Browse content similar to 11/01/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Honoured bit Queen, the Pope, the Royal Marines, not to mention the | :00:13. | :00:17. | |
BBC, the paedophile who duped a nation. For over 50 years. How did | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
Jimmy Savile abuse so many victims. Somebody during that time, maybe | :00:23. | :00:32. | |
dozens, during that time, could have stopped him. And nobody did. | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
He abused a dying child, and a boy as young as eight. He used hospital | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
rooms, studios and schools, the last recorded offence three years | :00:40. | :00:47. | |
ago. How did the justice system fail so badly, we ask a former | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
Director of Public Prosecutions and a former victim. George Osborne's | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
ultimatum to the EU. Are the Tories ready to commit to a referendum on | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
Europe? The diplomatic row over whether | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
Britain is trying to cherrypick its terms for EU membership is heating | :01:01. | :01:10. | |
up and turning personal. The retired stars of International | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
Rescue gather to pay tribute to the creator of Thunderbirds. Hello, | :01:15. | :01:25. | |
:01:25. | :01:27. | ||
hello, hello, I did the voice of Parker, a long time ago! Hello, | :01:27. | :01:33. | |
good evening. He died peacefully in his sleep, unrepentant, and | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
uncaught. Today he finally claimed his place by sheer scale, as | :01:37. | :01:41. | |
Britain's most prolific sex offender. Jimmy Savile's depravity | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
reached those as young as eight, and those close to dying. He | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
operated as a paedophile for over 50 years, and hid his actions | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
through sheer visibility in the sheen of celebrity. Today's reports | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
chart 240 allegations, some as recently as three years ago, | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
against a man, long suspected, but never charged. As the Director of | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
Public Prosecutions pointed the finger at police and investigators, | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
the Crown Prosecution Service apologised, and admitted that | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
Savile could have been convicted if his victims had been treated | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
differently. Tonight we ask what failings allowed him to get away | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
with deceit on an unprecedented level. | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
Jimmy Savile was a prolific, predatory sex offender, who abused | :02:23. | :02:30. | |
children on an unprecedented scale. According to the police and the | :02:30. | :02:36. | |
NSPCC. 450 people came forward, giving information about 214 | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
offences. 126 were indecent acts, and 34 victims were raped. The | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
abuse spanned six decades. Most of the victims were teenage girls, but | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
40 offences were committed against boys. The youngest victim was just | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
eight at the time. The oldest victim was 47. Jimmy Savile | :02:57. | :03:03. | |
attacked children across the country. On BBC promise, in schools, | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
hospitals even a hospice. It's clear that their testimony, when | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
taken together, presents a compelling case of a predatory sex | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
offender, across the whole of the UK. It could be said he groomed a | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
nation. He was hiding in plain sight, and yet none of us were able | :03:22. | :03:30. | |
to do anything about it. Caroline Moore was at Stoke Mandeville in | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
1971, she had an operation on her spine. She said Savile abused her | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
there. She has been shocked to learn how many others he had | :03:38. | :03:47. | |
assaulted. I'm so angry and so sad, but it is for the children, for the | :03:47. | :03:56. | |
vulnerable adults who could have been quite childlike, and I'm angry, | :03:56. | :04:06. | |
:04:06. | :04:07. | ||
I'm sad, I'm terribly frustrated. Not one person stood up and tried | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
to stop him. He could have been stopped, there was so many, it was | :04:12. | :04:19. | |
so many years that he was doing what he was doing, that somebody, | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
during that time, maybe dozens, during that time, could have | :04:23. | :04:30. | |
stopped him. Nobody did. Relatively few victims, abused by Savile, made | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
formal reports to the police. In the 1980s, a woman reported that | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
she had been assaulted in Savile's camper van, in a BBC car park. The | :04:39. | :04:45. | |
police file couldn't be found, the investigating officer has died. In | :04:45. | :04:51. | |
2003, a woman who had been on Top Of The Pops in 1973 told police | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
Savile had touched her inappropriately, she didn't want to | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
proceed, unless other victims came forward, she said. In 2008, during | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
the investigation into the Haut de la Garenne children's home in | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
jersey, inquiries were made about Jimmy Savile, he denied ever having | :05:08. | :05:15. | |
visited the home. The most significant opportunities missed | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
included abuse at Duncroft Approved School, in 2007 Surrey Police began | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
investigating two alleged offences there. They also found a victim who | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
said she had been assaulted at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
Savile was a volunteer. Surrey Police operated with Sussex Police, | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
who were investigating an allegation that Savile had | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
assaulted a woman in 1970. The Crown Prosecution Service said none | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
of these four cases were prosecuted, because victims were reluctant to | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
come to court. However, its own report, published today, found that | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
a prosecution might have been brought. It said police and | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
prosecutors treated victims, and the accounts they gave, with a | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
degree of caution, which was neither justified nor required. | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
Referring to a witness, the principal legal adviser to the CPS | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
wrote. That it was difficult not to conclude that the officers had, | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
even if unintentionally, dissuaded her from pursuing her allegation. | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
Each victim was nervous of being the only witness against Savile, | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
but the police did not tell any of them there were others. Today's CPS | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
report found there was no justification for that. The CPS | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
lawyer was at fault too, according to the police notes. He did not | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
feel there was a case to proceed. The Director of Public Prosecutions | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
has said this should be a watershed moment. That the approach of police | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
and prosecutors to credibility and sexual assault cases has to change. | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
That more support should be given to complainants, and that a point | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
panel of the police and CPS should be set up to look again at claims | :06:53. | :07:00. | |
of sexual assault made in the past. Stod's report says Jimmy Savile | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
abused -- today's report says Jimmy Savile abused victims at 13 | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
hospitals and one hospice. At Leeds General Hospital, where he | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
volunteered as a porter, victims reported assaults over three | :07:11. | :07:18. | |
decades. At Stoke Mandeville, over 23 years. These two hospitals, | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
together with Broadmoor, have begun investigations, looking at the role | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
Jimmy Savile had. At whether his behaviour was reported, and whether | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
hospital policy was followed. The BBC has commissioned a review, | :07:29. | :07:35. | |
chaired by Dame Janet Smith. It's investigating the extent to which | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
staff were, or ought to have been aware of unlawful, and/or | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
inappropriate conduct by Jimmy Savile. That is according to its | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
terms of reference. That phrase is absent from the terms of reference | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
of the NHS inquiries. Lawyers for Savile's victims say it should be | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
there. In a civil sense, we would need to show, or one element of | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
what we would need to show is whether or not the institution knew | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
or ought to have known, clearly if the inquiry, which involves | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
numerous interviews and investigations, reaches that | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
conclusion, it will certainly help within the civil context. I think | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
that what we also need to appreciate very much so, is it's | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
what the patients, what the victims, sorry, need, that is the | :08:22. | :08:24. | |
reassurance that these inquiries will lead to conclusions which will | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
ensure this never happens again. The Health Secretary says the terms | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
of reference are appropriate. will do the work that's necessary, | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
I know every NHS institution will do absolutely everything that it | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
takes, because we want to be able to reassure people using the NHS | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
today. We want to know that we have the right procedures in place. A | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
lot has changed. We have CRB checks now, we have local safeguarding | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
children boards as well. We need to be absolutely sure that this kind | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
of thing can't happen again. And I want to make sure the NHS does | :08:57. | :09:04. | |
everything possible to do that. an approved school, Duncroft was | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
direct low administered by the hoves. Lawyers say there should be | :09:06. | :09:13. | |
a full investigation here too, none has been announced. | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
Where do we start, what went wrong, could it happen again. With us are | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
Ken MacDonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions until 2008, | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
Lisa Harker from the NSPCC, co- author of the report. And a lawyer | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
who represents more than 50 of Savile's victims. Kim, just to | :09:32. | :09:37. | |
start but for a second. We heard from one victim there, Caroline | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
Moore, the anger and frustration in her voice. The scale is incredibly | :09:40. | :09:47. | |
hard to believe. What does this mean for victims? You are right. | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
The solicitors where I work, we have a long history of representing | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
victims of sexual abuse. But we have never come across anything of | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
this scale of the we are literally being contacted -- of this scale. | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
We are literally being contacted every week by more victims. We are | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
out across the country, and even abroad, interviewing these victim. | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
There is people interviewing them as we speak now. And when you hear | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
about the number, and when they hear about the numbers, does it | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
make them feel relieved, if you like, that there are others in the | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
same position, or do you just ask how, how it was possible that this | :10:24. | :10:31. | |
was missed for 50 years? I think there is a big mixture, it is | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
important not to lump all the victims together. That people feel | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
very, very differently, there is that mixture of relief that they | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
are not the only one. That is tinged with guilt, which they | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
shouldn't feel, but a lot of victims of sexual abuse do feel | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
guilty and feel that if they had spoken out, maybe they could have | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
stopped others being abused. And they shouldn't feel guilty for that. | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
But there does need to be real questions asked as to why others | :10:59. | :11:02. | |
didn't stop this offending. We had an apology from the Crown | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
Prosecution Service today, a serious miss for them? Yes, the | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
real gravity of this is that this was the one opportunity, one real | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
opportunity that we had, I think, to prosecute this man. In fact, | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
reading the CPS report today, it is clear that if the victims, whose | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
cases were being looked at at that time, had been properly encouraged | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
to come to court and had come to court, there wouldn't just have | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
been a case against Jimmy Savile, there would have been a strong case | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
against him. I think a jury would have been persuaded by the fact | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
that three women, quite independently, many years later, | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
had come out with essentially the same sort of story about this man. | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
I think...Why Wouldn't they, they were actively discouraged, it seems | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
like? It sounds from the report, that if there was active | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
discouragement, it was inadvertant. The problem is, they were told, | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
none of them were told that I in of the others existed, that any of the | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
others complained. They were told that corroboration would be needed | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
for their individual stories. They weren't told that they could be | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
offered anonymity if they went to court. And the police failed to | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
consider, and it seems the prosecutor failed to consider, the | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
fact that each of these case, because they would have been tried | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
together, would have supported the other. They didn't let them know | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
about each other? No. I think the reason for that is, that in a | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
previous case, when the police were investigating offences in a | :12:25. | :12:27. | |
children's home, they had been criticised for broadcasting the | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
fact that the offences had taken place, and then sending letters to | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
everyone who had been at the home over a 20-year period. They were | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
accused of fishing for complaints. Do you think they feared a sort of | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
hysteria? They may have had some fear they would face criticism | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
again. It may have been appropriate at the beginning of their inquiries | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
not to share the knowledge with the women. But at the time when they | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
were thinking about bringing a case to court, they should have clearly | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
told these victims that they weren't alone, that other people | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
were making the same allegation, and if they went to court together, | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
there was a strong prospect there would be a conviction and this man | :13:04. | :13:10. | |
would be sent to prison. For some of this time this was on your watch, | :13:10. | :13:18. | |
do you agree with the police and KierStarmer that it was the | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
sensitivity in the approach over the time. Things have improved. | :13:23. | :13:29. | |
last attack was 2009? The number of sex cases brought to court has | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
improved dramatically in ten or 12 years. This is a very, very bad | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
case, and it is a recent case. The failings which are apparent in this | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
case should never have happened as recently as that. I think, it is | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
perfectly plain, that the approach that was taken to these victim, by | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
the prosecuting lawyer, was insufficiently sympathetic, there | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
was an instinctive feeling that they were, perhaps, isolated, that | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
it was a long time ago, that the assaults didn't go as far as rape. | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
All of these sorts of inappropriate considerations. We have had an | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
apology, which many victims will say isn't enough? It is clearly not | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
enough. What the victims want in case like this is justice. They | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
want to seat man who has abused them put on trial and sent to | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
prison. Jimmy Savile would have been sent to prison for a long time. | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
He was in a position of trust, these were vulnerable women, it was | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
a persistent course of conduct, he would have got a long prison | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
sentence if he had been prosecuted and convicted. A lot of people said | :14:28. | :14:33. | |
early on it was a sort of 70s thing, it was a cultural thing, we know | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
now this was happening in 2006, it was happening in 2009. And the | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
truth is, that people would still be cautious, wouldn't they? Of | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
prosecuting a much-loved celebrity of the same kind of allegations | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
raised now? The concern about the undue caution that we have seen | :14:52. | :14:59. | |
from the police applies to society more widely. There is, clearly, a | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
concern exposed by this case, about people coming forward to report | :15:03. | :15:09. | |
concerns about abuse of children and others. What we have seen since | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
the publicity around the case, is a dramatic increase in the number of | :15:13. | :15:18. | |
people coming forward. Not only to talk about Jimmy Savile, and others, | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
related to that case. But also to report concerns about child abuse | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
more widely. What do the actual institutions have to do now? | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
Because, you know, we are at the very beginning of this, the BBC has | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
launched its own investigation, the NHS hospitals and schools were told | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
on notice, but this all comes back to the failings of the state, | :15:39. | :15:44. | |
right? I think it is beyond, it starts with a question for society | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
at large about whether we are prepared to take action when we | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
have concerns about children, and whether we are prepared to listen | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
when children report concerns. Clearly the organisations involved | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
need to look at what happens within their own institutions, but it goes | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
wider than that. Kim Harrison, when you hear it is a question for | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
society at large, I'm wondering what your victims and others do | :16:08. | :16:16. | |
with a statement like that? What do they want to get now? They want | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
justice. They want to be believed, what happened to them they want | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
recognised. They want justice for themselves, they want to make sure | :16:24. | :16:31. | |
that nothing like this is ever allowed to happen again. We do need | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
to get to the bottom of exactly how this was allowed to happen. The | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
report today is a start, but it is not the end of the process, we | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
really need to get to the bottom as to how he was allowed to get away | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
with this for so long. Who knew and what institution, did anyone know? | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
Did anyone try to stop him? If not, why not? There are so many | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
questions still to be answered. that with an aim to getting | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
compensation from this, or civil prosecutions? When you talk to | :17:00. | :17:06. | |
victims, what do they ultimately want to get from it? Obviously one | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
of the main regrets is that there was a chance to prosecute Savile | :17:12. | :17:16. | |
whilst he was still alive, and that was missed. Had that gone ahead, | :17:16. | :17:21. | |
then other victims could have come forward at that stage. There would | :17:21. | :17:27. | |
have been potentially that justice there. We are obviously looking | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
into the difference of the legal avenues that the victims can pursue, | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
but you know, a big opportunity has been missed there. There is an | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
opportunity for civil compensation, but this isn't just about civil | :17:39. | :17:45. | |
compensation, this is about justice. How ashamed, Ken MacDonald, do you | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
think we should be, that he died before any of this came to light? | :17:50. | :17:57. | |
think a lot of the institution, care homes, our national | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
institutions, the police, and prosecutor, they will be thinking | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
very hard about themselves, and so they should be. Will it be a bill | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
for tax-payers, should this be where the victims go to be | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
compensated? Victims are entitled to compensation from some of these | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
organisations which owed them a duty of care, and failed to give | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
them that care. As a result of that failure they suffered sexual abuse. | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
I'm not a civil lawyer, but I think many of these victims will have a | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
strong case for civil compensation against some of the institutions, | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
including the broadcaster. Thank you all very much. | :18:32. | :18:35. | |
If the Chancellor told the European Union it had to change for Britain | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
to stay, would he hear that as an ultimatum. George Osborne has made | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
clear he wants Britain to stay on the inside of the EU, but with | :18:42. | :18:48. | |
conditions. In an interview with the German | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
newspaper, Die Weld, published today, the Chancellor was asked, | :18:51. | :19:01. | |
:19:01. | :19:06. | ||
quite starkly, will Britain be in His answer. | :19:06. | :19:10. | |
After interventions this week from the US, Austrian and Dutch | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
Governments, and ahead of a major speech on Europe by David Cameron, | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
where do we now stand. Our diplomatic editor is just back from | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
Berlin. What do you read into those comments from George Osborne, first | :19:21. | :19:23. | |
of all? It is a significant statement for a British cabinet | :19:23. | :19:28. | |
minister to make. Making that conditionality about change in the | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
EU, making it the price, if you like, of continued membership. A | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
rallying cry for many Conservative backbenchers, and that broader | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
section of the British public that we could characterise as euro- | :19:39. | :19:45. | |
sceptic. On the other hand, how significant does change in Mr | :19:45. | :19:49. | |
Osborne's terms really have to be. He was in Berlin this week, making | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
all sorts of positive statements about Europe and its future | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
direction as well. What many in the Government had been hoping is they | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
could keep this on the one hand and the other-type policy going for | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
some time, some might say pretty close to the next election, until | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
they defined exactly what Britain wanted in terms of change. The | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
problem is, increasingly there are signs that the rest of Europe is | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
getting cross about this, and wants Britain to sexually say what it | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
wants, and stop, if you like, as some would say, holding them to | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
randsom. We have had a lot of these sort of tentative interventions, | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
haven't we? What kind of response from members, I guess you would | :20:26. | :20:31. | |
call it, the Europe club? Well, you have already pensions those two | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
leaders. The Austrian Prime Minister in an interview, that was | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
published today, he has been talking about this on the one hand, | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
on the other policy quite explicitly, saying we hear one | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
thing in the European Council, and another thing when Mr Cameron goes | :20:45. | :20:48. | |
home. He added that they all talk about it in the European Council. | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
Clearly they are implying a dual policy they don't like. We have had | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
the head of the German parliamentary European committee | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
using the word "blackmail" about what Britain is engaged with. | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
Britain has tried, we think there has been some briefings suggesting, | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
no there are others who share the view, the Dutch Prime Minister | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
himself, there is a speech coming up, doesn't disagree with us, about | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
perhaps taking some powers back. We had the Dutch Prime Minister's | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
spokesman saying, we don't know anything about what Mr Cameron | :21:17. | :21:22. | |
might say, and we don't agree with opt-outs, at this particular time. | :21:22. | :21:26. | |
It is clear that a lot of people in Europe want the British to, if you | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
like, put up or shut up. Is there any actual support for the UK | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
position as we understand it? well, at the popular level you | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
could say there is quite a bit. Let's face it, the party that went | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
into last year's French presidential elections with an | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
explicitly anti-euro platform, the National Front, actually did rather | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
well, in the Dutch elections, in the latter part of last year, there | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
were quite a lot of euro-sceptic messages. Both of those countries | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
voted no to the European constitution several years ago in | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
popular referenda. You could argue that on the popular level there is | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
sim thee. But the type of ruling class interest, -- sympathy, but | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
the type of ruling class interest, politicians, business leaders, | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
often get in the way of that, and insist on a "politics as normal" | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
type approach in Europe, in which basic membership is not challenged. | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
It will be very hard for the British Government to breakthrough | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
into that political class, and business class, and to convince | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
them that doing this, and raising these kinds of issues is not | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
undermining or destablising the EU, at a time when most of its members | :22:32. | :22:40. | |
want to concentrate on economic recovery. | :22:40. | :22:45. | |
Here's where surely the only -- his was surely the only coffin in | :22:45. | :22:51. | |
history to arrive with flowers of thunder bird 2. The creator, Gerry | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
Anderson, who died last month, was remembered from a 300-strong | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
congregation and the actors who worked with him. Hailed for his | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
vision, the film maker, diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years ago, was | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
hailed off with his puppets, a march, and Lady Penolope's pink | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
Rolls-Royce. For anyone of a sup certain age, me | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
included, the name -- of a certain age, me included, the name Gerry | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
Anderson on the credits means guaranteed excitement. He changed | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
children's TV by, for the first time, not making TV for children, | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
instead, he just made quality shows that children could enjoy without | :23:30. | :23:39. | |
being talked down to. The episodes were made meticulously, | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
huge attention to detail. Of course, it was a one-off, there was no | :23:42. | :23:50. | |
other show in the world like it. pink Rolls-Royce gave a hint as to | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
whose funeral it was in Reading today. Gerry Anderson's stars could | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
not attend, without someone to work their strings. Many of their voices, | :23:56. | :24:01. | |
though, made it. Not that many people may recognise your face, if | :24:01. | :24:05. | |
you say something they might recognise who you are? "yes, they | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
might recognise that I did the voice of Parker, a long time ago". | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
I was the angels voices in Captain Scarlet. All of the angels? I did | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
three of them. Would you rather live on Tracey Island? I would. | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
weather is not bad there? weather is fabulous. I was lucky | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
enough to meet Gerry Anderson about 18 months before he died. He had | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
been diagnosed with Alzheimer's a year previously. This was one of | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
his last interviews. He told me that advice he had got early in his | :24:37. | :24:43. | |
career still rang true. It's very simple, never second guess your | :24:43. | :24:52. | |
audience. You do what you want to do, and if you find that the | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
audience like what you want to do, you will be famous, if they don't | :24:56. | :25:02. | |
like what you want to do, open a greengrocer shop. | :25:02. | :25:09. | |
But early on, he could only get commissions working in a genre he | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
couldn't stand. Some people liked the puppets, and watching puppets, | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
I hated puppets, and hated working with them. So, he made it his own, | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
doing it better than anyone else. Always working round the puppets' | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
limitation, they can't walk convincingly, well, however bikes | :25:28. | :25:37. | |
and conveyor-belts then. I remember one -- hover bikes, and conveyor- | :25:37. | :25:45. | |
belts. I remember one moments, when I was saying "wait, wait, captain | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
scarlet" starting crying, and then I got the button, puppets don't | :25:50. | :25:57. | |
cry! He got so many productions here into the American market, they | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
wouldn't allow them before he cracked it with Thunderbirds. They | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
were watching it, they had a specialised showing, I don't know | :26:05. | :26:13. | |
where it was. They had the head of NBC saying we have to have it, it | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
is a killer. His most creative period coincided with the space | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
race. He, in common with his young audience, was obsessed with rockets | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
and astronauts. On one trip to New York, he remembers lecturing a | :26:27. | :26:35. | |
stranger on the mechanics of space travel. So I told him how the | :26:35. | :26:42. | |
astronaut escape system worked. He was very interested. You know, the | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
speed you have to go to break-away from earth's gravity, all these | :26:45. | :26:49. | |
sorts of facts that I knew, he listened. It was quite obvious he | :26:49. | :26:58. | |
was very interested. He was doing the occasional "really"! And "I | :26:58. | :27:06. | |
didn't know that"! Having talked myself dry, we got up, we shook | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
hands and he gave me his card. And I gave him, I took mine and gave | :27:11. | :27:20. | |
him mine. And I turned his card over and it read Captain James | :27:20. | :27:26. | |
Lovell! Well I nearly fell through the floor. It was the biggest put- | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
down, not only I have ever had in my life. It was the biggest put- | :27:30. | :27:37. | |
down anyone could have in their life. I was so take Anne back, I | :27:37. | :27:45. | |
said, you bastard! In Gerry Anderson's shows, technology | :27:45. | :27:51. | |
brought salvation, the prief of our better angels. It is further | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
fueristic and optistic, -- futuristic and optimistic, it shows | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
us a better mankind? Good was always supreme, we always won in | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
the end. But he became disappointed by how the full-sized world failed | :28:04. | :28:08. | |
to measure up. The only thing that hasn't changed and hasn't advanced | :28:08. | :28:14. | |
are people. That, I think, is tragic. Because there have been so | :28:14. | :28:20. | |
many opportunities opened up, what have we done? We have started for | :28:20. | :28:26. | |
whatever reason one war and another war, and I often think to myself, | :28:26. | :28:33. | |
in a way, us human beings deserve what we get. He was a massive | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
influence on tell vision, and children's television, and I think | :28:37. | :28:43. | |
the greatest thing about all his work is that it was entertaining. | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
There was no gratuitous violence, there is so much violence around | :28:47. | :28:54. | |
these days. He will be remembered as long as television is remembered. | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
Review is up next. Kirsty is in Glasgow. What have you got for us? | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
Tonight I'm joined by John Mullan, David Hayman and Anne McElvoy. We | :29:03. | :29:08. | |
plan to sing our way through Review, to see if it does for us what it | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
has done for Mister Dillon, for all you Modern Family, how will you | :29:14. | :29:19. | |
take to The New Normal this. One with Ellen Barkin as a homophobic | :29:19. | :29:24. | |
racist granny. Comedy of another stripe, PG Wodehouse is back with | :29:24. | :29:34. |