Lord Ashdown Fern Britton Meets...


Lord Ashdown

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My guest today was born in colonial India,

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into a military family.

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He started his career as a Royal Marines officer.

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Yet most of his life has been spent serving his country

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in the full glare of publicity, as a leading figure in British politics.

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He is Paddy Ashdown.

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As a young man, Paddy served in conflicts all around the world.

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We get on board HMS Bulwark and thunder up the Persian Gulf,

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every rivet of the ship popping.

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He patrolled the jungles of Sarawak in Borneo.

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I didn't like the business of killing, obviously,

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nobody likes that.

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And undertook secret missions in the naval special forces.

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For a time, he even stepped into the shadowy world of espionage.

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I can say I was working in the area of intelligence - yes.

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But life in the military in charge of other young Marines opened

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Paddy's eyes.

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I was in a position of commanding them because of an accident

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of birth, and I detest the class system, utterly detest it.

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He developed a new passion,

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swapping the theatre of war for the political stage.

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He was not a natural Parliamentarian.

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He didn't enjoy the silly games they play between the Honourable

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and the Right Honourable members.

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And there was one particular Right Honourable who regularly

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outplayed him.

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Every week, I'd try and pop up and she'd go...pom, pom!

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As leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown has experienced

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the highs

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and the lows of political life.

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If this exit poll is right, I will publicly eat my hat.

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And survived a scandal that threatened to destroy his career

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and his marriage.

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Jane deserves a medal for almost everything.

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I don't suppose I've been an easy person to live with at all.

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Everyone knows about the kind of menace and machismo

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of the man.

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Gallantry, glamour, youth.

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But in many respects, a better description of him

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is as a soldier poet.

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There was an old man burying his son and Paddy immediately

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took his jacket off, picked up a shovel and helped him.

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But despite a lifetime witnessing the horror of war,

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he retains a belief in God.

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I love to feel part of the communion of people who are in touch

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with the God that I believe in, actually, pray to every night.

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But where does the soldier end and the politician begin?

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I want to know who's the real Paddy Ashdown?

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INAUDIBLE

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-Of course, we've just had the general election this year.

-Yeah.

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Everybody was taken by surprise.

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And I ate my hat.

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You did.

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Yeah, I looked at those figures, Fern, because

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I saw them about two minutes before they were announced, and I thought,

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"Oh, God, um, what do I do now?"

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And so I used the famous phrase.

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I get lorry drivers in the street still pulling up alongside,

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"Hey, Paddy, you eaten your hat yet?"

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You weren't born Patrick or Paddy, were you?

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No. I wasn't, no.

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At the age of 11, I went to my school in England with...

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-WITH ACCENT:

-..a very broad Northern Ireland accent - very, very broad.

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So, of course, the English,

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knowing nothing about the Irish whatsoever, decided

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that all Irish must be Paddys.

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And Paddy I was known,

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and I feel rather more of a Paddy than I do a Jeremy.

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You are a Jeremy John...

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..Durham Ashdown.

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Jeremy John Durham Ashdown was born in the middle of World War II

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on 27 February 1941, in New Delhi, India.

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So, Paddy, why were you born in India? What were your parents doing?

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My dad's family came originally from the south of Ireland

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and went to India in 1805.

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They were soldiers and administrators and the people

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who ran the Empire, and my mum came from Northern Ireland

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and she went to India as a nurse, just before the war, in the 1930s.

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During his childhood in India, Paddy was often

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left in the care of family servants.

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They were wonderful.

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And they were Muslims and I was brought up to

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the rhythm of Islam and when I came home at the age of five, when

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the British left India, I could speak Hindi

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much, much better than English.

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Interesting that you say the rhythms?

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Do you mean the day-to-day...

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Yeah, the habits of Islam and, above all, the prayers of Islam,

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so it was sort of ingrained into my life.

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And it's always been a part of my life, Fern,

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this business of living with different creeds,

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different cultures.

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I've always enjoyed it very much.

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The Ashdowns had seven children in all, but Paddy shared his first

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four years with just one younger brother, Richard.

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As you were growing up and were still in India,

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you lost a little brother, who died,

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and I know that that really also shaped

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something for your parents -

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this fear of losing a child is obviously any parent's horror.

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Yeah, I don't know how they coped with it.

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They lost, in all, three.

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I am the oldest of seven and my brother Richard died

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when I was four - he was two -

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of one of those tropical fevers nobody could perfectly identify.

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And then my younger brother Robert, at the age of 14.

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He died of leukaemia.

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And then my youngest twin sister, Melanie, was

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killed in a traffic accident.

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I sometimes think, in a way that you do, that my luck has been

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bought at the price of the torture my parents went through.

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And this business of losing offspring, it is

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the biggest nightmare I have.

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Whenever the kids got sick, indeed when they still do,

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I almost lose my rationality about this tiny dot that

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appears on the horizon, that is suddenly going to become

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the storm that engulfs you in tragedy and sadness.

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After the war ended, the Ashdowns decided to leave India

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and begin a new life in their native Ireland.

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Aged just five,

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Paddy made the long journey with his mother.

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It was from their train that he witnessed sectarian violence

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for the first time.

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-ARCHIVE:

-Can Hindus and Muslims live peacefully together?

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The train stopped outside a station.

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My mum put my face into her skirts but, being a five-year-old,

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I looked out and what I saw

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was a platform covered with the bodies of the end of a massacre.

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I don't know whether they were Muslims by Hindus or Hindus by Muslims.

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But I could almost smell the fear.

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And so, as a sort of underground stream

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in my life has run this business of that terrible event

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that occurs between two neighbours that get on perfectly well and

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one terrible night something happens that ignites the ethnic or religious

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differences, and then they are able to kill and torture each other

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in the most disgusting ways,

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-and that seems to have been part of my life.

-It does.

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But as a five-year-old, that was not established in your consciousness.

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No, absolutely not, but it did give me terrible nightmares.

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And when you finally, safely, got on the boat,

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it was the sea that ignited your passion?

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Absolutely right. I had never seen it before, of course,

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and I immediately fell in love with it

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and teamed up with another tearaway five-year-old.

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And we both swore we'd go in the Royal Navy.

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After a couple of years living on the Northern Irish coast, the family

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moved inland to the little market town of Comber in County Down.

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It took another year or so

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for your father to join you all in Northern Ireland.

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How did he settle without the glamour of India and the Army?

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I don't think that mattered to him.

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I could always sense a nostalgia for India, but my dad was the kind

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of person who looked objectively at the task in front of him.

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And the task in front of him was to make a base in Northern Ireland,

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to earn a living for his family.

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He took on pig farming?

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He had to learn it from scratch and he wasn't very good at it, in truth.

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But he clearly was devastatingly charming -

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seven engagements before he managed to marry your mother.

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Yes, he was a rogue.

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He loved argument, adored it. He would provoke it.

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He would stimulate arguments and then take the impossible side

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so you had to argue with him, even though he didn't believe in it.

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We used to shout at each other.

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I mean, it was an extremely turbulent dinner table, with

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my mum presiding over all of it like this calm centre to the storm,

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always dishing out clotted cream dollops of unconditional love

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to any hurt pride.

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And he taught me a very, very, very important lesson

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for politics, which is never be afraid to be in a minority of one.

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Don't worry if other people are all against you,

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if you believe you are right, stick to it.

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Paddy was growing up in a household at odds with the religious

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sectarianism around him.

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His mum was a Protestant, his dad a Catholic.

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So, did religion play any part in your childhood?

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When I went to school, at the age of five,

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to a little Northern Ireland primary school,

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all of them said, "What are you Paddy,

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"are youse a Protestant or are youse a Catholic?"

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So I went home to my father and said,

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"Dad, am I a Protestant or a Catholic?"

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And he said, "Go back and tell them you're a Muslim."

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So, I went back and I said, "I'm a Muslim,"

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and they said, "Well are youse a Protestant Muslim or are youse a Catholic Muslim?"

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HE LAUGHS

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These early experiences helped shape Paddy's religious thinking.

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If somebody asked me, Fern, do I believe in God, I do, actually.

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If they ask me how shall we name the creed,

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I'd say Christianity, because Christianity happens

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to provide me with a code to try and live my life at my time,

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in my country, in the context in which I live it.

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If somebody said, "You're a Christian, are you a Protestant or

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a Catholic?" I say,

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"Look, I'm a Christian, I'm not going further than that."

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But I love to feel part of the communion of people who are

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in touch with the God that I believe in, actually, pray to every night

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Every night?

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Yeah, I do, I do, I do. I don't know, but.... I do, yes.

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Are you asking for things, thanking him for things,

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looking for something?

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I have been exceptionally fortunate.

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I have to say at moments of misery and sadness,

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I will ask for things, but that is rather rare. I just

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find it a comfortable thing to do in my life, to acknowledge something

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greater than myself on a daily basis,

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I suppose it's as easy as that.

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At the age of 11,

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Paddy was sent away to England as a boarder at Bedford School.

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Academic study didn't interest him.

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He shone most on the playing fields and in the pool.

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He left before taking his A levels,

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pursuing instead his earlier passion for the sea.

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I mean, I could have gone to university.

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People said I should have done.

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I could have passed the exams.

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I never took them because my parents couldn't afford to send me

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to university.

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So I joined the Royal Marines by accident.

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It was absolutely right for this 18-year-old tearaway

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with a love of adventure.

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When the Marine has to go in somewhere,

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there's no telling how he'll arrive,

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by air, by water, or on foot.

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Royal Marines training is regarded as one of the toughest in the world.

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For a Marine, cliffs, even sheer cliffs with hardly a foothold,

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just don't exist.

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It culminates in the infamous 30-mile speed march across Dartmoor.

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As a young, raw second lieutenant, I had to learn to pack my kit.

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I had to learn to, um, to make sure

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we had the right number of pieces of lavatory paper in there.

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How many pieces? Three?

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Yes, I remember I had a drill sergeant who said,

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"You've got four pieces of lavatory paper here, sir.

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"That's not what your young bottom needs.

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"Three is enough - one up, one down and one to polish," he said.

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So that was all part of it.

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But the most important thing it taught me was the self-discipline.

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You can do your 30-mile march across Dartmoor with a full pack

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and rifle in whatever it was, five or six hours, not

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because of discipline but because of self-discipline that drives you on.

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That's what it taught me, and then, that unique

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privilege of commanding men in difficult circumstances.

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Paddy's best friend on the course was fellow officer Tim Courtenay.

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Training was hard, but it's all to do with moulding young men

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into good Royal Marines.

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Paddy led by example.

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He wouldn't expect his marines or anyone to do things that he couldn't

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do and do better, so he was a good, positive leader.

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I had two reports written of me.

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One by a colonel who said, "Lieutenant Ashdown's men

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"would follow him anywhere, but chiefly out of curiosity."

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Never knew what you were going to do next!

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Well, one of those things you did next was you went to a ball, I think,

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and you met a gorgeous young woman called Jane.

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It was my first ball, I was 18, first Royal Marine Ball,

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I think my first ball, to be honest.

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For some reason or another, Paddy

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and other members of the batch were without birds, to put it bluntly,

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and so it was, "Does anyone know any spare birds?"

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I took my cousin and my best friend took his cousin.

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It just so happened that my cousin Jane lived up the road.

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So it was a question of, you know, come down to the pub,

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meet up and see who is going to take who.

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And it was a slightly haphazard sort of way of doing things.

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So when I arrived at a little pub,

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I asked the publican, who I knew quite well, and he said,

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"Upstairs, second on the right."

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So I went upstairs, second on the right, opened the door

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and there was Jane. She was not dressed at the time and I went, "Oh!" she went, "Oh!"

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And there was I in my dressing gown with my hair in pins, you know?

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I looked at him and I thought, "Oh, where have you been all my life?"

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I was a nasty, scruffy little art student in Bristol

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and he was all tarted up, you know, looking frightfully chic.

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And the rest, as they say, is history.

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The next day, we went to lunch at the Clarence Hotel in Exeter.

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Neither of us really enjoyed the lunch very much,

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so I said to her, "Do you know what? Let's go and look at the cathedral."

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And that's when we fell in love.

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Here was a person who, she was not only very beautiful,

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but also she had the same passions as I did, poetry,

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music, in particular, classical music, and architecture.

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By the way, very different to me,

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completely opposite, and that's the secret of our marriage.

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Almost in the same way that your mother

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and father were quite different. Your mother, the centre balm.

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Fern, that's very perceptive.

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Jane is in our family the calm centre,

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Jane is the person who anchors me.

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I am the person who is constantly looking for another adventure.

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But that Christmas was bittersweet.

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Days after meeting Jane, Paddy returned home to

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Northern Ireland to discover his parents' business had collapsed.

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And his father had a shocking announcement.

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I remember the meeting so well.

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I was in tears and he was, too, which made me even worse,

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and he said, "Look I've let you all down.

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"I must now go somewhere with the family where the future

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"of my children does not depend on them going to a private school."

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I said goodbye to them not far

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from here and they all emigrated to Australia as £10 Poms, and left me behind.

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Good heavens.

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Paddy said goodbye to his parents

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and his five siblings in the summer of 1960.

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He was 19 years old.

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I know he found losing his family to the other

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side of the world pretty difficult, but we didn't have

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a lot of time to think about these things, so we got on with it.

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Just 1,000 miles east of Suez,

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British units are rushed in at the Sheikh of Kuwait's request...

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Paddy's first deployment was to the Middle East.

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His unit was part of a naval task force sent to defend

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Kuwait against invasion by Iraq.

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As far as we knew, we were going to do an assault with 600 men

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on Kuwait, which we thought was occupied by a division -

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that's 10,000 - Iraqis, plus tanks.

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So we were all a bit nervous about this and we get

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onboard HMS Bulwark, and thunder up the Persian Gulf.

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Every rivet of the ship popping.

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And my commanding officer was a completely mad wartime

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Commando colonel, and he called us young officers together.

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And he said, "Right, when we have driven these Arab Johnnies..."

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- that's the way they talk -

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"When we have driven these Arab Johnnies out of Kuwait,

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"we will have to win their hearts and minds,

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"and so we'll put on a show of Scottish country dancing."

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I jest not - so here I am in an army blanket as a kilt... I don't know,

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about 70 degrees outside, with the sunshine sparkling off the Arabian Sea,

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learning the Eightsome Reel, which I can still do to this day.

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When we got there, the Iraqis hadn't arrived

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so we were able to take up our position.

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And the Iraqis got to hear that there was a thin red line

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and they didn't attack, so we saved Kuwait, sort of.

0:18:470:18:51

Yes, you did save Kuwait. 600 against 10,000 would have been grim.

0:18:510:18:54

I am so glad they didn't come.

0:18:540:18:56

Paddy didn't see action in Kuwait,

0:19:000:19:03

but his next operation took him to Borneo in the Far East

0:19:030:19:07

and a confrontation over the creation of modern Malaysia.

0:19:070:19:10

It meant Paddy and his men defending a frontier of dense jungle

0:19:120:19:17

and months of separation from Jane.

0:19:170:19:20

I went to the cinema one night with my mother, I think it was,

0:19:230:19:27

and, you know, they used to have these Look At Life clip things.

0:19:270:19:31

And there was I sitting there

0:19:310:19:32

and there was my husband on the cinema.

0:19:320:19:35

Britain's Marines are protecting 80 miles of Sarawak's 600-mile frontier.

0:19:350:19:39

At this post, 23-year-old Marine Lieutenant Ashdown has local forces

0:19:390:19:44

as well as Marines under his command.

0:19:440:19:46

I felt a bit tearful, because it was so very, very unexpected.

0:19:460:19:52

This is obviously a very naive question

0:19:550:19:57

and one I am sure you have been asked a million times

0:19:570:20:00

at dinner parties etc, but that moment when, I mean I am

0:20:000:20:03

imagining this, you are perhaps on your stomach, you are crouching in

0:20:030:20:07

long grass, the enemy is over there,

0:20:070:20:09

you squeeze the trigger, you know you've killed them.

0:20:090:20:12

You know, Fern, it doesn't...

0:20:140:20:15

I can't remember it happening like that.

0:20:150:20:18

It's just... 99% of war is just unbearable boredom

0:20:180:20:23

and then 1% is stuff that happens in,

0:20:230:20:26

you know, a minute, 30 seconds, three or four minutes,

0:20:260:20:29

maybe, quarter of an hour.

0:20:290:20:31

Of terror.

0:20:310:20:33

Well, you are, of course you're frightened.

0:20:330:20:35

If you're not frightened, you're an idiot.

0:20:350:20:37

But when the moment comes,

0:20:370:20:40

and stuff starts flying, you don't have time to be frightened,

0:20:400:20:45

oddly enough, you just don't.

0:20:450:20:47

You want to know your men are all right.

0:20:470:20:50

People have this weird idea that young men fight wars

0:20:500:20:54

for their country. They don't.

0:20:540:20:56

They fight wars for the man next to them,

0:20:560:20:58

who they know is their buddy and they know

0:20:580:21:00

he will lay down his life for you and you will do the same for him.

0:21:000:21:04

I think... I enjoyed soldiering.

0:21:060:21:08

I didn't like the business of killing, obviously,

0:21:080:21:11

nobody likes that.

0:21:110:21:12

Also, I have to confess that, after a lot of this,

0:21:120:21:19

I became...a bit put off

0:21:190:21:24

by the sort of use of maximum force,

0:21:240:21:29

and I became fascinated by the soldiering of guile.

0:21:290:21:33

And so, in 1964, Paddy put himself forward for the naval

0:21:360:21:41

equivalent of the SAS - the elite Special Boat Section,

0:21:410:21:45

which specialises in secret operations behind enemy lines.

0:21:450:21:49

The standards set are very high and very demanding

0:21:510:21:55

and not for the faint-hearted.

0:21:550:21:57

You've got to be exceptional to get into Special Boat Section.

0:21:570:22:00

Only 30% get through the gruelling selection process.

0:22:020:22:06

I was one of his sergeants when he joined.

0:22:080:22:10

Part of it was the parachute jump

0:22:100:22:12

and I always remember Paddy looking very apprehensive

0:22:120:22:16

and that's the only time I have ever seen him apprehensive

0:22:160:22:18

and I don't think, even at the end, he was actually too keen on parachuting.

0:22:180:22:21

Never liked parachuting, always hated parachutes, it's always

0:22:210:22:24

struck me as being, you know,

0:22:240:22:26

contrary to human nature to throw yourself

0:22:260:22:28

out of an aircraft at 1,000 foot, with a perfectly serviceable aircraft,

0:22:280:22:32

but I did like the diving.

0:22:320:22:34

I am not fazed at all by being in inky blackness

0:22:340:22:37

under 30,000 tonnes of warship on a dark night.

0:22:370:22:40

I am not fazed by the claustrophobia.

0:22:400:22:42

Their mission accomplished, the frogmen have to get away, but quick.

0:22:450:22:48

Of course, there are probably quite a lot of one-armed Marines going about these days.

0:22:480:22:53

But working in the Special Boat Section wasn't

0:22:530:22:55

all about physical strength and courage.

0:22:550:22:57

You were trained in how to cope with interrogation

0:23:000:23:04

if you were caught so, therefore, they had to put you through

0:23:040:23:08

the kind of things, the kind of torture,

0:23:080:23:10

-that an enemy would put you through.

-Well, in those days,

0:23:100:23:13

the main element that you used for interrogation is sleeplessness,

0:23:130:23:16

sleep deprivation, and it's quite difficult.

0:23:160:23:19

But my interrogator, who I used to meet every year,

0:23:190:23:22

he said to me once, "You know, Paddy, you won't

0:23:220:23:26

"be broken by physical hardship, but I know how I'd break you.

0:23:260:23:29

"I'd stick you in a cell and make you do nothing for three days."

0:23:290:23:33

And the truth is he's right, because having to sit down

0:23:330:23:36

and do nothing, it's one of the reasons I can't retire.

0:23:360:23:38

-It frightens me to death.

-So you'd come out screaming, "I'll tell you everything"

0:23:380:23:42

"I'll tell you everything! I'll tell you everything! Give me something to do!"

0:23:420:23:45

Did the SBS shape your politics?

0:23:450:23:47

Enormously. I was first Labour.

0:23:470:23:50

Well, we're all entitled to the follies of youth.

0:23:500:23:53

In the SBS I found myself, Fern, commanding young men,

0:23:530:24:00

who were, by any standard,

0:24:000:24:03

better at the profession we were all involved in than I was.

0:24:030:24:07

And I was in a position of commanding them because of

0:24:090:24:13

an accident of birth, and I detest the class system, utterly detest it.

0:24:130:24:17

He had the idea that everyone could do anything they want to do.

0:24:170:24:21

I had no qualification, never thought of being an officer,

0:24:210:24:25

and Paddy said, "You can do it."

0:24:250:24:27

I thought, "Now, what kind of country would we have if we had

0:24:270:24:34

"a genuine meritocracy, if you genuinely got on according to your ability?"

0:24:340:24:39

He persisted and persisted and persisted

0:24:390:24:41

and without that I wouldn't have got commissioned.

0:24:410:24:44

I think that sense of comradeship, of common destiny and,

0:24:440:24:48

above all, believing in each other's ability is, in a sense, what shaped

0:24:480:24:51

the set of political beliefs that eventually, not at the time,

0:24:510:24:56

became liberalism.

0:24:560:24:57

The other thing I have to thank Paddy for is a very gammy right leg.

0:24:570:25:02

He injured me playing rugby and it's never been the same since.

0:25:020:25:06

In 1969, Paddy was back in the Far East.

0:25:090:25:12

But this time as a student.

0:25:120:25:13

During his military service,

0:25:140:25:16

he'd discovered a love for languages and so took the unusual step

0:25:160:25:20

of a three-year sabbatical to learn Chinese.

0:25:200:25:23

Jane and their two young children joined him.

0:25:230:25:27

You went to Hong Kong. You started to learn Chinese.

0:25:290:25:32

How many languages do you speak now?

0:25:320:25:34

I have forgotten six.

0:25:360:25:38

You have forgotten six.

0:25:380:25:40

How many do you remember?

0:25:400:25:42

If you don't use a language you forget it, but I have

0:25:420:25:45

learnt or tried to learn Malay and then Dayak,

0:25:450:25:49

when I was up deep in the jungles of Borneo,

0:25:490:25:51

because those are the people we lived among.

0:25:510:25:54

They were still head-hunters, so it wasn't a bad idea to

0:25:540:25:56

learn their language. Wasn't a very difficult language.

0:25:560:25:59

Then I came back and tried to learn German, but I can't do it at the same depth as I used to.

0:25:590:26:03

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

0:26:030:26:05

When it comes to languages, there's another politician who can

0:26:050:26:07

compete with Paddy - ex Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

0:26:070:26:11

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

0:26:110:26:14

In terms of the number of languages, I think

0:26:140:26:16

I can probably run him close on that one, but in terms of impenetrable,

0:26:160:26:20

indecipherable and exotic languages, he's definitely got the top prize.

0:26:200:26:25

I just speak a few European languages.

0:26:250:26:28

With his student days over, Paddy returned to soldiering for

0:26:310:26:35

one final deployment - back home in Northern Ireland.

0:26:350:26:39

In 1970, he took command of one of the units

0:26:400:26:43

brought in to keep the peace between Belfast's divided community -

0:26:430:26:48

the Protestant Unionist majority and the Catholic Nationalist minority.

0:26:480:26:52

-Thank you.

-There you are, love.

0:26:520:26:54

-That's for after your lunch, for after your dinner.

-Thank you very much.

0:26:540:26:58

When I first went into Belfast, the Catholics welcomed us

0:26:580:27:02

with cups of tea and bacon butties, because we were their saviours.

0:27:020:27:06

And somehow or other, we lost their confidence.

0:27:060:27:08

SHOUTING

0:27:080:27:10

EXPLOSION

0:27:140:27:15

You decided to go and seek out the local leader of the IRA?

0:27:180:27:22

Oh, you've got all the secrets!

0:27:220:27:24

Yeah. So, one day, I left my weapons and my Marines behind.

0:27:240:27:30

I was still in uniform, wandered up the road, knocked on his door,

0:27:300:27:33

and I said, "I gather you are the IRA commander here

0:27:330:27:36

"and I am the British commander."

0:27:360:27:39

I thought it wouldn't do any harm for him to know

0:27:390:27:42

that I knew where he lived.

0:27:420:27:44

But the next day, the IRA put me on their death list

0:27:440:27:48

and I was given a considerable rocket

0:27:480:27:52

by my commanding officer for doing such a foolish thing.

0:27:520:27:56

I genuinely believed that, surely, there must be some way

0:27:560:27:59

around this problem, rather than this confrontation between ourselves

0:27:590:28:03

and the Catholics.

0:28:030:28:04

Over 30 years later, Paddy worked alongside one of the Republicans

0:28:070:28:12

he believed had put him on the death list back in 1970.

0:28:120:28:15

So when I went back to Belfast, I said to him,

0:28:170:28:20

"If I'd have seen you here 30 years ago, I'd have arrested you."

0:28:200:28:23

He said, "Not if I'd have seen you coming first or I'd have shot you!"

0:28:230:28:26

BOTH LAUGH

0:28:260:28:27

He's a really lovely man.

0:28:280:28:30

-Now that the violence is over.

-Well, he probably was then.

0:28:300:28:33

He was a man prepared to take risks with his life for the things

0:28:330:28:36

he believed in. I can't disagree.

0:28:360:28:38

I may disagree with the methods which they got up to, particularly some of the more violent ones,

0:28:380:28:43

but if I'd have been brought up in Belfast,

0:28:430:28:45

as a Catholic, in the Ardoyne, given my nature,

0:28:450:28:49

I wouldn't be surprised if I'd ended up a member of the IRA, too.

0:28:490:28:53

What a... What a confession.

0:28:550:28:58

No, you know, you are the product of your upbringing.

0:28:580:29:03

I hope that, you know, some of the terrible pieces of terrorism

0:29:030:29:08

you would have resisted, but would I have been a supporter of those

0:29:080:29:12

who, in the end, felt they had to take more strenuous action?

0:29:120:29:15

Given my nature, I probably would have been.

0:29:150:29:17

There is no question about that.

0:29:170:29:19

During his time serving in Belfast, Paddy once again saw how

0:29:210:29:25

religion could cause hatred.

0:29:250:29:27

Yet, he did have an experience that gave him a sense of the divine.

0:29:270:29:32

You went off training on an exercise in Scotland

0:29:320:29:35

and you said you had what you describe as a religious experience.

0:29:350:29:38

I've had two.

0:29:380:29:39

I suppose we all have them and I suppose it's not unusual.

0:29:390:29:43

We were... I had taken my company up to Arran island

0:29:430:29:47

and we had moved up onto the summit of Goat Fell.

0:29:470:29:51

It was one of those bitterly, bitterly cold nights.

0:29:510:29:54

The moon was shining crisp, clear, frosty night, still,

0:29:540:29:59

traces of snow still around on the top of the mountain.

0:29:590:30:02

And I looked down and the whole of the Firth of Clyde was laid out

0:30:020:30:06

down below me.

0:30:060:30:07

And it was a moment of just extraordinary exhilaration.

0:30:090:30:13

And I just... I remember saying...

0:30:140:30:17

It was a quasi-religious experience, maybe it was a religious experience.

0:30:170:30:20

I just felt, you know, there has to be something more than this

0:30:200:30:24

and if that helps you to lead your life a little bit better,

0:30:240:30:28

surely that's a good thing.

0:30:280:30:30

Back home in Somerset, Paddy had another moment of epiphany,

0:30:330:30:37

this time in his political beliefs.

0:30:370:30:39

Tell me about your conversion to liberalism.

0:30:410:30:44

Well, I suspect the conversion actually occurred many years

0:30:440:30:46

before and this was a little pile of tinder ready to be lit.

0:30:460:30:50

So, here I am, and a knock on the door.

0:30:500:30:53

So I go and open it, and this man, he was wearing an anorak.

0:30:530:30:57

He certainly had sandals, and he may have had a bobble hat.

0:30:570:31:00

And he said, "Hello, I am from the Liberals."

0:31:000:31:04

And I said, "Go away." I thought that the Liberals weren't

0:31:040:31:08

worth considering because they were this tiny thing that didn't

0:31:080:31:12

matter, and I can't imagine why, but I said,

0:31:120:31:15

"I tell you what, I'll give you my vote if you can persuade me to be a Liberal. Come in, sit down."

0:31:150:31:19

I think just about there.

0:31:190:31:21

Two hours later, I had discovered from this unlikely

0:31:210:31:25

angel of fate, that I had, in fact, been a Liberal all my life.

0:31:250:31:30

And I've tried to find him since locally and I can't.

0:31:300:31:33

And quite literally, I took down liberalism like an old coat

0:31:330:31:39

hanging in the cupboard, ready for me to choose it

0:31:390:31:41

and it felt comfortable then and it's felt comfortable ever since.

0:31:410:31:45

When Paddy cast his first vote for the Liberal Party,

0:31:490:31:52

it was by proxy from Geneva in Switzerland.

0:31:520:31:55

It was the beginning of 1974.

0:31:560:31:59

He'd left the Army for a new career with the Foreign Office

0:31:590:32:02

that appeared to be nothing more than a desk job.

0:32:020:32:05

You went to Geneva on a job with the Civil Service, and I can say

0:32:060:32:10

the word but you are going to find it difficult - you were a spy.

0:32:100:32:13

I am allowed to say, and I will not say more,

0:32:140:32:17

because I promised I wouldn't, the undertaking I took,

0:32:170:32:20

I can say I was working in the area of intelligence - yes.

0:32:200:32:24

I don't think a spy - that's a bit overdramatic.

0:32:240:32:27

But I like it. It's romantic.

0:32:270:32:30

Well, it was an extraordinary, it was an extraordinary

0:32:300:32:32

part of our lives, Jane was very much part of it, too.

0:32:320:32:35

My other job was being a diplomat, that was what I was supposed to be.

0:32:350:32:38

Your "day job" was diplomat.

0:32:380:32:39

My day job was a diplomat, erm, it was the era when the Cold War,

0:32:390:32:44

the Cold War intelligence war was still in place.

0:32:440:32:46

Occasionally, you and Jane would go somewhere where you needed to be

0:32:460:32:51

on the pretext that, "Oh, we are just travelling and we're coming to see the opera..."

0:32:510:32:55

You are very naughty, Fern, I'm not going to tell you anything about that.

0:32:550:32:58

There was an occasion when we had a fascinating trip

0:32:580:33:01

to a western capital on the grounds

0:33:010:33:05

that we were taking a holiday, which included seeing opera,

0:33:050:33:08

as you rightly say, but more than that it would be improper for me to say.

0:33:080:33:13

Was it mission accomplished?

0:33:130:33:15

-That would be improper, too.

-Damn you!

0:33:150:33:18

I have to eat you if I say that.

0:33:180:33:19

I'm going to put you in a room for three days and then you'll tell me.

0:33:190:33:23

BRASS BAND PLAYS

0:33:230:33:24

Paddy might have stayed on in Geneva working anonymously

0:33:280:33:31

in the service of his country, but there were two reasons why he began

0:33:310:33:35

to rethink his future.

0:33:350:33:36

One was his recent conversion to liberalism,

0:33:360:33:39

the other was the political situation back home in Britain.

0:33:390:33:43

There we were living in Geneva, living the life of Riley,

0:33:450:33:48

and everybody back at home was having a pretty tough time

0:33:480:33:52

and things were pretty hard.

0:33:520:33:54

Britain in 1974 was a country in crisis marked by

0:33:580:34:03

rampant inflation, industrial unrest and power cuts.

0:34:030:34:07

I remember coming home from school

0:34:100:34:12

and my mother would have the candles ready and make up some food,

0:34:120:34:15

-because you wouldn't be able to heat it in the oven and...

-Yes.

0:34:150:34:18

All of those things. But what shocked me

0:34:180:34:22

was we really seriously discussed who was running Britain - was

0:34:220:34:26

it the elected government of the day or was it the trades union movement?

0:34:260:34:30

And, you know, I just could not bear the idea that the country that

0:34:300:34:34

I loved was in such a terrible state

0:34:340:34:37

and so I took what was, with Jane's agreement,

0:34:370:34:42

the most irresponsible, stupid, irrational decision of my life.

0:34:420:34:47

He said to me,

0:34:480:34:50

"I think I want to go into politics."

0:34:500:34:52

# I'm going to change the world, baby

0:34:520:34:55

# I'm going to change the world

0:34:550:34:58

# I'll switch the wrong to right

0:34:590:35:01

# You can bet your life... #

0:35:010:35:03

Paddy set his sights on becoming a Parliamentary candidate

0:35:030:35:06

for Jane's home constituency of Yeovil in Somerset.

0:35:060:35:10

I was absolutely 100% behind him,

0:35:100:35:14

although I'm a bit more left-wing than Paddy is.

0:35:140:35:17

Of course, he had to persuade the local Liberal Party

0:35:170:35:21

selection committee that he was the right man for the job.

0:35:210:35:24

He gave us this incredibly rousing speech.

0:35:240:35:27

And then we all stood up and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah,

0:35:270:35:30

"we must have this guy."

0:35:300:35:31

And I went home and I said to my husband,

0:35:310:35:34

"Some of those people there have no idea what they have taken on

0:35:340:35:37

"and things will never be the same with this guy."

0:35:370:35:40

The Yeovil campaign was mission impossible, nationally and locally.

0:35:420:35:46

The Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe had recently resigned amidst

0:35:460:35:50

a scandal that involved sex and murder.

0:35:500:35:52

And Yeovil was a seat the Liberals had almost no chance of winning.

0:35:520:35:56

We were third in the previous election.

0:35:580:36:01

The Tories had been in power since 1910.

0:36:010:36:05

They did not count their majorities,

0:36:050:36:08

they weighed them, and I said, sort of gleefully,

0:36:080:36:11

"I am going to be a Member of Parliament for Yeovil."

0:36:110:36:14

I thought I was such a remarkable, wonderful person

0:36:140:36:16

that the idea that I wouldn't be elected just

0:36:160:36:19

never occurred to me.

0:36:190:36:20

I recognised I might have to open a strawberry cream tea or two

0:36:220:36:25

but people would want me as their MP.

0:36:250:36:27

Good evening to you.

0:36:340:36:35

The first time I stood in '79, when I lost, um -

0:36:350:36:39

my father was alive then, he was sitting here when I got back -

0:36:390:36:44

that was pretty devastating, actually.

0:36:440:36:46

He had worked really, really hard

0:36:480:36:51

and that's probably the only time I've known him to be ill.

0:36:510:36:55

Um, and he really was quite down for three or four weeks.

0:36:550:36:59

It was just...horrendous, really.

0:36:590:37:04

The only thing was that we had come second.

0:37:040:37:06

Which was a big...better than coming third.

0:37:080:37:14

And then he grabbed us all by the scruff of the necks and said,

0:37:160:37:19

"Right, come on, we're going to carry on with this."

0:37:190:37:22

The next four years were tough for Paddy, Jane and the children.

0:37:240:37:29

Paddy's father died and, for a while, he was unemployed.

0:37:310:37:35

Polling Day on 9th June 1983 was the last throw of the dice.

0:37:370:37:41

Paddy and I tootled in our awful broken-down little red Renault 5

0:37:430:37:48

over the hill into Yeovil and he said,

0:37:480:37:52

"You know, if we don't do it this time, we can't go on.

0:37:520:37:56

"We really can't sustain this

0:37:560:37:58

"and I can't put the kids through this anymore."

0:37:580:38:02

And so it was make or break.

0:38:020:38:03

Paddy is not great on Election Day, cos he can be quite

0:38:060:38:11

a prophet of doom, especially when the stakes are very high.

0:38:110:38:14

He would prowl around like a caged lion.

0:38:140:38:17

Being miserable and saying, "Oh, God, look,

0:38:170:38:19

"they're not voting for me and I'm going to lose."

0:38:190:38:22

"It's all going dreadfully, The people are not coming out."

0:38:220:38:25

He used to get up everybody's noses.

0:38:250:38:28

We have, at stages, had to say to him, "Go and do something else."

0:38:280:38:32

Every ballot paper, cos you can see them as they are being

0:38:330:38:37

counted, that hasn't got a cross against your name, is a personal

0:38:370:38:40

arrow in your heart. Maybe I just take it, maybe I've got a thin skin.

0:38:400:38:44

But that night, my agent came to me

0:38:440:38:46

and said, "Paddy, I think we've done it."

0:38:460:38:48

Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Liberal Alliance candidate,

0:38:480:38:54

26,608.

0:38:540:38:56

And that night was just euphoric. It was just amazing.

0:38:590:39:03

We hardly believed it and the children were delighted.

0:39:030:39:06

Of course, we all had a good cry, all four of us, I think,

0:39:060:39:10

and, erm, well, we'd done it.

0:39:100:39:13

Let's see that result from Yeovil, the first Liberal gain of the night.

0:39:130:39:17

By a hefty majority - 3,400.

0:39:170:39:20

If somebody said to me, "We're going to have put one

0:39:200:39:23

"line on your tombstone, what is it that you are most proud of?"

0:39:230:39:28

I have absolutely no doubt, the thing I am most proud of is being

0:39:280:39:31

Member Of Parliament for the constituency that I live in and love.

0:39:310:39:34

So that irresponsible decision was also the best decision of my life.

0:39:340:39:40

LAUGHTER AND CHEERING

0:39:400:39:42

Within just five years of becoming an MP, Paddy Ashdown became

0:39:430:39:47

leader of his party.

0:39:470:39:49

What is Paddy Ashdown going to do? Five years?

0:39:490:39:52

I mean, after five years, I hardly knew my way around the place

0:39:520:39:55

and there are colleagues who feel the same as I do.

0:39:550:39:58

You got elected and then in 1988 you became leader.

0:39:580:40:01

Yeah, yeah. Mind you, the party was a bit of a wreck then.

0:40:010:40:06

It was ramshackle and virtually bankrupt.

0:40:060:40:08

Three hours before I was elected, announced I was elected as the leader

0:40:080:40:12

of the Liberal Democrats, the tax officials had been round to

0:40:120:40:15

close down the organisation because we hadn't paid our taxes.

0:40:150:40:18

We were within the margin of error of nothing in the opinion polls.

0:40:180:40:21

I think I am the only party leader who has presided over

0:40:210:40:25

a political party represented by an asterix in the opinion poll,

0:40:250:40:28

denoting that no detectable support could be found for us anywhere in the land.

0:40:280:40:32

OK, OK, order, order, order... Thank you. A little bit of quiet, please.

0:40:320:40:38

And in those first years, as we were trying to

0:40:380:40:40

build the party up, I used to have nightmares

0:40:400:40:42

that scared me to death.

0:40:420:40:43

Because my nightmare was very simple. You know, would

0:40:430:40:47

the party of the great William Ewart Gladstone end with Paddy Ashdown?

0:40:470:40:52

And it looked to me as though it might.

0:40:520:40:55

The chap at the back with the dark brown hair.

0:40:550:40:58

Oh, me. Er, could you tell me the way to Oldthorpe Avenue, please?

0:40:580:41:03

Typical, there's always one, isn't there?

0:41:030:41:06

Paddy took the party at a time

0:41:080:41:09

when it was perilously close to extinction,

0:41:090:41:12

you know, even more perilously close to the edge than

0:41:120:41:15

we are even now, after the election result we had this year.

0:41:150:41:18

And he took it by the scruff of the neck and singlehandedly,

0:41:180:41:21

through force of personality, through energy,

0:41:210:41:24

through commitment, picked the party up

0:41:240:41:27

and turned it into the party that eventually entered into government

0:41:270:41:31

in the 2010 general election.

0:41:310:41:32

# Don't believe the stories We can beat the Tories

0:41:330:41:36

# We're the toughest gang in town... #

0:41:360:41:40

Paddy sees everything as a sort of Marine battle.

0:41:400:41:42

Indeed, in advance of a general election campaign,

0:41:420:41:45

he would talk about air battles and ground battles.

0:41:450:41:48

# In the Lib Dems

0:41:480:41:50

# You can do just what you please... #

0:41:500:41:53

When the going got tough, he didn't duck.

0:41:530:41:55

You have to be stubborn if you're going to be a successful leader. You have to stick to your guns.

0:41:550:41:59

You may think the Liberal Party is just a party that wins

0:41:590:42:02

by-elections and little else. Well, we're partly that, but we're a lot more...

0:42:020:42:05

When Paddy comes on talking about politics, I tend to turn it off.

0:42:050:42:09

Where are you going? You, you, come back here.

0:42:090:42:11

-John!

-There was one engagement Paddy did not relish.

0:42:130:42:19

That was facing a particularly formidable adversary

0:42:190:42:23

every Wednesday at midday.

0:42:230:42:25

Oh, of course.

0:42:250:42:26

BIG BEN CHIMES

0:42:280:42:29

Of course, you have to face Mrs Thatcher across

0:42:290:42:33

the House of Commons floor and she's doing PMQs.

0:42:330:42:37

Yes. She was just formidable.

0:42:370:42:39

I don't think there is anything I have done in my life, ANYTHING

0:42:390:42:43

I have done in my life, which scared me to death as much as having

0:42:430:42:46

to ask Mrs Thatcher at the height of her powers.

0:42:460:42:49

Every week, I'd try and pop up and she'd go...pom, pom!

0:42:490:42:53

Is she determined to remain in the past

0:42:550:42:57

and condemn this country to a future without friends,

0:42:570:43:00

without influence, and without a role in Europe in the future?

0:43:000:43:04

What nonsense. The Honourable Gentleman comes out with that question almost every time

0:43:050:43:10

like a cracked gramophone record.

0:43:100:43:13

She was an extraordinary woman.

0:43:130:43:17

Great legs, too.

0:43:170:43:19

Well, I hear that people found her very attractive.

0:43:190:43:22

-I wouldn't go that far!

-Could you see through that?

0:43:220:43:24

In the end, I got the hang of it, in the end.

0:43:240:43:26

I mean... If I... I'm very nervous when I speak, I get very, very nervous.

0:43:260:43:31

My voice goes up in the register a bit.

0:43:310:43:34

And I have a habit of sounding quite pompous.

0:43:340:43:38

Erm, and I know that. There was a great joke that was going

0:43:380:43:41

round at the time - what's on Paddy Ashdown's answer machine?

0:43:410:43:44

Please leave your message after the high moral tone.

0:43:440:43:48

But in February 1992, Paddy earned one of the most memorable

0:43:510:43:55

nicknames in British politics - for all the wrong reasons.

0:43:550:43:59

Being in Westminster, of course, is tiring, you get lonely,

0:44:030:44:08

and you know what I am going to ask you next. Erm, you had an affair

0:44:080:44:12

with your personal secretary, Tricia Howard.

0:44:120:44:14

And all I want to say is, what were you thinking?

0:44:140:44:17

What was that about?

0:44:170:44:19

Haven't a clue. Well, you have said it.

0:44:190:44:21

Look, Fern, this was how many years ago?

0:44:210:44:24

It's a perfectly legitimate question.

0:44:240:44:26

But, honestly, I have said all I need to say about that.

0:44:260:44:29

Don't need to say any more.

0:44:290:44:31

Fair enough. Uncomfortable and difficult, and one of those things.

0:44:310:44:34

Yeah, very, very difficult and very difficult for everybody

0:44:340:44:38

and, you know, I can only say what I said at the time -

0:44:380:44:40

an act of great stupidity, mine, not hers,

0:44:400:44:43

and, erm, you know, all you can do is regret the mistakes you make.

0:44:430:44:50

There but for the grace of God go an awful lot of people.

0:44:500:44:53

Yeah, but that doesn't excuse, you know, the fact that you go there,

0:44:530:44:58

that's the kind of excuse you make.

0:44:580:45:01

I think it's... Anyway, look, there we are.

0:45:010:45:04

Jane deserves a medal.

0:45:040:45:05

Jane deserves a medal for almost everything. She deserves a medal...

0:45:050:45:11

I don't suppose I'd be an easy person to live with at all.

0:45:110:45:15

-JOURNALISTS CLAMOUR

-What Paddy said stands.

0:45:150:45:17

Jane forgave him, and Paddy's marriage,

0:45:170:45:20

career and reputation survived the scandal.

0:45:200:45:23

I don't think this has any relevance to Mr Ashdown's policies

0:45:230:45:27

or his capabilities.

0:45:270:45:29

I don't believe it's a political issue.

0:45:290:45:31

Let's get on to Bosnia,

0:45:310:45:32

which really is the thing that you have been passionate about.

0:45:320:45:38

Well, I first went to Bosnia when the war broke out

0:45:380:45:42

and it changed my life completely.

0:45:420:45:45

-REPORTER:

-To avoid fire from the ground, the aircraft flew fast and low,

0:45:450:45:50

a taste of wartime conditions for Mr Ashdown...

0:45:500:45:52

The Bosnian War, which began in 1992, was

0:45:540:45:57

fought between the different ethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia.

0:45:570:46:01

Entire communities were destroyed by indiscriminate shelling.

0:46:030:46:07

There was systematic rape and ethnic genocide.

0:46:070:46:10

This was, in many ways,

0:46:120:46:14

a World War I-style war, but in a modern setting.

0:46:140:46:19

And the world watched and did absolutely nothing.

0:46:190:46:22

Paddy Ashdown seemed to be the only MP who took enough of an interest

0:46:240:46:27

actually to turn up.

0:46:270:46:29

-BELL ON ARCHIVE REPORT:

-A single mortar round landed

0:46:290:46:31

15 metres in front of Mr Ashdown's vehicle, but it was as close a call as any British soldier has had.

0:46:310:46:36

What did you find when you first went to Bosnia?

0:46:370:46:40

The old plague, the old baleful plague that I had seen in

0:46:400:46:43

Northern Ireland, but now with much more blood and much more violence.

0:46:430:46:48

He was leading the party in the House of Commons

0:46:480:46:50

and the country, and there he was yomping all over ex-Yugoslavia.

0:46:500:46:54

His party thought he was bonkers to do it.

0:46:540:46:56

-JANE ASHDOWN:

-He was known in the House of Commons

0:46:560:47:00

as the Right Honourable Member for Sarajevo which, if only some of those other people had seen

0:47:000:47:05

what he'd seen, perhaps they would have understood why.

0:47:050:47:07

Paddy met the Bosnia Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic -

0:47:090:47:13

currently awaiting the verdict in his trial for war crimes.

0:47:130:47:15

In Sarajevo, there will be not a single fight...

0:47:150:47:18

You say that Karadzic was actually quite charming?

0:47:180:47:21

I went to see him and we spent a long night drinking plum brandy,

0:47:210:47:28

under the stars, with his wife.

0:47:280:47:30

Um...

0:47:300:47:32

I had always presumed, Fern, that you could see great evil

0:47:320:47:36

in a man's face.

0:47:360:47:37

I have to say, I couldn't, and for 24 hours,

0:47:370:47:42

I was actually fooled by him.

0:47:420:47:43

So, the presumption that evil shines out from a face, I think is

0:47:430:47:49

dangerous nonsense.

0:47:490:47:50

Paddy accepted an invitation from Karadzic to

0:47:540:47:57

travel behind Serbian lines.

0:47:570:48:00

But he refused to stick to the itinerary planned for him.

0:48:000:48:04

At this stage, death camps were beginning to be

0:48:040:48:07

exposed by some extremely brave journalists

0:48:070:48:10

and I knew there were two that had not yet been visited

0:48:100:48:14

and I demanded to go to Manjaca, which was an old army camp, and

0:48:140:48:20

the Serb generals said no, and they said, "If you go, we'll shoot you."

0:48:200:48:24

And I had the television cameras with me and I said to them,

0:48:240:48:27

"If you're going to shoot me, you are going to have to shoot me in front of these guys. We're going."

0:48:270:48:32

-REPORTER:

-After hours of diplomacy, he was allowed into Manjaca.

0:48:320:48:35

And that was the first television cameras that ever

0:48:350:48:38

got into Manjaca camp.

0:48:380:48:40

The camp commandant had promised Paddy Ashdown total freedom

0:48:400:48:42

to see whatever he wanted.

0:48:420:48:45

In the event, he was told time was running out.

0:48:460:48:49

We were able that night to top the news with pictures

0:48:500:48:55

of the emaciated Muslim young men and boys, lined up by the hundreds.

0:48:550:48:59

And how are conditions here?

0:49:020:49:04

Ten years later,

0:49:040:49:06

when Paddy was called to testify at The Hague about other crimes he'd

0:49:060:49:10

witnessed, he learned what happened in Manjaca camp after his visit.

0:49:100:49:15

I was told by one of the prosecutors in The Hague, who had spoken

0:49:160:49:20

to some of those men, he'd asked them, "Had you been killed?"

0:49:200:49:23

And he said, "Yes, we were killed until a British politician

0:49:230:49:27

"came along one day and brought the television cameras

0:49:270:49:30

"and the Red Cross arrived next day and no-one was killed after that."

0:49:300:49:33

That was the best day's work in my life, there is no question about it.

0:49:330:49:37

Paddy also visited a second camp - Trnopolje.

0:49:390:49:43

But what happened there, a few days after he left, was horrifying.

0:49:430:49:47

The Serbs arrived in the camp, took most of them away,

0:49:490:49:54

and they took them to the edge of a cliff

0:49:540:49:57

of a mountain called Vlasic Mountain

0:49:570:49:59

and they machine gunned them all into the ravine below.

0:49:590:50:03

And sometimes, Fern, I even,

0:50:040:50:07

I even torture myself, with the thought, which I can't disprove,

0:50:070:50:12

was that it was my visit there

0:50:120:50:15

that caused the Serbs to react in that way.

0:50:150:50:18

So sometimes you can take action which does good

0:50:180:50:22

and I think the first of those days,

0:50:220:50:23

probably the best day of my life,

0:50:230:50:25

but the second day would be

0:50:250:50:26

the blackest and perhaps the most shameful because of what happened

0:50:260:50:30

as a consequence.

0:50:300:50:31

And I can't get rid of a feeling of responsibility for that.

0:50:310:50:35

-REPORTER:

-Today, for the last time, it was Paddy Ashdown's day at a Liberal Democrat conference.

0:50:400:50:46

It was always Paddy's plan to bow out from the front line

0:50:460:50:49

of politics before he was 60.

0:50:490:50:51

And so he stood down from leadership of the Liberal Democrats in 1999.

0:50:510:50:57

And as MP for Yeovil two years later.

0:50:570:50:59

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

0:50:590:51:02

and the rain fall soft upon your fields,

0:51:020:51:05

and until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

0:51:050:51:09

Good luck.

0:51:090:51:11

In politics, people hang on too long

0:51:130:51:16

and it all ends in tears. Well, it didn't, and I am glad of that.

0:51:160:51:19

In 2001, Paddy entered the Lords as Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon.

0:51:210:51:28

His illustrious career was celebrated on television with

0:51:280:51:31

the famous Red Book.

0:51:310:51:33

Before you do that, let me say welcome to the BBC,

0:51:330:51:35

because, Paddy Ashdown, This Is Your Life.

0:51:350:51:38

Don't be ridiculous!

0:51:380:51:39

Ian, what is this nonsense?

0:51:420:51:44

Paddy's the worst gossip in the world

0:51:440:51:46

and the most indiscreet person.

0:51:460:51:47

And we love him for it.

0:51:470:51:49

But at the same time, he doesn't like secrets being kept with him.

0:51:490:51:52

I remember, to this day, walking off down the corridor while

0:51:520:51:54

Michael Aspel was leading Paddy, and Paddy's just shouting, "Ian, Ian!"

0:51:540:51:58

-Follow me, sir.

-Ian!

0:51:580:52:00

This Is Your Life was a low point in our relationship.

0:52:000:52:06

Flown in from Melbourne, with your sister Alison, your brother Tim.

0:52:060:52:09

Heavens above!

0:52:090:52:10

But he loved it at the end of the day, he loved seeing people

0:52:100:52:13

he hadn't seen for many, many years.

0:52:130:52:15

Paddy Ashdown, This Is Your Life.

0:52:180:52:21

The Red Book might well have served

0:52:210:52:23

as the coda to a distinguished career.

0:52:230:52:25

But the Prime Minister of the day, Tony Blair, had a job for Paddy

0:52:250:52:30

- back in Bosnia and Herzegovina - helping the country to rebuild.

0:52:300:52:34

HE SPEAKS THE LOCAL LANGUAGE

0:52:340:52:36

Blair went to the international community and said,

0:52:370:52:40

"Look, this guy Paddy Ashdown has run the Lib Dems for 11 years,

0:52:400:52:43

"so the Balkans are going to be a doddle."

0:52:430:52:47

-MARTIN BELL ON ARCHIVE:

-Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative,

0:52:470:52:49

is the most powerful man in Bosnia,

0:52:490:52:51

more powerful than any colonial governor.

0:52:510:52:54

In the dual role of UN High Representative

0:52:540:52:57

and EU Special Representative, Paddy finally had substantial power.

0:52:570:53:01

I describe this job as having a title out of Gilbert and Sullivan,

0:53:030:53:06

and powers that would make a liberal blush.

0:53:060:53:08

He'd been the leader of the party,

0:53:080:53:10

but he'd never had a chance of doing what he did in Bosnia.

0:53:100:53:15

So, really, if you think about it, those four years

0:53:150:53:18

were the culmination of everything

0:53:180:53:21

he'd worked for previously.

0:53:210:53:23

And he was the only High Representative who really

0:53:230:53:26

made an impact.

0:53:260:53:27

There are many stories during his time in Bosnia, as you can imagine,

0:53:280:53:32

but everything he did, he did through the prism of making life better for the people of Bosnia.

0:53:320:53:36

It can be frustrating, knackering, er, tiring,

0:53:360:53:43

but it is just a great job to have, a privilege to do it.

0:53:430:53:46

One of his great tasks there and one of the great victories that he had

0:53:490:53:54

was creating a cemetery for the people of Srebrenica

0:53:540:53:57

killed in the massacre of '95.

0:53:570:53:59

It was in July 1995 that units of the Bosnian Serb Army murdered more

0:54:000:54:06

than 8,000 men and boys, Bosnian Muslims from the town of Srebrenica.

0:54:060:54:13

You were there when the proper graveyard

0:54:150:54:18

to put the remains of these poor people, who had lost...

0:54:180:54:22

Yeah. We raised about five or six million euros.

0:54:220:54:26

I passed the laws that enabled it to happen

0:54:260:54:29

and together with the mothers of Srebrenica, we designed that graveyard.

0:54:290:54:34

If you want a place to remember why you should not

0:54:360:54:42

stand aside and do nothing in the face of genocide and great evil,

0:54:420:54:47

go there.

0:54:470:54:49

You will see 8,000 tombstones standing in the sun

0:54:490:54:53

and you'll come away without any doubt about that conclusion.

0:54:530:54:57

And I'm very proud of that.

0:54:570:54:59

And on the day it was opened,

0:55:010:55:02

I remember at the very end of the ceremony,

0:55:020:55:04

there was an old man burying his son,

0:55:040:55:07

as the women of the family stood round and watched.

0:55:070:55:10

Paddy immediately took his jacket off,

0:55:100:55:12

picked up a shovel, and helped them bury their son.

0:55:120:55:14

And I think that symbolises Paddy.

0:55:140:55:16

People think of him as a man of action,

0:55:160:55:18

but he is also a man of great compassion and kindness, as well.

0:55:180:55:22

When people think of Paddy Ashdown, they smile.

0:55:270:55:30

He is a positive force and he... he makes people feel

0:55:300:55:34

good about themselves, as much as anything else.

0:55:340:55:37

I think he was one of those politicians who actually did

0:55:370:55:40

command respect and deserve it.

0:55:400:55:42

He's a very funny person. He makes you giggle.

0:55:440:55:47

He's got a wonderful sense of humour, which I can't live without.

0:55:470:55:51

And despite a lifetime witnessing the horror of war,

0:55:540:55:58

he retains a sense of the divine.

0:55:580:56:00

There is a great poem written by a man called Rabindranath Tagore,

0:56:010:56:05

and he wrote a poem called The Celebration Of Diversity,

0:56:050:56:07

which is a model for me.

0:56:070:56:09

Erm, and it goes,

0:56:090:56:11

"We are all the more one because we are many

0:56:110:56:15

"For we have left an ample space for love in the gap where we were sundered,

0:56:150:56:18

"Our unlikeness shines with the radiance of a common creation,

0:56:180:56:22

"Like mountain peaks in the morning sun."

0:56:220:56:26

And I have to say that the unlikeness,

0:56:260:56:28

the multifarious differences of humanity are, to me, the greatest

0:56:280:56:32

revelation of the divine, whatever divine you happen to believe in,

0:56:320:56:36

and of our humanity and that, to me, is a sort of guiding creed, I think.

0:56:360:56:40

So, Paddy, what does Christmas mean to you and the family?

0:56:410:56:44

I adore Christmas.

0:56:440:56:46

Are you good at buying the presents and wrapping?

0:56:460:56:48

No, wrapping... I can buy an occasional present and sometimes get it right.

0:56:480:56:53

I am far too impatient to wrap things, so, no, you can tell sort of...

0:56:530:56:58

Crumpled up, everything wrapped up with Sellotape,

0:56:580:57:01

everybody knows my presents straight off from the outside.

0:57:010:57:03

And what is your Christmas Day like, do you have a routine, a tradition?

0:57:030:57:07

When I was an MP, we used to get up and we would always go off to

0:57:070:57:11

-the unemployed, you know, the drop-in, the refuges...

-Soup kitchen, yeah.

0:57:110:57:16

Nowadays, I don't have that duty, so we tend to be slightly more

0:57:160:57:21

selfish and indulgent.

0:57:210:57:23

We go to church and I get great pleasure out of that.

0:57:230:57:26

I adore our local church here, it's one of the jewels

0:57:260:57:30

of Somerset, it was once called.

0:57:300:57:32

Then we have a very late lunch,

0:57:320:57:34

like most others, and then I have been known to go to sleep.

0:57:340:57:38

-Paddy, I wish you a very happy Christmas

-And you.

0:57:390:57:41

Thanks for having me on the programme.

0:57:410:57:44

Well, I set out wanting to find out where the soldier finished

0:57:460:57:50

and the politician started.

0:57:500:57:52

But I think perhaps the politician started in the soldier

0:57:520:57:55

and the soldier finished up in the politician.

0:57:550:57:58

And maybe, who knows, Paddy Ashdown might have been the greatest

0:57:580:58:01

prime minister this country never had.

0:58:010:58:04

-Paddy.

-Yes.

-Could you call the dog, love?

0:58:040:58:07

Next week, I'm meeting Baroness Brady.

0:58:090:58:13

She's hard, she's tough. Please welcome Karren Brady.

0:58:130:58:17

From running a football club in her early twenties...

0:58:170:58:19

And he used to go, "What are your vital statistics?"

0:58:190:58:22

I thought, "Here we go."

0:58:220:58:24

..to advising Lord Sugar.

0:58:240:58:26

Can I just say something?

0:58:260:58:28

It is outrageous the way you're behaving.

0:58:280:58:31

Karren Brady talks about balancing faith, family and career.

0:58:310:58:35

And reveals her worst Christmas present ever.

0:58:350:58:38

My husband bought me a frying pan.

0:58:380:58:39

He nearly got it over his head!

0:58:390:58:41

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