0:00:05 > 0:00:08Morning. Alan Whicker.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13How do you stop a train? Do you go on the line?
0:00:14 > 0:00:16No, perhaps you don't.
0:00:20 > 0:00:26'I'm starting a journey around some of the people and places I've explored in 50 years on television.'
0:00:28 > 0:00:29No?
0:00:30 > 0:00:32Yes!
0:00:32 > 0:00:34Oh, yes!
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Can you imagine doing that on the 8.53 into Victoria?
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Once you've casually stopped a train as majestic as that,
0:00:47 > 0:00:51the rest of your life tends to be... a bit of an anti-climax.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54Morning.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01This is the thickest jungle...
0:01:01 > 0:01:06If it's a place the police have refused to come into, why am I here?
0:01:06 > 0:01:11Today an expedition into the remote territory of a doomed people.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20What about the rich?
0:01:22 > 0:01:24Is there sex after success?
0:01:26 > 0:01:33- Here's some goodies I'm lucky to have.- That's about a pound on each side you're carrying around.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36What a horrible misshapen person!
0:01:36 > 0:01:41- Isn't it better to be a helpless female?- Definitely not!
0:01:41 > 0:01:44This is Whicker Island...
0:01:46 > 0:01:50- International superstar Alan Whicker. - That's reasonable.
0:01:50 > 0:01:56You have had the worst international press of any president I have known.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00I'm told you can get someone killed around here.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03He has cured me!
0:02:04 > 0:02:06We're getting to the exciting bit.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Whicker's World, 238, take one.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19Living within Whicker's World has been a lot of fun - the excitement, the unexpected characters,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24the occasional glass of champagne. I've had the luckiest of lives,
0:02:24 > 0:02:30but as we raced around the world, there's seldom been time to pause and relish the way we were,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33the wonder in the way we are today.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37So for the next month, with your company, I hope,
0:02:37 > 0:02:44I'm going to rediscover some of this international cavalcade on the journey of a lifetime.
0:03:11 > 0:03:17'I've often looked at the remote and exotic across the world, but sometimes the most revealing stories
0:03:17 > 0:03:22'and unusual people were closer to home. Tonight we start in Venice.'
0:03:24 > 0:03:31There are many dazzling cities in the world, but few hang in the mind like an obsession.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35Anyone who lives in Venice for a few weeks becomes bonded
0:03:35 > 0:03:37to feel forever proprietorial.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41Who are these people messing up my piazza?
0:03:41 > 0:03:47When I first reached this sea city in 1945, the war was ending, the soldiers had gone,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50the tourists had not yet returned.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Living in Venice was like joining an exclusive club.
0:03:54 > 0:04:00This Piazza San Marco had reverted to its role as an elegant medieval museum
0:04:00 > 0:04:05where one socialised over a Negroni at the Florian or the Quadri,
0:04:05 > 0:04:11nodding to other members as all Venetian life drifted around the tables.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18'Having fought my way up wartime Italy with the 8th and 5th Armies,
0:04:18 > 0:04:23'I reached Venice, to my joy, just in time for the peace.'
0:04:24 > 0:04:31I doubt whether Venice has ever been as lovely or as happy as during that first post-war summer
0:04:31 > 0:04:35when it was an enchantment just to be alive.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40I was seeing out my army service here, of all places,
0:04:40 > 0:04:47and editing the 8th Army newspaper, Union Jack, in the elegant offices of the Gazzetino.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49Even in those days,
0:04:49 > 0:04:57as my requisitioned editorial launch swept some gorgeous contessa across the lagoon for lunch,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00or into an opera box at La Fenice,
0:05:00 > 0:05:07I was aware that life was as good as it was ever going to be, however long I lived.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23'I then lived for several happy months in this small pensione
0:05:23 > 0:05:28'in a piazzetta off St Mark's. It was humble, but well placed.'
0:05:31 > 0:05:36It so happens that Venice has been one of the fulcrums of my life,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40where things change and I set off in some new direction.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45At the end of the war, it was here that I stopped being a soldier
0:05:45 > 0:05:48and became a foreign correspondent.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Another 10 years and I left Fleet Street and went into television.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55And so back, indirectly, to Venice.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00'It was here that I filmed my first overseas report -
0:06:00 > 0:06:04'a Tonight special with Cliff Michelmore in the chair.'
0:06:04 > 0:06:06A lot of people have visited Venice.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11Not all that number have lived there for months on end.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14One member of the Tonight team has.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Alan Whicker did live here as a young man.
0:06:22 > 0:06:28Hello. For centuries, Venice may have been casting a theatrical spell over visitors,
0:06:28 > 0:06:34but even if it's part-museum, part-amusement park, part-theatre, there's a lot going on backstage
0:06:34 > 0:06:38that the tourists have no eyes and no time for.
0:06:38 > 0:06:44'Venice is where I was measured for my first peacetime suit and silk shirts.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48'It's where I began to send flowers to deserving signorinas
0:06:48 > 0:06:55'and opened my first account at Harry's, with the late Giuseppe Cipriani watchful behind his bar.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59'It was little known then, until made famous by Ernest Hemingway.'
0:06:59 > 0:07:03Now it's one of the most famous bars in the world.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07And still anonymous.
0:07:11 > 0:07:19Here you'll see anybody who's anybody...plus a few anybodies who are nobody.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24'I devoted a programme to the bar and its owner in 1971.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30'Giuseppe's son Arrigo now presides over the family empire,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33'sometimes even mixes the Bellinis.'
0:07:35 > 0:07:37- You want a Bellini?- You bet.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Good health.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47I can remember when I started in television,
0:07:47 > 0:07:53- I always interviewed people and they were sometimes not at all experienced.- Yes.
0:07:53 > 0:07:59So one had a bottle of wine and we'd have a wine and feel better.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04At the end of it all, I was reeling about and they were perfect!
0:08:04 > 0:08:08I was looking the other day at the Whicker's World with your father.
0:08:08 > 0:08:14He was here in the bar doing exactly what you're doing now, looking very much like you.
0:08:14 > 0:08:22But it's one of the most famous bars in the world and yet no one would ever accuse it of being elegant.
0:08:22 > 0:08:30It all comes from the idea of freedom. We didn't impose the furniture. It's not an imposition.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33If you come when it's empty, it tells you nothing.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38The real furniture are the customers because they feel free.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43In 2001, the Minister of Art declared Harry's Bar a national monument.
0:08:43 > 0:08:50It has to stay the way it is now. Me included. I've got to be here for the next few years!
0:09:03 > 0:09:10'Few cities around the world impose this yearning on those of us drawn back year after year
0:09:10 > 0:09:16'not to do anything in particular when we get here, but just to lounge about
0:09:16 > 0:09:24'and satisfy a longing to be absorbed for a while into a different and a beautiful world.'
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Always lucky and happy,
0:09:27 > 0:09:35yet always too poor and too busy to buy that Venetian apartment I've been looking for all my life.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39I could have picked up a palace on the Grand Canal then
0:09:39 > 0:09:43for the price of a few rooms today.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46So now it's too late
0:09:46 > 0:09:50and my regrets haunt those old grey stones
0:09:50 > 0:09:52and these old grey bones.
0:09:53 > 0:09:59Yet, when I'm in Venice and happy, springtime still sings in me,
0:09:59 > 0:10:05though I'm well aware that, in truth, it's now really the song of autumn or winter.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11Not even nostalgia is as good as it used to be.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26'In 1946, I left the glory that was Venice and made my way back
0:10:26 > 0:10:29'to drab, post-war London.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33'Then, after 10 years in Fleet Street, I went into television.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46'This is my oldest surviving Tonight footage from early 1957.
0:10:46 > 0:10:52'I was snapping at the heels of the bunco boys selling plastic bags in Oxford Street
0:10:52 > 0:10:57'and presenting a smooth front to watchful policemen.'
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Mothproof, dustproof, waterproof. One shilling.
0:11:00 > 0:11:07- How long have you been here? - Approximately 10 years.- Do you have trouble with the police?- No.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11On the whole, I find the police a very nice body of men.
0:11:11 > 0:11:18- Why should the public buy this bag from you?- They can't buy them from the stores for the same price.
0:11:18 > 0:11:25- Why choose Oxford Street?- There's a tremendous weight of people there that come every day.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27- Do you pay any income tax?- No.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33You get chased by the police, diddled by the public they say,
0:11:33 > 0:11:38but, of course, every penny you make in this mark is tax-free.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45Get your polythene bags here! They're only a bob each.
0:11:45 > 0:11:51Mothproof, waterproof, dustproof. I'm not here today, gone tomorrow. Only a bob each.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55Tonight was television's first nightly magazine programme.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00Its fast format of quirky human interest was new to our screens.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05The BBC was still embedded in its Civil Service ethos
0:12:05 > 0:12:09which took broadcasting off the air every night between 6 and 7
0:12:09 > 0:12:15in case viewing parents had trouble getting their children to bed. Can you imagine?
0:12:15 > 0:12:22We were writing the grammar of television so that quaint, hour-long toddlers' truce of 1957
0:12:22 > 0:12:26did not long survive Tonight's arrival.
0:12:26 > 0:12:32Soon viewers were being treated as grown-ups, where the next Tonight was always tomorrow night
0:12:32 > 0:12:36and you could make your own house rules in your own home. Wow!
0:12:36 > 0:12:41- Aren't your feet killing you?- No. - Comfortable?- Yes.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45- You're going faster now!- Yes. - You've speeded up a bit!
0:12:45 > 0:12:48- I've got a pacemaker.- Stop it!
0:12:52 > 0:12:58'Soon we had 7 million, then 10 million viewers. This changed the eating habits of the nation
0:12:58 > 0:13:01'as sales of coffee tables soared.'
0:13:01 > 0:13:07It seemed that arriving home from work in the evening, everyone wanted to settle down to a meal
0:13:07 > 0:13:14'in front of that cheery gang on Tonight, where something was always happening.'
0:13:15 > 0:13:22Well, it's all right for you sitting there, but my feet are killing me. Good night.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34I found it a perfect billet.
0:13:34 > 0:13:40I'd spent several years commanding the 8th Army Film and Photo Unit and knew a bit about photography.
0:13:40 > 0:13:46Then Fleet Street taught me how to write fast. I wasn't good-looking, as you can plainly see,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50but at least I was neat and not noticeably shy.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55Most important of all for Tonight, I enjoyed people.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00This is Meadowview Terrace, a terrace of 10 houses.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02We're looking for number 5.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06It's more difficult than you'd think. That's number one.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10This is number two and this is number eight...
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Number eight?!
0:14:14 > 0:14:19- How long have you been delivering letters here?- Seven years.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23- Have you worked out these numbers? - Well, it's a difficult job.
0:14:23 > 0:14:29- I believe you.- There's 12 houses, numbered 1 to 4 three times,
0:14:29 > 0:14:33three 1s, three 2s, three 3s and three 4s.
0:14:33 > 0:14:39- I'm looking for number 5. - That's the one next to number 8, which is marked 8.- Oh.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43But that is... No, the one next door to 8 is marked 3.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Well, it's number 5 from yon end.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52- And then from this end, it's number 2.- It's seven from that end.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57It can't be seven from that end.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01I'm sorry about this confusion. It's obviously quite straightforward.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05If number 8 is the third one from here,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08and the sixth one is number 1,
0:15:08 > 0:15:145 must be the fourth down, er... or possibly the fifth down.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18I'll find it by trial and error. Good night.
0:15:18 > 0:15:25'After several happy years, I found myself growing restive within Tonight's magazine format.'
0:15:27 > 0:15:32This required filmed reports up to 20 minutes long, usually 10,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36so there was little time to develop theme or personality.
0:15:36 > 0:15:42It seemed that I was drawing away from the stop press demands of a fast, topical programme,
0:15:42 > 0:15:47while the producers were preoccupied with feeding the brute nightly.
0:15:47 > 0:15:52In the end, we did a deal. I'd continue under the stick of Tonight
0:15:52 > 0:15:57with the carrot of an occasional series of one-hour specials.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05'The first two curtain raisers we rushed into were devoted to J Paul Getty
0:16:06 > 0:16:10'and Baroness Fiona Thyssen.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15'These were seen in 1963 as television milestones -
0:16:16 > 0:16:23'Getty for content and a revealing profile in depth, and Fiona for style and treatment.
0:16:25 > 0:16:33'In the early '60s, tycoons were not in the habit of inviting readers of glossy magazines into their homes.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42'So our first hour-long programme with Getty at Sutton Place
0:16:42 > 0:16:44'was a revelation.'
0:16:45 > 0:16:51Money is secondary. Nobody makes money unless they run a mint.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55'Paul Getty, then the richest man in the world, was little known.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00'He lived alone in a splendid Tudor mansion in 700 acres of Surrey,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03'which he'd bought for £65,000.
0:17:03 > 0:17:09'I'd met him a few times socially and was invited to his Sunday lunches.
0:17:09 > 0:17:15'It was on one such occasion I thought I detected a faint, but unspoken desire
0:17:15 > 0:17:21'for some public acknowledgement of his remarkable career and achievements.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25'He seemed the least likely prospect for the total exposure of television
0:17:25 > 0:17:33'but when I suggested he might be the subject of my first in-depth programme, he agreed.'
0:17:34 > 0:17:37I'm intelligent, I like to think.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41I know others just as intelligent or more intelligent.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46I'm imaginative, I like to think.
0:17:48 > 0:17:54I have...many friends and acquaintances who are just as imaginative or more imaginative!
0:17:54 > 0:17:59I always wish that I had a better personality,
0:18:00 > 0:18:02that...
0:18:03 > 0:18:08I could entertain people better, was a better conversationalist.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17Always worried I might be a little on the dull side as a companion.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22There are a great many stories, Mr Getty, of your care with money.
0:18:22 > 0:18:29For example, you've installed a pay telephone box here to prevent your guests abusing your hospitality
0:18:29 > 0:18:31by making trunk and toll calls.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38I think right-thinking guests would consider that was
0:18:38 > 0:18:41a...a benefit.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43It's...
0:18:44 > 0:18:46..rather...
0:18:47 > 0:18:53..daunting if you're visiting somewhere and have to put in a long-distance call
0:18:53 > 0:18:56and charge your host with it.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02'For a reclusive man, Getty was surprisingly unconcerned and forthcoming.'
0:19:02 > 0:19:07Millionaires seem to be handicapped in their search for domestic happiness.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11Do you have much aptitude or instinct for family life?
0:19:11 > 0:19:13I like to think I'm average.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21You're not average in as much as you've been married five times, Mr Getty.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Well...maybe business had something to do with that.
0:19:27 > 0:19:33Certainly your spectacular success as a businessman has only been equalled by your abysmal failure
0:19:33 > 0:19:37- as a husband.- That's right. I'm the world's worst.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42One of your wives has said you're afraid of showing your feelings.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48You've never been able to open up with men or have an intimate man friend.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52Oh, I think I've had...
0:19:52 > 0:19:54a few...
0:19:54 > 0:19:57..a few good friends.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Among men.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07One of the closest friends I have, and one of the best friends I had,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09unfortunately...
0:20:12 > 0:20:14..died this morning.
0:20:14 > 0:20:22'I was stricken and wanted to stop the recording, but he continued as though nothing had happened.'
0:20:22 > 0:20:25I think I had a long...
0:20:27 > 0:20:29and close friendship with him.
0:20:32 > 0:20:39She says, "Paul is the most lonely man I know. He wants to meet the other person, but he can't."
0:20:42 > 0:20:47I wouldn't say that I've ever felt particularly lonely. I'm too busy.
0:20:49 > 0:20:56'When the programme was transmitted, there was no doubt the reclusive Getty won the viewers' sympathy.
0:20:56 > 0:21:02'His mournful and hesitant delivery ensured that he was not an easy interview,
0:21:02 > 0:21:08'but viewers did not envy his lifestyle or his wealth. They just felt sorry for him.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12'On one US network, the programme was shown twice in the first week.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17'One reviewer described him as "an essay in gloom".
0:21:18 > 0:21:23'That was something nobody could ever say about my second subject.'
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Once upon a time, and this is a true fairy story,
0:21:33 > 0:21:40there was a beautiful Scots girl who lived contentedly in the country surrounded by horses.
0:21:40 > 0:21:46She might still be there, but one day most of Daddy's money was taken by the big, bad Inland Revenue
0:21:46 > 0:21:54so the horses were sold and the weeping Scots girl went bravely out into the world to work.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58She became a model and the fashionable face of 1952,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02the unattainable creature on haughty magazine covers.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13So beautiful was she that one day a rich baron,
0:22:13 > 0:22:21'Heine Thyssen-Bornemisza no less, came down out of the mountains to claim her as his third bride.
0:22:23 > 0:22:31'And together they set off to the place at the end of the rainbow where rich people go to be happy.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37'I followed her to Switzerland and Italy with the camera running.
0:22:37 > 0:22:43'It was going to be a new style of documentary, with the reporter sharing the action.'
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Oh, non, ca va.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54- Sorry.- What did you have to set about changing in the Baron?
0:22:55 > 0:23:01As a person, I wouldn't... You mean marry the man today and change his ways tomorrow? No.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06No, I didn't, but I had an awful row the first week we were married
0:23:06 > 0:23:10because he had a telex machine in the room next to our bedroom.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15You can dial a number and type a message to anywhere in the world.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19The New York Stock Exchange prices used to come in at night.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23He'd leap out of bed and rush across and look at it,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27so I had to have it removed. "Either it's the telex or me."
0:23:27 > 0:23:32As a newly-married wife, you're sensitive to those sort of things!
0:23:32 > 0:23:37'Fiona and Baron Heine had been married almost seven years.
0:23:37 > 0:23:43'They had one daughter and Fiona was now seven months pregnant with their second child.'
0:23:45 > 0:23:51- What about the satisfactions of wealth?- Well, here's some goodies that I'm very lucky to have.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55You must have been pleased to see that, I'd have thought.
0:23:55 > 0:24:02- Well, what woman wouldn't be? - How many carats is it?- I think 25.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08These are a pair of yellow diamonds, which I'm very, very fond of.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16- They must be about 25 carats, too. - I think they're about 25, yes.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20- And this is the necklace that goes with them.- How many carats is that?
0:24:20 > 0:24:2250.
0:24:22 > 0:24:28- Diamonds, it seems, are even a multi-millionairess's best friend. - Absolutely!
0:24:28 > 0:24:34- It must be a great comfort to have diamonds by the dozen. - Comfort against what? For what?
0:24:34 > 0:24:38- The cold, perhaps.- Yes. They have to be useful for something.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48- Don't tell me you've run out of questions.- Never. I'm enjoying this so much.- Yes?
0:24:48 > 0:24:52- Good!- 'After transmission of Model Millionairess,
0:24:52 > 0:24:59'the BBC received no criticism about her unguarded, but endearing display of enviable wealth.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05'Everyone, critics included, adored her. I believe the response might be different
0:25:05 > 0:25:09'in these less generous, more resentful days.'
0:25:15 > 0:25:20How about world events? Do you keep informed of what's happening?
0:25:20 > 0:25:26Not very much, no. As a Swiss wife, we don't have the vote in Switzerland.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29I don't have many opinions about it.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32- Let's go a little fast again. - All right.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39There's something about a speedboat that makes you want to laugh.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41If you can!
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Alan, how's your drink?
0:25:49 > 0:25:54- He does flirt a little, your husband.- Yes!
0:25:54 > 0:26:01- And I like to keep an eye on what's going on!- Why do you believe that the Baron loves you?
0:26:01 > 0:26:05Well, first of all, he's stayed married to me for seven years nearly
0:26:05 > 0:26:08and, secondly, he told me so
0:26:08 > 0:26:15and he said that he loved me because I was very ordinary, which I interpreted as not neurotic,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18so we agreed and it suits us both.
0:26:18 > 0:26:24The best aspect of Whicker's World is that my interviewees often become friends
0:26:24 > 0:26:30and so it was with our model millionairess, Fiona Thyssen. Today she's visiting my home in Jersey.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34'She and the Baron didn't live happily ever after.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38'Heine moved on to other brides, two or three, I believe,
0:26:38 > 0:26:43'but at least I gained a friend for life.'
0:26:43 > 0:26:47You once told me that when we made our film
0:26:47 > 0:26:49in '63...
0:26:49 > 0:26:56- '63.- ..that you went away afterwards and it was the first time you'd thought about your life.- Yes.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58How did it affect you?
0:26:58 > 0:27:06Well, it was a terrible shock because with that one magic phrase of yours about the cushion of wealth,
0:27:06 > 0:27:12I saw very clearly how it had kept me... I had always seen it as a golden cage,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17but it had absolutely distanced me from reality.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22I was very naive and that naivete stayed with me.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27I didn't seem to grow in the marriage and I was very surprised at the end.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31I remember a last scene where Heine goes off
0:27:31 > 0:27:33and I felt a terrible sadness.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39I didn't realise then what you had seen, that it was the end of my marriage.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43You saw things I wasn't aware of. It helped me see those.
0:27:43 > 0:27:49- Everybody liked you, of course. - I was very pretty in those days. Irresistible, I was told!
0:27:49 > 0:27:54- It was probably me telling you. - Probably. I'm sure it was.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59You gave me great confidence because Heine did not give me that.
0:27:59 > 0:28:06- I'd say, "What would you like me to wear?" "Doesn't matter."- Swapping you for some bouncy Brazilian...
0:28:06 > 0:28:12Well, she was young...and bouncy and lovely long, blonde hair.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16I've often wondered whether I ever did you a disservice
0:28:16 > 0:28:23- in encouraging you to consider more profoundly your marriage. - Absolutely not. It was clear to you
0:28:23 > 0:28:31that it had built-in limitations and so on and it really did help me to acknowledge the fact
0:28:31 > 0:28:36that I was not in the right marriage, I had not married the right man for me.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38What was the right man for me?
0:28:38 > 0:28:42I never remarried. Heine's a hard act to follow.
0:28:42 > 0:28:48- How difficult was it to walk away from all that? - I had no difficulty at all.
0:28:48 > 0:28:54I didn't even have a lawyer. I said, "Heine, just give us what you think we need, the kids and I,
0:28:54 > 0:28:59"to live on a comfortable scale as you think fit."
0:28:59 > 0:29:05So what he did, actually, was call up his secretary and say, "What are your wages per month?"
0:29:05 > 0:29:13"2,000 francs." And he turned to me and said, "I'll give you 2,000 francs a month." And that was it.
0:29:13 > 0:29:19'From the elevated world of St Moritz, I returned to England and the fields of high Leicestershire
0:29:19 > 0:29:24'to spend time with the Quorn, the most famous hunt in the world.'
0:29:25 > 0:29:31This is Britain, where those who describe themselves as "fond of animals" hunt them to death
0:29:31 > 0:29:35or spend their lives dominating a very small dog,
0:29:35 > 0:29:41fire brigades are called to rescue kittens from trees, people refuse to eat eggs from battery hens,
0:29:41 > 0:29:49get up petitions for horse troughs and any book about a gull or a duck, however stumbling and inane,
0:29:49 > 0:29:51is an automatic best seller.
0:29:51 > 0:29:58Old age pensioners go hungry, delinquents swing bicycle chains, drunken parents cripple children,
0:29:58 > 0:30:02but we're not really outraged until someone throws stones at a cat,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05then we're off lobbying our MPs.
0:30:05 > 0:30:11And the field sports and blood sports lobbies, the pros and the antis, are powerful and vocal.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15The pros are better organised, the antis get a better press.
0:30:15 > 0:30:22They have emotion on their side. And to be against something is more interesting.
0:30:24 > 0:30:25Catch it!
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Everyone takes sides on fox hunting.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33For centuries, the pursuit of animals for sport, not food,
0:30:33 > 0:30:38has caused bitterness between classes and separated town and country.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42'A local fox hunter had just been killed in a fall
0:30:42 > 0:30:47'and his widow received letters expressing delight at his death.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49HORN BLOWS
0:30:52 > 0:30:59'The BBC could cope honourably with any subject, apart from sex, drugs and blood sports.'
0:30:59 > 0:31:01HIGH-PITCHED CALL
0:31:03 > 0:31:10'During several busy weeks, we filmed everything there was to see in this whole scarlet carnival
0:31:10 > 0:31:16'except a kill. For a responsible programme balance, this needed to be shown.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23'On our last day, as we prepared to eave the Quorn,
0:31:23 > 0:31:30'a fox on a run came straight towards our cameraman with the hounds behind in full cry.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41'In filming so controversial a programme, we could not win,
0:31:41 > 0:31:44'but, strangely enough, we did!'
0:31:44 > 0:31:50The chairman of the League Against Cruel Sports and his antis enjoyed our film, they said,
0:31:50 > 0:31:56and Death In The Morning was the BBC's 1964 entry for television's international Prix d'Italia.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58Splendid. Thank you.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04'Despite all this sweet talk, fox hunting was as divisive as it is today.
0:32:04 > 0:32:09'I have the original Daily Mail cartoon foxes wondering,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13'"Are you pro or anti Whicker?"'
0:32:13 > 0:32:20Fortunately, there was an adequate supply of pros, for we had peak transmission on Saturday nights,
0:32:20 > 0:32:25the first time documentary had been allotted an entertainment slot.
0:32:29 > 0:32:36With the birth of BBC2 in 1964, its controller, David Attenborough, offered me my first series
0:32:36 > 0:32:41of regular hour-long programmes under the banner of Whicker's World.
0:32:46 > 0:32:52The convenient alliteration of the title allowed us to look at anyone, anywhere
0:32:52 > 0:32:56or, indeed, any thing in a personal way
0:32:56 > 0:33:02with someone to carry the can after the transmission for what had been said and done.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07That's a signed documentary and it meant that I could cast my net wide.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10It's show time!
0:33:10 > 0:33:15They're here to be shaped and baked, steamed and creamed.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23Why do you think that young woman felt the need to have her breasts increased?
0:33:23 > 0:33:25Could you explain who you are?
0:33:25 > 0:33:28I am the master power.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32- Are people unpleasant?- No, but you get some real head cases.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Stand with your legs apart. Go back. That's lovely.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40Fashion, like love, is a personal and two-way affair.
0:33:40 > 0:33:47- You can be quite rude, keeping things at a fever pitch... - Get out or I'm gonna bust you!
0:33:49 > 0:33:53'This was uncharted, though splendid territory.
0:33:57 > 0:34:04'Our problems concerning fox hunting were as nothing compared to the outrage when, in 1967,
0:34:04 > 0:34:09'it was reported that Whicker's World would now examine bullfighting.
0:34:09 > 0:34:16'Hate mail started at once and alarm bells rang when we examined the rituals of the corrida,
0:34:16 > 0:34:24'that sunlit ceremony, rich in the Spanish preoccupation with emotion, courage and death.
0:34:24 > 0:34:31'Like a red rag to a bull, Matador became a time bomb for BBC Television.
0:34:31 > 0:34:37'We'd planned to concentrate upon the most glamorous of the young matadors, El Cordobes,
0:34:37 > 0:34:43'known as The Fifth Beatle. He had turned a classic minuet in the ring into a brawl.'
0:34:55 > 0:34:57CROWD: Ole!
0:34:57 > 0:35:03'It had been the policy of the BBC not to allow bullfighting to be seen in Britain,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07'but we took a deep breath and a deep look.'
0:35:13 > 0:35:19Since Cordobes is more reckless than other matadors, braver than most and less skilled than many,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23he's often, in a short and violent career, suffered for his fame,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26face down in the sand beneath the horns.
0:35:51 > 0:35:57The anger that drives him back towards the animal brings the crowd to its feet.
0:35:57 > 0:36:03While other toreadors play the bull, lead it through a ritual, Cordobes fights it all the way.
0:36:03 > 0:36:09'When whispers reached Westminster, a group of MPs tabled a motion asking the Postmaster General
0:36:09 > 0:36:14'to ban the programme. He refused, but newspapers published hostile editorials
0:36:14 > 0:36:18'and I received a massive mail damning me in advance.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23'Despite this, Matador won an enormous audience and many awards.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27'A significant American magazine summed it up well, I thought.
0:36:27 > 0:36:29'"Honest and pitiless truth."
0:36:29 > 0:36:33'It was the first bullfight to be shown on British television.
0:36:38 > 0:36:44'Filming Britain in the '60s, I was able to witness its social transformation.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48'The post-war generation had few links with the past
0:36:48 > 0:36:54'and at a moment when life seemed to change direction, I talked to three 19-year-old girls
0:36:54 > 0:36:59'about their most intimate hopes for the future.
0:37:00 > 0:37:06'Lady Caroline Percy was a duke's daughter with a castle in Northumberland,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10'Norma Spray had a semi in Nottingham
0:37:10 > 0:37:17'and Nina Lane, the happiest of the lot, worked on a Boots production line. They gave me a bird's eye view
0:37:17 > 0:37:19'of their dreams and attitudes.'
0:37:19 > 0:37:23The best thing is to get a job round the corner.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28But she might expect you to work harder than you're prepared to work.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32Well, I'd either work harder, if I could,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36or...get another job.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40I might go to library college, but that takes two years.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44- I don't know if I'd like two years at college without any money.- Hm.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48Especially after being at work for some time.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52All girls would rather have clothes at the moment.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57It's the moment that counts. It's now that you meet your husband
0:37:57 > 0:38:04and he'll care for you, so if you get enough clothes now, and pick a husband with enough money,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06you don't need a good job.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09I'd like to be a veterinarian.
0:38:09 > 0:38:14- Come again? A veterinarian? - A policewoman.- Policewoman.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18- Or an air hostess.- A...? - Air hostess.- What's that?
0:38:18 > 0:38:24- You know, on an aeroplane. - Oh, of course, yes, yes.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30- Would you go out with a coloured boy?- Yes. If I find him interesting and amusing.- Have you?
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Em...
0:38:34 > 0:38:36Yes.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41No, I definitely wouldn't. I don't like mixing races together.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46Really? Even if he was agreeable and kind and all these other things?
0:38:46 > 0:38:51- No, because I wouldn't be agreeable. - Wouldn't you?- No.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55How do you set about competing? What do you do?
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Em...
0:38:57 > 0:39:01You just have to buy as many clothes as possible,
0:39:01 > 0:39:05keep changing your hairstyle, changing your makeup.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09And try generally to look prettier than the other girls.
0:39:09 > 0:39:15If you look absolutely marvellous, who needs a gorgeous character? You need that if you're ugly.
0:39:15 > 0:39:20Do you think that today virginity has much value?
0:39:20 > 0:39:21No.
0:39:21 > 0:39:27It depends, I mean... In certain sections of society less than others.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31- In your section? - I wouldn't say it had much value.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33No.
0:39:33 > 0:39:41Most chaps would prefer to sleep around, but when it comes to marriage, they prefer a virgin.
0:39:41 > 0:39:46Or a near virgin. They don't want to marry a girl who's slept with all their friends.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50- What's a near virgin? - Well, somebody who...
0:39:50 > 0:39:56..has just been to bed with people she thought she was in love with and thought she would marry.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59Isn't that what all girls do?
0:39:59 > 0:40:02No. If you sleep around you don't.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06Of your girlfriends, girls you know and work with,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10how many do you think, of your age, are still virgins?
0:40:10 > 0:40:14I don't think any of them are. I don't think anybody is.
0:40:14 > 0:40:20At 14 they know practically everything. I don't think anybody is.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25We don't really talk about things like this. I've never met anybody
0:40:25 > 0:40:31who I can say... You wouldn't go and say, "Do you sleep with your boyfriend?"
0:40:32 > 0:40:39- How do you hope you'll spend the rest of your life?- Live comfortably, get married, have some children.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41That's all.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46- Live here?- No, not to live here. - To live somewhere else? - Somewhere else, yes.
0:40:46 > 0:40:53'Caroline married a Spanish count, divorced and returned to England with two daughters.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57'Norma is married and lives in Bournemouth.
0:40:59 > 0:41:06'Nina also married, but sadly died of breast cancer in 2001.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09'She still worked on her factory production line.'
0:41:09 > 0:41:14We're about to see a programme on divorce
0:41:14 > 0:41:20as it affects a merry-go-round of people in the public eye who are subject to unusual stresses.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22Divorce is not a happy subject.
0:41:22 > 0:41:30It can be, as you'll see, a time of great distress. Tomorrow, the House of Commons will...
0:41:31 > 0:41:3740 years ago, when our investigation into the stresses of divorce was filmed,
0:41:37 > 0:41:4280,000 divorcees were thrown back into the marriage market every year.
0:41:42 > 0:41:48In those days, divorce lawyers could be quite cruel and so hostile to divorce by consent
0:41:48 > 0:41:52that they seemed to demand a spectacle of cruelty in public
0:41:52 > 0:41:56before two people could legally bury a dead marriage.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00Then, as now, in every parting someone is selfish.
0:42:00 > 0:42:06In every wretched divorce, there's one who goes eagerly towards remarriage, perhaps,
0:42:06 > 0:42:12and a sort of happiness, one who is left behind alone.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16I spoke to Robin Douglas Home after he'd gone through
0:42:16 > 0:42:24the awful rigmarole then required to obtain a divorce, posing for compromising photos with someone
0:42:24 > 0:42:26who was not his wife.
0:42:26 > 0:42:31She didn't want a period of separation, trial separation.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34She wanted her divorce.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37So I agreed to give her the grounds.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43That is a very expensive and thoroughly unsavoury business
0:42:43 > 0:42:47involving expensive and thoroughly unsavoury girls
0:42:47 > 0:42:52in expensive and thoroughly unsavoury hotels! It cost me a bloody packet!
0:42:52 > 0:42:59Eventually, we all ended up, two girls, me and two private detectives and a lawyer in an office,
0:42:59 > 0:43:05listening to each other giving affidavits. The thing was completely crazy.
0:43:05 > 0:43:12Anyway, this apparently, despite the fact it was good for two divorces, was not accepted
0:43:12 > 0:43:14as sufficient evidence of adultery.
0:43:14 > 0:43:21When I received the petition for cruelty, I can only describe one's feelings to you
0:43:21 > 0:43:26as if a small bomb had gone off inside your head
0:43:26 > 0:43:31because, em, five years of one's life...
0:43:32 > 0:43:35say, 70% of which were very happy,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40reduced to a great wad of foolscap,
0:43:40 > 0:43:45typed out by leering little clerks in solicitors' offices.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49Your letters from the moment you'd met,
0:43:49 > 0:43:55typed out. Your letters to your mother. Her letters to her mother.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57Her mother's letters to me.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13It was all right, you felt, to be regarded as an adulterer,
0:44:13 > 0:44:17but you couldn't bear to be regarded as cruel.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21I couldn't bear her to...to...
0:44:23 > 0:44:25..put a...
0:44:25 > 0:44:30..a kind of tombstone on this marriage
0:44:30 > 0:44:34reading in the way that that petition read.
0:44:42 > 0:44:49Of course a lot of men, once they have married, have established a sort of pattern
0:44:50 > 0:44:53and marry soon after again.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57Have you thought of... of marrying again?
0:44:57 > 0:44:59I've thought about it.
0:44:59 > 0:45:05And come to the absolutely inescapable conclusion that it would be...
0:45:06 > 0:45:10..a final mark of insanity.
0:45:14 > 0:45:15Because...
0:45:16 > 0:45:20..if you've failed once, you're going to fail a second time.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23Secondly, I just don't want to be...
0:45:25 > 0:45:27..destroyed...
0:45:28 > 0:45:30..again.
0:45:30 > 0:45:36'It was probably the first time viewers had seen upper-class tears on television.
0:45:36 > 0:45:42'We were not prepared for heartfelt emotion from an old school tie.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48'Our programme, we were told, had helped the Divorce Reform Bill through Parliament,
0:45:48 > 0:45:52'but, to my great sorrow, it did little for poor Robin,
0:45:52 > 0:45:59'who, after a failed love affair with a princess, finally despaired and took his own life.'
0:46:00 > 0:46:04In 1968, after 10 years with the BBC,
0:46:04 > 0:46:10I was invited to join a consortium bidding for ITV's new Yorkshire franchise.
0:46:10 > 0:46:17At that stage, I believe I was the only member of our group with any television experience at all.
0:46:17 > 0:46:24But this imbalance apparently became an asset, since the most popular consortium was weighed down
0:46:24 > 0:46:32by so many famous names that ITV decided that all chiefs and no Indians would lead to dispute.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36So in the final selection by ITV, Yorkshire won,
0:46:36 > 0:46:42but suffered an all-out strike of technicians on its first night of transmission.
0:46:42 > 0:46:48Upon their return to work, I struck television gold in Halifax
0:46:48 > 0:46:50with Percy Shaw, the cat's eyes man.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06He took me for a run in his Phantom Rolls
0:47:06 > 0:47:12and then a supper of beer and crisps and asked me more questions than I asked him.
0:47:12 > 0:47:18How will you feel when you are about 18 months off 80?
0:47:18 > 0:47:22- I don't think I'll make it, you know.- Don't you?- I don't think so.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25- I'm working too hard.- Get away!
0:47:25 > 0:47:29Get away. Look at them hands - nice and soft and clean.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34- Have they ever been mucky?- Er, yes. I did six years in the Army.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37Let's have a feel.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39You have no roughness.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43- No.- Look at mine - rough.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48I'm glad I've had to rough it. Glad I've had to rough it.
0:47:48 > 0:47:55In the days when he was roughing it, Percy followed the tram lines down this hillside from Rose Linda's pub.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00But when they were taken up, he had the idea that changed his life.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05He was struck by lighting and devised a reflecting glass stud to guide his way home,
0:48:05 > 0:48:10giving motorists their monotonous bump-bump.
0:48:10 > 0:48:16Bachelor Percy roughed it when poor and, in his own way, still roughed it when very rich indeed,
0:48:16 > 0:48:22still in his house next to the works where he'd been living in exactly the style he preferred.
0:48:22 > 0:48:28Every night was party time for Percy. In his stark sitting room, the invited sat before 4 TV sets,
0:48:28 > 0:48:32which performed silently all day every day.
0:48:32 > 0:48:38Should Percy spot something that interested him, which wasn't often, he might turn up the sound.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Why four television sets? Why not six?
0:48:42 > 0:48:46I'd have six if there were six stations.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50But there aren't four stations! There's only three.
0:48:50 > 0:48:55- There's BBC in black and white and BBC in colour.- Ah, I see.
0:48:55 > 0:49:00- Which programmes do you like the best?- Wrestling.
0:49:00 > 0:49:06- It'll be on tomorrow night, I hope. - And you turn the sound up for the musicals?
0:49:06 > 0:49:10I turn the sound up for musicals. Good music, yeah.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15- What about my programme?- I turned it up last night, first time. Sorry.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22- I see. So I've been here and you haven't heard a word.- Yes.
0:49:22 > 0:49:28Haven't you thought, a man with all your money, that you could make yourself a bit more comfortable?
0:49:28 > 0:49:33The place is a bit bare, isn't it? It's a bit spartan.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36If you've health, you have comfort in everything.
0:49:36 > 0:49:42But even though you've got your health, what about a curtain on the window? Or a carpet?
0:49:42 > 0:49:44Oh, dear.
0:49:44 > 0:49:50Well, you can see out and when you have curtains you can't see out.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55What would you say was the happiest period of your life?
0:49:56 > 0:50:00When I went to London on a Golden Sovereign.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04We stopped at Biggleswade going.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10I dare tell you,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12we had tea,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16a musical evening,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20a woman to sleep with...
0:50:21 > 0:50:25..bed and breakfast, five course for bed and breakfast,
0:50:25 > 0:50:31then she turned us out in t'orchard to fill us pockets with fruit. One shilling.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35- That wants beating, doesn't it? - What was the fruit like?- Lovely!
0:50:36 > 0:50:42There was apples and pears and plums. So we filled us pockets.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47You've been poor and you've been rich. Which is better?
0:50:48 > 0:50:52Well, being rich, I forget what I have.
0:50:52 > 0:50:58- It gets buried and I don't know I have it.- 'Sitting with him I wondered why, with all his money,
0:50:58 > 0:51:05- 'he had no one there to take care of him.'- They'd want to be my boss and I want freedom.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07- Yes.- They'd want to interfere.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15No, freedom, freedom and health is two valuable things.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18The freedom to do what?
0:51:19 > 0:51:21Oh, anything I want.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24Please myself.
0:51:24 > 0:51:30But it seems the things you want are quite regular. You want the same things every day.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32Er...yes.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36Now. But previous we used to have changes.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40Fresh women, as far as that's concerned.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44- What's the supply like today? - What on?
0:51:44 > 0:51:48- Fresh women. - Oh, we're wearing out.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54'Percy went his own way with great satisfaction.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58'His was a most distinctive lifestyle.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05'Soon after that brush with unadulterated Yorkshire,
0:52:05 > 0:52:11'I drove 150 miles south to Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire
0:52:11 > 0:52:17'to join a group whose trust in God was perpetual - the enclosed order of Poor Clares.'
0:52:17 > 0:52:23Behind their monastery walls, these women had not seen the outside world nor spoken to a man
0:52:23 > 0:52:25for 20, 30, 50 years.
0:52:26 > 0:52:33After 75 years in this enclosure, one had never seen a motor car, a cinema, let alone television,
0:52:33 > 0:52:37though she had looked up to watch aircraft.
0:52:46 > 0:52:54These hushed and holy ladies live with disciplined thoughts and downcast eyes, but they loosen up.
0:52:55 > 0:53:01- Kick it! Kick it! Try again. - I'm not as good at this as you are!
0:53:02 > 0:53:09'Four times a week, the Mother Abbess permitted 40 minutes of do as you please recreation
0:53:09 > 0:53:12'when they could speak.
0:53:15 > 0:53:21'And they did speak, especially Sister Gertrude.' What made you choose a silent order?
0:53:21 > 0:53:23Oh, I wanted...
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Because I never stop talking, do I?!
0:53:28 > 0:53:30Oh, I love to talk!
0:53:30 > 0:53:33I love to talk.
0:53:33 > 0:53:40People outside, Sister Gertrude, often believe that women become nuns after an unhappy love affair.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44Oh, no, I'm afraid they don't.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47Naturally, being a girl, you get temptations.
0:53:47 > 0:53:52I went for a walk with a girlfriend and she wanted a boy, to get married.
0:53:52 > 0:53:59I had to walk on. I wouldn't have been faithful to Our Lord if I went with a boy.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03You can't play with fire. You can't do two things.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07What about you, Sister Veronica? Did you play with fire?
0:54:07 > 0:54:14Well, I did a bit, really. I didn't always want to be a nun. That came as quite a shock to me.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19Their order was founded some 800 years ago to pray for the world outside,
0:54:19 > 0:54:24for the millions with no time or inclination to pray for themselves.
0:54:24 > 0:54:30A novice must live a life of prayer for six years before taking perpetual vows.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35'Sister Margaret Mary was on the brink.
0:54:35 > 0:54:41'Her parents had come to hear her decision, to learn if they had lost her forever.'
0:54:41 > 0:54:46- How you doing since we saw you last? - Not too bad.- 'This enclosed order
0:54:46 > 0:54:51'now puts only a symbolic barrier between sisters and family visitors
0:54:51 > 0:54:57- 'who sit in a parlour behind a token grille.' May I interrupt you?- Yes.
0:54:57 > 0:55:03Sister, what do you think your parents will feel if you decide to take your perpetual vows?
0:55:03 > 0:55:09I know this was a difficult thing for them when I came here and it must still be difficult.
0:55:09 > 0:55:14Over four or five years, you do get gradually accustomed to it.
0:55:14 > 0:55:20Now you're going to say goodbye to your mother and father and turn away and go back.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24- Is there no tugging at the heartstrings?- No.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27I know I'll see them again.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30- Three times a year.- Hm.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35- Or maybe more if the situation arises.- But that's enough, is it?
0:55:37 > 0:55:43- It would have to be.- It has to be, yes.- If they say only three times, three times it will have to be.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45Is that all right, Mrs Sutton?
0:55:47 > 0:55:49Yes.
0:55:49 > 0:55:55You see, it's hard for them. I do understand that and I do sympathise, really.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00And I appreciate very much all my parents have done for me.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03For them I know it is hard,
0:56:03 > 0:56:08but I'm in love with this life and for me it isn't because of that.
0:56:08 > 0:56:13'Mr and Mrs Sutton could already sense she would take her vows.'
0:56:13 > 0:56:17We filmed this agonised scene more than a quarter of a century ago
0:56:17 > 0:56:21but I've never forgotten poor Mrs Sutton's stricken look
0:56:21 > 0:56:25as she realised she had lost her daughter.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42When we left the enchanting Poor Clares to their holy lives,
0:56:42 > 0:56:47we wanted to leave them some token of our visit. This was not easy
0:56:47 > 0:56:54because with their vows of poverty any gift would instantly have been passed on to the poor.
0:56:54 > 0:57:00'Then we remembered that they'd told us of their garden produce, that much of it went stale.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04'So we bought them the biggest deep freeze we could find'
0:57:04 > 0:57:12and as we drove away forever a gaggle of excited nuns came out to manhandle it to their kitchen.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16They sent me an illuminated blessing
0:57:16 > 0:57:19from Saint Clare.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21Patroness of television.
0:57:23 > 0:57:28She still seems to be taking good care of me.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52'Next time, my Journey Of A Lifetime takes us to California.
0:57:54 > 0:58:01'Not just a pretty place, but a sensational state that can surprise...'
0:58:01 > 0:58:04- Do you sometimes go with more than one man?- Sometimes.
0:58:04 > 0:58:10- '..delight...' - Relax. Relax. Big breaths.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12'..and sometimes kill.'
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Bang! I shot him right between the eyes!
0:58:26 > 0:58:30Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2009
0:58:31 > 0:58:33Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk