0:00:02 > 0:00:07This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10'This week, on my journey of a lifetime, we're heading west
0:00:10 > 0:00:14'for all that's shiny and new, a California state of mind.'
0:00:14 > 0:00:21More than anywhere else in the world, California attracts odd, offbeat religions.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Relax... Big breaths.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32'My 50 years, and counting, of travel around Whicker's world
0:00:32 > 0:00:39'has taught me that, if anything's going to happen, chances are it'll happen here first.'
0:00:39 > 0:00:41Gay power!
0:00:43 > 0:00:46- Would you go with more than one man in an evening?- Sometimes.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50Kill him!
0:00:50 > 0:00:52Duck!
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Bang, and I shot him right between the eyes.
0:00:56 > 0:01:03'Remember, California's said to be just a few years ahead of the world outside so, for the rest of us,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05'is this the way it's gonna be?'
0:01:34 > 0:01:42Mr Whicker, there you go. Thank you very much. And you'll see that it is gate 46B, 1.45 they start boarding.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49The last time I flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco,
0:01:49 > 0:01:56I experienced a very unhappy event in a traveller's life, and that is my luggage was stolen.
0:01:56 > 0:02:03To be fair to airlines, it's the only time in 50 years of travel that that has happened to me,
0:02:03 > 0:02:09and it happened because I had my attache case, as I normally do, on the top of our luggage.
0:02:09 > 0:02:16We'd arrived in San Francisco and we were waiting for the car to come round to pick us up.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19We were chatting normally and a bunch of Ecuadorians,
0:02:19 > 0:02:25who were then working the airport, came by very cleverly,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27saw we were talking there,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29covered this for themselves, two of them.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32The other one just picked up the case and went.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36Now...that meant that I had
0:02:36 > 0:02:40no passport, no papers, no tickets, no money, no nothing,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43and you're very isolated, and you feel very lonely at a time like that
0:02:43 > 0:02:50because the first thing any American says to you about anything is, "Show me your identity,"
0:02:50 > 0:02:56and you say, "Well, I haven't got identity because those fellas have just taken it away."
0:02:56 > 0:03:01Today, I'm sure we're going to be luckier, and I'm going to keep an eye on that case.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13MUSIC: "I Left My Heart In San Francisco"
0:03:23 > 0:03:27California, that monstrous stretch of the American imagination,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31is a vigorous and blatant land of achievers and escapists,
0:03:31 > 0:03:36where all America's promises and problems are exposed and exaggerated.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41New York may be the melting pot of Europe, but Los Angeles and
0:03:41 > 0:03:47San Francisco, these upstart meccas on the Pacific, deal with America.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50The state looks back upon the rest of the world with cool indifference.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55Since the early '60s, I've regularly flown out to the coast to film,
0:03:55 > 0:03:57always with delight and apprehension,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01for this is where the New World really begins,
0:04:01 > 0:04:08where they spawn every fad and fancy the rest of us adopt within five or ten years.
0:04:08 > 0:04:14When last I brought Whicker's World here, I feared that, after the endless exposure on television,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18viewers might finally have had California,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21yet our series reached number one in ratings
0:04:21 > 0:04:25which suggests an insatiable appetite for the goings-on
0:04:25 > 0:04:30in this lavish, loony place on America's far-out fringe.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33MUSIC: San Francisco by Scott MacKenzie
0:04:35 > 0:04:43In 1967, we heard of an explosion of multi-coloured psychedelic exuberance in San Francisco.
0:04:43 > 0:04:50Flower power was born in a spirit of gentle innocence, lightly touched by drugs.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Our film was greeted with surprise and incomprehension.
0:04:53 > 0:05:01BBC executives, unfamiliar with love-ins, would stop me in the corridors and ask, "What's a hippy?"
0:05:03 > 0:05:09The Haight-Ashbury community has created the council for a summer of love in San Francisco.
0:05:09 > 0:05:14Within the Haight-Ashbury population, there are many strata of imaginative and creative energies
0:05:14 > 0:05:18whose spirit extends throughout San Francisco and the world.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23We call upon the world to help us celebrate the infinite holiness of life.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26We ask all who come here to come here in love,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30and we ask all who live here to greet all men with love.
0:05:31 > 0:05:38'Despite the BBC's horror of drugs, hippy drug-taking was so widespread it could not be ignored.'
0:05:40 > 0:05:44Among the giant redwoods, Chet Helm sets off on an acid trip.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47The tablets will hit within 45 minutes.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49Their effects last eight hours.
0:05:49 > 0:05:56Though illegal, anyone bent on a trip can still take one if he has the fare, today about 30 shillings.
0:05:56 > 0:06:03LSD, an acid derived from a fungus, is colourless, odourless, tasteless and undetectable.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Once swallowed, it's all in the mind.
0:06:05 > 0:06:12LSD is not a means of instant wisdom or universal bliss, nor an indication of national decadence.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15We've got some more acid over here if you want to go ahead and drop it.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Dropping acid can bring utter peace or utter panic.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Nobody knows how LSD changes the programming of the brain,
0:06:23 > 0:06:28but it releases a flood of sensory signals and overloads the mind with sensation.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31We're in the depths of something here.
0:06:31 > 0:06:38Who knows what they see now, on their kaleidoscopic trip to the unknown dangers of inner space?
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Now we'll do it with a little jump, so it's like this. And...
0:06:41 > 0:06:45'But of course, not all hippies were into drugs.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49'Vito's young wife Sue seemed satisfied with some deep breathing.'
0:06:49 > 0:06:56Relaxation. Relaxation. Relaxation.
0:06:56 > 0:07:01For immediate energy from our muscles, and relaxation, relaxation, relaxation,
0:07:01 > 0:07:08to get the carbon dioxide out for more relaxation, relaxation, big breaths.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10You don't take LSD, do you?
0:07:10 > 0:07:12Oh, no, we never have tried it.
0:07:12 > 0:07:20We don't want to fool around too much with chemicals, and eliminate all the wrongs from our life, like sugar.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23But don't you find that most of the hippies are on LSD?
0:07:23 > 0:07:27Oh, so many of my friends have just ruined themselves.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30I tell them it's a military plot!
0:07:30 > 0:07:37Don't the hippies who take LSD and pot, don't they think you're pretty square?
0:07:37 > 0:07:39No, indeed.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Because the minute they look at me, I convince them
0:07:43 > 0:07:49that I'm for real and I'm happy and they would love to be this way.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54'Smoking a joint on-camera was something unheard of.'
