0:00:02 > 0:00:04Dylan Thomas is a global icon -
0:00:04 > 0:00:07the most famous writer Wales has produced.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09As a boy growing up in Swansea,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12he filled secret notebooks with poems
0:00:12 > 0:00:15that would one day be read around the world.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Poetry was just in him. It was born in him.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Words were living things to him.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Today, Dylan's poetry is almost eclipsed
0:00:25 > 0:00:29by his image as a hard-drinking, promiscuous bohemian.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32There are, of course, chaotic characters in one's life,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37and Dylan, I think, was a pretty chaotic character.
0:00:37 > 0:00:38At the centre of this chaos
0:00:38 > 0:00:43was Dylan's tempestuous romance with Caitlin Macnamara.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47She was a likeable, dangerous woman.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52They ganged up, the two of them together, against society,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55and they were really a couple of outlaws in that sense.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Dylan's reputation as an outlaw artist
0:00:58 > 0:01:01helped make him a celebrity in America.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03In the bright lights of New York city,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07he found fame, fortune and self-destruction.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12The whole business of Dylan in America is pretty sad, really.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15A man's got to have a bit of ruthlessness and a bit of...
0:01:15 > 0:01:17He lacked that completely,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20and when he got to America, he was just eaten alive.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Dylan Marlais Thomas was born in Cwmdonkin Drive
0:01:53 > 0:01:56in the Uplands of Swansea in 1914.
0:02:00 > 0:02:01He was the younger of two children
0:02:01 > 0:02:05born to schoolmaster DJ Thomas and his wife, Florence.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Dylan's mother doted on her son.
0:02:10 > 0:02:16She had that overprotective mollycoddling attitude,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19and that's what did for Dylan, in a way, throughout his life,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23because his mother made such a fuss of him -
0:02:23 > 0:02:25cut him so much slack.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28He was for ever looking for women to do the same thing to him.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Dylan's father, DJ,
0:02:31 > 0:02:33was a schoolmaster who'd earned a first-class degree
0:02:33 > 0:02:35at Aberystwyth University,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38but had failed to fulfil his potential.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40He taught English -
0:02:40 > 0:02:43English language and English literature -
0:02:43 > 0:02:44for the rest of his life.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46That was his career.
0:02:46 > 0:02:47But he felt always
0:02:47 > 0:02:51that there were higher things that he should have done.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Dylan's father was born in Carmarthen,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01while his mother's family came from the nearby peninsula of Llanstephan.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06Though DJ and Florrie's roots were in rural Welsh-speaking Wales,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08their aspirations for their son
0:03:08 > 0:03:11were in line with their life in suburban Swansea.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Though Florence and DJ spoke Welsh fluently,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19they insisted that their son speak English,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22because that, at the time, was the appropriate thing to do,
0:03:22 > 0:03:28and it was seen as the middle-class way of doing things.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32Dylan's parents sent him to elocution lessons
0:03:32 > 0:03:35to erase any traces of a Welsh accent.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37But he got a taste of Welsh-speaking Wales
0:03:37 > 0:03:40on his visits to his Auntie Anne and Uncle Jim,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44who had a farm near Llangain, called Fern Hill.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49ANDREW: Fern Hill gave him the sense of the expansiveness of Wales,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52of the beauty of the countryside.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57It was his introduction to the old Wales.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02I mean, Swansea was a cosmopolitan city
0:04:02 > 0:04:05with quite a strong leaning towards England.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Couldn't say that, really, of Carmarthenshire.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13And as I was green and carefree
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Famous among the barns
0:04:15 > 0:04:17About the happy yard
0:04:17 > 0:04:20And singing as the farm was home
0:04:20 > 0:04:24In the sun that is young once only
0:04:24 > 0:04:27Time let me play and be
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Golden in the mercy of his means
0:04:31 > 0:04:32And green and golden
0:04:32 > 0:04:35I was huntsman and herdsman
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The calves sang to my horn
0:04:38 > 0:04:43The foxes on the hills barked clear and cold
0:04:43 > 0:04:47And the Sabbath rang slowly
0:04:47 > 0:04:50In the pebbles of the holy streams.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Dylan's experience of the traditional Welsh Sabbath
0:04:55 > 0:04:57came from his trips to Paraclete,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59a church in Newton, near Mumbles,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02where his uncle, David Rees, was a minister.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06He was forced to church three times a day,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and he got that incredible knowledge of the Bible
0:05:09 > 0:05:11that permeates his work,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13and he also watched this uncle preach,
0:05:13 > 0:05:19and it was kind of full of Welsh hoil, and hellfire and brimstone,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22and this informed Dylan's way of reading his poetry.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27Poetry was a presence in Dylan's life from the start.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30DJ passed on his deep love of literature to his son,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33reciting the classics to him as an infant.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38By the time he was ten, poetry had begun to pour out of Dylan.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43At the age of 12, Dylan had a poem, entitled His Requiem,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45published in a newspaper.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47He'd sent the poem in to the Western Mail,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50"His Requiem, Dylan Thomas," and he got a prize.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52His parents never cashed the postal order.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55It stood on the mantle shelf, and they were thrilled.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57But when the poem was published
0:05:57 > 0:05:59in a collection of Dylan's verse after his death,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02it turned out all was not as it seemed.
0:06:02 > 0:06:08A woman wrote to The Guardian, "The poem on page 171, His Requiem,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11"was written by my mother, Lillian Gard,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13"and was published in The Boy's Own Paper.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17Dylan's talent for mischief far exceeded his appetite for learning,
0:06:17 > 0:06:22as Vernon Davies, a fellow-pupil at Swansea Grammar School, recalls.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27In those days, you had to try five particular subjects,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30and if you failed one, you failed the lot.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35And the story went round that DJ, his father,
0:06:35 > 0:06:37said to him one day,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40"Dylan, you've done very well in English.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43And he said, "Yes, Father.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45"Oh, I'm very pleased.
0:06:45 > 0:06:51"But I notice you failed in Mathematics and in Chemistry.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53"Yes, Father.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57And then, "You failed, too, in French and Geography."
0:06:57 > 0:06:59"Yes, Father."
0:06:59 > 0:07:04And Father said, "Well, if you had taken Greek,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06"you could have failed that, too."
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Father could be a little bit sarcastic.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Dylan was no scholar,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16but he was a serious and disciplined writer.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19He edited the school magazine
0:07:19 > 0:07:22and showed an artist's commitment when it came to his poetry.
0:07:22 > 0:07:27We all knew there was something different about Dylan and words.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Words were living things to him.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33He'd shown this precocious talent.
0:07:33 > 0:07:39He'd begun filling these notebooks with brilliant snatches of poems.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Not just snatches, whole poems.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44If you look at the poems he was writing at that time,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47they are very kind of introverted.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50They are looking at his body and trying to make something
0:07:50 > 0:07:54of the internal motions of his body and how they relate to the world.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56He was going through, basically,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00I suppose, what you could call a sort of late teenage angst.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Drives my green age
0:08:08 > 0:08:11That blasts the roots of trees
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Is my destroyer
0:08:13 > 0:08:17And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
0:08:17 > 0:08:21My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26At the age of 16, Dylan left school
0:08:26 > 0:08:29and got a job as a reporter on the South Wales Evening Post.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33He was, in many ways, a natural journalist.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35He had a great curiosity.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38He enjoyed the experience of going into the hospitals,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42the police stations and the pubs, you know?
0:08:42 > 0:08:46It was all part of his education into life in Swansea.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51When he wasn't in the pub, Dylan could be found
0:08:51 > 0:08:56upstairs at the Kardomah cafe, home to Swansea's bright young things.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01They included the painter Alfred Janes and the composer Daniel Jones.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Dylan, who was still pouring his creative energy into his poetry,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08felt at home among these fellow artists.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13He did decide to cultivate this bohemianism,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15which didn't come naturally to him.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18He was born in a semidetached house in suburban Swansea,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20his dad's a school teacher
0:09:20 > 0:09:23and he's got relatives in the Church.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26He's basically a Welsh non-conformist boy.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Dylan looked to London as an escape from suburban Swansea.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42In April 1933, the Sunday Referee published one of his poems.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45It was read by a young London poet called Pamela Hansford Johnson,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48who began writing to him.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52He goes up to meet Pamela Hansford Johnson for the first time,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54they've been courting by letter,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and he knocks on her door in Battersea and she opens it
0:09:57 > 0:10:01and he just blurts out, "Have you seen the Gauguins?"
0:10:01 > 0:10:04because there was a Gauguin exhibition on in London.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07And he later admitted to her that he'd thought all the way on the train
0:10:07 > 0:10:10from Swansea to Paddington, "What can I say to impress her?"
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and that's what he came up with.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16So, there was this desire in him to be intellectual.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18She lived with her mother in Battersea,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21so he would come...he'd stay with them
0:10:21 > 0:10:24and he was beginning to explore London.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27I don't think they had a sexual relationship at all.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31If their relationship meant anything,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34it was simply that she was the one who introduced him to the place.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39Within a year, Dylan and the artist Alfred Janes left Swansea
0:10:39 > 0:10:42to live with their mutual friend Mervyn Levy
0:10:42 > 0:10:45in rented accommodation on the outskirts of Chelsea.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50They were going to paint and write poems
0:10:50 > 0:10:52but the place was squalid,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56and he was used to his mother. He was used to having Florrie around
0:10:56 > 0:10:59taking the tops off his eggs. I mean, that's the story...
0:10:59 > 0:11:03All throughout his life, people had to take the top off his boiled egg.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06He liked to lie in the bath with sweets placed all around the edge
0:11:06 > 0:11:10for him just to sit back and eat Dolly Mixtures.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12He didn't have any money.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14His parents helped him.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17There's a story that Mervyn Levy tells that Fred Janes would
0:11:17 > 0:11:20turn him upside down and shake him to get the rent out of his pockets
0:11:20 > 0:11:23that would fall on the floor, just a few coins.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27In London, Dylan survived on hand-outs from his parents,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31loans from his friends, and payments for reviewing the odd thriller.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34But he was busy building up contacts in the literary establishment,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37and in 1934 Dylan got his big break
0:11:37 > 0:11:40when his first collection of poetry was published.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44The 18 poems of its title were drawn from the closely guarded
0:11:44 > 0:11:47teenage notebooks he'd kept in Swansea.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50He insisted it had no blurb,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54he insisted there was portrait of him at the start,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57he insisted the poems have no titles.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Later on, the first lines become titles
0:12:00 > 0:12:02but these are just numbered 1 to 18,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06and it's got all his great poems that came out in this incredible
0:12:06 > 0:12:11burst of creativity he had, fuelled with testosterone
0:12:11 > 0:12:15and growth, but he was only 16, 17, 18 when he's writing these poems.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19It is just the beginning of everything for Dylan Thomas.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22It wasn't a big hit with the reading public
0:12:22 > 0:12:24but it got good reviews for a first collection.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27It placed him firmly on the literary map in London.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29The people who mattered noticed.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34He injected a bit of fresh air into the world of poetry in the 1930s.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38There was a sort of romanticism about him,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40there was a lyricism about him
0:12:40 > 0:12:44that you don't get in some of the other poets of that period.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Back in Swansea, Dylan's first book
0:12:46 > 0:12:49made a big impression on Vernon Watkins.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51Watkins was a young bank clerk
0:12:51 > 0:12:55and aspiring poet who modelled himself on Gerard Manley Hopkins,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58a Victorian priest who'd written poetry in secret.
0:12:58 > 0:13:0418 Poems was on view in the two bookshops in Swansea,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08and Vernon felt very indignant because he thought he was
0:13:08 > 0:13:10the only poet in Swansea.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12And he'd decided not to publish,
0:13:12 > 0:13:14to be like Hopkins,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Gerard Manley Hopkins,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20and only have his poems published after he was dead, you see?
0:13:20 > 0:13:23And he felt really indignant at this Swansea...
0:13:23 > 0:13:26because the bookshops had "local poet", you know,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30"Swansea poet", and things. And he went in every lunchtime,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34from the bank, and read some of the poems,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37and he did that every lunchtime for a week.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40On the Saturday, he actually bought the book.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Vernon got in touch with Dylan
0:13:42 > 0:13:45and the two soon became close friends,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47meeting regularly to discuss their poetry.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Dylan knew that Vernon understood what it was like
0:13:51 > 0:13:55to, you know, wrench a poem to bits
0:13:55 > 0:13:57and try and put it together again
0:13:57 > 0:13:59and wrench that to bits and do it.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Often, there were 60, 70, 80 pages of manuscript
0:14:04 > 0:14:06for a single poem.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Vernon helped Dylan select and revise the poems
0:14:10 > 0:14:12for his second collection of poetry.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17In 1936, Twenty-Five Poems was published to critical acclaim.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21In the artistic circles in which Dylan now moved,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23he came across the Welsh painter,
0:14:23 > 0:14:27and notorious libertine, Augustus John.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31That year, John introduced his sometime lover, Caitlin Macnamara,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33to Dylan.
0:14:33 > 0:14:39Caitlin had a beguiling effect on men, and Dylan was no exception.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44He kind of fell all over me, you know, put his head on my knee
0:14:44 > 0:14:46and never stopped talking.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49It seems almost immediately that we kind of fell into bed together.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51It all happened so naturally,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54as though we'd known each other all the time.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57She was a fascinating woman,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59and he was obviously fascinated by her.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Caitlin was tough. She knew what was what.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Oh, I thought she was awful, really.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10I was frightened of her at first, for years I was frightened of her,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13because she had no restraint at all.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16She was totally unpredictable.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Caitlin had enjoyed an unconventional upbringing.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23She was the daughter of Frances Macnamara,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25an Irish bohemian and would-be writer.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Having grown up around artists,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30she embraced the role of muse to a great poet.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34A little over a year after they met, Dylan and Caitlin were married.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39Caitlin really was his finishing school when it comes to bohemianism.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Her own father, Frances Macnamara,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44encouraged his wife into affairs.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47I mean, Yvonne Macnamara slept with Augustus John,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50they shared each other's wives,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53and Yvonne then went on to have a lesbian relationship
0:15:53 > 0:15:55with a photographer who took...
0:15:55 > 0:15:59Nora Summers, who took all the great early pictures of Dylan,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01so Dylan, after he got married,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05he went down to live with his mother-in-law in the New Forest,
0:16:05 > 0:16:07very close to Augustus John's crew,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09very close to the Macnamaras,
0:16:09 > 0:16:11very close to the Summerses,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14and these three truly bohemian families
0:16:14 > 0:16:17who define it... I mean, Augustus John was considered
0:16:17 > 0:16:19the king of bohemia.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23It's not a country, it's a state of mind, but he was the king.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28And Dylan I think decided, "God, that looks like the life for me."
0:16:28 > 0:16:32But unfortunately, it didn't come naturally to him.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35In the free-living environment of the New Forest,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39Dylan missed the home comforts of Cwmdonkin Drive.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Dylan got a cold
0:16:41 > 0:16:44and went to bed and he asked my mother
0:16:44 > 0:16:46for bread and milk,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50and she broke up the bread in very rough pieces.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52He didn't like that.
0:16:52 > 0:16:57He said, "You must do it like my mother does it, in little cubes."
0:17:06 > 0:17:09In 1938, a year after they were married,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Dylan and Caitlin left the New Forest.
0:17:12 > 0:17:18They moved to Carmarthenshire, where Dylan's family had their roots.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Throughout his life, Dylan was at his most productive
0:17:24 > 0:17:28when he was living and writing in Wales.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31He found tranquillity and inspiration in the village of Laugharne
0:17:31 > 0:17:34on the quiet estuary of the River Taf.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
0:17:38 > 0:17:42And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
0:17:42 > 0:17:43With its horns through mist
0:17:43 > 0:17:46And the castle brown as owls
0:17:46 > 0:17:49But all the gardens
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
0:17:53 > 0:17:58Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05Dylan and Caitlin's first child, Llywelyn, was born in 1939,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09later followed by a sister, Aeronwy, and a brother, Colm.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14When Dylan wanted a break from family life,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17he'd catch up with old friends in Swansea.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19And when the pubs shut for the afternoon,
0:18:19 > 0:18:21he'd retire to Swansea Museum,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25as the museum's trainee librarian Elaine Kidwell discovered.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28I was in the library with the girl I was taking over from
0:18:28 > 0:18:33and this chap came to the door of the library, you see,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37came into the hall and he went like this.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39And she nodded, "Yes, go on."
0:18:39 > 0:18:41She said, "That's Dylan Thomas."
0:18:41 > 0:18:44She said, "He's a poet, or something.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46"He goes down to the gents
0:18:46 > 0:18:50"and he has an armchair there and he goes to sleep
0:18:50 > 0:18:53"until it's time. You may sometimes have to go down and knock the door
0:18:53 > 0:18:57"and tell him you're locking up," she said, "but he's harmless."
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Right. So, of course I wasn't a bit nervous about it
0:19:00 > 0:19:03when it was my turn, you know?
0:19:03 > 0:19:05So, I knocked the door and I thought,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09"My mother would have a fit, me knocking on the door of the gents!"
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Anyway, I said, "Mr Thomas, I'm going to lock up now.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13"Are you coming out?"
0:19:13 > 0:19:15SHE MUMBLES
0:19:15 > 0:19:21So, out he came and he was open here and his tie was there
0:19:21 > 0:19:25and he said, "Sorry, I do beg your pardon. Yes, yes..."
0:19:25 > 0:19:27"Come along," I said.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Well, I knew after a few times, I had to push him up the steps.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32I said, "Come on, come on."
0:19:32 > 0:19:35He'd go along and said, "Yes, yes, yes, yes."
0:19:35 > 0:19:37As I say, beautifully mannered.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42In 1939, Dylan published his third collection, The Map Of Love.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46But its release was overshadowed by the outbreak of war.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51Dylan, who was a pacifist, faced the prospect of conscription.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55In the spring of 1940,
0:19:55 > 0:19:57he was summoned to an Army medical examination.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02He decided that, you know, he was going to flunk this, basically,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05and so he got drunk the night before and...
0:20:05 > 0:20:09I mean, not just drunk, I mean, just paralytic,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12and he went there and, you know,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15I don't think that the Army medical officer had much choice
0:20:15 > 0:20:19but to declare that he was, funnily enough,
0:20:19 > 0:20:20not actually totally unfit for service,
0:20:20 > 0:20:26but he was put in the category C3, which meant that he was...
0:20:26 > 0:20:31he was only going to kind of be called up if, you know, the...
0:20:31 > 0:20:32at the last resort.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39But Dylan got his chance to play a part in the war effort in 1941
0:20:39 > 0:20:43when he found work in London writing propaganda films.
0:20:44 > 0:20:45In the furnaces of Llanelli,
0:20:45 > 0:20:49in the roaring cauldrons of the Swansea valley,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53in the stamp and clatter and glare of the black and red works,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55where the fires never go out,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58they fight with blinding, blazing rods and piston rams.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02They fight with the rhythm of iron forests,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04thrusting between flames.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08They fight with white-hot muscles and arms of steel.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11Dylan's documentary work
0:21:11 > 0:21:14was a valuable source of income during the war years,
0:21:14 > 0:21:15but he still struggled financially.
0:21:17 > 0:21:18When he was hard-up,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21he would do whatever he had to to make ends meet.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24Theodora FitzGibbon, Constantine's wife,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27met him coming out of her house...
0:21:28 > 0:21:32..with her little miniature sewing machine,
0:21:32 > 0:21:34which, in the war, was irreplaceable.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Of course, he was going to pawn it.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40But she met him and she said, "Dylan, what are you doing with that?"
0:21:40 > 0:21:46And he said, "Theodora, you don't think anything bad about me, do you?
0:21:46 > 0:21:51"You know I would never do anything that you're thinking of.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53"I was going to take it to have it cleaned,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55"because I saw a little rust on it."
0:21:55 > 0:21:58You know? You couldn't help laughing.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02He was always, I think, forgiven for stealing things,
0:22:02 > 0:22:07but like a small child, property meant very little to him.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11When HE had money, he was tremendously generous.
0:22:11 > 0:22:12AIR-RAID SIREN WAILS
0:22:15 > 0:22:19Living in London through the Blitz had a profound effect on Dylan.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23It can be seen in the collection of poems he published in 1946,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25called Deaths And Entrances.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Civilians were in the front line for the first time,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33and Thomas is writing about that and the new horrors of that.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35It's a very contemporary and relevant thing.
0:22:35 > 0:22:36I think it's one of the things
0:22:36 > 0:22:39that makes him an enduring and interesting poet.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43When the morning was waking over the war
0:22:43 > 0:22:47He put on his clothes and stepped out and he died,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51The locks yawned loose and a blast blew them wide,
0:22:51 > 0:22:56He dropped where he loved on the burst pavement stone
0:22:56 > 0:22:59And the funeral grains of the slaughtered floor.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04The publication of Deaths And Entrances,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06which included the poem Fern Hill,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10saw Dylan's poetry reach a popular audience for the first time.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14There is a moment recorded by one of his friends, Jack Lindsay,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18who said, "I did a reading with Dylan Thomas in early 1946,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21"and it was the usual group of, you know, bearded bohemians
0:23:21 > 0:23:25"and scroungers and hangers-on, tiny poetry audience.
0:23:25 > 0:23:26"The next time I did one,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28"it was after Deaths And Entrances had come out.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31"He'd just made a radio broadcast
0:23:31 > 0:23:35"and it was full of, you know, screaming groupies almost."
0:23:35 > 0:23:40So, he had a huge audience and he was almost a household name,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43and it happened with the publication of this volume.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46He was seen as the leading poet then,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50probably in the English-speaking world, until the time of his death.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Dylan was becoming a celebrity,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55thanks not only to Deaths And Entrances,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57but also to his appearances on the radio.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59BBC producers in Cardiff and London
0:23:59 > 0:24:02valued his gifts as an actor and narrator,
0:24:02 > 0:24:05and Dylan was soon reading his own work on air.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11The speaking voice was quite light, quite a tenor voice,
0:24:11 > 0:24:17and then you got this wonderful poetry voice, which was not baritone,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19no, but not tenor,
0:24:19 > 0:24:24but this preacher's voice of Wales, this special voice.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29August Bank Holiday - a tune on an ice-cream cornet.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32A slap of sea and a tickle of sand.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35A fanfare of sunshades opening.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40A wince and whinny of bathers dancing into deceptive water.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43A tuck of dresses. A rolling of trousers.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45A compromise of paddlers.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49A sunburn of girls and a lark of boys.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53A silent hullabaloo of balloons.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58The BBC's working culture suited Dylan perfectly.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03The people at the BBC drank a lot. Business was done in pubs.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06You know, one of the pubs was known as The Gluepot,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08because a famous conductor
0:25:08 > 0:25:11couldn't get his musicians out of the pub, so...
0:25:11 > 0:25:12You know, they loved the pub.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15He came from a culture where...
0:25:15 > 0:25:19I mean, South Wales culture, where, you know, a man...
0:25:19 > 0:25:23a man is only a man if he can hold his drink, if he...
0:25:23 > 0:25:25You know, it's not...it's not, "Ooh, he's a drinker."
0:25:25 > 0:25:28He's proud of being... "Yes, I'm with...
0:25:28 > 0:25:30"I'm in the pub with the boys,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32"oh, we had a hell of a night," and so on.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38But despite Dylan's reputation as a boozer, work always came first.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Dylan always left The George half an hour before anyone else
0:25:42 > 0:25:43and when we got back,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46he was working on his part in the studio like a real pro.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48And this is the thing people forget.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Nobody leaves a pub to go and work in a studio
0:25:52 > 0:25:55when there's convivial and good, friendly company
0:25:55 > 0:25:56and good drinking going on
0:25:56 > 0:25:58unless they're really serious about the work.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04In 1949, Dylan and Caitlin returned to Laugharne,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07where Dylan's most important patroness, Margaret Taylor,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09had bought them a home called the Boat House.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Dylan would spend his mornings answering letters
0:26:15 > 0:26:16and reading thrillers,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19before walking to Browns Hotel to meet his father
0:26:19 > 0:26:21and do The Times crossword.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25Afternoons were reserved for writing.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28He used to go into his little shed
0:26:28 > 0:26:32and scrape and scratch and mutter and mumble, intone and change,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35and he was frightfully slow, you know.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38From about two to seven, he might have done just one line
0:26:38 > 0:26:40or taken out one word or put in one word.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Dylan's daily routine didn't allow much time for parenting,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48as his daughter Aeronwy recalled.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53We were not expected to be with my father. We didn't expect it.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56If he sort of graciously condescended, as it were,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58to call us, that was something different.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01He would ask me to come and read with him or whatever,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04but he'd have his meals separately to us.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07I mean, it even went to the extent of,
0:27:07 > 0:27:09when we travelled in the train,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13he would be in one carriage reading his novels,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17usually Agatha Christie, and eating his sweets,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20and we'd be in the other, you know, part of the train with my mother.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23He was a hopeless father. I mean, couldn't have been worse.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25He just didn't want anything at all to do with the children.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Never bothered with them at all.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30But he just liked to feel... they were there, I think.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35The roles of attentive father and a material provider
0:27:35 > 0:27:37didn't come naturally to Dylan.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40We literally did have no money.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43But as soon as he got a bit, we used to drink it.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46I used to try and steal a few pounds for...
0:27:46 > 0:27:50for the Carmarthen market and dishes and pots and pans, plates and so on.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53- Steal it from the drinking money? - Yeah.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Dylan never noticed when I did.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Were you ever in total want, in absolute destitution at Laugharne?
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Yeah, constantly. Always, I think.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07Cos we put the food bills down and we put the drink on tick
0:28:07 > 0:28:11until the patroness came down and paid them off every now and then.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26But there was suddenly a glimmer of financial hope for the couple.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33In 1949, Dylan was invited to embark on a lecture tour of America
0:28:33 > 0:28:36by poet and academic John Malcolm Brinnin.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40His work was finding a market in America.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45And if you could make your mark there, there'd be lots of money.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Dylan landed in New York on the 21st of February 1950
0:28:50 > 0:28:52and gave his first reading
0:28:52 > 0:28:55at a New York poetry centre two days later.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57He was an overnight sensation.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02If you wanted to be cosmopolitan and you lived in New England,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06certainly in New York, then you had a duty to yourself
0:29:06 > 0:29:08to go and see what this phenomenon was really like.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10He mesmerised people.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14I used to sell books in America every year, go there four or five times,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17and I'd have Dylan Thomas books in my glass case,
0:29:17 > 0:29:21and the number of people who would stop, in the early days, and say,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23"We heard him read. We never forgot it."
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Dylan was feted in America,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29but the adulation and hospitality he enjoyed
0:29:29 > 0:29:32would prove damaging in the long run.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35When he's in New York, he starts drinking spirits,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38which apparently he hardly drank beforehand.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40After he read, they took him to part...
0:29:40 > 0:29:42as they poured drink down his neck.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45And, in a way, they wanted...
0:29:46 > 0:29:48..a boorish, drunken, bohemian poet.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50That's what was in their heads.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54That's the myth. And, by then, Dylan delivered it.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59As a person... he remained quite immature.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03He could be, and often was, very shy.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08And when he was shy, he tended to sort of show off or name-drop.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Dylan...
0:30:11 > 0:30:14..wanted very much for people to love him.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21And...he tried... to gain their love
0:30:21 > 0:30:23and to give them what they wished.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26There were plenty of women in America
0:30:26 > 0:30:28ready to offer their love to Dylan.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Those American women are absolutely shameless, you know.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35They were sending him flowers, you know, that kind of thing,
0:30:35 > 0:30:37you know, which really turned me up.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42And they were all over him. It really filled me with disgust.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44I don't think that he was a desperately
0:30:44 > 0:30:46sort of attractive-looking character,
0:30:46 > 0:30:49but there was something about his personality
0:30:49 > 0:30:51that, you know, he seemed to attract women.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53And I think it was also, you know,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56he was fairly direct as well, you know.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00You know, if he had a drink or two inside him, you know,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03he could be pretty clear about what he wanted, you know,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05by the end of the evening, if you know what I mean.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09I think he was the least likely lothario.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11He wanted women to cuddle up to,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14like his mother had cuddled up to him.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16His mother always had a reputation
0:31:16 > 0:31:18of having her grandchildren in bed with her.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20You know, she loved cuddling up with the kids
0:31:20 > 0:31:26and I think Dylan was always looking for an ample bosom to cuddle up to.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29On his first American tour,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32Dylan embarked on his most significant affair,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36with a junior editor from Harper's Bazaar called Pearl Kazin.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40When he returned home, she came, too.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44When Pearl Kazin followed him from America to London,
0:31:44 > 0:31:46Dylan just took her on a boat down the Thames
0:31:46 > 0:31:48and took her to weddings and parties,
0:31:48 > 0:31:52went down to Brighton for a typical dirty weekend,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55but Caitlin got to hear of all of this
0:31:55 > 0:31:59and although they were bohemian in a way,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02her pride was hurt that Dylan was doing this
0:32:02 > 0:32:04in places that she went to
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and that a lot of her friends saw him with this young American girl.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09That made me furious.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12You know, there was I slaving away in the bogs with my children
0:32:12 > 0:32:14and there was he gallivanting up
0:32:14 > 0:32:18and, you know, I was really absolutely mad with rage then.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22I should add that I was quietly trying to keep up with him,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25you know, having my revenge done with the local oafs
0:32:25 > 0:32:30and I was by no means leading a dutiful, virtuous life.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34When he wasn't there, I was drinking as much as I could and...
0:32:34 > 0:32:38behaving in a most unconventional way, to put it mildly.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40But you wanted him?
0:32:40 > 0:32:42No, I didn't want him in that sense.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45I wanted him not to betray me, but...I mean...
0:32:45 > 0:32:49It's really hard to explain. I didn't want him as a bed-mate.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51I wanted him completely faithful to me,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54like he wanted me completely faithful to him, you know.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57We both had this image of each other which was...
0:32:57 > 0:32:59quite ridiculous and romantic.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01We wanted the other one to be perfectly faithful,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04cos we knew what we did was of no importance at all.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07It was just a little physical act we forgot afterwards, you know.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10So, I was really sort of following in his footsteps,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13trying to outdo him and be worse than him.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16But I had a much smaller canvas, obviously.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18With infidelities on both sides,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22the atmosphere at the Boat House became increasingly fraught,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24particularly after closing time.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27We had the most appalling fights up in the bedroom,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29tearing him down on the ground by those curls
0:33:29 > 0:33:32and banging his head on the floor as hard as I could.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34I think I was a bit stronger than him, you know.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37And he kind of... seemed to allow me to do it.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41I think he must have fought back. I don't remember him hitting me much.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44- I was doing...- You used to fight physically with him?- Oh, God, yes.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Once I took a torch and gave him a hell of a bang on the head.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51And the other patroness, Welsh patroness, she said,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54"Do you realise you might be killing an immortal poet?" or something.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58I couldn't care.... I said, "I don't give a damn."
0:33:58 > 0:34:01In the midst of this turbulent domestic scene,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05Dylan was struggling to produce his most ambitious work -
0:34:05 > 0:34:07a project he'd been planning for years.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12He'd written the first draft of it in New Quay,
0:34:12 > 0:34:16where he and Caitlin had lived briefly during the war.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18He wrote Quite Early One Morning,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21a broadcast about New Quay waking up on a day.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25A lot of the characters for Milk Wood are first seen
0:34:25 > 0:34:28and it's down in New Quay that's inspiring him.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31And then when he gets to Laugharne, Dylan says,
0:34:31 > 0:34:36"What Laugharne needs is a play about its people, itself."
0:34:36 > 0:34:39And there he came an idea he was going to write a play called...
0:34:39 > 0:34:42or a radio script, The Town That Was Mad.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45It was about a village that didn't want, actually,
0:34:45 > 0:34:46to have anything to do with the war,
0:34:46 > 0:34:51so that the village was fenced off and considered to be insane,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54but in Dylan's eyes, the village was sane and everybody else was mad.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59Dylan mentioned his idea to radio producer Douglas Cleverdon,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02who immediately recognised its potential.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06He secured a BBC drama commission for the piece.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09The challenge was actually getting the work out of Dylan,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12because there was always a drama, there was always a crisis,
0:35:12 > 0:35:14there was always a money problem.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18He was a genius, but like all geniuses,
0:35:18 > 0:35:23needed a lot of roadies to help them achieve what they can achieve.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26And, in a way, my father was a roadie.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28Without Cleverdon, he'd never have finished it,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30he'd never have got round to it,
0:35:30 > 0:35:32but Cleverdon nagged him.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36My father, after endless periods of trying to do it,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39managed to persuade Dylan that the thing to do
0:35:39 > 0:35:42would be to lock him in the BBC library overnight
0:35:42 > 0:35:44and pay him the following morning
0:35:44 > 0:35:47by the numbers of lines that he'd written.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52And so he provided him with an enamel bucket and locked him in.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55And the following morning, came back, got Dylan,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58who'd worked all night very happily, used the bucket,
0:35:58 > 0:36:02and had produced quite a lot of the script.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04My father was thrilled
0:36:04 > 0:36:07and could see that this was the way to get Dylan to produce it.
0:36:08 > 0:36:14In 1952, during the writing of Under Milk Wood, Dylan lost his father.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Just a year earlier, he'd written a poem for DJ.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Do not go gentle into that good night,
0:36:23 > 0:36:28Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36DJ's death
0:36:36 > 0:36:41heightened his son's long-standing obsession with his own mortality.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43There's no question about it.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45He thought about death every single day of his life.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51One night, we'd gone back from the pub, Caitlin, Dylan,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54some other friends, with me and my wife, to my own home.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59And it got late and it was clearly better
0:36:59 > 0:37:01that Caitlin and Dylan stayed the night.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06But Caitlin said no, she wanted to go home at all costs,
0:37:06 > 0:37:11because she liked to wake in the mornings in her own little box
0:37:11 > 0:37:13and know exactly where she was.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15And Dylan said,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19"One morning, we'll wake in our own little boxes
0:37:19 > 0:37:22"and know all too well where we are."
0:37:22 > 0:37:27And he turned to me and he said, "I die every night,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31"and when I wake again in the morning, well, that's a bonus."
0:37:31 > 0:37:37He always said, often jokingly, but he always said, "I'll be like Keats.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39"I won't live into even middle age."
0:37:39 > 0:37:42Dylan had always been a sickly figure,
0:37:42 > 0:37:44but by the early 1950s,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47he was suffering from asthma, blackouts and gout.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52He must have known that drink had become too important,
0:37:52 > 0:37:54that he was drinking too much.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Certainly, in the last year or two,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59there had been warnings from doctors.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05He was unwell, he was exhausted, he was grieving, and...
0:38:05 > 0:38:09I think people remember Dylan at that time of his life,
0:38:09 > 0:38:13but anybody who went through what he went through that year...
0:38:13 > 0:38:17would not be behaving like they normally would.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21In 1953, Dylan made two journeys to America.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24In New York, that May, he directed and acted
0:38:24 > 0:38:28in a public performance of his work in progress, Under Milk Wood.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32His fellow actors remarked on how ill he appeared.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35By the time he came to make his second visit five months later,
0:38:35 > 0:38:39years of high-living were taking their toll on him.
0:38:39 > 0:38:44I remember seeing Dylan's passport photo and he looks OK.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46He looks like a, you know,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49approaching-middle-aged Dylan Thomas.
0:38:49 > 0:38:50But in the same passport
0:38:50 > 0:38:55was the photograph for his visa for his last trip in 1953.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00So, there's maybe five to eight years between these two photos,
0:39:00 > 0:39:02and yet it seems to me,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05if you blew those two photos up and put them side by side,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07it would tell you the story.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12The week before he went to America for the last time,
0:39:12 > 0:39:16he was walking to the station with Vernon and he said,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20"You know, Vernon, I know I've written good poems.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24"I don't know whether I've written any great ones."
0:39:31 > 0:39:35Dylan delivered his long-awaited script for Under Milk Wood
0:39:35 > 0:39:38to the BBC on the 15th of October 1953.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Four days later, he flew to America.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45He was met at New York's Idlewild Airport
0:39:45 > 0:39:48by John Malcolm Brinnin's assistant Liz Reitell,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52with whom he'd started an affair on his previous trip.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55When I saw him, I was shocked.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57He was feeling quite wretched
0:39:57 > 0:40:00and didn't even want to go out that night.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03But I began to fear that he might kill himself,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07get so ill that perhaps he might, what,
0:40:07 > 0:40:10fall down, hit his head or something.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13It was a dreadful illness that was coming.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17He would retch and...dreadful gastric problems
0:40:17 > 0:40:21and he would vomit and just be torn apart by coughing.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27On the 4th of November, after a heavy drinking session,
0:40:27 > 0:40:28Dylan fell ill.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31His private physician, Dr Milton Feltenstein,
0:40:31 > 0:40:33visited him at the Chelsea Hotel,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35where he sedated Dylan
0:40:35 > 0:40:37with an abnormally large dose of morphine sulphate.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44I suddenly felt his hand stiffen and I looked at his face.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49It was already beginning to turn blue.
0:40:49 > 0:40:56Then this sort of dreadful gasping stoppage of his normal breathing.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58"Oh, God, call the hospital, call the hospital."
0:41:01 > 0:41:04Dylan was rushed by ambulance to St Vincent's Hospital.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07He lay there in a coma for five days.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11There was a telephone call and Vernon said...
0:41:11 > 0:41:14They said, "This is The Times.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17"We want you to write an obituary for Dylan Thomas."
0:41:17 > 0:41:22And Vernon absolutely agonised. He said, "But he's not dead."
0:41:22 > 0:41:25And The Times man said, "He is dying, though."
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Caitlin flew to New York to be with her husband.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31She was drunk when she arrived at St Vincent's.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36I sat on the bed and started to roll a cigarette, you know.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39And there's all the other people behind the glass partition,
0:41:39 > 0:41:43gazing, you know, and presumably his other woman...
0:41:43 > 0:41:45I don't know if that was the Sarah one or the Liz one.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48I don't know if that's the same one, the one he was...
0:41:48 > 0:41:50living with last, anyway...
0:41:50 > 0:41:52and bringing in a lot of fans and all that
0:41:52 > 0:41:54on the other side of that partition.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58And I couldn't think what I ought to do to perform to them,
0:41:58 > 0:41:59to do the right thing.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02The last thing I was thinking about was Dylan stuck under there,
0:42:02 > 0:42:05because he didn't seem to be there at all, if you know what I mean.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07As soon as I saw him, I... I knew he wasn't there,
0:42:07 > 0:42:10that he was gone and he would never come back.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18The following day, Dylan Thomas died.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22He had just turned 39.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Though Dylan died thousands of miles from home,
0:42:34 > 0:42:37he was laid to rest in the churchyard at Laugharne.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47Two months after his death,
0:42:47 > 0:42:52the BBC broadcast the Play For Voices he'd been crafting for years.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Millions listened in to hear Richard Burton take the lead role
0:42:57 > 0:42:59in Under Milk Wood.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05To begin at the beginning:
0:43:07 > 0:43:10It is spring, moonless night in the small town,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13starless and bible-black,
0:43:13 > 0:43:15the cobblestreets silent and the hunched,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17courters'-and- rabbits' wood limping invisible
0:43:17 > 0:43:19down to the sloeblack,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22slow, black, crowblack,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25fishingboat-bobbing sea.
0:43:28 > 0:43:34People are so seduced by the stories of his wild life
0:43:34 > 0:43:38that they forget that what he was really was a poet.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44All his inner genius was in his poetry.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47If someone was putting an anthology together
0:43:47 > 0:43:51of the greatest poetry of the 20th century, or world poetry,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54two, three, four, five of those would have to be in it.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Under Milk Wood is still performed everywhere
0:43:56 > 0:44:00and the short stories are read, so that's why he's remembered,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02cos he was a great writer, and that's what we forget.