Gerald Cottle The Boss is Back

Former circus impresario, Gerry Cottle,

is one of the best-known names in the big-top business.

I never wanted to be the world's greatest trapeze artist

or anything else, or the wild animal trainer

I just wanted to be circus boss.

12 years ago, he and business partner Brian Austen

were running successful circuses across Britain.

But then they took on of the biggest gambles of their careers...

importing a new exotic show.

It can't go wrong. We actually can't afford for it to go wrong.

Nice to see you.

The cameras followed Cottle as he brought

the Chinese State Circus to Britain.

Over the course of a gruelling season,

he discovered the truth about his new investment

during a bumpy tour of the country.

A decade on, the travelling showman has finally put down roots

at the legendary cave attraction of Wookey Hole.

I honestly believe, not just showing off, that these are the most

beautiful caves in the UK.

Now, the former circus boss is back

and he's working harder than ever to pull in the crowds.

The big challenges are, you know, people don't come.

It's a hard business, we've got to take money all the time.

Wookey Hole, one of Britain's oldest tourist attractions.

In the heart of Somerset, the prehistoric limestone caves

offered safeguard to humans and wild animals for thousands of years.

Today, the site also includes a dinosaur park,

a crazy golf course and even its own hotel.

Owner Gerry Cottle thinks it's an unique attraction.

I saw the potential of Wookey Hole

being here for 100 years but had no...

not a lot of awareness.

I think we've woken it up.

And the place even comes with its own legend.

EVIL CACKLE

The famous witch of Wookey,

is a witch who used to live in these caves until the bishop

came along and sprinkled holy water on her

and she kind of put a curse on the villagers.

The whole place has got a fantastic history.

For Cottle, running a tourist attraction

marks a new stage in his life.

For most of his career, his name was synonymous with the circus.

I saw my first circus when I was eight years old and I loved it

and wanted to join it and I always wanted to be the boss.

By his early 20s, Cottle had realised his ambition.

Young lady or a gentleman over the age of 16,

Mum or Dad to volunteer...

It wasn't long before the circus boss was a household name.

Lady over there?

When we first started in 1970, we made a documentary

and we were in the front cover of the Radio Times.

I've probably done ten different documentaries, different angles,

and we're in show business, so the more our name's out there

the better it is.

Very good. Thank you very much.

By 2001, Cottle and business partner Brian Austen were on a roll.

Not content with running two travelling circuses,

they decided risk spending one and a half million pounds

on bringing the Chinese State Circus to the UK.

Yeah, we do worry about investing that kind of money

and when we say we're going to do it, we do it.

We thought there was enough towns to have three shows

and we thought we would be better bringing a circus, you know,

a different circus every three years. That way we could, kind of,

I suppose, be a bit greedy and monopolise the country in a way.

To help generate publicity for his venture, Cottle agreed

to take part in the BBC documentary series Trouble At The TOP.

The cameras followed Cottle as he struggled to sell his show.

Do any of you want tickets, by the way, while you're still in one group?

-Can we sell those?

-It's a Danny Parlet, you won't get a lot for it.

Now 12 years on, Cottle is going to relive

the experience of his own cultural revolution.

I don't remember ever seeing Chinese people not do the trick.

So many of the actions, dropping, falling.

Nobody else had ever run three big shows like we did.

We were turning over a fortune every week just to survive.

March, 2000.

The first time Cottle saw his one and a half million pound investment

in the flesh.

When we first saw them coming off the bus we thought,

"Oh, dear me, they look very young,"

and more than anything we looked at their passports quickly

and the interesting thing was that they were all 16.

This was the Chinese State Circus' first day in the UK

and Cottle went to greet them as they arrived at the compound,

their training ground before the tour began.

Mr Tiung, their interpreter, was the only one who spoke English.

OK, shall we take them and have a look? This is Mr Tiung he's in charge

-of the troupe. And the other one's Mr Pong.

-Pong?

-Pong.

You've got to say that with a straight face, haven't you?

The girls didn't seem overly impressed with their accommodation.

We'd spent a lot of time and effort and months getting ready for this.

You know, painted all the trucks, getting everything looking good.

Planning the tour, that's the most important thing in the UK,

is to go to the right town for the right show,

and, you know, we were nervous when we saw them being so young

and we thought, "Are they going to be good enough?"

Unaware of Cottle's fears, the cook and the troupe director

seem pleased with their exclusive boss wagon.

But there was an empty bunk. The trainer hadn't turned up.

Cottle and Austen had already two circuses,

the traditional Cottle And Austin Electric

and the Moscow State Circus.

Their plan was to use the new circus to fill the best venues...

but it was a gamble.

It can't go wrong. We actually can't afford for it to go wrong

because we have stretched our limits to put it together.

It was opening night at the Cottle compound.

And the pressure was on for the Chinese.

They had to pull in 7,000 people a week

for Cottle and Austen to break even.

Otherwise, at the end of the season, they would be sent back to China.

The first night was practically empty.

It looked like they were well short of target.

Year of the dragon. A brand new millennium and a brand new edition

of one of the most famous circuses in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, the incomparable Chinese State Circus.

BELL RINGS

Probably opening too soon after they arrived but, you know,

you've got to feed 30 people a day,

how long do you practise before you actually open to the public?

Trainer still hasn't arrived.

He's coming in a few days' time, because he hurt himself.

Enter the dragons. The year of the dragon gone, we're going.

Enter the gladiators.

-Find us some seats. Come on, then, do you job.

-Where's Andrew?

Close that door quick.

Bloody hell!

With no trainer, things were not going according to plan.

I don't remember ever seeing Chinese people not do the trick.

So many of the acts are dropping, falling...

I don't know if they're meant to lay down...

Cottle and Austen bought the circus on the strength

of their record-breaking act - 17 girls on a bike.

But they were starting to question if they even had the right troupe.

12, 13... They're down to 13, Brian. Hey?

11 years on, Cottle is running the Wookey Hole visitor attraction.

But it's a tough time for the tourist industry

As the crucial Christmas period approaches, Cottle needs

to entice families to his Santa Land experience.

He's meeting with manager Daniel to discuss his idea...

slashing the ticket prices by 30%.

I'd really like to try the £10 ticket.

-Cor.

-"Cor," he says, yes.

-Giving it away.

I think it's a radical move, but...

My only concern is we've got to get an awful lot more visitors

to come in to actually make up that shortfall.

Our cash flow is tight enough as it is, if we don't get the money

that we want, or if we're down, we'll have to seriously think about

laying off quite a lot of our work force.

Yeah, but I think we'll have that problem whatever happens,

if we're not careful. I think it's time for radical action,

I mean we can't just plod on.

Santa Land will be an important draw over the winter months

and Cottle is gambling on his £10 ticket deal to pull in the punters.

It's an experiment, if it works it might help us with next summer.

We might do something similar next summer.

If it doesn't work over this short Santa Land period

then we wouldn't even think about it next summer.

To generate publicity for his Santa Land, he's come up with an idea

he hopes will capture the public's imagination.

This is what we call the Big Eat.

This is a mince pie eating competition.

We just have to try to do something different to attract people.

You can put adverts in newspapers, adverts in radio and television.

But when you actually get a silly story, a fun story going around,

it creates a lot more interest.

For the contestants, it's a chance to win £1,000 -

that is, if they have the stomach for it.

Very strenuous training. I've been training all my entire life for this.

This is my moment.

I've done some stretches this morning, yes,

and I've not eaten any spiders in the last three weeks.

It's part of the course, eating lots, when you're pregnant.

So not phased, really. Quite looking forward to it.

And I've not had my mid-morning snack just in preparation for this.

The stunt is costing over £3,000, so Cottle needs to make sure

his Santa Land gets the publicity he needs.

The press is here, which is the main thing. There's quite good...

I think there's five snappers here, some of them are agencies.

What we do, we get stories all over the place. It really makes people

see that this is a fun place, it's good. All we need is Wookey Hole.

All we need all the time is just Wookey Hole, Wookey Hole.

But with minutes to go, Cottle notices a problem.

Yes, they're crumbling, yes, they are crumbling.

That's new, but maybe they'll go down a bit easier with a bit of luck.

No. As long as no-one chokes we'll be all right. They're cheap pies...

No, sorry.

The challenge was set.

Ten minutes to eat as many mince pies as possible.

ALL: Three, two, one, eat!

AUDIENCE CHEERS

The techniques were varied.

Cheating,

not making much of an effort,

And eating way too fast.

We've got a puker!

We've got our first puker, give him a round of applause.

The competition was fierce,

but halfway through, still no clear winner.

Three, two, one, give them all a cheer!

APPLAUSE

A Big Eat that ended in a dead heat.

Two contestants ate 19 pies each, and Cottle spotted a headline.

Should we have a pie-off? CHEERING

Given the choice between splitting the money or having a pie-off,

One of the winners decided to settle.

I thought it was fun, it was great.

I'd like to do a pie-off in the end, that's I would really like,

but I could see he didn't look very well.

£1,000 split between the winners.

And hopefully, the perfect photo for a front page...

Just like today, in 2000, Cottle was also thinking of ways

to advertise his Chinese circus. He was dropping in to see PR man,

Mark Brokovski, about a publicity stunt.

This is my idea, I think it will work, but you've got to pull it off.

I think what we should do is put them all in a coach, OK?

Drive them down, let's say for a press gig.

We get a driver who just goes off and leaves them behind

with a cycle and they go off, they don't speak any English,

-and they get on the motorway.

-What, all 60 on one bike?

All 60 on a bike, down that slip road from Heston services.

We've got to be careful, I mean...

We can't just, I mean, it's one thing having clowns

protesting at Heathrow Airport and custard pies in the face,

but to actually put the trick cyclists on the road.

-Gerry...

-The slip road down to the motorway...

I mean, because it would be on the traffic reports.

Can you imagine it? We tip off the AA...

I know Heston very well, and also, I've been caught for speeding

a few times, I certainly don't play with speed cops.

I certainly don't think they would seen the right thing.

You know, it's not going to get very far, is it?

No, no, sure, it's a fun story as long as there's no accidents.

That's the big, big thing. I mean, we're not going to risk an accident.

Eventually they came up with a new idea, a photo shoot

in Trafalgar Square where the girls would attempt a world record -

17 on a bike, but the Chinese were refusing to go ahead.

They feared it was too wet.

I know it's nearly impossible,

but we can attempt it, then we say it's too wet.

It's better than saying no straightaway.

Pushing the water out...

Careful, mate, that's the only one we've got.

They need to run but they can't run even on it. That's the problem.

If we don't do a great press story

when we launch a new show, it would take weeks or even months to get...

the Chinese State Circus is here in Britain ready to do a tour.

You know, I'm quite proud sometimes, one would have said

I'm the Barnum of Britain nowadays.

I think that's very much about being a showman.

It's all right having a circus, it's all right putting a musical on,

but if you don't get the public's interest by creating something a bit

different, a bit special, you're not really doing the show any justice.

Back at the big top, Cottle and Austen

discover their Trafalgar Square publicity stunt had paid off.

That was the Indie again. We got the front page of that,

that was excellent.

Yes, that was very good. I reckon we only got front page

cos she fell off.

Probably, yes. Made a good picture.

Thankfully, the extra publicity meant

the audiences were flocking in. And there was more good news...

the trainer had finally arrived.

Since the trainer's been here, it's been a lot, lot better.

I mean, it doesn't just mean he shouts at them, but he is the man

that trained them and he just stands there and he does make them do one

or two things again, and he's made all the difference in the world.

He's quite tough but they seem to like him.

See if they do 17 on the bike today,

that's the next thing we've got to get in the show.

Still not the world record, but at least the girls were up to 15.

Back at the office, Cottle and Austen met with their accountant

to discuss their debts. He was frustrated with some

of the cheap tickets they'd been handing out.

You don't charge enough. And the 50%-off reduces your prices,

but you don't get anybody complaining.

We never get anybody complaining about the show or the prices.

My wife's optician said unless 10% were complaining

about the price, she wasn't charging enough.

It must be possible to find one or two who want to earn a bit extra.

I mean, the Chinese are notorious for hard work, aren't they?

Yeah, but they're all in the show and I mean...

Yes, but I mean what are they doing in the interval?

That's another one of our growing bills of course, is yours.

-Of course.

-Accountancy is getting very expensive for us now,

with the three shows.

We keep talking about that every time we see you, the bill, don't we?

Yeah, they never get any smaller.

Never looked at ways of cutting them.

Ken Morgan's been a friend of ours since the very early days,

he's our personal accountant, he's a personal family friend

and he's absolutely right with a lot of things

he says about making money, but we are the showmen and apart from

having headline acts, gimmicks and things, we also know what happens.

We know that a lot of people can't afford the top prices

so we do have to discount.

It's always been a bone of contention, Ken would charge more.

But we think we cater for our public.

12 years on, owning Wookey Hole has allowed Cottle

to realise his dreams of creating a circus school.

The Circus School started almost four years ago, and they're

local boys and girls, and they come along two nights a week.

We experimented with this last year where we do 50 acts in 50 minutes.

I just thought, it's 50 years since I left home, ran away and joined

the circus, but also, they can all do most things but not that well,

so, rather than doing a full circus act for six or seven minutes,

they just do a minute or two minutes and we get a lot more out of it.

Today, they're rehearsing for their Santa Land performance.

Fiona is one of the main characters on their Christmas show.

I have a fairy godmother and she takes me

to places where would like to go, and there's a witch

and she gives me 50 acts in 50 minutes.

Well, there's this part where I go up some ladders,

really high ladders, but it's really scary.

Cottle has made sure his circus school is a family affair.

His grandchildren Salam and Ellen are both artists

on the show and son-in-law Willy is head coach of the school.

Having Dad as my coach, as well, it's actually quite nice,

working with the family. I really enjoy it, personally.

I really, really enjoy it, yeah.

13-year-old Salam hopes to follow in his grandfather's footsteps.

He's been in circus probably since he was 15 through now,

so has my mum, his other daughters, and so have I.

The Circus School's amazing. I love it, it's basically my life.

I'm really proud of the Circus School, I want the Circus School

to work long time.

I'd like to see boys and girls from the Wookey Hole Circus School

appearing round the world.

Back in 2000, the Chinese Circus was proving a success...

but the dangerous tricks were causing injuries

and the girls were down to only 13 on the bike.

Worse still, Cottle had made a disturbing discovery -

his Chinese performers might not be the record holders.

In one of my trade magazines, a French magazine I get,

there was 19 on a bike at some big festival overseas at some point.

So they were cheating us all the time.

THEY GIGGLE

Cottle and Austen decided to check the original video they were sent.

-They're not the same troupe.

-Brian, they probably could be, they've just

-dressed them differently.

-No, they're not. Not even the same act.

-This was just a video they sent us.

-It probably is the same troupe but

-they've dressed up like monks there.

-I mean, that's the thing you've got

to be careful of now, they send you these tapes that are out of date.

Originally, we used to go and see every act, all over the place,

but now we do go a lot more on video,

so we could be fooled much more easy, couldn't we?

-Well, that's a little boy so...

-That's not a girl.

We did say we didn't want the hot pants.

We certainly didn't want this music.

-We quite like the hot pants now, don't we?

-We did in the end, yeah.

11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,

and one on the bike is 17.

-We got diddled.

-I suppose we are a bit cheesed off.

I think we should bring it up again and see what can be done.

Yeah, we felt a little bit let down, I wouldn't say conned

but kind of misled a bit.

And, I mean, we've done that with other acts.

You know, nowadays, once you've seen the video or the DVD, nowadays

you do actually need to go and see the act itself.

As the Chinese State Circus tour came to an end, Cottle and Austen

met with their accountant to find out if their gamble had paid off.

They had to decide whether to keep the circus for another season

or send them back home.

I mean, I think you will have done better with the three

than you would have done with two.

As it happens, right this second...

Particularly, because as I sense from the information I've seen,

that the Chinese has done better than the Electric Circus.

I think the concept of the three shows,

the fact that you've got out financially, and although you

probably haven't made as much profit per show

as you were before, I think you've got to build on that for next year.

And then you could charge more realistically.

Cos if you'd had everybody coming in not on half price,

you'd have had a sensational year.

The Chinese State Circus gamble had paid off and the act continues

to tour the UK.

However, in 2003, Cottle sold his share in all three circuses

to his business partner.

A year later, Austen decided to close

the traditional Electric Circus.

We're about to open the doors for Santa Land,

we've done a lot of work on it, we've renovated the grotto,

we've practised this big Christmas circus, which is really fabulous,

I think it is, anyway. And, you know, we're all ready.

Cottle needs an extra 2,500 visitors over the Santa Land season

just to his cover costs. He hopes the £10 ticket will do the trick.

Absolutely brilliant, I mean, we paid £10 for us three

and the two little ones are free, so really good.

I was just on the internet and just came across it and thought,

well, for the price, had to come down and see what's going on.

We need to keep the figures up, you know.

That's the big question at the end of the day, keep the numbers up.

And I think we're doing it but we only do it by keep plodding away.

I think, trying to make a great excitement, you can only do that

when you do something for the first time.

When you do it year after year, it's much more difficult, and that's

the difference I've learned, running a travelling circus,

you hit the town once every three years. With Wookey Hole,

it's here 52 weeks of the year so that's much more difficult.

This is where they first go into the grotto and it's very early,

we've had a couple of families, here's another couple

of families coming up straightaway.

What's interesting, there's always about three adults to every child.

For Cottle, Santa's grotto is the attraction

he hopes will bring in the families.

For the children, it's a chance to walk into a new world

and meet Santa.

-Are you guys ready to come and see Father Christmas?

-Yeah.

Do you want to follow me?

-Hello!

-Hello!

Hello, hello, hello.

Now, what I want you to do between now and Christmas...

you've got to keep your bedroom tidy.

-Mine's always tidy.

-Yours is always tidy?

Mine is always messy.

Santa's grotto seems to be a success with the children.

Happy Christmas.

But would Santa Land be a hit with the adults, too?

What you get is amazing.

You've got everything here, you've got a circus, you've got

Father Christmas, then you got the use of the whole of Wookey Hole.

You can have a whole day out for £10 each, it's brilliant.

I think what's important about this grotto is it's permanent,

we've spent a lot of time and money building it

and all these creatures are moving all the time and it's rather lovely.

You know you go to see Santa in a garden centre and most places,

and he's in a kind of garden shed with a few decorations,

whereas here this is really done very beautifully, I think.

Don't you like the bunnies?

By the afternoon, queues are forming at the grotto.

Cottle starts to relax.

A lot of people pre-book for Santa but there's also people buying.

I think it's going very well.

The Santa Land ticket also includes a circus show.

After months of rehearsals,

the stars of the Wookey Hole Circus School are getting ready

for their big moment.

Just relax, but there are a some important people in today

so don't forget to kind of concentrate.

-Anyway, have a good show. ALL:

-Thank you!

Or as they say, break a leg.

That's a superstition. I don't like saying that.

Not with you lot, anyway.

And it's show time!

Cottle is pleased with the turn-out and delighted with his pupils.

It's a good show, isn't it? It's a very good show.

You get so much more than they see in a normal circus.

That's why, yeah.

They're so busy concentrating, they don't smile all the time.

You probably haven't noticed, but I have.

When they were doing spins on the webs, one of them let go

and one didn't. All those little things that just finish it off.

But they're great. No, they're fine.

Despite a few minor glitches, the show is a success.

But would Cottle's big gamble pay off?

Slashing the ticket prices meant Cottle needed a big increase

in the number of visitors.

He meets with manager Daniel to check on the latest figures.

I feel happier now, I felt the first hour, "Oh, dear me, it's dead,"

but I thought it was good.

It was a big gamble, reducing the price to £10 a ticket

but it has actually paid off. I didn't think it would do.

We're 30% up today and we still have a couple of hours of trading left.

We're about 50% up on bookings so far.

We're earning a bit more in souvenirs and catering

and everything else.

And I like all the staff dressed up. It's a good atmosphere

but, no, I feel good.

But facing a tough economic climate, Cottle will need

all his showman's skills to keep his family business alive.

I won't retire, I don't want to retire,

and I've never wanted to retire.

I have no interest in it, at all. I get frustrated

that live show business is in the doldrums at the moment.

But deep down, I've always wanted a circus school.

And everything that I've wanted to do, basically, I've done...

..really without any hesitation. I mean, I'm personally probably going

to put another circus back on the road, which will keep me busy

for a year or two

because I want the kids from the Circus School to go somewhere.

Like I say, I didn't come here to start a circus school,

but it's my best, my proudest achievement

and, hopefully, my legacy.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd