:00:00. > :00:11.Allied leaders prepare to commemorate the D-Day landings, but
:00:12. > :00:16.they don't all feel like allies any more. Vladimir Putin's policies have
:00:17. > :00:21.drawn more comparisons with 1938 than 1944. We're at the spot that
:00:22. > :00:27.seven decades ago was code named Gold Beach. This was the scene of
:00:28. > :00:29.the biggest amphibious assault in history. Tonight they are
:00:30. > :00:33.celebrating and tomorrow the world leaders will descend on this place.
:00:34. > :00:38.How are more than 700 American troops killed while rehearsing for
:00:39. > :00:44.the operation. Folk memory, the only public record of the horror. When
:00:45. > :00:51.dawn broke in the beach here, as far as you could see, he said, there was
:00:52. > :00:55.dead bodies. We're in Newark as the poles close in the by-election,
:00:56. > :01:01.could UKIP be celebrating again tomorrow, or will the aggressive
:01:02. > :01:06.Tory charm offensive pay off. Terry Gilliam is let loose on an opera.
:01:07. > :01:10.What could they have been thinking. I wanted to put on a good show, this
:01:11. > :01:18.involves a lot of arguments with people who are purests. And I'm not
:01:19. > :01:24.interested in that. You are afraid, I remember. And how should a super
:01:25. > :01:29.hero behave in the dark days of 2014? We will ask one of the world's
:01:30. > :01:40.most successful comic writers, Mark Miller.
:01:41. > :01:49.Good evening, the irony can't be lost on the leaders of the G 7
:01:50. > :01:53.today, the 20th ary of -- anniversary of D-Day, to celebrate
:01:54. > :01:57.the greatest victory the world has ever known, and to have in your
:01:58. > :02:01.midst, Vladimir Putin, the politicians they can't stop. On the
:02:02. > :02:06.shores of Brussels and Paris, it promises to be a mix of the curious
:02:07. > :02:11.mix of the past and present, the sharp relief of landings with the G
:02:12. > :02:19.7 summit hoping this time around to shape world events by diplomacy.
:02:20. > :02:23.Tonight the mood here on the seafront in Normandy could only be
:02:24. > :02:28.described as festive. There was a big firework display that just
:02:29. > :02:34.finished. People are sampling the cider and calvados to get into the
:02:35. > :02:42.spirit of the town. Thoughs of people in tents, in mobile homes, a
:02:43. > :02:46.sort of historical Glastonbury. Tomorrow will be more formal. A
:02:47. > :02:51.religious service in the Cathedral, services of remembrance too in war
:02:52. > :02:59.cemetaries, attended by President Obama, the Queen, Angela Merkel,
:03:00. > :03:04.Vladimir Putin and of course President Hollande. There are big
:03:05. > :03:09.political differences between those people at the moment, that is what
:03:10. > :03:13.they have been doing today, trying to reconcile the big things that
:03:14. > :03:20.divide them. If British and French troops are to parade together, as
:03:21. > :03:27.they will tomorrow, there are matters of protocol to be dealt
:03:28. > :03:32.with. And just as this business was being resolved, a diplomatic
:03:33. > :03:38.manoeuvre of far greater complexity was unfolding. For this day started
:03:39. > :03:43.with an event intended to punish Russia and ended with another, where
:03:44. > :03:49.the old war time allies will remember what great friends they
:03:50. > :03:54.were back in 1944. So the G7 meeting this morning in Brussels shut Russia
:03:55. > :04:02.out and threatened further sanctions if Russia doesn't do more to defuse
:04:03. > :04:10.the congoing crisis in Ukraine. -- the on going crisis in the Ukraine.
:04:11. > :04:15.We will see what Mr Putnam does -- Putin does over the next few weeks.
:04:16. > :04:18.If he remains on the course we will indicate the actions we are prepared
:04:19. > :04:23.to take. A little later the Queen arrived in Paris at the start of a
:04:24. > :04:27.visit to commemorate D-Day, she was ahead of her host, President
:04:28. > :04:30.Hollande who was rushing back from Brussels to metre. With Barack Obama
:04:31. > :04:33.and David Cameron travelling in the same direction. The situation today
:04:34. > :04:38.is not acceptable and it needs to change. We need the Russians to
:04:39. > :04:43.properly recognise and work with this new President. We need
:04:44. > :04:47.deescalation, we need to stop arms and people crossing the border, we
:04:48. > :04:52.need action on these fronts. If that happens there is a diplomatic path
:04:53. > :04:57.that is open. Russia had been hoping to use this moment to turn the page
:04:58. > :05:04.on Ukraine, but President Obama was having none of it. He dined with Mr
:05:05. > :05:11.Hollande, but refused to meet Vladimir Putin, keeping that at
:05:12. > :05:15.Foreign Minister level. When President Putin flew into Paris a
:05:16. > :05:18.couple of hours later, his host endured a second working dinner of
:05:19. > :05:21.the evening. The diplomats hope now that by tomorrow morning the leaders
:05:22. > :05:27.will have recovered their appetite for celebrating a war time alliance,
:05:28. > :05:34.complete with a Russian leader who today was shunned by the US at
:05:35. > :05:38.least. There was one more awkward political moment today when
:05:39. > :05:42.President Obama in Brussels really set his face against Scotland
:05:43. > :05:45.leaving the union. He made it quite clear that he didn't think that
:05:46. > :05:49.would be a good thing. The White House and Downing Street we
:05:50. > :05:53.understand felt they should get all of this politics out of the way
:05:54. > :05:59.today and just focus on remembrance tomorrow. So that these issues would
:06:00. > :06:05.not intrude, and obviously the key focus here at this are the veterans
:06:06. > :06:08.of what happened 70 years ago. Even among the few hundred who are still
:06:09. > :06:11.with us and who have come, the number who were actually on the
:06:12. > :06:16.beaches, on D-Day, on the 6th of June is very, very small. And
:06:17. > :06:26.earlier today I was lucky to meet such a man, Les Reeves, in one of
:06:27. > :06:32.the first tanks of the landing craft and told me what it felt like as he
:06:33. > :06:36.hit the beach. Everybody was scared, I mean those who said they weren't
:06:37. > :06:42.scared were fools or liars basically. When we came off the
:06:43. > :06:51.landing craft all you could see was water wasn't it! You know, once you
:06:52. > :06:56.had cleared the water and there was that much going on, there was stuff
:06:57. > :07:00.hitting the tank, and we got the headphones on and there was this
:07:01. > :07:08.happening and that happening. You didn't have time to be scared, it
:07:09. > :07:16.had gone. Of course what Folaued was followed was a tough campaign for
:07:17. > :07:33.weeks, how much of a toll did it take on your squadron. Well, I don't
:07:34. > :07:50.know really, you know... . Yeah... . What is your attitude now to the
:07:51. > :07:55.Germans? The ordinary German army, they were doing the same job as us,
:07:56. > :07:59.but the SS and others they were animals. Some people say this
:08:00. > :08:04.generation is softer or they couldn't have stood the suffering
:08:05. > :08:11.that you and your comrades with stood, is there any truth in that? I
:08:12. > :08:18.don't think so. We were a generation where our fathers were in the first
:08:19. > :08:23.war. When the call came we were there, weren't we. And I think
:08:24. > :08:29.strongly that the generation of today would do exactly the same if
:08:30. > :08:37.necessary and if needed. The thing is this, events like this must
:08:38. > :08:42.continue, not only for the memory of those who didn't return to see the
:08:43. > :08:52.white cliffs, but also for them to learn a lesson that war is not a
:08:53. > :08:58.very good thing. Well the events of the landing are well trod, less well
:08:59. > :09:02.known perhaps is the military disaster that preceded it and
:09:03. > :09:05.threatened the very success of the entire allied invasion. A dress
:09:06. > :09:10.rehearsal for D-Day involving tens of thousands of American troops went
:09:11. > :09:14.badly wrong. More than 700 died in just one day when German torpedo
:09:15. > :09:20.boats spotted landing craft ready to mount a practice assault in a beach
:09:21. > :09:26.in Devon. Yet the real story of what happened that day was only uncovered
:09:27. > :09:34.decades later by an eccentric beach comber from Grimsby.
:09:35. > :09:40.In the ball of flame on the edges you could see black specks, jeeps,
:09:41. > :09:46.men, parts of the ship, it was awful. The waters were burning and
:09:47. > :09:51.it looked like the sea was on fire. Then there was another explosion,
:09:52. > :09:57.another ship was torpedoed. Six weeks before D-Day and just off the
:09:58. > :10:05.Devon coast a secret training exercise ends in disaster. There
:10:06. > :10:12.were bodies everywhere, some in groups burned by oil, and there was
:10:13. > :10:16.just a scene out of hell. Mani was one of 30,000 US troops sent to
:10:17. > :10:21.south-west England to prepare for the biggest sea assault in history.
:10:22. > :10:25.He survived the attack and felt the sacrifice of his countrymen was
:10:26. > :10:34.ultimately worthwhile. Though his family say it deeply affected him.
:10:35. > :10:38.When dawn broke in the beach here at Slapton, as far as you could see, he
:10:39. > :10:46.made, there were dead bodies, but because no-one had told the soldiers
:10:47. > :10:52.how to put their life vests on they put it round their waists instead of
:10:53. > :10:56.over their chests, because of the weight of the back pack and
:10:57. > :10:59.munitions and stuff, when they went into the water it pushed them
:11:00. > :11:06.forward, most of the guys drowned. He was extremely scarred by the
:11:07. > :11:12.whole exercise. By the experience, he was also very private and very
:11:13. > :11:18.secretive about what happened until much later in his life. By the
:11:19. > :11:23.spring of 1944 thousands of American servicemen, like Manny were waiting
:11:24. > :11:30.on the south coast ready for D-Day. A stretch of the Devon shoreline was
:11:31. > :11:34.chosen for the dress rehearsal, code named Exercise Tiger, the author
:11:35. > :11:41.Michael Morpergo has written about the time. The city is the scene for
:11:42. > :11:48.one of his best known novels. The Americans came here in 1943, very
:11:49. > :11:55.deliberately choosing this beach, because the beach they were going to
:11:56. > :11:59.land on across there in Normandy, Utah Beach, has great similarities
:12:00. > :12:06.with this. What they wanted to do was to practice their landings,
:12:07. > :12:11.which would be happening on Slapton Sands. In order to do that they had
:12:12. > :12:16.to evacuate huge amounts of land, 30,000 acres had to be evacuated.
:12:17. > :12:21.Six villages, all the people and animals had to be moved away.
:12:22. > :12:29.Evacuation in the path of war has come to the peaceful south-west of
:12:30. > :12:36.England. In 1943 this man was one of 3,000 told to leave their homes for
:12:37. > :12:41.nearly a year. Now 83 she still lives in the same house. We weren't
:12:42. > :12:48.told why we had to move out, we were told the land was wanted. We had to
:12:49. > :12:56.get out within six weeks. So you know, it was quite an ordeal for the
:12:57. > :13:00.parents. People realised that it was for a special reason that they had
:13:01. > :13:06.to move out. But they didn't know why. As the residents moved out, so
:13:07. > :13:11.the military moved in. A series of training exercises through April
:13:12. > :13:17.1944 culminated in a large scale assault on Slapton Sands itself. The
:13:18. > :13:23.whole idea is they were going to practice and make it as, I suppose,
:13:24. > :13:27.as like a real battle as possible. With live fire and all the rest of
:13:28. > :13:31.it. Shells would be coming over the heads of ships out there, the men
:13:32. > :13:34.would be landing on the beaches, the shells would be landing in the
:13:35. > :13:42.countryside and the villages all around, and then come June 1944 they
:13:43. > :13:49.went over. But inbetween in April there was this terrible tragedy
:13:50. > :13:54.during Exercise Tiger. As thousands of troops sailed around the bay, a
:13:55. > :14:00.destroyer meant to provide cover was ordered away. The landing ships was
:14:01. > :14:04.easy targets for German S-boats hunting in the channel.
:14:05. > :14:09.50 servicemen died in the sea that day. US generals ordered a complete
:14:10. > :14:14.news blackout. What has really happened here on the beach wouldn't
:14:15. > :14:18.reach the public until the mid-1980s, 40 years after the D-Day
:14:19. > :14:23.landings. The full story only came to light because of the remarkable
:14:24. > :14:28.work of one retired police officer from Grimsby. Ken Small was
:14:29. > :14:33.something of an eccentric a beach comber who kept asking questions
:14:34. > :14:37.about the schrapnal, belts and bullets he was picking up. Then a
:14:38. > :14:42.fisherman told him about a mysterious object three-quarters of
:14:43. > :14:47.a mile out to sea. After the tank had been recovered naturally the
:14:48. > :14:52.coverage that got internationally that did lead to people starting to
:14:53. > :15:00.make contact. It became important to my dad, he wanted to create
:15:01. > :15:04.something, a memorial to those who lost their lives. Slowly he started
:15:05. > :15:09.piecing the story together, getting hold of unclassified documents,
:15:10. > :15:14.spending hours on the phone to survivors, by 1988 he had the ear of
:15:15. > :15:19.the President. It is a letter of thanks from Ronald Regan for all
:15:20. > :15:24.that my dad did. "Your concern for our servicemen who made the supreme
:15:25. > :15:28.sacrifice exsemplifies the strong bonds of friendship and admiration
:15:29. > :15:33.that unite the people of our two countries." Historians agree there
:15:34. > :15:36.was no deliberate military cover-up in this case, the official news
:15:37. > :15:40.blackout was lifted a couple of months after D-Day. By then nobody
:15:41. > :15:45.wanted to read about a training disaster and the story of Exercise
:15:46. > :15:49.Tiger, simply faded away. Right from the people from these farms and
:15:50. > :15:52.villages here, who gave up their homes and who helped this to happen,
:15:53. > :15:57.who understood it and went through what they went through, to the
:15:58. > :16:03.American soldiers who came over here from goodness knows where to live on
:16:04. > :16:07.a, in a Devon landscape for a bit and exercise here, and then go over
:16:08. > :16:18.to France, and many of them died both here in this exercise and in
:16:19. > :16:24.France. Was what worth it? Of course it was. The most necessary of all
:16:25. > :16:28.wars. The entire free world was at stake, his friends from New York,
:16:29. > :16:39.other members of the family, his brother, they all felt they had to
:16:40. > :16:42.go and fight to save the world. Despite the lost of life something
:16:43. > :16:49.concrete was achieved by the operation, allied planners
:16:50. > :16:53.understood the danger from fast torpedo boats, plans were changed
:16:54. > :17:01.and survival training given, all this was put into practice on D-Day
:17:02. > :17:06.itself in Normandy. Harry Leslie Smith is a Second World
:17:07. > :17:13.War veteran, and author of Harry's Last Stand, with us tonight, joined
:17:14. > :17:17.by a Russian historian at the London School of Economics and a German
:17:18. > :17:21.historian at Queen Mary in London. A warm welcome to you all, thank you
:17:22. > :17:24.for coming in. Harry I want to start with some of your thoughts,
:17:25. > :17:29.particularly the ones you have expressed recently in the book about
:17:30. > :17:38.sacrifice b whether you are no longer convinced that the sacrifice
:17:39. > :17:47.your generation made was worth it? I think I my thoughts on that is the
:17:48. > :17:57.fact that we fought so hard to win the war and in the election which we
:17:58. > :18:08.were lucky to be involved in we all voted for liberal and when Attlee
:18:09. > :18:16.took over we saw a new face from conservatism which gave us more hope
:18:17. > :18:25.for a better life. Unfortunately it lasted for a long time, they did
:18:26. > :18:32.well, they built new homes, they made universities for our young
:18:33. > :18:43.people to go and educate themselves which didn't exist for the poor in
:18:44. > :18:49.the old days. And like I said, the rationing was still on when we were
:18:50. > :18:53.demobed, and it went on for a good year-and-a-half afterwards, which
:18:54. > :19:01.meant that you know you got very simple rations for food it was still
:19:02. > :19:11.a bleak life in the early days. But we could see change coming. And it
:19:12. > :19:18.was really an uplifting time, because in those days ordinary
:19:19. > :19:25.people like us we suffered misery of hunger and disease. There was no
:19:26. > :19:38.health service. I lost a sister actually to TB. I remember as a kid
:19:39. > :19:56.she was lying there helpless. My mother was so distraught by the
:19:57. > :20:04.whole thing. She actually died in a work house. Does it feel a very
:20:05. > :20:13.different place to you where we are today, the generation that you look
:20:14. > :20:16.at today? It is but there is an undercurrent involved in what we
:20:17. > :20:24.see, which we seem to be ignoring. There is a massive amount of people
:20:25. > :20:29.who are living almost pay day to pay day and on the brink of disaster.
:20:30. > :20:34.Let me bring in our historians, because for 60 years neither the
:20:35. > :20:39.Russians nor the Germans have been part of these D-Day celebrations.
:20:40. > :20:45.What does their presence this year tell us or signify? It might mean
:20:46. > :20:50.that Germans are simply more confident about being equal
:20:51. > :20:55.partners, but also that D-Day is no longer only a symbol of defeat. It
:20:56. > :21:00.is also a symbol of liberation. Germans have never really remembered
:21:01. > :21:07.D-Day as one of their major events, they would rather remember VE Day
:21:08. > :21:13.the day of allied victory. The main debates about VE Day were whether it
:21:14. > :21:20.was a day of defeat or rather a day of liberation. In 1985 that was
:21:21. > :21:26.still very controversial when the German federal President held a
:21:27. > :21:33.speech and said we should look at these events as events of liberation
:21:34. > :21:36.because that connects us with the west. Angela Merkel today has been
:21:37. > :21:40.praising the sacrifice and the bravery. Do you think that is
:21:41. > :21:47.reflected at home in Germany? I don't actually think that in German
:21:48. > :21:52.popular culture and in the German mind D-Day is, has anything to do
:21:53. > :21:59.with heroism or was a positive memory of the war. D-Day was one of
:22:00. > :22:03.many battles which signified defeat. It was actually rather Stalin
:22:04. > :22:08.grabbed, the defeat at the eastern front, the bombings of the German
:22:09. > :22:18.cities that really impacted Germans at the home front and also on the
:22:19. > :22:26.German army. I would say that D-Day it is not that it is insignificant,
:22:27. > :22:29.it is rather Stalingrad rather than D-Day. Does that chime with you,
:22:30. > :22:33.does it have a significance for Russians? D-Day had a huge
:22:34. > :22:39.psychological significance, it was downplayed by the Soviet propaganda
:22:40. > :22:44.in 1944, because by that time of course Stalin was preparing
:22:45. > :22:53.phenomenally big offensives against the German army and Belarusia and
:22:54. > :22:58.Ukraine and then entering Europe. But that was the end of a third year
:22:59. > :23:05.of incredibly tough fighting when the Soviets had already lost
:23:06. > :23:09.millions. Jews died in millions, so by that time it was immensely
:23:10. > :23:16.important for people to know when this war is going to end. So D-Day
:23:17. > :23:22.came at this amazing moment and finally the second front
:23:23. > :23:26.materialised. The second front which for two years the Soviet propaganda
:23:27. > :23:32.promised the Soviet people that this front would appear, and their burden
:23:33. > :23:39.would be lightened by the Allies. That was immensely important as a
:23:40. > :23:44.moment when millions of people said Hallelujah, finally. When you say
:23:45. > :23:48."finally", is there a sense it could have come earlier? We should look at
:23:49. > :23:53.the sense of how the news was presented. Stalin never recognised
:23:54. > :23:58.the operations in Africa, Sicily and Italy as the proper second front. He
:23:59. > :24:03.used it actually to prepare the Soviets, hey, we have to rely on
:24:04. > :24:06.ourselves, the Allies are unreliable. They are not one of us,
:24:07. > :24:13.they are different, they are capitalists. So still despite this,
:24:14. > :24:18.despite this propaganda, despite this, common people in the trenches,
:24:19. > :24:23.in the rear working, toiling day and night, they heaved a huge sigh of
:24:24. > :24:26.relieve. It is often said we look at history through the prism of where
:24:27. > :24:30.we are today. When you see the leaders and look at the allies and
:24:31. > :24:35.the Allies within the Allies, as it were, it is a very stark picture
:24:36. > :24:39.isn't it. You see the kind of diplomacy they have to do with each
:24:40. > :24:45.other now? That's right, there has been a lot of discussion in Germany
:24:46. > :24:51.about whether Angela Merkel would sit next to Putin, whether she would
:24:52. > :24:55.talk to Obama, so I think there is a certain sense of, it is good that
:24:56. > :25:00.the Germans are there and taken seriously and no longer a pariah. As
:25:01. > :25:06.a historian this is quite a development from a few decades ago.
:25:07. > :25:10.Thank you very much indeed. The European Central Bank has taken
:25:11. > :25:15.drastic action, cut interest rates to record lose to ward off
:25:16. > :25:20.deflation. It has also placed negative lending rates on its
:25:21. > :25:24.overnight depositors, in order to tempt banks into lending more. The
:25:25. > :25:28.ECB President confirmed the rates would stay low for longer than
:25:29. > :25:33.previously foreseen, but it could take up to a year to be fully felt
:25:34. > :25:38.in the economy. Our economics correspondent is here. Talks through
:25:39. > :25:44.what they are doing and the negative what it implies, the rate? It was
:25:45. > :25:49.either interest rate were going up or down in the past. Now we are in a
:25:50. > :25:57.world of unconventional policy. What we had from the European Central
:25:58. > :26:01.Bank was a lot of unconventional policy. This isn't the rate at which
:26:02. > :26:05.they lend but what they pay on deposit. This is the rate if you are
:26:06. > :26:09.a bank in Europe and you are putting money at the ECB they will charge
:26:10. > :26:13.you to put that money there. Perhaps the most interesting thing they did
:26:14. > :26:18.though, potentially one of the most significant is a big scheme to boost
:26:19. > :26:24.lending in the eurozone. They will make up to 400 billions of euros of
:26:25. > :26:28.cheap funding available to commercial banks, you can go and get
:26:29. > :26:30.cheap funding and pass it on to the real economy.
:26:31. > :26:35.Why are they doing this, what has triggered this, a real fear of
:26:36. > :26:39.deflation or stagflation? That is the problem. This is a very
:26:40. > :26:44.conservative Central Bank, they have had to be pushed into doing this,
:26:45. > :26:48.growth and inemployment are awful. The real big issue is what is
:26:49. > :26:53.happening in inflation in the eurozone. Inflation in the eurozone,
:26:54. > :26:57.it is up at 2. 5% a few years ago, exactly what you would expect as
:26:58. > :27:02.normal. In the past year-and-a-half two years, inflations came all the
:27:03. > :27:05.way down to just 0. 5%. What people are scared about now is prices
:27:06. > :27:09.actually start to fall, inflation goes negative, we get deflation. I
:27:10. > :27:13.think to a lot of people the idea that stuff is getting cheaper
:27:14. > :27:19.probably sounds good, it is not number one on the list of economic
:27:20. > :27:22.problems. But most economists would tell you deflation is a serious
:27:23. > :27:26.problem for an economy. Profits go down, wages go down, you get into
:27:27. > :27:29.what people call a spiral of everything, there is no demand in
:27:30. > :27:32.the economy, it sucks the life out of it. If you are a really highly
:27:33. > :27:39.indebted economy, as in southern Europe, it is potentially lethal.
:27:40. > :27:45.Will it actually work? I guess that is the 64 billion euro question
:27:46. > :27:50.tonight! The market has been through three stage, stage number one this
:27:51. > :27:54.is great, stage number 2, it is not enough, and now we are settling it
:27:55. > :27:58.might be enough. It is often said you can't solve a problem by
:27:59. > :28:03.throwing money at it, low inflation, you can. Is the ECB going to throw
:28:04. > :28:07.enough money, do we have to wait for things to get worse before pushing
:28:08. > :28:17.them into acting. The latest figures on the ebowl
:28:18. > :28:24.ebola virus show 200 people have died in Ghana because of the
:28:25. > :28:29.disease. We go to Brussels and speak to our guest recently working as a
:28:30. > :28:36.co-ordinator in Guinea. What are the barriers when you look at the
:28:37. > :28:41.problem with this outbreak? The big barrier is that the population there
:28:42. > :28:45.has to be a willing participant in outbreak control. They need to work
:28:46. > :28:51.with the outbreak control agencies to help bring sick people into the
:28:52. > :28:56.treatment unit. And currently they are very, very scared and often
:28:57. > :29:01.running away, and this is causing difficulty with bringing people into
:29:02. > :29:04.a place where they can be cared for safely with the virus. The
:29:05. > :29:09.population is very mobile, while they are psyche they are moving
:29:10. > :29:12.about and this is -- sick they are moving about and it is causing
:29:13. > :29:16.secondary outbreaks across the country. And resources are inthis.
:29:17. > :29:20.There is a lot of talk and discussion about the local
:29:21. > :29:24.population being very mistrustful of the foreigners or aid workers there,
:29:25. > :29:31.they feel they are there for dark and different reasons? Yes, these
:29:32. > :29:35.are people who live in a remote area without a lot of outside disease
:29:36. > :29:40.control agencies coming on a regular basis. When they do in the setting
:29:41. > :29:45.of a scary outbreak, rumours start to pass around. I have heard that we
:29:46. > :29:50.are there to spread the disease, not to cure it. That we are there at the
:29:51. > :29:55.behest of drug companies seeking to make a profit off the outbreak. Even
:29:56. > :30:01.that we are three to harvest the organs of the deceased. When you
:30:02. > :30:07.have text messages sent about spreading these rumours or that you
:30:08. > :30:14.are there, we heard, harvest organs or whatever the ideas that they are
:30:15. > :30:26.having, how do you combat that? We do our best to let people know what
:30:27. > :30:29.we are trying to do. We also enlist survivors, people whom come into the
:30:30. > :30:35.centre and done well and let the community know what we are up to. We
:30:36. > :30:42.try to bring in community leaders. It works with some people but not a
:30:43. > :30:50.uniformly impressive effect. Tonight the curtain has come down on
:30:51. > :30:53.the first night of Cieline by the notoriously difficult French
:30:54. > :30:58.composer and has not been seen in London since another World Cup year,
:30:59. > :31:11.1966. The man who has risen to the challenge of making sense of
:31:12. > :31:15.Cieline. Is Terry Gilliam. He granted exclusive access through the
:31:16. > :31:26.rehearsals, I warn you there is some strong language. It may surprise you
:31:27. > :31:32.that Terry Gillian of Monty Python fame is directing an opera at the
:31:33. > :31:43.E Not just any opera, but one of the most difficult in the can non-.
:31:44. > :31:53.-- cannon. Cieline is notoriously tricky, at its premier in Paris in
:31:54. > :32:02.1888, the audience rioted. It has been down hill ever since. I want to
:32:03. > :32:09.put on a good show, this involves a lot of arguments with people who are
:32:10. > :32:14.purists. I'm not interested in that, people pay a lot of money to see
:32:15. > :32:18.something and I want to really give them something they will go and
:32:19. > :32:27.remember for a long time. And I don't want it just to be for opera
:32:28. > :32:31.lovers. In the world of opera, there seems to be a lot of museum-like
:32:32. > :32:35.thinking going on, and I really don't like that, because what worked
:32:36. > :32:45.in the 19th century, why should it work in the 21 century. Everything
:32:46. > :32:50.about this opera is inflated. It always bothers me because I don't
:32:51. > :33:05.like opera singing in that sense where it is all arms out. The opera
:33:06. > :33:10.is based on the autobiography of the Italian sculpture, Cieline, and the
:33:11. > :33:28.statue the Pope asked him to cast of a Greek God. Cieline was a notorious
:33:29. > :33:35.man. Terry Gilliam's kind of guy. This coy was full of hub Ritz --
:33:36. > :34:03.hubris, and has had statue, at this point in his career, it was a big
:34:04. > :34:05.mistake I made and will it ever workstake I made and will it
:34:06. > :34:13.We do have a carnival sequence where the world is turned upsidedown, and
:34:14. > :34:18.it involves a lot of abhorrent behaviour. I'm not sure if we have
:34:19. > :34:23.enough rehearsal time to really perfect this. We will see on the
:34:24. > :34:32.opening night. Laughter, what a stupid joke. The whole Roman
:34:33. > :34:43.carnival through to act I is some of the most rea veryious -- vivacious,
:34:44. > :34:47.cheeky music he has ever composed. The reason this piece is a very
:34:48. > :34:52.difficult piece is because he cared about the drama so much that he
:34:53. > :34:56.didn't care whatever. It's like sing a high C sharp for no reason. And
:34:57. > :35:07.people are like why, because he should be in ecstacy tonight. How
:35:08. > :35:23.high would that be, ahhhhhhhh, so it is a little high. We do have maiden
:35:24. > :35:30.aunts that may or may not be violated. Never too late, I always
:35:31. > :35:42.say. We have, yes, some very rude behaviour in the middle of carnival,
:35:43. > :35:49.because you should. There may be even some blasphemous behaviour from
:35:50. > :35:54.an anti-Pope who has to be there. That is what is interesting about
:35:55. > :35:59.the opera because he never knew when to stop, and Cieline the same thing.
:36:00. > :36:12.And on the third bit of the magnet that is me. Out of the three two are
:36:13. > :36:18.geniuses! I still want to surprise myself, I suppose. Because I find
:36:19. > :36:23.life becomes more and more repetitive and more predictable as
:36:24. > :36:27.you get older and you want to find something somewhere that nobody has
:36:28. > :36:32.been before. I wanted to be the explorer and the world is closing in
:36:33. > :36:42.so much it is becoming tiny. So let's go somewhere else, at least
:36:43. > :36:52.Folau the mad men. Dare I bring up the p-word? You said to the c-word,
:36:53. > :36:58.no and the p-word is nowhere at all. It is the biggest leap in work and
:36:59. > :37:03.career in my life. And everything I have done as a result has been as a
:37:04. > :37:08.result of Monty Python. I love the idea of going back and reliving it
:37:09. > :37:13.is something different from the fact that python is why I'm sitting here
:37:14. > :37:18.talking to you right now, I'm talking to you because of the python
:37:19. > :37:23.show. Who is the trickyist one? Graham, because he's dead, he can't
:37:24. > :37:28.complain. That is not fair. Maybe it is true, I don't know? He wasn't the
:37:29. > :37:34.tricky one, tricky is an odd one, I'm not sure exactly how you would
:37:35. > :37:39.define that with python. It was who was the moodiest, who was the least
:37:40. > :37:47.trustworthy, who was the most backstabbing, these are games that I
:37:48. > :37:56.will never mention to Newsnight! John wonderfully referred to me as
:37:57. > :38:02.the conscience of python, the Jimmeney Cricket of python. I
:38:03. > :38:12.thought it was the sweetest thing he said about me. What are they doing?
:38:13. > :38:23.Lock, Fan Tuti that is not our pop a, we should be here this afternoon,
:38:24. > :38:27.but they are putting that up. If you could develop superpowers tonight,
:38:28. > :38:32.what would you do, fight crime, save the city, rob a bank, kick back,
:38:33. > :38:40.enjoy it? One of the world's most successful comic book writers, Mark
:38:41. > :38:55.Miller, who has penned Superman and Spiderman and Kick Ass is thinking
:38:56. > :39:02.about how a super hero these days. How a super hero is behaving these
:39:03. > :39:06.days. It was the time when the super heros was defined. A time when the
:39:07. > :39:11.world was at war and the bad guys were the Nazis in the 1940s. As the
:39:12. > :39:17.world changed and the Cold War dragged on, new characters were
:39:18. > :39:22.needed to engage a more disenfranchised youth. There is a
:39:23. > :39:30.new enemy out there. The X-Men were born, focussing on a team of mutated
:39:31. > :39:34.humans. The comics delved deeply into the themes of racism and the
:39:35. > :39:42.politics of fear. More recently questions over America's influence
:39:43. > :39:47.and perceived fall billity have led to a divide. On the one side those
:39:48. > :39:52.like the Avengers and on the other a question about the society we
:39:53. > :39:57.inhabit. Mark Miller is one of the biggest stars writing comics right
:39:58. > :40:04.now. He straddles the world of escapism and gritty reality. Perhaps
:40:05. > :40:12.best known for creating stories like the Spiderman and the ultra violent
:40:13. > :40:17.Kick Ass, now a franchise. He goes further, focussing on Detroit, a
:40:18. > :40:22.city he believes has been left to rot by those with power. The heros
:40:23. > :40:26.are from the bottom of power, questioning the very notion of the
:40:27. > :40:29.American dream and how far you should help those around you. Can a
:40:30. > :40:34.comic book really change perceptions and force people to take action, or
:40:35. > :40:40.will it always be seen as a reactionary reflection of the world
:40:41. > :40:43.we live in? You saw Mark Miller briefly in the piece. He joins us
:40:44. > :40:49.from the Glasgow studio. Great to have you. I guess when we look at
:40:50. > :40:55.your super heros and they attract millions of fans. Why do you think
:40:56. > :41:01.there is an appetite for change? I think pop culture has to keep
:41:02. > :41:08.evolving. When I was a kid growing up I read simplistic comic books and
:41:09. > :41:14.as a teenager they became more sophisticated. Every ten or 20 years
:41:15. > :41:18.we have to reinvent ourselves. The mainstream audience has probably
:41:19. > :41:23.seen everything now it is time to try something different. Isn't the
:41:24. > :41:26.point about the super hero that they are mercifully black and white, they
:41:27. > :41:31.are on the side of law or on the side of evil, they allow people a
:41:32. > :41:35.very, if you like, relaxing ride into what they know will happen
:41:36. > :41:40.there? I know what you mean and it has certainly served that purpose.
:41:41. > :41:45.Even Superman was created by two Jewish kids in the depression back
:41:46. > :41:49.in the 1930s, we have always needed these heros, going back to the Greek
:41:50. > :41:58.myths. I feel slightly cupable, where we worried about got shall
:41:59. > :42:04.City we are forgetting -- Gotham City, we are forgetting about other
:42:05. > :42:08.things. I feel while all eyes are on superheroes it is time to try
:42:09. > :42:12.something more radical. Talks through the radical idea, you were
:42:13. > :42:17.affected by what you saw in Detroit, how do you convey that? I see both
:42:18. > :42:22.sides of America because I work in Hollywood and I work in publishing
:42:23. > :42:29.and in New York and I see the extravagant side of it I see 90% of
:42:30. > :42:34.the time. I book to the south and see places like Kentucky and
:42:35. > :42:48.Arkansas, and I visited a friend in Detroit, it is the America we don't
:42:49. > :42:52.see on television or in Comic, I thought about talking about the real
:42:53. > :42:56.thing. They are more grounded in reality, how do you know the guys
:42:57. > :43:00.from Detroit, who have come to the cinemas sitting there, eatingway
:43:01. > :43:08.popcorn, is the last thing they want to see on the screen? I don't know
:43:09. > :43:16.if there is an element of a that particular. -- catharticis I grew up
:43:17. > :43:20.where there was a deindustrialisation without a plan,
:43:21. > :43:26.similar to Detroit from the 50s onwards. I felt a connection with it
:43:27. > :43:32.in a strange way. I love the catharsis of superheroes, rather
:43:33. > :43:36.than letting Batman go out and fight for people every night. I wanted a
:43:37. > :43:40.thoughter to the little guy, and maybe if you can get superpowers you
:43:41. > :43:45.don't do the black and white thing and put food on the table for those
:43:46. > :43:51.who cannot pay their bills any more. Easier to change that on the screen
:43:52. > :43:56.but the page is flatter, I mean that in every sense? I have done the job
:43:57. > :44:04.since I was 19, I will do my best. We have a Detroit screenwriter who
:44:05. > :44:08.is doing the screenplay and the they are transforming it to a movie. We
:44:09. > :44:13.will try to keep it as close to home. You have sent this to Obama
:44:14. > :44:17.and other Congress men and women, what do you want to happen?
:44:18. > :44:25.Visibility is the thing. Not for my book, I mean visibility in terms of
:44:26. > :44:32.just making people not forget about Detroit. This has been going on
:44:33. > :44:38.since the 19 #50S, it has been America's embarrassment. Then it
:44:39. > :44:45.becomes a sexy spread in the Guardian and it is like room porn.
:44:46. > :44:47.It seems strange that the forth-largest city looks like
:44:48. > :44:53.something out of the Third World in places. I think visibility. Let's
:44:54. > :44:59.not talk about Gotham City, if everyone going to the cinema let's
:45:00. > :45:03.go and see superhero movies, let's slip this in, I want them to know
:45:04. > :45:11.about and the Power Rangers. You said you felt slightly culpable of
:45:12. > :45:15.the niceness, if you like of the superhero, not related to reality.
:45:16. > :45:19.If it doesn't work do you still return to the spider man or
:45:20. > :45:31.establishment figures that seem good. What does the violence? Do? It
:45:32. > :45:40.would be great if everything was the Avengers or a Woody Allen movie, I
:45:41. > :45:45.like writing things like Iron Man or Siderman. I love this gritty stuff.
:45:46. > :45:49.I left marvel four years ago and worked for them through the last
:45:50. > :45:58.decade, I left them to become them. My plan is to create franchises and
:45:59. > :46:01.I'm nine in. I want to do the 21st version it. When all the characters
:46:02. > :46:06.were created were talking about the world he was in and I'm trying to do
:46:07. > :46:11.the same. Thank you very much. Now late tonight in truth about 3.00am
:46:12. > :46:16.we find out whether UKIP, flushed with recent electoral success in the
:46:17. > :46:22.euros have managed to secure a parliamentary seat. The by-election
:46:23. > :46:28.of Newark came after Patrick Mercer stepped down and the Tories have
:46:29. > :46:33.done everything they can to save the party. There are reports they are
:46:34. > :46:37.busting young Tory activist -- bused in Tory activists with the promise
:46:38. > :46:44.of beer if anything else. We will see you if it has had any effect.
:46:45. > :46:49.What are you hearing from inside the hall, a high turnout? The
:46:50. > :46:57.expectation is there is a high turn out on the basis of the ballots they
:46:58. > :47:03.have brought in and checking at the moment. 45-50%. In the event result
:47:04. > :47:09.you get a lot of different opinions, although it is a safe Tory seat with
:47:10. > :47:12.a majority of 16,000, the Tories are insisting they are refusing to be
:47:13. > :47:18.optimistic or confident or anything like that. Their opponents are
:47:19. > :47:24.talking about will U cup overturn the majority, but by how much will
:47:25. > :47:29.they reduce it. Everything will demand th what happens to the
:47:30. > :47:36.crucial votes, 20,000 up for grabs. There is an awful lot of expectation
:47:37. > :47:43.and churn, some Labour and the Lib Dems voting UKIP to hit the
:47:44. > :47:47.Conservatives. Some voting story to keep UKIP out. There will be mixed
:47:48. > :47:51.switching of votes. What is your sense of what would found as a
:47:52. > :47:58.success for the Conservatives, how big does the majority have to be for
:47:59. > :48:01.them to rest easy? I think in these volatile and fluid political times
:48:02. > :48:06.they will take a win. They won't give me any kind of target when I
:48:07. > :48:11.ask them those questions. UKIP is saying anything less than 5,000
:48:12. > :48:25.shows that even when the Tories throw huge resources they have, they
:48:26. > :48:34.have not just thrown small things into the water they will now go for
:48:35. > :48:45.more. We will be back, thank you very much. That's all for tonight.
:48:46. > :49:00.A dry note on Friday, more in the way of low cloud. A few spots of
:49:01. > :49:05.rain from that. A few isolated showers drifting up from the west,
:49:06. > :49:06.west Wales in the direction of Northern Ireland in the