:00:00. > :00:13.John Dolan Used to be homeless, a heroin addict and a criminal who
:00:14. > :00:17.spent half his life in jail when he was first sentenced at the age of
:00:18. > :00:21.18. He had no job, lost touch with his family and was begging on the
:00:22. > :00:26.street in central London. Then more or less by accident, he got a dog, a
:00:27. > :00:29.Staffordshire bull terrier called George. He realised if he was going
:00:30. > :00:34.to look after him he had to find a way to stay out of prison. His book
:00:35. > :00:39.'John George' tells the story of what happens next. John discovered
:00:40. > :00:43.the passion he had as a child for drawing, he started sketching on
:00:44. > :00:49.high streets, pictures of George arrogant the buildings around him
:00:50. > :00:56.which use old review pounds. An art dealer spotted him and that is how
:00:57. > :01:10.John Dolan with a little help from his dog, became an artist.
:01:11. > :01:17.John Dolan, this book is partly your autobiography, your life went
:01:18. > :01:23.completely off the rails from a teenager onwards. Why? When my
:01:24. > :01:28.grandparents told me they were not my parents, they were... I thought
:01:29. > :01:31.they were my mum and dad and they told me they were not, that they
:01:32. > :01:35.were my grandparents, that is when I off the rails. The women who thought
:01:36. > :01:43.with your sister was your mother? Yes. It really affected you? Yes, it
:01:44. > :01:52.still does. You took to preventing. Truancy, gas sniffing, sniffing
:01:53. > :01:57.solvents, soft drugs and later on in life, hard drugs. You were in
:01:58. > :02:05.Feltham Young offenders Institute from 18. 18, 19. A few years ago you
:02:06. > :02:11.turned your life around. The person instrumental in that was George. You
:02:12. > :02:15.got George by accident. What difference did having George make?
:02:16. > :02:24.Why did getting him mean you had to get a grip? Because he was another
:02:25. > :02:29.entity, a creature, something to look after, a responsibility I had.
:02:30. > :02:33.I know he is only a dog, but they take on a stronger meaning than that
:02:34. > :02:39.as you get to know them. That is what it all boiled down to. You
:02:40. > :02:46.found a way of earning some money, in order to stay out of prison, by
:02:47. > :02:49.going back to something you had done as a child, sketching. You sat in
:02:50. > :02:52.Shoreditch high Street with George, sketching buildings and George
:02:53. > :02:57.himself. There is a picture of George sitting there, incredibly
:02:58. > :03:05.patient. You had a little sign you put next to him, which said, take my
:03:06. > :03:12.picture by all means, but put a few coins in my hat or I might bite you.
:03:13. > :03:19.You sold these sketches. You are doing that in all kinds of weather.
:03:20. > :03:25.Yes, in all weather. What sort of reaction did you get? About one in
:03:26. > :03:30.every 100 people would tell me where to go, but the majority of people
:03:31. > :03:36.would wish me good luck and told me to keep on drawing. Always saying
:03:37. > :03:41.how much talent I had. This was a skill you had as a child. A
:03:42. > :03:46.naturally gifted talent, I could always draw, it was passed down from
:03:47. > :03:50.my grandfather to me. The thing was, I had never used it or tried to use
:03:51. > :04:01.it. I only tried to use it once when I was a lad, involved in... I was
:04:02. > :04:04.asked to draw a picture for an advertising company in Smithfield. I
:04:05. > :04:11.did not quite deliver the goods. That was the only time I had really
:04:12. > :04:25.used my art. This is a photograph of you and George and a man called
:04:26. > :04:30.Stick. He is a graffiti artist who draws stick men. That picture was a
:04:31. > :04:37.tribute to him. He helped me in the beginning. We have a picture of one
:04:38. > :04:53.of Stick's drawings. You can see why he is called Stick. How did you meet
:04:54. > :05:00.him? Through my agent. He introduced me to him. When I met Stick I met
:05:01. > :05:11.another artist. We were in a cafe which is no longer there. Me, Stick
:05:12. > :05:15.and Thiery, drawing up plans. I did not even know these two guys that
:05:16. > :05:19.well at the time. It was a month down the road I realised they were
:05:20. > :05:29.and I was in awe of them. The village underground wall? A place
:05:30. > :05:34.just off of Shoreditch. Chris has the rights to it and let street
:05:35. > :05:40.artists do their thing on it. There is another book out this month by a
:05:41. > :05:44.photographer called Joe Eckstein, London street art and graffiti, it
:05:45. > :05:57.is called. It contains quite a lot of photographs of the people that
:05:58. > :06:01.you met and collaborated with. `` Epstein. There is one artist that
:06:02. > :06:09.seems to have done a whole street. Yes, a lady graffiti artist. I have
:06:10. > :06:14.collaborated with her. There is another guy whose speciality is
:06:15. > :06:19.doing stuff right up high on buildings, almost inaccessible. You
:06:20. > :06:24.collaborated with him as well? Yes. Another one in the book I liked, I'm
:06:25. > :06:29.not sure this is one you collaborated with. I met him the
:06:30. > :06:33.other day and asked him if we could do something together. I called him
:06:34. > :06:38.doing something on an alleyway. Until I read the books, I dismissed
:06:39. > :06:42.graffiti art. Then you start to look at it closely and it really is
:06:43. > :06:48.extraordinary, a lot of it, the quality of standard. Yes. I like the
:06:49. > :06:57.idea London is an urban gallery. Some parts of it is like an urban
:06:58. > :06:59.gallery there the masses. Richard had this idea of getting you to
:07:00. > :07:08.collaborate with some of these people on a series of pictures. You
:07:09. > :07:10.drew a huge sketch of London, Shoreditch and some of these
:07:11. > :07:17.graffiti artists were encouraged to add their bit. This is one by
:07:18. > :07:24.Thiery. He used to do that on the Berlin Wall, when it was up and
:07:25. > :07:29.operational. It was his middle finger to the German police. That is
:07:30. > :07:37.him doing his thing on my picture. A special space. Wherever Uganda, that
:07:38. > :07:41.is the village underground wall, with the underground trains above
:07:42. > :07:48.it. Buries another one, a collaboration you did with stick. ``
:07:49. > :08:02.there is another one. And another one with an artist called Rowdy. He
:08:03. > :08:06.was the first one to do it. Every time they came through the door,
:08:07. > :08:10.because they were coming through the door on a weekly basis, coming from
:08:11. > :08:15.all over the world, every time they were coming back to us we were
:08:16. > :08:19.wondering if they would give more and more. This was the first guy to
:08:20. > :08:25.go absolutely mad and go all out. It is incredible. It was suggested you
:08:26. > :08:29.had an exhibition, your agent got you to do lots of pictures of
:08:30. > :08:35.George. There is a picture of you at the opening of this exhibition in
:08:36. > :08:38.Shoreditch last November. You can see looking at those collaborations
:08:39. > :08:43.with other artists. Did you mind other people taking over your work?
:08:44. > :08:49.Not at all, it was their way of paying tribute to me. They recognise
:08:50. > :08:53.the fact I have been doing what I was doing. I thoroughly enjoyed it,
:08:54. > :08:59.and I would do it again. We are doing it again in Los Angeles. This
:09:00. > :09:02.was extraordinary, a very successful exhibition. You are now an
:09:03. > :09:07.established artist. There is talk of flying U2 Los Angeles, you are doing
:09:08. > :09:08.all sorts of other projects, one with Battersea dogs home. When you
:09:09. > :09:16.look at the way your life has with Battersea dogs home. When you
:09:17. > :09:23.look at developed, would you reflect on? I am amazed, I really am. I was
:09:24. > :09:26.in a revolving door with my life, with the crime and homelessness. I
:09:27. > :09:30.never thought I would able to be able to change my life the way I
:09:31. > :09:35.did. If I can do it, there are people out there now who are doing
:09:36. > :09:41.prison sentences, who lived the same life I lived. If I can change my
:09:42. > :09:43.life, they can as well. John Dolan and George the dog, thank you very
:09:44. > :09:54.much indeed. Hallo, the heat developed widely
:09:55. > :09:55.today, very