0:00:30 > 0:00:34The life of Sir Patrick Moore consistently proved people wrong.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38During a sickly childhood in which he suffered from a heart condition
0:00:38 > 0:00:39and other serious ailments,
0:00:39 > 0:00:42doctors warned that he shouldn't expect a long life.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44But until his death, at the age of 89,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48he continued to present the monthly astronomy series The Sky At Night,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52thus contradicting another conventional wisdom -
0:00:52 > 0:00:55the belief that TV is a medium for beautiful young people.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Although modern media focus groups would probably advise
0:00:58 > 0:01:02against putting on screen presenters in ill-fitting blazers
0:01:02 > 0:01:04and monocles and regimental ties,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07The Sky At Night, first screened in 1957,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09achieved the record of the world's
0:01:09 > 0:01:11longest-running TV show with the same presenter.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13One thing I can promise you -
0:01:13 > 0:01:18if I'm still alive in 25 years' time, in 2007,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22and if I'm still broadcasting, I'll still find plenty to say.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26Moore only ever missed one edition, when in hospital with food poisoning,
0:01:26 > 0:01:28and even as the effects of age
0:01:28 > 0:01:31became increasingly apparent in appearance and speech,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33maintained his passion for educating viewers
0:01:33 > 0:01:35about the mysteries of the universe.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37All the indications are that
0:01:37 > 0:01:39the Russians are now making such immense progress
0:01:39 > 0:01:41that almost anything may happen at any moment.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44He introduced successive generations to satellites,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46moon shots and eclipses.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49You know, if I'd come on the air in 1957,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51when we did the first of these Sky At Night programmes,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54and said that within five years I'd be showing you pictures
0:01:54 > 0:01:57of the first man to go round the Earth in orbit in a spaceship,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00well, I think you'd have regarded me as mad.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03However, the first astronomer to become a TV star also had
0:02:03 > 0:02:07another screen career, sending up his eccentric personality
0:02:07 > 0:02:10in light entertainment and quiz programmes.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15LAUGHTER FROM AUDIENCE
0:02:15 > 0:02:17And if I may trouble you, Mr Moore...
0:02:17 > 0:02:18Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
0:02:18 > 0:02:20BEEP
0:02:20 > 0:02:21APPLAUSE
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Mainly, though, he remained starstruck in another way.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29He always maintained that his greatest achievement
0:02:29 > 0:02:31was inspiring the astronomers of the future.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35This is a powerful light.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39And this one is simply a small pocket torch.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42But until you knew that one was further away than the other,
0:02:42 > 0:02:44there was no way in which you could tell.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50This previously unseen interview was recorded in 2007
0:02:50 > 0:02:53at his home in Sussex, where he'd lived for much of his life...
0:02:54 > 0:02:57..and where, in deference to his age and health,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00the Sky At Night was filmed during his final years.
0:03:05 > 0:03:0878 years since you were given a book called
0:03:08 > 0:03:10The Story Of The Solar System,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13do you still look at the sky with excitement?
0:03:13 > 0:03:17I most certainly do, because the trouble is that, erm,
0:03:17 > 0:03:19I am no longer very mobile physically,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22and therefore I can't do what I did, but, erm,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26until this happened, yes, I was in my observatory on every clear night.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29I very much miss it now.
0:03:29 > 0:03:30So you're not able now
0:03:30 > 0:03:33to look at the sky in the way you would like?
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Not really, because, erm, my observatory,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37which is, erm, outside in the grounds -
0:03:37 > 0:03:41it's got a very nice 15" telescope in it, but the trouble is,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44I am not mobile now and I can't get into the dome.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47So other people use it, but sadly I can't.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50It's an old wartime injury that caught up - these things happen.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54You're regarded by a lot of people as an eccentric -
0:03:54 > 0:03:58the monocle is not a very usual form of eye wear,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01the xylophone is not a particularly conventional instrument -
0:04:01 > 0:04:03do you accept that you're an eccentric?
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Er, apart from having two heads, I'm not!
0:04:05 > 0:04:09No, the monocle - er, I can see quite well without it,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12but, erm, if I put my monocle in, my two eyes are equal -
0:04:12 > 0:04:16otherwise they are not. I just put it in to sharpen things up.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19The xylophone? Well, when I was a boy,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22erm, about nine or ten, somebody came to see us
0:04:22 > 0:04:26with a little xylophone. I don't mean a toy,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30a little band thing. And I tried it, and it was rather fun, so I went on.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33But I've never had a music lesson in my life.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37But you are...you're an unusual, vivid figure in the way you talk,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41in the way you perform, do you... Is any of that cultivated?
0:04:41 > 0:04:44No, not a bit. Not in the slightest.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48I have never consciously cultivated anything at all! It's just me!
0:04:48 > 0:04:50When you watch yourself on television, er,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54one always sees one's own faults, very clearly. I mean, mine, I know,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56I talk far too fast. I have to get things in -
0:04:56 > 0:04:58I realise this perfectly well,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00But it's no good my trying to slow down - this is just me.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02Did you always speak fast as a boy?
0:05:02 > 0:05:05I don't know, really, it's a long time ago,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07I don't think I did, particularly.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10Erm, I hope I don't speak too fast now.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14- No, no, you certainly...you slow it down for broadcasting...- Yes.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17..but if I'd met you in childhood, you would have been recognisably
0:05:17 > 0:05:19the Patrick Moore we know...?
0:05:19 > 0:05:22I don't know, because between the age of six and 15,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26I was very much of a crock, and I couldn't get around at all, really.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I missed my...my official schooling for that reason.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32It's a nuisance. But oh, no, I was same kind of person,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34but, I wasn't very active then.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37I couldn't play any games, for example.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40But this is the extraordinary thing, that I am talking to you,
0:05:40 > 0:05:41you're at the age of 84...
0:05:41 > 0:05:45- 84, yes.- You were not expected to have a long life at all, were you,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48- because of your childhood illness? - Well, I got a slightly crocked heart,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51these things happen - I have coped with that one all right!
0:05:51 > 0:05:53There are certain things I can't do,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56certain things I can - but I manage anyway.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00But in childhood you were effectively treated as an invalid
0:06:00 > 0:06:01for...for 10 years.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Well, more or less. Wasn't quite ten years - six to 14.5.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09- 8.5...- By the time I was 15, I could get around again,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12and of course, erm, before... not long after that,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15I got into the RAF. So I was managing it then.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17You were an only child,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19many people have theories about only children,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22that it encourages their imagination -
0:06:22 > 0:06:25- is that the case with you? - I know why I'm an only child.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28My father and mother would have liked another, but they knew quite well,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30they couldn't look after and educate more than one,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34so they didn't have another one. I would have liked a brother or sister,
0:06:34 > 0:06:35but, erm, it didn't happen.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Did you feel lonely in childhood?
0:06:38 > 0:06:41I don't think I felt lonely. I had plenty to do.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44I knew plenty of people... just that I couldn't get around
0:06:44 > 0:06:46to do things other boys did.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49And therefore, since I'd never done it, I didn't miss it.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Given that astronomy has been such a part of your life,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57that moment, if they ever made the life story of Patrick Moore,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01the movie, the moment when you're given that book at the age of six -
0:07:01 > 0:07:04The Story Of The Solar System - will be deeply significant.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Did it feel significant to you at the time?
0:07:06 > 0:07:10I wasn't actually given it. I was in the dining room at my old home,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12and it was raining, and I was a bit bored,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15and I reached down and looked in the bookcase.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18And my mother was always "a bit" interested in astronomy.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Not wildly so, but enough to have one of those little books about it.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24And I picked up one of those, in the bookshelf behind me now -
0:07:24 > 0:07:26The Story Of The Solar System.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29It wasn't a boys' book, it was an adult book -
0:07:29 > 0:07:32my reading was all right, and I coped.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34I wouldn't be hooked out of that chair till I'd finished the book.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37- "This is fun!" - And it was a 19th-century book,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40so presumably the view of the solar system was,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42by what we know now, fairly primitive.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Not really. Obviously we know far more now that we did then,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48but the essentials were there - they haven't altered a lot.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51So... But it was a very good book, in 1898.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55I read it, as I say, when I was... when I was six, seven...
0:07:55 > 0:07:57over 30 years later.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59But it was still good, and still is.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02And you had a lucky chance - there have been many in your life -
0:08:02 > 0:08:07which was to meet a significant local astronomer.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09I had two great slices of luck -
0:08:09 > 0:08:12one, I was fascinated by astronomy.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15I lived in Worsted Lane, East Grinstead.
0:08:15 > 0:08:16Opposite us was a big estate,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19owned by a guy named Hanbury, of Allen & Hanburys.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Er, he grew orchids, I may say.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24And in his garden he had a small, private observatory,
0:08:24 > 0:08:29Brockhurst observatory, run by an astronomer named WS Franks,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32who was a well-known astronomer - about 5ft 8in,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35had a long, white beard, looked exactly like a gnome -
0:08:35 > 0:08:38he was a delightful chap and a brilliant astronomer,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41and I got to know him. He very kindly took me over there
0:08:41 > 0:08:43and showed me bits and pieces and how to observe.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47And I did that. And then, when I was 14,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Franks sadly was killed in a motor smash.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53And Hanbury said to me, "Look, you know your stuff.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56"I want somebody to run my observatory,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59"show people off when they want to, bits of research here and there.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02"Will you do it?" I said, "I would be honoured."
0:09:02 > 0:09:05So I found myself director of an observatory at the age of 14!
0:09:05 > 0:09:08And that went on until just before the war, when Hanbury died
0:09:08 > 0:09:11and the observatory was sold. That was one slice of luck.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Other slice of luck was, erm, the British Astronomical Association -
0:09:15 > 0:09:19a friend of our family, Major AE Levine, was a member.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21He'd been talking to me, and said,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24"Well, you're very young for it, but I'll put you up for membership."
0:09:24 > 0:09:27I remember going to Sion College then,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29shaking hands with the president, the Astronomer Royal,
0:09:29 > 0:09:31and being welcomed as a member. I was 11.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Exactly 50 years later, to the day, I was president!
0:09:35 > 0:09:38You were the president of it! It seems extraordinary
0:09:38 > 0:09:41for a boy of that age to be...becoming a member,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44- to be running the observatory. - It was sheer luck.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46It was only a small, private observatory.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49My duty there was to, erm, keep various records,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52because I could use the telescope whenever I wanted to - it was a 6" -
0:09:52 > 0:09:56and, erm, demonstrate whenever I... it was to be done, so I did that.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Nothing to it.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01But did it feel an unusual thing to be doing to you?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Yes, it did, frankly. I mean, it was unusual.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07But I could cope with it... It wasn't very onerous!
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Didn't need any specialised knowledge,
0:10:09 > 0:10:10but I enjoyed it thoroughly.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15Your autobiography is unusual in that your first 30 years
0:10:15 > 0:10:20are dealt with in two-and-a-half pages at the beginning of the book,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23as if you regard your childhood as unimportant.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Er, well, it wasn't to me. It would be unimportant to anybody else!
0:10:27 > 0:10:30And nothing really to write about!
0:10:30 > 0:10:33But psychologists, psychiatrists, novelists, think
0:10:33 > 0:10:37that childhood is the crucial period. It's where we become...
0:10:37 > 0:10:40- what we will be... - Have you ever met a psychiatrist
0:10:40 > 0:10:42who wasn't a raving nutcase, because I haven't?!
0:10:42 > 0:10:44THEY CHUCKLE
0:10:44 > 0:10:47So you genuinely... you regard your childhood as...
0:10:47 > 0:10:50- effectively insignificant? - It wouldn't interest anybody else,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53so I didn't write about it. In my long life, I have met
0:10:53 > 0:10:55so many interesting people, and I thought that might be
0:10:55 > 0:10:58worth putting on record - which is really why I wrote the book.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Your father you mentioned very little in your memoir -
0:11:01 > 0:11:05you say at one point, "He and I were quite different people."
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Yeah, I was the wrong son for him. He was, erm,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11he went to the First World War and got an MC,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14and he was a... very much of the army type.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17A brilliant athlete, a county hockey player,
0:11:17 > 0:11:21first-class amateur boxer, and, er, he and I were just different.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25He would have liked a strong, macho, athletic son, which I wasn't.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29It wasn't my fault! We got on all right, but we were just different.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Your mother... You have a performing side clearly,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35and that may have come from her, because she had been a singer...
0:11:35 > 0:11:39Yes, before the First World War, she was trained as a soprano
0:11:39 > 0:11:42by Sabatini and Caliche in Italy.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44And before she'd finished her training,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47she was offered the lead in an Italian grand opera.
0:11:47 > 0:11:48But First World War come along,
0:11:48 > 0:11:51married my father, who was then an army officer,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53and never did it - but she was good enough.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56I must say, when I was a boy, I am told I had a very nice voice.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00When my voice broke, it didn't break, it shattered.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03It's perfect enough for playing the demon king in the local pantomime,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05but it's useless for anything else!
0:12:05 > 0:12:07You say in the book you were...
0:12:07 > 0:12:10your words are "exceptionally close" to your mother...
0:12:10 > 0:12:14I was, yes. And we stayed together... There's no secret about this,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18erm, I am not a bit sensitive about it - my girl was killed in the war.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21There was nobody else for me. Therefore, I didn't marry,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and I knew from the age of 19 I wasn't going to marry.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Well, my mother and I were very close indeed, so, why split up?
0:12:28 > 0:12:30So, we didn't! Simple as that!
0:12:30 > 0:12:33- You lived in the same house until her death.- Yeah -
0:12:33 > 0:12:35here, in 1981, aged 94,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38and she was mentally fine, right up to the end,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40and physically fine until she was 92.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42We were very close indeed.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46But that decision you made at 19, that you would be
0:12:46 > 0:12:48alone for the rest of your life, that would surprise a lot of people.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Many people, even if they were bereaved in those circumstances,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53they met other people - you never have.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56- It went too deep, I'm afraid. - Hm-hmm...
0:12:57 > 0:12:59A lot of people would have felt lonely
0:12:59 > 0:13:00living their life on their own -
0:13:00 > 0:13:03- you've called yourself a reluctant bachelor...- I...
0:13:03 > 0:13:06I would have liked a wife and family, of course, but that wasn't on.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09But certainly, I've had plenty of friends, all through my life,
0:13:09 > 0:13:10since, er, the end of the war,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13so I've never been lonely from that point of view.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15As I say, would have liked a family, I'd have loved it,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18and it never struck me that I wouldn't have one.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21But these things happen in... Blame the late Herr Hitler!
0:13:21 > 0:13:25And I don't want to do too much or probe too deeply into this,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28but Lorna, she made such an impact on you, even at that age...
0:13:28 > 0:13:31We were absolutely everything to each other, and that was that.
0:13:31 > 0:13:32These things happen.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36You say you were the wrong...in some ways the wrong son for your father,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39- but he was a military figure... - Yes, he was.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42..and you yourself, you were determined to fight in the war.
0:13:42 > 0:13:43I didn't want to stay at home -
0:13:43 > 0:13:46there were certain things that I couldn't do.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50If I had gone into the army or navy, I would have lasted 10 minutes,
0:13:50 > 0:13:52because I hadn't got the right kind of heart for it
0:13:52 > 0:13:53and I wouldn't have lasted.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56So the one thing I thought I might be able to do was to fly,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59so I did. And so my father served in the First World War,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01with great distinction, I served in the Second
0:14:01 > 0:14:04with a total lack for distinction, but at least I served!
0:14:04 > 0:14:08I am surprised, given your health history, because a number of people
0:14:08 > 0:14:11were invalided out, but you were able to pass the medical?
0:14:11 > 0:14:13Erm, I wasn't entirely honest, shall we say?
0:14:13 > 0:14:15I was a rather economical with the truth.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17But these things happen. After all,
0:14:17 > 0:14:21at the age of 77, I was still playing cricket, and doing rather well!
0:14:21 > 0:14:24And you say in the book - again, it's tantalising, you say,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27"I had a rather interesting war, but we'll leave it at that."
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Yes, we'll leave it at that.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32You haven't...? You would never go beyond that?
0:14:32 > 0:14:34It's a long time ago. Old men forget.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37- But you haven't forgotten... - Old men forget.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40You just don't want to tell people but you haven't forgotten.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43I forget now, I really do. My memory is very bad in some ways.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Have you written it down anywhere? Would it ever be published one day?
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Well, I began my book really at the end of the war,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52because that's when things started happening to me,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55and I got involved in all kinds of things - the astronomical side
0:14:55 > 0:14:59and the writing side. Again, I had an immense slice of luck.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01A few years after the war, er,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Eyre and Spottiswoode, the London publishers,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07were looking for somebody to write a book about the moon.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11And I'd given a lecture in London called A Guide To The Moon.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15They'd heard about this and contacted their American side, Norton's,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17and I was invited to write a book about the moon.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20I'd never written a book before - so would I have a go?
0:15:20 > 0:15:23And I was lucky, it caught on, and I was invited to write another one -
0:15:23 > 0:15:25that caught on, and there we were.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28So, that finished my university career, unfortunately,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32because before the war, I had my Cambridge place ready,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35but didn't take it up, and after the war, my place was still there.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37But it would have meant taking a government grant,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39which I wasn't prepared to do,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41so I did a bit of writing to pay my way through,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44and then writing took over and I never had time!
0:15:44 > 0:15:45So, I missed it in the end!
0:15:45 > 0:15:48When you say you were not prepared to take a government grant, why not?
0:15:48 > 0:15:50I prefer to do things on my own.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53I prefer to stand on my own feet, I did even then.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55And does that come from your childhood,
0:15:55 > 0:15:57do you think, from your parents?
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Just me, I think. See, I was lucky, because these...these books
0:16:00 > 0:16:04caught on, and I have never been stuck since from that point of view.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07I've got a tremendous job now revising my biggest book -
0:16:07 > 0:16:09it'll take me the best part of a year.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12And the writing of your books is unusual, in that
0:16:12 > 0:16:14the typewriter on which you produce them,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16it will be 100 years old next year.
0:16:16 > 0:16:201908 Woodstock, and, erm, on that machine, with my two middle fingers,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23I could type accurately, at 90 words a minute.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25TYPEWRITER CLATTERS
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Now, of course I can't, because my hands aren't right,
0:16:28 > 0:16:32and therefore I'm slow, and I make mistakes, when I never did before.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34And everything takes me 10 times as long,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36which is an infernal nuisance, but there it is!
0:16:36 > 0:16:40And you wrote, erm, you wrote a chapter for NASA, who I think
0:16:40 > 0:16:44probably expect these things to be sent to their mobile phones...
0:16:44 > 0:16:48NASA were preparing a book about the moon, some time of the year,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52and they asked me to write a chapter about the lunar transient phenomena.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55And I wrote this, and I sent it in, and I've got their letter. It says,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58"Dear Patrick, thank you for your chapter.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01"This is exactly right - the right style, the right length,
0:17:01 > 0:17:03"the right research, we're delighted with it.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06"It goes straight to press. Thank you very much." And...
0:17:06 > 0:17:09"Congratulations - you are the first author to send in his chapter."
0:17:09 > 0:17:12In pencil at the bottom, "What the bloody hell did you type it on?!"
0:17:14 > 0:17:17But there is an even older typewriter, which I think also,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19at the age of six, you were given a much older typewriter...
0:17:19 > 0:17:22My grandfather's 1892 Remington,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25abandoned by him as too old-fashioned for his office.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28And that was found in our loft and given to me to play with.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31I taught myself to type. I've still got it. It's a lovely old machine.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33It's, erm, you can't do any speed on it, because the...
0:17:33 > 0:17:36it hits on the roller underneath, but it's good.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39One of the recurrent things in your life I think, in your early life,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42is that you are self-taught - self-taught as a typist,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44which a lot of people do -
0:17:44 > 0:17:46but also as an astronomer, you are self-taught.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49That's perfectly true. I did it from...from books and meetings.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52I had some tremendous pieces of luck.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55I was able to join the British Astronomical Association -
0:17:55 > 0:17:56I gained so much from that.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01And the first thing that attracted you in astronomy was the mapping of the moon.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Well, I think, in astronomy, amateur or professional,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07you are bound to specialise in something,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10and in my case, it happened to be the moon.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Therefore that's been my main role in astronomy,
0:18:12 > 0:18:17my only real research was in the... joining in the lunar mapping.
0:18:17 > 0:18:18I was one of the moon map team.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22Of course, all the work I did on that is now completely obsolete
0:18:22 > 0:18:25because now you go to satellites and spacecraft,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28but they didn't exist in those days.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31We HAD to do it then, but now, of course, it belongs to the past.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36Is it a regret to you at all that you didn't study astronomy formally?
0:18:36 > 0:18:38No, for two reasons.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41First of all, I am so insulated I could do what I wanted to,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44and the moon and planets were my particular joy.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47Secondly, I know my limitations.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49If you're going to be a professional astronomer,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53you've got to be a good mathematician, and I am not.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56I have not got a naturally mathematical mind,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59and therefore, I would never be a theorist.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01So it's just as well that I didn't.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04I must say, when I meant to take my degree,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07I was going to take my degree in geology...
0:19:07 > 0:19:10first of all, because lunar and planetary geology interests me most,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12and secondly, in those days -
0:19:12 > 0:19:14not now, but in those days -
0:19:14 > 0:19:17the maths you need for geology weren't so advanced
0:19:17 > 0:19:19as those you needed for astronomy.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22I could just about have coped with that, but I never got started.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Your broadcasting career, which has been extraordinarily successful -
0:19:26 > 0:19:29you're the longest-running presenter of a single show now,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33but it got off to what would have been a frightening start to most people,
0:19:33 > 0:19:35because your first broadcast was in French.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38Yes, I was doing a broadcast about Venice Observatory,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41with the then Astronomer Royal, Sir Harold Spencer Jones.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45It was on the BBC Foreign Service, and it was a live broadcast,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49and they turned the cameras on and said, "It's in French - do you mind?"
0:19:49 > 0:19:53By the grace of God, I didn't, but had it been in anything else, I would have done.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57- So you were able to discuss that subject in French? - My French is all right.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00I've got an appalling accent because during the war, I flew with the Belgians.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03I've got a lovely Anglo-Flemish accent,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06and my grammar is not impeccable, but I'm all right.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08I have translated books from French.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21The Sky At Night, which has been a very large part of your life
0:20:21 > 0:20:26and your fame, that happened because you'd made a previous programme
0:20:26 > 0:20:28which had interested the BBC.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Paul Johnstone, the BBC producer,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33who was actually an archaeologist
0:20:33 > 0:20:36looking around for someone to do a regular programme on astronomy
0:20:36 > 0:20:39in the way that hadn't been done quite before.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42And he'd heard me do one broadcast. Could I be the man?
0:20:42 > 0:20:46So he rang me up! Would I go and see him? So I did.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50And we talked and we got on, and it was agreed we'd do a test programme.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53We didn't do a test in the end.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56We went straight on the air and the BBC said then
0:20:56 > 0:20:58they'd repeat this programme, put it on the air
0:20:58 > 0:21:02once every four weeks, for three months, and see how it went.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05And that was 50 years ago. Again, a huge slice of luck for me.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09I mean, the fact it's lasted for so long is not due to me at all.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12It's purely the subject, and also,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16when it had been on the air only four months, the space age started.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Up went Sputnik 1, and astronomy suddenly became headline news.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Did you think, at the beginning, as to who might be watching?
0:21:23 > 0:21:25What the audience might be?
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Yes, I thought everybody...
0:21:27 > 0:21:30We'll try and give the latest news on astronomy
0:21:30 > 0:21:33and keep people up to date, without going too deeply into it.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35And again, we were lucky,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38because at that stage there was a bright comet, Arend-Roland,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41that had come down, and that would be the main subject of our first programme.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45And people went and looked at it. And it just caught on.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48And you suggest that it was a very good time to be starting,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50because - we will talk about the space race in a moment -
0:21:50 > 0:21:53but even before that, it was also a time
0:21:53 > 0:21:56when people suddenly got excited about flying saucers,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59- the idea that there was something out there.- Oh, we always get that!
0:21:59 > 0:22:02The flying saucer craze still goes on, even today.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04Alien abductions are great fun.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06I record myself as being the most complete sceptic
0:22:06 > 0:22:08about the idea that flying saucers
0:22:08 > 0:22:10are spaceships coming from other worlds.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12I don't believe a word of it, and I am quite sure that
0:22:12 > 0:22:15all the sightings can be explained much more easily than that.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18I did a programme called One Pair Of Eyes once.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20I had, erm, flying saucers,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23flat Earthers, hollow grovers,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26even a man who believed the sun to be cold.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29- You don't think the sun's hot? - No, the sun isn't hot.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33It's not a hot body. It causes heat
0:22:33 > 0:22:35but it's not hot itself.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37The sun itself is cold?
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Well, cold or temperate, like the Earth.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43What puzzles me a bit is that, at the moment, I'm sitting here,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45say, in this lovely old vicarage, and I can see the sun
0:22:45 > 0:22:49and I can feel what I think is heat on my forehead. It's coming from the sun.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Well, now suppose you had an electric generating station,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54it doesn't have to be on fire,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57but you can have an electric radiator
0:22:57 > 0:23:00and the generating station, which is completely cold,
0:23:00 > 0:23:02may be causing heat on your neck,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06so it doesn't mean that the generating station itself has got to be on fire.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09But I think you have a form letter that you send out to correspondents
0:23:09 > 0:23:12saying you won't answer letters on UFOs,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15the theory that man didn't land on the moon, and all the rest of it.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18You're quite resistant to the conspiracy theorists.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Oh, it's sheer rubbish, obviously.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23But, um, no, I had sent out that letter
0:23:23 > 0:23:26when I was absolutely inundated with mail at one stage.
0:23:26 > 0:23:27Normally I reply to everybody.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30And I do have so many letters from the youngsters,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32and I always reply to those.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35I say, if I had done anything at all in this world,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39it gives me great pleasure to go round and find well-known amateur astronomers
0:23:39 > 0:23:41and well-known professionals
0:23:41 > 0:23:44who began either by watching The Sky At Night
0:23:44 > 0:23:45or reading one of my books,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48and if I've done anything worth doing, it's that.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50I've done my best. Others could have done it better.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Dr Shapley,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55there must be many worlds like the Earth in the universe?
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Surely some of them may be inhabited?
0:23:57 > 0:24:01Well, by inhabited I suppose you mean inhabited by living forms,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03things that we would call life, and the answer to that is,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05I think the probability is exceedingly high
0:24:05 > 0:24:08that there's abundant life scattered throughout the universe.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Very early on, one of the questions there is, you're asking people,
0:24:12 > 0:24:17is there any possibility of life elsewhere in the universe?
0:24:17 > 0:24:19That has been a constant question.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22Look at it this way. Our sun is an ordinary star.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27One of a hundred thousand million stars in our galaxy.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30We know of a thousand million galaxies, that's only part of them.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33And many of these stars have planets, we know that.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38Therefore, the total number of worlds right here must be absolutely staggering,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42and I refuse to believe ours is the only form of intelligent life.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44But I can't prove it.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46And I think the one thing we don't know,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50if you have a world where life could appear, will it?
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Well, I think we may answer that soon.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55After all, there were fears about life on Mars.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57Well, there are no Martians.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01On the other hand, there may well be a certain amount of low-type life on Mars,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and before long, we should find out.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06And if there's any trace of life on Mars,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09that would show that life will appear where it can.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11And that'll be a very strong pointer.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14So I'm sure there are plenty of intelligent races up there,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16but they are light years away,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18and they certainly can't get to us, by any means we know.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22And that's a crucial point, because the counter-argument often put is that
0:25:22 > 0:25:25if there were life, there would have been some kind of contact by now.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27The distances are so vast.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32You can't send a rocket to the nearest star, it would take far too long,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and things like suspended animation don't really work.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39And we start talking about time warps, space warps,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41teleportation, thought travel.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44That is sheer science fiction.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48But television would have been science fiction only a few centuries ago,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51and we may be as near to - they'd be exotic forms -
0:25:51 > 0:25:53as we were to television.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56If we're ever going to contact those other civilisations
0:25:56 > 0:25:58which must exist, it's got to be done, I think,
0:25:58 > 0:26:03by some method about which we know absolutely nothing at the present moment.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06And I suspect we're just about as far away from that kind of thing
0:26:06 > 0:26:09as King Canute was from television.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12Going back to that very first programme, 26th April 1957...
0:26:12 > 0:26:16- Yes.- ..virtually all television was live in those days.- It was, yes.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19You were a relatively inexperienced presenter,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22so 10.30pm, the light goes on -
0:26:22 > 0:26:24were you terrified?
0:26:24 > 0:26:28I wasn't terrified. I've got about as many nerves as the average rhinoceros
0:26:28 > 0:26:30when it comes to that kind of thing,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32but I do remember seeing on the screen -
0:26:32 > 0:26:36"a regular monthly programme, presented by Patrick Moore".
0:26:36 > 0:26:38And I remember thinking then,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42my entire career depends on what I do during those 20 minutes.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44And of course it did.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Television was quite scary in those days,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50because huge numbers of things could go wrong. That would happen?
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Oh, yes, that did. I once swallowed a large fly on television.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55That was great fun.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58And case of the Russian that came in to take part and didn't speak any English.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00All kinds of things happened.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02We had the famous 50th Sky At Night,
0:27:02 > 0:27:07and we were going to show Jupiter and Saturn through a telescope.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10We had a big telescope down at Brighton,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14where George Hole was, and five minutes before the programme
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and five minutes after it ended, the sky was clear.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19In the programme - total cloud!
0:27:19 > 0:27:22We had to stall for a quarter of an hour.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25What we planned to do was to start off by showing you some stars
0:27:25 > 0:27:28and then go on to the moon, then Jupiter,
0:27:28 > 0:27:30and finally the most spectacular thing of all, Saturn,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32the planet with the rings,
0:27:32 > 0:27:34which never has been shown before on direct television.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37George, what do you think of the prospects now at the moment?
0:27:37 > 0:27:40I think we're nearly totally obscured, Patrick.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44I saw Jupiter a few moments ago. I can see it now...
0:27:44 > 0:27:46but...it's gone again.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50- It's one of these infuriating things about which we can do absolutely nothing.- Nothing at all.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53- George, can you see anything at all? - Vega.- Can you see Vega?
0:27:53 > 0:27:57- I don't know whether I can get on it.- The star Vega, which is the thing we wanted to show you,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00it's a bright-blue star right above us, as I said earlier on,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03and with any luck now we will be able to get the telescope on it.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07I can see it quite clearly and I think we're just about going to have time to show it to you.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10But of course there's still a lot of drifting cloud up there
0:28:10 > 0:28:13and we can't tell whether it'll be obscured at the critical moment.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16Of course you won't see Vega looking large,
0:28:16 > 0:28:21- because no telescope yet built will show a star...- It's gone, Patrick.- Has it gone? Oh, no.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23Just as I got it on the cross wires, it blacked right out.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27How absolutely typical. There's nothing we can do about it.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29I can't move a 24-inch telescope quicker than that.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31No, I'm afraid you can't.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33Well, is it worth keeping it there, do you think?
0:28:33 > 0:28:36- There's nowhere else to point it, is there?- No, I'm afraid not.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40The space race was very good for you and The Sky At Night.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44As you say, it created great excitement in what was going on.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46Well, the space age started.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50I mean, as recently as 1950, there were still people who said
0:28:50 > 0:28:54we'd never get to the moon and certainly never get further.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Well, that all vanished with the launch of Sputnik 1.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59And it was the flight of Yuri Gagarin
0:28:59 > 0:29:03quite soon after that, so men could go into space,
0:29:03 > 0:29:05and we were right IN the space age,
0:29:05 > 0:29:07so of course that was a boost to the programme, obviously.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10Do you regret... Because I find that I have children
0:29:10 > 0:29:14who are scarcely even aware that man went to the moon...
0:29:14 > 0:29:18- I know.- ..because it all stopped. Do you regret that?
0:29:18 > 0:29:22Erm, I'm not sure I regret it. They ought to know.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25But, after all, it all depends on teaching, doesn't it?
0:29:25 > 0:29:28And that's not terribly good these days.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31The space race - it seems to have slowed down, to have effectively stopped.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33There is no longer a space race.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36There certainly was, but not for a long time now.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41The space programme SEEMS to have slowed down, but only in one sense.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Manned space research hasn't progressed as quickly
0:29:44 > 0:29:47as people expected, for a number of reasons.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51The Americans put all their cosmic eggs into one basket,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55the Space Shuttle, that took longer to develop than they thought,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58and cost more, and a couple of very nasty accidents,
0:29:58 > 0:29:59and the Russians ran out of money,
0:29:59 > 0:30:02so the manned space research has slowed down,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05although we now have the International Space Station,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08but unmanned space research, that's a very different story.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Probes now to all the planets, space observatories -
0:30:12 > 0:30:13we know ten times more than we did.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Huge space observatories, got everything there,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20but unmanned has not. So the slowing down is only apparent...
0:30:20 > 0:30:23and if we do get... We will go back to the moon,
0:30:23 > 0:30:27then I think we will have a lunar base, and that'll start up again.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29'Five, four, three,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32'two, one, zero.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35'All engine running.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39'Lift-off! We have a lift-off. 32 minutes past the hour.'
0:30:39 > 0:30:42Roughly, the middle of the Apollo programme,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45Apollo 8 to Apollo 11, that, as a reporter,
0:30:45 > 0:30:47and being involved in it,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49that must have been one of the great spells of your life.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53I was wearing two hats, because I was on the NASA committee,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55therefore I was involved in that side,
0:30:55 > 0:30:57and of course I was doing the BBC reporting from here,
0:30:57 > 0:31:00so I was dodging to and fro between here and United States.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02It was a fascinating period.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06And of course, Apollo 11 was the climax, when Neil Armstrong
0:31:06 > 0:31:09and Buzz Aldrin stepped out onto the Sea of Tranquility,
0:31:09 > 0:31:13and as we heard them going down, I was frankly nervous.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Remember, it hadn't been done before.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Had they made a faulty landing, in any way,
0:31:18 > 0:31:20they couldn't have got back,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23and that would have been too ghastly for words,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25so when I heard Neil's voice coming through,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27I felt a great sense of relief.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30'Houston, the Eagle has landed.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33'I'm going to step off the LEM now.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39'That's one small step for a man...
0:31:42 > 0:31:45'One giant leap for mankind.'
0:31:45 > 0:31:49And again, when they blasted back into orbit from the moon,
0:31:49 > 0:31:54they had one ascent engine that had to work properly first time,
0:31:54 > 0:31:56and mercifully it did.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59Then of course, Apollo 13, that was a near disaster,
0:31:59 > 0:32:04but it was luck, skill... We got away with it.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07But I think the Apollo programme was finally called off
0:32:07 > 0:32:11and enthusiastic though I am, I am sure it was rightly so,
0:32:11 > 0:32:15because Apollo had done what it could - land the men on the moon,
0:32:15 > 0:32:17research there and left instruments -
0:32:17 > 0:32:20but doing it in other parts of the moon
0:32:20 > 0:32:23would have added quite a bit, but nothing fundamental,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26and sooner or later, something would have gone wrong.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29I don't believe now there will be any more flights to moon
0:32:29 > 0:32:31until there is rescue provision.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33That should come before too many years.
0:32:33 > 0:32:38I was interested in that because reading accounts of those Apollo...the first moon landings,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42there was - which perhaps people don't realise now - there was genuine fear.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46It was not at all clear that they could get the astronauts back.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49The main one was Apollo 11.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53Just as Yuri Gagarin's first orbit in space - that was the vital one.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56No-one knew how the human frame would react.
0:32:56 > 0:33:02We have rich people at the moment buying tickets to go into space.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Do you regret that that is not something you will ever experience?
0:33:05 > 0:33:09I'd love to go, but it would be a very massive rocket to launch me!
0:33:09 > 0:33:11THEY BOTH LAUGH
0:33:11 > 0:33:15Have you...would you, though, like to have done it?
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Of course I would, but I never had a chance.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19I was the wrong age, wrong nationality
0:33:19 > 0:33:21and no qualifications at all.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24I never had a chance, but I am moderately proud of the fact
0:33:24 > 0:33:28that I did have a very small input, in my moon mapping.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Apollo 8, there was a broadcasting problem,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34which is that, as the BBC have done in other things
0:33:34 > 0:33:37on other occasions, they cut away at the wrong moment.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41I was down in Wood Green, and on the air live.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43Apollo 8 had gone round the moon.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45I said something to this effect.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49"The men of Apollo 8 are now on the far side of the moon.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51"They're coming round
0:33:51 > 0:33:54"and in less than a minute, they'll come round the edge,
0:33:54 > 0:33:56"and we'll be able to hear them.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58"We hope they come round on time, because after all,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01"they've carried out a very risky manoeuvre,
0:34:01 > 0:34:02"so I'll say no more now.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07"In a few seconds, we'll hear the voices of the first men round the moon,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10"and this is one of the great moments in human history."
0:34:10 > 0:34:14And the BBC changed over to Jackanory.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17THEY BOTH LAUGH
0:34:17 > 0:34:19Reading the books of some of the astronauts,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22a lot of them seem to have been quite profoundly affected
0:34:22 > 0:34:25by the experience of going into space.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28I remember old Gene Cernan telling me that when he was on the moon,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32the thing that affected him most was looking up and seeing his home
0:34:32 > 0:34:36a quarter of a million miles away. Bound to affect you, obviously.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40I think... I wonder if the first man on Mars has been born.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42It's possible, you know.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44That would be, I mean,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47even more difficult to mount a mission than the Apollo ones.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50- Oh, far more. - Is it plausible, do you think?
0:34:50 > 0:34:53I think there are two reasons that may hold things up.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55The first is radiation.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58Once you're beyond the atmospheric screen,
0:34:58 > 0:35:00you're exposed to all kinds of unpleasant radiation,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03so on the moon, you get away with it for a brief period.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07On Mars - weeks to get there, and you're exposed to the whole thing.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10On Mars itself - incomplete protection,
0:35:10 > 0:35:14and the journey home, so radiation is a problem,
0:35:14 > 0:35:17and no-one quite knows yet how bad it is or how to counteract it.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20That's one problem. The second, of course is, do we want to?
0:35:20 > 0:35:24Because after all, one more war, a major war,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28and we are back in the Stone Age, and that could happen, I'm afraid.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30A very long career with The Sky At Night.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33We've had various presenters... we've had Nick Ross of Crimewatch
0:35:33 > 0:35:36recently leaving the programme after 23 years,
0:35:36 > 0:35:41apparently told that they had to think about the age profile of the programme.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43Have you ever suffered from that at the BBC?
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Not a bit. After all, I have been there for a long time.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51Everyone knows that I'm now 84. If they want to replace me, I wouldn't grumble.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55I've been there for a long time. Of course we do have now Chris Lintott.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58I remember my first meeting with Chris.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01I gave a lecture at the Torquay Boys' School,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04and an 11-year-old boy came and started talking to me,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08and I thought, "This is rather an unusual 11-year-old. I think he had better be cultivated."
0:36:08 > 0:36:12That was Chris. Well, I invited him on the programme.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16He is now co-presenter, and he had all the advantages that I haven't.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18First of all, he's got a first-class mathematical brain.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22He's got all his degrees now. And he's a good presenter, too.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24And he enjoys doing it,
0:36:24 > 0:36:26so he will certainly be a better presenter than I am.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29Would you want the programme to continue after you?
0:36:29 > 0:36:33Oh, yes, most certainly. The reason being, no thanks to me,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36but I believe the programme has done good.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38It's brought people into astronomy,
0:36:38 > 0:36:41and certainly has encouraged those to take it up.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44So, yes, I will want it to continue, and I'm quite sure that it will.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48- And you would want Chris to take over from you? - He'd be eminently suitable.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50THEY BOTH LAUGH
0:36:50 > 0:36:53Apart from your Sky At Night career,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56there has been another side to your television life,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59which has been comedy, light entertainment.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Sending yourself up, in effect.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04I don't mind laughing at myself. Why should I?
0:37:04 > 0:37:07No, it's great fun. I've done... All kinds of people.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09What are you studying at the moment?
0:37:09 > 0:37:12What do your investigations lead you to study now?
0:37:12 > 0:37:15- Are you talking to me?- Yes. - Oh... Northern stars.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Ah, northern stars. Which one in particular?
0:37:17 > 0:37:19Proxima Centauri.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22Proxima Centauri. Now, that is a fascinating star.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25Isn't it amazing to reflect that when you look at Proxima,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27you're seeing it as it was four years ago?
0:37:27 > 0:37:31- The light from Proxima takes over four years to reach us.- Yes, yes.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33What is he talking about?!
0:37:33 > 0:37:35- What is he talking about? - What do you mean?
0:37:35 > 0:37:38- Throw him off. Get him off. - He's quite brainy.- The man's a fool.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41- But it takes the light of Proxima Centauri four years to reach the Earth. That's...- Rubbish!
0:37:41 > 0:37:45- It's not rubbish.- It's certainly not rubbish.- No.- Far from it.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48- And it may interest you to know this, Mr Morecambe...- Yes.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50The star Altair, the light from that takes 16 years to reach us.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53- Get off.- From Vega, 27 years.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55- Shut up!- From Rigel, 800 years.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57- Yes.- I'll smash your face in.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59- And Deneb, or Alpha Cygni, if you prefer...- I prefer!
0:37:59 > 0:38:03- From the Alpha Cygni... - Yes?- ..1,500 years.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Get off! He's making it all up as he goes along.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10Did you ever worry that it would detract from the seriousness?
0:38:10 > 0:38:14No, not a bit. The reason being, um, when I do that kind of thing,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16I am having fun.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19When I'm an astronomer, I'm a serious astronomer.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22And I don't mix the two.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25If I know I don't mix the two, therefore there's no danger there.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28And being impersonated - some people get sensitive about this,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31but you've rather enjoyed being impersonated by people.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34I complained bitterly once that Mike Yarwood...
0:38:34 > 0:38:38I've got a scar over my eye there, and I said to him, "You've got my scar wrong."
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Now, a lot of people have been writing in to The Sky At Night
0:38:41 > 0:38:43asking questions about astronomy,
0:38:43 > 0:38:45and of course it is a fascinating subject!
0:38:45 > 0:38:50People want to know why we don't put The Sky At Night on earlier in summer so the children can watch.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52Well, we would put it on earlier...
0:38:52 > 0:38:56but we have to wait till it goes damn well dark before we do the damn thing at all!
0:38:56 > 0:38:58This was a scar I got during the war
0:38:58 > 0:39:01in an operation over the Skagerrak
0:39:01 > 0:39:04caught in a sea of flak, in the jaws of death.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07Actually, I came off my motorbike in 1952.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09My wheel caught in a rut!
0:39:09 > 0:39:11THEY LAUGH
0:39:11 > 0:39:15So, as well as not, um... Apart from not talking about your war record,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18- you make up versions of it. - On that occasion, yes!
0:39:18 > 0:39:20You mentioned having written a book
0:39:20 > 0:39:23because of some of the people you'd met.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26I mean, some of those are very striking. Einstein, for example.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30I met him once, when I was a boy, during my flying training.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33A little concert I was invited to.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35Einstein was there, and I was able to talk to him.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38He was, as you know, an expert violinist,
0:39:38 > 0:39:40and he happened to have his violin,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43he'd been playing somewhere, and somebody said,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47"Oh, your violin." He said, "I play The Swan. There's no accompanist."
0:39:47 > 0:39:51There was a piano there. Saint-Saens' Swan - I knew the accompaniment.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53So I've accompanied Einstein.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56Oh, for a tape! But there weren't any tapes then!
0:39:56 > 0:39:59I also met the first airman, Orville Wright.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02- That was interesting. - Tell me about that.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06I met at the same conference. He didn't die till 1948.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10He did very little flying after 1920.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14He was so sad that his aeroplane had been used in warfare,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17and he really rather faded into the background.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19He was a very pleasant, unassuming kind of man.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24What about Einstein? Was there any sense of the charisma, the...?
0:40:24 > 0:40:26He was exactly what you'd expect.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Charming, courteous, out of this world -
0:40:29 > 0:40:32exactly as you would imagine Einstein to be.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34You were a very young man at the...
0:40:34 > 0:40:37- You were known as "the kid" in your RAF years.- Yes, I know.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Were you in awe of these people?
0:40:39 > 0:40:42I don't think I was. I can't really say that I was.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44I was fascinated and honoured to meet them.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Arthur C Clarke, who was a friend for a long time, um...
0:40:47 > 0:40:52- Still is.- Still is. ..but he is someone that you knew from early on.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56We were both prewar members of the British Interplanetary Society.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59That's where Arthur and I met, and we've been close friends ever since.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02He lives of course now in Sri Lanka.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05We talk on the phone, and in aid of the Sri Lanka disaster fund,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08we put together a little book about asteroids,
0:41:08 > 0:41:11and we made £13,000 or £14,000 for the fund.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15You are listed in some places as music consultant
0:41:15 > 0:41:18on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Is that true?
0:41:18 > 0:41:22I think it is. Only one bit. I was having dinner with Arthur,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25and they were wondering what music to use for the space sequence,
0:41:25 > 0:41:28and I said, "Use the Blue Danube," and they did.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30Whether this originally came from me, I don't know.
0:41:30 > 0:41:35That was my only connection there, but certainly I did say, "Use the Blue Danube," and they did.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39- It would have been a big coincidence if it isn't from you saying that... - You're probably right.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43- But something to be proud of, I would, think.- Yeah, I agree. It's an amazing film.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Another connection you have with Arthur C Clarke -
0:41:46 > 0:41:48you've done less of it than him -
0:41:48 > 0:41:51but science fiction is an area you have written in.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54I have written... I did a whole series of boys' books,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57boys' novels, on science fiction,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00and they're just going to be republished again,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02because people have been trying to get them and can't,
0:42:02 > 0:42:06and it's been decided to republish, put them on the web and see if people are interested.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08Which I think they are.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11Your mother wrote a book towards the end of her life, didn't she?
0:42:11 > 0:42:13She wrote Mrs Moore In Space, with her lovely cartoons.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16I mean, her drawings were marvellous.
0:42:16 > 0:42:22We put those together, and she said Mrs Moore In Space was her one and only book.
0:42:22 > 0:42:23She was then 88.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25I may say she was a marvellous artist.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28If I had one spark of artistic ability,
0:42:28 > 0:42:32I'd try and develop it, but I am so hopeless that there's no point.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36Music consultant, as we say, to 2001, we think,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39but you also have been a composer yourself.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41I have written quite a lot of music, yes.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43The last thing I wrote, I think...
0:42:43 > 0:42:46The band of the Royal Paratroop Brigade wanted a new march,
0:42:46 > 0:42:49so I wrote the march Out Of The Sky for them.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52About the last thing I wrote before this hit me,
0:42:52 > 0:42:54and I've written three operas -
0:42:54 > 0:42:57Theseus, Perseus and the last one, Galileo.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00So, Galileo - put on at Cambridge for a fortnight
0:43:00 > 0:43:02and then it went there another fortnight
0:43:02 > 0:43:04and then yet a third performance.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08And then a week in Chichester and then one down here.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12The story of Galileo, not quite according to the history books, I'm afraid!
0:43:12 > 0:43:14THEY LAUGH
0:43:14 > 0:43:16As you told me, your mother was a singer,
0:43:16 > 0:43:20so she had musical interests, but she encouraged you to play instruments.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Yes, I can't remember the time I wasn't trying to play the piano.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26And I did, ever since I was a very small boy,
0:43:26 > 0:43:29and I remember also, when I was eight, sitting at that piano,
0:43:29 > 0:43:33and thinking, "Now, this is silly. I can't read and write music,"
0:43:33 > 0:43:35so I went and bought a book and taught myself.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37But I was never a good sight reader.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42And again, this comes out at virtually everything you've done - you have taught yourself.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44In that particular respect, yes, but as I say,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47I know nothing about the theory of music at all.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50I've written waltzes, marches, and they've been played around quite a lot.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54I have got one thing that's no credit to me at all.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57Don't get me wrong. It's no credit to me, right?
0:43:57 > 0:44:01I've got perfect pitch and perfect time. And that of course does help.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05Do you ever wish that the writing, that the novels, for example,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08the music, that that had been a bigger part of your life?
0:44:08 > 0:44:11I wouldn't have altered the astronomy at all.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15I wish I'd had had more time for music and writing,
0:44:15 > 0:44:17but you can't fit everything in.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22I used to wake up and think, "Now, what have I got time to do today?"
0:44:23 > 0:44:25HE PLAYS SLOW MELODY
0:44:26 > 0:44:31Although Moore's TV appearances have generated great affection,
0:44:31 > 0:44:36some of his personal opinions have led people to wonder what planet he's on.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38He supports the United Kingdom Independence Party,
0:44:38 > 0:44:40which campaigns against ties with Europe,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43and in favour of tighter immigration controls.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48Moore's autobiography contained provocative complaints about gender and racial equality,
0:44:48 > 0:44:52and there was further controversy over comments in a recent interview
0:44:52 > 0:44:55about the BBC being taken over by women.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01Television has changed a great deal in those 50 years.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06YOU find television a less happy place now than at the beginning, don't you?
0:45:06 > 0:45:11Not really as happy for me, because, after all, I have never been involved.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13I'm not a BBC employee.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15I am not involved in that kind of thing at all.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18I am sure there are politics there in which I don't get involved,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20so it doesn't affect me a bit.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23The programmes obviously have changed. But they go on.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27And you said recently that it's because of women.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30- There are too many women in TV. - What I said was this.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Originally, the BBC was entirely male dominated.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37Then the pendulum swung, and what I actually said was,
0:45:37 > 0:45:39"It's swung a bit too far."
0:45:39 > 0:45:42That's all I said because... The press took umbrage, of course.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45But you expect that kind of thing.
0:45:45 > 0:45:46But if it's swung too far,
0:45:46 > 0:45:49then there are too many women in television, do you think?
0:45:49 > 0:45:51There were too many men originally.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54When there were too many men, was that a problem?
0:45:54 > 0:45:57I say there were too many men, probably...
0:45:57 > 0:46:01We want a happy medium, and we'll get that, most certainly.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Now, after all,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07television does have an extremely important role to play now.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Far more so now than I think anyone expected.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12After all, at the end of the war, television was a...
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Well, it was just coming on
0:46:14 > 0:46:18and no-one really expected it to take over, which it has.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20So it's more important than anyone could have dreamed,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23and therefore you've got to have a happy medium.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28I remember Paul Johnstone telling me... He produced a programme in 1938, I think,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31a political discussion between three politicians.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34It overran by one hour and 40 minutes!
0:46:34 > 0:46:35THEY LAUGH
0:46:35 > 0:46:38- Which you wouldn't be allowed to now.- No.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41I hope it was enjoyed by BOTH the people who were seeing it!
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Your views, your political views... It's complicated,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48- because you are against fox-hunting. - Very much so.- Notably.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52But, in general, people have classed you as a man of the right.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54Some have even said the far right.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56They can say what they like.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58I think I stand for sensible politics.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02As I say, I must admit I do belong to a party, I belong to UKIP,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04the United Kingdom Independence Party,
0:47:04 > 0:47:06but I am far too old to do anything.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08So far as fox-hunting is concerned,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11people who enjoy that must come from another planet,
0:47:11 > 0:47:13as far as I am concerned.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16But there we are. You see, we've all got our own particular views,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19and I keep out of that kind of thing these days.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22The time I've got left, I've got so much I want to do.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26I have just revised my big Atlas Of The Universe
0:47:26 > 0:47:29and I've got to revise my big Data Book now.
0:47:29 > 0:47:31And of course, I did a book with Brian May and Chris Lintott,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34called BANG!,
0:47:34 > 0:47:37and we're now in the position to see we're bang up to date!
0:47:37 > 0:47:39So it's all great fun.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43You say in your memoirs, very provocatively to a lot of people,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47you say the worst acts of Parliamentary legislation in history
0:47:47 > 0:47:51were the Sexual Discrimination Act and the Race Relations Act.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53All depends on what you think.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57I don't like acts if they are acts that only apply in one direction,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00but as I say, I am not in that field now.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02I'm too busy with my astronomical work.
0:48:02 > 0:48:07Also, music - I'd like to do a bit more of that, if I can.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10I never was a good player. I was a composer.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13I did play the xylophone at the Royal Command Performance once,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16and I enjoyed that, but I wasn't a good player,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19but I could write for other people. At least I hope I could.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23- But the reason, just going back to that...- I'm not going back, sorry.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27- You're not?- No.- You won't talk about your politics at all? - Of no interest to anybody else.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31- Well, you put them in your memoirs. - I know I did - very briefly.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34- Very briefly and I...- And we referred to them very briefly.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37And I had one question arising from that page in your memoirs,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41which is that you say you don't like legalisation going in one direction.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46The reason some people would say that was introduced was to redress a balance -
0:48:46 > 0:48:49that there had not been equality for non-white people,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51there had not been equality for women -
0:48:51 > 0:48:55- and it needed to be addressed. - Colour doesn't matter. Black, white or khaki,
0:48:55 > 0:48:57or vermillion or gamboge, if you like.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00INDISTINCT
0:49:00 > 0:49:03The opposition to fox-hunting, though, which confuses some people
0:49:03 > 0:49:06who wish to position you on the right, um...
0:49:06 > 0:49:08What makes you so opposed to fox-hunting?
0:49:08 > 0:49:11I don't like needless cruelty,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14and no-one can deny that fox-hunting is needlessly cruel.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17After all, can you enjoy chasing an animal as it's dropping,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20and then seeing it torn to bits by dogs?
0:49:20 > 0:49:24If anyone enjoys that, they must come from another planet,
0:49:24 > 0:49:25and it's not me.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Some people, which is why they used the phrase,
0:49:28 > 0:49:31that colloquial phase, the heavens, looking at the sky,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34makes them think about God and eternity and all the rest of it.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36Has it ever had that effect on you?
0:49:36 > 0:49:38The sky is a wondrous place.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41We wonder how far does it go, and what's up there.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44And I am sure there are many races up there
0:49:44 > 0:49:46far more intelligent than we are.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Whether they will contact us, I don't know,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51but the one thing I do say,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54there are some people who say we shouldn't try to contact other races
0:49:54 > 0:49:57as they might come and want to conquer us.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00I don't think that's valid, the reason being, quite simply,
0:50:00 > 0:50:03if there are other races more intelligent than we are,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06they will have put war behind them, otherwise they wouldn't survive.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08So, if they do contact us,
0:50:08 > 0:50:11then they are wiser than we are, and we needn't fear them.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14What Stephen Hawking called the G word,
0:50:14 > 0:50:16he wrote the word God at the end of his book,
0:50:16 > 0:50:18A Brief History Of The Universe -
0:50:18 > 0:50:21have you ever been moved to thoughts of God?
0:50:21 > 0:50:23I had one quarrel with the local vicar down here,
0:50:23 > 0:50:25a very serious quarrel.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28He dropped two catches off me in the slips in the same over.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31One off my fast one, absolute sitter. He dropped it.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34THEY LAUGH
0:50:35 > 0:50:38I must say, in all, he made a very good fielder.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42In the following match, he made 30 or 40 and I went in at number 11,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45and I had to stay there while he got his hundred, and I stayed.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48Nought not out at the end, I can't bat to save my life!
0:50:48 > 0:50:52That's what Freddie Trueman is supposed to have said to Rev David Shepherd, didn't he?
0:50:52 > 0:50:55"Pretend it's Sunday and keep your hands together" when he dropped a catch.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58I never played serious cricket for two reasons.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01First of all, people were kind enough to say that my unusual spin bowling
0:51:01 > 0:51:04would carry really good-class cricket.
0:51:04 > 0:51:05You can carry a number 11 bat,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08you can't carry a fielder as bad as I am.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11I am an appalling fielder. I can't catch, I can't stop.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15I can't throw, I'm as slow as a house. In the field, I am a passenger,
0:51:15 > 0:51:17and had I ever wanted to play serious cricket,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20that would wreck me, but I didn't, in any case.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24- I'm going to have a third go at this, I may not get anywhere... - You won't.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28Astronomy has driven some people to quite deep thoughts of God,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31other people to very strong atheism.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33I just wondered where on that scale you figured...
0:51:33 > 0:51:37Take a balance. There is so much up there we don't know about.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Our knowledge is fragmentary.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42Until we know more, you can't form a judgment, frankly.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44Do you think about death?
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Er, it'll happen to me one day!
0:51:48 > 0:51:49HE CHUCKLES
0:51:49 > 0:51:52- Do you...do you fear it?- No.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55Do you... You mention this in your autobiography,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58and at the beginning of this interview,
0:51:58 > 0:52:01the infirmities of old age have been an irritation to you.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03It's a darn nuisance, I tell you.
0:52:03 > 0:52:08Only a few years ago, I was playing tennis and cricket, and now I can't. Most annoying.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11There it is. I had a long run, you've got to accept these things.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13Nothing you can do about it.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Your mind, though, is clearly very strong and intact.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19Is that luck or have you done anything?
0:52:19 > 0:52:22Eyes, ears and what passes for a brain are not affected yet.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24It's my body that is.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26I say I'll go on as long as I can.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29But there are always... We open the newspapers,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32there are all these things about, it's important to do crosswords
0:52:32 > 0:52:35- to keep your brain intact... - Crosswords I have never managed.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38The one clue I solved was "a flightless bird with three letters
0:52:38 > 0:52:41"beginning with E and ending with U", and I solved that one.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45But have you done anything to keep yourself mentally alert or active?
0:52:45 > 0:52:47Yes, I'm studying all the time.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50You've got to keep abreast of everything, and I do.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55I thought I couldn't do The Sky At Night unless I kept abreast of astronomical stuff,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58and that does keep what passes for a brain...
0:52:58 > 0:53:00It keeps it working very nicely.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03The Sky At Night, as you've suggested,
0:53:03 > 0:53:07- you will go on doing for as long as you possibly can. - As long as they want me to.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10If the BBC want me to go on, and people like to see what I do,
0:53:10 > 0:53:12I'll continue.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15If they don't, if they think I'm too old, or I'm not doing it well,
0:53:15 > 0:53:17then I'll stand down.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20And, as I say, the first really bad programme I do
0:53:20 > 0:53:22that's entirely my fault -
0:53:22 > 0:53:26- that'll be my last.- And do you ever watch them and think,
0:53:26 > 0:53:29"I have made a mistake, I have done something wrong"?
0:53:29 > 0:53:33I have had many things I could do better. Most certainly so.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36A large part of your life has been discovery, finding things out.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39What are the things you would still most like to know?
0:53:39 > 0:53:43I'd like to know more about the origin of the universe.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46Above all, I'd like to know, is there intelligent life up there?
0:53:46 > 0:53:49I'm sure there is, but I can't prove it,
0:53:49 > 0:53:53and I think there will be a pointer, even in my lifetime, probably,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56because if we find any trace of life on Mars,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59that'll show life will appear where it can.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Somebody did say to me, if a flying saucer landed in my garden
0:54:02 > 0:54:05and a little green man came out, what would I say?
0:54:05 > 0:54:08I would say, "Good afternoon. Tea or coffee?
0:54:08 > 0:54:11"Please come with me to the nearest TV studio!"
0:54:11 > 0:54:14But even in the 50 years you've been broadcasting,
0:54:14 > 0:54:16most of what we have found out
0:54:16 > 0:54:19has argued against the existence of life, hasn't it?
0:54:19 > 0:54:21No, I think quite the reverse.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25We know now there are many worlds like the Earth where life can appear.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28The only thing we don't know, will life appear where it can?
0:54:28 > 0:54:30I think Mars may give us the clue there.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34It won't be conclusive, but it will give us a good pointer.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37- Patrick Moore, thank you very much. - Nice to have talked to you.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd