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