0:00:02 > 0:00:04- Good evening.- This is BBC TWO. - Blastoff!
0:00:04 > 0:00:05I've got a story to tell you.
0:00:05 > 0:00:06What happened?
0:00:06 > 0:00:08THEY HUM
0:00:08 > 0:00:10Gizza job.
0:00:10 > 0:00:11My darling.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14I miss him, but I know I shouldn't do this.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17Hello and welcome to this week's Whistle Test.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21- NARRATOR:- BBC Two hit the air on 20th April 1964.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23This anniversary series tells
0:00:23 > 0:00:26the stories of some of the programmes that shaped it.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44All drama that had been set in space before then was very middle-class.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Nobody was ever sent to space who drank a pint of beer or had a curry.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Everybody at that period of television history, regardless
0:00:53 > 0:00:56of channel, every channel, just said,
0:00:56 > 0:00:58"It's not funny, it's not a sitcom.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00"Science fiction isn't funny."
0:01:00 > 0:01:03- 25 knots, 35, 50.- It's coming straight for us.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05There's only three alternatives.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07It thinks we're either a threat, food or a mate.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09It's going to either kill us, eat us, or hump us.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14Lined up to do it, we had Alan Rickman and Alfred Molina, who
0:01:14 > 0:01:19both said they were very interested in doing it, which was a great coup.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24And then we started getting nervous that maybe they were too good
0:01:24 > 0:01:26and too big and that by series three
0:01:26 > 0:01:29they'd be off in Hollywood being super villains.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31Uh-oh, Speed bumps.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35LAUGHTER
0:01:35 > 0:01:40We wound up with a stand-up comic, an impressionist, a dancer, and a stand-up poet.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43When someone's had a tad too much claret and has fallen asleep
0:01:43 > 0:01:47naked on their bunk, people of honour generally don't take
0:01:47 > 0:01:50a Polaroid of your snoozing todger, draw a moustache,
0:01:50 > 0:01:52mouth and ears on it,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56and then pin it up on the bulletin board under "Missing Persons".
0:01:56 > 0:01:59When it first went on it got really pretty good figures for a new
0:01:59 > 0:02:03series, which tailed away to pretty much nothing.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08Season seven we got on the front of Radio Times for the first time.
0:02:08 > 0:02:09We had done seven series
0:02:09 > 0:02:12and they went, "All right, give them a cover."
0:02:12 > 0:02:14I don't think it ever got good reviews.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20LAUGHTER
0:02:23 > 0:02:25'I started to notice'
0:02:25 > 0:02:27and in fact worry
0:02:27 > 0:02:31when I would come out of the studio
0:02:31 > 0:02:35and you would see people standing there with aitches on their head.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37I've been to a couple of the conventions and, actually,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40for the most part, I hate to burst the bubble,
0:02:40 > 0:02:42but they're mostly nice people.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Please, I'm begging you!
0:02:44 > 0:02:48LAUGHTER
0:02:49 > 0:02:51- Pull them down!- Keep still!
0:02:55 > 0:02:58'The weirdest one I got was this strange guy, a wide-eyed guy,'
0:02:58 > 0:03:03who came up and he was very keen to meet me and he presented me
0:03:03 > 0:03:08with a computer printout, one of those green and white ones,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11which had all my private details on it.
0:03:11 > 0:03:17It had my bank account number, my home address, my phone numbers,
0:03:17 > 0:03:23and he then invited me back to his car to show me his gun collection.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25That was a very scary moment.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Following in the tyre tracks of earlier presenters including
0:03:29 > 0:03:33Angela Rippon and Noel Edmonds, Jeremy Clarkson joined Top Gear
0:03:33 > 0:03:35in 1989.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41In those days, Top Gear went out on BBC Two at the same time that
0:03:41 > 0:03:43Dallas went out on BBC One.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45So, obviously, I watched Dallas.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50This one, for instance, is seriously lacking in the door department.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53It only costs a miserable £76,000.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Surely you could live with one of these.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00Toed the line and did all the usual standing there, not knowing
0:04:00 > 0:04:02what to do with my hands, because I'd never been on TV before.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07# Bad company... #
0:04:07 > 0:04:11A new director came along and we went off
0:04:11 > 0:04:15and filmed these Lamborghinis and we used Bad Company as the soundtrack.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19# Bad, bad company... #
0:04:19 > 0:04:22And he had a camera on the end of a pole, whizzing it around.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25Of course, we came back and the office went, "You can't put that out.
0:04:25 > 0:04:26"That's rubbish."
0:04:26 > 0:04:30And, of course, that was actually the start of what Top Gear became.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33Now you're probably expecting the next five minutes to be
0:04:33 > 0:04:35an uninterrupted flow of large
0:04:35 > 0:04:40and vigorous similes garnished with sexual innuendo.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42It sounds like lightning,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46but actually what it sounds like is Tom Jones bending over to pick
0:04:46 > 0:04:50up the soap while he's in the showers in Wandsworth nick.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Ra-argh!
0:04:53 > 0:04:55Not since the Germans and the Italians teamed up
0:04:55 > 0:04:59in the Second World War have we seen power like this.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04I did my pause, the great big, "..in the world" pause,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06because I used to smoke a great deal
0:05:06 > 0:05:08and I didn't have enough breath to get all the way through
0:05:08 > 0:05:11a sentence, and the similes really came about
0:05:11 > 0:05:13because I didn't know the first thing about cars.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17I thought if you describe a Ford Mondeo as a potato,
0:05:17 > 0:05:22kind of a bit boring but you need it, hopefully people will understand
0:05:22 > 0:05:25that without my having to explain what a torsion beam rear axle was.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Because I hadn't the first idea. Not a clue.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Well, here they are. A choice of hatchback or saloon...
0:05:31 > 0:05:34There was the Vauxhall Vectra saga when everyone who had
0:05:34 > 0:05:37a Vauxhall Vectra wrote to say I was biased.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42Prices go from about 12 to around 20 for this one.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47They'd had one, they'd always had one, "And you're biased." "No, I'm not biased, you're biased."
0:05:47 > 0:05:49It's got a horrible engine and the steering is a joke,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52but it moves about, it steers, it stops.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56The 1992 Ford Escort came out and I savaged it on television.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59And it went on to become Britain's best selling car.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01This is my bete noire...
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Then I did the Toyota Corolla and said it was boring.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08I still hate it with every fibre of my body.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11And that went on to be the world's bestselling car.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14And then I did a car called a Renault Alpine A610.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20# Highway to the danger zone... #
0:06:20 > 0:06:23I said, "This is just fantastic. Everybody should have one."
0:06:23 > 0:06:24And they sold six.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32The '80s were a fabulous decade of television for the BBC,
0:06:32 > 0:06:33particularly in drama,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37and we wanted to start the 1990s much in that spirit, but say,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40"Hey the girls are here and now we're really going to show you something."
0:06:46 > 0:06:52'I think Oranges was stylistically different to'
0:06:52 > 0:06:55a lot of the drama of the time in the fact that it was very
0:06:55 > 0:06:57unafraid of the religious community,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01or a certain section of the religious community,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05and also that it dealt frankly with lesbian sexuality.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10These children of God have fallen foul of their lusts.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16Their bodies have proved stronger than their spirits.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20Their hearts are fixed on carnal things.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23It's very much a growing up story as well as a coming out story.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27Its success was that a lot of people could identify with it
0:07:27 > 0:07:28regardless of their sexuality,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32but it was the first time that anybody had seen gay girls on screen.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Do you deny that you love this young woman with a love
0:07:35 > 0:07:39- reserved for husband and wife? - Yes. No... It's not like that.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41St Paul says in Romans chapter one,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44"Claiming to be wise they became fools.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47"Therefore God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49"to the dishonouring of their bodies..."
0:07:49 > 0:07:51SHE SOBS
0:07:51 > 0:07:56Overall, I think we were cusping a moment of change in British
0:07:56 > 0:08:01society which we both helped to happen, but benefited from too.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06It was the right time, it was the right place. Oranges had to happen.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10- I love you.- Amen.- Amen. - Praise the Lord.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20Video diaries was that moment when the technology arrived to make it
0:08:20 > 0:08:23possible for people to tell stories
0:08:23 > 0:08:26which they were determined to tell.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30- RADIO:- 'Fulham were leading 1-0 with a goal after 31 minutes...'
0:08:30 > 0:08:32In the early days of video diaries they were really
0:08:32 > 0:08:35looked down upon within the television industry as being
0:08:35 > 0:08:39kind of toy cameras, and ordinary members of the public
0:08:39 > 0:08:43and not worthy of a programme maker's serious attention.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47- RADIO:- 'And they achieved it.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52'Gary Lineker hit the equaliser 13 minutes from the end after...'
0:08:52 > 0:08:54Yeah! Gary Lineker!
0:08:54 > 0:09:00I think the public liked them because they could relate to the stories that were in them.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05If you asked me what I had always
0:09:05 > 0:09:09wanted from life when I was little
0:09:09 > 0:09:14the only thing I would have said to anybody is that
0:09:14 > 0:09:16I wanted somebody to love me.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20We had one diarist who was a prisoner in a special secure
0:09:20 > 0:09:23unit in Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24Tom Campbell.
0:09:26 > 0:09:31'It takes a lot of the anger away to have your kids run around your feet.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39'It puts responsibility back where it belongs.'
0:09:39 > 0:09:42In order to edit his programme we had to set up
0:09:42 > 0:09:47an edit suite in his cell in prison and the editor and producer
0:09:47 > 0:09:52worked in his cell, because he had to have control over the programme.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55So video diaries were by people not just about them.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58I need food to survive, right?
0:10:01 > 0:10:02So I eat.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06That's why I eat. "Oh, do you realise you're eating something dead?"
0:10:06 > 0:10:09- Yes, I do as a matter of fact. I'm enjoying it.- He's dead anyway.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11I'm dead anyway.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14We got a letter from a teenage boy, Chris Needham,
0:10:14 > 0:10:16who was from Loughborough,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20and it was the kind of classic letter that we got from lots of teenagers
0:10:20 > 0:10:21about forming a band,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24but there was something slightly different about his letter.
0:10:24 > 0:10:25Hello there.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27You've seen In Bed With Madonna,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30well, this is In Bed With Chris Needham, so there.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32It got picked up in an incredible way.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34There was a fan club of young women.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37They wrote to me and said, "We've got this fan club,"
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and every few months they would meet and watch
0:10:40 > 0:10:43In Bed With Chris Needham and then gets drunk out of their heads.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46This is where me nan lives. Me nan lives there. Number six.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49This is on Charles Street. That's where my nan lives.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Here she is. Hi, Nan! Say hello to her.
0:10:53 > 0:10:54- NAN:- What about that fish?
0:10:54 > 0:10:58I'm fishing tomorrow. I'm taking it with me tomorrow.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00She's worried about the fish.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03We've got fish for dead baits tomorrow for all my piking.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06We've got a load of herring, four herring and three mackerel.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08And she's worried about them. That's what she's on about now.
0:11:08 > 0:11:14- I'll pick them up tomorrow. - What time?- Half nine. Ten o'clock-ish.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17And so we went with him. It became one of our most successful diaries.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26It seems irrelevant but there is a quiz going on.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28The show is a very odd combination of elements.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30It is essentially a quiz show.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33- Have you read it, then? Have you got a copy?- I've read a precis.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36No, he hasn't read it.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39But it's a quiz show in which there is an element of satire.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43That's the lorry rotisserie. It's kind of like a toast rack
0:11:43 > 0:11:44they put the lorries in.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48This is the madness of having lorries delivering fire to the continent.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52One of the functions of the programme is as a sort of comic watchdog.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57When outrageous things happen in the public sphere then there is
0:11:57 > 0:12:00a way of dealing with it using comedy.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03I seem to remember some problem with The Guardian, wasn't there?
