0:00:09 > 0:00:14Just over 40 years ago, a young BBC reporter came here to Dublin.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21It was 1972 and much of the job involved reporting
0:00:21 > 0:00:25on the conflict in the north of Ireland, known as the Troubles.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31The correspondent was in his mid-20s when he arrived here.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34But it was to mark the start of a career that took him
0:00:34 > 0:00:38to the front lines of conflicts and revolutions around the globe.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42As the brothers left the dock, after receiving the heaviest
0:00:42 > 0:00:45sentences imposed for armed robbery in Ireland since the war...
0:00:45 > 0:00:48For the next four decades, John Simpson became the trusted
0:00:48 > 0:00:52face of BBC reports on events that shaped our world.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54What seems to be happening is that there's a sniper
0:00:54 > 0:00:56just above our heads.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59If he wants to do something, he will do it
0:00:59 > 0:01:03and there's not much, especially not BBC bosses, who will stop him.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07John Simpson was there when the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09when the wall fell in Berlin,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12when apartheid ended in South Africa,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15and when war broke out in Iraq and Afghanistan.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20It's amazing the company you keep on trips like this, you know?
0:01:20 > 0:01:24From controversial politicians to dictators,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28he's interviewed countless world leaders.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32I've been physically assaulted by the Prime Minister of the country
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and I was going to lose my job.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42All of this has brought a clutch of awards.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47There's an International Emmy, two BAFTAs, Journalist of the Year -
0:01:47 > 0:01:53twice, and for his coverage of the First Gulf War, a CBE.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58But working on the front line has inevitably brought its risks.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00EXPLOSION
0:02:00 > 0:02:04In Iraq, in 2003, John's television crew were caught up
0:02:04 > 0:02:07in a so-called friendly fire attack.
0:02:07 > 0:02:08EXPLOSION
0:02:11 > 0:02:14They dropped a thousand-pound bomb right bang slap
0:02:14 > 0:02:17in the middle of our position.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21'This is just a scene from hell here, all the vehicles on fire...'
0:02:21 > 0:02:24He was left deaf in one ear.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27His translator lost his life.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Losing that young man was a dreadful thing for John.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33I don't think he's ever got over it and I don't think he ever will.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36John has witnessed the extremes of human existence.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39From moments of intense joy...
0:02:39 > 0:02:41to terrible suffering.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45He has spent his journalistic career trying to find out
0:02:45 > 0:02:47what is happening around the world.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54At the age of 69, he's still working and has a new young family.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00I don't want him growing up not knowing about religion.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Despite all he's seen, John has hung on to his faith in God.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10I want to find out how he squares his faith with some of the terrible
0:03:10 > 0:03:14suffering he's witnessed and whether that faith has helped when, for the
0:03:14 > 0:03:19sake of a story, he finds himself in very frightening situations.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23And how a front row seat at some of the biggest global events
0:03:23 > 0:03:27over the past half a century has shaped his personal belief in God.
0:03:42 > 0:03:48John Cody Fidler-Simpson was born near Blackpool in 1944.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52His family had moved away from their London home to avoid
0:03:52 > 0:03:53the bombing of World War II.
0:03:55 > 0:04:01Returning south after the war, John's father, Roy, had many jobs,
0:04:01 > 0:04:02but he couldn't settle.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05His father had, very much, an up and down life.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09Selling property, buying property, making money, losing money.
0:04:09 > 0:04:10And John was used to, I think,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14moving from one part of the world literally to another.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22John's mother, Joyce, was a widow who already had two older children.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25She was a very pleasant woman,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28but she was very sort of... She was older than John's father.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31I met his mother, who seemed a quiet,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34perhaps - this is in retrospect -
0:04:34 > 0:04:36perhaps slightly sad, I am not sure.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40But certainly a quiet, rather dignified person, I remember that.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44His parents had a troubled relationship
0:04:44 > 0:04:48and Joyce sometimes left to live with her older children.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51So tell me about your parents cos they were an interesting pair.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55Your mother was widowed quite young with her first husband.
0:04:55 > 0:04:56That's right.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02My mother had two quite a lot older children by her first marriage.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07My father didn't like her kids. My father was a very difficult man,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10no doubt about it. My mother was a very gentle lady.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Very, very gentle and sweet natured.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17My father was always quick-tempered, bright and sharp.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20The kind of man, when he came into the room...
0:05:20 > 0:05:23I mean, I envy that so much, I wish I had that quality.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27..that everybody stops talking they all turn round, "Oh, it's Roy.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30"Roy has arrived." You know, he was the absolute heart
0:05:30 > 0:05:34and soul of every group that he was in.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38And I think my mother found him quite difficult.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40In what sense?
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Short tempered, absolutely dead set in his ways,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and couldn't, you know...
0:05:47 > 0:05:51He had to have the windows open every day of the year,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55and if you so much as suggested it was, you know,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58getting slightly down below freezing in the room,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01he'd go crazy.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Let us open our service by singing hymn number 81.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09John's father became interested in Christian Science,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12a movement popular with the middle classes in 1950s London.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21It was founded in the 19th century by the American Mary Baker Eddy.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26Based on her reading of the Bible, Mary wrote about spiritual,
0:06:26 > 0:06:27prayer-based healing.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Both the Bible and her writings are studied by followers.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34They were heard by John each Sunday
0:06:34 > 0:06:37when he was taken to church by his father.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44He was the person who brought faith into your life,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47but as most parents would perhaps be Protestant or Baptist or
0:06:47 > 0:06:51Catholic, or whatever it is, he was Christian Science.
0:06:51 > 0:06:56Well, he was, he couldn't bear the Establishment,
0:06:56 > 0:07:00he loathed the Church of England and the Catholic Church.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03He thought they were both abominations.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Also, he hated other aspects of the Establishment.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09He couldn't bear doctors - loathed doctors.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12So when he came across an American religion
0:07:12 > 0:07:17which taught you that you didn't need to go to doctors
0:07:17 > 0:07:18and take medicine
0:07:18 > 0:07:21and which allowed you to think for yourself -
0:07:21 > 0:07:26where it was up to you to change your life, he adored it.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30So Christian Science at that time meant that you did believe
0:07:30 > 0:07:34in God but that you didn't like the doctor, didn't need the doctor...
0:07:34 > 0:07:37Didn't need the doctor, I think you could say, yes.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38You could cure yourself with faith.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41- By thinking, yes, by thought. - Thinking yourself better.- Yes.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44No drink, no cigarettes, what else?
0:07:44 > 0:07:47It really played to the intellect.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51It encouraged you to think.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56I mean, every Sunday we would go to church and they'd read
0:07:56 > 0:08:00from the Christian Science text book and the Bible and for a kid of my
0:08:00 > 0:08:05age to sit there and listen to these long, long words
0:08:05 > 0:08:10and concepts, it of course enriched my vocabulary
0:08:10 > 0:08:13and my ideas of the world, hugely.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18But that's where your faith grew and God became important to you.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23Well, I think I never, after that...
0:08:23 > 0:08:26had any doubt that...
0:08:26 > 0:08:29there was a God,
0:08:29 > 0:08:34I mean, I have seen a lot of things in my life that might incline me
0:08:34 > 0:08:38to my mother's view that there couldn't possibly be a God
0:08:38 > 0:08:42which created a world as hellish as this one,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46but weirdly, the Christian Science God is a God of kind of
0:08:46 > 0:08:50principle, of love, of spirit,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55sort of immaterial qualities, not a physical God
0:08:55 > 0:09:01that sits there and thinks "that John Simpson needs a bit of lesson."
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Bingo, and then you have a car crash or something like that.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07Not that kind of thing at all.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14John's world was turned upside down at a young age.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18When he was just seven, his parents' marriage ended.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23In the middle of one last row, they made John choose between them.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27My mother was sitting on the stairs with her bags packed and said,
0:09:27 > 0:09:32"I'm leaving, I have thought about it, and I am leaving",
0:09:32 > 0:09:34and my father said
0:09:34 > 0:09:37"Well, don't you think we ought to ask the boy what he thinks?"
0:09:37 > 0:09:42And I was a serious-minded kid, I didn't take things lightly,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and so when they both turned round at me and said,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50"What do you want to do? Do you want to stay or do you want to go?"
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Erm, I thought, you know, I've got to really work this one out,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59and I remember standing there for a bit and then saying "Well, I...
0:09:59 > 0:10:03"I think I'd better stay with Daddy because he hasn't got any kids."
0:10:03 > 0:10:08To his great credit he didn't say, "No, no, no, you must go with Mum."
0:10:08 > 0:10:10He said "OK," and he did take you on.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12Yes, but I don't know whether he really...
0:10:12 > 0:10:14I think... I don't know.
0:10:14 > 0:10:20He did adore me. I now realise, you know, through all
0:10:20 > 0:10:24the sort of irritation - "Come on, for God's sake, we're late"
0:10:24 > 0:10:28and all this kind of stuff, I realise how much he loved me so...
0:10:28 > 0:10:31- Your mother must have adored you... - Oh, yes.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34..and heartbreak for you to choose your father over her.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Awful, and that...
0:10:36 > 0:10:38I've also always thought that the
0:10:38 > 0:10:45kind of mutual guilt on her part for walking away
0:10:45 > 0:10:51from her child, and on my part for choosing against her, as it were,
0:10:51 > 0:10:57that it just made the possibility of a close relationship
0:10:57 > 0:11:01almost null and void.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06John was now the only son of a single parent father.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09It was a highly unusual setup for 1950s Britain.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Together with Brian Brooks, his dad's business partner,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20they found an old house in Dunwich, in Suffolk.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25It had originally been an enormous country house on the coast,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28sort of looking straight out to sea.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31It was one very big house
0:11:31 > 0:11:34made into three houses and we had one part of it.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40But the whole venture was totally impractical from start to finish.
0:11:40 > 0:11:41What on earth they were doing?!
0:11:41 > 0:11:44It was five hours' drive from London,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47where both of them had their business activities.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51I think it was just that we all fell in love with this gorgeous,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53mad, gorgeous house.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55Having seen a photograph, I can understand why.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01John was a hard-working boy who would often retreat to his books.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05He really needed to get away from his father's personality.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09So what he used to do was sort of go into another room,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13without saying anything, and sort of sit and read a book.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16And I've often thought, you know, as life's gone by, what a sensible
0:12:16 > 0:12:19way that was of dealing with somebody that was very close
0:12:19 > 0:12:22to you and yet was a character as well.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27John's studies paid dividends.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31He won a place at the prestigious St Paul's School in London.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41And then, in 1963, to Cambridge University to read English.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46We went to a rather snobby college at that time -
0:12:46 > 0:12:48Magdalene College, Cambridge.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52We had one very large rectangular room
0:12:52 > 0:12:56which was called A1, First Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00So we used to call it the classiest address in Western civilisation.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Separate bedrooms, obviously, but this one long room
0:13:03 > 0:13:08in which we arranged to play cricket using the table
0:13:08 > 0:13:09as a place to bounce the ball.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Crazy student pranks and things.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16But in many ways John wasn't a typical student.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23The '60s were about to swing but this wasn't really his scene.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25I remember, I think it was in my room,
0:13:25 > 0:13:30surrounded by our new friends at that point, that John started
0:13:30 > 0:13:32talking about being a Christian Scientist.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35I just remember making the obvious point, as did my friends,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38"Well, if you fall off a tree, and you break your leg,
0:13:38 > 0:13:39"don't you call a doctor?"
0:13:39 > 0:13:43And we couldn't understand that, and John was very patient
0:13:43 > 0:13:49about it, and from that moment on I think it was just understood.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53My landlord said to me... I hurt myself and for some reason I went
0:13:53 > 0:13:57to see him and he was a doctor and he was messing around with my wrist.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59And I went "Ow!", like that,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01and he said "Oh, you feel pain easily, do you?"
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Didn't you say, actually, "I don't believe in doctors"
0:14:04 > 0:14:07because you still had that Christian Science belief, didn't you?
0:14:07 > 0:14:10Oh, yes, I did, yes, yes. Erm, I didn't actually.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Possibly because I thought he might tweak it again, you know.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16So, occasionally, you did see a doctor, but on the other hand...
0:14:16 > 0:14:17Well, in that case.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21Yes, but as a student, and they were all drinking and smoking
0:14:21 > 0:14:25- and carousing, you didn't do any of that?- I didn't. No, I didn't.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27Erm...
0:14:27 > 0:14:33The thing is about being a Christian Scientist,
0:14:33 > 0:14:39about being the son of, essentially, a one-parent family,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43of having this funny sort of background,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48I always felt a real outsider, and the business of not smoking,
0:14:48 > 0:14:53not drinking, not going to doctors, all that kind of stuff, really
0:14:53 > 0:14:56reinforced that in a way -
0:14:56 > 0:15:00that sense of being outside
0:15:00 > 0:15:03and kind of looking in at everybody else through a window
0:15:03 > 0:15:07and not wanting to join the group.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11I don't want to go along with the... with the crowd.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17The summer before he had gone to Cambridge, John spent in America.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22He met a young artist there, Diane, at a Christian Science conference.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26My dad was a very good-looking bloke and because he had a British accent
0:15:26 > 0:15:29and my mother was from California so I think everyone was kind of...
0:15:29 > 0:15:32"I love your accent", and so this was when the Beatles were really
0:15:32 > 0:15:36big as well, so I think there was a lot of excitement about my dad.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39For two years, John and Diane conducted
0:15:39 > 0:15:41a long-distance relationship.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45But by John's third year at Cambridge, they had decided to marry.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51The other sense of you being maybe, feeling on the outside at Cambridge
0:15:51 > 0:15:54was because you had already met the woman you wanted to marry.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57And you married her while you were still a student.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Why did I get married? Well, partly - oh, dear - because the master
0:16:01 > 0:16:06of my college said to me "Now, I really feel, and the college
0:16:06 > 0:16:11"also believes that you would make a great mistake to get married".
0:16:11 > 0:16:14So I thought, "Right, that's it. I am going!"
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Very stupid! Because here am I
0:16:16 > 0:16:20saying I don't like taking my views from other people
0:16:20 > 0:16:22but then, in a sense, that is what you are doing,
0:16:22 > 0:16:23you are taking the reverse
0:16:23 > 0:16:26of their views simply because they express it.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29So very silly, but on the other hand, it was a lovely time
0:16:29 > 0:16:32- and we were very happy. - You had fallen in love.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36And I had fallen very deeply in love and we had a lovely, lovely time.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44After Cambridge, John joined the BBC.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49On the 1st of September 1966, he began his career in journalism
0:16:49 > 0:16:52as a sub-editor in the radio newsroom.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54But it wasn't a particularly welcoming place
0:16:54 > 0:16:56for inexperienced graduates.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Oh, he hated working in the radio newsroom, yeah.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03I don't think he was very good at it because it meant
0:17:03 > 0:17:05he was a sub, a sub-editor,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07and it meant sort of...
0:17:07 > 0:17:10It was like marking exam papers almost, you know.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14You'd make corrections to copy that had come in.
0:17:14 > 0:17:15It was tough in those days
0:17:15 > 0:17:17because lots of people were from Fleet Street,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21and they were determined to prove that these fancy graduates,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25people like John and people like me, would not be able to succeed.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Can you remember your first day in the BBC newsroom?
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Yeah. It was awful!
0:17:32 > 0:17:35- I remember my first day and it was awful.- Was it awful?
0:17:35 > 0:17:37- Absolutely horrible. - Were they nasty to you?- Yes.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42I have been in the BBC for 46 years.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46I think it still makes me angry and when I spot the kind
0:17:46 > 0:17:52of people that tormented me when I was a very, very young sub-editor.
0:17:52 > 0:17:59I loathe them, and I don't want to have anything to do with them.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03But in those days as well, I mean, I look back quite fondly
0:18:03 > 0:18:08to those moments when the clack of typewriters is going constantly,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11when suddenly there'd be a literal physical fight.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14The testosterone in the newsroom was huge.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16And reporters would be bashing each other
0:18:16 > 0:18:20and if you stood up, it was to stand up into a fog of cigarette smoke
0:18:20 > 0:18:24- so you'd have to duck down to see anybody.- Absolutely!
0:18:24 > 0:18:29And in a way, I look back, although I was terrified at the time,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32with some kind of badge of honour to think we did that.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35I think it's a badge of honour to have survived it.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40The system was kind of intentionally out to beat us,
0:18:40 > 0:18:45I feel, beat us down and to be able to stand up against that is...
0:18:45 > 0:18:48I am quite proud of it.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Undeterred by the old attitudes, John found his own way of forging
0:18:54 > 0:18:56a career at the BBC.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02He was an extraordinary character cos he gave the impression,
0:19:02 > 0:19:04the false impression, that he shouldn't really be
0:19:04 > 0:19:08employed at all by the BBC, let alone as a BBC reporter.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13And this was John's self-deprecating way of just being charming
0:19:13 > 0:19:16and not giving the impression how hard he worked
0:19:16 > 0:19:17and how ambitious he was.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19But John hid his competitiveness
0:19:19 > 0:19:22by pretending that he really shouldn't be there at all.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27So by 1970, John, you have graduated from sub-editor to
0:19:27 > 0:19:32reporter and your first assignment is to go and see Harold Wilson.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37I was sent down to platform seven at Euston Station.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40I can take you to the precise place where it happened.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Harold Wilson comes down the platform
0:19:43 > 0:19:46and it had been allowed to be known that there was going to be
0:19:46 > 0:19:50an election called but nobody had said anything.
0:19:50 > 0:19:51And so I went up to him
0:19:51 > 0:19:54and I said, "Excuse me, Prime Minister, I just wondered,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57"there's been a lot of stuff in the papers about the possibility of you
0:19:57 > 0:20:00"calling an election. Are you going to do it?"
0:20:00 > 0:20:02Except that I didn't get that far.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07In fact, I only got as far as saying, "Excuse me, Prime..."
0:20:07 > 0:20:13Harold Wilson exploded with rage, grabbed the microphone, tried
0:20:13 > 0:20:18to break it out of my hand, and with his right, punched me
0:20:18 > 0:20:20really quite hard in the stomach.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22He said this was an outrage
0:20:22 > 0:20:25and he was going to put in a personal complaint
0:20:25 > 0:20:29to the director general when he got to Liverpool.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32And...that was it.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36I was left sort of standing there, breathless of course,
0:20:36 > 0:20:37still hunched over.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39He's on the train, people are saying to me,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43"You can't ask the Prime Minister a question, sonny!"
0:20:43 > 0:20:47I looked at my watch - it was 9.50,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51it was my first day out as a reporter.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54I had been physically assaulted by the Prime Minister of the country
0:20:54 > 0:21:02and I was going to lose my job by about 1.30 when he got to a phone.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Actually, I went back and waited very, very nervously
0:21:07 > 0:21:09and nothing happened!
0:21:09 > 0:21:14That was my first day. All I can say is it's gone downhill ever since!
0:21:18 > 0:21:21In fact, John's career was just getting under way.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26In 1972 he got his first posting as a correspondent -
0:21:26 > 0:21:29reporting on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32At first sight, the story that came out today in court was
0:21:32 > 0:21:34a bizarre one involving as it did the IRA,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38the British Secret Service and a secret meeting with a British
0:21:38 > 0:21:39government minister.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42But it was a steep learning curve.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46He and fellow reporter John Sergeant were travelling in the same car
0:21:46 > 0:21:50when they were kidnapped by a member of the IRA.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52I was terrified and the guy drove the car at about 80mph
0:21:52 > 0:21:54into the Bogside.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56We were dumped - all they wanted was the car.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00They wanted our car, a hired car. It had done 400 miles, that's all.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03And so we were told to get out. We then got out
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and John, cool as could be, really cool, said, "Erm, do you think
0:22:07 > 0:22:09"we could get our tape recorders out of the back of the car?"
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Just like that.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18On another occasion, John was sent to report on an IRA funeral.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21But he was mistaken for a British Army spy.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27I have always been a bit dopey about some things.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30In particular, I am never good, I suppose because I don't like it,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32at carrying identification.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34I never remember to bring my passport anywhere
0:22:34 > 0:22:38and never remember to have my BBC identification
0:22:38 > 0:22:42or anything and it's still true all these decades later,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46and it was true then, and this group gathered round afterwards.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48IRA men?
0:22:48 > 0:22:50It was obvious they weren't quite certain what to do with me
0:22:50 > 0:22:56until a girl, rather nice-looking girl of about 25,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00said "Give him a bullet up the nostril",
0:23:00 > 0:23:05which was how they killed people - sort of stuck a gun up the nose.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09What goes through your mind when someone says that to you?
0:23:10 > 0:23:13I know it sounds stupid, I just got this utter...
0:23:13 > 0:23:16I am not quite sure what went through my mind then
0:23:16 > 0:23:18but I have known it since.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22That kind of thing has happened to me various times.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Erm... I got this tremendous faith in my ability
0:23:26 > 0:23:28to talk my way out of things.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30And I didn't then, it wasn't...
0:23:30 > 0:23:36I was saved and rescued by a wonderful older reporter
0:23:36 > 0:23:41from the Sunday Times who came over to me in a very sort of grand
0:23:41 > 0:23:44and calm way and said, "Oh, is there some problem, John?
0:23:44 > 0:23:48I mean, yeah, there was, I was just about to be murdered.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51And he said, "Oh, no, Mr Simpson comes from the BBC.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53"Of course, we all know that," and they
0:23:53 > 0:23:57knew him, and they let me go and that was fine.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01With security along the border now one of the republic's main considerations,
0:24:01 > 0:24:05there's a constant search for better ways of patrolling it.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09After three years building up experience in Ireland,
0:24:09 > 0:24:11John's skill and confidence grew.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15He began to be sent to report on other parts of the world.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19The political initiative now lies totally with the Ayatollah.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Now that he's back, he'll very soon announce
0:24:21 > 0:24:24the establishment of a government of his own.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28In 1979 he boarded a plane with the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31returning to lead the Iranian revolution.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35There had been several threats that Khomeini's plane would be destroyed
0:24:35 > 0:24:39and when it reached Tehran, it had to circle overhead for 20 minutes.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42BBC bosses had told John not to board the plane.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47If he wants to do something, he will do it
0:24:47 > 0:24:51and there's not much, especially not BBC bosses, who will stop him.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53I mean, if a BBC boss says to John
0:24:53 > 0:24:56"Under no account must you do that or go there",
0:24:56 > 0:24:59then it's like ordering him to do it.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01The great reporter is the person who,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04when everyone is going one way, particularly if they are put
0:25:04 > 0:25:07onto a bus, if a reporter is put onto a bus, just watch the reporter
0:25:07 > 0:25:11who tricks the organisers and leaves on a motorbike
0:25:11 > 0:25:14or goes the other way. That's the great reporter.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17So there is an element with John,
0:25:17 > 0:25:22a rather sort of individualistic, "I do it my way, I want to get
0:25:22 > 0:25:23"this done, I want to tell the story
0:25:23 > 0:25:25"in the way I want to tell the story".
0:25:25 > 0:25:28That makes a great reporter and that's why he is such a good one.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31I've actually always been of the opinion that
0:25:31 > 0:25:37things are never as dangerous as they seem on the outside and often
0:25:37 > 0:25:40erm, that is...
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Well, I mean, it pretty much always is the case.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47There's not very many things I wouldn't do.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50I mean, there are some things
0:25:50 > 0:25:53that are obviously just kind of an elaborate way of committing suicide.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57And I wouldn't do that. I don't feel at all suicidal.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01I have got a lot to live for, even now at my age,
0:26:01 > 0:26:08but I always feel and so far, just about, I have been proven right,
0:26:08 > 0:26:12that you can get away with much more than you think.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Here in the streets, the demonstrators are having
0:26:17 > 0:26:19everything their own way.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21This was once one of the two or three biggest police
0:26:21 > 0:26:23stations in Tehran.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Last September I, myself, was held here for some time after
0:26:26 > 0:26:29being arrested for filming in the streets.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32As John reported from some of the most dangerous
0:26:32 > 0:26:36places in the world, back at home, his wife Diane
0:26:36 > 0:26:40and their two young daughters could only watch on TV.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44I always used to admire her for being so balanced about it
0:26:44 > 0:26:48because she had certain times when he was there all the time,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51and then sort of five minutes later he'd departed.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55And she always seemed to be tremendously philosophical about it.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59I think it was just quite hard for my mother, who was at home
0:26:59 > 0:27:02with us and doing the school run and all that kind of malarkey.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06It's just hard if you are not in the same building for a significant
0:27:06 > 0:27:10part of each year, I would say. It has a profound effect.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13The stress of knowing that your husband is walking
0:27:13 > 0:27:16out of the door and he may not come back is fearful,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19it doesn't lead to a happy home life.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24Then, in 1980, John received devastating news.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28His father had died, suddenly, of a massive heart attack.
0:27:29 > 0:27:35I think his death had a totally seismic effect on my father.
0:27:35 > 0:27:41I think he rang me up to tell me that his father had died and...
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Well, I suppose it was very much the end of an era, really.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51At the same time, John's career took an unexpected turn.
0:27:51 > 0:27:52Good evening.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55The effort to avoid a shooting war in the Falklands is
0:27:55 > 0:27:56now in its crucial phase.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00During a brief, unhappy spell as political editor,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04he'd heard that the BBC wanted trained journalists rather than
0:28:04 > 0:28:07presenters to read the Nine O'Clock News.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11He successfully lobbied for the job alongside John Humphrys.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15The audience hated us and the critics hated us even more
0:28:15 > 0:28:19because we were taking over from much-loved figures
0:28:19 > 0:28:23like Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall and so on,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26people who'd been reading the news for donkey's years.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29They were part of the nation's consciousness
0:28:29 > 0:28:32and it wasn't an entirely happy experience,
0:28:32 > 0:28:34let's put it like that.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37John Simpson lasted as a newsreader for about a year
0:28:37 > 0:28:41before he was sent back out on the road as a correspondent.
0:28:41 > 0:28:46These were difficult times. In 1983, his mother died.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50He had seen her only a handful of times since the day she left.
0:28:50 > 0:28:56And then, in 1984, he walked out of his marriage to Diane.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00It was awful but I can't say it's a massive surprise.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03I think it's hard for anybody. Even with Skype and all these kind of
0:29:03 > 0:29:07things, I still think long-distance relationships are difficult.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12John threw himself into work.
0:29:12 > 0:29:17In 1988, he was appointed BBC World Affairs Editor.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20It was a time of significant change.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22The Soviet Union was collapsing
0:29:22 > 0:29:25and John spent the next year reporting on landmark events
0:29:25 > 0:29:27around the globe.
0:29:27 > 0:29:28We know there are trucks
0:29:28 > 0:29:32and perhaps tanks in that direction down there, away from the square.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34We know that there are trucks
0:29:34 > 0:29:36and probably tanks that direction also.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38What we don't know is when
0:29:38 > 0:29:41they are going to come but everybody here assumes it's going to be soon.
0:29:41 > 0:29:46From Tiananmen Square to the fall of the Berlin Wall...
0:29:46 > 0:29:50and he again defied his bosses.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52GUNFIRE
0:29:52 > 0:29:58In 1991, he chose to stay in Baghdad during the First Gulf War.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01At the moment, we're waiting for the American bombers to come.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04All the firing that's going on, and there's a great deal of it,
0:30:04 > 0:30:06is just pretty wildly up in the air,
0:30:06 > 0:30:08it doesn't seem to be aimed at anything.
0:30:08 > 0:30:09GUNFIRE
0:30:09 > 0:30:12Mr John Simpson, Foreign Affairs Editor,
0:30:12 > 0:30:15British Broadcasting Corporation.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18He was awarded a CBE for his reporting
0:30:18 > 0:30:21and named Journalist of the Year.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24A BAFTA followed in 1992.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28John had built a reputation that opened doors.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31He gained access to leading controversial figures.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Do you believe that Britain has intended to assassinate you?
0:30:35 > 0:30:38Of course, it is true.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41Then you get to the point where you're sitting in front of somebody
0:30:41 > 0:30:46who is one of these mad dictators, creating untold violence
0:30:46 > 0:30:51and heartache in the world, evil. How do you approach them?
0:30:51 > 0:30:56Do you go in thinking "I will charm them"
0:30:56 > 0:30:59or "I am so angry I am going to get aggressive"?
0:30:59 > 0:31:01Or do you get the cool professionalism?
0:31:01 > 0:31:07You just have to bear in mind all the time, that there is a
0:31:07 > 0:31:12sense that a proper moral judgment has to be made.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16You have to bring them face-to-face with what they have done
0:31:16 > 0:31:21and that is not always very nice and easy to do.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25When you are in the presence of people who you know are evil,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29do you feel that evil in the room? Can you see it in them?
0:31:29 > 0:31:34My experience is that people who have done these terrible things
0:31:34 > 0:31:39are mostly boringly banal.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43There are very, very few who you feel are evil
0:31:43 > 0:31:47in the sense that everything they do is wicked,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51is planned out to be vicious and cruel.
0:31:51 > 0:31:56It's actually, I would say, most people find themselves
0:31:56 > 0:31:58in these positions.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02Their background, the history, the country, everything
0:32:02 > 0:32:06else puts them in a position where they start to do really bad things.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10Early this morning, up on the Serbian positions overlooking
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Sarajevo, the ceasefire was already in operation.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17If the past is anything to go by, this ceasefire, assuming
0:32:17 > 0:32:20that it is agreed in the first place,
0:32:20 > 0:32:22is by no means certain to succeed.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27By now, many of John's colleagues were hanging up their flak jackets.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30But after two decades as a foreign correspondent,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34John showed no signs of retreating from the front line.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Why do people, like me, after ten years, think "That is it"?
0:32:38 > 0:32:41"I want to run and run, I don't want to hear another bang.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44"I do not want to hear shouts of 'incoming'.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46"I would like to be at Westminster
0:32:46 > 0:32:49"where you get these amazing stories but nobody dies.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53"I don't want to have people in the Middle East dying around me
0:32:53 > 0:32:54"or being shot at".
0:32:54 > 0:32:59So, the key question for John is why did he go on?
0:32:59 > 0:33:03He was due to go off again to one of those Iraq moments,
0:33:03 > 0:33:08and I did say to him, "Do you really feel it's wise to go back there?"
0:33:08 > 0:33:10And he made light of it.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13He just said, "The story continues."
0:33:13 > 0:33:20Nothing that the BBC does, in its huge news division, matters
0:33:20 > 0:33:25unless it's based on good, solid, accurate reporting.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29I know that what John believes is you find out
0:33:29 > 0:33:32what's happening, you interpret it of course, you use
0:33:32 > 0:33:36your experience and your authority to put it into context,
0:33:36 > 0:33:40but you can't do any of that unless you have found out
0:33:40 > 0:33:41what is happening.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45That can often be a very dangerous business.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49And why we owe a debt of gratitude to John is that he has
0:33:49 > 0:33:53spent his journalistic career trying to find out what is
0:33:53 > 0:33:54happening around the world.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00Christmas Eve at the Catholic cathedral here.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04The newly appointed cardinal told the congregation that people
0:34:04 > 0:34:08could only rely on God for peace - there was no-one else to turn to.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11John Simpson, BBC News, Sarajevo.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor, columnist,
0:34:21 > 0:34:23author and household name.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28But somewhere down the years, as John built his reputation
0:34:28 > 0:34:32as a trusted journalist, the faith that had helped define him
0:34:32 > 0:34:34since childhood started to take a back seat.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41In most people's lives they perhaps grow up in a faith
0:34:41 > 0:34:44because that is the way their family have shown them.
0:34:44 > 0:34:45You start to sort of...
0:34:45 > 0:34:49It fades a little, like a radio station, it starts to fade away.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52It certainly did fade away, yes.
0:34:52 > 0:34:58Certainly, I felt I wasn't erm... I wasn't up to the kind of moral...
0:34:58 > 0:35:03level that I ought to be at, and so, therefore, what do you do
0:35:03 > 0:35:08if you are in an outfit where you are not sort of following
0:35:08 > 0:35:09the rules any more?
0:35:09 > 0:35:12Well, the best thing to do is to sort of quietly,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15you know, head for the exit.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23In 1994, John travelled to South Africa.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30He was there to cover the election that would decide the future
0:35:30 > 0:35:34of a country on the edge of chaos because of its history of apartheid.
0:35:37 > 0:35:43The atmosphere in South Africa in 1994 was one of great uncertainty.
0:35:43 > 0:35:49We didn't know if law and order as we'd known it would break down
0:35:49 > 0:35:56entirely, if there'd be mob rule, how things were going to go.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00It was an unforgettable, fantastic, frenzied,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03difficult and emotional time.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07The election was won by Nelson Mandela.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09Apartheid was at an end.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13There can't be many people up there on the balcony or down here
0:36:13 > 0:36:17in the crowds who could've expected that all this would happen peacefully.
0:36:17 > 0:36:22We know that you will lead us out of oppression and injustice.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25A key player in the victory had been
0:36:25 > 0:36:28a man who not only stood for equality and reform
0:36:28 > 0:36:31but was also a leading advocate for the Christian faith.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36Archbishop Desmond Tutu left a deep impression on John.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41We are the rainbow people of God.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47John has seen the Anglican Church at its very best.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49We are free!
0:36:49 > 0:36:53He thinks the light shines from Desmond Tutu.
0:36:53 > 0:36:54He loves him...
0:36:56 > 0:36:59..as somebody who isn't just religious
0:36:59 > 0:37:02but also practical and also, funny
0:37:02 > 0:37:05and also human, warm...
0:37:05 > 0:37:08In fact, rather like John in so many ways.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12The miracle of South Africa was just...
0:37:12 > 0:37:17Well, it's generation-changing, world-changing, everything-changing.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22How did that effect your faith? Was your faith on the wane then
0:37:22 > 0:37:25and started to wax?
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Well, it had been on the wane for a long time but maybe it did
0:37:29 > 0:37:30as a result of that.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34I used to regard it as a sort of Anglican miracle
0:37:34 > 0:37:36what had happened there.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40So much, erm, was based in the Christian faith
0:37:40 > 0:37:46and particularly because, you know, of Tutu and the others,
0:37:46 > 0:37:50a particularly sort of Anglican miracle.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54Gatsha Buthelezi, the head of the Inkatha movement,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58which was having, effectively, a civil war with the ANC,
0:37:58 > 0:38:04stormed out of a meeting before the election happened
0:38:04 > 0:38:07to go back and say to his people,
0:38:07 > 0:38:13"That's it, I have failed to secure peace, you've got to arm yourself."
0:38:13 > 0:38:17Halfway there in the plane, he had a conversion.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22He turned the plane around, ordered the pilot to turn
0:38:22 > 0:38:25the plane around, and went back, had to go in. Can you imagine how
0:38:25 > 0:38:28awkward that would be? Don't think I'd like to do it.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32He had to go into the room where these people were still meeting,
0:38:32 > 0:38:36the people he had stormed out from, and said "I have changed my mind."
0:38:37 > 0:38:42I mean, when you've seen that, you don't forget it.
0:38:42 > 0:38:48I started going to the old Church of England after that
0:38:48 > 0:38:53cos it... I just thought if it can change people to that extent,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55it's worth supporting.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59And, you know, I have kind of stayed there ever since.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12South Africa was also to produce another turning point for John.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15It was here that he met his future wife.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21Dee Kruger was a freelance TV producer, hired by the BBC
0:39:21 > 0:39:22to work alongside John.
0:39:24 > 0:39:25He came across to me
0:39:25 > 0:39:28and he said to me "would you like a cup of tea?"
0:39:28 > 0:39:32So I was a little bit taken aback by that because, you know,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36in South Africa, in those days, blokes didn't make tea!
0:39:37 > 0:39:40And it was only later that I realised, you know, this is
0:39:40 > 0:39:42actually quite a big guy.
0:39:43 > 0:39:49The best moment of my entire long and weird life
0:39:49 > 0:39:54was when I met my wife who was given to me by the BBC!
0:39:54 > 0:39:56I always feel it's a bit like...
0:39:56 > 0:39:59The BBC have done a lot for you!
0:39:59 > 0:40:03It's a little bit like, you know, a Japanese company
0:40:03 > 0:40:06giving me my job, my title, they give me my this,
0:40:06 > 0:40:07and they give me my wife.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11It was lovely and that is where it all started.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18John and Dee married and they continued to work together.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23In 1999, John covered the Kosovo Crisis, opting to
0:40:23 > 0:40:26stay on in the Serbian capital Belgrade after
0:40:26 > 0:40:30journalists from NATO countries had been ordered to leave.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33We've come from one of the countries which, only a few feet
0:40:33 > 0:40:38above our head, is busy bombing Belgrade right at the moment.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42It won him more awards but his reports haven't always
0:40:42 > 0:40:43been so well received.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48It was smugglers who took us into Afghanistan and it was the
0:40:48 > 0:40:53smugglers who decreed that we should wear burkas, the all-enveloping
0:40:53 > 0:40:57garment which the Taliban force every woman in Afghanistan to wear.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01In 2001, his decision to secretly enter Afghanistan
0:41:01 > 0:41:05dressed in a woman's burka earned him the scorn of the British press.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08And they get the worst seats in the vehicle.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Later he was one of the first reporters to enter Kabul
0:41:12 > 0:41:14after the fall of the Taliban.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18This is it. We're walking into Kabul city.
0:41:18 > 0:41:23We don't seem to have any problems around us, there's only people
0:41:23 > 0:41:28who are friendly, and are saying, chanting, "Kill the Taliban."
0:41:28 > 0:41:31But his decision to make a joke live on national radio
0:41:31 > 0:41:34about liberating the city fell flat.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36Now on the line from Kabul itself
0:41:36 > 0:41:38is our World Affairs Editor, John Simpson.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42John, if you can hear me, what's it like in Kabul this morning?
0:41:42 > 0:41:47Well, Sue, I have to say I was the first or amongst the first
0:41:47 > 0:41:52group of people and it was only BBC people who liberated the city.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57John had done a job - a very, very, good job in Kabul.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00He'd got in where lots of people didn't get in.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04He was, as so often in the past, he was first with the story,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07or one of the first with the story, and he told it well.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09You've got to remember that for a lot of reporters,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12lot of journalists, some of the things that John has done
0:42:12 > 0:42:17have been so good and so impressive that people are bound to be annoyed.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19That's inevitable. You get someone as good as John
0:42:19 > 0:42:22and you are going to get an awful lot of people who will think up
0:42:22 > 0:42:26little smart remarks as to why he's not quite as good as he seems.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29He is good, he's a very good reporter,
0:42:29 > 0:42:31and that just annoys a lot of people.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40John's skill as a reporter was put to the test in 2003.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44He was in Northern Iraq at the start of the push to topple
0:42:44 > 0:42:46Saddam Hussein.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51His crew joined a convoy of American and Kurdish special forces.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53But they were mistaken for enemy troops
0:42:53 > 0:42:57and became the target of so-called American friendly fire.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15They dropped a thousand-pound bomb right bang
0:43:15 > 0:43:20slap in the middle of our position, where we all were.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23An amazing series of escapes.
0:43:23 > 0:43:29I mean, my own, apart from anything else, because we paced it out -
0:43:29 > 0:43:34there were only 12 yards from where the bomb actually dropped
0:43:34 > 0:43:39but because of the angle it dropped at, most of the shrapnel
0:43:39 > 0:43:43and the explosive went in a different direction from me.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48I got quite a big bit of shrapnel in my side,
0:43:48 > 0:43:53which, you know, was neither here nor there, really.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56Bits all over my face but none in the eyes
0:43:56 > 0:43:58and most of my colleagues had the same.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08All around, men had been killed and wounded.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Yet within minutes of the attack and despite his injuries,
0:44:11 > 0:44:13John filed a news story.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19'This is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles on fire.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23'There's bodies burning around me, there's bodies lying around.'
0:44:23 > 0:44:28I wasn't surprised to find that John was able to file at that moment.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32I've seen John in some remarkable situations, do some pretty
0:44:32 > 0:44:37amazing things, and react to camera and address the camera
0:44:37 > 0:44:39in some pretty extraordinary situations.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43One of the things I think that even I was surprised was
0:44:43 > 0:44:45was just how fair he managed to be.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49This is just one of those things that happens in war, I suppose.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53These men have been going around saying I can't tell you what
0:44:53 > 0:44:56I feel about this, but it has to be said if it hadn't been
0:44:56 > 0:45:01for the medical aid that they gave us and our colleague who has been
0:45:01 > 0:45:05badly injured, then we'd be in an even worse state
0:45:05 > 0:45:06than we are already.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09The moment it's gone off, the moment you've been blown off your feet,
0:45:09 > 0:45:14the moment you realise that something is hurting,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18you are on the satellite phone sending a report home to the BBC.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22I suppose it sounds a bit nutty really, doesn't it?
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Or a bit sort of... maybe just cold.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29- Did you think, "I must make a phone call."- Oh, yes. Oh, absolutely.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32- So bam, straight there. - Just as quick as I could get it.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34Well, that's been the training.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39By that stage, with the training of 30-odd years...
0:45:39 > 0:45:45You know, I mean, something happens, you tell people about it...
0:45:45 > 0:45:49And...that was that was my...
0:45:49 > 0:45:51That was the only reason I was there.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55I mean, I wasn't having a holiday. I mean, I was there to work.
0:45:55 > 0:46:01And something happened that meant that I had some urgent work to do.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10John's crew had hired a young Kurdish translator
0:46:10 > 0:46:13called Kamaran to work with them.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16He was a graduate keen to gain first-hand experience
0:46:16 > 0:46:18with a reporting team.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21But in the air strike, Kamaran was fatally wounded.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28The hardest thing was that afternoon, John and myself
0:46:28 > 0:46:35and one or two other people with us had to go and tell his family.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39Losing that young man was a dreadful thing to John.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42I don't think he's ever got over it and I don't think he ever will.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45It really, that was something that,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49that was just, you know, for me to sit here and say it moved him
0:46:49 > 0:46:53deeply is... It just doesn't kind of describe properly, I don't think.
0:47:02 > 0:47:0719 people were killed, including my lovely young translator.
0:47:08 > 0:47:14I try as a kind of matter of duty to think about him every day,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17so that we don't just lose him, you know,
0:47:17 > 0:47:20"Oh, dear, he was just part of the collateral damage."
0:47:20 > 0:47:23I try to remember him and his... And he was a sweet boy.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25Did you see his parents?
0:47:25 > 0:47:28Oh, I had to, I had to go round and tell his mother.
0:47:28 > 0:47:29You told her.
0:47:29 > 0:47:35The producer and I went round and he still had the...
0:47:35 > 0:47:41Her son's blood on him, but he obviously didn't tell her that.
0:47:41 > 0:47:46And the family, I went back again some months later to see them
0:47:46 > 0:47:53and was welcomed as a sort of, you know, as a welcome guest,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55I wasn't treated as though
0:47:55 > 0:47:58I was the person that had lured him into his death
0:47:58 > 0:48:01although I do feel I was, actually.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05Well, you could say that about all the people who were there.
0:48:05 > 0:48:06Yeah.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09But he was there specifically because of me.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11He was there because he had seen my reporting
0:48:11 > 0:48:16and he wanted to help me and be with me.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22It brings me to tears, you telling this story,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25because I can see there's people around you dying,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29and to watch somebody that you've been working with,
0:48:29 > 0:48:32their life blood literally ebb from them.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37But I've got the photograph of this dear kid that joined us.
0:48:37 > 0:48:45And I just keep it where I can look at it every day if I can.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50Because there's got to be a purpose behind going to these places.
0:48:50 > 0:48:56If you just do it because it's flattering to the ego or something,
0:48:56 > 0:49:01then that is worthless, it's worse than worthless.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03It's contemptible.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06But I feel I go to these places because there's
0:49:06 > 0:49:11a purpose, and the purpose is to tell people back home what's happened.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14I don't... I didn't in that case certainly,
0:49:14 > 0:49:19I didn't want to be involved in the fighting and the bombing.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23I would have done anything to keep us out of it if I'd known.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26But once you're in there, you've got to do it right
0:49:26 > 0:49:30and you've got to do it straight, and it's no good saying.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32"I'm scared, I'm going home."
0:49:32 > 0:49:35You've got to stick with it, I feel.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43But when he got home, John found he couldn't shake the sense of guilt
0:49:43 > 0:49:45over Kamaran's death.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49When I heard that Kamaran had died,
0:49:49 > 0:49:54I knew that John would take that very badly, which he did.
0:49:55 > 0:50:02And for quite a long time after that, after he got back here,
0:50:02 > 0:50:04we used to go to the pub
0:50:04 > 0:50:10and have long talks about it. He was very upset about it.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14But you did go and talk with a vicar?
0:50:14 > 0:50:16I did.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Can I tell you what the problem was?
0:50:20 > 0:50:26The problem was that each one of the people I was with
0:50:26 > 0:50:30had had the most extraordinary escapes.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33That you would say probably were...
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Well, you could if you wanted to make a case up for it,
0:50:36 > 0:50:38divine intervention.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40Not my translator.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44I had that whole sense of survival guilt.
0:50:44 > 0:50:50Why should I be so lucky and he should be so unlucky?
0:50:52 > 0:50:56Peter Elvy, just kind of talking it over with him,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00made that sense of guilt go away.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03He doesn't come to me in the night watches, you know,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06and say, "You did this to me,"
0:51:06 > 0:51:11which I think might have happened a bit if I hadn't got rid of that
0:51:11 > 0:51:13sense of personal involvement, you know.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17So we're heading out of Baghdad to the north now,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20toward the Iraqi army base at Taji.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22In the ten years since Iraq,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25John has continued to report on world affairs.
0:51:25 > 0:51:26He's a respected writer
0:51:26 > 0:51:29and has published a number of books about his life.
0:51:30 > 0:51:36And he became a father for the third time in 2006
0:51:36 > 0:51:38when Dee gave birth to their son, Rafe.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44He was just besotted with Rafe from the word go.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47The bond between them is quite something.
0:51:47 > 0:51:48You know, he's got his...
0:51:48 > 0:51:53it's sort of a real little chip off the old block, I'm afraid,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56and they have this fantastic relationship.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00John has always been a bit soppy, to be honest.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03There is that bit of him, he tries to present this image
0:52:03 > 0:52:07of the hard, tough man but actually he's always been a bit soppy.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09And he was nuts about his daughters.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13But it was wonderful. He really, well, still is soppy about him.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17John wants his son to learn about his faith,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21and when he's not away working he takes Rafe to church.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26They go to church as much as they can.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31John loves history, and I think that's one of the key things
0:52:31 > 0:52:35that he'd like Rafe to know, is to understand Britain's place
0:52:35 > 0:52:37and where it all comes from,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40and where the Anglican church comes from,
0:52:40 > 0:52:44which I think would be his gift to Rafe.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47And he'd love Rafe to have an affinity for it.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54I don't want him growing up not knowing about religion.
0:52:54 > 0:53:00I don't want him to think, "Oh, it's just a load of silly old people
0:53:00 > 0:53:06"and they wear hats and they go into those buildings
0:53:06 > 0:53:09"and something happens there that I don't care about, that doesn't
0:53:09 > 0:53:11"have any relationship to me." I don't want that.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14He can reject it, fine, that's his business,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18but he must reject it from the basis of knowing about it,
0:53:18 > 0:53:19not of ignorance.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23And so many people now, it seems to me, don't understand
0:53:23 > 0:53:26what it's all about.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29It's just something they have not been exposed to,
0:53:29 > 0:53:34so they don't understand what it is that they're not interested in.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40John's faith is not just reserved for his time at home with Rafe.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45REPORT: 'This is how we had to come into Iraq this time,
0:53:45 > 0:53:47'hitching a lift on an RAF Hercules
0:53:47 > 0:53:51'with the crew always on the alert for a missile attack.'
0:53:53 > 0:53:57It's also a source of strength, as his work continues to take him
0:53:57 > 0:54:00to some of the world's most challenging locations.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05So when you are in the hotel room, knowing that you are about to
0:54:05 > 0:54:09go out with the crew to do something very dangerous
0:54:09 > 0:54:13and you have no idea what the outcome is going to be,
0:54:13 > 0:54:17do you have a word with yourself, with God, with what,
0:54:17 > 0:54:19before you go?
0:54:19 > 0:54:22There's a psalm, I think it's Psalm 139.
0:54:22 > 0:54:28I say it to myself more times than I can number.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30"Whither shall I go from thy spirit
0:54:30 > 0:54:34"And whither shall I flee from thy presence
0:54:34 > 0:54:37"If I ascend up in heaven, thou art there
0:54:37 > 0:54:39"If I make my bed in hell, thou art there
0:54:39 > 0:54:41"If I take the wings of the morning
0:54:41 > 0:54:47"And fly into the uttermost parts of the sea, even there
0:54:47 > 0:54:51"Shall thy hand lead me and they right hand shall guide me."
0:54:51 > 0:54:54I probably got the words slightly wrong.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57And that's what I tell myself.
0:54:57 > 0:55:02It comforts me, it makes me feel better.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07I'm not just on my own, with the forces of chance
0:55:07 > 0:55:10all sort of bashing me around
0:55:10 > 0:55:12and then, of course, you go downstairs and you meet up
0:55:12 > 0:55:16with the camera crew and you all start the usual business
0:55:16 > 0:55:19of sort of jokey kind of banter
0:55:19 > 0:55:21that takes you right through all of these things.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24That's one of the great pleasures of television.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31After a lifetime reporting from around the world,
0:55:31 > 0:55:34John could now retire, but he has no plans to stop.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39I actually did think that perhaps when Rafe arrived,
0:55:39 > 0:55:41he would stop travelling a little bit,
0:55:41 > 0:55:42but I was wrong about that.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Nothing is going to stop John travelling.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49When you ask him, "Are you considering retiring?"
0:55:49 > 0:55:51he gets really cross.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53It so much defines who he is.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55I can't imagine seeing him sort of saying,
0:55:55 > 0:55:57"Well, now I'm going to Suffolk,"
0:55:57 > 0:56:00his favourite place on the planet,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03you know, "Hang up my boots and my flak jackets,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06"and I'll just be watching the events on television."
0:56:07 > 0:56:12I can't imagine him ever retiring and pottering about in the garden.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14I just can't. That is never going to happen.
0:56:14 > 0:56:18He's too...he just loves what he does, and that's good.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20You want that in a parent.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22Well, John, here we are, approaching Christmas.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26You've spent many Christmases away from home and working
0:56:26 > 0:56:28in unpleasant circumstances.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30This Christmas, what are you up to?
0:56:30 > 0:56:32I used to rather specialise
0:56:32 > 0:56:36in spending Christmas in horrible places.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39Once, I saw in a newspaper it said,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43"We spent the traditional British Christmas - turkey, something else,
0:56:43 > 0:56:48"Christmas pudding and watching John Simpson in some dreadful place!"
0:56:48 > 0:56:53Now with a seven-year-old kid, I don't want to be ringing him up
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and saying, "Have you opened all your presents?"
0:56:56 > 0:56:58I want to be there.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02And I, er...I haven't changed,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04I am not mellowed.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06Somebody said, "You've mellowed."
0:57:06 > 0:57:09I HAVEN'T mellowed, I'm still...
0:57:09 > 0:57:15I still feel better for going to nasty places,
0:57:15 > 0:57:19but I don't want to do it on Christmas Day.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21- Thank you very much indeed. - Thank you.
0:57:21 > 0:57:23- Really lovely.- Thank you.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36John Simpson, what an extraordinary man.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40I was expecting a hard-nosed, news-bitten journalist,
0:57:40 > 0:57:42but he's not like that at all.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45He has witnessed some of the worst human atrocities in the world,
0:57:45 > 0:57:50man's inhumanity to man, and yet, he's retained his humanity,
0:57:50 > 0:57:52and I think that's to do with his faith.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56A faith which has sustained him and grown through the years,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59so that now, he looks to a world where he wants peace
0:57:59 > 0:58:00and hopes for peace.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02And if he can do that, perhaps we can too.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07But I wish him and his family this year a very peaceful Christmas.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11Next week, I meet a comedy legend.
0:58:11 > 0:58:12What a beautiful day, folks,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15for releasing a rocket in the vicar's vestments!
0:58:15 > 0:58:18Lighting a touchpaper and saying, "How's that for a rev-up?!"
0:58:18 > 0:58:21Ken Dodd celebrates 60 years in showbiz next year,
0:58:21 > 0:58:25and at the age of 86, still performs up to three shows a week.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30He has also helped raise millions for charity and has
0:58:30 > 0:58:35a faith that has been a constant support throughout his long career.
0:58:35 > 0:58:36Tatty-bye, everybody! Tatty-bye!
0:59:00 > 0:59:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd