Original subtitles

[pensive music playing]

[marc] how much do you know about the stone of destiny?

-Ah, a little bit. -Yeah?

Do you know what your grandad did with the stone of destiny?

Aye, he stole it.

[laughs] he stole it.

How long ago did he do that?

-Ah, a long time ago. -A long time ago.

[archbishop on video footage] ...Do your homage and service.

Are you willing to do the same?

[marc] on June the 2nd, 1953,

Elizabeth ii was crowned.

But there is something in this chapel

That many argue shouldn't be there.

[emma] that's it there, that's the stone of destiny.

[nico] yeah, right there.

[marc] something that was not only stolen,

It was stolen back in

One of the most outrageous heists in history.

A heist that shows

The united kingdom hasn't always been so united.

[theme music playing]

[marc] in the days of the british empire,

Things were taken.

They usually ended up in museums and galleries

With polite plaques.

My name is marc fennell,

And this is the not-so-polite story

Of how they really got there.

[light music playing]

[marc] so, is it scone (scown) palace

Or scone (scoon) palace?

It's scone (scoon), and...

But I wouldn't be worried

That you might have said scone (scown) to start with.

[lucy laughs]

[marc] in scotland,

These are the gardens

Of scone palace.

There, I said it.

It's a place with ancient royal connections.

[marc] so this is the same land that kings have walked on?

Yes, I don't suspect they got lost in the maze

While they were doing it though.

Probably not as lost as us anyway.

[lucy] no. [laughs]

[marc] dr lucy dean teaches

Medieval and early modern history,

Particularly the history of scotland.

[lucy] I've always had a fascination with scotland

That often is sort of misunderstood

As being just part of the uk

Rather than being a kingdom in its own right.

[marc] yes, these days, the united kingdom is

England, wales, northern ireland,

And, of course, scotland.

But, they used to be quite separate.

[marc] so, tell me, why does this place

Matter to scottish history?

This land that we're on at the moment.

[lucy] scone is incredibly important

Because it was important to scottish identity

And the scottish ceremony of kingmaking.

In the medieval period, the 13th century and earlier,

Scotland had its own kings.

So there was a king of England

And there was a king of scotland,

So they were two separate kingdoms.

[marc] and to become the king of scotland,

You needed a certain legendary stone.

For years, each king would sit on the stone

During their ascension to power.

But in 1286, crisis.

Scottish king alexander iii dies without a clear heir.

And so, scottish nobles turn to the king of England,

Edward I, to select a ruler.

Edward picks john balliol,

A man who he assumes will do his bidding

As the scottish leader.

This situation does not go well.

Edward invades scotland, imprisons balliol,

And takes away some of scotland's

Most meaningful royal objects,

Including the stone of scone,

Or, as it's sometimes known,

The stone of destiny.

[lucy] so in 1296, the stone is removed from scotland.

And I think by taking away those items,

It's stripping that country of its identity.

Its means of making a ruler into a ruler.

[pensive music playing]

[marc] but it seems the english didn't just

Take scotland's precious stone,

They also built something around it.

[lucy] so this is what I was looking for.

[marc] ah, it's a stone in a throne.

[lucy] it is indeed a stone in a throne.

How does it get there?

Well, this throne was designed for this stone

When it was stolen by edward I.

Symbolically, even just looking at it,

If you think that that's supposed to be

One of the symbols of scottish kingship,

And it's your throne as the king of England,

If you sit on that in your coronation,

It's essentially you sitting on the scots

And being in control of the scots.

So if you're thinking about, like, sort of,

The power dynamics

That edward's trying to communicate

With where he puts the stone,

He is king of that land

Because he's able to sit on that throne.

[marc] so they literally build a throne around a stone?

-[lucy] yeah. -To symbolise that dominance.

[lucy] yeah, to symbolise dominance.

So there's just one problem

With that particular stone

In that particular throne, isn't there?

Yeah, that's not the real stone,

It's a replica.

The stone is no longer in scone.

[marc] no. The real stone of destiny

Spent centuries here

In the heart of london.

This is westminster abbey,

Where kings and queens of England,

Right up to elizabeth ii,

Have, well, they've sat on

Scotland's most potent symbol.

[archbishop of canterbury] ...Do your homage and service...

[light music playing]

[marc] and back in scotland, it is surprising

How England's removal of the stone over 700 years ago,

For some at least,

It still stings.

[marc] the thing I found curious about the story

Is that it has persisted for so long.

It's, sort of, potency has lasted so long.

And I'm trying to wrap my head around why.

It's an interesting question, and it's also,

"why has the sense of scottishness persisted?"

When the british state has done everything it can

To wipe out the sense of scottishness, right?

Why is it that that persists?

[marc] bruce fummey is a former physics teacher

Who is now a stand-up comedian

And a historical tour guide.

Why is it important to you

That scottish history is recorded and shared?

Like, why does that matter to you?

Because it's part of your identity.

And as a mixed-race guy, you know,

As a ghanian scottish guy, okay,

But I'm 100% culturally scottish.

I was born here.

I grew up here. I'm scottish.

And maybe that's part of it.

Everyone wants to know

Where they come from, do you know what I mean?

I think it's part of the human condition.

[marc] over the decades, many scots have argued

For the return of the stone from london.

[bruce] we're talking 700 years later,

And loads of things have happened.

But it's that sense of grievance.

-Do you know what I mean? -Yeah.

That I think has kept it.

The fact that you know it's in london

Under their throne.

-Do you know what I mean? -Yeah. Yeah.

Whereas it should be here.

And I think that sense of grieving makes it persist.

[marc] and it persisted

All the way to glasgow in the 1950s,

Where four university students hatched a plan

To save the scottish identity once and for all,

And steal back scotland's stone of destiny.

Ian hamilton,

Kay matheson,

Alan stuart,

And gavin vernon.

And I'm told this is where it all began.

-[marc] hi. -Hi there.

[marc] it's nice to finally meet you.

-[emma] nice to meet you. -How are you?

[nico] pleased to meet you.

[marc] emma and nico are modern-day students

Here at glasgow university,

And the theft of the stone of destiny

Is part of the mythology here,

And it's obsessed students just like these guys ever since.

The conspirators were students here.

They cooked up the plan to reclaim the stone.

Yeah, that's kind of where it all starts from.

[marc] but after seven centuries

Of the stone being away in England,

Why did it come to a head then?

So obviously it's in the post-war era,

And, you know, the whole of the uk

Is trying to recover along with scotland.

The levels of poverty that used to be in the past

Were really, really high,

And glasgow itself was really neglected in some places.

I think, back then, scotland was, in all essence,

Another county of England.

And I think to people that were

Pro-scottish independence at that point,

It would probably be quite a scary thing

To see your national identity eroded over time

Just because of it.

Where does the idea for the heist actually begin?

Like, where does that start?

[emma] the students,

They were looking to progress

Scottish independence forward,

And because of the history of it,

They thought, "well,

What's a better symbol to show scotland

Than the stone?"

[heist music playing]

[marc] so the students set their sights

On westminster abbey,

Where the stone was held in the throne.

[nico] so, the plan as I understand it

Was, on christmas day,

When everyone was celebrating christmas,

To sneak into the abbey at night

And remove the stone,

And manage to get it

Back up to scotland at some point.

[music continues]

[emma] before they went down to london,

I think they tried to figure out the floor plan

To make it, you know, the quickest in-and-out operation

That they could.

Obviously, you need a bit of planning.

You can't just go in and take it, really.

[marc] no, you definitely can't.

So, I did the tourist tour. You're allowed to take photos.

[shutter clicking]

I've got ian's instructions of what he did,

And I've kind of mapped it out.

If I'm being honest with you,

I kind of had questions

As to how this whole thing went down.

[light music playing]

[marc] so to figure it out, I got creative.

[marc laughs]

I present to you my westminster abbey.

[laughs] this is what I get up to in my spare time.

I took the instructions that the students recorded,

Went to westminster abbey,

And I've mapped out

The pathway they took

On that one christmas day.

And I'll be honest with you,

I don't understand how they did it.

Now, when it comes to the actual stone itself...

[camera shutter clicking]

Turns out, very hard

To find ancient scottish stones,

So I have sort of a workaround.

Whoa.

What's the next best scottish thing you can find?

-A barrel of scotch. -[emma laughs]

This is about the weight of what they dragged.

You've been following the story for a long time.

Would you care to try and recreate it?

-100%, yeah. -Yeah, let's try it, yeah.

Okay. Wait, wait, before you do it.

Turns out, they didn't just drag it along the floor.

-They had a coat. -[emma laughs]

[grunting]

-[emma] yeah. -[nico] probably, yeah.

[marc] oh! Okay.

That would be-- we definitely broke something.

[all grunting, straining]

I think it's about now that a, like,

A police officer was coming by or something.

[nico] yeah, and the group got split up because

They had to go out and distract the policeman.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

This is an actual debacle, isn't it?

-[nico] yes. -Yeah.

Didn't quite go to plan, I don't think.

Sadly, I don't have a fake police officer

For this re-creation.

[nico laughs]

All those in favour of

Just rolling it, say "aye."

-Yeah. -Aye.

[marc] all right, here we go.

Is this cheating?

-[nico] just a little bit. -[emma] yeah.

[marc] off you go. Freedom!

Seriously, how did they get this thing out of london?

[marc] when you look at the heist

Of scotland's stone of destiny,

It seems like anything that could go wrong did.

So, the plan involved two cars.

After dark, the students burst through one of the side doors

And sneak towards the throne.

They hoist the heavy stone out of the throne

And begin dragging it towards the exit.

But...

[nico] they couldn't lift it

Because it was so heavy,

And then that's when it got broken.

I don't think they realised, you know, how heavy it was.

[marc] that's right. The precious stone breaks in two.

But the thieves are undeterred.

And now, the most dangerous part.

Get the stone out of the abbey and into the street.

And this is the bit where that policeman shows up.

The group is scrambling.

How on earth did they get out of london?

A minor miracle, I think, honestly.

Yeah, every step of the plan went wrong,

And they still managed it.

[newsreader] a christmas day sensation

At westminster abbey.

The stone of destiny

Was stolen from the coronation chair.

[bruce] can you imagine? You know that

You're the guy with the stone,

And it's on the telly every night?

And you're, you'd be sitting shitting yourself, wouldn't you?

You're like, you know they're come--

Even to think about doing it in the first place

Is quite a brave act, do you know what I mean?

Because the punishment could have been severe.

[piano music playing]

[marc] as soon as the authorities

Realised the stone was stolen,

They actually shut the border

Between scotland and England.

It's the first time they've done it in 400 years.

But the students knew that the border was being watched,

So they did something really clever.

Instead of going north to scotland,

They went south, a little bit outside of london,

And in an open field,

They literally hid the stone

Where anybody could find it.

Honestly, I don't know what they were thinking.

And really, right now

There's only one person alive that does.

[pensive music playing]

[knocking]

-Hello, how are you? -Hi, marc. Nice to meet you.

It's nice to meet you too.

-Come in and meet father. -Thank you.

This is the last remaining student from that heist.

Indeed, the architect of the whole theft.

96-year-old ian hamilton,

And his son jamie.

When did you first get the idea to take the stone?

Way back when I was a schoolboy,

I heard about this,

And somebody told me it was the token stone

For the scottish people,

And I immediately thought,

"what the fuck's it doing in England?"

[marc] we went to westminster abbey

And I tried to retrace the steps of what you did,

And it's really, I'm in awe.

Like, it was really heavy.

I don't know how you did it. I really don't.

Ach, well, was the coronation chair

Perched away in a corner?

Yeah, they've moved it.

They moved it down by the,

Down by the gift shop.

-Have they? -Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's

One of the great achievements

Of my life. [laughs]

What, that they moved it because of you?

Yes. Yes, of course they did.

They, they'd get fed--

They would get fed up with people saying,

"where's the stone?"

[marc] when you were growing up,

Were people proud to be scottish here?

I'm not sure that they were, right, there's...

No. The answer to that is no.

They needed a shake. An awakening.

Why did they need a shake? Why? What was needed?

Because they were pretty well amalgamated with the english,

Who are, after all, our hereditary enemies.

Not that I hold them as enemies,

But I do hold them as very different people.

[marc] as soon as the authorities realised

The stone was missing, you see two very different reactions.

One in scotland and one in England.

[newsreader] the dean of westminster

Called the disappearance an act of sacrilege.

Just around the corner, at scotland yard,

A nationwide search was organised.

[bruce] they start off with the threats, like,

Okay, "oh you're going to be in big trouble, my lad,

Right, if you don't give yourself up, it's going--

We're going to throw the book at you."

But they can't find these people.

[emma] I think especially in England and london,

It was something that was unthinkable,

That it happened.

The whole thing was

A huge smack in the face, I think,

To certain people in power.

Yeah, definitely.

[nico] but I think in scotland, the reaction

Was quite different than what it was down south.

Yeah. And I think it did help for a lot of people,

Rekindle a sense of scottishness

Separate from britishness.

[ian] yes, absolutely, absolutely.

I've never seen anything like it since.

They were cheering in the street

Shaking hands with strangers.

It was momentous.

[lucy] symbols like the stone,

They're about identity.

They're about a shared

Understanding of the past.

Being part of a community

Because of the symbols that hold you together,

And about demonstrating

Scotland's independence as a kingdom.

It's about being able to lay claim to that

And demonstrate that

Just because it ended up

In a union with another country

Doesn't mean that its separate existence

Should be forgotten about.

When you took the stone, you gave them that feeling.

You gave a whole sense of joy to scotland.

That's an impressive legacy.

Yes, that's so, that's what we did.

That's... We did.

I think it would be true to say

It became a different country after that.

[marc] but how long could that stone stay hidden?

[marc] the stone of destiny has been taken from london,

And they've hidden it in a field.

Eventually, the thieves drive the stone north to scotland.

They took it to a stone mason who put it back together,

And the students turned it in to the authorities.

[newsreader] in the ruins of arbroath abby,

There ended a mystery that has lasted since christmas day.

For here was found the stone of destiny.

It was taken away by the police,

And this Friday afternoon,

The stone is on its way to london.

[marc] did you ever get in trouble

When you returned the stone?

They never prosecuted you after taking the stone?

No, they, they didn't prosecute us, no.

Why not?

There'd have been a rebellion in scotland if they had.

England was different.

We were called to the house of commons,

To my great glee.

"these vulgar vandals."

He's a son of a vv.

[laughs]

[marc] for years, rumours have spread that the stone

That ian left for the english was actually a fake,

And the real one, well, it's somewhere here in scotland.

It's nice to be able to touch this.

-[bruce] it is. -[marc laughs]

So, the story is that this is the real stone.

-Of course it is. -Of course, naturally.

I mean, it's a ridiculous story, right?

You're going to get us kicked out.

You are going to get us kicked out.

[bruce] there's...

-He doesn't mean it. -Okay.

He doesn't mean it, it's fine.

Oh yeah, I'm sure it's the real one.

These are the kind of debates that go on

All the time, isn't it?

[marc] but, four decades after he surrendered the stone

To go back to london,

In 1996,

Ian got his wish.

The stone was returned to scotland,

To edinburgh castle

Where it's lived ever since.

[pensive music playing]

[marc] the story of the stone

Has really never been about the stone,

At least not for years.

It's a symbol, and it always has been,

Of power, of pride,

And above all things,

It's a symbol of loss.

The initial taking of the stone

From scotland down to England,

Do you regard that as theft?

-Yeah. -Okay.

Yeah, I mean, it's, the whole point of it, I think,

Was for edward to show his overlordship over scotland

And english supremacy over scotland.

It was stolen, yeah.

[coronation plays indistinctly]

[marc] even though the theft,

And I guess you could call it re-theft, of the stone

Is so far in the past,

Somehow it's still driving new generations of scots.

[marc] if you met ian,

What is the number one thing you'd like to know from him?

If I met him, I'd want to-- it's not so much

What I'd want to learn from him, but...

I'd want to say, you know,

Thank you for what he'd done

For the whole movement as a whole.

How much reach it had

For driving people towards scottish independence.

[crowds cheering]

[nico] it definitely was one of

The major contributing factors

That saved the scottish identity

From being eroded fully.

[crowds cheering]

[marc] what do you hope for scotland?

There's been calls for independence.

There's been referendums.

What do you hope happens next with scotland, ian?

That's not for me.

That's a question I can't answer.

I'm 96 years old.

There are several generations beyond me

Who have got to face up to that.

It's theirs.

The people of scotland.

[emma] personally, I'd love to see

An independent scotland, obviously, very soon.

-[crowd cheering] -yeah, come on!

[nico] additionally, it's, to me, independence

Is a means to an end,

And that end being, you know,

A fairer, more open scotland for everyone.

[emma] we just have to keep pushing for it,

And, soon, I think it will happen.

Mm. Haven't stolen a single giant lump of rock yet though.

-I mean, no. -[emma] not yet.

The night is young, you know?

There's still things that can happen.

[calm music playing]

[marc] but there is one last twist.

Ian's son jaime has something he wants to show me.

This is a small bit of the stone of destiny

Which broke off

When the stone of destiny

Was removed from westminster abbey.

And my father had the presence of mind to...

-To trouser it... -[both laugh]

And got it set in a brooch,

And gave the brooch to my mother.

You can't really own something like this,

But it's been handed over for safekeeping.

Um, you know, and it will go onto subsequent generations.

[pensive music playing]

[marc] are you going to pass that on to felix one day?

[jamie] undoubtedly, yeah, that will go to my son.

Yeah.

[marc] what sort of scotland

Do you want for felix?

[pensive music continues]

[jamie] I would love felix to be raised in a country

Which is ethnically diverse, open, friendly...

Free, of course.

And I'd hope that would remain for the future

For generations to come.

[indistinct chatter]

What makes scottish people special?

Being scots, for fuck's sake.

[marc laughs]