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NICK HELM: At the dawn of the 1980s,
Hollywood was changing fast.

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The new wave of American cinema
in the 1960s

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had melted into the era
of the Movie Brats.

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Martin Scorsese,

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Francis Ford Coppola,

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Brian De Palma,

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George Lucas,

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and Stephen Spielberg.

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Spielberg with Jaws
and Lucas with Star Wars

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had shown the studios
what was possible.

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The era of the blockbuster
was upon us.

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American cinema was becoming slick,

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and the 1980s would be
all about money.

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Having money,

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making money,

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the aspirational quality of money,

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growing up with lots of money,

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and growing up with no money.

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John Hughes became
the voice of a generation

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growing up
under President Ronald Reagan,

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and he shared their strifes
with the world.

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Here in Britain, the teen genre
never really caught on.

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The Brat Pack,
with their perfect skin and teeth,

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had no place in the UK.

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OK, they did try.

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Oxford Blues
saw legitimate Brat Packers

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Rob Lowe and Ally Sheedy
invade these shores.

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Full of fresh-faced
all-American 1980s exuberance,

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they were to be given
a rather dour lesson

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in the values of boat-raced
upper-class British nonsense.

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It wasn't exactly a hit.

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This is what we were doing instead.

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Quadrophenia and Babylon
were as close as we came

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to '80s teen films.

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They were about violence,
alienation and fear.

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Babylon is a stunning achievement.

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It doesn't tell an immigrant story,

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it tells the story
of a first-generation

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British-born Black Briton,

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a good, hard-working talented kid
with aspirations

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realising that the system
is stacked against him.

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You got too much of this.
Yeah?

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Yeah. Especially for a coon.

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I don't like monkeys
who get too clever in my garage.

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British life in the 1980s

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was about to become dark
for a lot more people.

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But British cinema
was set for big things.

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Let's take a step back
and see how the wealthy, white,

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middle-class men are doing
for a moment.

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The Pythons,

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following their success with
Monty Python And The Holy Grail,

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are trying to get
Monty Python's Life Of Brian made.

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Barry Spikings,
the production head at EMI,

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approves the film
for a £4.5 million budget.

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They start building
the sets in Tunisia.

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But then this chap, Bernie Delfont,
who was the chairman of EMI,

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finally reads the script and
pulls them straight out of the deal.

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So, who's going to step in
to save a film

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which is already second hand
and destined to be controversial?

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This guy!

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Yes, George Harrison
from The Beatles. What?!

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I know!

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Eric Idle was at a party with him,
told him the idea,

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and George said, "I'll pay for it,"
which he did.

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Unbeknownst to the Pythons,

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he actually used his house
and his office as collateral

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to raise the money.

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When asked why he did this,
he replied,

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"Well, I want to see it."

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George started a small film company

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with his business manager,
Denis O'Brien, to handle it all.

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He called it Handmade Films.

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By now, the Pythons were starting
to go their separate ways,

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and Handmade would be
an important step in those careers.

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Michael Palin wrote and produced
The Missionary for them,

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and showed his subtler skills
as an actor, taking the lead role.

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He followed this up
with a highly acclaimed lead

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in A Private Function,
written by Alan Bennett,

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also for Handmade.

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Terry Jones had co-directed
Life Of Brian

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and that would be a launching pad
into a modest career

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as a director of fun, epic
fantasy films,

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such as the criminally underrated
Erik The Viking,

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and his beautiful adaptation
of The Wind In The Willows.

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Argh!

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And, yes, that is Nicol Williamson
as Badger.

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Of course, the true cinematic legend
that was set loose by Handmade

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was Terry Gilliam.

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Co-written by Palin,

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Gilliam's first smash hit
as director was Time Bandits.

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HORSE NEIGHS,
WIND HOWLS

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Once of the most mind-bending
and delightful concepts

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to ever grace the cinema screen.

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Wonderful!
HE ROARS WITH LAUGHTER

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Armed with a stolen map

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detailing all of the holes
in space-time fabric...

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..six dwarves and one little British
boy dragged along for the ride

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go on a crazy adventure
through time.

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Once unleashed, Gilliam
was an unstoppable force,

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enjoying a long
and much-loved career

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as a distinctly visionary
film-maker.

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Just look at the energy,

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the artistry,

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and the sheer playfulness of it all.

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Terry Gilliam
is such a unique talent

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and somebody who has, like,
got just ideas to burn,

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and just such an amazing sense
of style,

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and it almost feels like the screen
cannot quite contain

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how brilliant Terry Gilliam is.

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And as such, the studio system
is maybe not for him.

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Handmade allowed people like that,
artists like Terry Gilliam,

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to make movies.

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Or later, like, you know,
Neil Jordan,

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or people who are kind of like
outside the system

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and are not people
who necessarily would do well

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in a sort of conventional
studio structure.

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So, I think that then set Handmade
on a path

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of basically making
these pretty maverick films,

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because they were
a maverick film company,

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because George Harrison
and Denis O'Brien

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are from a different world.

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They're not film people,

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they just, like, make the movies
that they wanna see,

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and what they think's interesting
and funny.

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Handmade would even go on
to give Eric Idle a rare lead role,

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in Nuns On The Run.

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And John got stuck in
Privates On Parade.

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HE LAUGHS

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At a time of innovation,

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Privates On Parade
was a rather strange throwback

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to British cinema
of the '40s and '50s.

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Based on a successful play, it saw
John Cleese at his least subtle,

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leading a song and dance squadron
in the Malayan jungle

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during the civil war there.

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It would be a few years before
he was to have his cinematic hit,

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with A Fish Called Wanda, in 1988.

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But this was all in the future.

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As Life Of Brian was wrapping up,
Eric Idle went to another party.

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There, he met his old friend,
actor Bob Hoskins.

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Bob had just finished making
a brilliant little film

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called The Long Good Friday.

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It's a film in a league of its own.

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Bob plays a gang boss trying to
break into the big property market,

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with his plan to redevelop
the docklands as luxury housing.

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Then in one weekend, he finds
his whole operation under attack.

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His guys are getting murdered
and his properties getting bombed,

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and he has no idea
who's behind it all.

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The film was financed by
one of Lew Grade's companies.

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Old Lew saw the film, hated it,

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and decided to edit out all the bits
he considered too much,

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and just stick it on TV.

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Bob, director John McKenzie
and producer Barry Hanson

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were desperate to avoid this.

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So Bob, having heard
about Handmade, approached Eric,

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and Handmade bought the film.

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Within 12 months, they had saved
two films from oblivion

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which now sit within the BFI's
top 30 British films of all time.

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Not a bad start.

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They were producing films
of excellence,

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and also distributing films
made by other people.

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One of the films they distributed
was this film, Venom.

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Venom is a tense thriller
about a stand-off between police

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and a criminal gang, following
a botched kidnapping attempt.

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Don't worry.

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It stars Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed,
Sterling Hayden, Sarah Miles,

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and... oh, yes,

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a massive black mamba snake
which is loose in the house!

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And yes, well spotted,
that is Nicol Williamson.

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By the way, this isn't even
the only killer snake film

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Oliver Reed was in that year.

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What a career!

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Anyway, where were we?

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Yes, Handmade.

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So, at the same time as Handmade
was achieving early success,

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something else was about to happen
in London.

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This is Jake Eberts,
a Canadian business whiz

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who became a successful
Wall Street investor

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working in London.

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He was bored and depressed,

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and when he was offered the chance

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to put together
an investment package for a film,

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it seemed like a new
and exciting venture.

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That film was Watership Down.

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Yeah, you remember it.
It did incredibly well,

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made Ebert's investors
a lot of money,

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and showed him a path
to a new career.

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That was when Jake
started Goldcrest.

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Enter our old friend, David Puttnam.

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Since we last saw Puttnam,
he's had quite the adventure.

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I owed the National Westminster Bank
£68,000,

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and I had no means possible
of ever repaying it.

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Because of that tax hike,

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he's had to spend a couple of years
in Malibu, poor guy (!)

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He's bagged his first Oscar
for Midnight Express,

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a film he produced and
his old friend Alan Parker directed.

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The story of a young American
drug smuggler who got caught

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and ended up in the brutal
Turkish prison system.

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The lead character was always
supposed to elicit some sympathy,

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but was not set up as the hero,

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while Turkey's
law enforcement community

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was not supposed to be cast as
the straight villains of the piece.

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Puttnam worried this
had not quite come across.

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I think the film is
an extraordinarily well-made film.

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But it's got edges to it
that I'm uncomfortable with,

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and was uncomfortable with
at the time.

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One day,
whilst ill in his Malibu pad,

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he found a book about the history
of the Olympic Games.

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I sat there reading it,
and I came across this one paragraph

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about this guy called Liddell,
who'd weirdly, having got to Paris,

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refused to run in the heats because
they were being run on a Sunday,

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and was able to switch to
the 400 metres.

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This was a story
Puttnam could get behind.

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Many of his old pals
from the ad agency

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were now big Hollywood directors.

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Ridley Scott's Alien had
launched him into the stratosphere.

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Alan Parker had been Oscar-nominated
for Midnight Express.

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Adrian Lyne had made the
American film Foxes with Puttnam,

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and was a couple of years away
from a run of smash hit US films,

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including Flashdance,

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9 1/2 Weeks,

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and Fatal Attraction.

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At 45 years old, Hugh Hudson
had a long and illustrious career

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directing commercials,

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and it was really that combination

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of his ingrained talent
to sell through film

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and Puttnam's dogged determination
to make a film

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that led to the massive hit
which was Chariots Of Fire.

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It's a bit of an odd watch now.

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The iconic synth soundtrack
by Vangelis

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forever strands it in the '80s,

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and its lack of cynicism or darkness
leaves it somewhat out of step.

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But there can be no denying that it
was one of the most important films

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in modern British cinema history
in a variety of ways.

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It made over $59 million,

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and won four Oscars.

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Chariots of Fire's screenwriter
was Colin Welland,

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who you might remember as
the nice teacher from Kes.

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He won himself an Oscar
for Chariots Of Fire,

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and his parting words were...

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The British are coming.

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This was partially true.

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The magic trick
that Chariots Of Fire pulled off

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over the British audience
and industry

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could only have been the product
of a true believer

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and a master salesman.

247
00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:33,760
It sold Britain to the world,

248
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:36,520
but it also sold Britain
to the British.

249
00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:38,360
It soothed the British soul

250
00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,560
with a celebration
of stiff upper lip,

251
00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:42,160
good Christian values,

252
00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:44,680
colonial poshos speaking properly,

253
00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:47,040
good hard work,
Britain wins the race,

254
00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:50,640
Rule Britannia
and God save the bloody Queen, rah!

255
00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:53,400
There was another thing
that took place with Chariots.

256
00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,320
If you believe
in the purpose of things,

257
00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,880
Chariots Of Fire got made, got made.

258
00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:02,560
The idea of that film
winning the Oscar was insane.

259
00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:06,240
It showed the industry that
a film with an unknown lead cast

260
00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:10,240
and an uplifting tone
could make a lot of money.

261
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,280
Change was coming,
but not just from the big screen.

262
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:18,240
On 2nd November 1982,

263
00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,520
Britain got its fourth TV channel.

264
00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:23,680
Channel 4
was a slightly strange hybrid

265
00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:25,400
of the other British channels.

266
00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,520
It was commercial like ITV,

267
00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:30,120
and not licence-funded
like the BBC channels,

268
00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:31,560
but it was publicly owned,

269
00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:33,640
and, for the first decade or so,

270
00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:36,320
had its own remit
to demonstrate innovation,

271
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:39,960
appeal to the tastes and interests
of a culturally diverse society,

272
00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:43,800
and include programmes
of an educative value.

273
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:47,000
Under influential
commissioning editor David Rose,

274
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,960
they produced feature films
from the very beginning.

275
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,800
And on their launch night, they
showed this film by Stephen Frears -

276
00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:57,120
Walter, starring Ian McKellen.

277
00:14:57,120 --> 00:15:00,360
I remember, at the end
of the first week of Channel 4,

278
00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:03,560
when David Rose came in the room,
everybody clapped.

279
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:05,840
So, everybody could see
that what he was doing

280
00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,200
was the most progressive
and the most successful.

281
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:12,000
This is the first time
we've mentioned Frears,

282
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,920
but he's been lurking
in the background for some time.

283
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:17,400
He started his career
as assistant stage manager

284
00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:20,920
for the 1963
Cambridge Footlights Revue.

285
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:22,440
He was an assistant director

286
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:24,960
on both Morgan -
A Suitable Case For Treatment,

287
00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:26,320
and If...

288
00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:30,680
and in 1968, he was Albert Finney's
right-hand man on Charlie Bubbles.

289
00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:35,480
When Frears directed his first film
in 1971, Finney starred.

290
00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:37,400
The film was Gumshoe.

291
00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,480
Frears has had arguably
one of the most impressive

292
00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:46,400
and adaptable careers of any
director in British film history.

293
00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:51,880
Two Oscars and three BAFTAs,

294
00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:53,760
if you care about
that kind of thing.

295
00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:55,120
SHE YAWNS

296
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,120
But more importantly,
a career some 50 years in length,

297
00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:00,640
of unwavering quality.

298
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:02,200
Ta-da!

299
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:05,880
Most impressive is the sheer breadth
of style and tone of his work,

300
00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,040
from Dangerous Liaisons
to High Fidelity.

301
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,880
His films were often
based on true stories,

302
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,440
and strong female leads
are a hallmark.

303
00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:25,640
So, with Channel 4, Goldcrest
and Handmade all making films,

304
00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:28,360
there was a huge temporal shift
for British cinema.

305
00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:32,080
Up to this point, what got made
depended on what got funded,

306
00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:33,760
and the people holding
the purse strings

307
00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,320
were generally business people.

308
00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,480
Goldcrest, now happily bankrolling
David Puttnam's output,

309
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:42,160
could see that there was room
for distinctly British stories

310
00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:44,960
with large budgets
on the global stage.

311
00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,400
They would,
in just a few short years,

312
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:49,640
go on to great financial
and critical success

313
00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:51,560
with Gandhi,

314
00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:53,080
Local Hero,

315
00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:55,040
and The Killing Fields.

316
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:59,080
David Rose at Channel 4 was doing
something different, though.

317
00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:03,760
Informed by their remit of producing
work with cultural diversity,

318
00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:06,280
and perhaps without
the pressure of producing work

319
00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:08,400
which would be
commercially profitable,

320
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:12,680
they just started churning out
great films.

321
00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:14,600
They were cheap!

322
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:16,600
It's as simple as that.

323
00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:21,240
You know, Goldcrest were making
The Killing Fields

324
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,240
and Room With A View,
and we were making scruff...

325
00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:27,360
Laundrette was a scruffy
little film we made in South London.

326
00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:30,800
The budgets were low,
but the results were stratospheric.

327
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:34,680
They were launching waves
of new British talent every year.

328
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:40,640
In 1984, Channel 4 funded
Marek Kanievska's adaptation

329
00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:43,360
of Julian Mitchell's play
Another Country,

330
00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:47,040
a spy story with
a strong homosexual element.

331
00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:48,720


332
00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:53,280


333
00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:55,880


334
00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:59,800
Giving leading roles and careers to
then-unknown actors Rupert Everett

335
00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:02,200
and my mum's favourite, Colin Firth.

336
00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:05,720
Letter To Brezhnev
gave cinema a regional voice.

337
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:07,520
Liverpudlian writer Frank Clarke

338
00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:10,440
told a truly contemporary story
of the North of England

339
00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:12,680
under the hopelessness
of Thatcherism.

340
00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:14,960
It's just that I work all week
in that dump,

341
00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:17,960
doing a job
that's fucking disgusting.

342
00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:21,400
But the reason I do that job
is because I wanna survive.

343
00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:25,920
It managed to also be an uplifting
and darkly entertaining yarn,

344
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:30,560
considerably helped by the casting
of his sister, Margi Clarke.

345
00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:34,240
Stephen Frears directed
My Beautiful Laundrette,

346
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,640
the first screenplay
from playwright Hanif Kureishi.

347
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:42,000
David Rose came to me and said,
"Will you write a film for Film4?"

348
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:43,880
And around that time,

349
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:47,560
I'd been hanging around laundrettes
a lot, as you do.

350
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,000
Because my father
rather doubted my ability

351
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:51,760
to make a living as a writer,

352
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:53,840
he thought I'd better run
some laundrettes.

353
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,240
So, when I got this gig
from Channel 4, the commission,

354
00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,120
I wrote a film about
a bloke running a laundrette.

355
00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:03,000
It was also the first lead role
for Daniel Day Lewis.

356
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:04,760
There ain't nothing I can say
to make it...

357
00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:08,000
At the heart of the story is
an interracial gay relationship.

358
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:09,840
There's only things I can do
to say...

359
00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,640
Channel 4 decided they wanted
to release it in the cinema

360
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:14,280
before showing it on TV.

361
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,080
When I made The Laundrette, I said,
"This'll only be for television,

362
00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:18,800
"and I want it to be
for television,"

363
00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:20,880
cos I thought what it was saying
was very important

364
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:22,920
and should have as large an audience
as possible.

365
00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:24,880
People started trying to buy it,

366
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:27,360
and then Derek Malcolm,
the creative lead at The Guardian,

367
00:19:27,360 --> 00:19:29,480
said, "This is the film
we've all been waiting for,

368
00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:30,720
"this is the breakthrough."

369
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:32,160
It was a huge success

370
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:34,720
and was nominated
for the Best Screenplay Oscar.

371
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:39,240
And nobody mucked around with us
in any shape or form at all,

372
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,280
I don't think anybody thought
anybody would ever go and see

373
00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:45,640
this film about, you know, a gay
Pakistani running a laundrette.

374
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:48,080
I just remember Stephen
walking up and down, saying,

375
00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:50,200
"Go on, make it more horrible,
make it more violent,

376
00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:51,520
"make it more edgy."

377
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:53,320
I thought those were
the greatest notes

378
00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:55,240
I'd ever received in my life,
actually.

379
00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:57,280
It was completely liberating
and very free.

380
00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,040
This was a big moment for Channel 4,
as it became apparent

381
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:03,800
that the quality
of many of these films were so high,

382
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,720
they could have a cinema release
before their TV debut.

383
00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:10,600
What we could do in Britain
was make little interesting films

384
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:12,720
about how we were living now,

385
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:17,520
and make those films quite quickly
and quite cheaply. And some of them,

386
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:19,880
like My Beautiful Laundrette,
might be hits.

387
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,960
Following Laundrette, queer cinema
moved more into the mainstream,

388
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:26,360
through films like Maurice,

389
00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:28,880
which established Hugh Grant's
leading man status.

390
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:30,480
A dangerous man.

391
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,640
And Prick Up Your Ears,
Stephen Frears' Joe Orton biopic,

392
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,040
starring Gary Oldman.

393
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:40,320
Interracial and non-traditional
relationships were also explored,

394
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:43,400
for example, Frears' and Kureishi's
second film together,

395
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:45,520
Sammy And Rosie Get Laid.

396
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:47,880
IN UNISON: You took
your fucking time, didn't you?

397
00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:48,920
THEY LAUGH

398
00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:51,840
Rita, Sue And Bob Too
was also an important film,

399
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,240
as it was the only screenplay
from playwright Andrea Dunbar.

400
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,800
Like Shelagh Delaney before her,

401
00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:00,920
Dunbar was a working-class teenager
from an industrial northern city

402
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:05,080
when her first play was performed at
the Royal Court Theatre in London.

403
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:09,320
She only wrote two more before
her tragic death at the age of 29.

404
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:12,480
She wasn't happy
with the finished film,

405
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,440
but Rita, Sue And Bob Too
remains an energetic

406
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:17,960
and totally unique look
at sexual politics

407
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:21,440
in the working-class North
of Thatcher's Britain.

408
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,040
It's all your fault.
If you had sex with him,

409
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,880
he wouldn't have to go elsewhere.
Keep your mouth shut!

410
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:30,200
Thatcher's Britain -
something we should talk about.

411
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:32,800
Margaret Thatcher was important
to every aspect

412
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,080
of the cultural life,
the creative landscape,

413
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:37,800
the financial landscape.

414
00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:40,200
Everything. She touched every part.

415
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:41,640
And it was...

416
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:45,000
It was incredibly clear
who one's enemy was.

417
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,640
It was unashamed brutality,
and a desire to take down a system

418
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:51,800
that had been there
for many, many years.

419
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:56,800
And culturally,
all the art of that time

420
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:58,960
was very much in reaction to that.

421
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,960
All art? Even this?

422
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:06,040
When Mike Palin and I went down
to the Taormina Film Festival,

423
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:08,960
and at the press conference,
the questions we were asked,

424
00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,160
it was all about Thatcher,
and we suddenly realised

425
00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,360
we had made a film
that was really anti-Thatcher,

426
00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:15,720
and we were talking about it.

427
00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:18,360
At least, the people watching
thought that's what we were doing,

428
00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:21,640
is making social comments
about life under Thatcher.

429
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:23,760
Which I wasn't thinking of at all,

430
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:26,800
but it was the reality
of the world we were in.

431
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,160
Her stint as prime minister
almost exactly correlates

432
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,800
with the years we look at
in this episode,

433
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:35,200
1979 to 1990.

434
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:37,640
She was a polarising figure

435
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,160
with an agenda of privatising
national services,

436
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,720
deregulation, and the destruction
of the trade unions.

437
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,480
Whole areas of Great Britain
have never recovered

438
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,400
from the impact of those policies.

439
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,480
It was really the beginning
of neoliberalism.

440
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,200
Thatcher was, you know,
a really strong ideological figure.

441
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,720
The woman who ruined Britain,
really.

442
00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,360
Yet to many, she was a hero,

443
00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:02,640
and she espoused a popular notion
of individualism

444
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:04,760
and small government involvement.

445
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:09,960
The '80s was the time when
the political consciousness shifted.

446
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:14,120
And it moved from the idea
of people working together

447
00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:16,080
for the public benefit,

448
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,160
as opposed to people
working individually,

449
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:21,080
where your neighbour is your enemy,
not your comrade.

450
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,440
Nominally,
she supported the hard worker,

451
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,920
regardless of class, colour
or creed.

452
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:27,960
And she made
social mobility possible

453
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:29,760
for a working-class generation

454
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,800
for the first time since the '60s.

455
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:36,080
We were particularly opposed
to Mrs Thatcher,

456
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:38,240
who, God bless her,
had set up Channel 4.

457
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,520
So it's... And made us all...
actually, made us all into

458
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:46,760
the small businessmen
she dreamed of. So...

459
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:50,520
she won, she won in the end.

460
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:52,160
She turned us into businessmen.

461
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:56,080
Not all of us. Not all of us.

462
00:23:56,080 --> 00:24:00,000
In 1983, Goldcrest produced
The Ploughman's Lunch,

463
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:03,920
written by Ian McEwan,
directed by Richard Eyre.

464
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,400
It is perhaps
the perfect encapsulation

465
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,520
of where Britain was in the '80s.

466
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,280
Jonathan Pryce plays
a BBC radio journalist

467
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:15,960
researching a book
about the Suez Crisis.

468
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:20,680
He is one of the beneficiaries
of social mobility from the '60s,

469
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,840
and claims
to have rejected socialism

470
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:24,880
for an ambiguous and amorphous,

471
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,640
generally selfish
lack of a moral compass.

472
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:31,280
His friends are louche and snide.
Hello, Tim Curry.

473
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,720
But since he has an affair
with his new girlfriend's mother,

474
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,040
who he is only using
for her own unique library

475
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,840
of reference material for his book,

476
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:42,400
what more does he deserve?

477
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:45,360
He accepts the kindness
of strangers...

478
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,960
..only to ignore them
at moments he considers awkward.

479
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:54,680
Whilst he dines in country piles
with landed bohemian lefties,

480
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,080
he ignores his own father's pleas
to visit his dying mother.

481
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:00,720
How is she?

482
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,800
The only honest character in
the whole film is perhaps this guy,

483
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,320
the cuckolded stepfather
of his girlfriend,

484
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,480
who takes him out to a pub
for the titular...

485
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:10,840
Ploughman's lunch.
Ploughman's lunch!

486
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,040
Traditional English fare.

487
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,680
In fact, it's the invention
of an advertising campaign

488
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:21,560
we ran in the early '60s
to encourage people to eat in pubs.

489
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:23,640
You're kidding!
HE CHUCKLES

490
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,960
A completely successful
fabrication of the past.

491
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:30,640
The lunch, like the nationalism
which Thatcher ably whipped up

492
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,080
around the Falklands War,
was a manipulation.

493
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:37,040
Britain regularly falls for
its own myth of imperialism,

494
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,840
sovereignty and superiority.

495
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:41,680
But The Ploughman's Lunch,

496
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,360
like Thatcherism itself
was doing at the time,

497
00:25:44,360 --> 00:25:46,880
exposed an uncomfortable truth.

498
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:49,720
Jonathan Pryce,
so often cinema's everyman,

499
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,320
is neither a hero nor a villain,

500
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,200
just an individual
doing what's right for himself

501
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,440
in any given situation.

502
00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:59,960
As much as we might like
to pretend otherwise,

503
00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:03,040
this might be the most accurate
portrayal of an Englishman

504
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:04,800
in film history.

505
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:10,400
From the Englishman
to the British woman.

506
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,040
With so much diversity of experience
occurring on the screen,

507
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:16,000
who were the women emerging

508
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,160
as strong directorial voices
behind the screen?

509
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:21,640
CICADAS CHIRPING

510
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:23,760
Depressing, isn't it?

511
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,120
There had been women
directing films -

512
00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:29,200
Wendy Toye and Muriel Box
both had decent careers

513
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:32,080
in the 1950s
and into the early '60s,

514
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:36,200
Joan Littlewood,
a huge force in British theatre,

515
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,880
had directed a fantastic film called
Sparrows Can't Sing.

516
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:41,440
And then...

517
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:43,920
that was kind of it.

518
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:45,560
In the '70s and '80s,

519
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,040
some female voices emerged
in art film.

520
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,920
The BFI had funded
Pat Murphy's film Maeve,

521
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:53,280
and Sally Potter
had made The Gold Diggers,

522
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:55,400
but both remain pretty obscure.

523
00:26:55,400 --> 00:27:00,640
I always felt that all films
were made for me to enjoy,

524
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,600
and to enjoy, to absorb,
to relate to.

525
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,400
Erm... And that, therefore,

526
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,000
at some point,
I would be behind the camera,

527
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,760
and I would be equally able
to put out films

528
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:18,360
that others of all genders would be
able to enjoy and relate to as well.

529
00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:20,600
It was only later
that I became aware

530
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,200
of this sort of burning feeling,
really,

531
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:27,600
of something being wrong
in the equation.

532
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:33,920
And... Because clearly,
it wasn't about a lack of skill.

533
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,320
It wouldn't be until the '90s
and noughties

534
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:38,520
that we'd see women
really start to take a place

535
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:40,760
directing narrative feature film.

536
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:43,960
There certainly didn't seem to be
a place for female directors

537
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,960
at Goldcrest, which was in some ways
looking back, rather than forward.

538
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:50,920
Chariots Of Fire
had made them some money

539
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:52,600
and won them some Oscars,

540
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:57,440
and it seemed like now
might be the time to... go epic.

541
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,560
British cinema
had never really done epic,

542
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:04,400
with the one notable exception
of David Lean,

543
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:09,320
often still regarded as Britain's
greatest ever film director.

544
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:13,440
Lean told hugely cinematic
historical tales

545
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:15,600
with big budgets, big stars,

546
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:17,800
and big lenses.

547
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,360
He was still working at this time,
and made his last film,

548
00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:25,000
A Passage To India, in 1984.

549
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,040
This was the first film he'd made
in a decade and a half,

550
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:31,280
and would prove to be
his last one ever.

551
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:37,480
With Lean on the out, Goldcrest
were to find another figurehead.

552
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:39,000
Dickie!

553
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,720
By now, Lord Attenborough
had been cutting his teeth

554
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,160
with epics
for his last couple of films,

555
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:48,360
Young Winston,
an early Churchill biopic,

556
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:52,080
and all-star World War II film
A Bridge Too Far.

557
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,960
But his real passion was invested
in his 15-year battle

558
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:59,440
to bring a Gandhi biopic
to the screen.

559
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:03,320
Goldcrest put up the final piece
of funding to achieve this.

560
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,600
Gandhi was a global smash hit

561
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,520
of a size
nobody could have anticipated.

562
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,120
On a $22 million production budget,

563
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,880
it returned over $120 million
at the box office.

564
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,280
It won eight Oscars,
all the biggies,

565
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:20,720
and became an instant classic.

566
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:24,360
So, Goldcrest had won big
on two British produced epics,

567
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:25,960
both modestly budgeted,

568
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:27,720
and with unknown principal leads

569
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:31,280
supported by a cast
of respected character actors.

570
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:34,680
Just imagine what could happen
with a bigger budget,

571
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:36,360
and huge stars.

572
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:39,480
So, right about the mid '80s,

573
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:41,600
you had Goldcrest, Handmade
and Channel 4

574
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,920
producing, financing
and distributing

575
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,280
films at all levels of budget.

576
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:50,120
Respectively, high, medium and low.

577
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:53,560
On the scene arrived
Palace Pictures,

578
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:55,400
the rowdy outsiders.

579
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:59,800
Born from and based out of
the cult London cinema The Scala,

580
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,840
Nick Powell and Stephen Woolley
were getting films made

581
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,200
despite having no money
of their own.

582
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,040
When Nick started Palace,

583
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:09,760
it was a small idea
of starting a video label,

584
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:14,120
that through our success,
and my enthusiasm, partly,

585
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:19,440
grew into something a bit more
tangible within the film business.

586
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:24,400
I deliberately hired staff who often
hadn't worked in the film industry,

587
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:27,480
and I acquired films
that the industry themselves

588
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:29,160
had rejected time and again.

589
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,480
And so, we were against the grain,

590
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:33,120
because the grain was not good.

591
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:36,800
We didn't want to fall into that
kind of "this is how you do it"

592
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,000
sense of releasing films
on a conveyor belt,

593
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:43,480
so we tried to make each film
we released a bit of an event.

594
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:45,000
And nobody in Britain
was doing that.

595
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,560
I've certainly been
one of the people

596
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,080
who has tried to shake it up
a little bit.

597
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:54,040
Selling projects to their investors
through their own sheer passion,

598
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,600
and leading to a truly bizarre
and wonderful output.

599
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:03,040
They produced Neil Jordan's stunning
The Company Of Wolves.

600
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:04,800
A singular vision,

601
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,720
a British fairy tale...

602
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,040
..for grown-ups.

603
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,880
It was an incredible moment
in British film history,

604
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,040
where a huge variety of distinctly
British films,

605
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:20,080
representing a vast swathe
of the cultural experience,

606
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,800
were being made and being seen.

607
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:25,560
And then two things happened.

608
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,480
The first could have been predicted.

609
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:33,400
The British film industry had always
been hugely reliant on tax breaks,

610
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,320
tax write-offs,
and various financial loopholes

611
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:37,960
to attract funding.

612
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,440
Thatcher's government
put a swift end to that.

613
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:45,520
That was the first thing
that happened.

614
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:50,080
The second? Well, the second thing
that happened was...

615
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:51,960
I think we might need a drum roll.

616
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:54,240
DRUM ROLL

617
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,040
..these guys!

618
00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,040
Israeli cousins Menahem Golan
and Yoram Globus,

619
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,400
better known as Cannon Films,

620
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,640
or The Go-Go Boys.

621
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,280
Now, we've met quite a few
film-makers so far on this journey,

622
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,360
and I think you'll agree that
qualities which seem to bond them

623
00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:15,320
are those of passion, artistry,

624
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:18,760
social justice and intelligence.

625
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:21,040
Not so for The Go-Go Boys.

626
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:24,440
It would be fair to say
that they didn't give a shit.

627
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:27,240
It was all about quantity
over quality,

628
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,200
and money, money, money.
They were hustlers.

629
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:32,040
They would come up with the concept
for a film -

630
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:33,680
Charles Bronson as The Golem -

631
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,720
then they would sell that film
to exhibitors all over the world.

632
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:40,680
Rather, they would presell it.
There wouldn't even be a script,

633
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:44,120
and Bronson
would have no idea about it.

634
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,440
So, a film would only
go into production

635
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,880
if the finance was raised
entirely in advance,

636
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,160
and that film would already
be in profit.

637
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:53,440
The Go-Go Boys had made their money,

638
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:56,480
and the actual making of the film
itself was an afterthought.

639
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,320
They couldn't have cared less
if the film won Oscars

640
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:01,360
or was a barely coherent
pile of puke.

641
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:03,840
And boy,
did they make some stinkers.

642
00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:22,280
So, what did The Go-Go Boys

643
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:24,840
have to do with
the British film industry?

644
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,480
Well, to understand that,
we have to jump back for a moment.

645
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:32,800
Right from the 1930s,

646
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,440
there were really only
two cinema chains in the UK,

647
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:37,960
Odeon and ABC.

648
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:42,400
By the '80s, these were owned
by Rank and EMI.

649
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:44,080
Huge organisations,

650
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,560
both of these entities
also owned big film studios.

651
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:51,520
EMI had Elstree Studios
and Rank had Pinewood.

652
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,120
This was a nightmare for
independent British film producers

653
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,840
and production companies,
because it was very hard

654
00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:59,640
to get these monoliths
to show films in their cinemas

655
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:02,600
which they didn't already have
a big financial stake in.

656
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:06,160
If that sounds like
an unfair monopoly, it was.

657
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:09,040
You had to run your movie
for one of two people,

658
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:11,680
a man called Bob Webster,
another man called George Pinches.

659
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:14,120
Weren't bad guys.
I preferred Pinches personally,

660
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:16,040
because I thought
he loved cinema more.

661
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,120
If they liked your film,
you would get it played.

662
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:22,960
If they didn't, you wouldn't,
and a lot of films never got played.

663
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:25,520
It was a really,
really bizarre situation.

664
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,400
And if you offended either of them,
God help you.

665
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,920
I actually had a severe run-in
at one point,

666
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,680
and was threatened that my films
wouldn't be played any more.

667
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:35,560
We went to
the Competition Commission,

668
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,840
we went to anyone
and everyone that would listen.

669
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:39,600
We never got anywhere at all.

670
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:41,880
By the mid '80s, both Rank and EMI

671
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,400
had largely wrapped up
their film-making arms,

672
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,000
following a pretty disastrous
few years.

673
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,080
EMI, then known as
Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment

674
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:54,720
as they were owned by
the much larger global conglomerate,

675
00:34:54,720 --> 00:34:56,160
Thorn Electric,

676
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:58,000
were in real trouble.

677
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,640
It became obvious
that Thorn Electric

678
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,920
were going to dump
their UK film business.

679
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,840
Their assets amounted
to Elstree Studios,

680
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:10,320
ABC Cinemas, and a large
back catalogue of films.

681
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:13,680
For a moment, it looked like
Rupert Murdoch might buy it,

682
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:14,800
but then...

683
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:18,400
Cannon came along
and Cannon bought EMI.

684
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:21,240
We moved from a point of actually
being quite protective about Cannon

685
00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:25,240
and trying to make sure that
the Golan-Globus duo did OK,

686
00:35:25,240 --> 00:35:27,640
to them becoming
an even bigger problem.

687
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,840
They would own the largest chain
of cinemas in the country,

688
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:34,600
and since Thatcher's government had
recently deregulated the cinemas,

689
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,320
no longer requiring them to exhibit
any amount of British releases,

690
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,080
trouble really was in the air.

691
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:46,560
While all of this was going on,
Goldcrest was collapsing.

692
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:50,160
They had bet big by funding
three epic films at the same time.

693
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:53,160
Absolute Beginners,
starring David Bowie,

694
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:56,360
and directed by Julian Temple,
who'd made the Sex Pistols film.

695
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,240
The Mission,
starring Robert De Niro,

696
00:35:59,240 --> 00:36:03,120
a period drama set
in 18th-century South America.

697
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:07,920
And Revolution,
Hugh Hudson's latest and final epic.

698
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:10,360
It told the story
of a simple fur trapper

699
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:14,080
who finds himself caught up in
the American Revolutionary War.

700
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:19,280
It starred Al Pacino
and this guy, Ricky from EastEnders.

701
00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:21,680
Honestly, it just didn't work.

702
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,400
Not for the critics,
not for audiences,

703
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,320
and definitely not for Goldcrest,

704
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:30,080
who, when the dust settled,
lost almost 10 million on the deal.

705
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:31,320
They were done.

706
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:35,600
There was nobody left to fund
those big, bold British movies.

707
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,200
I stumbled into Goldcrest
by producing a film

708
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:39,880
called Absolute Beginners.

709
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,400
For Goldcrest to be involved
in Absolute Beginners

710
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:43,840
was a very unusual thing,

711
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:47,920
because they were very much about
this kind of idea of Britain

712
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:51,160
which was, as it is now,

713
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:53,240
with Downton Abbey
and everything else we do,

714
00:36:53,240 --> 00:36:56,320
eminently exportable.

715
00:36:56,320 --> 00:37:00,800
But they had hit a bit of an iceberg
in their journey,

716
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,840
and the two icebergs were Revolution
and The Mission.

717
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,960
And the budgets
were going out of control,

718
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:11,360
and they were fighting, there was
internal squabbling at Goldcrest.

719
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:13,840
They were basically in trouble.

720
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:18,360
But Goldcrest had over-invested
in the dream.

721
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,840
We've all done it, you know,
it's human nature,

722
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:24,040
that once you've had some success,

723
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,400
you get drawn towards the light
like a moth to a flame,

724
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,640
and you think,
"OK, well, now I've done that,

725
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:34,280
"I can do this,
because everybody's telling us."

726
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:38,400
Cos the industry feeds
on this kind of odd thing of...

727
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:40,960
You know, the Oscars in particular,

728
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:42,640
you get Oscar nominations,

729
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:46,680
and Goldcrest had so many Oscars,
and they'd accumulated this idea

730
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,040
of them being
the hit-making machine,

731
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:53,120
that they got lost
in their own mist of success.

732
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,200
It all happened too quickly.
I mean, really, in a sense,

733
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:58,800
Chariots and Gandhi back-to-back

734
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:02,120
kind of tilted,
tilted the ship over,

735
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:04,000
and it was assuming
it could do things,

736
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,040
and hoping it could do things
that were never really possible.

737
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:11,760
So, if Cannon, who admitted they had
no interest in making British films,

738
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:13,240
were to be successful,

739
00:38:13,240 --> 00:38:15,120
such films would be hard to fund,

740
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,040
and even harder to get released.

741
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:20,680
Cannon WERE successful.

742
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:22,120
The British government,

743
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:24,880
ignoring advice from their own
Office of Fair Trading,

744
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:26,840
allowed the deal to go through

745
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,600
without so much as scrutinising
the finances of a company

746
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:35,480
who would now control 40%
of Britain's cinema screens.

747
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,360
They also were, I felt,
quite suspect blokes.

748
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,320
They were not in it for the sake
of the British film industry

749
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:42,800
or for the greater good.

750
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,200
We were not in safe hands.
I mean, I was sure of that.

751
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:47,840
But it wasn't all doom and gloom.

752
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:51,520
There was still plenty of life
in the British film industry yet.

753
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:55,640
Alongside the exciting variety
of stories starting to emerge

754
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,680
were some new directors
with unique vision.

755
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:04,160
Peter Greenaway is British cinema's
artist and philosopher.

756
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:07,080
To watch one of his films
is to be confronted

757
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:11,280
with the subversion of realism
and pretty much everything else.

758
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:13,520
At times,
he uses the screen as a canvas,

759
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,680
or a proscenium,
or even a blank page,

760
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:20,760
to explore seemingly infinite levels
of theme and concept.

761
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:24,680
His career was launched by the
support of the BFI production board,

762
00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:28,640
and throughout the '80s,
Channel 4 were his de facto patron.

763
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:31,360
With The Draughtsman's Contract
proving that an art film

764
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:33,640
could be a commercial success,

765
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:36,120
A Zed andamp; Two Noughts,

766
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:37,840
The Belly Of An Architect,

767
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:39,160
Drowning By Numbers,

768
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:42,160
and The Cook, The Thief,
His Wife And Her Lover

769
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,600
were all released
within a seven-year period.

770
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,720
Each one of them remaining
an engaging, complex

771
00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:51,040
and resonant piece of work.

772
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:54,880
Bill Forsyth
dragged Scottish cinema away

773
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:59,040
from the parochial representations
of the likes of Whisky Galore!

774
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,760
His 1979 debut,
That Sinking Feeling,

775
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:06,560
had been a character-rich
contemporary portrait

776
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,960
of Glasgow's wily and witty youth,

777
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,280
centred around
a stainless steel sink heist.

778
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,560
Two years later, he made his name
with the film Gregory's Girl,

779
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:17,200
a wistful love story

780
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,200
set in the concrete
Scottish new town of Cumbernauld.

781
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:22,000
Gregory is the titular schoolboy

782
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:25,080
who falls in love with a girl
who joins his football team,

783
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:29,280
yet finds himself at the mercy
of womankind in his pursuit of her.

784
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:33,120
Again, Forsyth displays
an adept hand at creating characters

785
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,960
of great authenticity
and deep, warm wit.

786
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:39,960
The film won him the support
of David Puttnam.

787
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:42,960
And we started chatting,
and I had an idea.

788
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,800
I'd cut out from the newspaper
an article about this accountant

789
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:48,800
in... I think it was
in the Hebrides,

790
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:52,400
who had successfully
sued an oil company for spillage.

791
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,640
I said, "There's a story here
about the relationship

792
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:56,480
"between communities
and oil companies."

793
00:40:56,480 --> 00:40:58,280
We commissioned two journalists,

794
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:00,680
one on the east coast,
one on the west coast of Scotland,

795
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:02,360
to collect stories, local stories.

796
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,000
And then Bill took
this whole kind of collage

797
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,440
and wrote the treatment
for what became Local Hero.

798
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:10,680
Managed to raise the money.
Again, wasn't easy.

799
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:13,120
It was interesting, it was
a really wonderful screenplay,

800
00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:15,920
and I'd done Chariots, I thought
this was gonna be a piece of...

801
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:17,320
You know, easy-peasy.

802
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:19,560
We were struggling,

803
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:21,600
and went to BAFTA,

804
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:23,840
and Chariots Of Fire won the BAFTA,

805
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:25,600
and I walked off the stage,

806
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:27,880
James Lee, actually, of Goldcrest,
stopped me and said,

807
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:30,000
"Are you still struggling
with Local Hero funding?"

808
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:31,680
I said, "Yeah."
He said, "You've got it."

809
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:38,080
Local Hero is the story
of big business and small town.

810
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:42,440
Another truly '80s story.

811
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,400
A Texan oil executive is sent
to a small Scottish village

812
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:48,680
to buy it, destroy it,
and replace it with a refinery.

813
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:51,720
He finds resistance
and eccentricity.

814
00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:55,680
Burt Lancaster lights up the screen
as the oil company's owner,

815
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,320
who turns out to have more in common
with the villagers

816
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,000
than might have been expected.

817
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,240
The air is good, clear.

818
00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:06,720
Forsyth created a cinematic vision
of Scotland which has endured.

819
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:09,000
Cordial, convivial,

820
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,720
and philosophical
in the face of threat.

821
00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:13,800
Although that would go on

822
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:15,800
to grittier representations
in the '90s,

823
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,840
that spirit of humour and poetry
that Forsyth defined

824
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:21,840
would continue to permeate it.

825
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:23,840
Doesn't it make you proud
to be Scottish?

826
00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:26,120
It's shite being Scottish!

827
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,080
Since we're talking Scottish cinema
of the '80s,

828
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,000
let's just take a moment
to appreciate the greatest film

829
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,360
which Bill Forsyth
didn't actually direct.

830
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:42,440
Michael Hoffman's 1985 banger,
Restless Natives,

831
00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:45,240
Scotland's missive
to Margaret Thatcher,

832
00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:48,080
in which two young men
don joke shop masks

833
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:49,800
and become modern day highwaymen,

834
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:52,800
robbing rich American tourists
of their money,

835
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:55,040
and redistributing it to the poor.

836
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:01,320
It's hilarious, sweet,
and a damning indictment

837
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:03,640
of Westminster's dismantling
of Scottish industry.

838
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:08,080
And yes, that is Brian Forbes.

839
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:09,120
Oh!

840
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,360
Terence Davies from Liverpool

841
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:15,880
was a discovery of the BFI
Production Board as early as 1976.

842
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:20,600
They used to be a thing on BBC
on Friday night called Cinema Now,

843
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:22,800
and they had one on
the BFI Production Board,

844
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:24,480
so off I sent my script.

845
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:28,120
And about four months later,
I was asked to go down to see them.

846
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:31,560
And it was run by the wonderful
Mamoun Hassan.

847
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:34,680
I came in, he said, "You have £8,500
and not a penny more.

848
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:36,320
"You will direct."

849
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,560
I said,
"I've never directed before."

850
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:40,840
He said, "Well, now's your chance."

851
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,320
And I did it, my very first film,

852
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:46,480
and apart from the cameraman,

853
00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:49,040
they all hated it,
the rest of the crew,

854
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,920
and they told me every day
how much they hated it.

855
00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:55,040
This is his film,

856
00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:58,040
Distant Voices, Still Lives.

857
00:43:58,040 --> 00:43:59,720
Technically two films,

858
00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:02,320
shot a couple of years apart,
but shown together,

859
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,160
which follows the story of
a working-class Catholic family

860
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:07,840
during the 1940s and '50s
in Liverpool.

861
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,480
This film's place in the story
of British cinema is a strange one.

862
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,600
It was a huge hit with the critics
and won a lot of awards,

863
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,440
but never quite made it into
the public's consciousness.

864
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,600
The film has so much to say
about society,

865
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:24,880
family, culture, and sexuality.

866
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:29,440
I needed to make it because
my father was extremely violent,

867
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:32,840
and all these stories I had
from my siblings,

868
00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:35,400
I just remember thinking that...

869
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:39,400
Not even consciously,
but it's got to be recorded somehow,

870
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:42,200
because their suffering
had been really prodigious.

871
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,280
You know, if you're gonna have
children,

872
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:46,320
treat them properly,
or don't have them at all.

873
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:49,160
But he was a nutter,
and his family were equally...

874
00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:51,640
They were nutters, I tell you.

875
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,560
One of his brothers, Uncle Ted,

876
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:58,480
and it's in the film,
because it was so extraordinary,

877
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:01,440
he'd come in,
he always had a candle,

878
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:03,880
and he'd switch
the electric light off

879
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:06,080
and say,
"I've switched the light off."

880
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:09,960
SINGSONGY: I don't know
whether I'm doing right or wrong.

881
00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:12,080
FROM TV: How's your precious watch?

882
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:14,560
AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

883
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,240
And then blow the candle out.

884
00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:22,320
I was petrified!

885
00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:26,040
The writing and acting
is magnificent.

886
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:29,200
There's Pete Postlethwaite
in a career-high.

887
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:30,600
Eileen!

888
00:45:32,720 --> 00:45:34,320
Clean it up!

889
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,240
Over the years,
Distant Voices, Still Lives

890
00:45:37,240 --> 00:45:39,560
has come to be recognised
within the industry

891
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:41,880
as one of the greatest British films
ever made,

892
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:45,400
and Davies one of our most respected
film-makers.

893
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:49,760
But it's still somehow
a relatively obscure film.

894
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:53,600
I wish I'd had a talent
that was populist,

895
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:56,120
cos I really do... It is a talent,

896
00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:58,800
and it's one I don't possess,
I wish I did.

897
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:01,120
But I don't.

898
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:05,280
And the problem with
whichever stream you go into,

899
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,400
mainstream or art...

900
00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:10,680
You know, what lies at the bottom
of the mainstream? Mediocrity.

901
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:14,280
What lies at the bottom
of the arts scene? Obscurantism.

902
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:15,760
You know?

903
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:22,160
It would take a very special
film-maker to convince Sean Connery

904
00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:24,040
of this costume choice.

905
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:27,840
And that very special film-maker
was John Boorman.

906
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:32,080
Born in England and trained at
the BBC documentary unit in Bristol,

907
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:34,520
Boorman's cinema career began
in Hollywood,

908
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:38,080
where he spent the end of the '60s
and most of the '70s

909
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:40,680
directing highly successful films.

910
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:46,360
His films from this period
are Hollywood classics Point Blank,

911
00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:48,600
Hell In The Pacific,

912
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:50,440
and Deliverance.

913
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,840
Even his more confusing films -

914
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,960
the deeply reviled Exorcist II,

915
00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,440
and the absolutely
wonderfully bonkers Zardoz -

916
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,880
are regarded as cult classics
in their own right.

917
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:08,120
It wasn't until the '80s
that Boorman returned to Britain,

918
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:12,080
and here, he made two
hugely significant films.

919
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:14,720
Excalibur
was a lush, dreamlike epic,

920
00:47:14,720 --> 00:47:17,120
committing
the Arthurian legend to film.

921
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:22,360
The cast featured faces that
would go on to great familiarity.

922
00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:26,640
Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart,
Gabriel Byrne and...

923
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:28,640
Look at that!
Liam Neeson bringing

924
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:31,960
a very particular set of skills
to the role of Sir Gawain.

925
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:35,160
And yes, that is Nicol Williamson
as Merlin.

926
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:38,400
Six years later,
Boorman would return to Britain

927
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,520
to make Hope And Glory,

928
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:42,680
his most personal,
autobiographical film,

929
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:45,200
and one of the definitive works
on the wartime experience

930
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,320
of London during The Blitz.

931
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:52,640
11-year-old Sebastian Rice-Edwards,

932
00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:56,040
who, incredibly,
never acted on the screen again,

933
00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:58,000
ably carries the whole film.

934
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:02,840
Boorman presents
a glorious cinematic vision

935
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:04,360
of wartime suburban London.

936
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:05,760
The abominations of the enemy!

937
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:07,560
Of bomb shelters,

938
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:09,480
bomb sites,

939
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:11,680
prisoners of war,

940
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:13,520
American GIs,

941
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:15,560
absent fathers,

942
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:17,920
evacuation and, memorably...

943
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:20,520
German jam. It's German jam.

944
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:24,160
It's hard to think of another
film-maker who quite so successfully

945
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:27,520
invigorated the film scenes
of Hollywood and Great Britain.

946
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:33,720
From the horrors of war
to the horrors of... horror.

947
00:48:33,720 --> 00:48:36,480
The legendary Hammer film company

948
00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:39,440
had had a disastrous 1970s.

949
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:41,520
Their horror output was too campy

950
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:44,080
to keep up with the tastes
of its audience.

951
00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:46,560
When they have to compete
with The Exorcist,

952
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,000
and they have to compete
with Texas Chainsaw Massacre,

953
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:51,320
and suddenly, like,
Horror Of Frankenstein

954
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:53,840
isn't quite as sexy and exciting.

955
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:56,760
At the press conference for
The Satanic Rites Of Dracula,

956
00:48:56,760 --> 00:49:02,240
Christopher Lee declared the film
fatuous, pointless and absurd.

957
00:49:02,240 --> 00:49:05,600
In 1979, they went into liquidation,

958
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:09,360
and took the bulk of British
horror film output with them.

959
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,960
Britain continued to be somewhat of
a player in the global genre scene,

960
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:14,640
but it took an American film-maker

961
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:16,480
to make what many
still consider to be

962
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:19,440
one of the greatest
British horror films ever made.

963
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:22,440
Hot off his success directing

964
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:24,920
two of America's biggest
comedy films of all time,

965
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,440
National Lampoon's Animal House

966
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:29,160
and The Blues Brothers,

967
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:31,960
director John Landis
was pretty much given carte blanche

968
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,000
by the studio
to make his dream project.

969
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:38,040
What do you think was wrong?

970
00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:40,760
An American Werewolf In London
walks the very fine line

971
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:43,320
between horror and comedy,

972
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,160
and manages to be the most memorable
of both.

973
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:49,280
Help me! Please!

974
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:52,320
A modern retelling
of the werewolf myth,

975
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:55,320
it somehow illustrates the full
spectrum of national stereotypes.

976
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:57,040
That's enough!

977
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:59,000
From the grim, dim, superstitious

978
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,440
working-class pub dwellers
of the North of England,

979
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:04,680
to the ludicrous businessman who
reprimands the eponymous creature

980
00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:06,040
with the line...

981
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:08,360
I can assure you that this is not
in the least bit amusing.

982
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:10,560
We see a variety of
ineffectual policing methods

983
00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:13,080
from the investigating officers.

984
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:16,680
Everyone, from dinner party poshos
in Hampstead

985
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:19,200
to Thames-side tramps,
become victims.

986
00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:22,720
There.
Mary, mother of God!

987
00:50:22,720 --> 00:50:23,920
What's going on here?

988
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:26,720
And when the beast ultimately
emerges in Piccadilly Circus...

989
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:31,800
..it seems to be British driving
which claims the most lives.

990
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:39,600
Less amusing, but utterly engaging,

991
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:43,600
was author Clive Barker's
directorial debut, Hellraiser.

992
00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:47,400
Could there be a more 1980s story
than that of Frank,

993
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:50,360
a hedonist in search of
the ultimate sensory experience

994
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:51,840
who solves a puzzle box,

995
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:54,800
only to be ripped apart
by hooks from within it?

996
00:50:57,040 --> 00:50:58,240
It'll get through.

997
00:50:58,240 --> 00:51:00,600
When his brother's family
inherit the house,

998
00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:02,960
an accidental spill of blood
allows Frank to escape

999
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:05,200
from the hellish dimension
he's been trapped in,

1000
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:08,440
but he needs more blood
to rebuild his human form.

1001
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:10,080
Aaargh!

1002
00:51:10,080 --> 00:51:13,800
His lover, also his sister-in-law,
helps him to this end.

1003
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:16,840
But his niece and a group
of interdimensional demons,

1004
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,840
the Cenobites,
led by the iconic Pinhead,

1005
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:21,480
are on to the lovers' plan,

1006
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:24,080
and will do all in their power
to stop them.

1007
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,960
Hellraiser is so sort of unique
and specific,

1008
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:31,040
and its aesthetic is so surprising
and shocking,

1009
00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:32,840
and just even one look at the poster

1010
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:35,120
and you're like,
"Wow, what is that?"

1011
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:38,160
I watched that movie again recently,
and it's a low-budget movie,

1012
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:40,280
but it's like... It shows you,

1013
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:43,960
when somebody has, like,
an idea that is just,

1014
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:47,760
in its own sort of modest way,
perfectly executed,

1015
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:50,080
it will just kind of travel
the world over.

1016
00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:52,960
And everybody knows that film,
everybody knows that poster,

1017
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:55,760
and most people who are horror fans
have seen that movie,

1018
00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:59,600
because it's like Clive Barker,
kind of like, hit on an aesthetic,

1019
00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:02,720
and some creature designs
which are undeniable.

1020
00:52:02,720 --> 00:52:06,680
35 years later,
they're still making sequels,

1021
00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:09,680
and Pinhead has a place
amongst the pantheon

1022
00:52:09,680 --> 00:52:12,720
of international cinema's
scariest antiheroes.

1023
00:52:12,720 --> 00:52:14,120
Do you see, my Lord?

1024
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:16,760
Ken Russell turned his hand
to horror during the '80s,

1025
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:18,720
offering us a nightmarish telling

1026
00:52:18,720 --> 00:52:21,000
of the night Mary Shelley
conceived Frankenstein,

1027
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:22,680
in Gothic.

1028
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:25,480
And then offering us
something very silly

1029
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:27,640
in The Lair Of The White Worm,

1030
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:30,160
where we were given
an early glimpse at the joy

1031
00:52:30,160 --> 00:52:33,480
of a firmly tongue-in-cheek
Hugh Grant performance.

1032
00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:36,280
And yes, that is Doctor Who.

1033
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:39,400
Since we're talking about
Doctor Who, as well we should,

1034
00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:43,080
in 1986, a man who would,
like Peter Capaldi,

1035
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:44,800
go on to play the Doctor,

1036
00:52:44,800 --> 00:52:47,880
was about to cut his teeth
in a very British film.

1037
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:53,120
When Bruce Robinson consolidated
Withnail andamp; I,

1038
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:56,440
his autobiographical tale
of Byronic drunken squalor,

1039
00:52:56,440 --> 00:52:58,600
from a novel into a screenplay,

1040
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,440
there was really only one company

1041
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:02,680
quirky enough
to bring it to the screen.

1042
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:05,680
By then, Handmade
were on uncertain ground.

1043
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:09,320
Despite early success, they had
been stung by two big budget films

1044
00:53:09,320 --> 00:53:11,560
which had been massive failures.

1045
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:13,760
The Caribbean-set Water,

1046
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:16,160
starring Michael Caine
and Billy Connolly,

1047
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:19,640
and the legendary flop
Shanghai Surprise, starring Madonna

1048
00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:21,640
and her then-husband Sean Penn.

1049
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:23,240
On both of these productions,

1050
00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:25,600
George Harrison
had personally got involved

1051
00:53:25,600 --> 00:53:28,280
and tried to solve problems
practically.

1052
00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:31,760
He assembled an all-star band
for one sequence in Water,

1053
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:35,560
and recorded an entire unreleased
soundtrack for Shanghai Surprise.

1054
00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:40,560
But both were expensive
and damaging lessons for Handmade.

1055
00:53:40,560 --> 00:53:44,400
Although they immediately embraced
and funded Withnail,

1056
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:46,880
Harrison's business partner,
Denis O'Brien,

1057
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:50,400
was anxious, and proved to be
a consistent thorn in the side

1058
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:52,560
to first-time director Robinson.

1059
00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:57,400
Luckily, Robinson was not one
to be dictated to.

1060
00:53:57,400 --> 00:54:01,600
Withnail andamp; I is one of the most
perfectly British films ever made.

1061
00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:06,320
And as such, is greatly beloved
around these parts.

1062
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:09,360
It's clever and poetic
and grim and grimy,

1063
00:54:09,360 --> 00:54:12,040
and abso-fucking-lutely hilarious.

1064
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:13,760
What is it? What have you found?

1065
00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:16,360
Matter.

1066
00:54:16,360 --> 00:54:18,840
The 1960s-set tale
of two young bohemians

1067
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:20,840
impoverished to the point of squalor

1068
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:22,880
and drunk to the point of
destruction...

1069
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:25,160
Even the wankers on the sidewalk
wouldn't drink that.

1070
00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:26,920
That's worse than meths.
Nonsense.

1071
00:54:26,920 --> 00:54:28,880
This is a far superior drink
to meths.

1072
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:31,200
The wankers don't drink it
because they can't afford it.

1073
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:33,560
..bickering over the inanities
of their lives,

1074
00:54:33,560 --> 00:54:37,560
whilst a progression of awful,
distinctly British characters

1075
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:39,240
drift through their world,

1076
00:54:39,240 --> 00:54:41,720
offering distraction
and frustration.

1077
00:54:41,720 --> 00:54:44,160
Very foolish words, man.

1078
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:45,800
Halfway through the film,

1079
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:47,640
they disastrously decide
to go on holiday,

1080
00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:51,840
and managed to show
the riotous horror of rural squalor

1081
00:54:51,840 --> 00:54:54,440
alongside urban.

1082
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:57,520
The film's genius
is in the final act reveal

1083
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:01,320
that it is not in fact a comedy,
but a tragedy,

1084
00:55:01,320 --> 00:55:04,480
and that their trajectory
is not a shared one.

1085
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:06,000
They want me to play the lead.

1086
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:09,720
And before we know it,
we're crying instead of laughing,

1087
00:55:09,720 --> 00:55:11,480
because somehow,

1088
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:14,160
we've fallen completely in love
with these characters,

1089
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:17,200
and had not considered the reality
of their situation.

1090
00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:19,120
I shall miss you, Withnail.

1091
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:21,760
There is no other film
quite like Withnail andamp; I.

1092
00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:26,040
It is staggering to realise
that it is the cinematic debut

1093
00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:29,680
of not only the director,
but also both lead actors.

1094
00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:31,960
Withnail andamp; I isn't just a great film
because it's funny,

1095
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:33,520
cos it is hilariously funny,

1096
00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:36,120
but it was contemporary,
it was of its time.

1097
00:55:36,120 --> 00:55:40,160
He tapped into an ethos that was
very much a part of that time.

1098
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,440
It had a difficult release.

1099
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:46,600
Handmade had no idea how to market
or strategise its distribution,

1100
00:55:46,600 --> 00:55:49,440
and it took almost a decade
of word-of-mouth

1101
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:53,640
and videotape proliferation to
achieve the recognition it deserved,

1102
00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:57,720
and status as a bona fide
classic of British cinema.

1103
00:55:57,720 --> 00:55:59,720
I remember it coming out.

1104
00:55:59,720 --> 00:56:02,360
But it wasn't playing at a cinema
anywhere near me.

1105
00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:04,720
I'm sure it didn't have
that wide a release at all.

1106
00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:06,720
So, I probably saw clips of it on TV

1107
00:56:06,720 --> 00:56:08,400
and thought,
"That looks interesting."

1108
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:12,520
And then you had to wait, like,
three years,

1109
00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:14,520
until it shows up on VHS.

1110
00:56:14,520 --> 00:56:16,520
So, then I think
when it shows on VHS,

1111
00:56:16,520 --> 00:56:18,200
and then when it's on TV,

1112
00:56:18,200 --> 00:56:20,640
then, like, the word-of-mouth
starts to spread.

1113
00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:24,480
It's so quotable
that it borders on being

1114
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:27,280
one of those films
that's a bit like somebody

1115
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:29,160
making you sit down
and listen to a record.

1116
00:56:29,160 --> 00:56:31,480
You know, like,
when people are annoying, like,

1117
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:33,320
"Oh, my God,
you gotta listen to this!"

1118
00:56:33,320 --> 00:56:34,880
It's a little bit like that,

1119
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:37,840
but the good thing is
it lives up to the hype.

1120
00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:41,000
When it was released,
The Daily Telegraph review said,

1121
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:42,280
"In many ways,

1122
00:56:42,280 --> 00:56:45,840
"Withnail andamp; I is what the British
film industry is all about.

1123
00:56:45,840 --> 00:56:49,120
"It is an eccentric, intimate and
well-written independent production

1124
00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:51,960
"that would never have seen
the light of day in Hollywood."

1125
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:57,760
I guess it's just something about it
kind of completely just solidifies

1126
00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:00,280
your image of the British eccentric.

1127
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:02,880
It feels like
it's so kind of against the odds.

1128
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:06,840
Everything about it, it so could
have easily not been made at all.

1129
00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:09,200
And that's why I think
it's like a weird anomaly

1130
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:12,760
that sort of just creeped into
the national consciousness.

1131
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:14,960
So, it's a really interesting
case study,

1132
00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:17,240
of, like, it is a real cult film,

1133
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:19,640
because now it's like
whenever they have a poll

1134
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:21,880
of the greatest British movies
of all time,

1135
00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:26,120
Withnail andamp; I is right up there,
like, sometimes even at number one.

1136
00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:29,400
Sadly, the belated success
of Withnail

1137
00:57:29,400 --> 00:57:31,440
was not enough to save Handmade.

1138
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:33,880
The company limped on
for a few more years,

1139
00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:35,920
but 1990's Nuns On The Run

1140
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:40,480
ended their run on a familiar note
to which they'd started,

1141
00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:43,320
with Eric Idle dressed as a woman.

1142
00:57:43,320 --> 00:57:47,000
But a notably less successful one.

1143
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:49,920
The company had made
some terrible investments,

1144
00:57:49,920 --> 00:57:52,040
and George Harrison was the one
who had ended up

1145
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:53,920
literally paying for it.

1146
00:57:53,920 --> 00:57:56,360
A noted advocate for peace and love,

1147
00:57:56,360 --> 00:57:58,080
he spent the next six years
in court,

1148
00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:01,560
trying to sue
his erstwhile business partner.

1149
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:03,360
Goldcrest was gone,

1150
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:05,680
and Palace Pictures' days
were numbered.

1151
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:08,360
The history of British cinema
has always been

1152
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:10,760
insufficient capital
to fulfil its ambitions,

1153
00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:13,040
and fulfil the ambitions
of its talent.

1154
00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:14,720
The one thing this country has done

1155
00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:19,320
is produced way more
than its fair share of talent.

1156
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:23,160
Oh, and as for the massive threat
posed by Cannon films,

1157
00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:26,520
same deal,
karma caught up with them.

1158
00:58:26,520 --> 00:58:29,080
Their entire business model
was a wreck.

1159
00:58:29,080 --> 00:58:30,560
They were massively in debt,

1160
00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:33,120
and as their films
performed worse and worse,

1161
00:58:33,120 --> 00:58:35,920
their stock value
rapidly bottomed out.

1162
00:58:35,920 --> 00:58:38,920
Within six months of monopolising
the British film industry,

1163
00:58:38,920 --> 00:58:42,640
they were stripping their own assets
for sale in terrible deals.

1164
00:58:42,640 --> 00:58:45,200
Cannon got sold to
an Italian conglomerate,

1165
00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:48,120
and Golan and Globus
became sideline figures.

1166
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:50,680
They never achieved the respect
they felt they deserved

1167
00:58:50,680 --> 00:58:52,360
as industry behemoths,

1168
00:58:52,360 --> 00:58:55,640
and even now, remain the punchline
of 1980s cinema.

1169
00:58:57,160 --> 00:59:00,240
Like so many other stories
from the 1980s,

1170
00:59:00,240 --> 00:59:02,600
the story of the British
film industry at that time

1171
00:59:02,600 --> 00:59:04,840
is one of money,

1172
00:59:04,840 --> 00:59:07,640
excitement,

1173
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:09,800
power and greed.

1174
00:59:09,800 --> 00:59:12,720
I'll kill him and I'll eat him!

1175
00:59:12,720 --> 00:59:15,320
It's the story of passionate people
who adored film,

1176
00:59:15,320 --> 00:59:17,760
tried something bold,

1177
00:59:17,760 --> 00:59:19,800
reaped the reward,

1178
00:59:19,800 --> 00:59:21,560
and then clamoured for more.

1179
00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:26,040
Of an excited rush to finally build
a strong national infrastructure

1180
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:29,720
and produce
great big British movies,

1181
00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:32,680
and also just great little films.

1182
00:59:32,680 --> 00:59:35,000
A little bit more than an 'otdog,
know what I mean?

1183
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:37,880
It's the story of when little old
Britain puffed out its chest

1184
00:59:37,880 --> 00:59:41,600
an showed the world that we were
every bit as capable as Hollywood.

1185
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:43,360
And do you know what?

1186
00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:45,240
It worked.

1187
00:59:45,240 --> 00:59:47,840
In those ten years,

1188
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:49,840
we turned out a slew of impressive,

1189
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:51,560
lyrical,

1190
00:59:51,560 --> 00:59:53,720
heartfelt,

1191
00:59:53,720 --> 00:59:55,600
progressive,

1192
00:59:55,600 --> 00:59:57,680
complex, funny,

1193
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:00,440
ground-breaking, heartbreaking,

1194
01:00:00,440 --> 01:00:02,040
fucking brilliant films,

1195
01:00:02,040 --> 01:00:04,440
which are still cherished
and enjoyed

1196
01:00:04,440 --> 01:00:06,280
all around the world to this day.

1197
01:00:06,280 --> 01:00:07,960
We've gone on holiday by mistake!

1198
01:00:07,960 --> 01:00:12,720
But more than that, it's also
the story of quixotic failure,

1199
01:00:12,720 --> 01:00:14,360
of dreams over reality.

1200
01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:15,920
You don't like me much,
do you, ma'am?

1201
01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:19,680
Of heart over wallets,
and of expansion beyond capability.

1202
01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:23,520
Ultimately, it was hubris
that toppled them all.

1203
01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:25,600
But how dare we judge or smirk?

1204
01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:29,160
It was that hubris which gave us
a decade of stunning cinema

1205
01:00:29,160 --> 01:00:30,880
which we're still enjoying
to this day.

1206
01:00:32,760 --> 01:00:35,760
Channel 4 would continue to produce
diverse, enlightening

1207
01:00:35,760 --> 01:00:37,720
and socially engaged smaller films,

1208
01:00:37,720 --> 01:00:39,880
but we had lost the craziness,

1209
01:00:39,880 --> 01:00:42,760
the huge epics,
the eccentric comedies,

1210
01:00:42,760 --> 01:00:46,920
and the gonzo fantasies which had
only just started to emerge.

1211
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:49,240
From the ashes of the 1980s,

1212
01:00:49,240 --> 01:00:51,800
we would see a surprising
return to strength

1213
01:00:51,800 --> 01:00:54,400
for the British film industry
in the 1990s.

1214
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:55,960
Lucky devils.

1215
01:00:55,960 --> 01:00:58,040
But it would not be the same.

1216
01:00:59,200 --> 01:01:01,600
Lessons had been learned,
and caution would be exercised,

1217
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:06,720
and never again would we see such
a level of beautiful eccentricity

1218
01:01:06,720 --> 01:01:09,480
on the screen or in the boardroom.

1219
01:01:09,480 --> 01:01:12,640
I'm gonna be a star!

1220
01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:14,680
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