0:00:02 > 0:00:07Hugh Griffith was one of the finest character actors of his generation.
0:00:07 > 0:00:12His striking features, his roguish humour, and sheer talent
0:00:12 > 0:00:16won him the greatest prize in his profession.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19I don't put on an act.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24That was me transformed into somebody else.
0:00:24 > 0:00:30But the passionate nature that made him so captivating on screen would ultimately be his undoing.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50Hugh Emrys Griffith was born
0:00:50 > 0:00:57in the quiet Welsh-speaking hamlet of Marianglas in Anglesey in 1912.
0:00:57 > 0:01:03His mother, Mary, had already been married twice to sea captains who had both drowned.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Hugh's father was her third husband, William Griffiths,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10known locally as "Will of all voices"
0:01:10 > 0:01:14for his talents as an impressionist.
0:01:15 > 0:01:22Hugh recalled his childhood in Marianglas in the notes for his unfinished memoir.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25"I remember a glorious August day
0:01:25 > 0:01:32"when we children were playing around the trees and large shrubs in the garden
0:01:32 > 0:01:34"of Angorfa, where I was born.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39"My mother and father were lounging on the large stone steps.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44"You couldn't have imagined a more perfect summer's day."
0:01:44 > 0:01:46As a very young child,
0:01:46 > 0:01:52Hugh showed he was a good mimic,
0:01:52 > 0:01:54and he was a little mischief.
0:01:54 > 0:02:01We both found ourselves in detention, practically every day.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06I can't imagine why, because we never did anything wrong,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10there must have been a vendetta against us, I think.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15When we'd been in detention for about three minutes,
0:02:15 > 0:02:22Hugh would turn around to me and whisper, "Watch out, I'm going to have a fit."
0:02:23 > 0:02:27He'd act very agitated.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32And eventually put his head down on the desk,
0:02:32 > 0:02:38and finally fall flat on the floor in a faint.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And the poor teacher,
0:02:41 > 0:02:48faced with this other Oscar-winning performance,
0:02:48 > 0:02:54would say to me, "Williams, pick him up and take him home."
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Which I did, and we were both free, of course.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01And our detention only lasted about four minutes.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08It was at the village hall, known as the British School,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12that Hugh first saw professional actors perform.
0:03:13 > 0:03:20These were touring players from South Wales who put on productions like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
0:03:20 > 0:03:21On the night of the show,
0:03:21 > 0:03:26Hugh was paid a penny to stay backstage and unroll the backcloth.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32He made his own stage debut in the chapel pantomime, playing the back end of a cow.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Hugh was a bright lad, but at school there was one subject he struggled with.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44My father got fed up with me failing English all the time,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47so I couldn't get into the University of Wales,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49having failed English.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53So I got into the bank.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55I never passed an exam in English.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02At the age of 17, Hugh started work at the National Provincial Bank.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07He spent the next nine years as a bank clerk, first in North Wales, then in London.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13A grounding in banking comes in very useful
0:04:13 > 0:04:16for an actor.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19But I'm not expected to know anything,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22actors are not expected to know anything about finance
0:04:22 > 0:04:30and contracts and things like that, but I keep an eye on myself.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34By day, Hugh was a clerk at the bank's head office in Bishopsgate,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38but in the evenings, he acted in amateur productions.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43I joined the St Pancras People's Theatre,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45which was a converted chapel
0:04:47 > 0:04:53way up towards Camden Town, and we did one play a week.
0:04:53 > 0:04:59From there I got to know about the scholarship to go to the Academy.
0:05:02 > 0:05:08At the age of 26, Hugh applied for a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
0:05:08 > 0:05:15Competition was fierce, but Hugh beat 300 other applicants to win the Leverhulme scholarship.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20My mother and elder brother naturally
0:05:20 > 0:05:22were rather worried
0:05:22 > 0:05:29because he was leaving a safe job to...to join RADA.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Everybody said you would be
0:05:31 > 0:05:36earning 1,000 a year in the bank before you earn it on the stage.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38That remains to be seen.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Even the general manager of the bank called me in
0:05:41 > 0:05:44the day I gave in my resignation.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47He said, "You know I can't accept this.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49"You've got to give six months' notice."
0:05:49 > 0:05:53I said, "That's a pity, I'm starting on Monday at the academy."
0:05:55 > 0:06:00During his year at RADA, Hugh won the coveted Bancroft Gold Medal
0:06:00 > 0:06:05for his role as Napoleon in a play by George Bernard Shaw.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09The playwright himself praised Hugh's performance.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14The critic for the Times called him an imaginative and powerful actor.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19After graduation, Hugh did some early work for television.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22I did television
0:06:22 > 0:06:26before the war in Alexandra Palace.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30The lights were so strong everybody's clothes were bleached.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35This shirt would be white by the time we'd finished,
0:06:35 > 0:06:37the lamps were so strong.
