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We all know that we use our brains, our minds, all the time. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
I'm using mine now, looking at things going past the window, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
waving my hands about in the air, talking to you. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
You're using yours watching and listening. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
But we don't really think about how we use our brains. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
We don't think about thinking. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
Despite masses of research we're still a long way from | 0:00:28 | 0:00:32 | |
understanding the brain, our minds. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:34 | |
Surprisingly much of what we do know | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
has been discovered observing the effect of brain damage. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:43 | |
I'm going to spend some time now with Sir Stirling Moss who is | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
a racing driver of some renown. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
You almost certainly know the name, and if you don't, you will soon. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
"Ladies and gentlemen, Stirling Moss." | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
In 1962 he had a crash and damaged his spine. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:02 | |
He did it crashing at 180-mph on a race track. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:07 | |
I did it crashing at hundreds of miles per hour | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
in a jet propelled dragster. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
I know, it was asking for trouble, but people damage their brains | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
falling off ladders, crashing bicycles. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
In fact every year in the UK over one million people will be | 0:01:16 | 0:01:21 | |
hospitalised with brain injury. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
But the recovery, the business of getting it working again, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
there's a lot of commonalities there, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
and I want to talk to Sir Stirling about how he went about it. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
I can't believe we're here... | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
Stirling Moss's house! | 0:01:39 | 0:01:40 | |
Right, let's go meet a legend. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
Hello? | 0:01:55 | 0:01:56 | |
-Sir Stirling? -Yes? -Hello, it's Richard Hammond. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
-Oh, hang on. -I'm hanging. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
Morning, morning, nice to see you Stirling, how are you? | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
-It's a bit chilly. -Yes, it is a bit nippy. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
-Sorry about them, we're recording everything. Ignore them. -So... | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
-Right, which one are we going in? -You're in here, Sir. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
Oh, god we've got the... | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
-See it's comfortable. -Right. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:19 | |
On the way to the interview studio, Stirling showed me that even | 0:02:22 | 0:02:26 | |
in his 80s, he's lost none of his boyish enthusiasm for the sport | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
that made him. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:31 | |
Motor racing, I mean, is exciting and the excitement really is being able | 0:02:31 | 0:02:38 | |
to set a car up and then drive it a bit better than the other guy can. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
I can't tell you, there's no other thing that gives me that same lift. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:47 | |
The important thing to me always was to get the respect | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
of the other drivers. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:52 | |
That is the most important... If they felt that I was the man to beat, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:57 | |
that gave me everything I wanted really. | 0:02:57 | 0:02:59 | |
There's no question - in the late '50s and early '60s Stirling Moss | 0:03:02 | 0:03:07 | |
WAS the man to beat. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
So, a fearsome competitor and a charismatic winner. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
Mixing fast cars, exotic locations and a glamorous following | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
meant Stirling Moss became one of the UK's | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
first sporting superstars. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
And in the process, moved motor racing, from a gentlemen's hobby | 0:03:22 | 0:03:27 | |
to the professional, cut-throat circus it is today. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:32 | |
'And Stirling Moss has achieved the ambition of a lifetime.' | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
This is the make-up suite... | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
You know you're bald when they continue make up round the back | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
of your head. It think it's a bit wrong. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
-Hello! Pauline, Stirling, Stirling, Pauline. -Make-up lady? Good. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
Please, go first, I'll sit here and annoy you. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
What have you got there? | 0:03:58 | 0:03:59 | |
-Do you want some fibre-lift protective volumiser? -Oh, great. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
-Yeah, I'm a big fan of that. -Do you eat it or put it on? | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
I have no idea... | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
She's got a lot of work to do, to repair up there. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
I wish you'd let me do your make up... | 0:04:09 | 0:04:11 | |
I'd like to feel your hands on my head. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
And you didn't actually look into the mirror, until afterwards. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
-Should we change places, Pauline? -Yes, please. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
Why does he get the manly, "just slap it on his balding pate... | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
"there you go that's big mechanical make up" and... | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
She doesn't go around the back of your head to finish the make up! | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
Why doesn't she? | 0:04:32 | 0:04:33 | |
If I give you mine, will you clean them for me? | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
Right, I'll put that there... | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
My father was a dentist. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:43 | |
Yes, I know. So you lost four? | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
-And that was an early shunt wasn't it? -Yes, a wheel came off in Naples. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:51 | |
That night my father flew me home, and two knocked out, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
and two broke. And so he pulled the other two out right then and there. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
-Right, so how old were you when that came out? -19. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
Ah, well, any 19 year old man, losing his teeth is going to feel... | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
Yes, pretty difficult with girls you know, because of the gap. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
Especially with your extra-curricular determination, | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
-it would have stood in your way. -Luckily, he was a good dentist | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
so they matched! | 0:05:12 | 0:05:13 | |
We should go and sit down in that room. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
Look at that, magnificent isn't it? Only the best for you. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:20 | |
-Oh, god, it's huge isn't it? -Afternoon everybody. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
Is it fair to say, Stirling, there's a good place to start, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
is it fair to say that you've always considered the reason | 0:05:40 | 0:05:46 | |
for your immense success as a racing driver and accolades | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
as the greatest ever, it is down to this as much as anything else? | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
-It's down to what's in there. -Yes, because that controls everything. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
I mean when you... one has to realise that one's brain is what tells | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
you to move your finger, I mean, it's as simple as that. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
Therefore, that brain is telling you how much to turn in, when | 0:06:03 | 0:06:08 | |
to fill her off, when to put the foot down more, so therefore it has to be. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
Yeah, but why is your brain able to do that better | 0:06:11 | 0:06:15 | |
than another man's brain. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:16 | |
Is it a better brain or is it a particular type of brain? | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
I think it's a particular type. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
I think you take what you've got, and then you try to improve on it. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
So is it then, a result of a crude experience perhaps beyond | 0:06:24 | 0:06:30 | |
simply racing. Is it a combination of experiences outside your box | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
in the competition? | 0:06:34 | 0:06:35 | |
I know you had a tough time at one of your schools. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
Did all these inform you as a man, that that's part of this? | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
I think they way you are composed which comes from the | 0:06:41 | 0:06:45 | |
life you have led, and the way you have been brought up. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
I think all of those things obviously help. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
I think the fact I was sympathetic towards what motor racing was, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
because of my father and mother being in there, gave me a leg up. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:58 | |
Both of Stirling's parents were into motor sport, his dad was known | 0:06:58 | 0:07:02 | |
as the 'racing dentist'. Winning and being brave was instilled at | 0:07:02 | 0:07:10 | |
an early age, whether on a horse or in a boxing ring... aged four! | 0:07:10 | 0:07:16 | |
My father would put me into the thing, you know four year old | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
boxing and I went in there and I want to win. I don't want to just | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
be beaten around, I want to win. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
That's what I'm there for. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:27 | |
Whether I like boxing or not | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
is irrelevant, what I want to do is beat the man I'm against. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
Spotting Stirling's competitive streak, | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
his father let the 18 year old loose in a race car. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:38 | |
He won his first competitive drive and there began a lifetime's craving | 0:07:38 | 0:07:44 | |
for the danger of racing and the joy of winning. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
'And the Moroccan Grand Prix of 1958 goes to Stirling Moss.' | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
I mean, I love motor racing. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
I love the sport, I like the danger is an important... | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
I mean when you're a kid, I was racing because I liked the danger. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
The danger was something that made it really important. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
It was something, if I make a mistake this is serious, and somehow | 0:08:05 | 0:08:09 | |
that increased my pleasure of being able to race. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
I mean if I can go into a corner and come out one yard, | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
or five feet or something ahead of the man behind or gain that much, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
I'd feel like a million dollars. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
Our brains have a reward pathway, evolved | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
to encourage beneficial actions, like eating, sex or winning. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:34 | |
Victory triggers Stirling's brain to release a feel-good | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
chemical called dopamine. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:39 | |
The sense of satisfaction and wellbeing motivates the desire | 0:08:39 | 0:08:44 | |
to do it again. For top racers like Moss, the pleasure of winning, | 0:08:44 | 0:08:49 | |
is amplified by the adrenaline type rush of risking death. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
In the 50s and 60s it was often just around the corner. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:58 | |
In the 50s, because we were racing on ordinary roads, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
if you made a mistake, any one mistake could be your last mistake. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:14 | |
There were an average of three to four you know, good drivers, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
top drivers killed every year, throughout the '50s. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
In 1957 Tony Brooks crashed out at Le Mans. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
Less than a month later he and Moss would be team-mates | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
at the British Grand Prix. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
'Tony Brooks' excursion into the sand at Terre Creuse | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
'and the leg injury he received | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
'was to have an important bearing on the British Grand Prix at entry.' | 0:09:38 | 0:09:42 | |
Brooks and Moss were racing a car each for the Vanwall team, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
but Brooks was still suffering. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
Stirling started in poll position, then his car failed. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:53 | |
Drivers could switch cars back then, so Moss took over from Brooks. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:58 | |
'Still stiff and sore from his Le Mans injuries, Tony | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
'was not sorry to hand over | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
'to Stirling, who was in the cockpit almost before Tony was out of it.' | 0:10:03 | 0:10:07 | |
The race now became a master class from Stirling. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
'Moss is always at his best when the odds are against him and he set off | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
'on one of the most 'Stirling' drives of his career.' | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
He gained 12 seconds, four places and went on | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
to win in a characteristically determined display of concentration. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
'He's already acknowledging the cheers of the crowd and they raise | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
'and cheer to our man, watch it!' | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
I guess motor racing is unique as a sport because it's | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
this level of concentration that is sustained for hour after hour | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
and your races were... | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
Well, up to ten hours. Although in Mille it was over ten | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
hours and Formula One were all three hour minimum. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
So three to ten hours of concentrating at a level | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
that you never do in anything else. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
Other sports, tennis they concentrate very hard | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
but then they have a nice sit down and... | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
Yes, you know in racing obviously you can't, I mean your life's | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
dependent on it, so that's the one thing in your favour, | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
is that when you might be killed you pay more attention, know what I mean? | 0:11:06 | 0:11:10 | |
Well, you're really concentrating... | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
-Exactly. You don't want to go that way. -Let's just look | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
at the Mille Miglia. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
In the early '50s the race that demanded more concentration | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
than most was the infamous Italian road race, the Mille Miglia. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
Some 800 cars raced 1,000 miles around central Italy, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:31 | |
with excited crowds lining the winding route. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
-It was a recipe for disaster! -Look at the people, do you see? | 0:11:34 | 0:11:40 | |
Look at that. I mean I do not like | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
driving towards people, you know at that sort of speed I mean it really | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
is quite an awful thing because you just don't want to touch somebody. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
As well as avoiding enthusiastic spectators, the other hazard | 0:11:51 | 0:11:56 | |
needing extra attention, | 0:11:56 | 0:11:57 | |
was the other drivers. The race was open to all-comers. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:02 | |
You might say to your friend, when you're in the pub | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
let's go in this and have a go, and of course they could. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
If you had a car and were around there, you could get a number | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
on the side and you'd be off! | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
With all that to contend with, driver concentration was intense. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:18 | |
In the 1955 race, Stirling's extraordinary ability to concentrate | 0:12:18 | 0:12:23 | |
created an unusual problem. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
On this concentration point, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
the story runs that when in the Mille Miglia they | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
were attempting a system where by you could communicate | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
with your co-driver through headphones. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
-Yes. -Quite technologically advanced at the time, I imagine? | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
Yes, but that didn't work. I mean, we tried that out and I was | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
speaking to someone long, long after that and they said | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
when you're really concentrating you don't feel pain or hear things. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:49 | |
I mean it's what you see, so it just wouldn't work. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
When concentrating, the higher reasoning part of the brain, | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
the frontal cortex, diverts attention to inputs demanding | 0:13:01 | 0:13:05 | |
the most thought, the most effort. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
The effect is to ignore other inputs. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
You know, "men can only do one thing at a time" kind of thing. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
Well, it's medical. That's the way our brains work. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
Moss was concentrating so much on the road ahead that his brain | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
was blanking out the sounds around him. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
He was even "deaf" to the instructions of his navigator, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
Dennis Jenkinson, Jenks, who was in the seat beside him. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:33 | |
You came up with a solution, didn't you to the problem of you couldn't | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
-hear because your brain zoned it out? -Yes, we had this thing, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
the gadget, we had this thing we called the toilet roll. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
Which is this thing here. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:44 | |
Now on that, that was Jenk's information pad. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
As we went along he would just wind this on, and he would see | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
whatever it is coming flat out. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:52 | |
He would interpret that by into hand signals. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
If he wanted me to go slower he would go like 'this' slower, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
and then he'd speed it up however much more he wanted me to slow. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
And this wasn't necessarily because of the noise which was tremendous | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
I should imagine, this was | 0:14:05 | 0:14:06 | |
because your brain had prioritised visual was all it was interested in. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
Exactly, I could see him in the corner of my eye and I'm | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
concentrating down the road but I could see his signals | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
because he put his hand far enough forward I could see it. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
The brilliant, yet simple hand signals from his navigator | 0:14:18 | 0:14:22 | |
solved the problem of Moss being unable to hear when concentrating. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
The pair went on to famously win the Mille Miglia in record time, | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
clocking an astonishing average speed of 97.8 miles an hour. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:37 | |
But racing at these speeds not only demands extreme concentration, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
it also requires that when concentrating, the brain | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
must process huge quantities of ever changing inputs. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
Once the flag falls and then you're off, and you've got to... | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
you're watching where people are, can I dash in there, should I hold | 0:14:55 | 0:14:59 | |
back here, wait till we go round the corner, you know, all the time | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
trying to read the track, so you can work out how you're going to | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
pace yourself, you know watching the temperature gauges and seeing | 0:15:05 | 0:15:10 | |
how the tyres are, so it isn't just a case of being able | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
to hold your foot on the floor. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
This "racing brain", | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
able to compute lots of data quickly, is a characteristic | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
of all top drivers, both in Stirling's era and today. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:30 | |
Professor Sid Watkins is motor racing's best known neurosurgeon | 0:15:32 | 0:15:37 | |
and remains astonished by how a driver's brain processes the mass | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
of information that bombards it. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
I make a lot of jokes about, you know what is a neurosurgeon doing round | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
racing drivers because they've obviously got no brain, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
but in fact, they are a very highly intelligent group. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
They take all of the data that is coming in to them, from the body, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
from the way the head is moving on a neck and their computers | 0:16:01 | 0:16:07 | |
come out with the right solution. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
I have first hand experience of this need for high speed data processing | 0:16:10 | 0:16:15 | |
in a race car, and I can safely say it's just like Sid tells it. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
And I can't do it. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:20 | |
I'm going to try and... OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD! | 0:16:20 | 0:16:26 | |
No! There's no temperature in the brakes. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
My thinking time, that was my problem, where I had a bit of | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
an off, it's because I thought I'd left it too long to brake. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
Then I realised I hadn't, but because I was thinking that, the car | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
was already around the corner and I was in the wrong gear and I span. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
I can't think fast enough, more than anything. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:50 | |
The thing to remember more than anything | 0:16:50 | 0:16:52 | |
is there's professionals and amateur. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
That's the point. Of my era, of when you tried, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
any time you like, there's a big gap between the very best amateur | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
and the very poorest, you know, professional. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
It's rather like a singer. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:05 | |
I mean, anybody can sing but only a few people sing really well | 0:17:05 | 0:17:10 | |
and they get trained and it gets better, | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
and I think the same thing with racing, experience | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
is an enormous benefit. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
What I try to do is, against you in the same vehicle, | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
is I try to say to the car, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
OK I'm going to try and benefit from this with my experience, and that is | 0:17:21 | 0:17:25 | |
why I'm likely to get in that car and go faster than you would. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
'And the flag falls for Stirling Moss, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
'to mark his third victory in the Monaco Grand Prix...' | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
Monaco's winding street circuit is the most testing | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
for a driver's brain. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:38 | |
By the time of Stirling's third win here, he had ten years | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
experience of over 500 races. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
His brain had changed... learning to process the data bombarding | 0:17:44 | 0:17:49 | |
his senses more efficiently. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
You don't just get in a racing car and become an expert driver, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
it's all about, as I suppose in life, it's all about practice. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
You know 5 % inspiration, 95% perspiration. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
We can assume that racing drivers, those parts of the brain are going | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
to be more developed than other people, because they have | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
practised it over and over again, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
Practising an action improves the brain's performance... | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
and the body's. ultimately, we can unconsciously perform complex | 0:18:15 | 0:18:20 | |
actions, they become automatic. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
If I swing at you, you're going to duck. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
If you don't, you're hit. So obviously you duck. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
Well, in motor racing to me, I went out there and I did it automatically. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:35 | |
If you're going to really fast and get things to go with the flow, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
then it has be something you do, without realising you're doing it. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
And it's well known that a lot of automatic unconscious movement is | 0:18:43 | 0:18:47 | |
actually quicker, than if you actually have to think about moving. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
Brain research has proved, unconscious reactions are quicker | 0:18:55 | 0:19:00 | |
than conscious ones. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
It's called the gunfighter dilemma and it goes like this. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:07 | |
The gunfighter that draws first draws slower | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
because he thinks about it. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
The automatic reaction of the second guy is quicker. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:22 | |
Experiments have revealed that a reflex reaction takes a different, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:27 | |
shorter pathway through the brain than a conscious thought. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:32 | |
It makes sense, when you think about it. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
Thinking about drawing the gun takes longer than just doing it. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:39 | |
Have you ever heard of, it's a theory based around Gunfighters | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
or Gunslingers and it was an experiment that was done, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
the theory runs that the second person to draw in a gunfight, | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
will actually be faster than the first person. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
-Is that relevant to...? -I think it is. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
I think if a driver has to think about it, I mean the reason | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
I couldn't continue after my accident | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
is because I knew exactly what to do, but I had to think what to do. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
I knew I had to turn in here. Where did I turn in? | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
I turned in 100 metres away. Where did I aim for? | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
I aimed for exactly... whereas before it was all automatic. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
So Stirling's brain was acting automatically so extra quickly. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:19 | |
Along with his courage, his ability to concentrate with intensity | 0:20:19 | 0:20:25 | |
for long periods, and by now, his considerable experience | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
it was perhaps inevitable he'd rise to the top of his profession. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
'And Stirling with his favourite number seven, wins the Grand Prix | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
of Europe, by sheer brilliance.' | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
And he might well have stayed there but for a dark day in 1962. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:42 | |
It was April 24th, Easter Monday. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
The top drivers of the day gathered at the Goodwood Race circuit | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
for the 100 mile Formula One event, the Glover Trophy. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:56 | |
33 years old and in his prime, Stirling strutted his stuff, | 0:20:56 | 0:21:02 | |
sparring with rival Graham Hill even before the race began. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
On poll position, in his lucky number seven lotus at the track | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
that was the scene of his very first circuit victory, | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
Stirling was bristling with confidence. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
what could possibly go wrong? three laps from the finish, not | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
in contention for a win but as ever pushing hard for a lap record, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:27 | |
Moss went to pass Hill at St Mary's corner. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
Going around 100mph he left the track | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
and ended up smashing head-first into the banking. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
Stirling is still unconscious. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:54 | |
He's been unconscious ever since the accident, the mystery as to exactly | 0:21:54 | 0:21:59 | |
what caused this accident remains, but a rather disturbing thought | 0:21:59 | 0:22:04 | |
is that perhaps we shall never know because the chances are that | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
Stirling who has a concussion, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
a broken left leg and a cracked rib, as well as gashes around the face, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
might himself never remember. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
Your memories of the actual crash? | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
I have none of them. I have amnesia of four weeks. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
I remember chatting up a bird the night before at a cocktail party, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
a South African lady, | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
and then the next thing I remember | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
is coming to in the hospital, which was a month later. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
I mean, I didn't know it was a month, and I assumed straight away | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
that I would be racing in the next couple, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
two or three weeks because I had done that before. That had happened. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
Otherwise I don't remember anything else. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
That was the most expensive day of my life. I had to work for a living, | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
until then I was being paid to do what I liked. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
Suddenly I had to work for a living so it was pretty | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
come down to Earth all of a sudden. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
So although you can't remember exactly what happened, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
there was press coverage and there are some staggering photographs, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
if we can find them in here, of you at the time. I'm just... | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
-There, here. -Yes. -So this is immediately after it had happened? | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
And the interesting thing there, although I was unconscious | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
I'm actually holding that nurse's hand. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
I mean, you can see I'm gripping it, rather than just having it out. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:18 | |
-When they got there did they think, "he's had it"? -I reckon they did | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
because I was cramped up, look, the whole front was smashed in, | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
as you can see look. This... | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
that is actually before that because | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
they've obviously just arrived and they haven't pulled my head back. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
I've got the steering wheel, you see, this is the wheel, | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
I'll get it up the right way, so that's the way I'd be driving. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
Like this with the thumbs on there, and then my head obviously went | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
forward because no seat belts, which is amazing I wasn't thrown out. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
But anyway I went like that and that obviously gave damage, you know, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
struck my head. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:53 | |
So that was straight impact? | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
Yes, and my brain would have gone 'bah-bom' like that, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
when it happened and, you know, that was it. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
So what do you now know did happen? | 0:24:00 | 0:24:05 | |
Well, I know I went into the bank, | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
-I suppose that's the biggest thing. -Yes... | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
Well, I was coming up actually, Graham Hill was in front of me... | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
'Stirling Moss was following me through Fordwater, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
'a very fast right hand on the back leg of the circuit...' | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
And I was a lap behind because I had to stop for the gear box | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
so I was trying to un-let myself. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
We were doing about 140-mph and approaching a right-hand | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
leading into St. Mary's... | 0:24:29 | 0:24:30 | |
And I came up, and Graham was on the right... | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
At this point we slowed from 140 to 110, brake and drop | 0:24:33 | 0:24:39 | |
the gear from fifth to fourth. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:40 | |
And I think they probably gave him a flag saying look somebody | 0:24:42 | 0:24:46 | |
is going to pass you. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:47 | |
He may have gone like this because you acknowledge the flag usually, | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
or I did certainly. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:51 | |
I was on the outside of the circuit when I saw Stirling's car out of the | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
corner of my eye, on my left with the outside two wheels on the grass. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:59 | |
I probably saw him doing 'this' thinking he said right, pass me here, | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
for he was on the narrow line and normally Graham was one of those | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
drivers who went quite wide, took a wide entrance. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
I immediately backed off and saw that he was in great trouble | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
and watched his progress across the grass towards the bank. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
You see here's Graham Hill's line, and I would have gone onto the grass, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
the grass was damp and of course but that was a werther then I went | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
straight into the bank and you know, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
crashed the car. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:29 | |
I noticed there were flames coming out of the exhaust pipe, | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
and I thought it was rather strange at the time. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
Half an hour went by and we still didn't have any news, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:42 | |
and the first news we got was when it came over the tannoy, that he'd | 0:25:42 | 0:25:47 | |
had this accident and was being cut out of the car and of course we were | 0:25:47 | 0:25:52 | |
shocked and we waited around until we knew what was happening, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
and he was taken in the ambulance and somebody drove me to hospital. | 0:25:56 | 0:26:01 | |
And then the long vigil started. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
Of course, following your crash there was a lot of photographs of | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
it, but there wasn't really straight footage of it? | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
No, it was all from the side. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
Because when I did mine, it was being filmed for the television, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
so I have got footage | 0:26:21 | 0:26:22 | |
-of mine which I have... -Yes, I would like to see that actually. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
We did show this on the telly, | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
and we wondered whether to, but do you want the honest truth? | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
-Why we did it? It was because... -Because it's interesting. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
Yes, and because if just one person watching, one 17 year old kid | 0:26:34 | 0:26:39 | |
thinks, crikey, things can go wrong in the world of television, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
even in our silly, controlled world, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
they can go wrong in real life. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:46 | |
Maybe they will think twice before going round a corner and think maybe | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
there will be a tractor with a bailing spike coming round | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
the other way, so I'll be careful. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
You should have seen the palaver when the medics let me watch | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
this for the first time. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
Bloody hell fire, that's a jet engine. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
Oh, that was the first run. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
Oh, crap. This is terrifying! | 0:27:10 | 0:27:15 | |
And did you hold, you know, on the brakes? | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
-Yeah? You did? -Yeah you build it to a certain point and then... | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
Boy, it gets a move on straight away, eh? | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
Well, yes, but it accelerates in that way that jet cars do | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
which is kind of it builds and builds. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
The initial acceleration is nothing spectacular. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
It doesn't hang about, that. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
Now when you put that chute out, how much does it actually stop you? | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
Do you really feel a big G? | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
Oh, yes, it's about minus three and a half G it's a proper... | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
-Oh, is it? Oh, oh. -But it's quite gentle in its constant, and then it | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
sort of drops off. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:56 | |
-Oh, yeah. -Oh yes! | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
I'm SO alive! | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
Four months after my accident I returned to the Top Gear studio. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:04 | |
I talked about my early runs in the jet car and then the crash itself. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:09 | |
And we had the runway until 5.30... and... | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
AUDIENCE LAUGHS | 0:28:12 | 0:28:14 | |
It is strange watching yourself, when you know you were unwell, | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
because watching me there then talk, I don't remember that. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
-I don't remember sitting at all. -Oh, don't you? | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
No, not even slightly, but I know that I wasn't very well then. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:30 | |
Oops. That's when the tyre goes. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
-Sends it off. -Oooh. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
-Cor, blimey! -And that's the point where it goes down, that's when | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
I was gone, I thought. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
Good Lord! I'm amazed you got away with it at all actually. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:59 | |
-That's more bashed up than mine was, wasn't it? -Hm... | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
Mine was only a fragment compared to yours. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
I made a more thorough job of the back end of mine compared to yours. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
You can see it start to go... | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
and it's just the track to the right... | 0:29:11 | 0:29:15 | |
And you're trying to steer there. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:16 | |
-Yes, I was steering but clearly that was never going to work, was it? -No. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:22 | |
But now tell me, when the wheel... | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
when the tyre started to go, | 0:29:25 | 0:29:26 | |
that must have given you notice, my God, something's up. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
I can't remember. I can remember... | 0:29:29 | 0:29:33 | |
the problem is you don't know how much your brain reconstructs | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
afterwards. You said a couple of things you thought, | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
-you had maybe thought of afterwards. -Sure, yes. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:41 | |
But in the versions of it that ran through my mind, when I was kind of, | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
in hospital, in and out of consciousness, there was a real | 0:29:44 | 0:29:49 | |
sense of fighting something, | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
which was when steering was going on. | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
I think there was a degree of steering as the tyre fell apart. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:58 | |
But then when it burst... | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
..there was a sense of "this is an emergency." | 0:30:05 | 0:30:07 | |
I think I had then gone to pull the chute, which didn't deploy | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
and the tyre burst and it turned round. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
And then it started to roll... | 0:30:14 | 0:30:16 | |
As the car achieved that sort of angle I thought, "Well, this is it." | 0:30:20 | 0:30:23 | |
-What I don't get is why did the chute not go? -I don't know... | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
And they never found out? | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
No. It didn't deploy possibly because the car was sideways | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
and the chute is designed by a drogue to pull it out that way, | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
and it kind of...wouldn't. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
-You must have memories of some of your shunts. -Oh, I have. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
In fact I've seen you say it, on that Face To Face interview, | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
when you said... He asks you, "Have you ever thought, that's it?" | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
-Yes. -And you have? -Yes, oh sure, when my steering broke. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
-Have you ever really thought you were done? -Yes, I have. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
-When? -At Monza, my steering sheared at 165 on this bank track. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
I mean, I knew going at 165 or 170 or whatever it was, | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
suddenly, when my arms crossed, there was something wrong. I'm not stupid. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:19 | |
I'm not normally afraid of killing myself, | 0:31:19 | 0:31:22 | |
I am frightened of being killed | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
by something over which I have no control. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
And I thought, "God this is it." | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
I mean, that's it. And I remember closing my eyes and forcing back. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:32 | |
I was absolutely convinced that I was a goner. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
Well, that's a very similar memory then to when mine went, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
that's what happened to me, I did everything I could... | 0:31:38 | 0:31:40 | |
Did you black out at all, do you reckon? | 0:31:40 | 0:31:42 | |
After that, yes, but I've never been able to ask anybody else this, | 0:31:42 | 0:31:46 | |
but when you've really thought it, and really thought, "That's it," | 0:31:46 | 0:31:50 | |
the thing that came out of that memory, was that there was no fear. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
It was the next thing to do on my list. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:55 | |
If I'd had a to-do list it would have said "Get in car, drive car, | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
"crash car, die." And I would have just... | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
"Oh, I've got to the die bit now." It felt no more...it felt no more... | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
Yes, it opens a thing. I must say, I can remember so well | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
closing my eyes and thinking, "Christ, what's going to happen?" | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
-Yep. -I'm going to die. -And what happens next? | 0:32:11 | 0:32:13 | |
What does it mean? How's it going to be? | 0:32:13 | 0:32:15 | |
Death is something which frightens me, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:19 | |
and by thinking of it isn't going to make it less likely to happen, | 0:32:19 | 0:32:23 | |
therefore I don't think about it. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:24 | |
I was so worried to find out...and that's where the guilt came from. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:29 | |
Ah, things still come back! | 0:32:29 | 0:32:31 | |
-The guilt came from thinking it was my fault. -Yeah. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
That's back to what you were saying on the Face To Face interview. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
You're not scared of killing yourself | 0:32:38 | 0:32:40 | |
-but you're scared of being killed. -Yeah. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:42 | |
Mechanical failure or whatever. I was so scared... | 0:32:42 | 0:32:46 | |
I felt so guilty that I'd done something wrong, I'd messed it up, | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
so all I wanted to hear was that I hadn't risked leaving my wife | 0:32:49 | 0:32:56 | |
a widow and daughters without a father because I had cocked up. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
-Which is all you could do. -It's only when they told me | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
from the telemetry from the car, they confirmed that I had pulled | 0:33:02 | 0:33:06 | |
the parachute lever, that's all I wanted to hear. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
I'd rather you than me, old boy. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:11 | |
Ha! Well, let's face it, I didn't dislodge the right-hand side | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
of my brain so let's not get competitive about shunts! | 0:33:14 | 0:33:17 | |
The papers were full of it, | 0:33:19 | 0:33:20 | |
the news hounds were there camping out on the doorstep | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
and we told everybody, you know, that there was nothing | 0:33:24 | 0:33:29 | |
that anybody could say - that he was in a coma, | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
there wasn't any news and we'd let them know when there was. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:36 | |
The state of coma, you were in a coma for a month? | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
-Yeah, for a month. -I was only for a day or two. But that's a strange... | 0:33:40 | 0:33:44 | |
-It's not asleep but not awake. -You don't know what's happened. | 0:33:44 | 0:33:47 | |
-Do you have any coma memories or dreams or anything? -No, none at all. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
'Although a coma appears like a deep sleep, | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
'and, in fact it's the Greek word for deep sleep, | 0:33:54 | 0:33:58 | |
'the brain activity in a coma is very different. | 0:33:58 | 0:34:02 | |
'It's described as an unconscious state | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
'where you can't respond physically to light, sound or pain. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:09 | |
'You can't wake a person from a coma, | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
'they must regain consciousness of their own accord.' | 0:34:12 | 0:34:16 | |
So you're in a coma for a month, | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
I woke up, I don't, I have no recollection but my wife Mindy has, | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
she was there when I briefly stirred out of coma... | 0:34:22 | 0:34:25 | |
The first thing he did was just... | 0:34:25 | 0:34:27 | |
there was the tube, the ventilator right down... | 0:34:27 | 0:34:32 | |
and he just got hold of it and was... | 0:34:32 | 0:34:35 | |
Started pulling that out. Just fighting off intervention. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
-There was nobody in the room? -Yeah, my wife and the medics were there. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
I was fighting them off at the same time I was trying to pull it out. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:45 | |
I looked at the guy and said, "Well, what...what happens now? | 0:34:45 | 0:34:49 | |
"Can he cope without it?" He said, "Well, we'll wait and see." | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
I was pulling the pipe, which was not pleasant, | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
Mindy was saying, "What shall we do?" and they just said, "Well, | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
"he'll hurt himself if he keeps fighting with us, let him do it." | 0:34:57 | 0:35:00 | |
Then because I pulled it out, I couldn't breathe any more and I keeled over again | 0:35:00 | 0:35:04 | |
I'd rather go the way I did, boy, I wasn't awake to do all that mess. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
-A nice sleep for a month! -Yes, nice and easy. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
'Media interest never let up whilst Stirling lay unconscious. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:17 | |
'His father Alfred updated reporters, | 0:35:17 | 0:35:21 | |
'whilst his mother Aileen regularly made visits to be with her son.' | 0:35:21 | 0:35:26 | |
I held his hand, you know, | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
and squeezed it and he squeezed it back, | 0:35:28 | 0:35:31 | |
and then after a little while | 0:35:31 | 0:35:33 | |
I said to him, "Hello, darling, it's Mum, can you hear me?" And I THINK, | 0:35:33 | 0:35:38 | |
I don't think it was imagination that he just muttered, "Mum." | 0:35:38 | 0:35:43 | |
'Also, in constant attendance, was his secretary and assistant | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
'Val "Viper" Pirie. As well as dealing with up to 3,000 | 0:35:50 | 0:35:54 | |
'letters a day, she tried to be at his bedside as much as possible.' | 0:35:54 | 0:36:00 | |
I was at the hospital and sat with him | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
during the days after the accident, all during his coma. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:11 | |
You sit there and you were told to talk to him | 0:36:16 | 0:36:18 | |
to try to bring him out of the coma. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
I think they thought that hearing a familiar voice | 0:36:21 | 0:36:26 | |
would get the brain going, to help them come out of the coma. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:30 | |
'The common wisdom that talking or reading to someone in a coma | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
'may help has not been disproven. In fact, although a patient can't | 0:36:37 | 0:36:43 | |
'outwardly respond to stimulation of the senses, some recent research | 0:36:43 | 0:36:47 | |
'has shown that in some cases, the brain is registering inputs.' | 0:36:47 | 0:36:53 | |
I got him to speak to start with, | 0:36:54 | 0:36:56 | |
because I was telling him about a chap that was putting in | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
an internal vacuum cleaner into the house, | 0:36:59 | 0:37:05 | |
and this chap was not terribly good. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:10 | |
And I was regaling Stirling with the latest up... on-goings of the house | 0:37:10 | 0:37:16 | |
and what this chap had been up to and I said, you know, | 0:37:16 | 0:37:20 | |
"He's a real bastard! A real bastard!" | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
And I heard this little voice say, ("Bastard, real bastard"). | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
So I thought, "Oh, yes, you're going to be all right then!" | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
What is your actual first memory of coming out? | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
Bearing in mind you've been in coma for weeks and weeks. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
Yes, I was in a coma for a month, four weeks. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
The first thing I remember is waking up, seeing all the flowers in there | 0:37:48 | 0:37:51 | |
and facetiously saying, "They must have thought I was going to die." | 0:37:51 | 0:37:55 | |
-Which of course was pretty near the mark. -They did! | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
I hadn't realised that at the time. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:00 | |
My best friend was there and I remember lifting my arm like this | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
and he said, "What are you doing that for?" and I said, | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
"Well, in case you didn't know, I had an accident four weeks ago | 0:38:06 | 0:38:09 | |
"and broke my arm," and he said, "No, no you didn't." | 0:38:09 | 0:38:12 | |
He said, "You banged your head." I said, "Don't be ridiculous, | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
"how can banging my head mean I've got to lift this arm around?" | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
He said they wouldn't tell me because they were frightened it'd worry me, | 0:38:18 | 0:38:22 | |
and he said, "I'm afraid that you're paralysed on that side." | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
I said, "Don't be ridiculous!" | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
So he said, "All right, move your fingers," and, of course, I couldn't. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:31 | |
That sounds, to me anyway, | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
as though you were still in a bit of a confused state at that point. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
Probably, but you don't see it that way do you? | 0:38:37 | 0:38:40 | |
No, it's reality to you at the time. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:42 | |
Because it's you and that's all you know. Oh, absolutely, I mean | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
it's quite frightening how you can believe one thing but it isn't right | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
and I was obviously still, you know, mentally a bit... | 0:38:50 | 0:38:55 | |
-Mixed up? -Knocked about. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
Coma, classically will move on and people then tend to come out, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:05 | |
through a period of confusion, and into post traumatic amnesia. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
Memory is no one structure, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
memory is part of an integral system that goes throughout the brain. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:21 | |
And of course memory is what we judge ourselves by. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:25 | |
That is where we are in life, | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
that is what happened a few minutes ago, that is what we're worth, | 0:39:27 | 0:39:31 | |
that is who we love, that is what is going on. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:34 | |
It is very integral to our souls. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:36 | |
Did you have, I'm just interested at exploring | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
different states of mind, post traumatic amnesia? | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
-I don't know if that hit you at all. -Yes, yes, I did. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
-Obviously if you can't remember... -I think I've still got it actually! | 0:39:50 | 0:39:54 | |
I think now it's age orientated! | 0:39:54 | 0:39:55 | |
I was going to say, "That's called being 80!" | 0:39:55 | 0:39:57 | |
I think that's the problem now, but certainly, I did. Oh, terrible. | 0:39:57 | 0:40:01 | |
I mean, I met this stunning girl, and I didn't know | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
where we got along, where to got to in our relationship. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:07 | |
I met her afterwards and I more or less said to her, | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
had to say to her, you know, "How far had we gone?" | 0:40:10 | 0:40:12 | |
If you know what I mean, which is a pretty difficult place to be, | 0:40:12 | 0:40:16 | |
because I just could not remember. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:18 | |
But that's when it becomes alarming for the people around you. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:22 | |
-Well, yes, yes. -My wife would come and sit with me | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
and at first I denied that she was my wife, | 0:40:25 | 0:40:27 | |
-because apparently I said my wife's French. -Oh, really? | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
(Tricky.) I don't know why. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:32 | |
He said to me, when he came round, | 0:40:32 | 0:40:34 | |
"You probably should go cos my wife will be here soon." | 0:40:34 | 0:40:37 | |
I said, "I'm your wife," and he went, "No, you're not. My wife's French." | 0:40:37 | 0:40:41 | |
But she never said, "We have a happy loving relationship," | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
because she didn't want to plant... she never wanted years down the road | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
to think, "He only thinks that because I planted that seed | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
"in his head when he was vulnerable." | 0:40:51 | 0:40:52 | |
The difficulty is that our memories can be biased, | 0:40:52 | 0:40:57 | |
and we start to incorporate those other people's representations, | 0:40:57 | 0:41:03 | |
into our own feelings of what is true. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:06 | |
I think Mindy was very wise. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:14 | |
She didn't push the point and I think it can be very disturbing | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
for people whose memories are slowly returning | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
to have questions and doubts put into their mind, | 0:41:20 | 0:41:23 | |
because they're trying to deal with enough already. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
So she let me, and I did thankfully, | 0:41:26 | 0:41:27 | |
fall in love with her again - which is good. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
'Feeling oneself stuck in an alternate reality | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
'or being deeply confused are just some of the symptoms | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
'of post traumatic amnesia. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:39 | |
'Recovering from brain injury, patients might emerge with | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
'incomprehensible memories, or inexplicable skills, | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
'completely changed attitudes. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
'Stirling was briefly fluent in a language he can hardly speak. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
Well, he was lying asleep one night and he suddenly started to speak | 0:41:51 | 0:41:56 | |
in French with an absolutely superb French accent. | 0:41:56 | 0:42:01 | |
It isn't as though I'm bilingual, I'm not. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:03 | |
I mean I can get away with French if my wife's there to help me. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
-It was apparently quite fluent? -Yes, apparently. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
I'm not sure it wasn't better than I could speak. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:11 | |
My Birmingham accent returned, | 0:42:11 | 0:42:13 | |
I haven't lived in Birmingham for over 35 years. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:15 | |
-I left when I was a tiny child. -But you haven't got it now? | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
-It did return briefly. -Did it? -Took about 30 seconds to get rid of it! | 0:42:18 | 0:42:23 | |
The whole of brain injury recovery is a roller-coaster but normally | 0:42:36 | 0:42:40 | |
by the time that the patient comes out into post traumatic amnesia, | 0:42:40 | 0:42:45 | |
he seems to be relatively normal. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:47 | |
So people will come flocking to see him, they'll be elated | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
by the good news that suddenly he's better and he will be swamped. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
Everybody, all of his friends and family were coming to see him, | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
he didn't feel that he'd had an accident, he couldn't remember | 0:43:00 | 0:43:04 | |
the accident at that point, so he was thinking, "What's going on?" | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
And it must have been like being in | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
a bizarre sci-fi movie or something, you know. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
"I'm being kept here against my will, | 0:43:13 | 0:43:15 | |
"everybody else is getting on with their lives, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:17 | |
"Why don't I know where I am, or who I am, or what I am?" | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
'Good morning Dr Artuzzio, I hope we're on time.' | 0:43:20 | 0:43:23 | |
'Good morning. Yes, we have a few minutes yet.' | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
'Dr Mazir, will you go ahead and prepare this patient?' | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
What then happens is it's totally overwhelming | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
and absolutely exhausting. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
They can't follow the conversation, | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
we believe the frontal lobe has a almost filtering effect, | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
so that it can cut out too many stimuli. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:48 | |
If it has been damaged in the head injury, | 0:43:48 | 0:43:50 | |
that filter doesn't seem to work. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:52 | |
He'd had quite a few visitors one morning, | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
and then I sort of left him for about 15 minutes, | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
walked back into his room and he was on his hands and knees on the bed, | 0:43:59 | 0:44:03 | |
elbows and knees rather, | 0:44:03 | 0:44:04 | |
with his hands round the back of his head, going, | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
"Argh, the pain! My head, my head!" | 0:44:07 | 0:44:10 | |
They feel like they're going crazy. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:17 | |
They feel like their brain is not working, | 0:44:17 | 0:44:21 | |
and it just unfortunately further hinders their progress | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
because they have this crisis of confidence. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:27 | |
'The threatening clouds which have been there all the morning | 0:44:28 | 0:44:31 | |
'turned this afternoon into rain, | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
'rain which obviously is going to slow the practice times enormously, | 0:44:34 | 0:44:37 | |
'as we see Graham Hill in the BRM...' | 0:44:37 | 0:44:40 | |
I don't think that he really realised how bad he was. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:43 | |
And it wasn't until he saw the first race, | 0:44:43 | 0:44:46 | |
which I think was Monaco after that, on television, | 0:44:46 | 0:44:51 | |
that he asked for a car and he wanted to go there. | 0:44:51 | 0:44:56 | |
He was a little bit pathetic to start with, you know, | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
"Oh, I want to go there. Can I go there?" | 0:44:59 | 0:45:01 | |
"No, you're not capable of doing it." "Oh, I can, I can!" | 0:45:01 | 0:45:04 | |
'But also of driver, a test... | 0:45:04 | 0:45:06 | |
'There's Graham Hill coming into the fifth, | 0:45:06 | 0:45:08 | |
'obviously something not quite right, or he may feel, | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
'and justifiably so, that with these...' | 0:45:11 | 0:45:13 | |
One of the difficulties during recovery from frontal lobe | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
can be a lack of insight. Patients seem to almost have | 0:45:16 | 0:45:20 | |
a physical centre somewhere within that part of the lobe that enables | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
them to self-regulate and work out what they can and can't do. | 0:45:24 | 0:45:28 | |
How long do you think this is going to take? | 0:45:28 | 0:45:30 | |
There's talk of you being back to racing in no time at all. | 0:45:30 | 0:45:33 | |
Well, the doctor's are better qualified to answer | 0:45:33 | 0:45:36 | |
but I reckon it may take a month before I'm allowed to go off, | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
you know, to get fit, | 0:45:39 | 0:45:42 | |
and maybe a month getting fit and then straight in the car. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:46 | |
Are you going to try and persuade him to stop racing after this? | 0:45:46 | 0:45:49 | |
I shall ask him, yes. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:51 | |
I haven't before, but this time I shall, definitely. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:56 | |
What is so often difficult is a patient is desperate to get back | 0:45:56 | 0:46:00 | |
and prove themselves well again and they can have | 0:46:00 | 0:46:03 | |
totally unrealistic expectations as to what is possible. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
Stirling, your doctors have been quoted today as saying | 0:46:07 | 0:46:10 | |
that you're still very weak. How do you feel yourself? | 0:46:10 | 0:46:13 | |
Well, there are weaknesses, of course, down this left side. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:17 | |
I mean, this arm is not as strong as this one, but I feel all right. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
I feel very well in fact. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:22 | |
How soon do you think you'll be back on the track again? | 0:46:22 | 0:46:25 | |
Well, that depends on the doctors quite honestly, | 0:46:25 | 0:46:27 | |
but I think I'll be back in time for the British Grand Prix, | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
which is the middle of July. About a month | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
You reach a point where you think, "I'm fixed, I'm better," | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
and then a month goes by and you look back over the previous month | 0:46:37 | 0:46:41 | |
and think, "Cor, I wasn't better then, was I? Now I am." | 0:46:41 | 0:46:44 | |
Then another month goes by and you think, | 0:46:44 | 0:46:47 | |
"Whoa, I was still a bit wonky." | 0:46:47 | 0:46:48 | |
Yes, but I had the paralysis to help me, if you like. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:51 | |
Because it was a physical manifestation? | 0:46:51 | 0:46:53 | |
Yes, because it was there for, you know, for another six months. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
And so I think the fact that I obviously was not right, | 0:46:57 | 0:47:01 | |
and I knew I wasn't right until I got rid of that problem. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
But the danger there is that was only one manifestation | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
of the problems that you had. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
Did you immediately then think, "That's it, I'm fixed"? | 0:47:09 | 0:47:14 | |
No. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:16 | |
No, because I went and tried myself out with a car | 0:47:16 | 0:47:18 | |
to see if I could race again, and the answer was no. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:22 | |
And I'm the only person who can make that... | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
The decision of having to say no to myself and think, | 0:47:25 | 0:47:28 | |
"No, I'm not going to do it," caused an enormous change in my life. | 0:47:28 | 0:47:32 | |
What made you decide finally to retire from racing? | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
Well, I went out today to Goodwood, where I had the crash it so happens, | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
with a racing sports car and did about 45 minutes of lapping. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:45 | |
And while I was doing that I decided that I would be foolish to continue | 0:47:45 | 0:47:49 | |
because I had lost certain things that I took for granted | 0:47:49 | 0:47:52 | |
such as my dexterity, my concentration | 0:47:52 | 0:47:54 | |
and you know, many things happened that normally I wouldn't even | 0:47:54 | 0:47:59 | |
think about, and today I had to think about doing them. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
Do you remember that drive, when you decided? | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
Yes. Yeah I do, because it was... | 0:48:07 | 0:48:13 | |
very depressing. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:15 | |
I tried not to show the depression but, you know, | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
realising that this was the only decision I could make | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
which was obvious to me because I had been... | 0:48:21 | 0:48:23 | |
I knew if I went back to racing I'd either kill myself | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
or kill somebody else so it was not a difficult decision to make, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:30 | |
because it's something that had to be intuitive | 0:48:30 | 0:48:34 | |
and it was no longer intuitive. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:36 | |
'Now, although apparently fully recovered to normal health, | 0:48:38 | 0:48:41 | |
'Stirling Moss has made the decision to race no more.' | 0:48:41 | 0:48:45 | |
So in Stirling's case, | 0:48:49 | 0:48:51 | |
he was about a year after his accident, wasn't he? | 0:48:51 | 0:48:55 | |
-The paralysis had left him, he was physically OK. -Yep. | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
Then he decided | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
to go for a drive and to make his own assessment. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:05 | |
How do you feel about him doing that? How do you feel about that? | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
Well, as he says, | 0:49:08 | 0:49:09 | |
he was very glad I wasn't in charge of them in those days, | 0:49:09 | 0:49:13 | |
because I wouldn't have let him get in the car, | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
and I wouldn't have let him get in the car for two years. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
And I wouldn't have let him get in the car until I serially assessed | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
his psychomotor skills, over a period of time. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:27 | |
He says, "I couldn't wait that long." | 0:49:27 | 0:49:31 | |
It was far too soon to make a decision like that. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
I'm not saying that he would have been able to go back | 0:49:34 | 0:49:39 | |
and be competitive for a few years, actually, | 0:49:39 | 0:49:44 | |
but, even so, it was far too early to make that decision. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:48 | |
I mean, I know when I got out of racing I didn't want to leave, | 0:49:48 | 0:49:52 | |
but I left because it was the only intelligent thing for me to do. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
Because if you couldn't win, you didn't want to be there? | 0:49:55 | 0:49:59 | |
If I wasn't in there to win... Yeah, exactly. And... | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
I'm not a good loser, I don't want to go out there and make up the field | 0:50:02 | 0:50:06 | |
and therefore it wasn't that difficult, but it was hard. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:10 | |
-Trying to meet you in that period after, say a year afterwards. -Yeah. | 0:50:10 | 0:50:15 | |
Does this resonate at all with you? | 0:50:15 | 0:50:17 | |
I went through a long phase of wanting to wear a T-shirt, | 0:50:17 | 0:50:20 | |
on the front of which said, "I'm absolutely fine, thanks for asking." | 0:50:20 | 0:50:25 | |
And on the back said, "I'm still poorly you know." Because sometimes, | 0:50:25 | 0:50:30 | |
with recovering from brain injury people will just, | 0:50:30 | 0:50:33 | |
"Wow, he's walking about and moving and everything! He's fine." | 0:50:33 | 0:50:36 | |
As they would with you because by then, you're physically fixed, | 0:50:36 | 0:50:40 | |
still the same robust soul as you were when you hit the bank. | 0:50:40 | 0:50:42 | |
Your T-shirt, the equivalent of mine, would say on the front, | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
"I'm absolutely fine, thank you - and lucky," on the back... | 0:50:45 | 0:50:49 | |
I think I'd have had on my back I'd think that I had lost, you see. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:54 | |
I'd reckon I wasn't doing what I wanted to do, | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
therefore my life is not at the moment complete. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
You know, that was it, that was the end of it. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:04 | |
-But what had changed? Was it your ability to control your arms? -No. | 0:51:04 | 0:51:08 | |
No what had changed was what I used to do was automatic, | 0:51:08 | 0:51:13 | |
now it was a conscience thought. | 0:51:13 | 0:51:15 | |
Everything had to be thought out. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:16 | |
It was no longer what my life was. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:19 | |
No longer could I write a piece of prose that was really worth reading, | 0:51:19 | 0:51:24 | |
you know what I mean, and so therefore I had changed. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:28 | |
I mean, my life had been changed and I, obviously, along with it. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:31 | |
'The pathways in his brain, | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
'developed and honed by years of top flight racing, | 0:51:37 | 0:51:41 | |
'had not fully recovered from the accident. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:45 | |
'for Stirling what was once second nature behind the wheel, | 0:51:45 | 0:51:49 | |
'was now a conscious, tiring and slower effort.' | 0:51:49 | 0:51:54 | |
These days what we try to do is, | 0:51:59 | 0:52:01 | |
we try to ensure that people only have positive experiences, | 0:52:01 | 0:52:04 | |
because the risk of a set back is so overwhelming in head injury | 0:52:04 | 0:52:09 | |
because it seems to affect their very entity. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
You see when can you go back? | 0:52:13 | 0:52:17 | |
And he couldn't have been an also ran. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:19 | |
And he wouldn't have wanted to tarnish his image, ever. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:23 | |
'Stirling led across the line to win his first Grand Prix and | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
'to go down in history as the first British driver to win this event.' | 0:52:27 | 0:52:32 | |
And I'm going from being one of the most successful drivers, | 0:52:36 | 0:52:40 | |
at the top of my form, | 0:52:40 | 0:52:41 | |
and now suddenly all that I had worked for was taken away. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:45 | |
And I had to then start building up another life, | 0:52:45 | 0:52:49 | |
which was away from that. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:50 | |
Forget that, I can't, I mustn't look at that any more. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
I've got to build an entirely new life. I had nothing. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:56 | |
The only thing I had was my name. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:59 | |
'The new two litre Renault 20, | 0:53:00 | 0:53:03 | |
'is equipped with centralised door locking, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
'adjustable head lights, electric windows, | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
'in fact more luxury features as standard than any car in its class. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:15 | |
'Oh, and of course, a powerful new two litre engine.' | 0:53:15 | 0:53:19 | |
ENGINE REVS | 0:53:19 | 0:53:20 | |
'Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?' | 0:53:20 | 0:53:23 | |
'His name still sells today | 0:53:26 | 0:53:28 | |
'even though he never made a successful comeback. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
'But a little of the old racing Moss can perhaps be glimpsed | 0:53:31 | 0:53:35 | |
'at vintage car rallies which he loves.' | 0:53:35 | 0:53:38 | |
So this DVD is from 92 | 0:53:38 | 0:53:42 | |
and this is you in a rerun of the Mille Miglia. | 0:53:42 | 0:53:45 | |
-Right, so this is behind the wheel, 43 years later. -Yeah. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:50 | |
-'What the -BLEEP? -Why didn't you tell me then, you prat?' | 0:53:53 | 0:53:56 | |
-Language! -STIRLING CHUCKLES | 0:53:56 | 0:53:58 | |
'BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.' | 0:53:58 | 0:54:00 | |
-STIRLING CHUCKLES -Straight in, no mercy! -Terrible! | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
'Put it on your head and then put it on.' | 0:54:03 | 0:54:06 | |
You're back in business here. | 0:54:06 | 0:54:07 | |
You're driving the same route, the same car, | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
shouting at your co-driver, who is THAT Stirling Moss? | 0:54:10 | 0:54:13 | |
You know, that's the modern one because, you know, it isn't a race. | 0:54:13 | 0:54:18 | |
If it had been a race then obviously I would be very upset, | 0:54:18 | 0:54:22 | |
in this one I was a bit frustrated. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:24 | |
'320. Three kilometres, 20.' | 0:54:24 | 0:54:26 | |
-'No not the kilometres the -BLEEP -minutes you -BLEEP -!' | 0:54:26 | 0:54:29 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:54:29 | 0:54:30 | |
It is two men arguing in a car. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
So there you are, doing what you do. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:39 | |
I know it's not in a race situation, but seriously, | 0:54:39 | 0:54:44 | |
try and tell me, rummage about in there, | 0:54:44 | 0:54:46 | |
there will be some emotions going on cos I know even you feel emotions. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
What were you feeling behind the wheel of that car again | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
-and doing things like that? -Frustrated. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:54 | |
I mean, the Mille Miglia now, of course, is not like it was at all. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:59 | |
It's not a speed event. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:00 | |
But, to go and make mistakes, as we were doing, was very frustrating | 0:55:00 | 0:55:06 | |
quite frankly, and I can't contain myself that well, | 0:55:06 | 0:55:11 | |
I am someone who says what I think, which I shouldn't quite often | 0:55:11 | 0:55:15 | |
and so I'm a bit embarrassed at that actually. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
I think the world will forgive you for saying what you think, Stirling. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:21 | |
Then you cross the line and you pretty much nail it on time. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:24 | |
-You're absolutely bang on. How did that feel? -Luck. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:29 | |
We were ill-prepared and we were very lucky, it was as simple as that. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:33 | |
Lucky is such an interesting word in this context | 0:55:33 | 0:55:36 | |
because I will guarantee you've been told how lucky you are to be here | 0:55:36 | 0:55:40 | |
many, many, many, many times. But lucky? | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
The world's greatest racing driver can't race anymore? | 0:55:42 | 0:55:45 | |
-That's not luck. That's bad luck, isn't it? -Yeah, I'm told I'm lucky. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:49 | |
I'd be a hell of a lot luckier if the tyre hadn't blown at 300mph. | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
-Yes, quite! -That's unlucky if you ask me! | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
Do you think you got over yours completely? | 0:55:54 | 0:55:58 | |
I always think that and then a year goes by and you look back | 0:55:58 | 0:56:01 | |
and think, "Oh, you know what? I hadn't." | 0:56:01 | 0:56:03 | |
I met somebody yesterday who I haven't seen for a year, | 0:56:03 | 0:56:06 | |
who said straight away, "Big difference!" | 0:56:06 | 0:56:10 | |
-Oh, really? -Yeah. I think it's a very, very long road because of, | 0:56:10 | 0:56:14 | |
because we're not hard-wired are we? | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
There's not a load of wires and flashing lights in there, | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
it's a hideously complicated beast in there | 0:56:19 | 0:56:23 | |
made up of experiences and tendencies and inclinations | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
and it takes a long time to build it | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
and if you mess it up as heavily and as strongly as we did, | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
and as a lot of people do, | 0:56:32 | 0:56:34 | |
then I think it takes a commensurately long time to | 0:56:34 | 0:56:37 | |
-settle back down and reboot itself. -Yes. -I find it a bit frightening. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
Yes, it's frightening because it's something we can't control. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:44 | |
We can't control our brain. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:45 | |
Our brain controls us, doesn't it? | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
'I said at the start of this programme that much of what | 0:56:50 | 0:56:53 | |
'we know about the brain was learned from observing what happens | 0:56:53 | 0:56:58 | |
'when someone damages it. | 0:56:58 | 0:57:00 | |
'But it's not just medical science that learns. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:02 | |
'Stirling and I have learned a lot about our own brains | 0:57:02 | 0:57:05 | |
'as a result of damaging them. | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
'OK, so Stirling felt he couldn't react as quickly behind the wheel | 0:57:08 | 0:57:12 | |
'and he gave up racing. But it hasn't stopped him continuing to be | 0:57:12 | 0:57:16 | |
'a much-loved, respected and admired character in the racing world | 0:57:16 | 0:57:21 | |
'about which he's still so passionate.' | 0:57:21 | 0:57:23 | |
'Welcome to the Inaugural Motor Sport Hall of Fame.' | 0:57:25 | 0:57:30 | |
-Is this where we're meant to be? -That's right, sir. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:33 | |
-Oh, good, what time shall we be here? -You're absolutely on time, sir. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:36 | |
Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:41 | |
Nevertheless, you see the difference is we're diametrically opposed, | 0:57:45 | 0:57:49 | |
because I think racing should be dangerous, | 0:57:49 | 0:57:52 | |
because I think to me, that was what it was about. | 0:57:52 | 0:57:55 | |
Here's the thing, Stirling is 80 now. | 0:57:55 | 0:57:58 | |
He's just spent three, four hours in a studio with me | 0:57:58 | 0:58:03 | |
talking pretty intensely, and now he's up there, doing that. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:08 | |
His brain's still absorbing so much, | 0:58:08 | 0:58:14 | |
and then putting out the required output. | 0:58:14 | 0:58:18 | |
I think he got better. | 0:58:19 | 0:58:22 | |
'Ladies and Gentlemen, Sir Stirling Moss.' | 0:58:22 | 0:58:24 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:58:24 | 0:58:27 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:42 | 0:58:46 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:58:46 | 0:58:49 |