0:00:15 > 0:00:18"I will not be a common man," Peter O'Toole once said.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21"I will stir the smooth sands of monotony."
0:00:21 > 0:00:27And over an acting career spanning over 50 years, this he surely did.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32Charismatic, unpredictable and with those strikingly
0:00:32 > 0:00:37unconventional good looks, Peter O'Toole was one of cinema's greats.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42When he was on the screen, you couldn't take your eyes off him.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46Born in Ireland but brought up in Leeds, O'Toole decided he had
0:00:46 > 0:00:50to act after seeing Sir Michael Redgrave performing King Lear.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55He joined RADA in 1952, at the same time as Albert Finney
0:00:55 > 0:00:59and Alan Bates. And as one of the theatre's bright, young things,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03built a reputation as a stage actor of unique presence and strength.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07Small roles in television inevitably followed.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11And then in 1960, at the age of 30,
0:01:11 > 0:01:15he won the role that would define his career forever.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19It was, of course, Lawrence of Arabia.
0:01:19 > 0:01:20And we join O'Toole,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25here in the 1962 programme about the film and its making.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32We wanted to know what his approach had been to Lawrence,
0:01:32 > 0:01:34which of the many interpretations he'd adopted.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36He talked with Kenneth Griffith, the actor,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39and a friend of O'Toole's on the balcony of his Almeria villa.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44I hate to define...
0:01:44 > 0:01:47particularly when I'm working on a character,
0:01:47 > 0:01:52because I find this embalms him...
0:01:54 > 0:01:58..and it becomes an immortal rather than a living thing.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00Erm...
0:02:00 > 0:02:04I came to it by a great deal of research, study,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06but without any conscious...
0:02:06 > 0:02:08I'm taken to task a lot about this,
0:02:08 > 0:02:10that I should synthesise,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14but I won't and I can't.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17I'll give an example of how I came to it.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22I remember...
0:02:22 > 0:02:27sitting in a black tent in a place called Al Jafa...
0:02:28 > 0:02:31..and we were talking about Lawrence to a lot of Arabs.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35And someone said, "Oh, Abdi would know better."
0:02:35 > 0:02:41And they shouted for this man and in clanked
0:02:41 > 0:02:43a huge Sudanese gentleman of about 80.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49And he was a slave, a now freed slave,
0:02:49 > 0:02:54whom Auda Abu Tai, who was one of Lawrence's chief warriors,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56gave to Lawrence to look after him.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And someone said, "What did Lawrence look like?"
0:03:01 > 0:03:03He pointed at me and said, "Him."
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Well, needless to say, I grabbed him,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10and we talked and talked and talked and he worked on the picture.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16He made the coffee, in fact. And...one day I was playing a scene
0:03:16 > 0:03:19and he said...
0:03:23 > 0:03:26I was talking to someone and being rather remote
0:03:26 > 0:03:31and looking all over the place, and he said, "A battle, a hero...
0:03:32 > 0:03:36"..doesn't look here or there, or up or down.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38"He gives someone the plane of his face."
0:03:40 > 0:03:41I remember two things I'd read.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45One, Graves told me, that Lawrence apparently never looked at anybody.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50He made a sort of inventory of everyone's clothes.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52But Kennington, the sculptor who sculpted him
0:03:52 > 0:03:56and did all the illustrations for Seven Pillars,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00said this remarkable thing which I'd never understood before...
0:04:00 > 0:04:04which was that Lawrence reminded him of a middleweight boxer.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09And at that moment, something very important clicked
0:04:09 > 0:04:17and I knew exactly what Abdi meant by the plane of his face...
0:04:17 > 0:04:20which was this.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27And the eyes didn't travel over the clothes, but they were
0:04:27 > 0:04:32aware of the hands and aware of everything that was going on.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36And it was at once withdrawn, as a boxer must be,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39and at the same time, very penetrating. And this one physical
0:04:39 > 0:04:45thing really clicked and it made a whole difference to the way
0:04:45 > 0:04:47I played him. This is the way I work.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51I can't work with... It's not an exact science.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54What about his height, Peter?
0:04:54 > 0:04:57He was a very short man and you're a very tall man.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03Do you make any effort as an actor to think like a small man?
0:05:03 > 0:05:04No, uh, no, no.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08I've always said, when anyone's asked me about Lawrence's inches,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11I always say it's a question for his tailor, not his interpreter,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13and that's probably a bit flip, but there's nothing I can do.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16I don't think it's really all that important anyway.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19And I'm certainly sure he never thought he was a small man.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22And I happen to be 8' 5", as you clearly implied,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26and I can't chop off my legs and run around on bloody stumps,
0:05:26 > 0:05:27so I really had to disregard it.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30What were some of the things that you heard and read that were
0:05:30 > 0:05:34important to you about deciding which way you were going to go?
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Well, there's so many, many things.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41I remember speaking to a sheikh in Oman.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45The first Arab I met who knew him...
0:05:47 > 0:05:53..and I'd given up asking questions like, "What was he like?
0:05:53 > 0:05:55"How was he?" I used to try sort of tricky things.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58And I said to him, "Did he ever tell jokes?"
0:06:00 > 0:06:03At which point, he went into a great stream of Arabic,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05with tears trickling down his face.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Laughing like a drain, and I hadn't the faintest idea what he said,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13but clearly Lawrence had been very, very funny at one point.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15And I kept on finding more and more evidence of this.
0:06:15 > 0:06:16He was a great humorist.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19And...
0:06:20 > 0:06:24One of them told me about the time that he questioned him
0:06:24 > 0:06:28for hours about camel grazing in Piccadilly and Lawrence gave a very
0:06:28 > 0:06:32solemn reply to all this, whether Oxfordshire was a desert country.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35And then again, on another level,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38his descriptions of some of the things in Seven Pillars
0:06:38 > 0:06:43he did, like the killing of a man, the execution of a man.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49He had to execute him to keep two tribes from warring with each other,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52and would split up the whole thing and ruin the whole venture.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54So he chose, because he had no tribe
0:06:54 > 0:06:58and wouldn't offend anybody, to shoot the man.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03He describes it very coldly in Seven Pillars.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Now, I met a man who was with him
0:07:05 > 0:07:09when he did it and said that indeed, he did do it very coldly,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12and very methodically, and it was very terrible
0:07:12 > 0:07:16because the man was down a well and he kept on missing him.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18And then he went out for a drive in the desert afterwards
0:07:18 > 0:07:20and went for a walk. And this man,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22they were very worried about, went to look for him,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24and found him behind a rock...
0:07:26 > 0:07:28..crouched like a two-year-old baby
0:07:28 > 0:07:31in the most terrible state of emotion.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Now, that could colour my killing of this man in the film.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Of course.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40I could imply what would happen afterwards...
0:07:40 > 0:07:42without stating it.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45GUNSHOTS
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Lawrence was a sensation.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58"I woke up one morning to find I was famous", O'Toole once said.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02"I bought a white Rolls-Royce and drove down Sunset Boulevard,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07"wearing dark specs and a white suit, waving like the Queen Mum."
0:08:08 > 0:08:14Fame and his excesses did indeed fit him, just like a suit...
0:08:14 > 0:08:16but acting was always the priority.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20The '60s saw him nominated for four leading man Oscars
0:08:20 > 0:08:24for Lawrence of Arabia, Goodbye, Mr Chips, Becket
0:08:24 > 0:08:25and The Lion In Winter,
0:08:25 > 0:08:30two films in which he played the same role - Henry II.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33He was a true international superstar,
0:08:33 > 0:08:38but despite that status, a chat show would reduce him to jelly,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42or so he told Michael Parkinson in this appearance from 1972.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45APPLAUSE
0:08:52 > 0:08:53Good evening and welcome.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56My special guest tonight is unique in that he's the only man
0:08:56 > 0:09:00I know who's been nominated for an Academy Award and also holds
0:09:00 > 0:09:04the speed record for drinking beer at the Dirty Duck Pub in Dublin.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07That apart, he's one who shares with Olivier
0:09:07 > 0:09:11and Burton the distinction of being a superstar on stage and screen.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15He first made his name on stage, notably in Willis Hall's play,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17The Long And The Short And The Tall.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20His big break in films came in this movie.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22The actor and my guest tonight, Peter O'Toole.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25APPLAUSE
0:09:39 > 0:09:41Delighted to have you with me tonight.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Doubly delighted because, in fact,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45you don't do these things very often, do you?
0:09:45 > 0:09:48No.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50Why is that? You get very nervous, don't you, of television?
0:09:50 > 0:09:56- Well, it isn't nerves. It's total panic.- Really?
0:09:56 > 0:09:59I mean, it's not a question of butterflies in the st...
0:09:59 > 0:10:02I've got crows flapping around.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07- Funk! Terror.- Yeah, that's as good a word as any.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10In fact, you did one of these, I was reading in your cutting,
0:10:10 > 0:10:11you did one of these in America.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15The last talk show you did, which had rather disastrous results, didn't it?
0:10:17 > 0:10:21Oh, my God, yes. Uh... I don't know the name of the gentleman.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24- It was Johnny Carson. - Was it really?- Uh-huh.
0:10:24 > 0:10:25AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:10:25 > 0:10:30- Unfortunate man.- My name is Mike Parkinson.- I know, Mr Parkinson.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33I don't think I even know my name.
0:10:35 > 0:10:42Well, I'd done that ridiculous trip from Japan to New York,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45which means you leave Japan on Tuesday
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and get to New York on Monday...
0:10:49 > 0:10:53..and this compounded with terror or whatever.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57I went in, did one of those jobs.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02Incidentally, my wife always thinks it's called Moon River, that tune.
0:11:02 > 0:11:08Said hello, listened to the first question, I answered it.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10I don't know what I said, not the faintest idea.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12I don't know what I'm saying now.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Listened to the second question, I didn't answer it,
0:11:17 > 0:11:23but I woke up in a dressing room, my glasses broke, I'd fainted.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28- And I was replaced by a talking dog. - AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:11:28 > 0:11:31What really fascinates me, though, about talking to somebody
0:11:31 > 0:11:35like you or say, Albert Finn, he was one of your contemporaries at RADA...
