0:00:02 > 0:00:09This programme contains some strong language
0:00:09 > 0:00:11In the late 1950s and early '60s one British songwriter
0:00:11 > 0:00:14dominated the pop charts and the West End stage -
0:00:14 > 0:00:16the impossibly glamorous Lionel Bart.
0:00:17 > 0:00:18I mean, he was
0:00:18 > 0:00:22Britain's greatest tunesmith.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26He's one of the few guys who married pop and theatre.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30He said, "Cam, remember the magic of my music
0:00:30 > 0:00:32"is between the notes, it's not on the notes."
0:00:32 > 0:00:36He wrote Living Doll for Cliff,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38Little White Bull for Tommy,
0:00:38 > 0:00:41From Russia With Love for Bond and...
0:00:41 > 0:00:43# Ba-ba, ba-ba,
0:00:43 > 0:00:45# That's how it goes...
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Oliver, the best British musical ever.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50# They all suppose... #
0:00:50 > 0:00:52Then at the height of his fame
0:00:52 > 0:00:55he crashed down to earth with a bang.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57Hubris and extravagance brought bankruptcy
0:00:57 > 0:01:02and alcoholism followed eventually by a modest bounce back.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07A tale, then, of ambition, triumph, ruin and redemption,
0:01:07 > 0:01:12Greek tragedy with tighter trousers and catchier tunes.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15He was just the most wonderful character, he really was.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18We all had great affection for him, the public did,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22and the more into trouble he got the more they seemed to love him.
0:01:22 > 0:01:23Impossible.
0:01:23 > 0:01:24Extraordinary.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Irrepressible.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28He was my uncle.
0:01:28 > 0:01:29He was a good man.
0:01:29 > 0:01:30A mentsh.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40# If the kids get chickenpox
0:01:40 > 0:01:43# They catch it
0:01:43 > 0:01:46# If they're growing out their socks
0:01:46 > 0:01:47# They catch it
0:01:49 > 0:01:51# If the cost of living...
0:01:51 > 0:01:54Lionel Bart was born Lionel Begleiter in 1930
0:01:54 > 0:01:56in the East End of London,
0:01:56 > 0:01:59then as now one of the poorest
0:01:59 > 0:02:00and liveliest areas of Britain.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03# The rent you haven't paid
0:02:03 > 0:02:05# They catch it... #
0:02:06 > 0:02:08There were kosher butchers,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12someone taking the feathers out of kosher chickens,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15the woman saying, "Two a penny bagels,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17" Two a penny bagels,"
0:02:17 > 0:02:20all this Jewish life going on all over the place.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Synagogues everywhere,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25shows everywhere in Yiddish
0:02:25 > 0:02:30and it was a hubbub of noise and music.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38The Begleiters were a big, noisy, Jewish family.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Lionel's mother, Yetta, was a sturdy mama,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44a whirlwind who rarely left the kitchen.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46His dad, Maurice, was a tailor.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48They had seven children.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50The youngest by a long chalk,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52"the last shake of the bag" as his dad put it,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54was Lionel.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56All his life he had to have noise.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00When you went to Lionel's house he'd have a television on there,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02a radio on here, a radio on there.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04It used to drive me crazy,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07but he had to have noise because he'd always had noise.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11The brothers and sisters all yelling for attention. He was the baby.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14CHILDREN SHOUT
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Hoping to turn him into the next Yehudi Menuhin,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Lionel's dad bought him a violin and signed him up for lessons.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24His mum called the fiddle the "wailing cat"
0:03:24 > 0:03:27and binned it the second Lionel lost interest.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31And that was the end of his formal musical education.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36GEORGE FORMBY: # The other night a loving couple courting close to me...
0:03:36 > 0:03:40The informal education never stopped, though.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44At home the wireless pumped out light classics, novelty songs,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47big bands, crooners and the great American show tunes
0:03:47 > 0:03:51of Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart and the Gershwins.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55BIG-BAND MUSIC PLAYS
0:03:55 > 0:03:59There were street songs, mucky playground chants,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01music hall favourites,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03and the sounds of the synagogue.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Lionel soaked it all up like a sponge.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11SINGING
0:04:11 > 0:04:15You're brought up in a certain way and certain events take place
0:04:15 > 0:04:17and if you go to synagogue,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20it's full of great musical tunes.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24And they absolutely stay with you and you can't get rid of them.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27If you said to him, "you know...
0:04:27 > 0:04:30HE PLAYS A SCALE
0:04:30 > 0:04:32..You know where you are.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35You're in the Jewish world there, just with that scale.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44And that's the beginning for Fagin.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46# A man's got a heart, hasn't he? #
0:04:46 > 0:04:48Again a mix of minor
0:04:48 > 0:04:52which is always in the Jewish, um, melody...
0:04:55 > 0:04:56..To major.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59# A man's got a heart, hasn't he? #
0:04:59 > 0:05:02It gives that hope question. Joking apart.
0:05:02 > 0:05:03# Hasn't he?
0:05:03 > 0:05:06# And though I'd be the first one to say
0:05:06 > 0:05:08# That I wasn't a saint... #
0:05:08 > 0:05:12The soundtrack of his childhood would never leave Lionel,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15but for now destiny took him far from the East End.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17Well, a bus ride away anyway.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20At school he was described as an artistic genius
0:05:20 > 0:05:24and showed a genuine talent for painting and drawing.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27He was so good that at the age of 13 he won a scholarship to
0:05:27 > 0:05:31St Martins School of Art in the West End of London.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35There he was introduced to nude models, aerial perspective,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39mohair sweaters and, best of all, a new spiritual home.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Soho.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:05:47 > 0:05:49In the grey post-war world
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Soho was the most exciting place in Britain.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Crime, coloured shirts, foreign food,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58jazz and sex all lived in Soho
0:05:58 > 0:06:00and it was where common kids like Lionel
0:06:00 > 0:06:05felt that they too could be part of something worth doing.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07People were filled with ideas,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09it was very exciting for young people.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Also what's forgotten is that
0:06:12 > 0:06:15the radical Attlee government of '45
0:06:15 > 0:06:19had created what the snobs called the red brick universities
0:06:19 > 0:06:24and they were now pouring out writers, poets,
0:06:24 > 0:06:26musicians, songwriters.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29It was a very, very exciting time to be alive.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32After National Service in the late 1940s,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36Lionel set up a printing business with a mate, John Gorman,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38but at night Soho was still his manor.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41He was a "face".
0:06:41 > 0:06:43He hung out in coffee bars and dreamed
0:06:43 > 0:06:45and schemed of making his first million.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51His musical antenna, finely tuned to the zeitgeist,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53tingled when he heard this.
0:06:53 > 0:07:00MUSIC: "Shake Rattle and roll" by Bill Haley and His Comets.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Rock'n'roll hit British jukeboxes at the end of 1954.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10To the old and tired it sounded like the end of civilisation.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14To the young and hip it was a call to arms.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19MUSIC: "Rock Island Line" by Lonnie Donegan.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21Rock'n'roll had a hell of an impact.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26It had an excitement about it which has never been quite like that since,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28apart from the Beatles.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31I can remember the jukeboxes playing at night-time
0:07:31 > 0:07:35moving down the streets there, listening to them and it was great.
0:07:35 > 0:07:36It was a great feeling.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44When the 2Is coffee bar in Old Compton Street
0:07:44 > 0:07:47turned its cellar into a music venue
0:07:47 > 0:07:48Lionel, the Soho face,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50was one of the first through the door.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52ROCK'N'ROLL MUSIC PLAYS
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Everybody went to the 2Is.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57It was a fantastic atmosphere.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59I met Lionel Bart in the flesh.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02I think he looked what I would have called Bohemian.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04He had sandals and thongs.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Remember those sandals that wrapped round the bottom of your leg,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11a bit like a Roman centurion, I remember those.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15Lionel was never someone who could just be a spectator.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19He first talked the 2Is management into letting him decorate
0:08:19 > 0:08:20the place with arty murals
0:08:20 > 0:08:23then he formed a band and wrote a song.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26# The old-time cave dweller lived in a cave
0:08:26 > 0:08:27# Here's what he did when he wanted a rave
0:08:27 > 0:08:30# He took a stick and he drew on the wall
0:08:30 > 0:08:32# Man, a fellah had to settle for
0:08:32 > 0:08:33# Rock with the caveman
0:08:33 > 0:08:35# Shake with the caveman
0:08:35 > 0:08:37# Shake with the caveman... #
0:08:37 > 0:08:41Rock With The Caveman was Lionel's first hit,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44kick-starting the career of his friend Tommy Steele.
0:08:44 > 0:08:45Here we go.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47# C-A-V-E
0:08:47 > 0:08:52# Cavema-a-a-an! #
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Tommy was Britain's first home-grown rock'n'roll idol.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00His rise was so meteoric that just two years later
0:09:00 > 0:09:02at the venerable age of 21
0:09:02 > 0:09:05he was looking back on it on This Is Your Life.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07"We called ourselves The Cavemen."
0:09:07 > 0:09:09Lionel Bart.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Yes, it is, one of the members of the original group.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Lionel Bart, come in.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18APPLAUSE
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Lionel, you tell me what was the story of The Cavemen?
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Well, it all began in this basement, the cave,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27that's where we first met, where I first met Tommy.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31And we all got together and together with another chap called Mike Pratt
0:09:31 > 0:09:33we formed this group called The Cavemen.
0:09:33 > 0:09:34Come in, Mike Pratt.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38APPLAUSE
0:09:41 > 0:09:46# I've got a handful of songs to sing you
0:09:46 > 0:09:48# Can't stop my voice when it longs... #
0:09:48 > 0:09:53Lionel and Mike Pratt became Tommy's chief songwriters,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57turning out material for his first three films which yielded
0:09:57 > 0:09:58a clutch of hit singles.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02# There was a little white bull
0:10:02 > 0:10:05# Very sad because he was a little white bull
0:10:05 > 0:10:07# Little white bull... #
0:10:10 > 0:10:13The secret of a hit song, I suppose,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17is people know the next note coming up and almost the next word coming up.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21But you surprise them here and there
0:10:21 > 0:10:23with the wrong word and the wrong note,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26but then you get back to what they feel familiar with.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32It's not studied, it's instinctive, isn't it, really?
0:10:32 > 0:10:38# Butterfingers...#
0:10:39 > 0:10:41Lionel's songwriting facility was
0:10:41 > 0:10:46noticed by Larry Morris Parnes, Tommy Steele's first manager.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49At his Kensington flat,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Mr Parnes was grooming a small stable of young men for rock stardom.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58What perplexes a lot of people is that no training seems to be
0:10:58 > 0:11:04- needed for success.- I would disagree with you. My boys are not untrained.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08A lot of them are natural and have natural ability,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10but they do train themselves as they go along.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18The boys, Duffy Power, Vince Eager, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20were equipped with the best.
0:11:20 > 0:11:26Names by Mr Parnes, shoes by Saxone, trousers by Vince of Newburgh Street
0:11:26 > 0:11:30and songs, of course by Lionel Bart.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38# Just because I can't tame you I don't suppose I can blame you. #
0:11:38 > 0:11:42Larry fixed up a meeting so I could write the song
0:11:42 > 0:11:44and I thought there would be a grand piano
0:11:44 > 0:11:48and he would sit down and go... "Maybe we will do this."
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Play a boogie-woogie or something. But it wasn't like that at all.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58I came into his flat and there was a keyboard and it had little
0:11:58 > 0:12:02bits of paper stuck on all the notes, with numbers on, right the way up.
0:12:03 > 0:12:09And I thought, "Well, this is really strange." But that is how he wrote.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13That's how he was getting really good melody lines.
0:12:13 > 0:12:21# I'm too young to live in sorrow. #
0:12:21 > 0:12:25# So if I shower you with kisses
0:12:25 > 0:12:29# If I tell you, honey, this is...#
0:12:29 > 0:12:34Using the composition by numbers technique, Lionel provided songs for
0:12:34 > 0:12:40Adam Faith, Anthony Newly, Frankie Vaughan, Shane Fenton and Joe Brown.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Single-handedly inventing what was later called cockney rock.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49Saturday morning, what do I get? Kids. Nippers. All round my stall...
0:12:51 > 0:12:54He was the unknown history of British pop music, really,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57it didn't all start with the Beatles and the Kinks.
0:12:57 > 0:13:03I see influences in Blur, with Blur's music, a lot from Lionel Bart.
0:13:03 > 0:13:09Particularly Parklife. There's a direct link between Phil Daniels'
0:13:09 > 0:13:13vocal on Parklife and Lionel Bart's songwriting.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25His biggest hit, Lionel often claimed, was written in ten minutes,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29inspired by an ad in the back of the Sunday Pictorial.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31It made its debut in a movie showcasing a newcomer
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Lionel had spotted at the Two I's.
0:13:34 > 0:13:35Cliff Richard.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42# I'll do my best to please her She's a livin' doll...#
0:13:43 > 0:13:45TUNE IS PLUCKED ON GUITAR
0:13:47 > 0:13:52The first time we had Living Doll it was almost like a... HE SINGS THE TUNE
0:13:52 > 0:13:55that sort of like an Elvis type thing.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58It was trying to be like an English rock record.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03# Oh, take a look at her hair...#
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Cliff and The Drifters, as we were then, were on tour and Cliff
0:14:07 > 0:14:11came in and said "They want a single, from the movie."
0:14:11 > 0:14:15And I just got my guitar, for some reason I said,
0:14:15 > 0:14:17why don't we do it like this.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21# Got myself cryin', talkin', sleepin', walkin'
0:14:21 > 0:14:23# Livin' doll. #
0:14:23 > 0:14:31# Got to do my best to please her, just cos she's a livin' doll
0:14:31 > 0:14:34# Got a rovin' eye and...#
0:14:34 > 0:14:36It's a great craftsman at work here.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40It looks effortless but as Irving Berlin
0:14:40 > 0:14:43used to say, the simplest things are the hardest to write.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47And Lionel Bart had that looseness about him,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50that swagger about his lyrics as well.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Looking at the man, looking at the lyrics, they are one and the same.
0:14:54 > 0:15:01# Got myself a cryin', talkin', sweepin', walkin', living doll. #
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Living Doll, more than 50 years later, is still the one
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Cliff's fans scream for.
0:15:09 > 0:15:17# Got a rovin' eye and that is why she satisfies my soul
0:15:17 > 0:15:24# Got the one and only, walkin', talkin', living doll. #
0:15:24 > 0:15:27APPLAUSE
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Living Doll was Lionel's and Cliff's first number one.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It proved that Lionel could do pop standing on his head
0:15:37 > 0:15:41but as he said many times, his real passion was never for pop.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43It was for musical theatre.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48As a child, his parents had taken him to Yiddish theatre.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56As a teenager, his older sister had taken him to the West End
0:15:56 > 0:15:58and classic American musicals.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05She had also introduced him to the Communist Party and to Unity,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08Britain's first radical theatre company.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Its noble aim was nothing less than the overthrow of capitalism
0:16:12 > 0:16:15through drama, revue and song.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Lionel joined originally as a set painter,
0:16:18 > 0:16:21but before long he was honing his real trade.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25They were all funny comedy things which were big hits at Unity.
0:16:25 > 0:16:31He wrote a number about a Russian horse winning the Derby.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36# They're bringing a filly from the USSR...#
0:16:36 > 0:16:43That was the song about a horse winning the Derby coming from the USSR.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48# They've entered a filly from the USSR
0:16:48 > 0:16:51# It's whispered her pedigree goes back quite far...#
0:16:51 > 0:16:55In 1958, recommended by a friend at Unity, Lionel headed for
0:16:55 > 0:17:00the Theatre Royal Stratford to perform a music hall in a rundown suburb of East London.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04In spite of its unlikely location it was probably the most
0:17:04 > 0:17:07exciting place to be in British drama.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Its presiding genius was Joan Littlewood,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15one of nature's anarchists, much given to tearing up rule books,
0:17:15 > 0:17:17politically, socially and theatrically.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20She waged war on prim West End values
0:17:20 > 0:17:24and championed plays by outsiders and the disenfranchised.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28- Why don't you go out and do some touting or something? - I'm doing the best I can.
0:17:29 > 0:17:35When Lionel arrived, Joan and the company were improvising a new
0:17:35 > 0:17:40show based on a few pages of script by an ex-con called Frank Norman.
0:17:40 > 0:17:46It was set in a so-called gambling den, peopled by pimps, whores, bent coppers and razor gangs.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48- It's your fault to start with!- Mine?
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Every geezer is workin' for him, not that I ever seen him do any work...
0:17:51 > 0:17:56We put the English language on the stage as it is spoke.
0:17:56 > 0:17:57Not just by the middle class.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02And this is always, all English theatre was people talking terribly posh.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04- MOBILE BEEPS - Excuse me, my telephone,
0:18:04 > 0:18:08do you mind awfully if I turn it off? That is better.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Joan had built an extraordinary company,
0:18:13 > 0:18:19happy to follow her revolutionary lead. Lionel got it straightaway.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21And he loved it.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25They had no money, they were all on about £15 per week each,
0:18:25 > 0:18:31and I'm talking about people like Richard Harrison James Bruce, Barbara Windsor.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33And Yootha Joyce.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37And we had to do a show in two weeks.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41We had two write it, rehearse it and stage it in two weeks.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44It was called Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01All the music Lionel had soaked up in childhood came gushing out,
0:19:01 > 0:19:06"Fings" had knees up, murder ballads, patter songs, novelty songs
0:19:06 > 0:19:08and an instantly hummable title song.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11There were a couple of songs
0:19:11 > 0:19:15in Fings that have that roll out the barrel old-time music hall
0:19:15 > 0:19:20nature to them, and certainly that comes straight out of it.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23So Joan Littlewood was sitting in the theatre saying
0:19:23 > 0:19:26"I want a knees up song, I want a good time celebration song."
0:19:26 > 0:19:31And he comes out with... Any director would go, that's it, "I'm sold."
0:19:31 > 0:19:34Because you have seen it, you can feel it, you know
0:19:34 > 0:19:36exactly where you are with a song like that.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41Perfect for that. The other thing about Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be,
0:19:41 > 0:19:43as a lyric, it was quite daring.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49# There's toffs with toffee noses and poofs in coffee houses and...#
0:19:54 > 0:19:55# It used to be...
0:19:55 > 0:19:59# Class, doing a town buying a bit of ice. #
0:19:59 > 0:20:00She said,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04# And that's when her brass couldn't go down
0:20:04 > 0:20:07# At the union price, not likely
0:20:07 > 0:20:11# Once in golden days of yore ponces killed a lazy whore
0:20:11 > 0:20:17# Fings ain't wot they used t'be. # You want a second chorus?
0:20:21 > 0:20:27I think Lionel's supreme thing was his lyrics.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30There's a song that Totters Sings and it goes,
0:20:30 > 0:20:35# Layin' about 'ere is All very well, dear
0:20:35 > 0:20:41# But you'll get a fat rear from laying about
0:20:41 > 0:20:43# Get on the street. #
0:20:43 > 0:20:47Now that is, that's genius.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51The overall tone of violence
0:20:51 > 0:20:55and callousness was momentarily relieved by a solo number added
0:20:55 > 0:20:59when a young West End cabaret artist joined the company.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03It was three days before we opened, I was called to the stage
0:21:03 > 0:21:09and there was Joan and Lionel and Joan said, "'Ere, bird's egg,"
0:21:09 > 0:21:15she started calling me that. "Lionel has written a song for you."
0:21:15 > 0:21:17I said, "For me?"
0:21:17 > 0:21:23She said, "Yes, I like it and I want you to do it.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27So immediately my little theatrical brain went, "How do you want me
0:21:27 > 0:21:30"to do it? Choreographed, do I have dancing in it?"
0:21:30 > 0:21:36She said "No, no, darling. I just want you to sit on a stool and just sing it."
0:21:36 > 0:21:38"And for fuck's sake, sit on your hands.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42"No Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall, just sit on the hands."
0:21:42 > 0:21:44He giggled and giggled and looked at me and went,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48"It will be all right, it will be lovely, I will go over it with you later."
0:21:48 > 0:21:53# Where do little birds go to
0:21:53 > 0:21:58# In the wintertime
0:22:00 > 0:22:04# There'll be blizzards and snow, too
0:22:04 > 0:22:10# In the wintertime...#
0:22:10 > 0:22:14That "sit on your hands and belt it out" brashness of even the slow
0:22:14 > 0:22:18numbers made things as fierce as rock'n'roll.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21When it transferred to the West End it fulfilled Joan Littlewood's
0:22:21 > 0:22:26revolutionary aims impeccably, exploding like a hand grenade
0:22:26 > 0:22:31into the sedate world of British theatre, thrilling the young and appalling the old.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34Actress Hermione Gingold was among the appalled.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38It was shocking, I was embarrassed.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41- Were you?- Yes.- Really?- Yes.
0:22:41 > 0:22:47If you're doing a very serious play and it calls, as it sometimes does,
0:22:47 > 0:22:54for swearing or for certain shock words, it is all right, but not to get laughs.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56That I object to.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00I must tell you now that originally it was not designed to get
0:23:00 > 0:23:04laughs, here was true Cockney dialogue.
0:23:04 > 0:23:11- Language as one knew it if one had been in Soho for any length of time. - Soho?- Yes, the real Soho.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14I have shopped in Soho and I never heard anything like that.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Darling, you don't shop at the right times.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22These were still the days when all theatrical production had to
0:23:22 > 0:23:25be approved by the Lord Chamberlain.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Official theatre censor and guardian of the nation's morals.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32He drafted a seven-point letter.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37One day we were all called into the set and Lionel was there
0:23:37 > 0:23:41and Joan was there and Lionel was reading out this letter.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45I can remember the words exactly.
0:23:46 > 0:23:53"The actor playing the part of Tosher will not get the actress playing the
0:23:53 > 0:23:56"part of Rosie up against the table
0:23:56 > 0:23:59"in an attitude indicative of copulation."
0:24:00 > 0:24:03That was one sentence and the other one was,
0:24:03 > 0:24:07"The actor playing the part of the builder's labourer,
0:24:07 > 0:24:13"will not cross the stage carrying the plank at an erotic angle."
0:24:14 > 0:24:16We couldn't believe it.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19We just stood there howling with laughter,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Lionel was just crying with laughter and Joan said, "Isn't it wonderful?"
0:24:23 > 0:24:26She said "Do you think we could work it into the show?
0:24:26 > 0:24:30"Could we read it out?" We never took a blind bit of notice.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be ran for two years in the West End.
0:24:36 > 0:24:42Noel Coward saw it, Judy Garland saw it, Princess Margaret saw it.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46But for his next project Lionel upped his game and decided to
0:24:46 > 0:24:49adapt one of the great classics of English literature.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51And of British cinema.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01David Lean's 1948 film adaptation of Oliver Twist was right up
0:25:01 > 0:25:02Lionel's street.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Not unlike Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be, it was brutal,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07callous, sentimental and Jewish.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Oliver is a brilliant story.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18The great thing that Lionel did was,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21I am told he never read the book,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23but then I never read the book of Les Miserables, so he
0:25:23 > 0:25:28and I have a lot in common, but what he did do was see the film,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33the great David Lean film starring Alec Guinness and it was that that he adapted.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36He saw the kernel of the story,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39something he wanted to turn into his very particular style.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41Come on in.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47It was an act of barefaced cheek,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51for an untrained East End upstart to make a musical
0:25:51 > 0:25:54out of one of the greatest classics of English literature.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Luckily, Lionel was never short of barefaced cheek.
0:25:56 > 0:26:02We had the score and I went round with him sometimes
0:26:02 > 0:26:05to get it to get it on the radio to get some money for it.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10Of course he can't sing but he used to sort of talk his way,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14like Rex Harrison would talk his way through a song. And nobody would touch it.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16They all turned it down.
0:26:16 > 0:26:22I think the only person who took him seriously was in fact the producer Donald Albery.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25He gave Lionel the chance to do this,
0:26:25 > 0:26:31but when the show opened on its pre-London tryout in the Wimbledon Theatre,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34I think it wasn't very well received.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38# ..winding stairway without any banister...#
0:26:38 > 0:26:41All through the Wimbledon tryout, Lionel
0:26:41 > 0:26:47and director Peter Coe tinkered, cutting and adding scenes and songs.
0:26:47 > 0:26:53The West End opening on June 30, 1960 was not a sell-out.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56The smell of turkey was in the air.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59I spent a lot of the day with Lionel,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03the day it opened. I was interviewing him.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05He was as nervous, the friend of mine used to say,
0:27:05 > 0:27:10he was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Lionel walked out of the theatre once the curtain went up
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and spent most of the evening with Barbara Windsor,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21who was down the road starring in Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23And he came into our room and sat there
0:27:23 > 0:27:27and he was shaking, saying, "They're not going to like me, they're not going to like me."
0:27:27 > 0:27:29And then someone comes in, "The curtain is coming down,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32"get back to the theatre."
0:27:32 > 0:27:37His first reaction was thinking, "Oh, my God, they're booing me."
0:27:37 > 0:27:39He heard this terrible noise,
0:27:39 > 0:27:41this enormous sound coming out of the theatre.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45They were shouting, "Author! Author! Author!"
0:27:45 > 0:27:48And as he came through he thought they were shooting, "Awful! Awful!"
0:27:49 > 0:27:54And then he realised it was being given the most extraordinary ovation.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00Almost one of unparalleled success, I think it went on for about 20 minutes.
0:28:00 > 0:28:06It was the biggest, least expected hit of the year,
0:28:07 > 0:28:12I remember the crowd shaking his hand, slapping his back,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16filling the room with his nervous little twitches and smiles and grins.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20And not quite believing what was going on around him.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23# If you don't mind having to go without things
0:28:23 > 0:28:26- # It's a fine life - It's a fine life...#
0:28:26 > 0:28:31That first production ran for a record-breaking five years
0:28:31 > 0:28:35in the West End, it was a smash on Broadway and it's been running
0:28:35 > 0:28:39in one production or other somewhere in the world pretty much ever since.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43# Let the prudes look done on us Let the wide world frown on us
0:28:43 > 0:28:45# It's a fine, fine life. #
0:28:45 > 0:28:47Lionel had come a long way.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51Whereas Fings was all pastiche and parody, Oliver! was fresh
0:28:51 > 0:28:53and full of surprises.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Not bad for a one fingered pianist.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58# There's a little ditty They're singing in the city
0:28:58 > 0:29:03# Especially when I've been on the gin or the beer...#
0:29:06 > 0:29:10# I shall scream I shall scream
0:29:11 > 0:29:14# Till they hasten to my rescue I shall scream. #
0:29:15 > 0:29:18# Where
0:29:18 > 0:29:24# Where is love? #
0:29:29 > 0:29:33People go, "Oliver!, what a wonderful family musical," which it is,
0:29:33 > 0:29:38and always has been, but I think people forget how revolutionary
0:29:38 > 0:29:41that musical was when it came out in 1960.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Nobody had ever seen anything as dark and gloomy and,
0:29:44 > 0:29:51the death of Nancy at the end, Ron's extraordinary performance.
0:29:51 > 0:29:57I'm reviewing the situation
0:29:57 > 0:30:00# Can a fella be a villain all his life?
0:30:00 > 0:30:04# Oh, the trials! And tribulations!
0:30:04 > 0:30:08# Better settle down and get myself a wife. #
0:30:08 > 0:30:10The role of Fagin was created by Ron Moody
0:30:10 > 0:30:13and he's reprised it several times since.
0:30:13 > 0:30:18Like Hamlet, it's a part that every spirited actor wants a crack at.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20Roy Hudd's turn came in 1977.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24# I think I better think it out again. #
0:30:24 > 0:30:29To play Fagin was a terrific treat, and we were talking once
0:30:29 > 0:30:33and Lionel said to me, "You are very good in this, you know."
0:30:33 > 0:30:34I said, "Thanks for that."
0:30:34 > 0:30:39He said, "You don't play him like so many do, like Father Christmas."
0:30:39 > 0:30:43He said "He ain't Father Christmas, he's anything but Father Christmas."
0:30:43 > 0:30:45"He's an evil old sod."
0:30:45 > 0:30:48But in that song it's the one time
0:30:48 > 0:30:52when Fagin displays any sort of human feelings at all.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58# What happens when I'm 70? #
0:30:58 > 0:31:05Jesus, there must come a time, 70, when you're old or you're cold and who cares if you live or die?
0:31:07 > 0:31:12The one consolation is... the money you may have put by!
0:31:12 > 0:31:15And suddenly he is off again with optimism.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20Lionel's undoubted favourite song from the Oliver! score was
0:31:20 > 0:31:23the big Act 2 show stopper, As Long As He Needs Me.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30# I'll cling on steadfastly
0:31:30 > 0:31:35# As long as he needs me
0:31:35 > 0:31:40# As long as life is long
0:31:40 > 0:31:45# I'll love him, right or wrong
0:31:45 > 0:31:50# And somehow I'll be strong
0:31:50 > 0:31:55# As long as he needs me...#
0:31:58 > 0:32:01Over the past couple of decades, the Sylvia Young Theatre School has
0:32:01 > 0:32:06provided a reliable flow of talent to various productions of Oliver.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09# ...sooooo
0:32:09 > 0:32:15# I won't betray his trust...#
0:32:15 > 0:32:17OK, lovely. Good build.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20Now we are building to the real passionate part,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24the point where we get closer to her emotion, her true emotion.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27Now Bart does something clever here.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31You don't even know how clever it is, I suspect.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34Let's see if we can work it out, what he does.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40Of all the songs in Oliver!, and there are some fine numbers, I think
0:32:40 > 0:32:43this one stands out so much because a lot of his numbers,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46you want to move to and you want to, you want to jig along with,
0:32:46 > 0:32:51if you like but this one makes you sit and listen.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53What happens at this point?
0:32:53 > 0:32:56HE PLAYS PIANO
0:32:56 > 0:33:00You will all recognise that, it is quite common at the end of a song.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02- There's a key change.- There is a key change.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05It's used a lot. It gives the song a little bit of lift.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08It gives it a new direction at the end. It's a wonderful key change.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11Anyone want to have a guess how many semitones it is?
0:33:11 > 0:33:15- Anyone have a great ear? - It's not a third, is it?
0:33:15 > 0:33:19It is, it is three semitones which I have to tell you, is not that common.
0:33:19 > 0:33:24OK, let's go back to # When someone needs you...
0:33:24 > 0:33:29# You love them so
0:33:29 > 0:33:35# I won't betray his trust...#
0:33:35 > 0:33:37There are thousands of musicians,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41thousands upon thousands who have tried to create, even taken this
0:33:41 > 0:33:44as their starting point, I see how this works, you have that and then
0:33:44 > 0:33:48you have a new idea and then you come back and you build it and it goes up.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50And it doesn't work.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54If you wanted to have an example of magic in music or
0:33:54 > 0:33:56magic in art, it's here.
0:33:56 > 0:34:02# Meeeeeeee. #
0:34:06 > 0:34:10# When the big times come I'm gonna have me some
0:34:10 > 0:34:14# I'm gonna do the things My daddy never done
0:34:14 > 0:34:19# I'm gonna get rich quick And you're a lucky chick
0:34:19 > 0:34:24# If you're around when I'm big time. #
0:34:24 > 0:34:28With a catalogue of smash hits under his belt, two nose jobs
0:34:28 > 0:34:30and only the ears still needing attention,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34Lionel was rapidly assuming ownership of the 1960s.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36He made it his business to know everybody.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40But among the photo ops,
0:34:40 > 0:34:44some genuine and long-lasting friendships developed.
0:34:44 > 0:34:45There is this phone call,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49the phone goes and the voice says "Hello, this is Noel."
0:34:49 > 0:34:53I said "Noel who?" "Coward you Cockney C..."
0:34:53 > 0:34:56Which is alliteration, right?
0:35:00 > 0:35:03Noel Coward became a mentor to Lionel,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06advising him on how to write lyrics, what to do with money
0:35:06 > 0:35:10and the even more tricky question of surviving in a world where
0:35:10 > 0:35:13you could still get sent to jail for being gay.
0:35:13 > 0:35:19In those days you didn't dare mention it and that was a big problem for him
0:35:19 > 0:35:21because, being in a big family, always saying "When will you get
0:35:21 > 0:35:26"a girlfriend?" You're under a lot of pressure from your peers.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31# What am I gonna do about the "I love you" bit? #
0:35:31 > 0:35:35One of his closest friends was the song stylist Alma Cogan.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39She once proposed to him on live TV, but both of them were in on the joke.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44- # The "I love you" bit - I love you. #
0:35:44 > 0:35:48He said to me once and I had never heard the phrase before,
0:35:48 > 0:35:49he said, "You know, the thing is
0:35:49 > 0:35:53"when you're gay, you've either got to be pretty or witty."
0:35:53 > 0:35:56He said, "I am pretty witty."
0:35:56 > 0:35:59He was making nine quid a minute even
0:35:59 > 0:36:02when he was sitting in the bath and God knows he spent.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Lionel was a fool for innovative suits,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08dangerous hats and breathtaking cars.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11One day, he said to me, "Here, Vic, come on, I'll give you a lift!"
0:36:11 > 0:36:15And he had this car, it was like getting into the cockpit of a plane.
0:36:15 > 0:36:16"Voom!"
0:36:16 > 0:36:21We got in this thing. "Voom! Voom!" I said, "Where we going to go?"
0:36:21 > 0:36:23He said, "Up Wardour Street."
0:36:23 > 0:36:28And I said, "Oh, why?" He said, "Cos all the faces are in Wardour Street!
0:36:28 > 0:36:30"All the faces!
0:36:30 > 0:36:34"I'm going to lock off one end of Wardour Street and lock off the other
0:36:34 > 0:36:36"and have all them faces!"
0:36:36 > 0:36:41"Voom! Voom!" IMITATES AN ENGINE PURRING
0:36:41 > 0:36:45MUSICAL INTRO PLAYS
0:36:45 > 0:36:48# Who's this geezer Hitler?
0:36:48 > 0:36:51# Who does he think he is? #
0:36:51 > 0:36:54The shows got bigger and bolder.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57For the follow up to Oliver!, he restaged the Second World War,
0:36:57 > 0:36:59only this time, as Noel Coward put it,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03"making it twice as long and twice as loud as the real thing."
0:37:03 > 0:37:05# ..he would disappear! #
0:37:05 > 0:37:09By now, the collaboration between Lionel and the set designer,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12Sean Kenny, had warmed to a close friendship.
0:37:12 > 0:37:17A former architect, Sean loved to inspire awe.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19AIR RAID SIRENS BLARE
0:37:19 > 0:37:21BOMBS FALL
0:37:21 > 0:37:25The opening sequence of London being bombed,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28you saw people rushing onto the Bank station,
0:37:28 > 0:37:30on the front of the stage, during the overture,
0:37:30 > 0:37:35and suddenly, the entire front of the stage lifted 30 foot in the air,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38revealing behind it the spiral staircases,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42for people to get down to the platforms, and during it,
0:37:42 > 0:37:48trains rushing onto the stage at 30mph disgorging passengers.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51And it was absolutely amazing!
0:37:51 > 0:37:54# Look at me carrying on
0:37:54 > 0:37:56# Look at him carrying on... #
0:37:56 > 0:38:00In 1962, Lionel and Sean Kenny headed for Liverpool,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04where they worked with local writer Alun Owen on Maggie May,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06a folk opera set in the docks.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10It was clever, ambitious and ahead of its time.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12But neither Blitz nor Maggie May
0:38:12 > 0:38:16could ever match the commercial success of Oliver!
0:38:16 > 0:38:19Lionel nevertheless maintained a relentless work rate.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24In 1963, film producer Cubby Broccoli commissioned him
0:38:24 > 0:38:27to write the theme song for the second Bond movie.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30INTRO PLAYS TO: "From Russia With Love"
0:38:34 > 0:38:40# From Russia with love
0:38:41 > 0:38:45# I fly to you... #
0:38:45 > 0:38:51'I was managing Matt Monro at the time and it was a great marriage.'
0:38:51 > 0:38:53I love the way Matt sings it and, er,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56and I thought Lionel was terrific in that.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58It was quite a different thing for Lionel Bart,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01to do a straightforward commissioned work.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04SONG CONTINUES
0:39:04 > 0:39:09Lionel polished and repolished the lyrics endlessly.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13# ..from Russia with love... #
0:39:13 > 0:39:16I used to joke with him and say, "Lionel, that's a great rhyme!
0:39:16 > 0:39:20"How did you get 'tongue-tied young pride' in there?" You know. He says,
0:39:20 > 0:39:23"Yes, darling, well, I told ya, I'm a bit of a word juggla!"
0:39:26 > 0:39:30# That was the week that was! Floods from Newton Abbot to... #
0:39:30 > 0:39:33Not everybody was so impressed.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37Lionel had grown too successful, too prolific, too popular.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39The backlash had to come.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43# Consider yourselves in luck! # AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Those terribly satirical people who did
0:39:45 > 0:39:49That Was The Week That Was on the BBC were merciless.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51# ..so much... #
0:39:51 > 0:39:54APPLAUSE
0:39:54 > 0:39:56I'd like you, if you would, to comment
0:39:56 > 0:39:58on one or two of the things you've said, may I?
0:39:58 > 0:40:01He says, "People like what's familiar," said Mr Bart.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04"They're thinking a note ahead every time they hear a tune,
0:40:04 > 0:40:06"a word ahead when they listen to a lyric.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10"All I do is to let them feel both are familiar, recognised like,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14"then give them a little surprise by changing the phrase."
0:40:14 > 0:40:16Don't you owe them more than that, Mr Bart?
0:40:16 > 0:40:19- You know, just one changed phrase, surely?- Well...
0:40:19 > 0:40:21- I don't owe them anything, they don't owe me anything.- Ah!
0:40:21 > 0:40:25They like what I do? I'm delighted. If they don't, that's just too bad.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Lionel didn't actually need anyone to tell him
0:40:27 > 0:40:31he was an East End upstart with one-finger piano skills.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35His success was already fuelling dangerous insecurities.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39The response was, once again, to up the stakes.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44# A London cab goes, "Bang!" An armoured suit goes, "Clang!" #
0:40:44 > 0:40:48Twang!! was a big budget spectacular take on the Robin Hood story,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52designed to bludgeon his detractors into submission.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54# ..that is the sound you set... #
0:40:54 > 0:40:56You get this phone call, Lionel's doing a musical.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59We'd been waiting for him to do a new musical, you see,
0:40:59 > 0:41:02and it's all going to be about Robin Hood, sounded a good idea,
0:41:02 > 0:41:07Robin Hood, you know, and, er...and...
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Bernard Delfont was the producer.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Paddy Stone, the great Paddy Stone, choreographer.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16Oliver Messel was going to do the costumes.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Joan Littlewood was directing.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22There was going to be Jimmy Booth, er, me,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26Bernie Bresslaw, Ronnie Corbett.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29It shouldn't have gone wrong. It should never have gone wrong.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32The chemistry, the creative chemistry,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36that was set up for the original production
0:41:36 > 0:41:40did not mix, it exploded, in the wrong way,
0:41:40 > 0:41:42and, er...
0:41:42 > 0:41:44we weren't working as a team.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49The rubble left by that chemical explosion
0:41:49 > 0:41:51had to be reassembled everyday.
0:41:51 > 0:41:56New lines, new songs, new scenes, new story!
0:41:56 > 0:42:00Overall, how many changes, how much rewriting has been done at it?
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Absolutely everything!
0:42:03 > 0:42:05I don't do anything the same.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08Well, I was down there this morning watching one scene being changed at
0:42:08 > 0:42:11- the 11th hour? You start tomorrow? - I'm on my most unfortunate day,
0:42:11 > 0:42:15cos every one of my scenes have been changed at this time, you know.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17How do you cope with this change? I mean, how do you make sure
0:42:17 > 0:42:19you don't put the wrong lines in the wrong place?
0:42:19 > 0:42:21What we do is write it on the scenery.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24Oliver Messel's going to have a fit when he sees his scenery,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27because we've got all dialogue written, you know.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32There was a chap we knew and he said,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35"Is it all right, Joan, if I just go to the loo?"
0:42:35 > 0:42:38You know, so she said, "Yes, go on." So they carried on rehearsing
0:42:38 > 0:42:40and he came back in and he said, "Where were we?"
0:42:40 > 0:42:43She said, "No, I'm sorry, we cut your scene out."
0:42:43 > 0:42:45He said, "Blimey, good job I didn't have a crap,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48"I'd have been out the show altogether!"
0:42:48 > 0:42:50HE LAUGHS: That's what was happening, though!
0:42:50 > 0:42:54It was chaos! LAUGHTER CONTINUES
0:42:54 > 0:42:58After a disastrous pre-West End tryout in Manchester,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01Joan Littlewood jumped ship, along with Oliver Messel
0:43:01 > 0:43:05and the show's producers, but Lionel soldiered on, fuelled by
0:43:05 > 0:43:09hope, grit and a selection of top quality pharmaceuticals.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11Take a step and kneel, all right.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14He brought in a Broadway show doctor
0:43:14 > 0:43:18and kept everything afloat with truckloads of his own money.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21You, fall on the ground and go like that.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24'To use your own money'
0:43:24 > 0:43:29to bring in a show that your own intelligence
0:43:29 > 0:43:33tells you, beyond question, it's going to fail
0:43:33 > 0:43:36represents a psychological enigma...
0:43:38 > 0:43:42..that, um, it would take a team of psychiatrists
0:43:42 > 0:43:46sitting around the couch to even get close to.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49He just thought this was going to work.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51You couldn't talk to him at all.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54I mean, even when I spent a couple of days with him in his flat,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56he said, "Everything was going to be all right, it's great!
0:43:56 > 0:43:58"They'll love it! They'll love it!"
0:43:58 > 0:44:01You see, and that's what... And he wouldn't listen.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03He just wouldn't listen!
0:44:03 > 0:44:06# ..the mission bells once rang... #
0:44:06 > 0:44:09The London opening was at the Shaftesbury Theatre
0:44:09 > 0:44:12on the 20th of December 1965.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16The stars turned out to witness a crucifixion.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18I was there the opening night
0:44:18 > 0:44:22and I think McCartney was on the same row as me.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Because, by then, all the young emerging artists
0:44:25 > 0:44:29were encouraged to go and see Lionel Bart musicals.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34And, um, the gowns were sort of flowing and Maid Marian's
0:44:34 > 0:44:37caught on a nail on one of the sets and all the set fell down.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39A glorious disaster.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43Oh, God, what an opening night that was!
0:44:43 > 0:44:46They just yelled at us, screaming, "Get off!" Oh, God!
0:44:46 > 0:44:50And I always remember, in the middle of this, Danny LaRue standing up,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53saying, "Give them a chance, it's not their fault!" Oh, it was...
0:44:53 > 0:44:56You...you had to be there!
0:44:56 > 0:44:58The headlines said it all.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00The Sun went, "Clang!!"
0:45:00 > 0:45:03The Sketch went, "Boo, boo, boo for Bart!"
0:45:03 > 0:45:05And the Daily Express?
0:45:05 > 0:45:12"Twang" two exclamation points, "..goes Plonk" two exclamation points.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15I didn't write the headline, but, um,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19the general drift of my review was, "I was hoping for a miracle."
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Lionel, in a way, did not forgive me for those words
0:45:23 > 0:45:27and, to the end of his life, every now and then, he would say...
0:45:27 > 0:45:31"You were hoping for a miracle." It stuck deep in him.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35Twang!! limped on for a month of empty houses
0:45:35 > 0:45:39before Lionel was finally forced to admit defeat.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44# What is happy for some may bring others down low
0:45:44 > 0:45:46# What is man?
0:45:46 > 0:45:49# Contrary!
0:45:49 > 0:45:51# He is fish, fowl and flea
0:45:51 > 0:45:54# He is both you and me
0:45:54 > 0:45:57# He is everything that ever was... #
0:45:57 > 0:46:01To lick his wounds, he retired to his other grand folly.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04He'd bought a Victorian pile in Chelsea
0:46:04 > 0:46:07and, at ruinous cost, remodelled it in a style
0:46:07 > 0:46:12combining baronial Gothic with cutting edge technology.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17He had a big living area with a piano in it and stuff and he had...
0:46:17 > 0:46:20I think he had, like, suits of armour going up the stairs,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22things like that, and a big massive lampshade.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27He had a TV in the wall, with a remote control.
0:46:27 > 0:46:28And, at the time, that's rare.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Everybody called it "The Fun Palace", a place
0:46:32 > 0:46:37in permanent party mode, where the drinks were always on Lionel.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40I met a guy once and he said to me, "Oh, you're Lionel Bart's nephew?"
0:46:40 > 0:46:44I said, "Yeah." He said, "I went to a party at Lionel Bart's house once.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46"I went in there Wednesday and came out Saturday.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48"My wife called the police!"
0:46:48 > 0:46:51He liked showing off, you know, he had the dough!
0:46:51 > 0:46:55And this is a fun time, it's the '60s, everybody was swinging!
0:46:55 > 0:46:58Every night was party night!
0:46:58 > 0:47:03You know, we all got stoned and...and...lived it up!
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Lionel continued to spend with reckless abandon.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13His generosity and gullibility were legendary.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18I mean, he'd get a young chap, a boyfriend, for a weekend,
0:47:18 > 0:47:20and give him a sports car!
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Now, if you're going to do that kind of spending...
0:47:24 > 0:47:26..you're on the way down.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Only Oliver! continued to go from strength to strength.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33In 1969, Oliver! the movie won six Oscars,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36including Best Original Score.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40Universal Studios presented Lionel with the keys to Hollywood,
0:47:40 > 0:47:44including the little one for the drinks cabinet.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48When he first went to Hollywood, they give him anything he wanted!
0:47:48 > 0:47:50The big offices!
0:47:50 > 0:47:53"I had this huge office, Vic! I didn't know what to do, so I says,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55"'I think I need a gorilla in here, a big stuffed toy!'"
0:47:55 > 0:47:57And they got him one!
0:47:57 > 0:47:59So he sat at the desk with a gorilla next to him.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Didn't do anything when he was there,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04except go around and see everybody and have a good time.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08If he'd have done the work, then, you know,
0:48:08 > 0:48:11they might have carried it on, but they said, "Where's the work?
0:48:11 > 0:48:14"Where's the piece you're supposed to be writing?" "It's all up here."
0:48:14 > 0:48:17"No, no, that's not good enough," you know, "On your bike."
0:48:19 > 0:48:21AEROPLANE ENGINE ROARS
0:48:21 > 0:48:25# George Alfred Blake... #
0:48:25 > 0:48:30Back in England, it seemed as if his whole life was going, "Twang!!"
0:48:30 > 0:48:33He bought every round, he handed out presents.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37And to fund it, he sold first The Fun Palace, then,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41piece by piece, the rights to Oliver! and his back catalogue.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43Why do we behave the way we do?
0:48:43 > 0:48:45We spend our lives trying to work it out.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49And Lionel just had...
0:48:49 > 0:48:52the self-destruct button...
0:48:52 > 0:48:57far too close to hand. He just had to reach out with his thumb...
0:48:57 > 0:48:59and press it.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02HE PLAYS "Where is Love?"
0:49:06 > 0:49:09By 1972, he was a certified bankrupt.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13He played even poverty to the gallery, though, presenting himself
0:49:13 > 0:49:18on BBC's Nationwide as a vagrant, left only with rags and rubble
0:49:18 > 0:49:21and the winsome shreds of a half-remembered tune.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26He was no good with money. No good at all.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28He hadn't got a clue.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32I mean, that's why he sold rights to shows on the back of fag packets,
0:49:32 > 0:49:35so he could buy another round of drinks, for God's sake!
0:49:35 > 0:49:38And he always believed, Lionel, you see, and so do I,
0:49:38 > 0:49:43if he'd handled himself properly, he would've written another Oliver!
0:49:43 > 0:49:46He always believed he could, he'd done it once,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48why not time and time again?
0:49:49 > 0:49:51And so, he kept on trying.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54He kissed and made up with Joan Littlewood
0:49:54 > 0:49:57and went back to his roots with The Londoners at Stratford East,
0:49:57 > 0:49:59a brave attempt to recapture
0:49:59 > 0:50:01the freshness of Fings Ain't What They Used T'Be.
0:50:01 > 0:50:06# Seven years bad luck if you break a looking glass, they say
0:50:06 > 0:50:09# Well, I've heard 'em say Well, that's what they say... #
0:50:09 > 0:50:13It's like a shadow of Lionel Bart at his best.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16Of course, it was enjoyable and it was great to see him,
0:50:16 > 0:50:18but it didn't signal a renaissance
0:50:18 > 0:50:23or a return, it signalled, um, a farewell, really.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27There were personal setbacks too.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Between 1966 and 1973, he lost both his parents
0:50:31 > 0:50:33and many of his closest friends.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Alma Cogan...
0:50:36 > 0:50:38Noel Coward...
0:50:38 > 0:50:41Judy Garland...
0:50:41 > 0:50:44Sean Kenny. They all died.
0:50:44 > 0:50:45And he was drinking so much,
0:50:45 > 0:50:48it looked likely he'd be next on the list.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53I mean, he used to say to me he forgot 14, er, 15 years of his life.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55He says, "I don't remember, love, anything about it."
0:50:55 > 0:50:59He said, and I'll do a bad impression of Lionel here, he said,
0:50:59 > 0:51:03"I got lost somewhere between, er, vodka and vine, dear.
0:51:03 > 0:51:04"Between vodka and vine!"
0:51:04 > 0:51:12# You've got to know Got to know where you're going... #
0:51:12 > 0:51:15He was literally going west,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18from fashionable Chelsea, he moved first to Fulham,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20then to Shepherd's Bush,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24before finally fetching up in a first-floor flat in Acton.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26There used to be an off-licence on the corner
0:51:26 > 0:51:29and there's one next door still, so his joke was,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32"I only moved there because it was between two off-licences,"
0:51:32 > 0:51:34because it was easy for him to get booze, you know,
0:51:34 > 0:51:38when he was on the sauce, you know, so that was a family joke, you know.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41# You mustn't show... #
0:51:41 > 0:51:45He never stopped working, but now, other activities took priority.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50If you're staying up most of the night,
0:51:50 > 0:51:53and you're getting stoned, and you're drinking too much,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56and you're worrying about sex and getting sex,
0:51:56 > 0:52:01and organising it and arranging it, this, that,
0:52:01 > 0:52:03when do you write?
0:52:03 > 0:52:06# And draws her dream... #
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I don't think any alcoholic knows really why they drink.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11It's, er, it's an invisible line you cross.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13Either you are, or you aren't,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16but once you've crossed it, there's no going back.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18Lionel got up to, um, I think in excess
0:52:18 > 0:52:22of a couple of bottles of brandy, a couple of bottles of vodka a day,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25and that's heavy drinking.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27Something has to give.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32He was a very intelligent man and he said,
0:52:32 > 0:52:34"This is outrageous, I'm losing everything,
0:52:34 > 0:52:38"and I look at myself in the mirror and I don't like what I see."
0:52:38 > 0:52:41You know, "I've got nothing to wear!" He had no clothes!
0:52:41 > 0:52:43He couldn't afford anything!
0:52:43 > 0:52:45The bed had to have bricks put underneath it,
0:52:45 > 0:52:49because it was broken, a couple of house bricks to hold it up!
0:52:49 > 0:52:51He hadn't bought any sheets in ages!
0:52:51 > 0:52:53Everything was burnt, cos he burnt all the sheets
0:52:53 > 0:52:55with the cigarette smoking, that sort of thing!
0:52:55 > 0:52:58I mean, he was becoming like a derelict!
0:52:58 > 0:53:00And he just said, "This can't go on!"
0:53:01 > 0:53:06The remarkable thing was that so many of his friends stuck by him.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08In the early '80s, with their help,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11Lionel started on the slow process of rehab.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13There were clinics, counselling, crises,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17before he finally pulled himself back into the real world.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21In 1989, he signalled his return with this!
0:53:21 > 0:53:25# Something for the drive... # WHISTLING
0:53:25 > 0:53:28# Something for the beach
0:53:29 > 0:53:33- # Have a dip inside - It's all within the reach... #
0:53:33 > 0:53:37It was the start of a modest, but extraordinary comeback,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41writing and starring in this commercial for the Abbey National.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46The song was classic Bart - catchy, simple and seemingly effortless.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51I'd not seen him for ages and, suddenly, there he was!
0:53:51 > 0:53:55And we all thought, "Oh, good, everything's OK again," you know.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58- # Think of what you have got - Doo-doo, doodle-ee-doo!
0:53:58 > 0:54:02- # Instead of what you have not - Doo-doo, doodle-ee-doo! #
0:54:02 > 0:54:06Retitled Happy Endings, it was released as a single.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11It only made number 68 in the charts, but it was widely whistled.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13- ALL: # ..now! Now! # - CHILD: # Now-oh! #
0:54:13 > 0:54:18'Happy Endings, for me, was magic. All the other songs'
0:54:18 > 0:54:20were wonderful, don't get me wrong,
0:54:20 > 0:54:23but that song, I thought, he showed that,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26after all those years, he still had it in him
0:54:26 > 0:54:29to come up with a great melody line.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33- As a song, it stood out. - SONG CONTINUES
0:54:33 > 0:54:37Sober and smiling, he started proper work on big projects
0:54:37 > 0:54:40that had been gathering dust for years.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Quasimodo, based on the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46La Strada, based on the Fellini film.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48And Gulliver's Travels.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51But the public still bayed for the old hits.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55So, in 1993, Cameron Mackintosh announced a major new production
0:54:55 > 0:54:58of Oliver!, with new sets, new orchestrations,
0:54:58 > 0:55:02a budget of £4 million, a young hotshot director, Sam Mendes,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06choreographer Matthew Bourne and Lionel, back on board
0:55:06 > 0:55:09- to make the changes required. - CAST SINGING
0:55:09 > 0:55:13# ..always the chance to be somebody to foot the bill... #
0:55:13 > 0:55:15Lionel was working!
0:55:15 > 0:55:19He was eating, rather than drinking, and he was happy.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23By then, Cameron Mackintosh had become co-owner of Lionel's rights
0:55:23 > 0:55:26to Oliver!, on the condition, which was readily agreed,
0:55:26 > 0:55:30that Lionel would be given back a share of his royalties.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34# ..one of us! # MUSIC STOPS
0:55:34 > 0:55:36CHEERING
0:55:36 > 0:55:38Cameron Mackintosh didn't have to do that.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40He did it as an act of kindness.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45That gave back Lionel his dignity and it gave him a purpose in life.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Um, Oliver! was back, and he had money again.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51HARMONISING
0:55:51 > 0:55:55'I can't imagine, however much he was to blame, how awful it must be'
0:55:55 > 0:55:59to have created something so extraordinary,
0:55:59 > 0:56:04and so affecting as Oliver!, and not feel you own it any more.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06CHEERING
0:56:06 > 0:56:08- GLORIA HUNNIFORD:- Will you welcome
0:56:08 > 0:56:11the man responsible for all these wonderful songs? Lionel Bart!
0:56:11 > 0:56:12APPLAUSE
0:56:12 > 0:56:14BAND PLAYS: "Consider Yourself"
0:56:18 > 0:56:22He'd reached, near as dammit, a form of serenity,
0:56:22 > 0:56:23slotting himself comfortably
0:56:23 > 0:56:27into his new role of elder statesman of musical theatre.
0:56:27 > 0:56:34# And when that happens I'm gonna hold you... #
0:56:34 > 0:56:38'The last few years, he did start enjoying himself'
0:56:38 > 0:56:40and it was a joy to see it!
0:56:40 > 0:56:45'He started really valuing his life.'
0:56:45 > 0:56:53# ..again! #
0:56:53 > 0:56:56APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:56:59 > 0:57:04But the years lost to drink and drugs had taken their toll.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08'In the last few years of his life, he was a very sick man at the end.'
0:57:08 > 0:57:12But he'd wrecked his body and his mind with, er...
0:57:12 > 0:57:14He had an overdose of life, really.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19One of the country's most popular songwriters, Lionel Bart,
0:57:19 > 0:57:21has died at a London hospital.
0:57:21 > 0:57:23- # What can you do... # - 'He was 68.'
0:57:23 > 0:57:26# And what have you got to be a performer? #
0:57:26 > 0:57:28HE HARMONISES
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Lionel Bart's songs have buried themselves
0:57:31 > 0:57:36deep in the collective unconscious. They never were high art
0:57:36 > 0:57:40or anything like it. They were so much better than that.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43So let us be proud of Lionel and let Lionel, at last,
0:57:43 > 0:57:47be properly proud of himself.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51'If Lionel was here now, and you were making a documentary about it,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54'he'd pretend, "Oh, darling, I don't want all that.'
0:57:54 > 0:57:58"Don't be silly." But deep down, he would be loving it.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00Because we're in show business!
0:58:00 > 0:58:02Yeah, he would be pleased, yeah, yeah.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04Probably wouldn't be too pleased with some of the things I said,
0:58:04 > 0:58:06but he'd know it was all true anyway!
0:58:06 > 0:58:08Oh, he'd tell you to fuck off!
0:58:08 > 0:58:12But then, at the same time, he'd hog the camera.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15He'd say, "Well, nah, none of you know anything.
0:58:17 > 0:58:18"Don't know nothing.
0:58:20 > 0:58:21"You don't know me."
0:58:27 > 0:58:31# Isn't this where we came in Isn't this where we found out
0:58:31 > 0:58:32# What the picture's all about?
0:58:32 > 0:58:35# Let's get up, get out and shout!
0:58:35 > 0:58:39# To the lovers lining up Is it worth the agent's price?
0:58:39 > 0:58:43# Yes, the happy days were nice Now why see the thing round twice?
0:58:43 > 0:58:46# Yeah, she does break down and cry Yes, he leaves her on the floor
0:58:46 > 0:58:51# Saying as he slams the door "I won't tell them no more!"
0:58:51 > 0:58:55# Are they goose bumps on your skin Are you holding back your grin?
0:58:55 > 0:59:02# Any Oscars left to win Isn't this where we came in? #
0:59:06 > 0:59:09Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:09 > 0:59:12FLAMENCO-STYLE MUSIC, GUNSHOT ECHOES