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'It was late last night when Hill's own Piper Aztec | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
'smashed into a screen of trees and burst into flames. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
'The plane burnt out in minutes, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
'but from the start, there was little doubt | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
'that Britain had lost one of its greatest racing personalities. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
He was a regular bloke, with an irregular and extraordinary ability. | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
An absolute icon of that period. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
He used to be in the middle of it all. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:10 | |
He was the man. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
Graham was a giver. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
Full of humour and style. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:20 | |
And he was a bloody good racing driver. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
I'd never been to a motor race, | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
I'd never seen a motor race until the very first race I was in. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
It had never been a lifelong ambition or anything. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
So I was sitting on the start line, | 0:01:52 | 0:01:53 | |
you know, wondering what the blazes was gonna happen | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
and watching the flag, and somebody told me | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
that the engine revs had 6,000 revolutions per minute, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
so I wound it up to 6,000 revs a minute | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
and sat there, looking at the starter. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
He dropped the flag, I slipped my foot off the clutch | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
and went up the road like a rocket! And I was in the lead, wasn't I? | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
The popular image of the late Graham Hill | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
was that of a fun-loving, fast-driving, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
quintessential Englishman with a keen sense of humour. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:23 | |
Inevitably, the full picture was more complex. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
He was many things to many people. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
For my whole life, I've met people who've said, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
"Oh, I knew your dad, he was great." | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
I've never met anyone that said, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
"Actually, this is the truth about your dad." | 0:02:39 | 0:02:41 | |
He was a bit of a rascal, whatever you want to call that. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:46 | |
He was just such a lot of fun. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
And yet frightening when he was serious. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
If things went wrong, he would get very, very angry indeed. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:58 | |
Oh, my God, he was impossible. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
He was never punctual, ever, ever, ever. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:06 | |
-He just broke the... -The rules. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:07 | |
He broke the rules, yeah. Exactly. He broke the rules. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
Who really was this man that lived by his own set of rules? | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
What was he like to live and work with? | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
30 years on from his untimely death, those that knew him best | 0:03:19 | 0:03:23 | |
have decided to tell their side of his story. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:29 | |
A story which began in the suburbs of north London in 1929. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:34 | |
The son of a city stockbroker, | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
Graham's childhood contained few clues | 0:03:36 | 0:03:38 | |
that he would one day move amongst the most glamorous | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
and influential people in the world. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
War broke out when he was 10, but the conflict had just ended | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
by the time he was old enough to enlist. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
He spent his late teens as a technical apprentice | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
at Smiths Industries, making clocks, before King and country called. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:01 | |
When I first met Graham, he was doing his National Service | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
in the flagship of the home fleet, which was HMS Swiftsure, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:10 | |
and he was a petty officer, and he had to do two years, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
and we met at a rowing club. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
In addition to rowing, a passion for motorbikes provided some outlet | 0:04:17 | 0:04:21 | |
for his adventurous spirit. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
But Graham was still searching for the ultimate thrill, | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
until one day, he found it. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
I picked up a magazine that happened to be passing through the office | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
and I saw an advert which said, | 0:04:32 | 0:04:33 | |
"You can drive a racing car at Brands Hatch | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
"for five shillings a lap." | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
So I went down and had a quid's worth, | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
which entitled me to four laps, and it was those four laps | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
that the bug bit. It was then that I decided this is what I wanted to do. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:50 | |
So then I sort of chucked up my job | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
and I went as a sort of freelance mechanic, | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
working on people's cars for the sake of a drive. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
I wouldn't accept money. I'd barter with them, saying, | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
"If I prepare your car for you, will you let me drive it?" | 0:05:03 | 0:05:08 | |
It was hard. It was very hard. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
People didn't get into motor racing as they do now, with backing. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
He was driving anything that anybody would offer him. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
And he did a few races, | 0:05:33 | 0:05:35 | |
and one day, on his way back from Brands Hatch, | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
he got a lift with a chap who turned out to be Colin Chapman, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
who built Lotus racing cars. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
And he gave him a job as storeman in the Lotus engineering factory. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:51 | |
Then they said "Well, you can have a drive," and he was quite good at it, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:55 | |
so they signed him up. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
But he had no money. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
In those days, you couldn't commit yourself to a marriage | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
unless you had at least enough to pay for the reception, | 0:06:04 | 0:06:08 | |
which I paid for. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:09 | |
Graham threw everything he had into the sport, | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
gaining valuable experience and steadily climbing | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
the motor racing ladder. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
The whole atmosphere just entranced him | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
and he was just completely hooked. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
And so it went on. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
And in 1958 at Monaco, he lined up in his first Formula 1 Grand Prix. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:32 | |
Well, a great start, and off I went. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
And after 75 laps, I found myself in fourth place. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:43 | |
I thought, "This is great, Formula 1 racing's a piece of cake." | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
And then my back wheel fell off. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
The trouble was, Colin could build a very light, very competitive car, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:54 | |
but he couldn't build one that would last a race, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:57 | |
and it simply fell to pieces. | 0:06:57 | 0:06:58 | |
And it fell to pieces race after race after race. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
And Graham got increasingly disgruntled by that. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
It was becoming harder and harder for him to contain his frustration. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:11 | |
Graham recorded some of his frustrations in a series of diaries, | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
now in the hands of his son, Damon. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
This book is from 1959. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:25 | |
What he's recorded in this particular piece | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
is something to do with his relationship with Colin Chapman. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
There appears to be a breakdown in the relationship | 0:07:32 | 0:07:36 | |
where he says something to the effect of, | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
"As the designer, I felt he should have been working on the cars | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
"to try and discover why they were so slow." | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
And he goes on to say, "I suggested to him | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
"that he had lost interest in Formula 1 racing. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
"He assured me that he had not, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:52 | |
"and that he was very busy with the new factory." | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
Needless to say, my dad wasn't racing for Lotus the next year! | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
With clouds of discontent gathering over the Lotus factory, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
Graham was offered a drive with rival team BRM. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
It was a gamble, but he took it. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
When I joined BRM, everyone was saying, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
"Well, that's a mistake," you know, "He's joined a losing team." | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
It wasn't beating the foreign cars, Ferraris, Lancias and Maseratis, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
it was being thoroughly trounced. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
Graham adopted a hands-on approach to the task | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
of producing a car capable of winning races, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
working closely with the team's chief designer, Tony Rudd. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
It proved to be a formidable partnership. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
Graham and Tony Rudd clicked immediately. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:44 | |
They worked very well together, | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
and they both had this same burning desire to win. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
'The Grand Prix of Italy at Monza, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
'counting in the World Driving Championship, a 310-mile race. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
'Surprise of the racing season is the sensational advance of Graham Hill.' | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
'Driving a BRM, he was in the lead early in his race. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
'Hardly challenged, Hill won easily. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
'He's set for the World Championship.' | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
They were racers through and through, and they found their quarry, | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
which was the World Championship, and they bloody well won it. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
We were so excited. I mean, he was beside himself, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
and I was so thrilled and everybody was thrilled for him, | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
so it was a fantastic occasion. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
These are cuttings when Graham won the World Championship | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
in South Africa, with the lovely BRMs. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
Look at that. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:50 | |
They've been up in that wardrobe for years, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
since I've been here, 13 years. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
Amazing how we used to keep them... religiously. | 0:09:55 | 0:10:01 | |
Tony Rudd. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
Oh, look, this is outside our home at Mill Hill. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
He looks so young. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
But what are people's reactions to you? | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
I mean, you stop at a set of traffic lights, and you do this, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
and they see it's Graham Hill there, or... | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
Well, it varies, it depends on what I've just done, but I mean... | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
But you can see, you're sitting there waiting | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
and then you see a lot of white things moving like this | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
and you look across, and everyone's going like this, | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
and then they all start going over the wheel... | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
Revving up, when the lights go green, there's great waves | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
and they wave you on like this. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
It's...you know, I mean, I get thoroughly spoilt. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
Graham was now a top contender on the Formula 1 grid. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
But back at Team Lotus, former boss Colin Chapman | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
had found a talented new driver by the name of Jimmy Clark. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:12 | |
The early '60s bore witness to titanic battles between the two, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
with Clark taking the Drivers' Championship twice, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
and Graham runner-up three years in a row. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
But there was one race on the calendar | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
where Graham was second to no-one. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
Monaco. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
Here, the tight, twisting Mediterranean street circuit | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
provided exactly the kind of challenge that Graham thrived on. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
Graham simply outclassed all his rivals to win, | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
not just once, but three times in a row. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
When he won for the third time, that really was a performance | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
that matches with the best of all the greats, going back through history. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:10 | |
Fantastic day. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
As the Monaco public hailed their new hero, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
few of them could appreciate the hard work of the mechanics | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
taking place behind the scenes. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
It was hard work, there's no doubt about it. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
I don't know if the mechanics these days work the hours we used to, | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
but if we were working late, Graham would come back | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
and check out, see what we were doing. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
That's one way I think he got the better out of us, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
through doing that. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:43 | |
He was very, very demanding, | 0:12:43 | 0:12:45 | |
and he could be very brief and abrupt with them. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
On the other hand, he'd be the bloke to pitch up at the transporter | 0:12:47 | 0:12:52 | |
with a crate of beer. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:54 | |
He was one of us. I think he was happier in the carriages | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
than he was mixing with the royalty. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
But he was hard, he was a hard man. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
And on race morning, or immediately before a race, don't go near him. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:10 | |
Intense focus, incredibly short fuse. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
As a young journo, he crushed me a couple of times before I learned. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:19 | |
Few could challenge Graham's authority, | 0:13:21 | 0:13:23 | |
either off or on the track. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
But in 1965, the team signed up a pint-sized Scotsman | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
with big potential. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
I could have gone to Cooper, I could have gone to Lotus, | 0:13:34 | 0:13:39 | |
but I chose to go to BRM | 0:13:39 | 0:13:40 | |
because I thought it would be a more thorough apprenticeship. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:44 | |
I thought I would get more testing. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
I saw Graham as a good man to understudy. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:52 | |
Graham recognised the challenge was coming from Jackie. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:58 | |
He never really showed it, but I could sense it. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:03 | |
And Jackie was very quick. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:07 | |
I mean, it really was a bit irksome at times | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
to see this young whippersnapper from the Highlands | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
come and beat everybody, you know. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
I explained to Graham | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
that because he was a bigger driver, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
and they were small cars in those days, he had a bigger windscreen, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:35 | |
and Jackie's car would be quicker than Graham, | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
and Graham said, "Well, what are you gonna do about it? | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
"Chop me bloody head off?" | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
For a number one driver to suddenly be threatened | 0:14:42 | 0:14:47 | |
by the new little whippersnapper, if you like, a younger driver, | 0:14:47 | 0:14:55 | |
was a very difficult thing, I would have thought, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
for anybody to deal with. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
And Graham dealt with it fantastically. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
But although they were intensely competitive, | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
they genuinely seemed to have had this remarkably friendly, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
supportive relationship one to the other. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
This is a very painful business for me, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
to come here and present this award to Jackie. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
I'm only too delighted to see that it's for one month! | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
AUDIENCE LAUGH | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
But he thoroughly deserved it, he's had a fantastic season. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:31 | |
But for Christ's sake, lay off! | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
AUDIENCE LAUGH | 0:15:33 | 0:15:35 | |
Graham wasn't above playing mind games, you know. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
He'd hop out of his car on the starting grid | 0:15:41 | 0:15:44 | |
and wander across, and sniff around his rivals' cars on the grid. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:48 | |
Then he'd suddenly glance at a tyre, | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
and his eyes would go wide, and then he'd give a little knowing smile | 0:15:50 | 0:15:55 | |
and just make sure that the driver sitting in the car | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
had seen that knowing smile. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:00 | |
Then, without saying another word, he'd just walk back to his car | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
with an extra spring in his step. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
But Graham understood there was a time and place for gamesmanship. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:10 | |
When team-mate Jackie Stewart crashed | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
during the 1966 Belgium Grand Prix, he came to the rescue. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
He'd aquaplaned off, and he found, in the ditch, Jackie's car | 0:16:16 | 0:16:21 | |
with Jackie trapped inside it. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
Graham saw me from inside his car. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
He looked down and saw me in this drop-off area. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
Could have continued, but didn't. He came to help me. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:35 | |
And Jackie was sitting, sort of half way up to his waist in fuel, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:40 | |
and he was trapped, he couldn't get out. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
And it took them 25 minutes at least to get me out the car. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
The steering wheel trapped me in the car. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
They eventually found some way of taking the steering wheel off | 0:16:50 | 0:16:55 | |
and getting him out. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:56 | |
And Graham said, when they got him out, they took his overalls off | 0:16:56 | 0:17:01 | |
because they were soaked in petrol. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
In those days, we were using high-octane aviation fuel, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
and that is very corrosive, and it was burning my skin off. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
So Graham took all my clothes off. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
Literally, I was lying naked in the back of a farm truck. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
And the story is, and it's a true story, nuns arrived | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
and found me naked in the back of this truck. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:23 | |
And you can imagine what the nuns were thinking. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
Poor injured racing driver being taken advantage of | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
by devilish-looking racing driver with moustache. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
In spite of being keen rivals, the bond and mutual respect | 0:17:31 | 0:17:36 | |
amongst drivers of that era was, in fact, remarkably high. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
They were a close-knit fraternity, a unique band of brothers. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:45 | |
I mean, I love the other drivers, I was going to say intimately, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
but that's not the right word I was looking for. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
I know them quite well, and we're just good friends. But, er... | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
Graham, Jackie and Jimmy in particular became firm friends. | 0:17:55 | 0:18:00 | |
With their sharp suits and even sharper wit, | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
they were the Three Musketeers of Formula 1. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
We just had fantastic times together. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
And we all moved around together. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
We either played golf together, or shot together, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
or we partied together. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
Graham was extroverted, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
and he, therefore, was the kind of leader of the pack. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:29 | |
Yeah, Graham was always up to something. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:35 | |
Team owner John Coombs recalls one of Graham's more infamous antics | 0:18:35 | 0:18:40 | |
that went disastrously wrong. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:42 | |
A charity party, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
and the entertainment was strippers. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:50 | |
And I'll never forget Graham getting up | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
and suddenly taking his trousers off. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
And then decided to run down the table to the lady at the end. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
What he intended to do when he got there, I don't know. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
And he suddenly tipped over some glasses, | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
tripped up, and the glass broke, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
and the stem of this long glass and goblet went right up his leg, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:14 | |
right into the calf of his leg, the muscle of his leg. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
Of course, we had to take him to hospital and get this taken out. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
It was sticking in like a dagger! | 0:19:22 | 0:19:23 | |
You know, you have to say, he got a reaction from people. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
Otherwise he wouldn't have done it, and he knew that made people laugh | 0:19:29 | 0:19:33 | |
and it seemed to break the ice, or it broke something, | 0:19:33 | 0:19:35 | |
and that's what I think my dad loved. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
I think he actually knew that here he was, with an opportunity | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
to crack a smile, and so he did more and more outrageous things. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:48 | |
Graham embraced the swinging '60s with a passion. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
He found a kindred spirit in the sculptor David Wynne, | 0:19:52 | 0:19:56 | |
who recalls his friend having a keen eye for the ladies. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
He had a keen eye for the ladies. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
It's not only fair, it's dead on the mark. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
I loved women, he loved women, | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
and he took much more liberties than I ever did. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:14 | |
If you put it that way! | 0:20:16 | 0:20:18 | |
The girls flocked round him, old gentlemen flocked round him, | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
the young boys flocked round him. He was the man. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
There was David Niven and people like that, | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
and, you know, Errol Flynn, all these guys with moustaches | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
and who kind of had that sort of image. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
And I think that my dad sort of slotted into this idea | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
of a kind of cad, kind of British person | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
who could be a charmer one minute, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
the next minute, be standing on the table, dropping his pants. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:53 | |
No, not really, no. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
It is a way of life, if you like, it's a profession, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
and it's something I really enjoy doing, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
it gives me a great kick out of life and it pays well. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
You have to put this in, because, I mean, I'm able to afford | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
to go motor racing, cos I get paid very well for doing it, | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
so this puts the icing on the cake. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
Graham was always intensely interested in making money. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
And the biggest money in motor racing was in America. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:21 | |
'Racing's greatest day begins, the Indianapolis 500 Classic. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
'Number 24, Graham Hill of London leads, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
'number 19, Jim Clark of Scotland. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
'The chequered flag ends it, Hill the winner, winning over 156,000. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:41 | |
'Hill takes the Classic 500 on his first try.' | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
Well, he wouldn't let me go there. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
He said it wasn't a place for women. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
To begin with, when he went there, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
they didn't have doors on the toilets. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
The cubicles had no doors on them. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
Now, in Europe, there was a little dignity involved, | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
that you had a door to the loo. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
Graham absolutely got obsessed by this. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:13 | |
He solved that one. There were doors on the toilets the next day. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
He thought it was terribly rude, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
and they thought it was terribly English. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
Prize money from the Indy 500 enabled Graham to splash out | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
on his own twin-engine aircraft. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
Yeah, he bought himself a plane. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
I think Jackie Stewart was learning to fly. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
Jimmy flew, and so Graham had to fly. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:39 | |
It cut down the travelling. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
And he just loved the flying. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
I wasn't too keen. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:46 | |
A packed international racing schedule | 0:22:46 | 0:22:48 | |
ensured Graham made much use of his new plane. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
He was always on the move. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
He was also, by now, the father to three children, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
Brigitte, Damon and Samantha. | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
But the time they could spend together was all too rare. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
How about the family? | 0:23:04 | 0:23:05 | |
How do they find your being away as often as you are? | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
Difficult to say, I think. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
I think they're quite used to it, the young ones, | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
it's always been the same for them, so they don't know any different. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
They probably assume everybody's daddy does the same thing. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
I know they seem to be fairly pleased to see me. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
I think it gives them a bit of relief when I do go away! | 0:23:23 | 0:23:28 | |
I think we were... I was aware of long absences, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
I was aware of him not being there, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
and I think that there were times | 0:23:34 | 0:23:40 | |
when you wanted him to be there. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
And I remember Christmases, him flying off on Boxing Day | 0:23:42 | 0:23:47 | |
you know, it was Christmas Day, and then you're back onto the next. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
But that's the way it was. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
We were aware in the family that he had a mission, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
that he was someone going somewhere, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:56 | |
so whenever we did anything together, | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
it was in almost a military operation. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:00 | |
And he was the commander, and we jumped when he said, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
"Right", you know, "In the car," or, "In the plane." | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
He was very Victorian, actually, in that respect, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
because he expected them to get up when he arrived home and say hello. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:17 | |
And children just don't do that sort of thing, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
especially when they're engrossed in a television programme. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
So we used to always say, "Ah, I hope he doesn't, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
"that's not him, is it, coming down the drive?" You know? | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
One place Graham felt he was losing control was at BRM. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
Their best days were now behind them and it was time to find a new team. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:39 | |
He surprised everyone by rejoining his old one, Team Lotus. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:43 | |
Colin Chapman had approached me | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
to see if I'd join his team, with Jimmy Clark. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
And it was a hell of a decision to make, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
having been with the team for seven years, | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
and there I was, going to move to another team, | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
somebody else's team, with another driver, | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
the regular number one. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
Colin Chapman's number one priority was caring for Jimmy. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
I don't think there was a problem, | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
it's just that Jimmy was the chosen one. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
He was so talented, you see, and he was so... | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
Which was infuriating, actually, because it was so easy for him. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
In theory, it seemed like the ultimate dream team. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
Two World Champions, a brilliant designer, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:34 | |
and some quick, new machinery. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
But it wasn't long before the old problems resurfaced. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
Chapman's cars were fast, but still fragile. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
'More bad luck for Hill, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
'whose engine has gone beyond the point of no return. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
'A season's run of ill fortune | 0:25:50 | 0:25:51 | |
'hasn't affected the patience and good humour of this popular driver.' | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
But when the camera stopped rolling and the crowd had dispersed, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
patience and good humour were often in short supply. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
If things went wrong, he would get very, very angry indeed, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
and the atmosphere within that team and around him | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
could be absolutely foul, I think. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
Graham's former race mechanics at Team Lotus | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
remember some of those testing times. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
Graham was a great guy. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:25 | |
No mistake about that, you know? | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
Wonderful bloke to be with, terrific company, etc, etc, etc. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:34 | |
Put him in a car and he's bloody impossible... | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
because he kept records of everything he ever did | 0:26:39 | 0:26:46 | |
in every car he'd ever driven, you know? | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
You'd say, "What did you have here last year, Graham?" | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
and he could tell you the ride heights | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
and the spring rates, you know. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:58 | |
Lovely man, but he was a nightmare to work for during the race meeting. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:03 | |
-Really was. -He could be difficult. -Difficult. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
And I know I've got a bit of a reputation for being awkward, | 0:27:06 | 0:27:10 | |
so I'm told. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
And I think this is because, you know, I expect, | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
I set very high standards for myself | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
and I expect other people to come up to that same standard. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
So you're bound to be... | 0:27:22 | 0:27:23 | |
If you don't get what you want, you're bound to press for it | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
and although it might mean somebody else working that little bit harder, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
they might think I'm being particular, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
but I want everything to be exactly right, | 0:27:32 | 0:27:34 | |
and that's the way I drive and the way I expect things to be done. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:38 | |
On the whole, I think it pays off. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
Graham's opinions on improving the car's performance | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
were not always welcomed by his designer, Colin Chapman. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
Clashes were inevitable. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
He'd been kingpin at BRM for years, | 0:27:50 | 0:27:55 | |
and he was used to getting his own way. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
Now, when he came to us, we had a different way of working, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:04 | |
because the guy who set the cars up | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
was actually the old man, not the driver. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
Brian would come along all smiles. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
"How're we doing, lads? | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
"Now, what have we got on?" And he'd start to look at the car. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:20 | |
"What springs have you got on there?" | 0:28:20 | 0:28:22 | |
And you would end up changing the springs, | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
changing the roll bars, altering the ride heights. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
Started practice with an unknown car, basically. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
And then there's a shout from the pit counter. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
"What the hell are you doing there?" | 0:28:34 | 0:28:36 | |
You know, "It's my car and you'll do what I tell you". | 0:28:36 | 0:28:42 | |
So things could get, you know, a little bit fraught | 0:28:42 | 0:28:49 | |
on that sort of basis. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:50 | |
When temperatures reached boiling point, | 0:28:50 | 0:28:54 | |
Graham had the perfect solution. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:55 | |
Throw a party. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
When the race was over, Graham would enjoy life. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
He loved parties. Great party man. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
And gave some good parties. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:07 | |
When Graham arrived, the party was...the room was alive. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:11 | |
I think we had some of the best parties | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
that anyone ever gave at Mill Hill. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
And we had all the racing drivers. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
Jimmy used to bring a different girl every time, and things like that. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:25 | |
There's loads of pictures of people like Jim Clark | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
jumping up and down on trampolines in the back garden, | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
and the whole Formula 1 fraternity in our back garden, | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
jumping up and down on trampolines! | 0:29:35 | 0:29:38 | |
And there was a woman there. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:42 | |
She had a very thin, narrow, long, black dress on, | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
and she just ripped it up the sides, and did the limbo | 0:29:46 | 0:29:50 | |
under this sort of bamboo stick. It was wonderful. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
The police turned up and they were invited into the party, | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
and before you knew it... | 0:29:58 | 0:29:59 | |
Two of the girls disappeared, and they'd gone with the policemen. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:04 | |
They ended up staggering out of the party many hours later, | 0:30:04 | 0:30:08 | |
and the next day, they had to come back | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
cos they'd forgotten their helmets and their truncheons! | 0:30:10 | 0:30:14 | |
Riotous times. There were some riotous times. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
It was wonderful. | 0:30:17 | 0:30:19 | |
We had children and life was lovely, you know. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:25 | |
We had money, we had a house. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:26 | |
Things were very on the up and up, | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
and, you know, we were living in the sort of luxury | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
that we never dreamt that we would have. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
You know, it was wonderful times. Wonderful times. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
-There you are. -Oh, there's me! Oh, gosh. -Wow. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
Oh, glamour puss. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:46 | |
Absolutely. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:48 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
-There's daddy. -There's daddy. Gosh, look. Yeah. | 0:30:55 | 0:30:59 | |
# Guantanamera | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
# Guajira, Guantanamera | 0:31:06 | 0:31:10 | |
# Guantanamera | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
# Guajira, Guantanamera | 0:31:15 | 0:31:20 | |
# Yo soy un hombre sincero | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
# De donde crece la palma | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
# Yo soy un hombre sincero | 0:31:28 | 0:31:33 | |
# De donde crece la palma | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
# Y antes de morirme quiero | 0:31:37 | 0:31:42 | |
# Echar mis versos del alma | 0:31:42 | 0:31:45 | |
# Guantanamera | 0:31:47 | 0:31:51 | |
# Guajira, Guantanamera | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
# Guantanamera | 0:31:56 | 0:32:00 | |
# Guajira, Guantanamera... # | 0:32:00 | 0:32:05 | |
But Graham had been in the game long enough | 0:32:26 | 0:32:28 | |
to know that the sport he loved had a serious downside. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
It was extremely dangerous. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
I mean, you know, I get afraid and I think everybody gets afraid. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:48 | |
Everybody, any normal person does. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:50 | |
If you don't get afraid, | 0:32:50 | 0:32:52 | |
you've got no imagination and you won't last long. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
And we saw so much of death, it was hideous. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:07 | |
There's no question that the danger element was felt. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:18 | |
As I grew up, I must have become gradually more and more aware | 0:33:18 | 0:33:22 | |
of the fact that he was doing something not only unusual | 0:33:22 | 0:33:24 | |
that people reacted to, but also that it was dangerous. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
But then, in April '68, it happened to Jimmy Clark. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:37 | |
And that just didn't seem possible, because Jimmy was just the best. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:45 | |
And Graham said, if it can happen to Jimmy, | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
it makes you realise it can happen to any of us. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:55 | |
You know, it's a terrible time for any driver. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
And it's very difficult to describe loss | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
and how it affects you, but you've just got to draw a blank across it. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:13 | |
Jimmy going and Graham taking the team over and replacing Jimmy | 0:34:15 | 0:34:21 | |
put unbelievable weight on Graham. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:27 | |
He literally picked those mechanics up, you know, by their trouser legs | 0:34:27 | 0:34:31 | |
and, "Come on, we've got to do something about this!" | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
And he was amazing, you know. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
That's when the toughness came in, you know. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
It's a character of the man, really amazing. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:43 | |
When he won the next race after Jimmy's death, | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
the Spanish Grand Prix, that was fantastic. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
Come back and hit them where it hurts straight away. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
It came down to the very last race in Mexico City. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:24 | |
And we raced... | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
and Graham won. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:29 | |
And that was when he won his 1968 Championship. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
It was the right thing. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
He was a very worthy and a very good World Champion for the sport. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:51 | |
And he was very much the people's champion. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
Very much the people's champion. | 0:35:57 | 0:35:59 | |
Graham's second World Championship cemented his popularity | 0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | |
throughout the entire world. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:06 | |
But nowhere was he more revered than at Monte Carlo. | 0:36:06 | 0:36:11 | |
Going to Monte Carlo was like going home. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
It really was. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:15 | |
Coming out of the Hotel de Paris | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
and walking down that hill to the pits, | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
people were throwing roses at Graham. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:23 | |
I was quite emotional about the fact that they loved him so much. | 0:36:23 | 0:36:28 | |
And they did, you know. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:30 | |
"Graham Hill!" You know. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:32 | |
And he used to wave away. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:34 | |
He just loved it. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
And then, of course, the moment he got there with his car, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:41 | |
different character. | 0:36:41 | 0:36:42 | |
When he won there for the final time, | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
that was really, absolutely, the pinnacle of his career. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
And that really was absolutely his stage, you know, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:18 | |
and he just sort of bestrode it like a colossus, quite honestly. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:22 | |
Graham Hill was Mr Monaco. | 0:37:32 | 0:37:34 | |
I mean, he won the Monaco Grand Prix five times | 0:37:34 | 0:37:39 | |
and it was kind of his patch. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:41 | |
The penniless part-time mechanic from north London | 0:37:50 | 0:37:53 | |
had indeed come a long way. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
By the end of the '60s, you know, my father was a wealthy man, | 0:37:58 | 0:38:02 | |
and he was enjoying the spoils of success. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:07 | |
That shifted him into another arena. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:09 | |
You see, I think he was starting to find | 0:38:09 | 0:38:11 | |
that there was a Graham Hill that didn't need to race a car. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
He used to do a lot of work for charity, a lot of work for charity. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:19 | |
And of course, there was always the dinner dances to go to. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:23 | |
And people enjoyed his company. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:26 | |
What I thought I'd do, I thought I'd bang on for a bit, | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
and then if you have any questions that you might like to ask, | 0:38:29 | 0:38:34 | |
I'll give a little opportunity to get them in. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
But don't worry if you can't think of any, | 0:38:37 | 0:38:40 | |
because I've got several that I can ask myself | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
and I'd like to know the answers to anyway. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:47 | |
Graham was incredibly funny and had a great turn of words, | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
and had that po-face that suddenly would open up | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 | |
and break into the most fantastic smile. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
And he stood up, looked around, | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
and with his little smile he could put on, said, "Ladies and gentlemen, | 0:39:02 | 0:39:10 | |
"it gives me great pleasure..." | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
And sat down! | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
I find it very difficult to talk really seriously | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
for any length of time on any one subject | 0:39:19 | 0:39:22 | |
without slipping in something ridiculous. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
I find I really can't do that. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:29 | |
It's as though I'm sending myself up, you know. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:31 | |
If I start to think, "Well, you pompous twit, | 0:39:31 | 0:39:34 | |
"banging on like this," and then, you know, | 0:39:34 | 0:39:36 | |
slip something in which breaks it down. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
He broke up any sense of pomposity or...he just broke the ice. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:45 | |
-He broke the rules. -Yeah, exactly, broke the rules. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:48 | |
Graham appeared to be living a charmed life, | 0:39:52 | 0:39:55 | |
but as a glorious decade of achievement drew to a close, | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
his luck finally ran out during the American Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:05 | |
Car turned upside down, Graham got thrown halfway out | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
and his legs went the wrong way from his knees. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
Just cracked his knees in the wrong direction. A hideous accident. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:20 | |
He could have lost his knees, | 0:40:23 | 0:40:24 | |
but they were absolutely brilliant there at the hospital. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
They had to give him something like five pints of blood | 0:40:29 | 0:40:32 | |
before they could fly him back to England. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:36 | |
He was very ill. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:37 | |
Very seriously ill. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
And when I arrived at the hospital, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
there were all these girls in his ward, you know, in his room. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:51 | |
And television cameras. And I said, "What are these people doing here?" | 0:40:51 | 0:40:56 | |
We went and saw him in hospital and there was banners everywhere | 0:40:56 | 0:40:59 | |
wishing him well, and there was press, | 0:40:59 | 0:41:01 | |
and he almost seemed to be involved in some sort of carnival. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:05 | |
His name is Graham Hill, and here he is! | 0:41:05 | 0:41:08 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:41:08 | 0:41:10 | |
I'd like to say how sorry I am that I didn't dress for dinner. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
I've got a cast right up to here, I don't know whether you can... | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
No, no, I don't want to look, no thanks! | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
Graham, are you going to be driving again? | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
Well, I expect to be, yes. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:27 | |
I mean, it was like, "Great, now I can show everyone | 0:41:27 | 0:41:31 | |
"how determined I am to get well again." | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
And that's exactly what he did. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
Up here, in, and straighten. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
Hard, and keep your toes up. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:43 | |
Now turn your toes down here, out, | 0:41:43 | 0:41:45 | |
and bend under the bed as hard as you can. Good. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
Just coming up to 3.2 miles. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:02 | |
His aim, you see... he always had an aim, | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
and that was to race in March in South Africa. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:14 | |
Graham wasted no time in getting back to the things he loved, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
and in typical style, was determined to fly, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
even before he could walk. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
He had, by then, started to shoot. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
He'd go to a pheasant shoot, and he had a Land Rover. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:40 | |
And on the top of it he had put, like, a secretary's circulating seat, | 0:42:40 | 0:42:46 | |
so he could swing around if the pheasants were flying. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:50 | |
Blast! | 0:42:53 | 0:42:55 | |
It must have been enormously painful, because, in those days, you know... | 0:42:55 | 0:42:59 | |
modern knee surgery is still one of the most painful things to have. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
And he endured that and then went back to drive racing cars. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:08 | |
No, it's all right. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:10 | |
I think a mark of Graham's extraordinary enthusiasm | 0:43:12 | 0:43:16 | |
and extraordinary will to go racing | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
was the fact that he came back at all after that accident. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
Yeah. Well, me... | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
-That heel rest isn't... isn't belted in. -No, it's not. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:31 | |
Graham had by now been replaced at Team Lotus, | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
but an opportunity to race in 1970 was provided | 0:43:38 | 0:43:42 | |
by private entrant Rob Walker. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:45 | |
I didn't really want him to do it, but I couldn't stop him. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:49 | |
But it was very hard, very hard for all of us. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:55 | |
Motor racing regulations today | 0:43:55 | 0:43:57 | |
would never allow a driver in Graham's condition | 0:43:57 | 0:44:00 | |
to take part in a Grand Prix. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:02 | |
Nonetheless, he managed to bring his car home | 0:44:02 | 0:44:04 | |
in a point-scoring sixth place, | 0:44:04 | 0:44:06 | |
a performance that Graham himself ranked amongst his very best. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:11 | |
He couldn't get out of the car at the end of the race. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:17 | |
They had to lift him out of the car. | 0:44:17 | 0:44:19 | |
Incredible, wasn't it? | 0:44:19 | 0:44:21 | |
With the new decade came a new generation | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
of talented young drivers. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:35 | |
Jochen Rindt. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:36 | |
Emerson Fittipaldi. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:38 | |
Nikki Lauda. | 0:44:38 | 0:44:40 | |
And a more familiar face had finally come of age. | 0:44:42 | 0:44:46 | |
With Jackie Stewart now is a former world motor racing champion, | 0:44:46 | 0:44:50 | |
his rival and colleague, Graham Hill. | 0:44:50 | 0:44:52 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:44:52 | 0:44:54 | |
Firstly, Jackie, I'd like to congratulate you | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
on your fantastic success this year. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:03 | |
You won six Grand Prix, which is, you know, | 0:45:03 | 0:45:05 | |
it's hogging it slightly. What do you... | 0:45:05 | 0:45:07 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:45:07 | 0:45:09 | |
How do you view... | 0:45:10 | 0:45:11 | |
I mean, there's...seven Grand Prix is the sort of record. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
You're obviously hoping for this. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:16 | |
Where do you think you could have done it and it didn't happen? | 0:45:16 | 0:45:19 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:45:19 | 0:45:21 | |
I don't think that's a fair question. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:28 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:45:28 | 0:45:30 | |
Actually, what I think it did to him was make him realise | 0:45:33 | 0:45:38 | |
that he wasn't as young as he would like to be. | 0:45:38 | 0:45:42 | |
By whatever standards you apply, | 0:45:43 | 0:45:46 | |
Graham was over the hill by '71, '72. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
I mean, the fat lady was beginning to sing, really. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
A miserable two-year stint with the fledging Brabham team | 0:45:53 | 0:45:56 | |
did nothing to enhance his trophy collection. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
And now, in his early 40s, questions concerning his retirement | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
began cropping up with increasing regularity. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:05 | |
Graham's response was clear. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
He confounded his critics with a remarkable win at Le Mans, | 0:46:16 | 0:46:19 | |
becoming the only racing driver in history | 0:46:19 | 0:46:22 | |
to win the famous 24-Hour Race, the Indy 500 | 0:46:22 | 0:46:25 | |
and the Formula 1 World Championship, | 0:46:25 | 0:46:28 | |
a feat that is unlikely ever to be equalled. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
Back in the Formula 1 paddock, it meant nothing. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
Hard-nosed team bosses were looking to the future, | 0:46:35 | 0:46:39 | |
and Graham was yesterday's man. | 0:46:39 | 0:46:42 | |
In fact, nobody was prepared to give him a drive | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
and pay him for doing it. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:47 | |
The only way Graham could stay in Formula 1, | 0:46:47 | 0:46:50 | |
it became apparent, was to operate his own car and his own team. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:55 | |
Graham was without doubt one of the most experienced drivers around. | 0:46:57 | 0:47:01 | |
But as far as managing a racing team was concerned, | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
he was venturing into new waters. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
I did actually read about it. I must confess, I thought you were mad. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:12 | |
I mean, you know, we just wonder, really, | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
if you honestly have thought out just what a job you've taken on, | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
-because it is different, it's a hell of a challenge. -Mmm, mmm. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:22 | |
You've got to be in the front office and the back office, | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
stage director, driver and the whole shooting match. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:28 | |
Yes, I'm beginning to find out | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
the cost and the economics of motor racing. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
That was incredible hard work and a great struggle, | 0:47:37 | 0:47:41 | |
and I wish that when he started doing it, that I had said to him, | 0:47:41 | 0:47:47 | |
but I didn't dare, "Don't do it." | 0:47:47 | 0:47:50 | |
You reckon there's no way we can get there | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
now we've had to dismantle the car and then take the engine off? | 0:47:53 | 0:47:57 | |
No. We've just got a lot of work to do. | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
And we need more time to do it. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:01 | |
-That's very disappointing, isn't it? -It is. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
Graham's time was rapidly running out. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:09 | |
Each day in his life was an exercise in juggling his many roles. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
Racing driver and team manager, husband and father. | 0:48:12 | 0:48:16 | |
He had an office at home, | 0:48:18 | 0:48:20 | |
and I feel that that's where he, if he was going to have a mood, | 0:48:20 | 0:48:25 | |
that's where he would shut the door and that's where he would do it. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:29 | |
No, I knew, I think when he was in the office and the door was shut, | 0:48:29 | 0:48:34 | |
-you left him there. -He was working. -He was working. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:39 | |
He would have been in the office, | 0:48:42 | 0:48:43 | |
which, we had a little office by the front door, and it was just stuffed | 0:48:43 | 0:48:47 | |
with pictures and papers, and so to see my dad, | 0:48:47 | 0:48:50 | |
you'd have to go into the office, and so I'd toddle in there, | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
and he'd be on the phone, | 0:48:53 | 0:48:55 | |
and I think my memory of him is that he was on the phone a lot! | 0:48:55 | 0:48:58 | |
He loved his motorbikes. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:02 | |
When he'd come home, I used to go out with the bikes | 0:49:02 | 0:49:05 | |
with daddy and Damon, and you could see that he was actually relaxed, | 0:49:05 | 0:49:10 | |
just standing up on his bike, | 0:49:10 | 0:49:13 | |
going up and down hills and just enjoying himself. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:20 | |
Yeah, I remember lots of joy with him... | 0:49:20 | 0:49:23 | |
which was lovely. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:27 | |
Such moments were short-lived. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:33 | |
All too soon, there was another problem to solve, | 0:49:33 | 0:49:36 | |
another deadline to meet, another race to run. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
By the mid '70s, Formula 1 had changed. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:54 | |
There was more frustration and aggravation, perhaps, | 0:49:54 | 0:49:58 | |
than fun involved, | 0:49:58 | 0:50:00 | |
and the days when a team could be run by a former driver | 0:50:00 | 0:50:06 | |
were really fast ebbing away. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:10 | |
And when a racing driver, even a great racing driver, | 0:50:22 | 0:50:25 | |
gets to a situation in his career where he's driving an also-ran, | 0:50:25 | 0:50:32 | |
which, even with the best good fortune in the world, | 0:50:32 | 0:50:37 | |
you're not going to cut it. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:39 | |
And I think that arrived for Graham at Monaco '75, | 0:50:39 | 0:50:43 | |
when he, ironically, demeaningly, failed to qualify. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:48 | |
'It's a very, very disappointing game. | 0:50:57 | 0:50:59 | |
'It's a shatteringly disappointing game. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:01 | |
'You can really be doing well, | 0:51:01 | 0:51:03 | |
'and every time something lets you down, | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
'the car lets you down, something fails. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
'And you just never seem as though you're going to win a race | 0:51:08 | 0:51:11 | |
'or get anywhere.' | 0:51:11 | 0:51:12 | |
It's always difficult to know when to stop, though. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
He just didn't want to give it up. | 0:51:20 | 0:51:22 | |
And then, of course, he had to. | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
Couldn't race and run the team as well. Very hard. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
He realised that the gung-ho, jolly japes, | 0:51:28 | 0:51:31 | |
jumping in a racing car and racing your mates thing, | 0:51:31 | 0:51:35 | |
he'd have to say goodbye to, and that was hard, I think, for him. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:39 | |
Well, I do miss it and I miss, as I say, | 0:51:39 | 0:51:42 | |
the physical sensation of controlling a racing car | 0:51:42 | 0:51:46 | |
through corners and down straights, | 0:51:46 | 0:51:49 | |
and I've missed the competitive stimulus that it gives also, | 0:51:49 | 0:51:54 | |
and also trying to do it better than somebody else. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:56 | |
And something I've done for so many years, almost all my adult life now, | 0:51:56 | 0:52:00 | |
and now I've got to look forwards, | 0:52:00 | 0:52:02 | |
and I've got to make myself another life, if you like. | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
And of course, I'm still running my own Formula 1 team. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:08 | |
And so, I'm still in motor racing. | 0:52:08 | 0:52:10 | |
I haven't cut the ties like that, you know, I'm still in there. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
But in a different role altogether. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:15 | |
He'd thrown himself into this new project, race team, | 0:52:20 | 0:52:24 | |
which took up more of his time. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
And I was getting to the age, I was 15, so I was just... | 0:52:26 | 0:52:29 | |
I'd been to a few races with the team and I was getting into it. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:33 | |
And I can remember him packing to go testing, | 0:52:33 | 0:52:38 | |
getting his kit together, and I'd go off to school. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:42 | |
That was the last time I saw him. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
He was flying back from the Paul Ricard circuit | 0:52:51 | 0:52:54 | |
with his mechanics and his young driver with him. | 0:52:54 | 0:52:56 | |
And he crashed, tragically and fatally for everyone on board. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:03 | |
'At daylight, with fog persisting, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:07 | |
'the detailed investigation got underway. | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
'What is known is that, as the plane came in over the golf course | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
'toward Elstree Airfield, it was already too low. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
'In dense fog, it clipped a group of trees, | 0:53:17 | 0:53:20 | |
'hit the ground and careered along the fairway to the 4th green.' | 0:53:20 | 0:53:24 | |
I was watching television with my sister, Samantha, | 0:53:24 | 0:53:30 | |
and a news flash came on the television. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:33 | |
Damon came through the kitchen door and said, | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
"Mummy, they say there's a plane crash at Elstree, | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
"and they think it's Daddy." | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
Just as I got there, the phone went. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
And that's when I kind of knew this was not good. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:48 | |
And so that's really when our world was pretty smashed to bits. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:54 | |
At his funeral, which was at St Albans Abbey, | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
I don't think I've ever seen so many people. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:07 | |
There were so many people, and there were barriers, | 0:54:07 | 0:54:11 | |
and there were just people, you know, it was just a huge event. | 0:54:11 | 0:54:16 | |
And...you know, this was... this was our daddy, you know? | 0:54:16 | 0:54:24 | |
Couldn't quite get to grips with that. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
To lose a friend like that, | 0:54:31 | 0:54:33 | |
and the character of Graham, | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
was just so shattering, unbelievable. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:42 | |
For me, that was the saddest day of motor racing. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
30 years on from the accident, a small group of family and friends | 0:55:17 | 0:55:23 | |
have gathered outside the Hills' former home in north London. | 0:55:23 | 0:55:26 | |
The occasion is a special one, for Graham is about to be honoured | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
by the unveiling of an English Heritage blue plaque. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:33 | |
Well, I'd like to welcome you all on behalf of English Heritage, | 0:55:35 | 0:55:39 | |
This is, in fact, the first ever plaque to a racing driver | 0:55:39 | 0:55:43 | |
that we've unveiled, and actually one of the very few plaques | 0:55:43 | 0:55:47 | |
to a sporting personality, | 0:55:47 | 0:55:49 | |
so it really is a very special occasion today. | 0:55:49 | 0:55:51 | |
He's still very much in people's memory, | 0:56:04 | 0:56:08 | |
and I think that's wonderful. He hasn't disappeared. | 0:56:08 | 0:56:11 | |
He really did enjoy his life, | 0:56:14 | 0:56:17 | |
and I have a belief that racing drivers never die. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:22 | |
The spirit's too strong and they never go away, | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
and I still see Graham regularly, as I do a whole lot of friends, | 0:56:25 | 0:56:31 | |
and he's still the same. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:33 | |
Many people loved him, many people loved him. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
And he had a quality, a humanity, I think, | 0:56:38 | 0:56:42 | |
which is the thing that makes sportspeople transcend whatever it is | 0:56:42 | 0:56:47 | |
that they've done, and I think my dad had that ability | 0:56:47 | 0:56:51 | |
to transcend just the mere fact of being a sportsperson. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:56 | |
Graham, you have one son, Damon. | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
Are we ever going to see another Hill in the sport? | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
Would you like to see Damon in goggles and helmet? | 0:57:01 | 0:57:04 | |
Frankly, I don't think I would, no. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:09 | |
I'm honestly sure that it makes me the only woman in motor racing | 0:57:14 | 0:57:19 | |
that has a World Champion husband and a World Champion son, | 0:57:19 | 0:57:24 | |
which is very special, isn't it? | 0:57:24 | 0:57:26 | |
Now, unfortunately, the man who polled the most votes this year | 0:57:28 | 0:57:33 | |
is a man who, for reasons you all know, cannot be with us tonight. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:37 | |
He's a man who established a record | 0:57:37 | 0:57:39 | |
that will never be equalled, I feel, in motor racing. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:42 | |
He won five Monaco Grand Prix. His name is Graham Hill and here he is. | 0:57:42 | 0:57:47 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:57:47 | 0:57:49 | |
Well, you seem to be having a fairly jolly time. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:53 | |
You're laughing a lot, I notice. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:55 | |
Anyway, I don't know what's going to happen to you lot after this, | 0:57:55 | 0:57:59 | |
but...the rest of the evening for you, | 0:57:59 | 0:58:01 | |
but I know what's going to happen to me. | 0:58:01 | 0:58:03 | |
I'm going to have a couple of little darlings come in and rub my bottom. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:07 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:58:07 | 0:58:09 | |
So, if you can beat that, good luck! | 0:58:09 | 0:58:11 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:58:11 | 0:58:13 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:42 | 0:58:46 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:58:46 | 0:58:49 |