0:07:54 > 0:07:56Spin the joint.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59There is dope in the community house
0:07:59 > 0:08:03of one of San Francisco's psychedelic pop groups, the Grateful Dead,
0:08:03 > 0:08:10tonight getting high without losing cool, smoking marijuana, the mild stimulant known as pot or grass.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15In this new hang-loose world, hippy philosophy and drugs swing together,
0:08:15 > 0:08:22lightly connected by a lover's knot say those who turn on, by obscene manacles say the rest of the world.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27In the States, pot is going middle-class and spreading like prohibition liquor.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30As more and more citizens get zonked out of their minds,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33the drug cult enters the bloodstream of American life.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37Like it or not, we're living in the stoned age.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46'The BBC was acutely fearful of the impact of LSD.
0:08:46 > 0:08:52'Mick Jagger had just been busted by the Kent police so, for the first and last time, transmission
0:08:52 > 0:08:59'of Whicker's World was delayed until the story cooled, when they slipped it out very late at night.
0:09:07 > 0:09:14'Hard to believe now there was ever a time when drugs and drug problems were not commonplace.'
0:09:19 > 0:09:26That was the summer of love, a short outburst of happiness that lasted only a few months.
0:09:26 > 0:09:33When I returned here a year later, the flowers and innocence had died.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44'On my 1968 tour, we studied the new American lifestyle.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48'In Los Angeles, they boasted about the first computer dating agency,
0:09:48 > 0:09:56'promising unlimited partners to satisfy your precise measurements and interests.'
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Hello, my name is Alan Whicker...
0:09:58 > 0:10:02RECORDED MESSAGE: Thank you for calling Human Inventory.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Maybe you've had a divorce or maybe you have not yet married.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09In any case, if you're like most unattached people, you'd like to meet
0:10:09 > 0:10:12members of the opposite sex who are attractive to you.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17They must satisfy your level of expectation, share your interests
0:10:17 > 0:10:20and have personality traits that are agreeable with yours.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22What do you truly enjoy...?
0:10:22 > 0:10:26If you can match men to jobs, they say, why not men to women?
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Certainly, the old-fashioned way of meeting and mating is not proving too successful.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34One in every four American marriages ends in divorce.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37In California, there are more divorces than marriages.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42We select friends for you who are worthy of your background and accomplishment.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48They are chosen in accordance with your needs, then we keep on doing this for you month after month...
0:10:48 > 0:10:54This is the part of the process, Alan, where we make selections for you from our inventory of women.
0:10:54 > 0:11:01- Good, good.- And we shall be doing a better job of selecting women for you in just a few minutes
0:11:01 > 0:11:05than you could do if you lived two or three lifetimes.
0:11:05 > 0:11:06So we put that on top there.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09All those are the proper height.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14All women under 5'6" are in this card, so we put that on top there.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18People with low outdoor interests - you have low outdoor interests, correct?
0:11:18 > 0:11:24We want that to be alike and so therefore we put that low outdoor interests card on there.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26That cuts down quite a number of people.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31We have here high aesthetic interest. Let's put that on.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36Now, as we put that on, that's going to cut down people to quite an extent
0:11:36 > 0:11:42because I'd say there's a minority of people who have as high an aesthetic interest as you have.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45So therefore, let's see what we have in the way of selections for you.
0:11:45 > 0:11:50The first one we would select for you here is number 7670.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54The next one is 5014.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58The next one is 3414.
0:11:58 > 0:12:04There can be a difference of course between specification and the actual model. It was an anxious time.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09My first date could be anyone for those tests concerned obscure facets
0:12:09 > 0:12:12like nurture and support, and social extroversion.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19The computer produces the phone numbers but you have to generate your own sparks.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24I was introduced to a man... who,
0:12:24 > 0:12:29in the course of our conversation, told me that he had read a book.
0:12:29 > 0:12:35A book? Well, you didn't do too well on your first draw from the computer,
0:12:35 > 0:12:42and you've obviously had a bit of a nasty shock today, what will you do in future?
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Oh, well, I would never consider, um...
0:12:46 > 0:12:50- being involved again.- You wouldn't? - No.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55'I decided that, on balance, I might do better on my own.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02'On the same tour, having dealt with love, I looked at death,
0:13:02 > 0:13:07'with a discovery of a phenomenon which seemed truly out of this world.'
0:13:10 > 0:13:14We're all going this way one day.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19For 6,000 years, man has accepted the finality of physical death
0:13:19 > 0:13:23and, when it comes, he goes to a familiar grave.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27But today, for those who see the prospect of immortality,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30there's a new and less permanent resting place.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Here in California's San Fernando Valley,
0:13:33 > 0:13:38the start of a silent revolution which could affect the future of the world -
0:13:38 > 0:13:42the first of the die-now, live-later group,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46men and women frozen solid in their cylinders, waiting for the future...
0:13:50 > 0:13:52..and, they believe, cheating death.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59In cryonic suspension, the body is preserved against natural decay.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Every cell, every bacterium is frozen.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05You won't get better, but you won't get any worse.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10Then, at some future date, when science has learned how, you can be thawed out,
0:14:10 > 0:14:16diseased organs replaced, and rejuvenated for your second life.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Do you regard this lady as dead?
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Well, she's certainly dead.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23There's no question about that.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27She's dead in any legal or medical sense that we have.
0:14:27 > 0:14:35She is clinically dead. Now, you could say she isn't biologically dead because the cells haven't continued
0:14:35 > 0:14:39to deteriorate past the point of clinical death. In other words,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43she hasn't started to rot or decay in any way.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47I've heard talk of freezatoriums for 200 patients.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52Yes, mm-hmm. That's, um...I'd say a conservative figure.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57I would say it'd be more realistic to think in terms of 500 or more.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Now you're bringing a capsule down here?
0:15:01 > 0:15:06A multiple storage vessel will be placed in this facility right here.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10The worry is that you're going to be reanimated as a zombie, isn't it?
0:15:10 > 0:15:16Well, people's minds can imagine a lot of different possible problems.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19I'm also hearing stories that Walt Disney has been frozen.
0:15:19 > 0:15:25There were persistent rumours and his studio had contacted the society at one time for information,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28and there was no question about the fact that he did want to be frozen.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Apart from Mr Disney, are you awaiting any other famous freezees?
0:15:32 > 0:15:39Peter Sellers has had extensive communication with the Cryonic Society and indicated his interest.
0:15:39 > 0:15:45'The cost of preserving frozen corpses in the now prime real estate
0:15:45 > 0:15:48'of the San Fernando Valley became too expensive.
0:15:48 > 0:15:54'The Cryonic Society closed down in the early '70s, when plugs were pulled, bodies defrosted
0:15:54 > 0:15:58'and returned to relatives for conventional burial.'
0:16:03 > 0:16:09'The west coast of America has always been the birth-place of new movements.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13'For decades, California has been home to openly gay America,
0:16:13 > 0:16:18'with San Francisco's Castro district its throbbing heart.'
0:16:18 > 0:16:21# Street life It's the only life I know
0:16:21 > 0:16:26# You let the people see just who you wanna be... #
0:16:26 > 0:16:34'Back in '73, Whicker's World featured a gay religious group, the Metropolitan Community Church,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38'who were the first to conduct homosexual marriages.'
0:16:38 > 0:16:40ORGAN PLAYS
0:16:40 > 0:16:47A serving chief petty officer of the San Diego United States naval air station, Edward S Brendon,
0:16:47 > 0:16:52is about to marry a hotel receptionist, Joseph L Brown.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56'We watched a gay wedding at the Chollas View Community Church in San Diego.'
0:16:56 > 0:17:02Dearly beloved, we have come together in this house of the Lord to bear witness to the blessing of the union
0:17:02 > 0:17:06of Ed and Joe who present themselves before God and this company.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09'Though the ceremony wasn't recognised by law,
0:17:09 > 0:17:16'it did offer the first gay kiss to be seen on British television, which seemed ardent enough.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26'We then moved on to Malibu...
0:17:26 > 0:17:29'to join a vocal MCC meeting.'
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Gay Power!
0:17:32 > 0:17:33Gay Power!
0:17:33 > 0:17:41'We now forget the intense feeling that was aroused by Gay Power which came close to home
0:17:41 > 0:17:47'when one member of the Whicker's World team was so alarmed by my decision to film gay action
0:17:47 > 0:17:51'that he retreated to bed with a diplomatic cold
0:17:51 > 0:17:56'and only emerged with relief a while later when the filming was over.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00'Some people showed their feelings in more violent ways.'
0:18:00 > 0:18:07Arsonists set fire to this first MCC church in Los Angeles and to another gay church at San Francisco.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12This church was founded five years ago by a young minister from Florida
0:18:12 > 0:18:15who'd been expelled from his Pentecostal church
0:18:15 > 0:18:19for leaving his wife and children and admitting he was gay. The Reverend Troy Perry.
0:18:19 > 0:18:26We'd had some experiences this last year with people becoming more militant
0:18:26 > 0:18:30in their actions against the homosexual community in this country.
0:18:31 > 0:18:38'A few weeks before our filming, 32 men had been burned to death in a gay-church fire in New Orleans.'
0:18:42 > 0:18:47The police are saying they don't find any evidence that it was arson, but I've heard that story before.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52I know good and well that, if it'd been 50 or even 30 individuals who were prominent
0:18:52 > 0:18:57in the community in New Orleans, outside of our community, they would be turning that town upside down
0:18:57 > 0:19:02trying to find out what happened, but I heard the comments that were made -
0:19:02 > 0:19:05faggot, queer, pervert, child molesters!
0:19:05 > 0:19:10And you know something - I've learned to hate those kind of labels.
0:19:10 > 0:19:16But praise God, with God's help, we won't be afraid any more!
0:19:16 > 0:19:19APPLAUSE
0:19:21 > 0:19:27Homosexuals are black, they're brown, they're white, they're millionaires, they're paupers,
0:19:27 > 0:19:32they're ditch-diggers, they're presidents, they're whatever, and as a result of that, you don't have...
0:19:32 > 0:19:40It's easier for a gay person to cross over and be a heterosexual for the day, if he has to be.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44'I called on Troy Perry again after some 30 years.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48'He now lives with his partner in Silver Lake, a suburb of Los Angeles,
0:19:48 > 0:19:54'where I went to hear about the impact of our original programme.'
0:19:54 > 0:19:57I had friends from Great Britain that I called who were involved
0:19:57 > 0:20:01with a church there that was thinking about coming into our denomination.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05When I called them, they said, "Well, be very careful."
0:20:05 > 0:20:11They said, "He's a great interviewer but sometimes his questions can be tough."
0:20:11 > 0:20:15Once the programme was shown, I called my friends in Great Britain.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20They broke down crying and said, "You don't know how encouraging...
0:20:20 > 0:20:25"This is the first time in Great Britain that there has ever been
0:20:25 > 0:20:30"a positive TV show that showed gay people just as they are."
0:20:30 > 0:20:34Because there are so many of you, you're beginning to feel your political muscle.
0:20:34 > 0:20:35Yes, that's correct.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39As a minority group, I think you should become more organised.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Once you wake up and you realise the system is the system because you permit it to be that way.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48Yet, of course, no oppressed minority is ever content until it converts the majority!
0:20:48 > 0:20:53No, that's true. And yet we...though you CAN convert the majority.
0:20:53 > 0:20:58I think the blacks in this country have converted the majority, and I think that's true, yes.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01There's no way as a minority group that we'll ever stop
0:21:01 > 0:21:07until we at least have people looking at us and saying, "OK, what makes you different from anyone else?"
0:21:07 > 0:21:13And saying to them. "Well, not really anything, other than what we pick for a love object."
0:21:13 > 0:21:15Notice I didn't say sex object but love object.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20And in my case, in my bedroom, I happen to like vanilla ice cream and you like chocolate.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23What are your ultimate goals?
0:21:23 > 0:21:26Oh, we want to see the laws changed.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29We want to educate the public.
0:21:29 > 0:21:35Politically, we want to certainly see qualified homosexuals run for office and win.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40I think the time's coming. There was a time in this country when they said blacks could never win but they did,
0:21:40 > 0:21:45and it'll happen in this country too, and it'll happen first in California.
0:21:46 > 0:21:54'In 2008, California became the first state where any gay American can legally get married,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57'a significant step in Troy Perry's campaign.'
0:21:57 > 0:22:04It's very important to me because I come from a very moral family who taught me to go to church,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07to go to Sunday school, and they said, "Get married,"
0:22:07 > 0:22:10and for me it was one of the most important things in my life.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14When I asked Philip to marry me, though we'd been together for 18 years,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17you don't know how emotional that was for me.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23- I've been living with my partner for more than 30 years and we're not married...- Yes.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26..and I feel no sense of loss in that.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31Right. I say to gay folks and to heterosexuals, "I know there are folks who are not going to marry,
0:22:31 > 0:22:36"and that's perfectly all right to me. But for God's sake, don't stop me from marrying because I want to."
0:22:36 > 0:22:39It means we're being treated like everybody else.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42That's all I've ever asked for in my fight.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46I don't ask for any more but I refuse to settle for anything less
0:22:46 > 0:22:51than what every other citizen in this country and our constitution says you can have.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55# And if our backs should ever be against the wall
0:22:55 > 0:22:58# We'll be together...#
0:22:59 > 0:23:02It'll be there.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05The Lord is my shepherd and he knows I'm gay. Amen!
0:23:05 > 0:23:08# We'll be together... #
0:23:08 > 0:23:14'Sadly for Troy Perry, that legislation on gay marriage was subsequently overturned.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35'In '79, I returned to San Francisco to film two programmes around its new police force.
0:23:37 > 0:23:44'These showed how the city's diverse population was now reflected by its guardians.
0:23:44 > 0:23:50'Almost 30 years ago, the SFPD, protecting the most liberal of cities in the most liberal of states
0:23:50 > 0:23:54'had just begun to recruit women and gays.'
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Though, as often happens, the minority trail's been blazed by women.
0:24:06 > 0:24:12The first police women sworn in five years ago were given the same duties and pay, same status and training,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15even, unfortunately, the same uniforms as men.
0:24:19 > 0:24:24'I spent a couple of weeks with the police, chasing villains up and down those famous hillsides,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26'dodging hoodlums and trams.'
0:24:26 > 0:24:30- SIREN WAILS - Any description of a suspect?
0:24:30 > 0:24:32There's no description.
0:24:32 > 0:24:39'If I hadn't been on the scene and running with the cops, viewers would doubtless have believed
0:24:39 > 0:24:43'our nightly dramas were really Starsky and Hutch, or even Kojak!'
0:24:43 > 0:24:45SIREN WAILS
0:24:45 > 0:24:48You are five foot nothing.
0:24:48 > 0:24:54Do you strike fear into a wrong-doer when you appear or do they laugh at you or...?
0:24:54 > 0:24:56I have never had anyone laugh at me.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01A lot of people, just from the mere fact that you are a police officer
0:25:01 > 0:25:06will either respect you or disrespect you, regardless if you're a man or a woman.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Oh, come here. Oh...
0:25:12 > 0:25:14What happened to you, huh?
0:25:14 > 0:25:18- Oh, I'm so scared. - Sit down, sit down.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Here. Sit down. Sit down over here.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22Just sit right there.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25Get us a code 3408...
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Who did that to you?
0:25:28 > 0:25:35- Did somebody rip off your dope and beat you up? - They had dope but they...
0:25:35 > 0:25:37Just hang in there, partner, it's all right.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42SIREN WAILS
0:25:42 > 0:25:44I've known that guy for a long time.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47He's an old dope dealer but he's a really nice old guy.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50He's bleeding, in shock, he was totally...
0:25:50 > 0:25:55His name is Pop Davies. I asked him that and, you know, maybe he got burned or who knows why?
0:25:55 > 0:25:57You just never know.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59The victims are...
0:25:59 > 0:26:01Half the time, they're the suspects, you know.
0:26:01 > 0:26:02Next day they're the victim.
0:26:05 > 0:26:11Less dangerous but perhaps equally distasteful, Patrol Officer Mary-Ann on duty.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16She's on the prostitution detail, guarded by two back-up men.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18Right, you want a date?
0:26:18 > 0:26:20What do you want to do on the date?
0:26:23 > 0:26:24Sex.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Making love.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30The police here arrest whores and their clients, the johns, the tricks.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35Once he's offered money and solicited prostitution, the arm of the law reaches out.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38Her back-ups are a real-life Starsky and Hutch.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43Now, with the best will in the world, I find myself rather sorry for these johns.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47It's just a couple of guys on their way home and they want to go to bed
0:26:47 > 0:26:51with a girl, and the next minute, they find themselves handcuffed.
0:26:51 > 0:26:58Yeah, well, a lot of times the girls out here will take them up into the hotel rooms and they'll rip them off
0:26:58 > 0:27:03and beat them up or their pimps will jump out of the closet and beat them up or something.
0:27:03 > 0:27:09Really, some of them we've probably saved from losing a lot more money and everything else, you know,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12that they might have if they go into these places.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17And then again, some of these guys turn around and get the whores up to the rooms
0:27:17 > 0:27:22and beat them up and take what little they've got too. It's not just a victimless crime.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Even in San Francisco's enlightened police department, no woman has yet risen to the rank of sergeant.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31Officer Maureen, now under cover, understands why.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34We were forced to have to prove ourselves.
0:27:34 > 0:27:40From the first day we were sworn in, we were told, "You're not gonna make it."
0:27:40 > 0:27:43I have mixed emotions whether we can do it or not.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47I can do 99% of the job on the street,
0:27:47 > 0:27:53but when that 1% comes up, somebody is going to get hurt, whether it be the woman or the woman's partner.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57- You're just a weak and feeble woman. Is that what you're saying?- Sure!
0:27:57 > 0:28:04I can't walk to my car at night because I'm just a little, feeble lady! Someone might mug me.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07I wear a uniform and pack a gun, but I'm still a woman.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13'That "feeble woman" is now a homicide inspector
0:28:13 > 0:28:18'and, since 2004, the SFPD has had its first woman police chief.'
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Now you're in homicide.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24- That's right.- And that's the toughest and the bloodiest of all.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29It's certainly the bloodiest and they say it is the toughest, but it was my dream.
0:28:29 > 0:28:35When I came into the police academy back in 1975 and we were being trained,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and those homicide inspectors that came in to train us,
0:28:39 > 0:28:45they probably had 25 years in the business, so they were ancient.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50And when they came in in their three-piece suits with their watch chains across their vests
0:28:50 > 0:28:55and they were telling their war stories, I just sat there with eyes wide open
0:28:55 > 0:28:58and said that's what I wanted to do some day.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02Would you have believed back in '79 at our first interview
0:29:02 > 0:29:05that there was going to be a woman police chief?
0:29:07 > 0:29:13Yes, because it was just... something that was going to have to happen sooner or later,
0:29:13 > 0:29:17in very much the same way we almost had a woman
0:29:17 > 0:29:21running for President in the United States this election period.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24So it was just a matter of time.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27They could beat us down in the beginning a little bit,
0:29:27 > 0:29:34but if we were strong enough, which I believed, and nasty enough to hang in there, out of sheer spite,
0:29:34 > 0:29:39and our character... I never thought I would be a strong woman, you know,
0:29:39 > 0:29:45somebody that would fight for my rights, but you just had to hang in there and have the guts
0:29:45 > 0:29:52and the determination to ride the wave and it would eventually be your turn. And it came to be true.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Let's take a hike. Let's go.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00'The two Whicker's Worlds which followed our weeks with the San Francisco Police
0:30:00 > 0:30:04'were afterwards used as instructional films by police academies across America.'
0:30:04 > 0:30:09Be cool or you'll end up on your fuckin' ass.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13- ..You wanna check me, I've got nothing on me.- You have no ID?
0:30:13 > 0:30:18If you have ID, we can cite you. If you don't, you're going to have to go to jail.
0:30:18 > 0:30:24'On this visit, I was honoured by a massed parade of recruits in training at the police academy.'
0:30:24 > 0:30:31Recruits, I want to introduce to you Mr Alan Whicker who's come from the United Kingdom
0:30:31 > 0:30:38to take a look at something he looked at 30 years ago, and I wanted to take the opportunity today
0:30:38 > 0:30:44to tell him how great we are, because every community is represented in this department.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49The recruits nowadays go through nearly a year's worth of training.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51And what age? From what to what?
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Well, their ages run - you'd be interested in this -
0:30:55 > 0:31:03they start as young as 21 and the oldest I can think of was 54 when he graduated from police academy.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07Then I was reunited with my class of '79.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12CHEERING Welcome back!
0:31:15 > 0:31:17Wow. Wow.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19I got the pretty ones, you see?
0:31:19 > 0:31:21Oh, that's very kind.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24Do you remember us?
0:31:24 > 0:31:27I remember you, of course, so well.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31I wonder how that happened?!
0:31:31 > 0:31:33Yes, hello, sir. Mindy Pringle.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36- Nice to meet you again. - Judy Purcell.
0:31:36 > 0:31:42- Hello, Judy. Of course, I've got loads of cuttings about you and your performance.- It's good to see you.
0:31:42 > 0:31:43- Marnie McDowell.- Hello.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45Mary-Ann, the prostitute.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50- Stefan Thorn.- Ah, Stefan.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52Yes, nice to see you again.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55'Some had changed more than others.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59'When we first met, Stefan was Stephanie.'
0:31:59 > 0:32:05I can remember you seven months ago, when you were trying to get in, you were a very aggressive lesbian,
0:32:05 > 0:32:11you were wearing a "super dyke" T-shirt. You've got much more gentle now you're a cop.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14Well...
0:32:14 > 0:32:17that depends. Uh...
0:32:17 > 0:32:21- I mean, you're not joining us, are you?- No.
0:32:21 > 0:32:29I am a woman, I am a lesbian, and that identity...I will never let go of my identity and my ideals.
0:32:29 > 0:32:35'Since I last saw them, many of my recruits have become senior officers.'
0:32:35 > 0:32:42You have to be a little bit of an adrenalin junkie to have done this job, in particular for all of us,
0:32:42 > 0:32:49um...as women and Stefan as our first transgender, I mean, you...
0:32:49 > 0:32:55It's something that, in our normal lives prior to coming in, we weren't used to, and, um...
0:32:55 > 0:32:57But I think we all got bit.
0:32:57 > 0:33:04I think, once you got that in your blood and that adrenalin was going, it was really quite thrilling.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09The most significant change to law enforcement was integration -
0:33:09 > 0:33:14integration bringing women, sexual minorities, racial minorities...
0:33:14 > 0:33:20bringing everyone in to the ranks of law enforcement had the most profound impact.
0:33:20 > 0:33:26It has radically, I think, changed the culture, the police culture.
0:33:31 > 0:33:38'We moved on from San Francisco to look at the dominant role of guns in American life.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43'The right to bear arms is enshrined in the American constitution,
0:33:43 > 0:33:50'but that proliferation brings with it the growing threat of violence and death.'
0:33:50 > 0:33:55Today, the threatening shadow cast across the world's most ridiculed, most envied outpost
0:33:55 > 0:33:58is the everyday dread of casual violence.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03Los Angeles lost its innocence ten years ago after the mass killings by the Charles Manson Family.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08You have a problem. This man only needs that much time to kill you
0:34:08 > 0:34:11so you only have that much time to respond.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13Ready!
0:34:13 > 0:34:14Point, fire! Point, fire!
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Point, fire! Point, fire!
0:34:16 > 0:34:23'We spent a week in a basement in Glendale watching frightened people learn how to kill.'
0:34:23 > 0:34:26All you've got to do get a bullet in the man's chest.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28You've got to kill him. Ready?
0:34:28 > 0:34:30Go!
0:34:31 > 0:34:33Take your time.
0:34:35 > 0:34:42Each one of them had survived some challenge by an armed thug intent upon wounding or killing,
0:34:42 > 0:34:47and these people were determined they would never be victims again.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51If it's necessary, you've got to blow some sucker's chest out.
0:34:51 > 0:34:57One would expect that a doctor would be concerned with saving life, not learning how to kill.
0:34:57 > 0:35:04- What brought you here?- We had a very, very serious accident a little over a year ago
0:35:04 > 0:35:12when I was putting some things in the trunk of my car after making rounds at the hospital which I attend.
0:35:12 > 0:35:19A fellow came up to me and, as I slowly turned around and asked him, "What the hell do you want?"
0:35:19 > 0:35:22he shot me. Shot me in the chest.
0:35:22 > 0:35:28The bullet went in a downward position where it went through my liver and renal artery and kidney.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31Right now you look in fairly good shape.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34Well, it took months of recovery.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37So now you've come here to learn to shoot first?
0:35:37 > 0:35:39So it never happens again.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42I was very avidly against guns
0:35:42 > 0:35:48and I've never allowed a gun or anything in the house, but I feel differently now.
0:35:48 > 0:35:54I don't ever wish to be in that position, and it's taken me a lot of guts to come here!
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Go!
0:36:00 > 0:36:06'I joined a Wild West training session and got closer to the action than I intended.'
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Go! Move! Go into the water.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12- What's the matter with you? Go!- Duck!
0:36:19 > 0:36:22- Was that a duck? - No, it was me.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25I didn't mean that at you.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30That was me who'd to duck. Well done.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32This is the judge, checking up on your...
0:36:32 > 0:36:35- Handiwork.- ..your handiwork.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38- How's she doing? - She scored a nine and a zero.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40A nine and a miss.
0:36:40 > 0:36:46That means you're dead again. When you get psyched up like this, you're quite excited, really.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Isn't this the kind of thing...?
0:36:49 > 0:36:52- Aren't you going to go out on the streets looking for a target?- No.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58I'll be more aware, you know. You never know who's going to crawl up and grab you or something.
0:36:58 > 0:37:04It's constant fear but that's what today is nowadays - fear. You don't know who's going to do what.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09Carol and Russell O'Rear know all about self-defence for they run
0:37:09 > 0:37:14that most popular target for stick-up men looking for ready cash at night - a liquor store.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19However, it seems some little old ladies can look after themselves.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22This fellow, a white fellow, came in,
0:37:22 > 0:37:24nobody around.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28Just me and him. He came in the store and I was kind of jittery.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31It seems like your heart beats when you see something like that.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34He came in the store and I said, "Can I help you?"
0:37:34 > 0:37:39And he says, "I want a pack of cigarettes, a pack of Camel."
0:37:39 > 0:37:45When I went to pick up the Camels, here he had a 9mm German Luger automatic.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48I tell you, I just froze when I saw that.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52I thought, "He's gonna shoot me in the back of the head."
0:37:52 > 0:37:56So, er...so then finally... He said, "Get down on the floor."
0:37:56 > 0:38:02The floor was so darn dirty, I wasn't going to get down on the floor for him. Anyway, I said, "Oh, all right."
0:38:02 > 0:38:08So there's still that gun on me and I thought, "Oh, boy," and he was such a mean-looking thing.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10So I put my finger in the trigger...
0:38:10 > 0:38:16Under the counter, we had a 3840, you know, one of those large old-fashioned guns?
0:38:16 > 0:38:23So I put my finger in the trigger and I said, "Gee... I got to do something. Either him or me."
0:38:23 > 0:38:28So I put my finger in and I went bang and I shot him right between the eyes.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Still there's nobody around. Nobody heard me.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34So I thought, "Oh, heck, I'll take another chance and shoot him,"
0:38:34 > 0:38:37so I shot him in the neck.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39And down he went.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41So I went around to see what...
0:38:41 > 0:38:45I wanted to get a towel to wipe his face because, you know,
0:38:45 > 0:38:50he was bleeding so bad, and he only took 39.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54So I went to search his pocket, you know, to get the 39 back.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58Before you knew it, I had seven cop cars and the television
0:38:58 > 0:39:05and everything there and he was on the floor, but he was already dead.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10So I said, "Say, listen, take that money out of his pocket. He's got my 39."
0:39:10 > 0:39:16And it was bloody, so I took it and put it in the cash register, and they took him, and that was that.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19When the bullet enters the skull, those dum-dums,
0:39:19 > 0:39:25it flies to pieces, it flies into hundreds of pieces and just pulverises the brain.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28- Yeah.- So you didn't really need the second shot in the throat?
0:39:28 > 0:39:31No, I did not. I just wanted to see how it feels!
0:39:31 > 0:39:34- Was that the first time you'd killed anybody?- Yes.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37There was a few more.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41A few more after that. But I shot two shots.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44That's all I shoot. The third time I don't shoot.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46And if I can't get 'em in those two, then I quit.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48- You give up?- I give up. Yeah.
0:39:48 > 0:39:55Remember, California's said to be just a few years ahead of the world outside so, for the rest of us,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57is this the way it's going to be?
0:40:03 > 0:40:07'Los Angeles is a nowhere city.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12'It's like living in a vast motel where everybody's about to leave.'
0:40:12 > 0:40:17No-one has a past or a present or cares what you do.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21There's no chance of establishing a relationship with the other guests
0:40:21 > 0:40:24for they're all due to check out in a day or two.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27Despite such restlessness, such indifference,
0:40:27 > 0:40:34its residents talk more than any other people in the world about "meaningful relationships",
0:40:34 > 0:40:40yet I suspect would not know how to handle one if it took them by the throat.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56# Well, I'm standing on the corner watching every kind of car
0:40:56 > 0:41:00# Friendly people come and say they want to know... #
0:41:00 > 0:41:05'In my 1979 California series, we filmed an entire show on Sunset Boulevard,
0:41:05 > 0:41:09'covering its extremes from the mountains to the shining sea.
0:41:09 > 0:41:16'That single street said everything there was to say about the city and its way of life.
0:41:18 > 0:41:25'We took a look at Plato's Retreat West, a private club for swingers in Hollywood.'
0:41:31 > 0:41:38Everything in that club was then allowed, except alcohol and unescorted males.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43The police had just raided the club and, after some puzzled hesitation,
0:41:43 > 0:41:49cited management for operating pinball machines without a permit.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54In this drab side street, the club was active until dawn.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59Many of its 5,000 members kept busy having sex with strangers.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02# Night fever, night fever
0:42:02 > 0:42:04# We know how to show it... #
0:42:08 > 0:42:11The orgy centre was called the mat room
0:42:11 > 0:42:16as though part of some gymnasium which in a way I suppose it was.
0:42:16 > 0:42:21After crossing its mattresses, I decided to burn my socks.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28I talked to a couple who'd been married for three years.
0:42:28 > 0:42:35Michael, an electrician, aged 27, and Susie, a nurse of 23, were regulars.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40I would think bringing a woman in here would be paying her something of an insult, really.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42Sex exhilarates me.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46I feel good afterwards.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49But what about the other women in a place like this? Are they as young as you or are they not older?
0:42:49 > 0:42:52I saw some much older women outside.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56There's... I once met a lady and...
0:42:56 > 0:43:02I made her show me her driver's licence just to prove the age she was, but she was 82,
0:43:02 > 0:43:08- and she...- In a swingers' club? - Yeah, but she...- How was she doing?
0:43:08 > 0:43:14She acted like about a 37-year-old lady. Her mind was as sharp as a razor.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18A man who sleeps with a lot of women is supposed to be a gay dog,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22- but a woman who sleeps with a lot of men is supposed to be a tramp.- Yes.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24Would you sometimes go with more than one man in an evening?
0:43:24 > 0:43:26- Sometimes.- How many?
0:43:26 > 0:43:30I think my maximum is...three? Three.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32Three in one evening.
0:43:32 > 0:43:38I mean, men, perhaps it's another thing, but doesn't it devalue women totally?
0:43:38 > 0:43:40I don't see why.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42Women complain about being sex objects.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Well, I'm not a sex object. I'm an individual.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59I wondered why the founder Larry had chosen to call his swappers' club Plato's.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04It was just that we wanted to use a name that was either Greek or Roman
0:44:04 > 0:44:09because it's very erotic, so I just decided, Plato's was a simple name. It was the only one I could spell!
0:44:09 > 0:44:13After that, I found out that Plato was gay but it was too late.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17All over the world, there's wars and everything else.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22That doesn't bother anybody, but Plato's Retreat people get furious about. For what reason?
0:44:22 > 0:44:24We're here happy, having a good time.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26When we leave here, we go back to society,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32'Plato's Retreat closed down within a year of my visit.
0:44:32 > 0:44:40'Today, it's a less controversial club though I suspect its past is more interesting than its present.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52'In Hollywood, women have always had a powerful presence on-screen,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56'yet it was not until 1980 that there was a female studio head,
0:44:56 > 0:45:04'when I shared breakfast with Sherry Lansing, then the most powerful woman in the film industry.'
0:45:04 > 0:45:09How does a little school teacher get to be a big shot so quickly?
0:45:09 > 0:45:12Because you've done it very rapidly,
0:45:12 > 0:45:16- and you haven't done it by the casting-couch route.- No!
0:45:16 > 0:45:21I also don't think that exists any more, the casting-couch route. Um...
0:45:21 > 0:45:23All my ideals are going.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26All the reasons why you're here have just disappeared.
0:45:26 > 0:45:31- What can you believe in any more? - I don't think the casting-couch route exists at all any more.
0:45:31 > 0:45:38There's too much money being spent on movies, too few movies being made, to take a risk on something like that.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43'Sherry had a clear philosophy about life in Hollywood's fastest lane.'
0:45:43 > 0:45:50The woman who is a housewife - I feel so strongly about this - who has no working life,
0:45:50 > 0:45:58but who has a husband and two children, which I don't have, has certain things that I don't have.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01I have certain things that she doesn't have.
0:46:01 > 0:46:07You give up certain things to get what you want, but you don't get it all.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11I mean, I work very hard and I like it, but I do go home alone
0:46:11 > 0:46:14and I don't have children, so I don't have everything.
0:46:14 > 0:46:19And if she's envious of me, then I'm envious of her because she has things that I don't have.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22The mistake that everybody makes is that they want everything.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25I learned you can't have it all.
0:46:28 > 0:46:35'Sherry ran Paramount for 12 years and in that time also got married, so maybe she DID have it all.
0:46:48 > 0:46:56'My old friend Joan Collins created a powerful television monster and became world-famous.'
0:46:56 > 0:47:01Her role in Dynasty made Joan Collins a sort of template for the '80s.
0:47:01 > 0:47:08With its kitsch story lines and impossibly handsome cast, the series attracted huge audiences.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11Professional and brilliant at playing Joan,
0:47:11 > 0:47:18she achieved through television the international super-stardom that had eluded her on film.
0:47:18 > 0:47:24Always perfectly turned out, she played the part of Alexis Carrington to the hilt
0:47:24 > 0:47:27and that character was to follow her forever.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32It seems to me that there are only two kinds of people on television
0:47:32 > 0:47:36in terms of women, and that's the bitch or the wimp.
0:47:36 > 0:47:41There's nothing in-between. It's rather pathetic. Women are so categorised.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43They should be able to cross over.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46They should be able to be both because nobody is just one thing.
0:47:46 > 0:47:51And if Alexis was a man, they would not call him a bitch.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55They couldn't dare call him a bastard cos you can't say that word on TV.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00Um, I don't know. They'd probably say, "A strong, tough, aggressive man, isn't that wonderful?"
0:48:00 > 0:48:03But because I'm a woman, "She's a bitch," and it's just...that.
0:48:03 > 0:48:05MUSIC: Theme from Dynasty
0:48:11 > 0:48:15When we talked on the Dynasty set all those years ago, you said that,
0:48:15 > 0:48:21in real life, you believed a strong, assertive woman got a bad deal.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24It's true, but, um...I mean, look at Maggie Thatcher.
0:48:24 > 0:48:29I thought that she was absolutely wonderful, that she was strong and assertive. She was loathed.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31Look at Hillary Clinton.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36And, um, people do not like very assertive women that know their mind
0:48:36 > 0:48:40and that, you know, have a tendency to tell you off.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45Now, Hollywood is a notoriously cruel place.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47How did you survive?
0:48:47 > 0:48:49Cos I'm tough.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53No, I survived because I don't take any of it too seriously.
0:48:53 > 0:49:02I suspect that it was easier being a star in the old days when the stars were all protected by the studios.
0:49:02 > 0:49:07I think it's really true. I don't know how those people
0:49:07 > 0:49:13who are really on the cover of all the magazines and just so famous, I don't know how they cope.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17Like Angelina Jolie. She's pregnant, she's carrying one child,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21there's another one in her hand, she goes out, she gets flash, flash.
0:49:21 > 0:49:27She never complains. I have great admiration for that cos I think it must be really tough.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31- Really tough. - Being famous for being stunning
0:49:31 > 0:49:35must be a considerable burden to you.
0:49:35 > 0:49:41You can't slip out to the newsagent's to buy a paper unless you're looking your absolute best.
0:49:41 > 0:49:47I think that people today want to see their stars looking, you know, worse than them.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54I went out with my daughter once, Tara, in disguise to Bermondsey antique market, five in the morning,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59and I had no make-up, I was very dressed down, I had an old headscarf on,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02an old mac, and I'm going along and looking at the stalls.
0:50:02 > 0:50:08Tara's following after me and she comes up and says, "Mummy, do you know what that man just said?"
0:50:08 > 0:50:15I said, "No, what?" He said, "Here, Ida, that was Joan Collins. You look better than she does!"
0:50:15 > 0:50:19So I can look really horrible if I want to.
0:50:19 > 0:50:26Looking back then, is there anything in real life that you wish you had done differently?
0:50:26 > 0:50:32Life is a series of lessons and, um...you know, everybody makes mistakes.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37Show me a person who hasn't made a mistake and I'll show you somebody who hasn't lived properly.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59Beverly Hills houses today's over-achievers,
0:50:59 > 0:51:04though, once you stop achieving, nobody talks to you.
0:51:04 > 0:51:10California is so familiar from films and television that we know it well, even if we've never been here.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14Palm trees and beautiful people, endless sunshine,
0:51:14 > 0:51:19the good, the bad and the totally nutty, where everything is "now".
0:51:19 > 0:51:22MUSIC: Theme from The Pink Panther
0:51:27 > 0:51:30Piccadilly Thircuth, there you are, there's Eroth.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35Now, just by shaking it, we can see it in the storm.
0:51:35 > 0:51:36There you are, do you see the snow?
0:51:36 > 0:51:40It's lovely to have. You see, when you get all this sun out here,
0:51:40 > 0:51:44it's lovely to see a bit of snow cos we never see snow in Los Angeles.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49And I have Buckingham Palace also in the same situation.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57I first met Peter Sellers in the old Tonight days
0:51:57 > 0:52:03when, one evening at Lime Grove, I interviewed his mother, a forceful lady to whom he was devoted.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05That stood in my credit.
0:52:05 > 0:52:12Years later, I spent a day with him in Beverly Hills, in a splendid rented house on Summit Ridge
0:52:12 > 0:52:17where he was living with his latest wife, the beautiful Lynne Frederick.
0:52:17 > 0:52:23He was then at the peak of his film career and had a reputation for being difficult
0:52:23 > 0:52:29but, that day, he was a delight - funny, perceptive and engaging.
0:52:29 > 0:52:35He was happy, though in the harsh California sunlight, his skin looked a little grey.
0:52:35 > 0:52:42He'd stumble as he walked down a flight of steps and my director said, "This may be his obituary."
0:52:42 > 0:52:45So it proved.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49A few weeks later, Peter flew to London and suffered a fatal heart attack.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53Ours was probably the last interview he gave.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56I happen to be one of those sort of people that...
0:52:56 > 0:53:01was born and will die in England because I've got sort of London in me.
0:53:01 > 0:53:06I was born in Yorkshire, but I've been living in London all my life, and there's something...
0:53:06 > 0:53:11Although I can't stay there all the time, there's something about the place that, er,
0:53:11 > 0:53:16I can't get away from and, you know, I don't want to get away from.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18So I could never actually live here.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21So what is it then that gets up your nose about working here?
0:53:27 > 0:53:29It's difficult to answer that now.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31I don't know.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36I don't know. They say the British are rude, I suppose.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39I've heard that said many times.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42I'd sooner...
0:53:42 > 0:53:50for example...be at home and have somebody say to me,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54"I saw your last film, mate. It was a load of shit,"
0:53:54 > 0:53:58which I've had on several occasions, so excuse me!
0:53:58 > 0:54:06Or... I mean, I'd sooner put up with that than I would the sort of thing that happens here.
0:54:06 > 0:54:14I remember very well going through a very bad patch at one time in my life, living in this town for a bit,
0:54:14 > 0:54:20and several well-known people were crossing the road in order not to bump into me.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24So you really know when the skids are under you, you know.
0:54:24 > 0:54:30I know one thing, that...it's fine to work here.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34Spike and I, when we were doing the Goon Show, we used to call them "herns".
0:54:34 > 0:54:37If you can't hear what they're saying,
0:54:37 > 0:54:42it's like a rhubarb sound, they're saying, "Hern, hern, hern.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45"What do you think, hern, hern, hern?"
0:54:45 > 0:54:51A lot of the Goon Shows had the herns in them. Hern, sir, hern.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53Hern, Lieutenant, hern.
0:54:53 > 0:55:00- So...- The goonery is a joy of lost youth for you, isn't it?- Oh, yes, the best, happiest days of my life.
0:55:00 > 0:55:05You can live wherever you want to in the world. The fact that you're here for what, a year, two years...?
0:55:05 > 0:55:10Er, no, I'm going back to Europe.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14I'm going to have a holiday next, a much-needed holiday.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17I'm going back to Europe and I'll probably stay in Europe
0:55:17 > 0:55:21till I do another movie, which will be in Paris.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27- Nobody seems to have any friends here.- No. You see, the British tend to keep together
0:55:27 > 0:55:32because they have these parties down the road and all of that,
0:55:32 > 0:55:38and they all sort of get together and talk about Harrods and all that.
0:55:38 > 0:55:45And that's about it, really, unless you want to get caught up with the Hollywood set
0:55:45 > 0:55:50and get mixed up with those parties, but forget it, you know. Not for me.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54Very private person. Very private.
0:55:54 > 0:56:01A lot of people think I'm a right twit because I'm very quiet, but I can't take it, you know.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06I work so hard when I work that I like to be very quiet
0:56:06 > 0:56:10and just think and meditate and...
0:56:10 > 0:56:13wander round taking photographs.
0:56:13 > 0:56:21There is an argument that, wherever you live in the world - in Gstaad or in Port Grimaud or London or here -
0:56:21 > 0:56:24that you only have about five or ten friends anyway,
0:56:24 > 0:56:30and you'll surround yourself with five or ten chosen people wherever you are.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33So you've got your five or ten friends here.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37You've also got the best that the world can provide in everything -
0:56:37 > 0:56:41in food and cars and wine and...
0:56:41 > 0:56:44But I don't have any friends here.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48Real friends. I don't have any people I'd really call...
0:56:49 > 0:56:57I've only got...two really good friends - no, three at the most - in my life.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01And, er...
0:57:03 > 0:57:05..and they're all in London.
0:57:05 > 0:57:12May I show you, just before we leave, a little twick I learnt from an American.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15I'll do it with the Union Jack
0:57:15 > 0:57:19because it's better to start with it than end with it, if you know what I mean.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21As they said when they left India!
0:57:21 > 0:57:24So here we go. Um, now...
0:57:26 > 0:57:29My head is in the tea cloth.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33Ready?
0:57:33 > 0:57:37My head has gone. Brilliant.
0:57:37 > 0:57:38Thank you so much.
0:57:41 > 0:57:48'Some months after Peter's final happy interview, ITV asked me to present his obituary.'
0:57:48 > 0:57:51So we've lost Peter Sellers.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55We've lost the clown who made the world happier than he made himself.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Peter Sellers, who spent his life imitating others,
0:57:58 > 0:58:03was an accumulation of all the roles he'd ever played, all the people he'd ever met.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08So, to every one of you, Peter, goodbye and thanks.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13'Next time, the journey continues as we cross America
0:58:13 > 0:58:16'and I can finally catch up with one of my favourite couples.'
0:58:16 > 0:58:18My dear chap.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22You haven't changed a bit, except you're a bit younger.
0:58:22 > 0:58:23And Kathy! Excuse me.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26You look fucking great!
0:58:26 > 0:58:28Don't let that be on!