0:06:41 > 0:06:48It was now 1939 and world events were about to make a decisive impact on Hugh's career.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51We shall fight on beaches,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53landing ramps,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56in fields, in streets,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58and on the hills.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02I struggled with my conscience.
0:07:02 > 0:07:09Should, or should I not, fight in some way for England, Wales, or Britain?
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Why fight for anything?
0:07:12 > 0:07:16In the end, Hugh enlisted with the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
0:07:16 > 0:07:23Before he was posted abroad, he married Flora Britton, an actress he'd met at RADA.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27Hugh was keen to start a family, but it wasn't to be.
0:07:27 > 0:07:34My wife flatly refused to conceive, whereas the agreed object of the wedding was for me to leave
0:07:34 > 0:07:42something to remember me by, believing sincerely as I did that I'd never come back alive.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Hugh was posted to India.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53He reached the rank of captain and, at one point, found himself in charge of the garrison
0:07:53 > 0:07:59where the sole prisoner was Pandit Nehru, who would one day become the country's first prime minister.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06Hugh survived the war, but it proved a serious setback to his career.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11As soon as I started professionally, there were six-and-a-half years of war.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15I was in India and Burma, places like that,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18and there was no thought of acting.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22I missed the best years of my life at that time,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26otherwise I'd have been at the Old Vic or somewhere.
0:08:29 > 0:08:35When Hugh returned home after four years of separation from his wife, she left him.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39Now, aged 34, and struggling to restart his career,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43he bumped into another actress at the Wyndham Theatre.
0:08:43 > 0:08:50She was behind some sort of bar with a lot of paper sheets on the counter, busily arranging papers,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52in order that chaps like myself
0:08:52 > 0:08:57could at least rehearse something together, little scenes out of known plays.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02And then perform them in front of some well-chosen theatrical agents
0:09:02 > 0:09:06who might, or might not, get us back into the business.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Seeing her properly alone and coming forward
0:09:09 > 0:09:15to me from behind that counter, I knew I'd fallen in love with her.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20Her name was Gunde Margaret Beatrice.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23One hell of a mouthful to say at the wedding.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30Hugh and Gunde were married in 1947.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35By now, Hugh was beginning to make a name for himself in the theatre.
0:09:35 > 0:09:42During a season at Stratford, he played Mephistopheles, opposite Richard Harris's Dr Faustus.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47He also appeared as King Lear in the Swansea Festival.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51In 1949, his film career hit its stride
0:09:51 > 0:09:56when he appeared in Emlyn Williams' film, The Last Days Of Dolwyn.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02Hugh played a minister who opposes a scheme to flood the village of Dolwyn.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05There are two ways of telling the truth.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Nobody knows that better than a man who wears his collar back to front.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12Mr Davies has offered you money, homes and work, that is true.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16But, it is also true, my friends,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20that your consent is being sought for the village of Dolwyn to be drowned.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23You are free to choose.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26The drowning will be fulfilled by the waters crawling with
0:10:26 > 0:10:31the feet of 1,000 serpents down the road you have just walked,
0:10:31 > 0:10:36under the doors, into the houses, in the windows, up the stairs,
0:10:36 > 0:10:42over the roofs, over the nests of birds into the chimneys, over the chimneys.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Dolwyn will be drowned.
0:10:46 > 0:10:53That same year, Hugh made the first of many appearances as a comic character actor for Ealing Studios.
0:10:53 > 0:10:59In A Run For Your Money, he played a Welsh harpist down on his luck in London.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01What's wrong with my nose, little man?
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Nothing's wrong. It's just appropriate.
0:11:03 > 0:11:09This nose can smell the primrose in the spring or a mutton-chop cooking
0:11:09 > 0:11:12or the well-brushed hair of children in the park.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16It is filled with the savours of innocence and memory.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19The moss under the waterfalls,
0:11:19 > 0:11:24a little girl under the haystack, the cowslips in the railway cutting.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30It can smell out the corruption in a den of hypocrites, scoundrels
0:11:30 > 0:11:32and dead souls.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Hugh provided great comic value on screen,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44but on stage, he remained a serious actor.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49In 1951 he returned to Stratford to play Owain Glyndwr, opposite Richard Burton.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54He and Burton shared a house together.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57On weekends it was the scene of riotous parties
0:11:57 > 0:12:02attended by Charles Laughton, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Within a couple of years, Hugh had a country house of his own
0:12:08 > 0:12:14near Stratford, paid for by his increasingly frequent work in film and TV.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19I joined your father as a mathematical genius.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22That's not boasting. I was, once.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24A calculating boy.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27With these machines, they beat me.
0:12:27 > 0:12:28I pressed buttons.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Why did you join him?
0:12:31 > 0:12:36A kind of duty, I suppose, the mathematical kind.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41The idea of making roads in space for rockets to travel,
0:12:41 > 0:12:46four-dimensional roads, curved with relativity, metal with best-quality continuum.
0:12:49 > 0:12:56In 1957, Hugh landed a major part in a Broadway production, Look Homeward, Angel.
0:12:56 > 0:13:03During the run of the play, Richard Burton was also in New York, starring in Time Remembered.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07We went to see Richard in the afternoon.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12There he was, an 18th century figure, with a little badge.
0:13:12 > 0:13:18When we looked, we saw what the badge was - it was a daffodil.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21It was St David's Day and he'd put it on.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24We went to see Hugh in the evening.
0:13:24 > 0:13:25Then he comes in.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27The eyes blazing.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33I looked in absolute surprise
0:13:33 > 0:13:36at what he had on his lapel.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38It was not a little
0:13:38 > 0:13:46badge of a flower, a daffodil, but he had a complete leek.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48Roots and all.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56During the run of Look Homeward, Angel, Hollywood director William Wyler,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00turned up one night and sat in the front row.
0:14:00 > 0:14:07After the show, Wyler asked Hugh if he'd audition for the part of an Arab horse trader in his next movie.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Billed as the greatest spectacle ever filmed,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21this biblical epic was so big it threatened to bankrupt MGM.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26Hugh brought a larger than life comic presence to the role of Sheik Ilderim.
0:14:27 > 0:14:33During filming, he struck up a close friendship with the star of the picture, Charlton Heston.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37The supporting actor is always a tough field.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39There are always a lot of good performances
0:14:39 > 0:14:42and the Sheik was a marvellous role.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46Hugh's performance was extraordinary.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Believe me, my friend, it is a great advantage of many wives.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54- Some day I hope to have one. - One wife?! One god, that I can understand.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57But one wife, that is not civilised.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59It is not generous.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02HE BELCHES
0:15:04 > 0:15:06Was the food not to your liking?
0:15:06 > 0:15:07Indeed.
0:15:13 > 0:15:14HE BELCHES
0:15:14 > 0:15:16Thank you, thank you.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20And take my advice, my friend, buy yourself some wives.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26And now I must say good night to my beauties.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29When they are ready for sleep, they get impatient and jealous.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32They wait to see which one I will embrace.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34I will make my farewells, then.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37No, no, no, stay. Stay and see them.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Hugh's performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57He considered attending the award ceremony in Los Angeles,
0:15:57 > 0:16:02but decided against it on the basis that he probably wouldn't win.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05The morning after the awards he was woken by a phone call
0:16:05 > 0:16:10from his sister, Ellen, telling him he'd won an Oscar.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15The BBC visited Hugh and Gunde at their home in the Cotswolds to take a look at the award.
0:16:18 > 0:16:24Ah, now, there's my wife arriving with a pack of Pembrokeshire corgis.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Here we are, here's my wife.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29- How do you do?- How do you do?
0:16:29 > 0:16:31That's an amazing pack you've got!
0:16:31 > 0:16:33- They're rather fun. - How many have you altogether?
0:16:33 > 0:16:35I think about 30.
0:16:35 > 0:16:36I don't count seriously.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40- What's this one called? - This one is Melys.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42Melys.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44They've all got Welsh names, have they?
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Nearly all Welsh names, yes, from the champion down.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Well, you've got quite a bit of land here, Hugh.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54Yes, there's about an acre of orchard altogether, with the stream running through it.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57- All these fields here, they're yours, too?- Yes.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59There's about 12 and a half acres.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01Doesn't the house look lovely from here?
0:17:01 > 0:17:02It does, doesn't it?
0:17:02 > 0:17:04I must congratulate you on your Oscar.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Thank you, I only got it last night.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08- You'd better come in and see it. - Oh, yes.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Yes.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14Here it is.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18A bit heavy. You ought to have two to make a pair of dumbbells, I think.
0:17:18 > 0:17:24"The Academy's first award to Hugh Griffith in recognition of his performance in Ben Hur."
0:17:24 > 0:17:27I always remember him consciously smoking, you know?
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Always having fags. And every time he lit a fag it was with a match.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35And he'd get a match from the matchbox and then reach out
0:17:35 > 0:17:40and bring in the Oscar for Ben Hur, Best Supporting Actor.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42You know the shape of the Oscar?
0:17:42 > 0:17:47Round the back of the Oscar, the naked man, he'd strike the match up the...
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Light up the fag. A lovely little touch of how to use an Oscar, you know?
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Hugh was now a hot property in Hollywood.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02When MGM decided to make Mutiny On The Bounty,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07the celebrated British director in charge of the project approached Hugh.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13Sir Carol Reed was directing it and he asked me to play the part
0:18:13 > 0:18:18of this man who tells the story that goes right through from beginning to end.
0:18:22 > 0:18:28Filming took place on the idyllic island of Tahiti, but there was soon trouble in paradise.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34The production degenerated into a power struggle between Carol Reed
0:18:34 > 0:18:37and the star of the picture, Marlon Brando.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41Crew and cast split into two camps,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45with British actors Trevor Howard, Richard Harris and Hugh on one side
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and Brando and the other Americans on the other.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Eventually, things came to a head.
0:18:53 > 0:19:00Carol Reed was fired. Then I said, "Well, if he goes, I go."
0:19:00 > 0:19:03And they said, "Well, you can't go."
0:19:03 > 0:19:07"It'll cost you so much if you want to go."
0:19:07 > 0:19:13So I had to carry on with it and go back to Tahiti and find a way to fire myself.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15- And did you?- Yes.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23Hugh dug in his heels and refused to act, claiming he was ill.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27"April 25th, 1961.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31"Dear Mr Griffith, we are taking steps today in England
0:19:31 > 0:19:36"to terminate our contract for your services because of your repeated failure to perform.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39"Very truly yours, JJ Cohn.
0:19:39 > 0:19:40"Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer."
0:19:42 > 0:19:46Having got himself fired from the Bounty, Hugh began to worry
0:19:46 > 0:19:49that he'd damaged his professional reputation in the process.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54His self-confidence as an actor suffered.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01He only regained it following a colourful performance
0:20:01 > 0:20:06as Squire Weston in the film version of Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It earned Hugh his second Oscar nomination.
0:20:11 > 0:20:17When renowned producer Peter Hall staged Henry IV at Stratford in 1964
0:20:17 > 0:20:21there was only one man he wanted to play Falstaff.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25How did your Falstaff compare with, say, that of Orson Welles or any of the others?
0:20:25 > 0:20:27Far better!
0:20:27 > 0:20:29- I thought it might be.- Oh, God!
0:20:29 > 0:20:33He was British,
0:20:33 > 0:20:37but Celtic, because he was always Celtic.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Very sexy, very roguish, rather devilish,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45with a wonderful command of language and a wonderful wit.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50I would certainly rate it among the greatest performances.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53On his night he was superb.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Hugh brought the same earthy charm to Galton and Simpson's 1972 comedy
0:21:03 > 0:21:07about French provincial life, Clochemerle.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Christen it properly!
0:21:13 > 0:21:15Come on, show us you're a true Clochemerlian.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24This is not the sort of thing one can do to order!
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Bravo, sir!
0:21:34 > 0:21:35Wait a minute.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40Hah! He-he!
0:21:40 > 0:21:42It's on its way!
0:21:44 > 0:21:46It's coming.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50Here it is!
0:21:50 > 0:21:55THEY PLAY LA MARSEILLAISE
0:21:58 > 0:22:03But the television drama for which Hugh would be best remembered was a Welsh one.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08In 1977, screenwriter Gwenlyn Parry and producer John Hefin
0:22:08 > 0:22:11had a film they wanted Hugh to appear in.
0:22:11 > 0:22:17They made a pilgrimage to his house, bearing a fine bottle of Armagnac
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and eventually persuaded Hugh to sign up for Grand Slam.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Dewi Pws was one of Hugh's co-stars.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31The first day... He used to call me a name which I can repeat,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33but it was a term of endearment, apparently, so he told me.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37"Come here you little..." This word. I thought, "Yes."
0:22:37 > 0:22:41I had my copy of my script all scrunched up in my back pocket
0:22:41 > 0:22:44and he had this big attache case with locks on it.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49I thought, "Well, he wants to go over the script now." So righto.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52"Come round the corner here." I went round this corner,
0:22:52 > 0:22:56and this is about 7.30am, 7.45am in the morning.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58"Oh, right, he's very professional."
0:22:58 > 0:23:01"Right, sit down." "Yes, Mr Griffith."
0:23:01 > 0:23:05"Right!" He opened this attache case.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07I thought, "Here it comes." And it was full of drink!
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Brandies and mixers and everything.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12"What will you have now, then?"
0:23:12 > 0:23:16And you couldn't say no, so I said, "Whatever you are having, Mr Griffith."
0:23:16 > 0:23:20"We'll make it a large." So at 7.30am in the morning on the first morning we were drinking.
0:23:20 > 0:23:21I was nearly ill!
0:23:21 > 0:23:23Drink, sir?
0:23:23 > 0:23:28Yes, a large brandy and soda, if you please. Medicine.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31I'm sorry, sir, they're all miniatures.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35Well, give me half a dozen minis and a Babycham for my friend here.
0:23:35 > 0:23:41He was dangerous. I mean, there was no question knowing what to do next.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45He was mercurial, unconventional.
0:23:45 > 0:23:51Never would he look as if he'd lost a line or had gone somewhere else.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54He would have that look of total confidence on his face,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57no matter what he'd said or where he'd moved to.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Look! It's the Eiffel Tower!
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Filming on location in Paris on match day,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10the cast and crew were banking on a Welsh victory to give them their big ending.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13But the Wales XV let them down.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18After filming, the cast drowned their sorrows in a hotel bar
0:24:18 > 0:24:21with the help of an old friend from back home.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Brains SA, they'd imported especially,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26and that was going over each other's heads.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Nobody could move, virtually. It's all happening.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33Everybody was a bit down and drunk and on the floor and pot plants and everything. It was a bit of a mess.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36And the Welsh team were over there, I can still see them now,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39about six or seven of them over there, quite morose.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43And Hugh got up, and he wasn't a tall man, either. They all noticed.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46And he was the man, you see? The man who'd got the Oscar.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Everybody turned and there he came.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51He had his big hat on his head and his collar
0:24:51 > 0:24:55and his stick and his cane and he clumped all the way across.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58And he knew everybody was looking at him, he was a clever boy.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Out he came, he came to the middle of the minstrels' gallery
0:25:01 > 0:25:06and he thumped this to get everyone's attention, as if everyone wasn't riveted on him.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09And he pointed his stick towards the team down there.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11And we'd had just lost.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14He looked down and he said, "You're all bastards!"
0:25:14 > 0:25:17And there was a great cheer!
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Everybody collapsed, including the Welsh team, and it lifted the whole night.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24"Oh, we don't care if we lost."
0:25:30 > 0:25:37Grand Slam was a great success, but Hugh was in danger of becoming a caricature of himself.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Having played comical drunks all his life,
0:25:39 > 0:25:45his own reputation as a hard drinker was by now notorious.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50- Oh, no, I don't go chasing after girls and all that sort of thing. - You don't?
0:25:50 > 0:25:55Or a lecherous old man, or a dirty old man as I'm often cast, you know?
0:25:55 > 0:26:01- You've played some lecherous parts. - Oh, yes. I know what it's all about.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04I ought to at my age, oughtn't I?
0:26:04 > 0:26:08And not just the girls, of course, there's the drinking and high living as well.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10Not the boys, no!
0:26:12 > 0:26:15What did you say, the drinking and the high living?
0:26:15 > 0:26:19Well, the drinking to a certain extent, yes. And high living, yes.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23My wife does the cooking, which is excellent, and that's high living.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27I remember when he came on the set, the first few days,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30the rumour went round, "Oh, he's drinking, he's drinking."
0:26:30 > 0:26:34"Get his wife. What are we going to do? He's drinking, he's drinking."
0:26:34 > 0:26:39And the producer walked over to him and said, "Hugh?" "Yes?"
0:26:39 > 0:26:42He said, "I hear you're drinking."
0:26:42 > 0:26:44He looked at him.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48And he said, "If you go on drinking, you'll be replaced."
0:26:48 > 0:26:52And he went, "Righto."
0:26:52 > 0:26:54And he never drink again.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01The films Hugh acted in during his later years
0:27:01 > 0:27:05were an uninspiring assortment of horror movies and sex comedies,
0:27:05 > 0:27:10but he still harboured one great unfulfilled ambition,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13to play King Lear at Stratford.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19I think by the time that he was ready,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23he was actually probably not quite fit enough to do it.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31The part and the time didn't come together at the right moment.
0:27:32 > 0:27:38I think drink softened his mental and physical muscles, and that was sad.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51Hugh Griffith died on 14th May 1980, aged 67.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00On the day of Hugh's death, his old friend Richard Burton paid tribute to him.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03'Not only the greatest actor that Wales has produced,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05'but at his finest,
0:28:05 > 0:28:07'one of the greatest in the world.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11'Unique unto himself, with a stage presence
0:28:11 > 0:28:15'that was almost animal in its intensity.'