Browse content similar to 13/02/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
This week we investigate why some marriages are For Love, while | :00:15. | :00:25. | |
:00:25. | :00:25. | ||
We joined the the Borders agency and as they disrupt the weddings | :00:25. | :00:33. | |
that they expect are simply to get into the UK. | :00:33. | :00:39. | |
Also tonight, would you give up a kidney for a loved one? We meet the | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
families donating their own organs because of a shortage of people on | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
the register. I don't know how to say thank you, really. I just hope | :00:47. | :00:54. | |
that you know. And, Shakespeare with the northern twang. We'd look | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
back at 20 years of Northern Broadsides bringing Shakespeare to | :00:57. | :01:05. | |
life. I think I was scared of Shakespeare as this construct for | :01:06. | :01:15. | |
:01:16. | :01:25. | ||
For most people getting married would be one of the most important | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
days of their lives, but for others it is seen as an easy way of | :01:29. | :01:38. | |
entering the country by the back door. A Sham marriages, where | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
people tie the knot just to get residency in Britain, has become an | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
increasing problem. We joined the UK Border Agency in their latest | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
attempt to tackle the problem. The historic chapel of Hazlewood | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
Castle in North Yorkshire and childhood sweethearts Amy McHale | :01:49. | :01:58. | |
and Anthony Blasket are living the romantic dream. Would you take | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
Anthony as your husband? I will. With all their family and friends | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
sharing in the Big Day, their wedding is an experience they hope | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
to treasure for the rest of their lives. Possibly the most exciting | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
day. Nothing has topped it yet. not everyone sees life in such | :02:18. | :02:25. | |
romantic terms. Others have a completely different agenda. Sham | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
marriages are run by big international gangs who look at | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
ways to hang trade exploiter West Yorkshire, a world away from | :02:32. | :02:34. | |
Amy and Anthony's special day, preparations for an entirely | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
different kind of wedding are taking place. I'm at the Border | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
Agency HQ in Leeds city centre, where members of their specialist | :02:41. | :02:42. | |
Criminal and Financial Investigations team are preparing | :02:42. | :02:49. | |
to launch their latest operation on sham marriages. This operation will | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
take place this afternoon. Inside, more than 30 officers from the | :02:53. | :03:03. | |
:03:03. | :03:04. | ||
agency are finalising their plan of action. Operation Polo involves an | :03:04. | :03:07. | |
Indian national and a French bride. Today, two suspect weddings are | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
scheduled in quick succession and the operation needs to be carefully | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
choreographed. How can you be sure that these are a sham marriages are | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
not normal ones? We have done an awful lot of work beforehand, | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
intelligence work. We have got excellent co-operation with the | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
registrars. It is the registrars to inform us of their suspicions. We | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
do all the checks with the police and other intelligence systems | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
dissatisfied herself the what we will be disrupting today is a sham | :03:38. | :03:44. | |
marriage. Briefing over, the team are now on their way to Leeds city | :03:44. | :03:46. | |
centre and the Registry Office where they believe the two sham | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
weddings are booked in. From here we need to be very discreet. Some | :03:50. | :03:52. | |
sham marriages are run by syndicates who employ spotters to | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
alert bogus brides and grooms if they are suspicious the Border | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
Agency are on their case. With plenty of time to go before the | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
first wedding takes place, the team enter via a back door and begin to | :04:02. | :04:09. | |
take up their position. We are all gathered in a room just down the | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
hall from where the wedding will take place. Now it is a waiting | :04:12. | :04:20. | |
game. The groom has turned up with another man. We have the bride as | :04:20. | :04:25. | |
well and three bridesmaids or witnesses. We are just waiting now | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
for confirmation that they have gone into the hall. A at what stage | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
do you decide it is time to go in? When they're inside and prepared to | :04:35. | :04:42. | |
be married. Two o'clock strikes. The first team are given the signal | :04:42. | :04:50. | |
to move in. I am from the Border Agency. We believe a sham marriages | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
about to take place and my officers will speak to you shortly. Sham | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
weddings are big business, with figures of up to �10,000 a time | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
changing hands. Typically, it's an Eastern European bride and a non- | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
European groom who will often pay a fixer to try and seek a way of | :05:04. | :05:12. | |
obtaining a marriage certificate to stay in this country. Just go with | :05:12. | :05:19. | |
my officer. All the parties are being split up and talk to about | :05:19. | :05:26. | |
the wedding. The groom has not objected at all. The key to this is | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
quick questioning, finding out what part everyone has here, and | :05:31. | :05:37. | |
deciding he is going to be arrested as part of a conspiracy. We will | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
get them out if you straight away and be ready for the next one. | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
are lead away, to be taken to separate police cells in West | :05:44. | :05:46. | |
Yorkshire. In operations over two separate fortnights in Leeds last | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
year Border Agency staff estimate they prevented 70 sham marriages | :05:49. | :05:59. | |
:05:59. | :05:59. | ||
from going ahead. This second group has arrived so we are ready to go | :05:59. | :06:05. | |
on disrupt the second sham marriage of the day. Like the first | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
operation, there is a feeling of stunned silence as the officers go | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
about their work. It is a big deal to interrupt the wedding day. | :06:14. | :06:20. | |
It is not something we take lightly. With today's arrests coming to a | :06:20. | :06:23. | |
close, officers will continue their investigations into how the couples | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
came to this point. Charges vary from perjury to conspiring to | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
breach immigration law, with those convicted facing a maximum jail | :06:29. | :06:39. | |
:06:39. | :06:42. | ||
sentence of 14 years. How has the operation gone? Both operations | :06:42. | :06:47. | |
were a success. How easy is it to disrupt these marriages? Certainly | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
since we have started doing this since March there has been an | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
increase and they have been brought to our attention on a more regular | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
basis, probably because the registrars are more aware of the | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
problem. Less than a mile from the Registry Office, the Parish Church | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
are also having to be more rigorous about who walks down the aisle. | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
Because of some of the abuses that did take place, we are now required | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
to check that the address that they have given us is a genuine address | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
by going to visit them, going to both houses of the bride and groom, | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
and we are required to check their identity by a series of documentary | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
evidence that proves they are who they say they are. Canon Bundock | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
says as a society we have a duty to ensure people seeking genuine | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
refuge in this country are given a chance. We have a sympathy for | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
everybody because you want to help people as Christians, especially | :07:43. | :07:52. | |
people in need. We are required to help strangers. We don't like | :07:52. | :07:57. | |
having to say no in any circumstance, but we can help | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
people to be dishonest and break the law. With 300 people arrested | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
for offences related to sham marriages in the past year, they | :08:03. | :08:10. | |
have become an increasing priority for the Government. The operations | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
that we went on, they were probably 30 officers to disrupt to sham | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
marriages. It seems to come expensive way to tackle the problem. | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
Disrupting an individual sham marriage, you obviously stop that | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
one and might arrest the facilitator, but it does send a | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
signal around the World's so it acts as a deterrent. A should more | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
Paras be given to register as to try and stop this process before it | :08:34. | :08:40. | |
even gets going? It is possible in the long run we might need to have | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
new legislation. Registrars are obliged to marry people who appear | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
legally to have the right to be married. That is something we are | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
looking at. For Amy and Anthony, marriage should mean a commitment | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
for life. It means different things for different people, but we have | :08:57. | :09:03. | |
been together a long time so it meant a long -- meant a lot to us. | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
Marriages are very precious thing that cement society together and | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
love is the thing that most of all makes the world go round. We have | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
seen to sham marriages here in Leeds. For many people are it | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
should be happiest day of their lives, but there has not been much | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
romance here. Following those nine arrests, the groom at the first | :09:24. | :09:26. | |
sham wedding has been deported while the bride and witnesses have | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
been released. The bridegroom and two witnesses at the second wedding | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
have been charged with conspiracy to breach immigration rules. In | :09:32. | :09:42. | |
:09:42. | :09:48. | ||
addition, the bride and groom have Coming up: Shakespeare from the | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
heart of Halifax. We celebrate 20 years of Northern Broadsides bring | :09:53. | :10:00. | |
in the classics to live with them nor the and tone. | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
How would you feel that their loved one was dying and the only way to | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
save their life was to give up one of your own kidneys. It is a | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
difficult choice and one that people are being increasingly | :10:12. | :10:19. | |
forced to meet due to a lack of people being on the organ register. | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
Keeley Donovan has been to meet some remarkable donors and the | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
loved ones whose lives have been saved by their selfless acts of | :10:25. | :10:35. | |
:10:35. | :10:37. | ||
giving. Without a donor kidney, this man's future was bleak. He had | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
tracked down his long-lost brother that he had not seen for 35 years. | :10:41. | :10:49. | |
He wanted to meet the man before it was too late. It would turn out to | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
be a life-saving reunion. He phoned the up out of the blue and offered | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
be one of his kidneys. We were speaking on the telephone and I | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
said to him, what about if I give you one of mine. The answer was | :11:03. | :11:09. | |
complete silence. It was a reunion that led father and son here hands | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
the story was picked up across the world. When he had his transplant | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
originally there were very few transplants at that time that it | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
happened. The gate that they give to the person who needs the | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
transplant, people must see the benefits that that creates an altar | :11:25. | :11:31. | |
doors to the person who has a successful transplant. 10 years on | :11:31. | :11:36. | |
and two sisters from Sheffield are preparing for the same operation. | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
Helen Thacker suffers from a rare genetic disorder that is destroying | :11:39. | :11:49. | |
:11:49. | :11:51. | ||
In 20th March 10 I was told my kidney function was down to 20%. | :11:51. | :11:59. | |
They wanted to know if everybody would be able to be a living donor. | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
Tomorrow she's due to receive a donor kidney from Claire, her older | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
sister. It was hardly a decision. I knew I | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
was going to do it a long time ago. It just happens to have come at | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
this time. The operation to remove Claire's | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
kidney is the first of the day. She knows it could change her sister's | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
life but is aware it's not without risks for her. Helen faces an | :12:20. | :12:27. | |
anxious wait for news of how the surgery has gone. | :12:27. | :12:34. | |
This is a gift which I cannot describe personally in words, | :12:35. | :12:41. | |
Clare's altruism, her willingness to offer a kidney to her sister is | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
going to transform her life. Donor transplants are unique in | :12:45. | :12:47. | |
requiring perfectly healthy patients to undergo serious surgery | :12:47. | :12:55. | |
that cannot benefit them. It will be 20 minutes before the | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
anaesthetic takes affect, and then it will be up to four hours to | :12:59. | :13:07. | |
remove the Khedive. Meanwhile, Helen has a very anxious wait. -- | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
removed the kidney. It's now Helen's turn to be wheeled | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
to the operating theatre. And she hears the news she's been waiting | :13:14. | :13:16. | |
for. I have had the news that she is out | :13:16. | :13:21. | |
and everything has gone well. I'm relieved about that. I just want to | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
get to the theatre and get it all done. | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
As Helen is being prepared for surgery, the organ is here in this | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
box. In 2001, David had to leave his | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
that family and friends in Australia and fly to England to | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
give his life-saving gift. Everyone is praying he comes back | :13:43. | :13:49. | |
safe and well. Everybody, give Dave a round of applause. | :13:49. | :13:54. | |
With as much to lose as his son had to gain, the day of the operation | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
arrived. I was scared. I'm pretty sure he | :13:58. | :14:06. | |
was. We held hands. He was in his bed and I was in mind. I just said | :14:06. | :14:14. | |
a few words to him of encouragement, and Mark squeezed my hand, and for | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
me, that was it, that was the moment. And we had not done it yet. | :14:19. | :14:25. | |
What would life have been like without the transplant? I think I | :14:25. | :14:32. | |
would not have had a life. It was going downhill that fast. On the | :14:32. | :14:42. | |
:14:42. | :14:42. | ||
10th anniversary of the transplant, Mike and -- Mark has a normal life. | :14:42. | :14:48. | |
He can see his daughter grow up, which is something... I did not | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
know I had a granddaughter when I did this. | :14:51. | :14:57. | |
It was a life saving gift. I'm just grateful that my dad was there at | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
the time. I never dreamed of a day when I | :15:02. | :15:12. | |
:15:12. | :15:24. | ||
would be called Dad because of a kidney. | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
Back at Northern General Hospital, Helen's transplant is well under | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
way. An opening is made in her side, into which the kidney will be | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
inserted. The organ is taken out of its protective wrapping and | :15:33. | :15:35. | |
prepared for transplantation. The blood vessels which once supplied | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
Claire's kidney are prepared to make the organ work inside her | :15:38. | :15:45. | |
sister. Less than one. Are -- 1.5 hours | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
after the initial surgery, the doctors are almost finished. The | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
delicate job of stitching the tiny vessels into place to connect the | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
kidney is a painstaking process. The renal artery, vein and | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
connection to the bladder must all be secured before it can function. | :16:01. | :16:03. | |
Finally, the moment Claire's kidney becomes part of her sister's | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
anatomy. The change of colour shows it is successfully plumbed into | :16:07. | :16:17. | |
:16:17. | :16:19. | ||
Helen's abdomen. We can see the colour is now read. | :16:19. | :16:25. | |
I do not expect the kidney to work straight away. It will take a | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
little while. With the kidney successfully | :16:28. | :16:30. | |
connected, it's time to stitch Helen's side up, having closed the | :16:30. | :16:37. | |
deep wound. I think it took three hours, which | :16:37. | :16:43. | |
is good. I am pleased. In transplantation, you can tell the | :16:43. | :16:49. | |
difference. The patient has not been feeling well before the | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
transplantation. After transplantation, they are a | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
different person. But Helen is one of the fortunate | :16:56. | :16:58. | |
few. Most transplant organs are made available because of untimely | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
deaths. If you ask people in the street in | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
the UK, about 90% of people would support organ donation and | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
transportation, but only about a third are signed up and on the | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
register. If Mark or Helen wonder about how | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
long their kidneys could last, they could do worse than come here for | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
inspiration. This is the home of a woman who received her kidney | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
nearly 36 years ago. Jennifer Oxby was five months | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
pregnant with her second child when she suffered a double kidney | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
failure. She lost her baby, but after years of dialysis her brother | :17:32. | :17:39. | |
David offered her a kidney. She went on to have three daughters | :17:39. | :17:42. | |
after the operation. It's believed hers is the longest surviving | :17:42. | :17:49. | |
transplant kidney in the UK. So, all these years later, how do | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
you feel about what your brother did? Without his beard, I would not | :17:53. | :17:59. | |
be here and have my three daughters. -- his gift. | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
It is marvellous what he has done for us. | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
It's 12 days on from Helen's transplant, and she and her sister | :18:07. | :18:13. | |
Claire are recovering from their surgery. | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
Even if it had not worked, I would be happy we had tried. But for it | :18:17. | :18:24. | |
to work is just the best thing. That is what you do it for. I think | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
she has been very selfless, and I don't know whether I could have | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
done it. I am sure I would have done in the circumstances. I like | :18:35. | :18:41. | |
to think I would have done that. I don't know how to say thank you, | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
really, I just hope that you know. To add your name to the register, | :18:45. | :18:55. | |
:18:55. | :18:58. | ||
Back in 1992, if you went to see a Shakespeare play, you expected all | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
the actors to speak in a very particular way. But 20 years ago | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
all that changed when Barrie Rutter set out to shake things up with a | :19:04. | :19:10. | |
new theatre company which spoke the Bard's words with a northern accent. | :19:10. | :19:16. | |
Lucy Hester has been to meet the man who created Northern Broadsides. | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of | :19:19. | :19:25. | |
York. And all the clouds that lowered upon our House in the deep | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
wreath, our bruised arms hung up for monuments. Our stern alarums | :19:34. | :19:36. | |
turned to merry meetings, our desperate marches to delightful | :19:36. | :19:46. | |
measures. I think I'd been scared of | :19:46. | :19:49. | |
Shakespeare as a construct for posh people who wear tights and have a | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
cabbage down their front and speak with a lisp. "My lord, my liege," | :19:52. | :19:58. | |
etc. I didn't imagine for a second that Shakespeare was for people | :19:58. | :20:02. | |
like me, who talked a bit like this. What was great was he said, "Let's | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
approach it like work. My dad was a trawlerman, your dad was a | :20:07. | :20:13. | |
foundryman. Let's go to work." And that's what we did. | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
Barrie Rutter is the artistic director and founder of the | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
Northern Broadsides theatre company. Richard III was the first play ever | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
to be produced by Northern Broadsides, here in a boatyard in | :20:24. | :20:32. | |
Hull. Fellow actors thought I was mad. It | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
was a sort of revolutionary thing to do in 1992 - classic plays in a | :20:36. | :20:38. | |
non-theatrical setting with a bunch of Northern actors all genuinely | :20:38. | :20:48. | |
using their Northern cadences. A newspaper had printed "Mah kingdumm | :20:48. | :20:58. | |
:20:58. | :21:02. | ||
for an hoss!" Of course I didn't do the line like that. It was: "A | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
horse, boom, boom, a horse, boom, boom, my kingdom for a horse, boom | :21:05. | :21:14. | |
boom!" Fast forward 20 years and Northern | :21:14. | :21:19. | |
Broadsides is about to embark on a five-month tour. We catch up with | :21:19. | :21:24. | |
Barrie again in Stoke rehearsing Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
It's a real box of fireworks, verbal fireworks and you can't hope | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
to get every witty conceit in it, but it's delightful to play and I | :21:30. | :21:40. | |
:21:40. | :21:42. | ||
hope it's going to be delightful to Barrie is playing the part of the | :21:42. | :21:47. | |
schoolmaster, but he's also directing a company of 17 actors. | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
I play Don Adriano de Amado. To congratulate the princess in her | :21:53. | :21:55. | |
pavilion in the posteriors of the day which the rude multitude call | :21:56. | :22:05. | |
:22:06. | :22:07. | ||
the afternoon. He is a fantastical Spaniard and he | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
is full of himself, but possibly not as intelligent as he things. | :22:13. | :22:23. | |
:22:23. | :22:37. | ||
I'm Sophia and I play the princess. She's a bit bolshy. She's not one | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
of the fainting, falling in love, running after men kind of girls. | :22:40. | :22:47. | |
She's got an old head on her shoulders. | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
One thing everyone seems to be struggling with is a musical number | :22:51. | :22:53. | |
featuring a rather unusual instrument. | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
You've got to practise the bottle. If a day goes by without you | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
practising the bottle or plucking a string, it's too long, it's too | :22:59. | :23:09. | |
:23:09. | :23:12. | ||
Everybody who's not playing a main instrument has a bottle that's | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
filled up to a point, and when you blow in it, it doesn't workWhen you | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
blow in it, it makes a certain note. When it's fine-tuned, it'll sound | :23:21. | :23:30. | |
:23:31. | :23:35. | ||
And there's a bit of extra pressure today as the rehearsal will be | :23:35. | :23:43. | |
watched by a small audience. We always had a day when we invite | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
our friends to come and observed. It doesn't matter what state we are | :23:47. | :23:52. | |
in. In fact, the less polished the better. This afternoon, we will see | :23:52. | :23:58. | |
the beach events before this messenger comes in with the news. | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
Messenger? For those of you who've never seen Love's Labour's | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
Lost,here's what's happens. Turn the sound down if you don't want to | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
know how it ends. Me and Adam, who plays Costard, | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
have a bit of a set-to. We have a fight that turns into a Morris | :24:10. | :24:19. | |
dance - as all good fights do. I bet you didn't know that happened | :24:19. | :24:21. | |
in Shakespeare, did you? They've got me dancing, fighting with | :24:21. | :24:26. | |
sticks, throwing knives - all sorts of stuff. | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
So where does the messenger fit into all this merriment? | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
There's a famous interruption near the end of the play where the | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
princess gets the news of her dad's death and they all say, "But we're | :24:37. | :24:47. | |
in love with you" And that's the "lost" of the title. | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
Northern Broadsides has worked with many actors over the years. But one | :24:51. | :24:54. | |
in particular launched his career in a very different direction after | :24:54. | :24:59. | |
playing a famous Shakespearean lead. Comedian Lenny Henry surprised | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
everyone back in 2009 when he took the role of Othello for Northern | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
Broadsides. Othello launched my career as a | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
serious actor. It was fantastic because for the first time people | :25:10. | :25:15. | |
saw me in a different light. I love being a comedian because it's my | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
job, but I love movies and drama. I'm always the one crying and | :25:19. | :25:27. | |
saying "I'm really moved." And I wanted a chance to move people. | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
Barrie gave me that chance and I'll always be grateful for that. | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
What was it like to work with Barrie? | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
Barrie is very hands-on. He'll stop you and move your hands and push | :25:39. | :25:41. | |
your bum in. Suddenly you're standing taller and he says, "Stop | :25:41. | :25:51. | |
:25:51. | :26:12. | ||
crying! Stop shuffling!" He directs It's now the day before opening | :26:12. | :26:14. | |
night in Stoke and everyone's busy getting ready for the dress | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
rehearsal. This is the last chance to put | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
things right. If you haven't learnt it by now, it's your own stupid | :26:22. | :26:30. | |
fault, really. I'm feeling surprisingly calm. For | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
a couple of weeks I've been pretending to be a glamorous | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
princess, but now the hair and make-up team have swooped in and | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
made me into one. There's a general sense of But I | :26:39. | :26:47. | |
want the actors to be comfortable, know what they're doing. And | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
through the next 36 hours you get the inspiration of an audience and | :26:50. | :27:00. | |
:27:00. | :27:03. | ||
the extra sparkle and twinkle that The moment when everything comes | :27:03. | :27:13. | |
together it's like, "Ahh, it's landed." It's quite delightful when | :27:13. | :27:15. | |
that happens, whether you're doing Othello or whether you're doing | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
this play. The fact that Northern Broadsides | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
allows people from all parts of the country to participate meant that | :27:24. | :27:29. | |
my resistance was broken down. They're part of the landscape now | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
and we're to be thankful to them because they've opened the door to | :27:32. | :27:34. | |
people who don't necessarily speak with a Received Pronunciation | :27:34. | :27:39. | |
accent. And Love's Labours Lost will soon | :27:40. | :27:42. | |
be on tour, returning to perform here in Halifax, its spiritual home, | :27:43. | :27:51. | |
They've come a long way since that first performance of Richard III | :27:51. | :28:01. | |
:28:01. | :28:02. | ||
back in 1992. It was not all plain sailing. There | :28:02. | :28:08. | |
were problems and cynicism. But the Arts one out in the end, as they | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
should. Our strong arms be our conscience, | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
swords our law! March on, join bravely. Let us to it, Pellmell. If | :28:14. | :28:24. | |
:28:24. | :28:27. | ||
not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell!" If you want to contact us | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
about any of tonight's stories, you can do so through Facebook or | :28:31. | :28:35. | |
Twitter. That is all from Halifax, but make | :28:35. | :28:42. | |
sure you join us for next week's programme. | :28:42. | :28:47. |