27/09/2014 Witness

but the damage to his reputation and finances has been great. Time for

Witness. Welcome to Witness, our monthly look back at history as seen

through the eyes of the people who were there. I'm at the British

library in the heart of London. We will hear from the first woman to be

ordained in the Church of England, a cinematographer who filmed the

beginning of the Second World War, and one of the stars of the biggest

Indian TV shows in history. At first, we travelled to Mexico. On

the 19th of September, 1985, a huge earthquake hit Mexico City, killing

thousands. The disaster led to the formation of an elite rescue group

called Los Topos, or The Moles. We met one of its founders.

TRANSLATION: When the earthquake hit, the first thing I saw that ``

was that part of the house opposite had fallen down. People were running

all over the place. Women were on their knees, asking God for

forgiveness. A report that an earthquake near Mexico City

may have claimed more than 1000 lives. The

City had been declared a disaster area,

feared trapped in the rubble. TRANSLATION: I decided to walk into

the centre, where I saw that the Hotel Regis had collapsed and a

shopping centre was on fire. I had just got out of the Parachute

Regiment. So, I decided to stay and help. All the people of Mexico,

Mexico City, they are working to help the people. They are trying to

help people. Then I heard about these people who were actually going

into the rubble to do searches themselves. At the time, there were

only nine of them. I tracked them down and I realised I could join

them. The first person I rescued was a lady who had been trapped while

she was having a wash. She was naked and she was asking for clothes and

it took a long time to convince her but eventually, we got hold of a

dressing gown and got her out OK. The government was completely

overwhelmed. There were not enough ambulances. There were no

specialised rescuers. People had to organise themselves. People started

calling us Los Topos, The Moles, when they saw us rolling into the

rubble. They started drilling holes into the debris and asking Los Topos

to go in and look for people. We just had our hands, gloves and

shovels. That was it. I will always remember the time I found a body

with the mouth jammed open. Until then, I would always get scared

easily. If I saw a body at a funeral, I would think about it all

week. I never imagined I would be capable of handling bodies in those

kinds of conditions. In 1986, Los Topos became a properly registered

rescue group. We don't get paid. It is completely voluntary. It is not a

job. I always feel it is something that I have to do. Since then, Los

Topos have been all over the world. I remember the boss of my J `` day

job used to say, Eduardo, you are going to see the world, but only a

devastated world. He is right. We go to the places that everybody else

has left. I always say that being part of Los Topos has changed my

life completely. Eduardo Acevedo, who told us that he has lost count

of the number of lives he has saved. Until the mid`19 90s, there

had never been an priest in the Church of England, but

that all changed in 1994, when 32 women were ordained amid much

controversy. The first in line was Angela Bernice Wilson. When I was at

university, I wrote to the Church information office and they said I

could be secretary. I imagine it would have been paid better. It

seemed an obvious thing for a woman who had been called to the

priesthood to fight for the ordination of women. It never

occurred to me not to. We wanted women who had received the call from

God to be recognised by the Church. There is a saying, like a mighty

tauter strolls the church of God, and it seemed like that with the

ordination of women priests. It would mess up the order of things

right up. It was always a balancing act between not alienating people by

appearing to strident and doing things that would actually have an

impact. Tomorrow, they will take their crucial vote on whether to

ordain women priests. The debate has already split the Church and it is

thought that the result is too close to call. I had come up to London

before the vote. The Butler sent up some very nice to be for it

happened. I thought that was nice. George Carey was the Archbishop of

Canterbury at the time and he gave the results in a deadpan voice. It

was archbishop of the whole Church, and he knew that some people would

be very upset the matter which way the vote went. The motion is

carried. The measure now stands committed to the legislative

committee. When I first discovered I was going to be the first woman to

be ordained in England... The Bishop always ordained alphabetically. I

got a phone call from the Times and they said they wanted to come and

kill me on a Sunday and I said... My husband told me that it would just

be a tiny article on page 37, and blow me down, I was plastered all

over the front page of the Times! the day of the ordination, we

arrived at Westminster Cathedral. I was feeling nervous, obviously. I

was walking up the aisle and the cathedral was absolutely packed. I

was conscious that this was a moment in

would be nothing to disrupt the service. Some have waited patiently

and some have not been quite so patient. They know who they are. The

only opposition we were aware of actual date was a church across town

that told their bill. What will emerge from Westminster Cathedral

today will not be 32 priest but a new order of transvestites! Angela

burners will then was the first to come forward for the laying on of

hands. `` Angela Dennis Wilson. We could feel the Holy Spirit and the

authority. Send down the Holy Spirit. It had been something I had

been waiting and praying for for 20 years. It was wonderful. And

everybody was in a great big Mike almost like a rugby scrum just

hugging each other. All of one's closest friends and family there.

This is a new springtime for the Church of England and I hope that

people will come to see this is right way forward. Women coming

forward now have no idea what we good thing because it is much more

accepted, but it is a struggle is lost. She is now one of

nearly 2000 female priest in England. `` priests. In the summer

of 1939, Germany was preparing to invade Poland. One of the German

objectives was the free city`state of dancers on the Polish coast.

Young British photojournalist Douglas Logan travelled there to

film what turned out to be the beginnings of the Second World War.

In my early 20s, I was a photojournalist. I read one day in

the newspaper that there was a headline: `` Danzig, suggesting that

Hitler had designs on Danzig and that this could very well lead to

the beginning of the Second World War, so I thought, I had better

investigate! Danzig was the European danger point. When I got to Danzig,

I found that all of the shops that were Jewish had Judae told across

the windows and there were signs of anti`Jewish sentiment all over the

city. On my return to London, one who had been filming preparations

for war in London for a film called lights out in Europe sent me back to

Danzig with a movie camera. One evening, I was aware of a red

glow in the sky. It led me to the square in which stood the

synagogue. And it was now on fire. I was suddenly aware of two hands on

my shoulders. It was the local Gestapo. And I was thrown into a

cell, and I spent the night in that cell. After that, I thought it might

be a good idea to leave Danzig and make my way into Poland. I was

joined in Poland by others and on the 1st of September, I was woken up

at five o'clock in the morning by the sound of German planes

overhead. I felt quite excited, really, that things were about to

happen. Herbert Klein and I made our way back to Warsaw and their found

that most of the people seemed to have flown the city. We managed to

get aboard a train with hundreds of hundreds of refugees and then,

slowly during the night, trundled our way out of Warsaw. At about five

o'clock in the morning, we suddenly heard the sound of German planes

overhead. There were bombs falling around the train. Eventually, we

managed to get out of Poland and headed. Colm and then from Stockholm

to London and safety. Looking back on it, it all seemed to be like a

sort of dream. That was Douglas Slocombe, he is now

101 years old. You can go to our website and check out the archives.

In 1988, a group of London students staged an exhibition of their work

that would change the face of British modern art, it was called

Freeze. It launched the many of the careers of the top names in the

field. We decided to put on an exhibition

during the summer holidays. We would all be drinking at the same bar, we

knew each other. The show came out of that group of people in south

London. Damien Hirst got 17 other people involved. I became involved

in Freeze just by Damien asking me to be in it. Everyone half believed

him and half not. Some of the artists work conceptual, which means

you would not spend a year working on the tapestry or a sculpture, you

a couple of tennis balls on top. And that was it. Everything was done to

make it seem like it was not a student exhibition. That court

people offguard. Will all influenced similarly. We had a similar

experience of the same type of pop music, such as the Clash. It was not

ideal, the place. It was near the docks and the completion was rough

and ready. We spent a little bit of more time ripping out the radiators

and filling holes in the ceiling, and painting the place, whatever you

had to do to make it look like a neutral gallery space. The

sponsorship led to the catalogue and Damien had the foresight to make it

formal and official, getting permission to do it officially so we

did not get evicted on the opening night. I showed one piece which was

a large colour photograph in a light box, it was called Bullet Hole. I

wanted to use images that were seductive and compelling to look at.

Maybe subject matter was something that was not really the kind of

thing you I used to engaging with in an art gallery, it was aggressive

and immediate. Damien painted his spot paintings on the wall is and

the first spot paintings he weighed in article Matraville `` made. I was

watching a house in one of the places burning down. Several 100

people came along and was Matraville and it was a big success in the

evening. Artists came along and got a lot of representation so their

careers had taken off. The media has a different agenda to what is really

going on in the art world. A lot of the artist enjoyed it, personally I

find a lot of it going. Maybe the fact that it achieved some kind of

notoriety, gave the impression that you can be self`motivated and Kuwata

and do something, then you are not just shouting into a void. The

echoes will come back. And finally, witness travelled to India to meet

East TV star of Bollywood. The mine was a TV epic watched by millions.

`` Ramayan. This actress played the Hindu goddess, Sita.

I was 15 years when we started working for or mine. `` 15 years

old. I did not know I would be changing the course of history by

doing this. The goddess Sita was muddied Matraville was married to

Rahman. There is a description of what Sita and rum look like. `` Ram.

It was the first time the Ramayan was told on TV. There was a lot of

responsibility on us at that time which we did not realise. It was one

of the regular TV series we were signed up for, and it was a costume

so not a big deal. Added to top it off, to be on television was

definitely not something to be proud about at that point of time. The

first episode, for one hour, it took us 15 days to film. I was therefore

to be seven days living there. We were living in the make up studio,

not coming back to Bombay. Everyone becomes a close`knit family. It was

very hard. We do not have those air`conditioning during those days.

Everytime the director announces cut, a fan guy comes and starts the

industrial fans. We all just stood in front of the fans.

(MUSIC) As an actress you give your best and

the result was everybody loved it. Within six months we realised we

were all big stars. Ramayan had become popular. 18 million Indians

gathered together wherever there was a TV set every Sunday morning to

watch the Ramayan. People were watching all around the world. We

had our Prime Minister who invited us to Delhi, we met him. We were

recognised all across. This is not just a video film, it is something

which can guide your life all the weight. Across India, village

viewers turned sets into shines from which a holy story could be told the

pillar people would come and touch our

feet, thinking that we are Sita and Ram. At one point Ram sets Sita a

light, then the TV people had to burn her but they explained to her

she was not really burnt a only an image. They had to explain this to

us popular peoples to recognise me when I step out today. This has left

so much of a mark on my life. I do not think anybody ever plans to make

it a big deal and it works, it sometimes just happens.

She was the goddess of the small screen. That is all from us at this

time, next week we bring you five more witnesses and five more

histories seem to be high of people who were there. `` the eye. Bye for

now. decent weather this weekend. It is

going