0:00:02 > 0:00:06As a child, I suffered from anxiety-related eczema.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08Such a child is not always a popular one.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11"Too needy," said my mother,
0:00:11 > 0:00:13adding that it was no wonder I had no friends.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16But I did have friends.
0:00:16 > 0:00:17They were right here -
0:00:17 > 0:00:22in that flickering blue box that smelled of valves and unsafe wiring.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24'Viewers of a nervous disposition
0:00:24 > 0:00:27'might find the next programme disturbing.'
0:00:29 > 0:00:32And when I was old enough to go to the cinema,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36I realised that any of my friends came from the same place.
0:00:36 > 0:00:37FANFARE
0:00:37 > 0:00:40What enchanted place was this,
0:00:40 > 0:00:45that filled my head with dreams and sometimes nightmares?
0:00:45 > 0:00:47SHE GROWLS
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Cricklewood Studios, I discovered,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52was a film studio in north London which, for almost 100 years,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56was at the forefront of the British film industry.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59What is it that captures me still about the dancing illuminations...
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Threepenny return to Cricklewood, please.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05..that touched the highest standards of British acting...
0:01:05 > 0:01:07Satisfaction guaranteed.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09..and became a byword for film-making excellence?
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Well, when I got off at Cricklewood, he went for me melons!
0:01:16 > 0:01:19I hope that with this programme I might be able
0:01:19 > 0:01:24to find the answer, as I embark upon my own very personal journey
0:01:24 > 0:01:28to discover the history of Cricklewood Studios
0:01:28 > 0:01:31and of some of the stars who walked through its gates.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Stars who, as far as I'm concerned,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37can only be described as The Cricklewood Greats.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39MUSIC: "Shining Light" by Ash
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Tim! Hi.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48'This is Tim Dempsey.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52'He's the founder of the Cricklewood Studios Appreciation Society
0:01:52 > 0:01:54'and the owner of the biggest collection
0:01:54 > 0:01:58'of Cricklewood artefacts around. He holds a number of key items
0:01:58 > 0:02:01'which shine a light on to the beginnings of Cricklewood Studios.'
0:02:01 > 0:02:05So, this is a lifetime's worth of collecting? Yes.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10Yes, it is. It's been probably now 30 years in the making, and...
0:02:10 > 0:02:12Now, I believe - a little bird has told me -
0:02:12 > 0:02:15that you have got some material pertaining to the person
0:02:15 > 0:02:18we might call the first of the Cricklewood Greats?
0:02:18 > 0:02:20Indeed. The man who started it all.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22The unforgettable Arthur Sim.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26'In 1902, Arthur Sim, a failed magician from Morecambe,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29'inspected the fire-damaged premises
0:02:29 > 0:02:31'of the former Cricklewood Crumpet Company
0:02:31 > 0:02:34'and decided they would suit him down to the ground.
0:02:34 > 0:02:35'All he had to his name
0:02:35 > 0:02:38'was his moving picto-cameragraph-oscopic machine
0:02:38 > 0:02:40'and a dream. He wanted to make
0:02:40 > 0:02:43'moving pictures. And he did.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48'His magical story of a large pie served at a Blackpool function,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52'brought to life by a mischievous imp, astonished and enthralled
0:02:52 > 0:02:55'hungry audiences all over Britain
0:02:55 > 0:02:57'and became a runaway success.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'Arthur not only created these early films,
0:03:01 > 0:03:03'he acted in them, too,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07'taking the delicious title role here for himself.'
0:03:10 > 0:03:14'The Flying Pie convinced Arthur that the sky was the limit
0:03:14 > 0:03:16'and he swiftly moved with the times,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19'creating Britain's first lasting comedy character.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24'Harold the Hobo was what Arthur called him,
0:03:24 > 0:03:29'but audiences came to know him by another more affectionate name -
0:03:29 > 0:03:30'The Little Drunk.'
0:03:36 > 0:03:39'Arthur's heavyweight sparring partner here
0:03:39 > 0:03:42'is Carlisle's own Chuckles Milroy.'
0:03:51 > 0:03:54'Chuckles performed with Arthur for many years,
0:03:54 > 0:03:58'before his career was cut short by suspected brain damage.'
0:04:10 > 0:04:13'But Arthur continued to make an impression
0:04:13 > 0:04:15'that resonates even today.'
0:04:15 > 0:04:17Goodness me.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Look at that. That's amazing.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25This is actually one of Arthur's eyebrows. It is indeed.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27Incredible, isn't it?
0:04:27 > 0:04:29When you think of just such a little piece of hair
0:04:29 > 0:04:31giving so much pleasure.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33To so many people. It's quite coarse, isn't it?
0:04:33 > 0:04:35And it's bigger than I thought.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38That looks like it would be quite happy chomping on a bit of lettuce.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41'At the height of his fame, in 1922,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44'Arthur's eyebrows were insured for over ?100.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47'Arthur established Cricklewood Studios as the place to go
0:04:47 > 0:04:50'to shoot them fast and shoot them cheap.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53'But his story was to come to an untimely end
0:04:53 > 0:04:56'when a comedy stunt took a tragic turn.'
0:04:56 > 0:05:00This is... This is the bowler hat
0:05:00 > 0:05:03that he wore when the stunt went wrong.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05Yes. His last film.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Steamroller Joe.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Look at that.
0:05:12 > 0:05:13Is that blood?
0:05:13 > 0:05:16It's tissue of some sort.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23'Arthur will be remembered for ever as the sadly absent father
0:05:23 > 0:05:24'of Cricklewood Studios.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28'But, by the end of the '20s, the film business was electrified
0:05:28 > 0:05:33'by a colossal advance in technology which would change everything -
0:05:33 > 0:05:35'the advent of sound...' BANG
0:05:35 > 0:05:36'..which saw the arrival
0:05:36 > 0:05:38'of the loudest Cricklewood Great of all.'
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Leave me be, Tommy. I'm having me beauty sleep.
0:05:41 > 0:05:42Mr Accrington's having a fit!
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The foghorn's broke!
0:05:50 > 0:05:52Let's be having you!
0:05:52 > 0:05:54'For a time in the 1930s,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57'the Cricklewood capers of a simple northern lass
0:05:57 > 0:05:59'called Florrie Fontaine
0:05:59 > 0:06:02'made her the biggest home-grown star in Britain.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05'But Florrie was to become the centre of a puzzle
0:06:05 > 0:06:08'that saw her almost wiped from history.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14'One person who still remembers her fondly is her younger sister Agnes,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17'now 98 years of age.'
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Florrie were me big sister who looked after me. Me mum didn't.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25She wasn't right, Mum.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31'The family were extremely poor.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34'So poor they lived under a fish and chip shop.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38'With her mother keen to be rid of her,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40'Florrie was married off to a music hall performer
0:06:40 > 0:06:42'called Albert Ibbotson.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47'On stage, he portrayed the part of Old Granny Flannery -
0:06:47 > 0:06:50'an old washerwoman of a kind common in the north.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53'In fact, common anywhere you took her.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56'Florrie was soon brought into the act
0:06:56 > 0:06:59'to play Old Granny Flannery's daughter.'
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Because he used to dress up as a poor old soul on stage,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05folks thought that he were.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08But he wasn't? He was not!
0:07:08 > 0:07:10He were a monster.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13He treated my sister like hell.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Threw her down the stairs.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19He threw her UP the stairs once.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23When he died, it were an over-fried chip went the wrong way
0:07:23 > 0:07:26and it cut his throat from the inside.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28And that were too good for him.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34'Florrie took to the stage with an act of her own
0:07:34 > 0:07:35'which caused such a stir
0:07:35 > 0:07:38'that she was placed under contract to Cricklewood Studios,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42'making her film debut in a threadbare revue
0:07:42 > 0:07:44'called Clog Capers of 1932.'
0:07:44 > 0:07:46I'll park my tent where I like. And I won't be harangued
0:07:46 > 0:07:49by the likes of you who haven't got nowt better to do
0:07:49 > 0:07:51than go around issuing haranguings to lassies
0:07:51 > 0:07:54who doesn't deserve haranguing, you orangutan.
0:07:54 > 0:07:55'Audiences took to Florrie
0:07:55 > 0:07:58'and so did Cricklewood producers looking to make a bob or two.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04'In the 1930s, she made 141 films in eight years.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Not a banger in sight. Not a banger in sight.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Give us a hand, Tony.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Oi! They're the bangers. Make for the hills!
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Florrie Takes The Biscuit, Florrie And The Poacher's Egg,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20Florrie Drives A Lorry and many, many, many more.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24She was so popular, she even became a comic strip.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33'But poor health and exhaustion began to take their toll.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37'As the '30s wore on, Florrie seemed to lose her fizz.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41'Then, a stroke of luck occurred -
0:08:41 > 0:08:43'World War II.'
0:08:45 > 0:08:49'And a song from Florrie's 1938 picture, Nobs And All,
0:08:49 > 0:08:51'began to take a grip.'
0:08:51 > 0:08:53What he's really saying is
0:08:53 > 0:08:56she doesn't have a carer. Come on, Mam.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01# Give us a grin Though your heart is breaking
0:09:01 > 0:09:05# Give us a grin Although you're not all there
0:09:05 > 0:09:09# You don't need your wits for dancin'
0:09:09 > 0:09:13# Or romancin' Or having a care... #
0:09:13 > 0:09:15'The song became an anthem for British forces.
0:09:15 > 0:09:21'And Florrie herself seemed to become a symbol of the very land
0:09:21 > 0:09:24'that men and women now found themselves fighting for.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28'Florrie had never been more famous.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31'But, as the lights went out all over Europe,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33'she was nowhere to be found.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36'Busy with the war, few would ask where she was.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40'The truth, when it emerged, would shock everyone.'
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Here's Tim.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46'Tim Dempsey has secured us permission
0:09:46 > 0:09:48'to visit Cricklewood Studios themselves.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51'I've never been on the site before,
0:09:51 > 0:09:56'but, though they're not what they were, there's still a lump in my throat as I arrive.'
0:09:56 > 0:10:00So, this is it. This is it, this is it.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04This is where the studio actually stood. Well, the car park was here.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08The gates were just over there and this is the studio.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Shall we... I'd love to.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13'It's a moment on my journey more powerful
0:10:13 > 0:10:16'than I could ever have imagined.'
0:10:16 > 0:10:24So, yes, this is it. This is the main building.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29PHONE RINGS LOUDLY
0:10:29 > 0:10:40In fact, in this area, they had... TROLLEY GETS LOUDER
0:10:40 > 0:10:42So, they were drawing a lot of energy. PHONE RINGS
0:10:42 > 0:10:45This here, in fact, off the floor plans,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48if you measure from there across to here,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52you've got exactly the same valency for where their entrance was.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Down there, you had casting, you had finance.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00The in-house functions were across there. The canteen would've been?
0:11:00 > 0:11:01'They air in the old place
0:11:01 > 0:11:04is still heavy with the sense of things past.'
0:11:04 > 0:11:07In the 1930s, all catering off-site that way.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12It's amazing, the whole place here, because there's a real...
0:11:12 > 0:11:14There's an atmosphere. Yes. This sounds crazy.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18It's going to sound crazy because we're surrounded by tiles.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21But there's an energy here. It's coming off the tiles, as you say.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25And, in fact, if you look over there, where they have their lighting -
0:11:25 > 0:11:28and this is uncanny, really - because where they had
0:11:28 > 0:11:31their lighting department, the studio actually...
0:11:31 > 0:11:36That is on the same site as the studio's own lighting department.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Still here. The whole thing's still got it.
0:11:40 > 0:11:46It's still going. And, in fact, just over here is the main soundstage.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49And many, many things were filmed here.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53'A history such as Cricklewood is not easily extinguished.'
0:11:53 > 0:11:58So, I should. That's almost like a flat.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Ooh! So this location, then,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04was... Suffered terribly?
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Yes, during the war, this suffered a direct hit.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12A bomb went off, the place was pretty much razed to the ground.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17Interestingly, Dilys Powell - if you remember,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20she was the doyenne of British film criticism at the time.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23She said this was the first hit the studio had had for many years.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25That was uncalled for.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29When the bomb hit, they were filming the light comedy, Lavender Mansions.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Lavender Mansions. Richard Glasser, Katherine Curtis.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36Both of whom perished that night in the blast,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39in the inferno.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41Two stars who burned very brightly.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Yes, yes, they would have that night, certainly.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46And you can imagine the scene.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48If you imagine the inferno. You would have had
0:12:48 > 0:12:54red-hot debris, embedding itself in walls, in skin.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04But someone who was conspicuous by her absence from Cricklewood
0:13:04 > 0:13:06was Florrie Fontaine.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Her war, it seemed,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11was spent among dubious company.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18Florrie had been travelling to Germany since the early '30s, for medical reasons...
0:13:19 > 0:13:23..and found herself befriended by the Nazi high command.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29Astonishingly, she accepted Goebbels' invitation
0:13:29 > 0:13:32to make some films in Germany.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36The results make chilling viewing.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49"I speak as I find," she later said, "and they were grand company."
0:13:49 > 0:13:53SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:13:55 > 0:13:59In 1945, the Nazis were defeated.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Florrie returned to Britain...
0:14:02 > 0:14:04to find she was no longer welcome.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09She seemed to enjoy the company of,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14frankly, the Nazi high command and seemed to prefer,
0:14:14 > 0:14:20some would say, living the high life on the Continent, wearing culottes
0:14:20 > 0:14:22and all sorts of things.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Was that... How did people at home react,
0:14:26 > 0:14:31people who had been through the war here? How did they react?
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Oh, they were definitely angry. Yes.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Yes, yes. And you see, they knew our house.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43They used to throw dachshunds through the window.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47And the anger boiled over during a concert at the Hackney Palladium.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52Florrie gave as good as she got to a hostile audience,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56who finally succeeded in booing her off of the stage.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Her career was over. There was nothing left for her,
0:14:59 > 0:15:01but to retire.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03Defiant to the end,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Florrie opened a bierkeller in Benidorm,
0:15:06 > 0:15:10which she managed until her death in 1992.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14The war was won, but shattered Britain needed binding together.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18And what better way, thought the powers that be, than with a film?
0:15:18 > 0:15:19And here at Cricklewood Studios,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21they set about to make just such a film -
0:15:21 > 0:15:24a film to unite the people.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30It was a rip-roaring historical spectacle that would make everyone
0:15:30 > 0:15:33proud of the country that they, unlike Florrie Fontaine,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36had fought for - Johnny Puff.
0:15:36 > 0:15:37CHEERING
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Are you not a-feared, young Lord Johnny?
0:15:42 > 0:15:44No, I'm not a-feared, Scrubber...
0:15:44 > 0:15:47because I know there is a better place than this.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50A place that holds me still.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52Our land, Scrubber.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57Not full of mud like this, but full of our own mud.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01A land of mountains and glens,
0:16:01 > 0:16:02of tiny hamlets and great cities,
0:16:02 > 0:16:09where chimneys spout with ceaseless industry and children proudly cough.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13In this place, this simple place, there is another...
0:16:13 > 0:16:16A place of dreams,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18where fancies are coddled.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23A place where all of us might, upon a winter's night,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27draw around the fireside and tell a tale or two.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32A place whose name will live for ever.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36The blitzkrieged British public recognised it for what it was -
0:16:36 > 0:16:37a gigantic bomb -
0:16:37 > 0:16:40and kept well away.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44It lost a fortune and Cricklewood Studios found itself sinking fast.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48But in a dramatic twist, of the sort that Johnny Puff lacked,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Cricklewood would be saved by the most unlikely of sources,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54and it's one that I have the greatest of affection for,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57which would be born here,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59St Paul's Cathedral in London. It's amazing.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Hitler threw everything he had at it and it survived,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06but Cricklewood Studios succeeded where the Third Reich didn't.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10The movie was Dr Worm and it heralded the explosion
0:17:10 > 0:17:12of British horror movies that came to Cricklewood
0:17:12 > 0:17:15with the arrival of Acton Films and one of the greatest
0:17:15 > 0:17:19of the Cricklewood greats, "The King of Horror", Lionel Crisp.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24The common-or-garden, worm - basilicas wormbilious.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Just an ordinary worm, Doc.
0:17:30 > 0:17:31Ordinary, Vince?
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Well, if you think burrowing your way through
0:17:34 > 0:17:37the equivalent of a concrete block every morning "ordinary".
0:17:37 > 0:17:41If reproducing, entirely on their own, being both male and female,
0:17:41 > 0:17:42sounds "ordinary".
0:17:42 > 0:17:46If having a brain the size of a pinhead,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49yet outliving the hairy mammoth is "ordinary", then, yes,
0:17:49 > 0:17:50yes, I suppose they are.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Why, if our ribbed cousins were not so tiny
0:17:54 > 0:17:55they might rule the world.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59Perhaps they already do.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03At the British Centre for Cosmic Research at Bishop's Stortford,
0:18:03 > 0:18:05the doctor is bitten by a radioactive worm
0:18:05 > 0:18:08and finds himself mutating into a worm man.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12But it is Lionel Crisp's performance,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15as a man clinging to the last remnants of his humanity,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18that elevates another run-of-the-mill British horror movie
0:18:18 > 0:18:20into something much, much more.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30'What people don't realise about Lionel Crisp is that he was
0:18:30 > 0:18:32'a trained classical actor.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35'We're off to meet someone now who is as big a fan
0:18:35 > 0:18:37'of Lionel Crisp as I am and knew the man,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40'actress Marcia Warren.'
0:18:40 > 0:18:44You could hear every word, every consonant, every breath.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49His epiglottis, it was highly developed.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53It was like a little fist and he could punch peanuts out of his mouth
0:18:53 > 0:18:56with it. But, you know, they all could.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59But where did they learn these extraordinary skills?
0:18:59 > 0:19:03A fierce apprenticeship with the leading provincial
0:19:03 > 0:19:05classical actor of his day,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Cedric - later, Sir Cedric - Bermondsey.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13Sir Cedric gave spartan instruction in diction,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15including reading verse with unsprung mouse traps
0:19:15 > 0:19:17placed on the tongue.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Lionel auditioned for Sir Cedric's Buttercup Players a number of times,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24but it was only when the company found themselves short of a man -
0:19:24 > 0:19:27after an incident in a Newcastle public lavatory -
0:19:27 > 0:19:28he was invited to join.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Here, Lionel met a young actress called Elspeth Bruce
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and her dog, Muriel, with whom he settled down.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38But this rosy idyll ended when Lionel found himself dropped
0:19:38 > 0:19:42by the company to which he was so loyal.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47Loyalty means very little in companies, I'm afraid.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Look at the RSC. Hmm. Oh, yes.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53One fish-finger commercial too many and you're out.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57After the war, in which he served with distinction
0:19:57 > 0:19:59in the Queen's Light Tragedians,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02he found himself unemployed, with a wife and a dog to support.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05He took work as a waiter in the actors' pub
0:20:05 > 0:20:09The Cravat and Fedora in Cheapside, where he ran into an old army chum,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11Dennis Acton, now a producer,
0:20:11 > 0:20:15who had set up a small production company called Acton Films.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19He was looking for a respectable, and cheap, actor
0:20:19 > 0:20:23to take the lead role in his new production. Lionel fitted the bill.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26MUFFLED: Help me.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29MUFFLED: Help me!
0:20:32 > 0:20:34Cricklewood finally had a hit.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36Horror was where it was at.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41And the film ushered in a series of blood-soaked pictures
0:20:41 > 0:20:43that put the studios finances back into the red.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Argh! Argh!
0:20:46 > 0:20:52These films would demand every ounce of Lionel's classical training.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00These blood-soaked fables would keep the wolf from the door
0:21:00 > 0:21:04of both Cricklewood and its new star, Lionel Crisp.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06They weren't always the greatest of movies,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09but it's a measure of the man, and the actor,
0:21:09 > 0:21:14that until his death in 1996, he consistently brought class
0:21:14 > 0:21:17to movies that didn't always deserve it,
0:21:17 > 0:21:19from the highs of Dance of the Undead
0:21:19 > 0:21:23to the lows of Dr Jekyll and Matron Hyde,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26Breasts of a Vampire and The Devil's Chutney.
0:21:28 > 0:21:34MUFFLED: I..am...not..a monster!
0:21:34 > 0:21:36MUFFLED: I...am...a...
0:21:36 > 0:21:39GUNSHOT MUFFLED: ..a man!
0:21:39 > 0:21:45GUNSHOT MUFFLED: I...am...a...man!
0:21:45 > 0:21:48EXPLOSION
0:21:48 > 0:21:54He was what we actors call "a proper actor", and he's buried here,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57in the Actors' Graveyard, Hampton Wick,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00interred here with the remains of his wife Elspeth
0:22:00 > 0:22:03and four generations of gundog called Muriel.
0:22:03 > 0:22:09It seems somehow apt that Dr Worm is returned to the worms.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18I have a lot of Lionel's bits and pieces.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21You've got his slippers, haven't you? Mm.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23And an early pair of tights.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29But knowing Lionel as I did, I think he would be very happy
0:22:29 > 0:22:32to know I was passing this to you.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45It's the original part of Lionel's Dr Worm costume.
0:22:45 > 0:22:46It's Dr Worm's foot.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48I think it's his arm.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I've watched this movie so many times. Yes, yes.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56Just to hold, in my own hands, Dr Worm's hand...
0:22:56 > 0:22:59You know all the gestures, I expect, that thumb made. Yes.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01Marcia, thank you so much.
0:23:04 > 0:23:05Oh...
0:23:05 > 0:23:07Look at that. Incredible.
0:23:09 > 0:23:14It sounds daft, but I really find this quite moving. Why is that?
0:23:15 > 0:23:18How is it that we feel such affection for still pictures
0:23:18 > 0:23:22projected at 24 frames per second? One of the mysteries of cinema -
0:23:22 > 0:23:25like what it is they put in the hot dogs.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Of course, we all remember the stars of Cricklewood with great affection,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33but as I grew up, I began to notice other faces on the screen -
0:23:33 > 0:23:36performers who maybe hadn't exactly "made it",
0:23:36 > 0:23:38but still did something for me.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42And as the '60s started swinging, someone appeared who would haunt
0:23:42 > 0:23:44my teenage years.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46Why exactly, I don't know.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Her name was Jenny Driscoll...
0:23:58 > 0:24:01..and she had something about her.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06She wasn't a star and she never would be,
0:24:06 > 0:24:08but I was always delighted to see her...
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Oh! Have you had it off recently? Just before I come in.
0:24:12 > 0:24:13Goodness me! Nurse?
0:24:13 > 0:24:14Yes, Dr Riddle.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17..and I would seek her out, from her debut in Thumbs Up, Matron...
0:24:17 > 0:24:19No, and I've had a look at his particulars.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21..until the end...
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Mr Biggun was just saying he hasn't been feeling himself recently.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26'Ere, you said that was our little secret.
0:24:26 > 0:24:27I think you need a painkiller.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Nurse, could you give him one? Oh, yes, I'll give him one right way.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34..through a colourful career, best described as "varied".
0:24:36 > 0:24:40Jenny Driscoll's story began in humble circumstances,
0:24:40 > 0:24:44when she was born here, a spit away from Petticoat Lane Market.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46She was a London girl,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50with all the verve and energy of that great city.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53There's been a market on this site since Roman times,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56trading fruit, veg and dodgy Calvin Kleins.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Jenny would have grown up to the sound of this place -
0:24:59 > 0:25:02the caterwauling, the bustle.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05At 15, her father got her a job in a fish and chip shop.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09But in a characteristic move, Jenny was having none of it.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12She told him plainly, she wasn't frittering HER life away.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Jenny wanted more.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Beauty contests provided the route.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22She just missed out on being Miss Isle of Dogs
0:25:22 > 0:25:27and came second as Miss Jumbo Saveloy two years running.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31But it was enough to catch the attention
0:25:31 > 0:25:32of the Thumbs Up producers,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35who quickly found work for Jenny in their movies.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Jenny was a useful addition to the Thumbs Up girls
0:25:41 > 0:25:45and soon found herself befriended by one of the stars,
0:25:45 > 0:25:47Gerry Pollock.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52Gerry was a complex character, as his diaries revealed.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54He writes of Jenny...
0:25:54 > 0:25:58"A new girl turned up at Cricklewood today. Very sweet and innocent.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01"Not yet diseased by the tartiness of the others,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05"who clucked and cawed around her, like the rouged, syphilitic
0:26:05 > 0:26:07"old brothel-keepers they are. Bags!
0:26:07 > 0:26:10"Oh, what another bucket of faecal matter this picture is.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14"The new child's name is Jenny. I love her.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17"Had to stop filming cos I literally had a pain in the arse.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20"Discovered my knickers had gone right up my crack.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24"We both screamed with laughter, until it occurred to me
0:26:24 > 0:26:26"it may be bowel cancer.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31"Maudlin all day. Jenny brought me a Toblerone. How thoughtful.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33"I sucked it off, lasciviously,
0:26:33 > 0:26:37"then went home and wept with self loathing."
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Perhaps Gerry saw something he envied in Jenny -
0:26:42 > 0:26:44a restless desire for more,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47that chimed with the spirit of the age.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49For a time in the '60s,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52this doorway led to the most happening club in London.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55It was hotter than Lord Snowdon's hair dryer,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57so cool it didn't have a name.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00But if it did have a name, it would have been The Hokey Cokey Club,
0:27:00 > 0:27:02because if you were in, you were in.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09Jenny came here one night in 1967 and met a young man
0:27:09 > 0:27:12who would have a profound effect upon her...
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Paulo DeMarco.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18The passionate young painter from Naples, with his love of ideas
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and pockets full of olives, was everything she was not.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24She fell for him.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Paulo, equally enchanted by Jenny,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29suggested she should improve herself.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31But his advice would lead to trouble
0:27:31 > 0:27:33on the set of Thumbs Up Marie Antoinette.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37"Almost fell off me perch this morning when I saw Madam with a book.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39"What you reading?" I queried.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42"Wuthering Heights," came the bold reply.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45"Well, dear, I never thought I'd see you
0:27:45 > 0:27:47"with your nose stuck in a Bronte sister.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50"Actually" says she, "I've been reading a lot recently.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54"My favourite is Dickens". "Dickens?!" I exclaimed.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56"A Tale of Two Titties, was it?
0:27:56 > 0:28:01"What next, Nickerless Nickelby?", et cetera, et cetera.
0:28:01 > 0:28:02"I belittled her mercilessly,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05"then went home for a long soak in the bath.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10"Toyed with the idea of dropping the electric fire into it."
0:28:10 > 0:28:12But something had changed in Jenny.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16And in 1967, she shocked the Thumbs Up crowd, when she turned down
0:28:16 > 0:28:20the chance to appear in Thumbs Up Her Majesty's Pleasure.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Paulo had got his hands on a movie camera
0:28:22 > 0:28:24and he asked Jenny to appear in his movie.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26It wasn't being made at Cricklewood,
0:28:26 > 0:28:28it was being made here.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33It was a slice of art house, which was,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35possibly like himself,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37too thick for everyone's taste.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39He called it, simply,
0:28:39 > 0:28:45Three Birds and a Brolly, though the budget ran to only one of each.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50CAMERA REPEATEDLY CLICKS
0:28:54 > 0:28:57The movie was not a success...
0:28:57 > 0:28:59which was hard enough for Jenny to take,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03but it also became something of a joke to the Thumbs Up gang,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06which, some might say, was more than they ever were.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11Bubbly star Dottie Barnes, in particular, made her feelings clear.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Jenny could take it no longer and let rip.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18Paulo, tormented by the investors in Three Birds And A Brolly,
0:29:18 > 0:29:23found the pressure too much and returned to Italy...without Jenny.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26She was heartbroken, but soldiered on.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29Work was difficult to find.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32Eventually, she swallowed her pride
0:29:32 > 0:29:34and put a call in to the Thumbs Up office.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37They asked her back, but at a price.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41With audiences waning, the Thumbs Up films were coarsening.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44When Jenny walked back into Cricklewood,
0:29:44 > 0:29:46it was onto the set of Thumbs Up Uranus
0:29:46 > 0:29:49and, for the first time, she was asked to go topless.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Broke and demoralised, she agreed.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56In 1970, Jenny Driscoll's story took its strangest turn yet,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00with a development that surprised everyone.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Gerry Pollock asked her to marry him.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09Jenny and Gerry's marriage lasted months longer than anyone thought.
0:30:09 > 0:30:15Then, some would say inevitably, it all went wrong.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Jenny secured a role in the Cricklewood dinosaur flick...
0:30:21 > 0:30:25..and fell in love with someone else.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28The burly male co-star of the film, Joe Hazlehurst.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46Unknown to Jenny, Gerry - also working at Cricklewood -
0:30:46 > 0:30:48fell under the spell of the ex-PE teacher.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52They both embarked upon affairs with the confused actor.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55When they were discovered, all hell broke loose.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59After an hysterical fight, they fell exhausted into their separate beds.
0:30:59 > 0:31:05Neither was inclined to clean up - an act of slovenliness that had,
0:31:05 > 0:31:09as slovenliness often does, tragic consequences.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15A fire engulfed the house.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17By the time the fire services arrived, it was too late.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21Gerry Pollock was dead.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23# Softly
0:31:23 > 0:31:27# I will leave you... #
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Jenny was distraught. Gerry's death was clearly a tragic accident,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33but there were those who blamed Jenny.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38The Thumbs Up crowd didn't want her around any more.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41There was no insurance. Gerry left everything to his nan.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46The penniless Jenny had no alternative but to work.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48But the parts were becoming fewer and so were the lines.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52In Stabs Of The Ripper she said only this.
0:31:52 > 0:31:53Hello, Guv'nor.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56I bet even a fine gentleman like yourself
0:31:56 > 0:31:59needs a little comfort from time to time.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01SHE SCREAMS
0:32:03 > 0:32:08In the Marquis De Sade biopic Nutters, she said nothing
0:32:08 > 0:32:11as a deaf and dumb lunatic who was raped.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17And in the thriller Kill All Coppers she not only had no lines,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21no clothes, but finally no character.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23Who's the dead bint?
0:32:23 > 0:32:26And here we lose track of Jenny.
0:32:26 > 0:32:32She falls off the radar - no films, no credits, no sign of her.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36The story I heard was that she had had enough
0:32:36 > 0:32:39and went off to New Zealand to make a new life for herself.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42But Tim Dempsey has discovered something
0:32:42 > 0:32:44that has made me think again.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48We have here from your very fine collection of stills
0:32:48 > 0:32:51a photograph of the cast of On The Buses.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54Relaxing after work, obviously.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Blakey there. There's Reg, Arthur and of, course, Olive.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00What has this got to do with our Jenny Driscoll?
0:33:00 > 0:33:06This is an adjunct to this document here, which is a memorandum
0:33:06 > 0:33:08from the casting department at On The Buses.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11If you look there, you'll see it's a list
0:33:11 > 0:33:15of the actress's brought in to audition for the part of Olive.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Can you read that for me?
0:33:17 > 0:33:21"2pm - Judi Dench. 2:15pm - Janet Suzman.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25"2:30pm - Lulu. 2.35pm Jenny Driscoll."
0:33:25 > 0:33:28And so, can you read that?
0:33:28 > 0:33:32"12th May 1975." So she's...
0:33:32 > 0:33:34She's not in New Zealand?
0:33:36 > 0:33:39So, where is she? Where is she?
0:33:43 > 0:33:45The film companies that kept Cricklewood alive
0:33:45 > 0:33:47had their offices in London's Soho.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52To this day, some of the best agents in the world are located here,
0:33:52 > 0:33:53as well as my own,
0:33:53 > 0:33:58existing cheek by jowl with the seedier kind of film business.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01A business that Jenny sank into.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04If an actress wouldn't do nudity, a body double would be filmed
0:34:04 > 0:34:07and the shots would be edited in later.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Thus Jenny appeared in the film work of Ken Russell,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12Nick Rogue and Robin Askwith.
0:34:12 > 0:34:13Or at least her body did.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15It was money, but it opened a door
0:34:15 > 0:34:18that would have been better left closed.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22Somewhere along the line,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27Jenny began to appear in films that were a little less innocent.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31It was one thing being chased around a field by the Thumbs Up gang,
0:34:31 > 0:34:33but this was quite another.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Spiralling into depression and debt,
0:34:36 > 0:34:38things went from bad to worse for Jenny.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41Until, according to Tim Dempsey,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44in September 1980, she could take it no more.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Hello. Thanks for letting us in.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53So this is where the...
0:34:53 > 0:34:55It's quite an atmosphere, isn't it?
0:34:55 > 0:34:56Well, it's the curry.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59According to the photos,
0:34:59 > 0:35:03where this cupboard is, that's where the oven was.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05She was down here thus.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Right, OK. She just ran out of luck, didn't she?
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Well, she might just have run out of matches.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16No, she just... Well, you say that.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19The coroner suggested it might just have been homework
0:35:19 > 0:35:22for a kitchen oven cleaning commercial
0:35:22 > 0:35:24that went tragically wrong.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28'In September 1980,
0:35:28 > 0:35:32'Jenny Driscoll put her head in the oven and killed herself.'
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Jenny's death was one she would never recover from.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42By a strange quirk of fate, Jenny passed away three years,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44a fortnight and a bit to the day
0:35:44 > 0:35:48that Cricklewood itself began the fight for its very life.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52When it faced the greatest peril in its history, Terry Gilliam.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55We're trying to... There's several levels to this thing.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59It's fairly nasty, fairly silly and it's fairly gory.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02It's all sorts of things.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06The film was Professor Hypochondria's Magical Odyssey,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10which Gilliam began working on after abandoning
0:36:10 > 0:36:14Dr Insane's Insanitary Insanatorium as too commercial.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16It was kind of an homage to Homer.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21One of the things I like about you is you will challenge the audience.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Not just visually, but verbally -
0:36:23 > 0:36:27in providing titles that are often quite difficult to say.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30It's really a test for myself. Can I say it?
0:36:30 > 0:36:32And if I can say it,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35then I assume the average cinema-goer can say it.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38They had just started a new tax incentive scheme
0:36:38 > 0:36:41in the Falkland Islands and we were going to be
0:36:41 > 0:36:43the first production to shoot there. Fantastic.
0:36:43 > 0:36:48And other people started shooting there instead of us.
0:36:48 > 0:36:49Soldiers? Yes, soldiers.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53The production was forced to relocate to Cricklewood,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55where the familiar fight for finance began.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58This time George Harrison passed.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03In fact, all of the Merseybeat financers passed.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08Freddie And The Dreamers, Gerry And The Pacemakers.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11Cilla, did you try her? I wish I'd thought of her at the time.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13No-one even mentioned Cilla.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17The optimism secured by a fragile funding deal
0:37:17 > 0:37:21was torpedoed when filming moved to Cricklewood's elderly water tank.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26The water tank burst. 40,000 gallons of water just everywhere.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28It was complete chaos.
0:37:28 > 0:37:33I think someone even got hit. It was stunning, visually.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36Other than that, everything else was a catastrophe.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38The problem with the tank was
0:37:38 > 0:37:40it hadn't been washed out or cleaned in years.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43People started getting sick.
0:37:43 > 0:37:49There was trench foot, there was diarrhoea, dysentery.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54The continuity girl, she developed this boil on this side of her neck.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Actually, I think it was that side. She would know.
0:37:57 > 0:38:02A storm of legal writs engulfed the film, forbidding its release.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04As a result, we can't show you any of it.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08But in a TV first, we CAN show you Terry showing me some of it.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12What do you think? That's amazing. And you've got Brando there.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16In a way, it kind of worked against us
0:38:16 > 0:38:20because nobody could understand a single word he said.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23My mother always had that problem - she didn't know him... No?
0:38:23 > 0:38:27You're shooting with Brando, and you have to stop.
0:38:27 > 0:38:28That was a problem.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32That day there was an ice-cream van outside of the sound stage.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34And what? You could hear the chimes?
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Yeah, but basically Marlon wanted some ice-cream.
0:38:38 > 0:38:39Fair enough.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42The film's spectacular historical fight sequences
0:38:42 > 0:38:45were a health and safety nightmare.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47Was anyone hurt in this?
0:38:47 > 0:38:49Um, not fatally.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52A lot of horses got killed.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55It did lead to a problem.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58We had to put a caption on the end of the film
0:38:58 > 0:39:04that during the making of this film lots of animals were harmed.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08Some might say that this was the film
0:39:08 > 0:39:10that put Cricklewood out of business.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14It played a part - there is no denying that.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17I really felt terrible about it.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20I was choked up for two or three days.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Then the money from Brazil came through and then bingo!
0:39:24 > 0:39:28Fantastic, just great. That was extraordinary.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31Two Oscar nominations, one BAFTA, so what can you say?
0:39:31 > 0:39:34In the end I suppose everything turned out OK.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38The result of this debacle was fatal for Cricklewood.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Having invested so heavily in a film that couldn't be released,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45the only way out was to sell the studio.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48The Cricklewood dream was over.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53The site was sold and in 1984, the developers moved in.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02A palace that had echoed with romance and terror,
0:40:02 > 0:40:05laughter and delight was smashed to pieces.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10What spirits were unleashed that day?
0:40:10 > 0:40:13What angels shuddered?
0:40:16 > 0:40:19We have come to the end of our journey.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Have I discovered what spell Cricklewood has cast over me?
0:40:24 > 0:40:26I think that I have.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31Cricklewood didn't just make films - it made dreams.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35Things beyond the actual things that have they made.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38Perhaps you don't quite understand what I'm talking about -
0:40:38 > 0:40:41I'm not sure that I do. But I think that that's right.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Because a dream can't be grasped.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46It dances around us in the dark
0:40:46 > 0:40:51like the torch of an usherette having a fit.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56At Cricklewood, dreams did come true. But only a little bit.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03Cricklewood dreams were shrunken ones,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07like Lionel Crisp's head in Zulu Zombies.
0:41:07 > 0:41:13Never convincingly life-sized, like Nelson's fleet in Trafalgar.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17Dreams that were as slight and fragile
0:41:17 > 0:41:21as Jenny Driscoll's "fur-kini" in Woman-Saurus-Rex.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27When life turned against these dreams,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31the performers' struggles to keep them alive brought magic into ours.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35And I don't mean just by the simple enjoyment
0:41:35 > 0:41:38of watching the suffering of others, no.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41The harder their lives became,
0:41:41 > 0:41:43the harder they dreamed their dreams.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48And, to me, that made the Cricklewood Greats heroes.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:43:07 > 0:43:10E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk