0:00:02 > 0:00:04I'm the First Lieutenant around here and don't you forget it.
0:00:04 > 0:00:08Stanley Baker was British cinema's original tough guy.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10How really tough are you?
0:00:10 > 0:00:12Well, I don't know how tough I am.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16All I can say is I was born and bred in the Rhondda Valley
0:00:16 > 0:00:18and as people there know, you've got to be tough to live there.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22He was always the hard man cos he looked hard. But he was a very soft man, really.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24How old are you?
0:00:26 > 0:00:27Guess.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31Old enough to know what you're doing
0:00:31 > 0:00:34and young enough to jump.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38He had that rare thing - he filled the screen.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41You look at him when he's on.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45The films he made earned him a place in cinema history.
0:00:45 > 0:00:46Fire! GUNFIRE
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Fire!
0:00:48 > 0:00:49Fire!
0:00:51 > 0:00:55But his true greatness lay in his integrity as a man.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59If I say I'm going down that pit, it'll take more than him to stop me.
0:01:18 > 0:01:23Stanley Baker was born in 1928 in Ferndale,
0:01:23 > 0:01:26a close-knit town nestled in a curve of the Rhondda Fach.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33Everything that happened to Stanley stemmed from that amazing background
0:01:33 > 0:01:34in Ferndale.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36They were very poor.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39So he always used to laugh and say, "I only had one place to go,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41"that was up. I couldn't have gone down any further."
0:01:44 > 0:01:47Stanley's father, Jack Baker, was a miner
0:01:47 > 0:01:49who'd lost a leg in an accident down the pit.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Since he could no longer work underground,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56he and his family had to do whatever they could to bring in money.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59They seemed to get us through it.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03I mean, my mother, she... she'd make toffee apples,
0:02:03 > 0:02:05she'd make slab toffee...
0:02:05 > 0:02:08oh, small beer she used to make
0:02:08 > 0:02:11and sell it on a Sunday morning.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13I used to go to his house with his mother and father
0:02:13 > 0:02:16for different commodities, such as haircuts.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19They were very renowned within the street
0:02:19 > 0:02:21for making great faggots and peas.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25You went into the back door. "Have you faggots and peas?"
0:02:25 > 0:02:26And you'd pay his father
0:02:26 > 0:02:29threepence, and you went out through the front door
0:02:29 > 0:02:31and back home then and took 'em back home.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Your mother would send you for them.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35That was every week.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Because they were hard days, there's no half and half about it.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41In spite of the fact that we didn't have a lot of food
0:02:41 > 0:02:43and very little money,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46I look on my childhood as one full of advantages.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Because of my family, basically, and because of the people
0:02:49 > 0:02:53that surrounded us at that time. Immensely strong communal feeling.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55People worked towards one end
0:02:55 > 0:02:59and that end at that time, unfortunately,
0:02:59 > 0:03:00was not to die of hunger.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Stanley, or Spud as he was known to his mates,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08was an amateur boxer and full-time tearaway.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10He seemed to be headed in only one direction.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14I hated school, I hated sitting in a classroom being taught things.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18I was clearly destined to go into the coal pit until I went
0:03:18 > 0:03:21to a school in Ferndale, North Road School,
0:03:21 > 0:03:26and met a man called Glyn Morse who had other ideas about my life.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Glyn Morse was the art teacher at Ferndale Secondary School.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33In his spare time, he was a playwright
0:03:33 > 0:03:35who ran the local amateur dramatics society.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39He recognised in Baker something no-one else had seen
0:03:39 > 0:03:42and started coaching him as an actor.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45I couldn't wait to get to school in the morning because this man
0:03:45 > 0:03:49was teaching me something that meant something to me at 11.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Glyn Morse wrote parts for Stanley in the plays
0:03:54 > 0:03:56that he staged in local church halls.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01He'd be in his bedroom with a mirror in front of him.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03And this script.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07And I used to watch him do this and I'd think, "Marvellous."
0:04:07 > 0:04:09He filled the stage when he got on it.
0:04:09 > 0:04:10He was Stanley Baker.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13He was Spud. He was the king of the kids.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19At the age of 14, Stanley got a chance to show off his talents
0:04:19 > 0:04:21to an audience beyond Ferndale.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Film director Sergei Nolbandov
0:04:25 > 0:04:28came to the Rhondda looking for locations for his next movie,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30the propaganda film, Undercover.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33On a tip-off from a talent scout,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36he came to see Stanley in the school play.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41He was so impressed with what he saw that he gave him a role in the film.
0:04:42 > 0:04:43You.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Yes, sir.
0:04:45 > 0:04:46Answer me, where is she?
0:04:46 > 0:04:49- She...- Don't answer, don't answer! - Silence!
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Don't tell the Germans anything, anyone who answers is a traitor.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56I see.
0:04:57 > 0:04:58A national hero.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01I'm going to teach you a lesson.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06I'm going to plant a picture in your mind you'll carry all your life.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10- You come with me. - SHOUTING FROM OUTSIDE
0:05:11 > 0:05:12You six, outside.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16FROM OUTSIDE: Fire!
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Firing party on parade, sir.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27Proceed.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29Prepare to fire!
0:05:31 > 0:05:33Fire! GUNFIRE
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Fire! GUNFIRE
0:05:43 > 0:05:45On the train journey home from filming,
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Glyn Morse told the young lad, "Stanley, you're not going to be a miner, you're an actor."
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Stanley took his earnings straight home to his mum.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55We heard him shouting,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57"Get your apron on!"
0:05:58 > 0:06:01Came down the back steps, we had a lot of back steps
0:06:01 > 0:06:04coming down into the house, you've probably seen that house.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07And he said, "Open up your apron."
0:06:07 > 0:06:10He showered all his notes into her apron.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15A year later, Stanley got his first professional stage role
0:06:15 > 0:06:19in a West End production of Emlyn William's play, The Druid's Rest.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22He was understudying a young actor
0:06:22 > 0:06:24from Port Talbot called Richard Burton.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Let loose in London, the two Welsh lads had a wild time.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Drinking, fighting, chasing girls
0:06:36 > 0:06:40and taking pot shots with pea shooters at sunbathing actresses.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44I'd never been outside Wales before.
0:06:44 > 0:06:45And we had a hell of a time.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Enjoyed ourselves immensely. We became...
0:06:48 > 0:06:52really close to each other, we both were in the same profession,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54we both knew exactly what we wanted to do at that time.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Within a year, Stanley was acting in the prestigious
0:07:00 > 0:07:01Birmingham Repertory Company.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05It was the best possible training that any actor
0:07:05 > 0:07:09in the world could have, because we did 12 plays per year,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11it was monthly, which was marvellous,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13you had a month to rehearse and a month to play.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18And it was an education I had that I didn't have at school.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21I have learned life through the theatre.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Stanley's apprenticeship was interrupted
0:07:24 > 0:07:27when he was called up for national service.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32When he was discharged two and a half years later,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35he had to start all over again as a jobbing actor.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41He returned to London in search of work but he found much more there.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44I was in a play.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46I was waiting to go down to do the matinee.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49Suddenly I saw two beautiful young men
0:07:49 > 0:07:51walking across from the market.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53I turned round and said to another actress
0:07:53 > 0:07:57who was coming in, "Who's that?" She said, "That's Richard Burton."
0:07:57 > 0:07:59I said, "No, not him. The tall one. The beautiful one."
0:07:59 > 0:08:02She said, "That's Stanley Baker."
0:08:02 > 0:08:04So we came across and we met.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07And we arranged to meet in the pub
0:08:07 > 0:08:12just immediately across the road from the stage door after the performance.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16I went down to my dressing room and I thought, "I've got to meet him again."
0:08:16 > 0:08:18There was a knock on the door. And there he was.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22And he said, "I'll see you tonight."
0:08:22 > 0:08:23And I thought, "Got him."
0:08:24 > 0:08:29And I was sharing a dressing room with an actress called Jean Sinclair.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34She said, "You don't want to go out with him, Ellen, you don't want to be one of a Baker's dozen."
0:08:34 > 0:08:36I said, "I do, I do." SHE LAUGHS
0:08:36 > 0:08:41And that was it, really. We got engaged a week later.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43It was very instant.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46It was all happening to Stanley.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49His first big success came on stage that year
0:08:49 > 0:08:52in the anti-war play A Sleep Of Prisoners
0:08:52 > 0:08:54in which he played a captured soldier.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58One midnight performance, there was Dame Edith Evans,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Dame Sybil Thorndike, the Oliviers,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03the Redgraves, Orson Welles...
0:09:03 > 0:09:06I mean, it went on and on and on. All sitting there in the front
0:09:06 > 0:09:08watching these four actors.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Then they would have dinner afterwards with Christopher Fry
0:09:12 > 0:09:14and ask about this new young boy.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18Through Ellen, Stanley heard of a forthcoming film
0:09:18 > 0:09:20called The Cruel Sea.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22Having read the book,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25he set his sights on the part Lieutenant Bennett.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28It wasn't a star part in the film.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32But to me reading the book, it was the best part of the film.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Whoever played that part, Stanley Baker or Joe Snooks...
0:09:37 > 0:09:40..if they were ready for it, it would help to make them a star.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44In the film, Bennett is the ship's bully.
0:09:44 > 0:09:45Carlson!
0:09:46 > 0:09:48- Sir.- This man is smoking during working hours.- Yes, sir.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51- Not quite in proper routine yet, sir.- Makes no difference.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56- No smoking except during stand easy. Understood?- Aye, aye, sir.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00There was a scene where he had to tell me off, as Bennett.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03He used to scare the hell out of me. "No, no, don't...!"
0:10:03 > 0:10:06I'd jump. I mean, he had this terrific power.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08So, you've been round the ship.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11How many fire hose points are there?
0:10:11 > 0:10:1214.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Very smart. What sort of gun have we got?
0:10:18 > 0:10:20- Four inch.- Four inch what?
0:10:20 > 0:10:24- Breach-loading, quick firing, mark four, mark six, fixed ammunition?- I don't know.
0:10:24 > 0:10:25Find out.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28I'll ask you the next time I see you.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33- Both of you, get over to the dock office and start mustering the confidential books.- Yes. Sir.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35I'm the First Lieutenant around here.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38And don't you forget it.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44'The British actors in them days were all a bit effeminate, weren't they?'
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Stanley was the first one who looked like a villain
0:10:47 > 0:10:52or could handle himself and he was masculine on the screen.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54It was gentlemen's cinema.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57All these guys wore sports coat and smoked pipes
0:10:57 > 0:10:59and spoke impeccably and had been
0:10:59 > 0:11:02to public schools and been officers in the forces.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06They were all so relaxed, you used to go to sleep watching them in the '50s.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10Then, suddenly, this angry young man from the Rhondda burst onto the scene.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13The Cruel Sea was Baker's big break.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16In the wake of its success, he was signed by legendary
0:11:16 > 0:11:18film producer Alexander Korda.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21In the space of just four years,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Stanley made 11 films.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28He just bounced from film to film. He didn't have time to catch a breath.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30It was very exhilarating.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32We went to see one of his films.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34It was The Good Die Young.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37There was a woman sitting next to my mother.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40As soon as Stanley came on the screen,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43she said to this woman, "That's my son."
0:11:44 > 0:11:46I said, "She didn't believe you."
0:11:46 > 0:11:49I said, "She thinks you're crackers."
0:11:49 > 0:11:52She said, "I don't care whether she believe me or not."
0:11:52 > 0:11:55She was quite right.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57You're bound to get excited
0:11:57 > 0:11:59when you're the mother of a boy like that.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Most of his early appearances were in supporting roles,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07but in 1956, Stanley got a chance to play the lead
0:12:07 > 0:12:09in the BBC production of Jane Eyre.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11Yes.
0:12:11 > 0:12:12Adele is very fond of you.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15When you go away from Thornfield for months at a time...
0:12:15 > 0:12:19If you knew what it cost me to be here now. I hate Thornfield!
0:12:19 > 0:12:22I hate everything about it.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Its gardens, its grounds, its stairs, its corridors.
0:12:24 > 0:12:25Sorry.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31I am sorry.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40But this time, it's something I can't explain.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44What I've told you is not...
0:12:45 > 0:12:47There's something much worse.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50Something you don't know.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57But that same year, Stanley's career suffered a setback,
0:12:57 > 0:12:59with the death of Alexander Korda.
0:13:00 > 0:13:01When he died,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Stanley and everyone else was sold piecemeal to Rank.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07You woke up, you weren't even told and you were with Rank.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09He found that very difficult.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13The regime at Rank's studios
0:13:13 > 0:13:16was very different to that of the benevolent Korda.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20Stanley had little control over the roles he was given.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22With his dark brooding features,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25he found himself continually cast as a villain.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30The Evening Standard described his face as "the face Britons hate."
0:13:32 > 0:13:34They only saw him as a villain.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36They couldn't see him as a leading man
0:13:36 > 0:13:39and a romantic interest. They just couldn't.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43When Rank made the 1957 film Hell Drivers,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46they wanted Stanley to play a minor role once again.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50He threatened to walk off the picture if they didn't give him the lead.
0:13:51 > 0:13:52'Hell Drivers.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55'Hurtling down the one-way street to destruction.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59'Starring Stanley Baker as Tom.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01'Using another man's name.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05'But forced by his own past into the vicious circle
0:14:05 > 0:14:06'of the Hell Drivers.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08'Living so close to death
0:14:08 > 0:14:10'that any love is reckless,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12'any hatred...fatal.'
0:14:17 > 0:14:20The film was made by American director Cy Endfield
0:14:20 > 0:14:24who'd been blacklisted in the States for his left-wing views.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26In it, Stanley plays a truck driver
0:14:26 > 0:14:28fighting a corrupt haulage racket.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30What do you know about it?
0:14:31 > 0:14:33You, I'm talking to you.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36I'm a...not talking to the yellow belly.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39If he wants to find out why his pay was stopped, ask Ed.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41- Ed?- Yeah.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46- Who put this on Tom? - You mean on yellow belly?
0:14:47 > 0:14:48Me.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51I'm the road foreman.
0:14:52 > 0:14:53Yeah.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56And that's not all you are.
0:14:58 > 0:14:59What else am I?
0:15:00 > 0:15:02You're scum.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09He had this hard edge, this tough, tough edge.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11On film, this is what counts,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14reflection of one's personality, this is what comes through.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18The film established Stanley as a tough British hero,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21a home-grown counterpart to American stars like Humphrey Bogart
0:15:21 > 0:15:23and Robert Mitchum.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27Having proved that he could cut it as a leading man,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Stanley now took a gamble
0:15:29 > 0:15:32and bought his way out of his contract with Rank.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37It cost him £12,000, a significant sum in those days.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40He borrowed the money from his agent,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43bought himself out and then was able to pay it back within six months.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47Stanley's gamble paid off
0:15:47 > 0:15:50with the success of films such as The Guns of Navarone.
0:15:51 > 0:15:52As a free agent,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56he was now able to choose roles that stretched him as an actor.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58He produced some of his best work
0:15:58 > 0:16:00with Hell Drivers' director Cy Endfield
0:16:00 > 0:16:04and another blacklisted American Joseph Losey.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08You can't stress how important these two directors were,
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Endfield and Losey.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15People who were already in their American work starting to look at themes of social tension,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18class jealousy and so on and wanted to do the same thing in Britain,
0:16:18 > 0:16:21and were looking for actors to embody that
0:16:21 > 0:16:24and Stanley Baker was perfect for them.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28During that early period of my film career,
0:16:28 > 0:16:32I looked at it as a sort of flippant thing, film.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Films were easy things to do and a lot of money attached to them.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40I met this man who taught me about films and film-making
0:16:40 > 0:16:44and taught me...what films really mean.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Joseph Losey broadened Stanley's horizons
0:16:48 > 0:16:51and nurtured in him an ambition to be more than an actor.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55Jo completely involved you, unlike other directors,
0:16:55 > 0:16:57you know, you'd turn up and do the job and go.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00But he wanted you to be involved in every aspect of film-making
0:17:00 > 0:17:03That's really why Stanley became a producer.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Stanley had found a script he was desperate to produce.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09But no-one wanted to back him.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12I would go into an office of someone in Columbia
0:17:12 > 0:17:14or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and they'd say,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17"Fine, we know you as an actor, we'll employ you as an actor,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20"but what makes you think you're a producer?
0:17:20 > 0:17:23"We like the subject.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25"Why don't WE produce it?"
0:17:25 > 0:17:27I wouldn't let them.
0:17:27 > 0:17:33Stanley got the break he needed when he met maverick Hollywood producer Joseph E Levine.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Levine didn't bother reading the script.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38He backed the movie on the strength of its title.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49For his first film as a producer,
0:17:49 > 0:17:51Stanley had chosen an epic war story.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53Shot on location in South Africa
0:17:53 > 0:17:56with a cast of 4,000 Zulu tribesmen,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59none of whom had ever seen a film before.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02We went up to Zululand.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06And they had this big feast of roast ox and what-have-you
0:18:06 > 0:18:09to meet people, it was very, very moving.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12It was very funny.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15I used to give Stanley the rifle, the blank rifle.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17And I would come rushing at Stanley with a spear
0:18:17 > 0:18:21and he'd fire the blank, and I'd go up in the air...
0:18:21 > 0:18:23a very dramatic death scene.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27And all the Zulu, "Ooh! Jesus! What? He's dead."
0:18:28 > 0:18:30And I'd stand up and, "Whoa!"
0:18:30 > 0:18:32They'd all burst out laughing.
0:18:32 > 0:18:39Over the course of the production, Stanley developed a close friendship with Zulu leader Chief Buthelezi.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42He was a very humble person.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44He was a caring person.
0:18:44 > 0:18:45That, really...
0:18:45 > 0:18:49You couldn't help just loving him purely from the point of view of...
0:18:49 > 0:18:54at the time, you might say in South Africa racism was at its height.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57So, I mean, the human approach
0:18:57 > 0:19:00which he had, was something that was not common.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05As a first-time producer out on location,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07Stanley was in at the deep end.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11We had the most appalling weather when we first got there.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16So we had to have witch doctors, all sorts of things,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18to pray that the rain would stop.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21We were ten days behind after two weeks.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Stanley struggled to bring the production back on track
0:19:25 > 0:19:30while simultaneously coping with a demanding role as an actor.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35He played Lieutenant John Chard, one of the two commanding officers at Rorke's Drift.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38For the other lead role, that of Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead,
0:19:38 > 0:19:43he'd taken a chance on a young newcomer called Michael Caine.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46But the film's backers had doubts about him.
0:19:46 > 0:19:52I saw a cable saying, "Actor playing Bromhead doesn't know what to do with hands.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55"Suggest replacement."
0:19:55 > 0:19:56So I thought, "Oh...!"
0:19:56 > 0:19:59So I walked around for a couple of days,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01every time I saw Stanley I was waiting for him to say,
0:20:01 > 0:20:02"Right, Michael, that's it."
0:20:02 > 0:20:06And one day he noticed, and said, "What's the matter with you?"
0:20:06 > 0:20:09So I said, "I'm waiting to be fired, Stanley."
0:20:09 > 0:20:12He said, "What do you mean, fired?
0:20:12 > 0:20:15"Who's the producer of this film?" I said, "You are, Stan."
0:20:15 > 0:20:17He said, "Have I said anything to you?"
0:20:17 > 0:20:21I said no. "Get on with your bloody job then." That was the end of it.
0:20:25 > 0:20:26Fire!
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Do it now.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32HE PLAYS FANFARE
0:20:36 > 0:20:37Fire!
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Firing by ranks. Front rank, fire!
0:20:42 > 0:20:43GUNSHOTS BOOM
0:20:43 > 0:20:44Fire!
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Third rank, fire!
0:20:47 > 0:20:49Second rank, fire!
0:20:49 > 0:20:51Third rank, fire!
0:20:51 > 0:20:53Fire!
0:20:53 > 0:20:54Fire!
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Cease firing!
0:21:03 > 0:21:06With its emphasis on the human cost of combat,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Zulu was a complex and intelligent war movie.
0:21:12 > 0:21:18'That script, for him, was really... I think the script that he always wanted to do.'
0:21:18 > 0:21:24Not because it gave him another part alongside, if you like, the other star,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28it was really about anti-violence and anti-war.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30They approached the subject with great respect.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35And I think the aim was to portray the bravery of both sides, you know.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40On its release, Zulu broke box office records.
0:21:41 > 0:21:4340 years on, it remains a classic.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48My favourite story is of being on the terraces at Ninian Park watching Cardiff City play once,
0:21:48 > 0:21:52and at half time a group of Cardiff City supporters in front of me began
0:21:52 > 0:21:55to debate what their favourite film ever was,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57and as a film historian I couldn't believe this,
0:21:57 > 0:21:59I had my notepad ready to take notes!
0:21:59 > 0:22:05And all six or seven of them agreed without any doubt that Zulu was the best film they'd ever seen.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07I've made something like 60-odd films.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11None of them has affected me in the way this particular film has.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13Not because of its success,
0:22:13 > 0:22:18not because of its...critical and financial success,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21but because I was terribly involved with it,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25before I made it, during the time I made it, and I'm still involved with it.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27Flushed with the success of Zulu,
0:22:27 > 0:22:32Stanley set up Oakhurst Productions with partners Bob Porter and Michael Deeley
0:22:32 > 0:22:34to make more films.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40One of the first was Robbery, based on the real-life story of the great train robbers.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44'But is there a danger that a picture about a magnificent
0:22:44 > 0:22:46'and gigantic and adventurous crime
0:22:46 > 0:22:49'might be guilty of ennobling both the crime
0:22:49 > 0:22:51'and the hoodlums who planned it?
0:22:51 > 0:22:53'Stanley Baker is the co-producer of the film,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56'and he's starring in it as leader of the gang.'
0:22:56 > 0:23:00Talking about gangsters and villains, as we are in this film,
0:23:00 > 0:23:08compare what they've got away with, in our film, which is somewhere in the region of £3 million,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10and look at modern business, big business, you know,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15think of the law-breaking, the criminality that goes on there!
0:23:15 > 0:23:18Though Stanley was now a businessman himself,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22he still retained the political ideals of his upbringing.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24I'm a dedicated socialist, first of all,
0:23:24 > 0:23:29I suppose because...I had to be at the very beginning, because I was brought up that way.
0:23:29 > 0:23:35I saw the things that happened to...certainly to my family,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37and to the people around me.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41That sort of existence must stay in your mind.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Stanley used his professional expertise
0:23:44 > 0:23:48to advise Labour prime minister Harold Wilson on his media appearances.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53He could see a lot that wasn't right with the Party Political Broadcasts,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57the television Party Political Broadcasts, and he wanted to do those.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59'And he did those.'
0:23:59 > 0:24:03'This is the way the prime minister and Mary Wilson have been greeted in every part of Britain.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07'You've seen it on television every day - enthusiasm and warmth.'
0:24:10 > 0:24:14Stanley got an even warmer welcome when he returned home
0:24:14 > 0:24:17for the unveiling of a plaque outside his old house.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19CHEERING
0:24:19 > 0:24:22Stanley, it's a fantastic welcome, how do you feel now?
0:24:22 > 0:24:23Well, I'm just overwhelmed, I really am,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26emotionally and in every other way.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30It's an extraordinary thing to come back to the place you were born
0:24:30 > 0:24:32and this sort of honour to happen to you.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Did you ever expect, when you left this house for London, you'd
0:24:35 > 0:24:37- come back in glory like this? - Good God, no.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40When he knew he was coming to Ferndale,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43he'd get on the telephone to me and say,
0:24:43 > 0:24:47"Can you make it? I'm coming down, I'm going to Ferndale,"
0:24:47 > 0:24:50he'd say, "D'you know, Mur, do you know, I'm just as excited
0:24:50 > 0:24:55"as we used to be when we were going to Barry for a day with the chapel."
0:24:55 > 0:24:57He said, "That's how I'm feeling. I won't sleep!"
0:24:57 > 0:25:01The boy from Ferndale was now a successful film producer.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03He had a seat on the board of HTV,
0:25:03 > 0:25:07and a luxury penthouse overlooking the Houses of Parliament.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09For his next project,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13he set his sights on nothing less than the salvation of the British film industry.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17When Shepperton Studios came up for sale,
0:25:17 > 0:25:19he and his business partners bought it.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22But in 1974 the stock market collapsed,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26and the value of their company was wiped out.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28He was left holding the baby.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32I think it was somewhere in the region of £600,000 - £700,000.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38Now, this is equivalent today, I suppose, of £2 - 3 million. Maybe more.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40That basically gave him two options.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44One was to go into liquidation
0:25:44 > 0:25:45as Oakhurst Productions,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48and the other was to face it out.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54My father had enormous pride, and he put himself and his soul into this,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57so, in the end of the day, he stood for it.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02Determined to honour his debts, Stanley worked furiously.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08He returned to television, and in 1976 went back to his roots
0:26:08 > 0:26:12with his appearance in the BBC production of How Green Was My Valley.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15I've got the strength there, Beth, to go back into the face.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20And here - a bit rusty after six years, but...
0:26:22 > 0:26:23It's my wind that worries me though.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26I think I've got a bit of dust sometimes.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29Ahh, no, it's no good fooling myself.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33A week on that face would finish me.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Well, then.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38The Lord be praised to have shut down that old black hole
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and brought you up into the fresh air while you can still breathe it.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Within weeks of the programme being televised,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48Stanley was diagnosed with lung cancer.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Obviously Ellen was very upset,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56and every so often she would look very thoughtful
0:26:56 > 0:26:59and her eyes would mist over, and he would see her and say,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01"Hey, Ellen, stop that."
0:27:01 > 0:27:05He just didn't want any kind of, um...
0:27:05 > 0:27:07He said, "Look, I've had a wonderful life.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10"I've done everything I want to do, I've provided for my family,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13"I've seen and done more things than I could have ever imagined
0:27:13 > 0:27:16"I would have done when I was a boy."
0:27:16 > 0:27:21And he said, "I'm willing to accept this. If that's it, that's it."
0:27:27 > 0:27:31Stanley underwent treatment, but the cancer had already spread too far.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38I was showing my distress, and...
0:27:38 > 0:27:39Stanley said, "Shut up."
0:27:42 > 0:27:45You know. He just said, "Stop that."
0:27:47 > 0:27:50And, I tell you, he had all the guts in the world.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56Stanley knew what was happening. When the pain went to the bones
0:27:56 > 0:27:59and he did what he was told not to, he went swimming.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04And he wanted... I guess he wanted to do it his way.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08And he did. It was all over in three days.
0:28:13 > 0:28:19Stanley Baker died on 28th June 1976.
0:28:19 > 0:28:20He was 48.
0:28:22 > 0:28:262,000 people gathered on the hillside above Ferndale for the scattering of the ashes.
0:28:26 > 0:28:32Among the many floral tributes was one from Zulu leader, Chief Buthelezi.
0:28:34 > 0:28:40It simply described Stanley as, "The most decent white man I have ever met."
0:28:47 > 0:28:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:50 > 0:28:53E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk