything yet,
0:33:11 > 0:33:13"we can't let you on the show without you having done something.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16"The people want to see someone who's done something."
0:33:16 > 0:33:19And I said, "Well..." and I chatted them into letting me on there
0:33:19 > 0:33:21and had a lot of fun.
0:33:24 > 0:33:30Someone else looking for fun was that man Michael Caine again.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Bond may have been faltering, the Beatles may have been splitting up,
0:33:34 > 0:33:39but Caine fancied finishing the decade with a smile on his face,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43and what put it there was The Italian Job.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47I was looking at the What's On one night
0:33:47 > 0:33:50and I just wanted to go and see a fun film
0:33:50 > 0:33:53and not worry about anything, not to be preached at,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55not to have to use my brain at all.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59I was just tired and I just wanted to sit back and be entertained,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02and the whole idea of making the film sprang from that,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05in as much as I just wanted to make a big, fun film.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09I didn't, as a star would normally do, who sets up a picture,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12which is what I did, I set up the script,
0:34:12 > 0:34:14I got the 3 million to make it and everything,
0:34:14 > 0:34:20I didn't do it in order to push myself over on the public.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22I wanted to have the biggest car chase.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25I wanted the car chase to be the star of the thing.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27I wanted to have Noel Coward in it.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31I wanted it to be really, more or less, the way it is.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Well, one would always want it to be better than the way it is.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38But it turned out to be a fun picture,
0:34:38 > 0:34:41which gives a tremendous amount of entertainment to a lot of people,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and it's very successful on that level.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48I never at any time tried to get the Academy Award with it or do anything
0:34:48 > 0:34:51else with it except to have a laugh and a bit of fun, that's all,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54of which it struck me there was very little about.
0:34:54 > 0:35:00It's also a film, something which I liked about it,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03is films are full of violence against people...
0:35:06 > 0:35:07..and always have been, actually.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10I was just about to say nowadays but they always have been.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13Gore Vidal once called it "the pornography of death."
0:35:13 > 0:35:15And I just thought, for a change,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18instead of all these machines killing people,
0:35:18 > 0:35:20it might be a change,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23just for fun, to have all these people killing machines.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29And I dislike cars intensely.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34And if you go and see the picture, you'll see it coming out,
0:35:34 > 0:35:37because we destroy cars left, right and centre...
0:35:38 > 0:35:42..which also brings about its own type of violence.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50In as much as if you see an actor killed or tortured
0:35:50 > 0:35:53or beaten up on the screen,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56the effect is there for the moment that's happening to him,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00but you do know that they haven't actually done this to him.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04But if you destroy objects, the audience can actually see
0:36:04 > 0:36:07that you really are destroying a Lamborghini Miura
0:36:07 > 0:36:10and an Aston Martin and five E-Types and...
0:36:12 > 0:36:14..15 Minis we had!
0:36:14 > 0:36:19We destroyed every make of car you can possibly think,
0:36:19 > 0:36:20in very spectacular ways.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57It wasn't just the car chases and car crashes,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01The Italian Job also left audiences dangling
0:37:01 > 0:37:08with one of cinema's greatest "how did they get out of that?" moments.
0:37:14 > 0:37:15I'm sure you've encountered this,
0:37:15 > 0:37:17but it's a kind of popular parlour game,
0:37:17 > 0:37:19whenever film bores get together,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22is to work out what happens next after the final scene.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26You're suspended in the coach, on the edge of the cliff,
0:37:26 > 0:37:28you turn around and you say...
0:37:28 > 0:37:31Hang on a minute, lads, I've got a great idea...
0:37:35 > 0:37:37- And the idea is? - You turn the engine on,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40you all sit exactly where you are till all the petrol's run out,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42which changes the equilibrium.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46The guys all go up the other end, they jump out,
0:37:46 > 0:37:48the gold goes over the cliff,
0:37:48 > 0:37:50and sitting at the bottom is the French mafia,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52sitting waiting for the gold,
0:37:52 > 0:37:54and then you're off on a chase trying to get it back.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01Just like that final image from The Italian Job,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04British cinema was hanging in limbo as the swinging '60s
0:38:04 > 0:38:07made way for the serious '70s.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12The excitement around Britain's acting talent was stalling
0:38:12 > 0:38:16and, of course, those once new, fresh faces
0:38:16 > 0:38:19were now part of the establishment.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21But fast forward a few decades
0:38:21 > 0:38:25and these names are now acknowledged as icons,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29cinematic symbols of one of the most exciting decades
0:38:29 > 0:38:32in modern memory.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35And as long as we gaze back at them,
0:38:35 > 0:38:40we can still feel that we are in movie paradise.