0:12:03 > 0:12:06- No, we don't mention that word. - Don't you?- No.- I will, then. The Guardian.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10If a public figure comes on a show like Have I Got News For You,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13then I think they are up for whatever happens.
0:12:13 > 0:12:14Al Fayed is a liar.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17There is a DTI report saying he is a liar,
0:12:17 > 0:12:19but in this case he wasn't lying.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22Which happens sometimes. Even liars tell the truth...
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Neil.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26I haven't really felt I've gone too far.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28Sometimes I'm slightly annoyed with myself.
0:12:28 > 0:12:29I feel I haven't gone far enough.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32He is charming, isn't he?
0:12:32 > 0:12:35- Don't try the popularity line with me, Hislop.- Why?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Anybody here like him? Do you like him?
0:12:38 > 0:12:40AUDIENCE: Yes!
0:12:40 > 0:12:44CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I may not know much about anything in the newspapers, Piers,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48but Ian is a regular on this show.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51These are all people who have come to see Ian. We're strangers.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53They don't like us. They've never heard of us.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Although I wasn't cheering then, I must admit.
0:12:56 > 0:12:57LAUGHTER
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Like most British institutions, Have I Got News For You is
0:13:00 > 0:13:01largely about class.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06And Paul sees it as his role every week
0:13:06 > 0:13:08to secure a victory for the working classes,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and I feel, "You know, fine."
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Noblesse oblige, I'll let him.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16- Stoic... Is that the word for someone who goes to Stowe? - Yes.- Right.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19And what's the school motto?
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Persto et Praesto.
0:13:21 > 0:13:22Which is?
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Don't tie your shoelaces up in the playground.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32During that period on BBC Two,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36we really experimented with a lot of filmmakers
0:13:36 > 0:13:41to really reinvent the play, the television play.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43The first time I directed, I was terrified.
0:13:43 > 0:13:44I didn't know anything,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46and I just wanted to survive it.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48In fact, I turned down...
0:13:48 > 0:13:50To do Truly, Madly, Deeply, I turned down the chance
0:13:50 > 0:13:53of directing an Inspector Morse, which I had started writing.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55And I didn't do the Morse cos I thought too many people
0:13:55 > 0:13:58would see it, and I thought I could get away with doing a tiny job
0:13:58 > 0:14:00that nobody would see.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02I had a sense that he knew exactly what he was doing,
0:14:02 > 0:14:03but he always says he didn't.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06I tell her last night...
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Nina, she is beautiful woman.
0:14:09 > 0:14:10She is beautiful.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12- You are.- OK.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16- I think she's beautiful. - Who's this who's beautiful?
0:14:16 > 0:14:18We're talking about Nina.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21- Yeah, she is.- Guys, what is this?
0:14:21 > 0:14:23I remember him ringing up and saying,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25"I've written 72 scenes - guess how many you're in?"
0:14:25 > 0:14:28I said, "I don't know. Six, maybe?"
0:14:28 > 0:14:30He said, "72!"
0:14:30 > 0:14:33I miss him. I just miss him, I miss him, I miss him.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35I know I shouldn't do this.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39I remember the crying scene.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43We rehearsed in my car on the way down to Bristol, where we'd borrowed
0:14:43 > 0:14:46a room, literally borrowed a room in the university, for the afternoon.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Somebody's tutorial room.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52It's anger, isn't it? It's rage. I get so angry with other people!
0:14:52 > 0:14:56People in love, or out of love or wasting love!
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Women with children, growing children, fertile!
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Most of all, I'm so angry with him!
0:15:05 > 0:15:07I'm so angry with him!
0:15:07 > 0:15:11It was the first of those films to make a transition into the cinema.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24What we began to see were the first beginnings of BBC films,
0:15:24 > 0:15:30really, and the theatrical arm of the BBC emerged out of Screen Two.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38The channel needed the single play to resonate
0:15:38 > 0:15:41and for risks to be taken.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47And it was possible for someone like Alan Clark
0:15:47 > 0:15:52to make a film like Elephant, which was perhaps
0:15:52 > 0:15:54one of the most controversial dramas the BBC has ever made.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Shot in documentary style, Elephant was an unremittingly bleak
0:16:03 > 0:16:06portrait of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08It followed 18 sectarian killings
0:16:08 > 0:16:11with no dialogue or word of explanation.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18GUNSHOT
0:16:25 > 0:16:27Call for you, Mr Holland.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Sorry, I haven't got the time to take it. Later.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32When we started Later, we started it in a studio
0:16:32 > 0:16:35that was borrowed from The Late Show,
0:16:35 > 0:16:37so we had no real studio time of our own and we had no set.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40- Hello, Jools. Enjoy yourself. - Thanks for the studio.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43- Sorry about all the mess.- That's OK. Make sure you tidy it up after.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Later is one of the few shows in the entire world
0:16:45 > 0:16:47in which music is the entire narrative.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50# Oh... #
0:16:50 > 0:16:54# And it was all yellow... #
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Sometimes, it can be a little daunting
0:16:56 > 0:16:59when you see this spread of artists that you've been a big fan of.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02# ..waterfall
0:17:02 > 0:17:05# Wherever it may take me... #
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Then you have to step up and perform. You're thinking, "Right..."
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Let's do this.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14# I was checking this girl next door, when her parents went out
0:17:14 > 0:17:18# She phoned, said, "Hey, boy, come on right around..." #
0:17:18 > 0:17:20'There's a certain chemistry happens'
0:17:20 > 0:17:21in the room, often, with Later.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25That's why it really is a thing to cherish. It's real.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29It's not actors. It's genuine artists in a room together.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31# If you sing
0:17:31 > 0:17:34# Sing
0:17:35 > 0:17:37# If you sing
0:17:37 > 0:17:39# Sing, sing, sing... #
0:17:42 > 0:17:44There we go.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47It says here, sir, to ignore the red wire, sir.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49Right, thank you.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54Now I think it's one or other of these pretty green ones.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56This one, I think.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04- Looks like we may be here for the duration, sir.- Yes.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06Sod this. Anyone fancy a pint?
0:18:08 > 0:18:14This season, I'll be mostly wearing Dolce "ee" Gabbana.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16Oh, suits you, sir. Aw!
0:18:16 > 0:18:18- Me?- Brilliant.
0:18:18 > 0:18:19- Marvellous.- Nice.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Very drunk.
0:18:21 > 0:18:22Scorchio.
0:18:25 > 0:18:26Which was nice.
0:18:28 > 0:18:34In 1996, Alan Titchmarsh became the new face of Gardeners' World.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36I used to watch Gardeners' World when I was tiny,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38when it was Percy Thrower.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41It was something you did on a Friday night.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Gardening was always on BBC Two,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46there was only one gardening programme,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48that was it, Friday night, Percy Thrower,
0:18:48 > 0:18:50when you sat down for your weekly fix.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58How many people, I wonder, enjoy an orange, such as this?
0:18:58 > 0:19:01Taffy grows these on the hillside.
0:19:01 > 0:19:02It's lovely.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04Lovely, lovely addition to the border.
0:19:06 > 0:19:07I am going to grow stuff like this.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09Now we're at it all over the country.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Marvellous.
0:19:11 > 0:19:12Gardeners' World is an enormous mantle,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14and it started around Percy's shoulders
0:19:14 > 0:19:16and it went around other shoulders.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18All great gardening, broadcasting names.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Peter Seabrook, Geoffrey Smith, Clay Jones -
0:19:20 > 0:19:23all names that mean "gardening".
0:19:23 > 0:19:24Tonight, we're at Clack's Farm.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27There's so much to be doing down in the garden at this time of the year.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32A clean, well-trimmed hedge is good for the soul, raises your spirits.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35One or two things in my greenhouse I'd be a bit embarrassed to show you.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38If it looks puckered and punctured...
0:19:38 > 0:19:40..burning or itching sensation...
0:19:40 > 0:19:43..and a little yellow spotted, then, whatever you do, avoid those.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Horse manure.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47But I've got others that I'm happy to swank with.
0:19:47 > 0:19:48Remember this?
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Tall cypresses.
0:19:50 > 0:19:51There it is.
0:19:51 > 0:19:52Bougainvillea.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Citrus fruits.
0:19:55 > 0:19:56You can't beat perennials.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Gesneriaceae - bit of a mouthful.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01And that's all we've got time for now.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06So I hope you'll join us on Friday next at nine o'clock.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09You won't forget, will you? Until then, good night.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15Death of Yugoslavia was...
0:20:15 > 0:20:17in a way,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19a quietly original programme.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23It's about putting a microscope up against these particular events
0:20:23 > 0:20:25and seeing them from the inside out.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Austrian television, ORF, got onto me and said,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34"Would you please make us a series about Yugoslavia?",
0:20:34 > 0:20:35and I thought that was absolutely mad.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38At that time, nobody was very interested in Yugoslavia.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40But Norma and the BBC talked me round.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46SPEAKING OWN LANGUAGE:
0:20:48 > 0:20:50When I first saw the rushes
0:20:50 > 0:20:53of the Presidential Council of Yugoslavia with the army,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57discussing a plan to send the army into Croatia, I couldn't believe it.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04We had footage of a group of politicians
0:21:04 > 0:21:08and top soldiers discussing invading part of their own country
0:21:08 > 0:21:12and bullying fellow members of this Presidential Council to agree.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22I think it's one of the most extraordinary pieces
0:21:22 > 0:21:23of archive footage,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26not just that I've ever seen, but that anybody's ever seen.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36We had been commissioned to get all the top people in Yugoslavia,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39and there's one interview that we absolutely had to get.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42That was Slobodan Milosevic.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56Very, very cold. Most politicians are kind of warm and friendly.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03But oddly charismatic.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06He fixed you in eye-on-eye contact.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19I only worked it out later, in the cutting room.
0:22:19 > 0:22:25When we were finishing the programme and putting up the date supers,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29I saw "Srebrenica, 14th July, 1995",
0:22:29 > 0:22:31and I realised that was the day
0:22:31 > 0:22:35we finally got our interview with Milosevic.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Responding to such recent history with such immediacy,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42so rapidly, in the kind of detail that we were able to do,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45was something that had never been done on television before.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55I think Our Friends had always felt to controllers before,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58like such a big, overwhelming commitment,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01that it had somehow worried people.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06You're the most unbelievable person I've ever met.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08It did not get commissioned, over and over again.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14It had been on and off
0:23:14 > 0:23:16and cancelled and re-written
0:23:16 > 0:23:18numerous times over 15 years.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22- What's going wrong?- Nothing.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25I just think there's more important things to do
0:23:25 > 0:23:27than be an undergraduate.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Well, look....maybes not for you, but for me.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33'It gave me the chance
0:23:33 > 0:23:37'to take the characters I had invented when I was 29
0:23:37 > 0:23:39and write them again in my 30s,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42and then, when I was 44, I was given the chance to write them
0:23:42 > 0:23:45in their middle age, because this whole process took so long.
0:23:45 > 0:23:46You must be Mary.
0:23:46 > 0:23:47I'm Tosker.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52- Hi. That's an unusual name. - Crazy name, crazy guy.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55I got an enormous envelope through the post.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Nine episodes.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59# Oh Mary, marry me... #
0:23:59 > 0:24:01'I couldn't put it down.'
0:24:01 > 0:24:04It was one you wanted to read and find out exactly what happened.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06# Let share all the time we can... #
0:24:06 > 0:24:08SHE CRIES
0:24:09 > 0:24:11'It was a year's shoot.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14'We had to age from 20 up to 50.'
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Do you love me?! You never say it, ever!
0:24:22 > 0:24:23It was the fusion of the two things.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26The fact that you could see the politics of the country
0:24:26 > 0:24:28over 30 years set against the social changes
0:24:28 > 0:24:29in the lives of these characters.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32The Rhodesian blacks are an oppressed race.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34Anything you do that helps the white regime only
0:24:34 > 0:24:36- makes it harder for the blacks to take their freedom.- Yeah, yeah,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39I'm not interested in politics, so...
0:24:39 > 0:24:40That's why he votes Tory.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45How do you know what I vote or don't vote?
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Our Friends In The North was probably the last
0:24:51 > 0:24:54of the great, epic series like that.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57You're moving on, you're changing, they're staying behind. That's all.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01You came here to get houses built, to attack poverty,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03to speak up for people who have no voice in the world,
0:25:03 > 0:25:04and what are you doing?
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Getting pissed in the bar and playing the same irrelevant
0:25:07 > 0:25:11political point scoring games as the rest of the wankers in this place.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14I am not mental!
0:25:22 > 0:25:25Reeves and Mortimer!
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Welcome to Countryfile.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Tonight, we'll be walking here,
0:25:33 > 0:25:38and fishing on the river, but first, here's Whiskey and Brandy Boland
0:25:38 > 0:25:40who found something...
0:25:40 > 0:25:43RATHER UNUSUAL DOWN ON THE FARM!
0:25:43 > 0:25:46HE PLAYS A JAUNTY TUNE
0:25:54 > 0:25:57I got a phone call from Michael Jackson,
0:25:57 > 0:25:59who was head of BBC Two,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and he said he wanted a new show, a drama, low budget, of course...
0:26:02 > 0:26:04They always want a low budget show.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06..for younger people.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11"And by the way," he said, "could it be about lawyers?"
0:26:18 > 0:26:23You'd expect Tony Garnett, the man who'd given us Cathy Come Home
0:26:23 > 0:26:28to want to find a writer with a burning social passion.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32Don't tell me you've been wild
0:26:32 > 0:26:34and free and having a great time,
0:26:34 > 0:26:35because you're not.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38You're sad and lonely and fucked up, and so is Egg.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40Interestingly, of course,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43This Life was utterly the polar opposite
0:26:43 > 0:26:45of something like Cathy Come Home.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50I can't believe you bought me all those roses. How did you afford it?
0:26:52 > 0:26:54I didn't. I found them in a corner.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59It was very much about relationships,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03it was about people who had no real interest in politics.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06In fact, the whole idea of This Life is that it portrayed
0:27:06 > 0:27:09a generation who were interested in themselves.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13I buried my mother, the sermon was moving, the rain stayed off.
0:27:13 > 0:27:14I'm not upset any more.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17I don't need sympathy, I just need a drink.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21I said, "I don't want there to be any issues. Sex, race, drugs."
0:27:21 > 0:27:24They're all there, but they're never an issue.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29You on drugs?
0:27:31 > 0:27:32I love you.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40We had to find a style that helped to bring to the screen
0:27:40 > 0:27:42what we were trying to say in the shows -
0:27:42 > 0:27:45this feeling of being eavesdropped upon.
0:27:46 > 0:27:47Anna?
0:27:48 > 0:27:50Can I have a word?
0:27:50 > 0:27:54After just two series, This Life decided to call it a day.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Here's to our future relationship at the BBC.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03See, I don't think you should see your future just at the BBC, Alan.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06I just think it's time for you to consider moving on to new pastures.
0:28:06 > 0:28:07Have I got a second series?
0:28:07 > 0:28:11- There's so many opportunities... - No, no, let me rephrase that.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Um, can I...
0:28:13 > 0:28:14Actually, I'll just repeat the question.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16Have I got a second series?
0:28:16 > 0:28:18No.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Thank you. That's all I wanted to know.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22- Tony!- Peter! Hello, how are you?- Fine, fine.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Alan, this is Peter Linen,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26he's revamping our current affairs output.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34We haven't met, but I liked your chat show.
0:28:34 > 0:28:35Thank you very much.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37Has he given you another series?
0:28:37 > 0:28:39No, he won't give me one. THEY CHUCKLE
0:28:39 > 0:28:41Give him another series, you swine.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43Yeah, give me another series, you shit.