0:11:35 > 0:11:37- Indeed.- And people from this background, this very,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40very working class background that you came from is how on earth
0:11:40 > 0:11:44you ever got the notion to be an actor. Because, I mean,
0:11:44 > 0:11:48you lived in Hunslet, I was brought up near you.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50And if I'd have said I was going to be an actor, they would have
0:11:50 > 0:11:53thought there was something a bit decidedly wrong about me,
0:11:53 > 0:11:55a bit pansy.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Well, not only was I from Hunslet, I didn't have a
0:11:59 > 0:12:04Yorkshire accent. I also had blonde, curly hair
0:12:04 > 0:12:06and I was known as "Bubbles".
0:12:06 > 0:12:09AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:12:09 > 0:12:11And that cost me a lot of lumps.
0:12:12 > 0:12:13But...
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Acting came, really...
0:12:18 > 0:12:20You absorb it, I suppose.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24There's no immediate process in it. It's an accumulation of things.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26I left my little warehouse, where I'd started work,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29and went to work on a newspaper.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Newspaper led to...
0:12:31 > 0:12:32That sounds very posh.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35In fact, I was fetching the horse meat for the photographer.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40- Horse meat?- Yeah, yes. We used to eat horse meat then, do you remember?
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Well, I'm older than you, yes. Well, he ate horse meat.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49Well, maybe he was a betting man. I don't know. Anyway...
0:12:49 > 0:12:56And that led to, again, night school, my need to improve myself.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Free tickets to the theatre.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05- I saw Laurel and Hardy, would you believe? On stage, yes.- On stage?
0:13:05 > 0:13:07- On stage.- Oh, marvellous.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Flogging around doing a thing called The Old Timers.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14No audience. Nice people. Well, the fat one was.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17I didn't like the other one.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19- You actually met them? - Yes.- Did you, really?- Yes.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21- What, you went back stage and met them?- Yes.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Well, I was... Part of the job, you know, going round.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26- As a journalist?- Yeah. And...
0:13:29 > 0:13:34Then, bit by bit, I got involved in local amateur things and...
0:13:34 > 0:13:39Oh, by 16 or 17, I was onions deep in theatre.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41How did you get the part, in fact, for Lawrence?
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Because that was the thing that really established you or made
0:13:44 > 0:13:46you as a film star, wasn't it?
0:13:46 > 0:13:51- How did that come about?- Erm... - Was it chance or good friends or...?
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Er, well, I'd made a film before that called
0:13:55 > 0:13:58- The Day They Robbed The Bank Of England...- I remember that.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01- ..with my partner now, Jules Buck...- Yes.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04..we've been friends ever since.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08In which I was, of course, invited to play the Irish tearaway.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12I've always carefully avoided playing Irishmen if I could.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16And I played a guard's officer, and a friend of David Lean,
0:14:16 > 0:14:24an Indian gentleman, had seen it, rung up David and said, "Lawrence
0:14:24 > 0:14:25"is on the screen." And David went...
0:14:25 > 0:14:27David has told me this story.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29He went and saw it and rang me up and said,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31"You're Lawrence of Arabia."
0:14:31 > 0:14:37- Amazing. Did Mr Spiegel take any convincing?- Oh, yes.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Well, you see, I'd met Mr Spiegel before.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45- I was...- If the memory's painful...
0:14:48 > 0:14:51It's not painful for me. I think it's a little painful for Samuel.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55He'd asked me to...
0:14:55 > 0:15:01It's very funny because I went to his office and the phone rang...
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Sam...
0:15:04 > 0:15:08They're all the same to me, Abe and Mike and Spike and Ike and whatever.
0:15:08 > 0:15:09And... Would I go and see him?
0:15:09 > 0:15:12I went, and I'd just been clearing my dressing room
0:15:12 > 0:15:15and I had half a bottle of whisky in my pocket,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19and I went in the door and took off the coat,
0:15:19 > 0:15:23and the bottle of whisky fell out and smashed on the floor.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27Now, what the idea of meeting him was,
0:15:27 > 0:15:34was to replace a rather unreliable actor in a film he was making.
0:15:36 > 0:15:42And I did some sort of test for him and I made a joke, alas,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44and he didn't think it was very funny.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47He nearly died when David said he wanted me to play Lawrence
0:15:47 > 0:15:49because he wanted... Oh, he had everybody -
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Albert Finney, Marlon Brando... I was one of a long, long line.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56- That's right, Brando was actually in line for it.- Albert was.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58- All sorts of folk. - Let's have a look at it now.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05CROWD CHANTS: Lawrence! Lawrence! Lawrence!
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Bend your legs! Yes, sir, that's my baby.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48APPLAUSE
0:16:53 > 0:16:56He was, of course, he was a fascinating and controversial figure,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Lawrence, wasn't he? What conclusions did you come to about him, Peter,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02when you researched him?
0:17:02 > 0:17:06- If I ever met him, I'd run 100 miles.- Really?- Yeah.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08- Why?- I don't know.
0:17:08 > 0:17:09He's probably most...
0:17:11 > 0:17:17..attractive. I mean that not in its ordinary sense.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20He had a... Don't forget that he was probably
0:17:20 > 0:17:24the first 20th century super spy
0:17:24 > 0:17:31and he was picked at the age of 16 in Oxford, specifically to be a spy.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36He wrote his thesis, he got a double first.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43Riding a bike through all the crusader's castles -
0:17:43 > 0:17:45he called it Crusader Castles.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49It's published now, but it was, in fact, his history thesis.
0:17:49 > 0:17:55At the same time, he was doing maps for the British Government
0:17:55 > 0:18:01of Aqaba, of the whole of the Jordan Strip of Marne and Syria,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06- making contacts with the northern Arab leader as a student.- Yes.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10A couple of things about the clip,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12the Lawrence clip you showed on the...
0:18:12 > 0:18:16- Do you mind me being a little irreverent?- No, not at all.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Crashing around on the train, I had letters from lip readers,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24but I had no dialogue on the train at all.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27They're all shouting, "Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence,"
0:18:27 > 0:18:30and I was saying, "Too kind, most loyal...
0:18:31 > 0:18:33"..everybody very good and gracious",
0:18:33 > 0:18:35which is apparently a royalty answer.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Can we have a look at a film you made with Richard Burton, which is
0:18:38 > 0:18:42- a particular favourite of mine, Becket?- And mine.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Shall we roll it now?
0:18:44 > 0:18:48I think this is one of the best sequences in the movie.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51You never loved me, did you, Thomas?
0:18:53 > 0:18:58In so far as I was capable of love, yes, I did.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00Did you start to love God?
0:19:00 > 0:19:04YOU MULE! Answer a simple question!
0:19:06 > 0:19:10Yes, I started to love...
0:19:11 > 0:19:13..the honour of God.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18I should never have seen you.
0:19:19 > 0:19:25- It hurts to watch.- My prince... - Now! Now pity. Dirty.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32This is the last time I shall come begging to you. Go back to England.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Farewell, my prince. I sail tomorrow.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43I know that I shall never see you again.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45How dare you say that to me when I've given you my royal word!
0:19:45 > 0:19:47Do you take me for a traitor?!
0:19:57 > 0:19:59THOMAS!
0:20:11 > 0:20:13APPLAUSE
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Why do you particularly like that, Peter?
0:20:20 > 0:20:22To give an idea of how we got on, Richard and I,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25we pulled a terrible thing together. We used to...
0:20:25 > 0:20:29He used to go and watch my rushes and I would go and watch his.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32And because neither of us particularly like seeing ourselves
0:20:32 > 0:20:38on the screen, and we got into an awful scrape
0:20:38 > 0:20:42because we used to toss up to see what wine we'd have,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46toss up to see who would do what scene and, you know...
0:20:46 > 0:20:49And he had his hands full... Oh, blimey, there's a slip.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55I was going to say, "His hands full with a little bit of..."
0:20:55 > 0:20:56At the time.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00He was having his problems at the time and...
0:21:00 > 0:21:03one day, we were hiding
0:21:03 > 0:21:09in a pub at lunch and he said, "Let's do Hamlet." I said, "No, no.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14"Never. I've done it. So have you." He said, "Let's do it, again,
0:21:14 > 0:21:15"just to be perverse."
0:21:17 > 0:21:21I said, "Oh, no, no. It's the worst play in the world! I won't do it."
0:21:21 > 0:21:26He said, "Go on!" Oh, I don't know, I'd had too much red ink...
0:21:27 > 0:21:29We tossed coins.
0:21:29 > 0:21:35We decided that what we'd do, we'd have Olivier
0:21:35 > 0:21:37and John Gielgud to direct.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41And we tossed up to see who would get John Gielgud
0:21:41 > 0:21:43and who would get Larry Olivier.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47And we'd tossed up who'd get New York and who'd get London.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50I got Larry Olivier in London, he got Gielgud in New...
0:21:50 > 0:21:54- And we did it!- Amazing.- It's a kind of insanity that...
0:21:54 > 0:21:57What was that like? I mean, it must be daunting.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02I went up to do the "To be or not to be" from the bowls one night
0:22:02 > 0:22:06and I was "To be-ing or not to be-ing."
0:22:06 > 0:22:08I could hear slight titters.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12It was an afternoon performance. I thought,
0:22:12 > 0:22:13"What are they laughing at?"
0:22:13 > 0:22:16And of course, when you do that silly look
0:22:16 > 0:22:18everybody knows it, so they all join in any way.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:22:20 > 0:22:23It's like an old song.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29- Should lower a song sheet. - All together now.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32But I'm not used to too many titters. By this time,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36I was feeling much better with the way things were going and...
0:22:36 > 0:22:38I don't know. I did some fine gesture and, God,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41- I was wearing my bloody glasses... - AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:22:41 > 0:22:45..because I'd be down below with the stage hands picking out winners.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:22:47 > 0:22:50I just sort of trudged through as far as I could and thought,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52"How do I get rid of these?"
0:22:52 > 0:22:55I was wearing horn rims. "How do I get...?"
0:22:55 > 0:22:57The only thing I could do was to sling them at Ophelia.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04The same year, O'Toole found himself in the interview hot seat again.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07He had just finished filming the Don Quixote musical
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Man of La Mancha, but began this encounter with Sheridan Morely
0:23:11 > 0:23:13discussing The Ruling Class,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18a black comedy that would go on to earn him his fifth Oscar nomination.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21What first attracted you to the idea of doing it?
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Uh, well, I read it and...
0:23:28 > 0:23:35I found it to be the funniest and the most vital piece of work
0:23:35 > 0:23:37I'd encountered for a long, long, long, long time.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42In fact, I remember reading it and trying to say what it was,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45you know, which category it came into.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49And I'd out-Poloniused Polonius, you know, historical
0:23:49 > 0:23:53comical, tragical, pastoral, hyperbolical, theological...
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and did about 25 somersaults
0:23:56 > 0:24:01and finished up on my metaphysical bum, and it was The rolling Class.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04And I just thought it was so savagely funny...
0:24:05 > 0:24:12..and lent itself so easily to a film
0:24:12 > 0:24:15without being self-consciously filmic
0:24:15 > 0:24:18because of the fantasy in it.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23And that I could get round me a group of, you know,
0:24:23 > 0:24:30smashing Jonsonian actors and do it, and we did it.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33In old days, the executioner kept the common herd in order.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36When he stood on its gallows, you knew God was in his head
0:24:36 > 0:24:38and all right with the world.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42Punishment for blaspheming was to be broken on the wheel.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46First the fibula - crack! Then the tibula, patella and femur - crack,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50crack, crack! And the corpus, ulna and radius - crack!
0:24:50 > 0:24:53# Disconnect dem bones, them dry bones
0:24:53 > 0:24:56# Disconnect dem bones, them dry bones
0:24:56 > 0:24:59# Disconnect dem bones, them dry bones
0:24:59 > 0:25:01# Oh, hear the word of the Lord
0:25:01 > 0:25:04# Well your head bone's connected to your neck bone
0:25:04 > 0:25:06# Your neck bone's connected to your shoulder bone
0:25:06 > 0:25:09# Your shoulder bone's connected to your back bone
0:25:09 > 0:25:11# Your back bone's connected to your hip bone
0:25:11 > 0:25:14# Your hip bone's connected to your thigh bone
0:25:14 > 0:25:16# Oh, hear the word of the Lord
0:25:16 > 0:25:19# Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around
0:25:19 > 0:25:22# Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around
0:25:22 > 0:25:24# Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around
0:25:24 > 0:25:27# Now hear the word of the Lord
0:25:27 > 0:25:29# Connect dem bones, dem dry bones
0:25:29 > 0:25:32# Connect dem bones, dem dry bones
0:25:32 > 0:25:34# Connect dem bones, dem dry bones
0:25:34 > 0:25:37# Now hear the word of the Lord. #
0:25:39 > 0:25:42But apart from the influence you had in the casting of it,
0:25:42 > 0:25:43once you got into the shooting,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47did you have an influence on the studio floor in the way it went?
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Oh, only in the normal way,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52bullying and pleading and blackmailing and kicking
0:25:52 > 0:25:54and hypocrisy and tears -
0:25:54 > 0:25:57the normal things that one does in making a film or a play.
0:25:57 > 0:25:58Yes, yes.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Turning, then, from The Ruling Class to your last completed,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03but not yet released film, Man Of La Mancha.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05What led you into that?
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Er... Yes, well...
0:26:09 > 0:26:12A desire to play Don Quixote, obviously,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15which I've always wanted to do...
0:26:15 > 0:26:24Peter Glenville, and a new book of the musical by John Hopkins.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27However, those ingredients were removed, I'm afraid,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30before I did the film...
0:26:30 > 0:26:33and that's what led me into it.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36It's, of course, your second musical, counting Goodbye, Mr Chips,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39- but can you in fact sing? - I don't really think so.
0:26:39 > 0:26:45I mean, I could wail some griever's ballad about some dying
0:26:45 > 0:26:48mother McCrea somewhere, you know, which any Irishman can.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02What a lot of flowers.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07What a lot of sunshine.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10What a lot of beauty.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14# In the world today
0:27:14 > 0:27:17# What a world of colour
0:27:17 > 0:27:20# Just beyond my window
0:27:20 > 0:27:26# Flowers ever colour of the rainbow
0:27:30 > 0:27:37# Red roses, orange marigolds, yellow buttercups, green leaves
0:27:37 > 0:27:45# Blue cornflowers, indigo lilacs and violets, violets
0:27:50 > 0:27:55# My happy eye perceives. #
0:27:55 > 0:27:57But in terms of films, one thinks of your career as
0:27:57 > 0:28:00starting with Lawrence, although of course there were films before that.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04- Indeed there were.- And yet somehow they disappeared in the great
0:28:04 > 0:28:07- publicity for Lawrence, which... - Yeah, yeah. Yes, well, yes.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10I think the idea was to discover me.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Er...
0:28:14 > 0:28:16They were very funny days -
0:28:16 > 0:28:19and I still don't know a great deal about what goes on -
0:28:19 > 0:28:23but I remember the first time I was on a film set ever.
0:28:23 > 0:28:29And in theatre, as you remember, the producer was what is now called
0:28:29 > 0:28:33the director and I didn't know which was a camera,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36or if the boom was a camera, or the fella twiddling the knobs was
0:28:36 > 0:28:40a cameraman, or the chap with the light meter...
0:28:40 > 0:28:42And I assumed that the man I had been speaking to,
0:28:42 > 0:28:45who was the producer was, in fact, the director.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48And I couldn't understand why this little fella kept on speaking to me,
0:28:48 > 0:28:51telling me to do things, because I was listening to the other one.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54And I never knew where anything was and I remember...
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Finchy, Peter Finch, he conned me into it because he'd said,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59"There is only one man I know who can play the bagpipes",
0:28:59 > 0:29:01and that was me, and he wanted someone
0:29:01 > 0:29:03to do a scene with him playing the bagpipes.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07- In what?- A thing called Kidnapped, a Walt Disney thing.
0:29:07 > 0:29:13Finchy was playing the swashbuckler and I was Rob Roy MacGregor's son.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15That's no' very bad, Mr Stuart,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18but you show a poor device in your warblers.
0:29:18 > 0:29:19Me? I'll give you the lie!
0:29:19 > 0:29:21You own yourself beaten at the pipes
0:29:21 > 0:29:22that you seek to change them for the sword?
0:29:22 > 0:29:26Well said, Mr MacGregor. That's why I'll appeal to Donald.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28You need appeal to no-one, sir,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31for it's the God's truth you're a creditable piper...
0:29:31 > 0:29:33for a Stuart.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54But were you still as innocent when it came to Lawrence?
0:29:54 > 0:29:58Yes, I was. And then I had the hardest master of them all,
0:29:58 > 0:30:01David Lean, for two years...
0:30:03 > 0:30:07..who is a hard bastard, by God, he is,
0:30:07 > 0:30:10but he knows his game absolutely backwards.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13One may disapprove of his subjects, or even his treatment of his
0:30:13 > 0:30:18subjects, but what he doesn't know about cinema is not worth knowing.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21And he would make me look through the... "Look through here, Pete.
0:30:21 > 0:30:26"This is a 75 and that's a 22" or whatever. And shot by shot by
0:30:26 > 0:30:30shot by shot, and even the cutting. I sat with him doing the cutting.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32You made two films in the '60s,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35which, to me, stand out far away from the rest of your work,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38and in both of them you played the same character.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40- I'm thinking of... - Henry II?- And The Lion In Winter.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43Are those the two that stick out in your mind also as being the best of the bunch?
0:30:43 > 0:30:46I was speaking to my wife this morning.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48I was saying, "Look, I'm absolutely terrified.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51"I don't know what to do or what to say on television.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53"I really just don't."
0:30:53 > 0:30:56And she said, "Well, if they ask you what your favourite thing is,
0:30:56 > 0:30:58"what will you say?" And I said, "Well, I don't know actually.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01"I should say Bristol and those happy three years there."
0:31:01 > 0:31:04She said, "No, no." And it is, of course, Henry II.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07I could cheerfully, probably and may even come to that,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09play Henry II for the rest of my life. I mean, I love him.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13And there's plenty of material. Irving died, didn't he?
0:31:13 > 0:31:17We were talking about that. Playing Becket, there's Tenison's Becket.
0:31:17 > 0:31:24There's a play about Eleanor, there's Christopher Fry's Curtmantle
0:31:24 > 0:31:27and the... I could make a repertoire of about five or six
0:31:27 > 0:31:30plays of Henry II and just flog them round forever.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33And then make films of them all, television or whatever.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Quite cheerfully I could play... I adore playing Henry II.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38Outside of your working life, as you say,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42one doesn't very often find you on television programmes or
0:31:42 > 0:31:45promoting pop records or selling yourself generally.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48Is that because you do really believe in a kind of privacy
0:31:48 > 0:31:51- for an actor or...?- Yes, I do.
0:31:51 > 0:31:57I feel that my job begins and ends with the curtain going up
0:31:57 > 0:31:59and coming down.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03Yes, that is so, but I am placed in this position
0:32:03 > 0:32:06and off I go in my suit.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Coming back then to your working life and your last film,
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Man of La Mancha, are you entirely happy with the way it's turned out?
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Oh, how do I know?
0:32:14 > 0:32:20I mean, I was on a carthorse a few days ago in Tarquinia...
0:32:20 > 0:32:22covered in bald heads and things.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24Peter O'Toole, a last question,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27- do you have any plans beyond Man of La Mancha?- Yes, I do,
0:32:27 > 0:32:29to do absolutely nothing.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33And if you've got any offers or suggestions, I'll take them up.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36- I'll do that.- Thank you. - Peter O'Toole.- Thank you.- Thank you.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38O'Toole was half true to his word.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41He didn't make another film for several years,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43focusing instead on the theatre,
0:32:43 > 0:32:47including a notorious production of Macbeth that was so savaged by
0:32:47 > 0:32:53the critics that audiences flocked to see if it was as bad as claimed.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57His comeback film, in contrast, was a critical triumph.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59The Stunt Man saw him playing a movie director,
0:32:59 > 0:33:05a performance he had claimed he had based on David Lean.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09It won rave reviews and would lead to this appearance
0:33:09 > 0:33:11on the Russell Harty programme in 1980.
0:33:13 > 0:33:19APPLAUSE
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Strange history about The Stunt Man, which you've made some years ago.
0:33:29 > 0:33:35- Well, not that many years ago, but some years ago.- Well done!- Thank you.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40- But the film's been made for two or three years.- Yeah, three years.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43And now, all of a sudden, it's beginning to lift off the ground.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47Well, it didn't... It hasn't been released.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52It's escaped and...
0:33:52 > 0:33:55- It is a brilliant work, as you've seen.- I saw it.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01- Deservedly...- It's a very dotty movie, Mr O'Toole.- It is a bit potty.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Yeah. Daft.
0:34:05 > 0:34:06And you're at the centre of it.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08Let's tell people what it's about first.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13- It's about a director.- It's about a young fugitive on the run...
0:34:16 > 0:34:20..and we know he's a very violent young man.
0:34:22 > 0:34:27He does a deed of appalling violence that involved crossing
0:34:27 > 0:34:30a little bridge, and he sees a very funny old-fashioned car
0:34:30 > 0:34:36approaching, assumes it's yet more terror in his life,
0:34:36 > 0:34:37aims a brick at it,
0:34:37 > 0:34:44succeeds, and the car cheerfully pops over, there's a lot of bubbles.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49Nothing left. He's in yet more shtook and sees a helicopter...
0:34:51 > 0:34:55- With you in it.- With me in it. And what is going on?
0:34:55 > 0:34:58And finally finds out that it's in fact part of a film.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01It was a stunt. And the deal is made that
0:35:01 > 0:35:04if the young man, who is an escaped fugitive,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07will take on the role of the stunt man who is dead
0:35:07 > 0:35:11- at the bottom of the river... - You will get him out of trouble.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14I will get him out of trouble if he will get me out of trouble
0:35:14 > 0:35:16because I have three days to complete my film.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18Well, now, let's look at the first bit where you're on a wonderful
0:35:18 > 0:35:22kind of machine. You have a fairground machine that you sit on.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25- What is it called?- A crane. - A crane. And you sit on this...
0:35:25 > 0:35:26AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:35:26 > 0:35:29..directing the movie and shouting orders at people,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32and here you are whizzing up on the crane, or down.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35- Good evening. Want a lift? - Oh, Christ, Eli.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Palm trees, yet more palm trees.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Who had the audacity to put palm trees there?!
0:35:41 > 0:35:42They will be in every shot.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45And what are palm trees doing waving around on a battlefield
0:35:45 > 0:35:48in Europe during the First World War? Answer me that.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52Nina, the actor so fair who fancied a man with blonde hair.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57But Raymond discovers, as he lifts up the covers that his double,
0:35:57 > 0:35:59young Lucky, is there.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01- Now...- Eli!- Yes?
0:36:01 > 0:36:04It's gotten to the point where I have to check under the stopper
0:36:04 > 0:36:08in the bathtub when I take a shower to make sure I have some privacy!
0:36:08 > 0:36:11FANS WHISTLE
0:36:11 > 0:36:14Thank you, one and all, and good night.
0:36:20 > 0:36:21Step right up, folks.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Ride the ride of the century on Eli's killer crane.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28APPLAUSE
0:36:32 > 0:36:34I don't know whether you enjoyed it. Did you?
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Because you seemed to be giving a kind of flashy,
0:36:38 > 0:36:40outgoing performance throughout the whole movie.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45Well, it's a Mercutio role. It's dashing braggadocio.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Certainly, I relished it.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49You said an interesting thing just before we started
0:36:49 > 0:36:53the programme that it is a film with peculiar grammar,
0:36:53 > 0:36:54its own grammar, its own syntax.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56Well, Richard is in a bit of rush.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58He calls it daft and he calls it all sorts of things,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01and all these things are accurate. It is...
0:37:01 > 0:37:04- I'm being complementary.- Indeed. It's also a very, very good film.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08- It's a brilliant film.- You were a stuntman yourself in long past.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Well, before stunts were organised
0:37:10 > 0:37:13and went into a proper profession, yes.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15They would advertise for tall, young men who could speak a word
0:37:15 > 0:37:21and ride a horse. These are the days of Ivanhoe and television specials.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25- You were in the Scarlet Pimpernel. - The Scarlet Pimpernel, that's right!
0:37:25 > 0:37:28- What were you? A Scarlet or a Pimpernel?- I was a writer.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32- You were a writer. - I had a wonderful line in it -
0:37:32 > 0:37:36"You have to make the acquaintance of Madame Guillotine."
0:37:36 > 0:37:39- And you rode your own camels in Lawrence Of Arabia.- I did, yes.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44One of the funny things in the days of...
0:37:44 > 0:37:48as Bob Fitzsimmons and co will tell you,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52when they advertised for riders, invariably jockeys would turn up.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56So you would find these wonderfully impressive chain mail figures
0:37:56 > 0:38:00and when they got up, you'd see bandy legs.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04- And about that high?- Tiny! - Where did you learn to fight?
0:38:04 > 0:38:06Were you a rough kid?
0:38:06 > 0:38:09Did you have to put your fists up to help yourself in your youth?
0:38:09 > 0:38:12- From time to time.- Where was that?
0:38:12 > 0:38:17- Hunslet.- Near Leeds?- Indeed. - Rough area?- Very.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Did you ever win fights or did you invariably lose them?
0:38:23 > 0:38:25AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:38:25 > 0:38:28There was a body at the end and it was quite often mine.
0:38:28 > 0:38:29AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:38:29 > 0:38:34Were you prepared for the torrents or criticism that were
0:38:34 > 0:38:39- thrown at your head after Macbeth? - Um, no, I was not.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43I was prepared to be criticised, yes, but not to that extent.
0:38:43 > 0:38:49When did you realise that the whole thing had become "a cause celebre"?
0:38:49 > 0:38:53Well, literally the following day. I mean, the house was besieged.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55- You mean the ticket office was besieged?- No, my house.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Oh, YOUR house? And the ticket office at the same time?
0:38:59 > 0:39:01Lots of journalists jumping up and down.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04You were sort of the theatrical Lady Diana Spencer for that moment,
0:39:04 > 0:39:07- weren't you?- How charming.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11- But you were.- Yes. Flavour of the month.- Right.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15And you say that reviews, today's reviews, are tomorrow's fish
0:39:15 > 0:39:17and chip papers for wrapping...
0:39:17 > 0:39:21so you've clearly emerged from all that kind of situation.
0:39:23 > 0:39:24Um...
0:39:26 > 0:39:29We've emerged with a good, professional,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32very competent production, yes.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37The following decades brought more successes like The Last Emperor
0:39:37 > 0:39:40and My Favourite Year, a classic O'Toole performance that
0:39:40 > 0:39:46saw him nominated for the best actor Oscar for the seventh time.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48But he protested he was still in the game
0:39:48 > 0:39:52and had time to win one outright.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54That was a dream never fulfilled.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57But the 2006 film Venus
0:39:57 > 0:40:01did see him nominated for an amazing eighth time
0:40:01 > 0:40:05and prompted this career retrospective from Newsnight.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09Seven Oscar nominations and a towering reputation
0:40:09 > 0:40:12as a stage actor - not bad -
0:40:12 > 0:40:14but think what Peter O'Toole could have achieved
0:40:14 > 0:40:19if he'd only persevered with his original profession, journalism.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22I was adopted by the feature department
0:40:22 > 0:40:27- and the sports department.- To write? - To write. To sniff out yarns.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29I was only a baby. I was only 16.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32But I would much rather be reported than report.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39I'd much rather be on the field than among the spectators.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42Plus, I've always been as I've always felt.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45That's why I didn't think I fitted in very well to newspapers.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48I'd rather be the news.
0:40:49 > 0:40:54- It had occurred to me that I wanted to be a poet.- Were you any good?
0:40:54 > 0:40:59- No, hopeless.- Really? Do you remember any of your couplets?
0:40:59 > 0:41:03- Oh, I daren't even tell you. Later, perhaps.- Yes.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05What appealed to you about that? Was it just...?
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Writing poetry and thinking about life,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10and wondering around in a nice green...
0:41:10 > 0:41:14- Cape?- Cape. And like Mangan, with a funny big hat on.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19- And the ladies like poets, of course. - And the ladies adore poets, yes.
0:41:19 > 0:41:25- What's not to like?- Indeed. - Ah, yes, the ladies.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28I can't do it with anyone I know watching.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33- You've got to be professional, my dear.- Mr Russell, if you don't mind?
0:41:36 > 0:41:41In his new film, O'Toole plays a mature actor, or at least
0:41:41 > 0:41:46an elderly one, in a winter/spring relationship with a wannabe model.
0:41:59 > 0:42:00Everything all right?
0:42:00 > 0:42:04There's a poignancy in seeing the 74-year-old O'Toole
0:42:04 > 0:42:07as a leading man since he established himself
0:42:07 > 0:42:10so indelibly the first time he took that role.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14The extraordinary affect of being cast as Lawrence of Arabia
0:42:14 > 0:42:18in David Lean's epic was to make O'Toole a star and somehow
0:42:18 > 0:42:22to keep him there, despite more mixed fare thereafter.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24Always I'm Lawrence. Always.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28I woke up and found I was famous...
0:42:28 > 0:42:30It was great!
0:42:33 > 0:42:38It had bells on it! It was on toast.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42It was foaming at the bathtub.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46When writer Russell T Davies revisited the legend of Casanova
0:42:46 > 0:42:51and the BBC were looking for someone to play the rake in old age,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53you'll never guess whose agent they rang.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58What's a burghermaster's daughter doing working in a kitchen?
0:42:58 > 0:43:02He died last year, sir. There's not much provision for widows.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07- And he had his debts. - Gambling?- Yes, sir.
0:43:07 > 0:43:08Good man!
0:43:08 > 0:43:12I know nothing at all about women, nothing, not a sausage.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16But is it fair to say you've made a fairly thorough study?
0:43:16 > 0:43:19I've done the best I can under the limited circumstances.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Well, I think you're to be applauded for that.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25- And what conclusions can you offer us?- None.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28- Really?- Not a sausage.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31When you are beginning the business,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34and you are in number seven dressing room at the
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Theatre Royal Bristol, and you're looking at this face,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40and you learn from a much older actor, and you learn it early
0:43:40 > 0:43:46or you learn it never, THAT, that you're looking at, is the meat.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51It's got nothing to do with whether it's good looking or bad
0:43:51 > 0:43:53looking or big or little or whatever,
0:43:53 > 0:43:56nothing. That's what you work with.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00Venus would be O'Toole's final leading man role.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04In 2012, he released a statement announcing his retirement
0:44:04 > 0:44:08from acting, saying he bid the profession,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12"A dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell."
0:44:12 > 0:44:18When he died in 2013, aged 81, the eulogies spoke of him
0:44:18 > 0:44:21as one of cinema's last great hell-raisers,
0:44:21 > 0:44:28a mesmerising maverick and a true legend, on screen and off.