0:00:06 > 0:00:09Hugh Cudlipp was the youngest Fleet Street editor
0:00:09 > 0:00:12of his generation and the outstanding one.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15He was born and raised in Cardiff.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18He changed how newspapers communicated.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Who do you go to next?
0:00:20 > 0:00:23Dealing with him was like dealing with a superstar.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28I don't know I've ever encountered a genius really.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32But, if I have, Hugh was a journalistic genius.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38He lived for the thrill of being at the heart of public life.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42With his mentor, Cecil King, Cudlipp transformed tabloid journalism
0:00:42 > 0:00:46in Britain, making the Daily Mirror the world's best selling newspaper.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52He'd embraced a whole spectrum of ideas and people,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55and it was on the side of the people.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Under Cudlipp, the Mirror became a tabloid with a conscience.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03The paper that was both intelligent and sensational.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05I'm in favour of bosoms and bums,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08though I describe them more elegantly.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12But Cudlipp would ultimately have to turn the knife on the man
0:01:12 > 0:01:13who'd become a father figure to him.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34Hugh Kinsman Cudlipp was born in the Cathays areas of Cardiff in 1913.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37He was one of four children, three boys and a girl,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41born to travelling salesman, William Cudlipp, and his wife, Bessie.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47My father was a commercial traveller. He did more travelling than commerce.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52He was a very nice chap and hated sending people the bills.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54My mother, on the other hand,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56I think she was the driving force in the family.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58She was the girl with the great character.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03Cudlipp described his mother as a raconteur who could create
0:02:03 > 0:02:06tragedy or comedy from over-the-wall gossip.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09He inherited her lively interest in the local scene.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14He was always out in the streets talking to the Chinese laundry man,
0:02:14 > 0:02:19talking to the milkman, talking to people about what was current.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23All three Cudlipp brothers would grow up to become Fleet Street editors.
0:02:23 > 0:02:28The first to enter the business was the eldest, Percy.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30When he got a job with the South Wales Echo as a teenager,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33he was impressed by the perks that went with it.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37I went into journalism for a mundane reason -
0:02:37 > 0:02:41that he used to come home with his pockets full of free tickets to cinemas.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44There was nothing noble about why I went into this profession.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47I used to see the old replays at the Olympia cinema free of charge
0:02:47 > 0:02:49and I thought he was onto a good thing.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51When Hugh wasn't at the pictures,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54he attended Howard Gardens Secondary School
0:02:54 > 0:02:57which he described as a "joyless purgatory".
0:02:57 > 0:03:01He left at the first opportunity - he was 14 - to spend three years
0:03:01 > 0:03:05pounding the streets of Penarth learning the newspaper trade.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08He went to the Penarth News,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11a wonderful little newspaper which lasted for a short period of time
0:03:11 > 0:03:15by a man who funded it through his milk round.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18It was on a shoestring. Cudlipp was a pupil reporter.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23The Penarth News folded and eventually Hugh headed north
0:03:23 > 0:03:27to find work as a junior reporter with the Manchester Evening Chronicle.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31Having seen the, as a child, the 1926 Strike
0:03:31 > 0:03:33and then heading on to Manchester
0:03:33 > 0:03:37and having, as a reporter, had a close up view of the cotton strike,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41and then having worked in Blackpool which at that time
0:03:41 > 0:03:46was a fairly corrupt city, I suppose at a fairly tender age I had a wider
0:03:46 > 0:03:49experience of life that I would have had had I gone to university.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53In Blackpool, Hugh was fascinated by the sensational
0:03:53 > 0:03:56showmanship of the Pleasure Beach, mixing with the crowds
0:03:56 > 0:04:00of working class holiday-makers and taking note of what captivated them.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07What he did was to listen to what people were talking about.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10What they were talking about in pubs, on the doorstep,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12in the streets, on the buses.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15That's what he incorporated in his journalism.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18He served his apprenticeship in the regional press
0:04:18 > 0:04:21but Cudlipp wanted a bigger stage for his talents.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23At the age of 21,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26he joined a newspaper that changed popular journalism in Britain.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30"The Daily Mirror, 12th June 1935.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33"Dear Mr Cudlipp, we're glad to offer you
0:04:33 > 0:04:36"the post of Assistant Feature Editor of this paper.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39"I shall look forward to hearing that you can take this job on
0:04:39 > 0:04:43"as it seems to me that you are just the man we want, both for it
0:04:43 > 0:04:44"and for others later on."
0:04:44 > 0:04:48The Mirror's editorial director, Harry Guy Bartholomew,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52was the first British newspaperman to employ the eye-catching techniques
0:04:52 > 0:04:55of American tabloids and ad agencies.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Difficult, chunky character with a very mercurial personality.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04But he had a restless genius which wanted to change,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07what was then, a very prosaic, middle class, failing,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11dull newspaper, into something more exciting.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13In fact, into a working class paper.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18Cudlipp learned a lot from Bart, but the man who would become
0:05:18 > 0:05:23his true soul mate at the Mirror was the then advertising director, Cecil King.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Educated at Winchester and Oxford,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28King came from a family of great press barons.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31He looked like a Roman emperor.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34He used to wear these huge, baggy Savile Row suits.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36He spoke like an Edwardian.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39He used to say, "goin'" and "gels" and had a very clipped voice.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Quite high pitched.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46He was the most aristocratic human being I've ever met.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49I met all the royal family, as editor you do,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52and they all seemed quite common compared with Cecil King.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56King recognised Cudlipp's talent as a journalist.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Two years after Cudlipp's arrival at the Mirror, King poached him
0:06:00 > 0:06:03from Harry Guy Bartholomew to head up another Mirror Group paper,
0:06:03 > 0:06:04the Sunday Pictorial.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Bart never forgave Cudlipp for defecting
0:06:07 > 0:06:12but King rewarded his new protege by making him Fleet Street's youngest editor.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15He thought that this character, aged 24,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19would have a certain amount of experience in journalism
0:06:19 > 0:06:23but not much experience of life and not a great deal of education, and not a great deal of knowledge.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26He thought that he could work with me and he said,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29"You may be 24 but I hereby anoint you editor
0:06:29 > 0:06:32"and nobody has ever been appointed editor at 24 before."
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Cecil was Hugh's father substitute.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39He found Hugh, really.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42He always said that he had sought to educate him.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Hugh was always very funny about this.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46He used to say, "Cecil King used to send me lots and lots of books
0:06:46 > 0:06:50"to read and I'd say I'd read them but I never read a single one."
0:06:50 > 0:06:54Cudlipp may have neglected his reading list but he relished
0:06:54 > 0:06:58the practical lessons in world affairs that King gave him.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01If somebody is prepared to send me around the world a dozen times
0:07:01 > 0:07:05from the North Pole to the South Pole, and from the East to West
0:07:05 > 0:07:09and even diagonally, it is the sort of patronage I enjoy and welcome.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11Cudlipp was his golden boy.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14He knew that he'd found Cudlipp,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17someone who could translate his thoughts and ideas
0:07:17 > 0:07:20into popular journalism, which Hugh could.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27Cudlipp had taken over the Pictorial at a key moment in world history.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34With Fascism on the rise, British newspapers were divided
0:07:34 > 0:07:37between those that sought to appease Hitler
0:07:37 > 0:07:42and those that shared Winston Churchill's deep distrust of him.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Did you support Churchill when he was a voice in the wilderness?
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Not only, my friend, did we support him,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50I paid him money for writing articles for the Daily Mirror
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and personally when to see him at Chartwell to sign him up
0:07:53 > 0:07:56for ten more articles in the Sunday Mirror as soon as I became editor.
0:07:56 > 0:07:57The answer is yes.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02Cudlipp played his part in the war effort, initially writing editorials
0:08:02 > 0:08:07championing Churchill and then volunteering for active service.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11He was sent to Africa. He served as a platoon commander at El Alamein.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Then one day he was summoned to the North African Allied Forces' headquarters
0:08:17 > 0:08:21where he was ordered to produce a newspaper for British troops.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25He used all his editorial skills to create Union Jack,
0:08:25 > 0:08:30a paper that offered soldiers news, sport and entertainment.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36He used to run stories about the indiscretions of officers.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39The way in which he did that was look at the court cases
0:08:39 > 0:08:42about divorces and every time a military officer was involved
0:08:42 > 0:08:45he would publish that as a story in the Union Jack.
0:08:45 > 0:08:46The troops loved it.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51After peace was declared and Cudlipp was demobbed,
0:08:51 > 0:08:53he returned to the Mirror Group.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56But Harry Guy Bartholomew still bore a grudge against him.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59When Cudlipp made the mistake of spiking a supposedly
0:08:59 > 0:09:01important story, Bart pounced.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06I left out a story about Cecil King in Africa, it doesn't matter.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09But I thought it wasn't very interesting, I put it on the spike.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11This was regarded as a matter of arrogance
0:09:11 > 0:09:13which I suppose in retrospect it was!
0:09:13 > 0:09:15Bartholomew had a great chance to fire me.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19However, my distress didn't last long.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21I went to a local pub to drown my sorrows with a friend
0:09:21 > 0:09:26and somebody came over and said, "Here's a telegram."
0:09:26 > 0:09:29So I opened this telegram, it was from Lord Beaverbrook who,
0:09:29 > 0:09:34of course, owned the rival concern, the Daily Express Group, who was in Jamaica at the time.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36The telegram said something like,
0:09:36 > 0:09:41"Welcome to our house where you've been invited for so long."
0:09:41 > 0:09:43So then I became the managing editor of the Sunday Express.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Cudlipp wasn't away from the Mirror for long.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Two years later, King arranged for Bart to be fired
0:09:51 > 0:09:55and Hugh was welcomed back into the fold by his mentor.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57In the same year that he became editorial director
0:09:57 > 0:10:01of both the Mirror and Pictorial, his elder brother, Percy,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04was editing the Evening Standard and his brother, Reg,
0:10:04 > 0:10:06was made editor of the News Of The World.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09The Cudlipp boys had made good.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12At the Mirror, Hugh and Cecil King set about building
0:10:12 > 0:10:15an entertaining, intelligent paper for the masses.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20Millions of Britons who'd survived war and were now tasting austerity
0:10:20 > 0:10:24were hungry for both social justice and a little light relief.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26What then does the Mirror stand for?
0:10:26 > 0:10:29It doesn't bore its readers every day with what was said
0:10:29 > 0:10:31last night in Westminster.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35It doesn't try to report at enormous and indigestible length
0:10:35 > 0:10:37what happened in the United Nations.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40But if something important happens in the United Nations,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43if something important happens in the economic front,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46it goes flat out to explain that in strident, if you like,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50sensational terms to the largest audience it can reach.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Hugh was characteristically strident
0:10:55 > 0:10:58when the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rab Butler,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01a product of public school and Cambridge,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04made a speech calling for the people of Britain to brace themselves
0:11:04 > 0:11:06for the financially austere times ahead.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09He said, "We must not drop back into easy evenings
0:11:09 > 0:11:13"with port wine and over-ripe pheasant."
0:11:13 > 0:11:15I read this on a Sunday morning
0:11:15 > 0:11:22and I thought not many readers of the Daily Mirror have a regular diet of over-ripe pheasant and vintage port.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24So I telephoned Donald Zec.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28He said why don't you take 12 average British people
0:11:28 > 0:11:31which are a busman or a greengrocer,
0:11:31 > 0:11:36and take them to dinner and give them port wine and over-ripe pheasant.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39I said, "When?" He said, "Tonight." And I said, "You can't be serious."
0:11:39 > 0:11:42But I knew he was serious because he'd rung off.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45But we got the 12 people to dinner at the Savoy.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49One complained that it ponged a bit and another one confided to me
0:11:49 > 0:11:53he wasn't sure whether he ought to eat to or step over it.
0:11:53 > 0:11:54I have never seen anybody
0:11:54 > 0:12:00get hold of ephemera, get hold of an idea
0:12:00 > 0:12:05and turn it into fact, turn it into readable matter
0:12:05 > 0:12:09that combined not only verbal impact
0:12:09 > 0:12:12but visual impact.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15What Cudlipp did have was an enormous flair.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19He knew the front page of the Daily Mirror and what to do with it.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24He introduced the language of conversation into headlines,
0:12:24 > 0:12:29into the text. He was a talking journalist.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33It wasn't written prose that you had to read out loud.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35The Mirror's prose was conversational.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Cudlipp's colloquial style of journalism
0:12:40 > 0:12:42was never more in evidence than in 1960
0:12:42 > 0:12:45when Prime Minister Harold Macmillan addressed delegates
0:12:45 > 0:12:49at the United Nations, among them the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53None of us particularly were welcome in our countries.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55A large number of officials...
0:12:55 > 0:12:58A large number of officials from abroad...
0:12:58 > 0:12:59A large numb...
0:12:59 > 0:13:02HE SHOUTS IN RUSSIAN
0:13:04 > 0:13:07I'd like it translated if you want to saying anything.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Cudlipp took the front page of the Mirror
0:13:10 > 0:13:13for this superb statement from the British people, really,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15although it was written by Cudlipp.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18"Mr K. Don't be so bloody rude."
0:13:18 > 0:13:20And then in a little box at the end,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24"PS. Who do you think you are? Stalin?"
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Cudlipp was a master at distilling complex political stories
0:13:27 > 0:13:29into striking headlines.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32He wanted the Mirror's readers to understand what was happening
0:13:32 > 0:13:35not just in Britain but on the far side of the world.
0:13:41 > 0:13:42This was the mid-1960s.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Vietnam was a war in distant Asia.
0:13:47 > 0:13:53It wasn't the huge divisive event that it became.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58He called me up to his office
0:13:58 > 0:14:03and he had on his desk a piece in the Guardian that had been picked up
0:14:03 > 0:14:07from the St Louis Post-Dispatch by Martha Gellhorn,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09the great American correspondent,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14in which she wrote, "This is a war against civilians."
0:14:14 > 0:14:19That was a pretty radical idea of war at that time.
0:14:20 > 0:14:25He handed it to me and said, "I think she's on to something.
0:14:25 > 0:14:26"Go and find out."
0:14:26 > 0:14:31And I asked him was there anything else to his brief.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34He said, "No, just go and find out."
0:14:36 > 0:14:39The articles John Pilger wrote from Vietnam brought home
0:14:39 > 0:14:42the reality of the war to Mirror readers.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Cudlipp gave his journalists the freedom to do their work well
0:14:45 > 0:14:49but if they failed to live up to his standards, they soon knew about it.
0:14:50 > 0:14:56Professionally, you always were ever so slightly on edge
0:14:56 > 0:14:59because it would not take very much
0:14:59 > 0:15:05to turn him from being amiable and good humoured,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11into a person of irritation and aggravation
0:15:11 > 0:15:15and possible bad behaviour.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Are you consciously aware that you don't suffers fools gladly,
0:15:19 > 0:15:20or easily?
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Well, I see no reason why one shouldn't express an opinion
0:15:23 > 0:15:26rather bluntly. It's quicker.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30It's possible to convey an opinion with one word
0:15:30 > 0:15:34instead of a yard of reasoning or a tonne of rhetoric.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36If so, I don't hesitate to do so.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41If Cudlipp was brutally direct, he could also be magnanimous,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43as Felicity Green discovered.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Having been off sick, she returned to work to find the morning's
0:15:46 > 0:15:49editorial conference in full flow.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Hugh looked at me and said, "You look awful."
0:15:52 > 0:15:57The conference stopped while Hugh got Gwen on the phone
0:15:57 > 0:16:01and I heard him say, "Gwen, get hold of Miss Green
0:16:01 > 0:16:05"and organise ten days in Barbados for her."
0:16:05 > 0:16:08I thought he was joking, but he wasn't.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11He sent me to Barbados to get better.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Cudlipp really was a larger than life character,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16who played as hard as he worked.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Nearly every weekend, he spends on his yacht. He's always had one.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22He says he gets away from work by going to sea,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25but he invariably takes his colleagues and friends with him
0:16:25 > 0:16:29as crew. On Saturdays and Sundays, the newsroom floats.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34Cudlipp is of course at the helm and always called captain.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38'Hello?' Hello, Geoff. Hugh speaking. I'm calling from the boat.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41And of course, back home in Fleet Street,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43they needn't think he's out of touch.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45The leader writers may curse
0:16:45 > 0:16:48when he dictates front page pieces through the radio static.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52This is the thing which enables me to get away from the office.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56I remember dictating a very amusing leader about Lord Beaverbrook
0:16:56 > 0:17:00called Sour Grapes, which we did off Falmouth in a rather heavy sea,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03which was a suitable atmosphere for the subject.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05'When we were on his boat,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08'you couldn't have had a more relaxed man.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11'He just was happy to do nothing,'
0:17:11 > 0:17:15he just wanted to drink whatever it was we were drinking
0:17:15 > 0:17:19and sit on the deck and go and eat in the local restaurant
0:17:19 > 0:17:24and he had a huge propensity for enjoying himself.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Hugh's constant companion on his sailing trips down the Solent
0:17:27 > 0:17:29was his third wife Jodi.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Both his previous wives had died at an untimely age.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37His first wife died giving birth.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40The first marriage was absolutely disastrous
0:17:40 > 0:17:42and ended in an extremely sad way.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45And that's really why in Who's Who,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48you will find second marriage to Eileen Ashcroft,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51which was an extremely happy marriage,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54and third to Jodi, which is also extremely happy.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57And I must say that the two particular ladies
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I refer to have been an enormous help to me in my job.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04They sort of put up with the odd hours and the dashing around.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07But if Cudlipp was enjoying the good life,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10he was aware that many were not. In the pages of the Mirror,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13he highlighted the real issues affecting readers' lives.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Pollution, poor housing, low pay.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18He pioneered the Shock Issue,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21which focused on a burning topic of the day.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24One of the first dealt with road safety.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It had an extraordinary effect.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29It raised the level of the debate
0:18:29 > 0:18:32and questions were asked in the House.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34It caused a...
0:18:34 > 0:18:36a frisson which went through the country.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43The great point of publishing is the intense, volatile fun
0:18:43 > 0:18:46which lasts, in fact, for 24 hours.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50You can find out what's going on, you can be at the centre of things,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54you might subsequently be denounced by a judge for contempt of court,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57you might be denounced in Parliament for contempt of Parliament,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00but first you decide, then you publish
0:19:00 > 0:19:04and then you take the praise or the punishment.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07The praise and the punishment for the Mirror's headlines
0:19:07 > 0:19:10belonged to both Cudlipp and his chairman, Cecil King.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13Their bold interventions in the nation's life were
0:19:13 > 0:19:17conceived during their daily meetings in King's 9th floor office.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19It's good news about these immigrants
0:19:19 > 0:19:22because it was you who took it up first, wasn't it,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25and since then, the other papers have taken it up
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and the Government has taken it up and really something is
0:19:28 > 0:19:31actually being done, which is welcome in this country.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34I thought the Government had a very good day of decision yesterday.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37There was one complete reversal of a former decision,
0:19:37 > 0:19:43but on three difficult fronts, there was the smack of Government.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47'The great thing King had was foresight.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49'He didn't think from day-to-day.'
0:19:49 > 0:19:54He didn't think that editing a newspaper is a weekly job.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58His great point was - where will we be in five years' time?
0:19:58 > 0:20:03And I absorbed this sort of thinking from him, but it came from him.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05In the late 1960s,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08King's political ambitions began to run away with him.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11He lost faith in the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson's
0:20:11 > 0:20:16handling of the country and began lobbying for a change of government.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20So what are your relations with the Government today?
0:20:20 > 0:20:23I think one could fairly say they are somewhat frostier than
0:20:23 > 0:20:25they were at an earlier stage.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29But ministers are going round saying that in a few weeks' time,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32the clouds will roll by and everyone will realise
0:20:32 > 0:20:35what a parcel of geniuses they are and vote them
0:20:35 > 0:20:38back into office in the next election.
0:20:38 > 0:20:39I think, on the other hand,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43the clouds are going to get a great deal darker
0:20:43 > 0:20:46and this parcel of geniuses will be chased
0:20:46 > 0:20:50out of office for the incompetents they've shown themselves to be.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54King's public criticism of the Government was as nothing
0:20:54 > 0:20:56compared to what he was plotting in private.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00He met the recently retired Chief Of The Defence Staff to discuss
0:21:00 > 0:21:03forming an emergency government.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07King went round people like Lord Mountbatten
0:21:07 > 0:21:09and Solly Zuckerman,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12who was the chief scientific officer to the Government at that time,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16trying to build support for a coup against Wilson.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18So in some senses,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Lord Mountbatten could have been our head of government.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25When King declared on the front page of the Mirror that Wilson must go,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29it was a step too far for his fellow company directors.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31Disturbed by King's power games,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34they began making plans for a coup of their own.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37I went to Hugh before any of the other directors did
0:21:37 > 0:21:41and talked to him for several days about this.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45And Hugh agreed that Cecil's reign
0:21:45 > 0:21:48should be terminated.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53The time had come when he was dominating affairs
0:21:53 > 0:21:58to such a degree that those around him, and it was
0:21:58 > 0:22:03everybody around him on the board, it was an unanimous decision,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07decided that the time had come for him to go.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11He said, "Now, I will be in charge of the tactics
0:22:11 > 0:22:15"because you're dealing with a very powerful person in Cecil King.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Why was it that Cecil King was told of his dismissal
0:22:18 > 0:22:21by the company secretary at eight o'clock one morning
0:22:21 > 0:22:25and Hugh Cudlipp's courage apparently stopped short
0:22:25 > 0:22:28of personally telling his old mentor
0:22:28 > 0:22:30and father figure that he'd been fired?
0:22:30 > 0:22:34I think we all have a point beyond which we cannot go.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39I don't think that he could bring himself to do this face to face.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43It was something like patricide, as far as he was concerned.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45'People on the Mirror heard about it
0:22:45 > 0:22:48'because they had the TV on at lunchtime'
0:22:48 > 0:22:52and there they were working away, they thought, for a company...
0:22:52 > 0:22:55It wasn't owned, but run by Cecil King.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58And suddenly, the news came up he had been fired.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01When people are in a very powerful position,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04and like King, pretty unapproachable, lonely, aloof,
0:23:04 > 0:23:09and very ruthless himself, I certainly feel no guilt myself
0:23:09 > 0:23:13about the excellent, detailed way in which his departure was planned.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16And Cecil's a man who knew that Fleet Street was a jungle
0:23:16 > 0:23:19and I was wise enough, after all I'd been taught by him, to know
0:23:19 > 0:23:23that there's nothing more dangerous in a jungle than a wounded tiger.
0:23:23 > 0:23:29Therefore, the division from the King regime had to be abrupt and final.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33Cudlipp was unapologetic in public, but those closest to him
0:23:33 > 0:23:36knew how hard it had been for him to fire King.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40It was the most heart-rending decision he ever made in his life.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43And he never forgave himself. He never got over it.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Cudlipp had lost his mentor.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49He was about to face a new and formidable competitor.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55At the start of the '60s, the Mirror Group had acquired an ailing
0:23:55 > 0:23:58broadsheet called the Daily Herald.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01Cudlipp had relaunched it as a popular left wing paper which
0:24:01 > 0:24:07he'd renamed the Sun, but this had failed to halt its decline.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11I suppose that I've been associated with some flops in my time,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13but that one takes priority.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16It's most certainly the biggest flop that I've been concerned with.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20We failed totally. Rupert Murdoch... When I say we, I mean I. Yes.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Cudlipp was faced with a choice.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Close the paper with the loss of hundreds of jobs, or sell it.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31He found a willing buyer in the shape of an Australian businessman called Rupert Murdoch,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34who had already owned several newspapers down under.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38A lot of people, well-informed journalists and so on, refer
0:24:38 > 0:24:42to these newspapers as being some of the worst newspapers in the world.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Well, that was said, of course, in the Sunday Observer,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49which I suppose would be the least successful newspaper in the world.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53So, they are entitled to their opinions, but I'm entitled to mine.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55And so are my readers.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59In the sense, both Cudlipp and Murdoch were outsiders.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03They were both antiestablishment in their inclinations.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05Both were natural rebels, in a sense,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08in terms of the societies in which they functioned.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Cudlipp had this sense of an educational mission.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Education was as important as sensation.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Murdoch believed in sensation to make money.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22And Murdoch saw an opportunity to make money in Britain,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24at the Mirror's expense.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29The Mirror was almost...lower middle-class paper by that time.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34And Murdoch knew that there were a lot of people that had
0:25:34 > 0:25:38lost their connection with the Labour Party and that they
0:25:38 > 0:25:43wanted a less demanding paper than the Mirror was becoming.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46And Murdoch saw this opportunity of coming under the Mirror with
0:25:46 > 0:25:49a more popular paper, without any pretensions.
0:25:49 > 0:25:55Murdoch's new Sun hit the newsstands on the 17th of November 1969.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00We all had a dinner on the night the Sun was launched.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04I remember the editor, Lee Howard,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06looking decidedly ill
0:26:06 > 0:26:10when he saw the front page of the Sun,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14which was a copy of a kind of down-market Mirror.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18There was a lot of rather hollow laughing that night -
0:26:18 > 0:26:20look what the Sun had done -
0:26:20 > 0:26:24but I think there was a sense of foreboding.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28There were those among us on the Mirror who made sure
0:26:28 > 0:26:32that our paper was as attractive to women as it was to men.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36The Sun just dived straight in
0:26:36 > 0:26:41to the sexy bare-breasted Page 3 girls.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46And the sexy new Sun connected with a male working class
0:26:46 > 0:26:50readership during the early 1970s.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55The Sun had an immediate impact on the Mirror.
0:26:55 > 0:27:02And I think Hugh Cudlipp was...rather thrown by that.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05He misjudged Murdoch.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08After five decades in the newspaper business,
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Cudlipp had finally met his match,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14though he was characteristically philosophical about it.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17Rupert is more of a businessman than a journalist
0:27:17 > 0:27:21though, of course, he's a fully qualified journalist.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24But I think that his principle interest in life is the cash register
0:27:24 > 0:27:30and I don't think that the cash register was a principle interest in my life.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35In 1973, at the age of 60, Hugh Cudlipp retired.
0:27:35 > 0:27:36After leaving Fleet Street,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39he could be found messing about on his boat,
0:27:39 > 0:27:43drinking in the pub he created at the bottom of his garden
0:27:43 > 0:27:46and even threatening to write the odd play.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49I don't want to be the oldest tabloid journalist in the world.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52I wouldn't like that inscribed on my tombstone.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55I'd rather be a young, untried and flopped playwright
0:27:55 > 0:27:58and have that engraved on my tombstone.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02But I'm not at all worried about failure in anything I do.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06I go back to the drawing board and say, "I can't do that, I'll do this."
0:28:06 > 0:28:09I'm not terribly conscious of failure.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11And he had little cause to be.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16He'd come a long way from his days as a cub reporter.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19As the Welshman behind the world's best selling newspaper,
0:28:19 > 0:28:25his vivid prose and pictures changed print journalism for good.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27On the 18th of May 1998,
0:28:27 > 0:28:3184 years after Hugh Cudlipp's arrival on the scene,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35the Daily Mirror carried the one headline he would never read.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40He was the most talented journalist I've ever, ever encountered.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43He was a magician with words.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47He pioneered campaigning, crusading journalism.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51I remember him with enormous affection.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53I liked him as a newspaper man.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58He was an old-fashioned newspaper man.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd