1 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:06,360 When we become human, when our eyes adjust to the raw light 2 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:10,840 of the world, the first thing we see is a face. 3 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:18,000 And before we can walk, before we can speak, 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,680 we become readers of faces. 5 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:28,800 And as we grow into ourselves and the world we live in, 6 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:30,840 this instinct stays with us. 7 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:38,880 We scan the world for connections and make snap judgements. 8 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,280 Friend or foe, cruel or kind? 9 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,480 An innocent glance, or the look of love? 10 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,520 Locking eyes helps us navigate through our lives. 11 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:58,280 But also navigate through our history. 12 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:03,600 When we look upon the faces of the past, 13 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:07,320 it's like combing through the family album of our nation. 14 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:13,600 Each one contains something of ourselves - 15 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,880 who we are, and who we've been. 16 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:24,960 But be warned: none of these faces can be taken at face value. 17 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:32,000 Because no portrait is as simple as it first seems. 18 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:40,920 Every portrait is the result of a three-way contest. 19 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,040 First of all there's the vanity of the sitter, of course - 20 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,880 how we think we'd like to be seen. 21 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,120 But then there's the job of the artists who mischievously 22 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:51,640 complicate that vanity. 23 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:56,360 And then, not least, there is the verdict of the public. 24 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:01,800 And it's this three-way game which gives portraits their complexity, 25 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,120 their richness and their intrigue. 26 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,400 And when the portraits are of the powerful, 27 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:12,520 the battle of wills can get fierce. 28 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:20,040 But to know the story of those battles is to understand not just 29 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:24,880 how portraits got painted, but how Britain got made. 30 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:47,840 BELL CHIMES 31 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,160 As the firm, confident notes of Big Ben sound out, 32 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:56,520 we greet you from Parliament, where we now wait to do birthday homage to 33 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,000 the greatest of modern parliamentarians. 34 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:05,800 The 30th November 1954 was the day the nation came together to 35 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:10,720 celebrate the 80th Birthday of Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. 36 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,600 All members of both houses and the officials of Parliament, 37 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,360 and their wives, have assembled here. 38 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:22,800 Now, he comes down the stairs to the greetings of both houses. 39 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:28,640 Beamed into homes by the BBC, the climax of the ceremony was to be 40 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:32,800 the unveiling of a birthday present from Parliament. 41 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:36,680 It was a portrait that would immortalise the greatest Briton of all. 42 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:44,120 Churchill was a hero in our house. 43 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:47,920 We were rather a Labour Party family but we made an exception 44 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,440 for Winston Churchill because he'd saved Britain from the Nazis. 45 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:57,280 Now, we all knew that Churchill was, to put in mildly, past his prime. 46 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:02,240 But everybody wanted some great climactic moment, 47 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:06,720 which rose above politics, when the nation could say, "thank you". 48 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:12,680 But politics is rarely that simple. 49 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:15,320 A year earlier Churchill had suffered a stroke. 50 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:18,840 He had recovered, but as he looked out at the audience he knew that 51 00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:23,720 among them were some that wanted to replace him with a younger face. 52 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:32,760 So, for Churchill, what lay behind the curtain was more than a portrait. 53 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,760 It had to be a proclamation of his undimmed vigour. 54 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:48,240 The story of the portrait began three months earlier 55 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,160 at Churchill's home of Chartwell. 56 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,440 As a keen amateur, he had his own painting studio 57 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:02,840 and it was here that he sat for the all-important portrait. 58 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,920 On the other side of the easel stood the painter, Graham Sutherland. 59 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:12,640 Hand-picked by Parliament, 60 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:18,600 he was celebrated for his unsparing scrutiny and penetrating portraits. 61 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,640 But as he set his sights on Churchill, 62 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:29,800 he found himself locked in a contest of wills. 63 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:34,680 It was a drama documented in an extraordinary set of photographs. 64 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:42,480 Well, I supposed you would have to call these remarkable images 65 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:43,680 war photography. 66 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:51,320 This was going to be one of the most tumultuous commissions ever. 67 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:53,200 Both the artist and, I think, 68 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,320 the sitter as well thought they were in a fight. 69 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:00,560 Wary of what the artist's eye might reveal, 70 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:04,440 Churchill immediately tried to take control of the sittings. 71 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:10,000 The first day, Churchill says to Sutherland, 72 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,800 "What would you like? The Bulldog or the Cherub?" 73 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:17,720 And of course it's insulting to Sutherland because it's saying there 74 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:21,440 are only two way in which my image is allowed to go into the public. 75 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:26,200 You can have the winsome baby face or the fighting bulldog. 76 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:31,440 And Sutherland gets more and more determined to do what he wants. 77 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:38,600 Sutherland soon realised he did not have a cooperative subject. 78 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,480 Churchill was constantly lighting up. 79 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,480 His moods would shift from amiable to growly. 80 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:47,600 The brandy snifter was never far away. 81 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:52,400 Churchill is such a difficult sitter, 82 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:55,720 he nods off after lunch, he's drowsy. 83 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:57,920 And there's not much Sutherland can do about it. 84 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:01,400 He has to say to him, "A little bit more of the old lion, Sir". 85 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:06,480 So they're jousting about absolutely everything. 86 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:12,000 Taking the photographs and his many sketches with him, 87 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:17,240 Sutherland decided to work up the painting back at his own house. 88 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:23,080 This made Churchill suspicious of what the final product would look like. 89 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:32,840 What results from this clash of the titans, from this duel of egos, 90 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:38,240 nobody quite knew until the thing was unveiled. 91 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:46,920 As the congratulatory speeches wore on, 92 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:53,080 few were aware that Churchill had seen the painting and hated it. 93 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:58,640 Prime Minister and painter knew humiliation for them both was just seconds away. 94 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:06,880 Mr Prime Minister, I gladly join my colleagues in presenting this 95 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:09,760 token of our sincere regards to him. 96 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:19,480 As the curtain drew back, what the audience saw... 97 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,640 ..was a picture of the rugged truth. 98 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,920 Which was not what Churchill had wanted. 99 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:36,360 No bulldog, no baby face, just an obituary in paint. 100 00:08:41,560 --> 00:08:44,440 The moment of retribution was at hand. 101 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:52,840 The portrait is a remarkable example of Modern Art. 102 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,640 LAUGHTER 103 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:09,000 The gale of laughter that swept the audience was Churchill's 104 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:11,160 revenge on Sutherland. 105 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:14,320 Sutherland is sitting there captive, 106 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:20,320 a prisoner inside this immense, formal, televised nightmare. 107 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:25,920 And Sutherland is distraught and humiliated by the whole thing and 108 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:32,920 they are both casualties, they are both bloodied, humiliated, wounded. 109 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:37,200 Exactly the opposite of what everybody had wanted. 110 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,680 But in the aftermath of this great battle of wills, 111 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:46,800 the biggest casualty of all would be the painting itself. 112 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:52,080 After a few weeks at Churchill's London house, it disappeared. 113 00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:56,560 Winston and his wife found the image 114 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:01,640 so offensive it was never displayed and eventually... 115 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:04,720 ..it was burned. 116 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:23,920 Well, this is all that we have left. 117 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:27,000 It's a transparency that belongs to the estate of the artist 118 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:28,880 and thank God we have it. 119 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:31,320 Because it let's us see that this 120 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,920 is actually one of the great masterpieces of British portraiture. 121 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:37,120 Not just British portraiture, actually - 122 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:40,800 it's up there with Rembrandt, Velasquez, with Holbein's Henry VIII. 123 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:44,000 This is an extraordinary, extraordinary painting. 124 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,720 And I'll tell you why it is so extraordinary. 125 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:49,960 Think of all the other official portraits, for God's sake. 126 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:54,680 Stalin, Castro, the hideous portraits of the tyrants like Hitler, 127 00:10:54,680 --> 00:10:56,160 this is not that. 128 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:01,760 This is a portrait of a magnificent ruin. 129 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:06,480 Britain's triumph in the 1950s 130 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:10,360 is that it is full of magnificent ruins, being magnificent 131 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:14,320 and being ruined is the battle of Britain, it is British history. 132 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,600 It is portraiture of rugged nobility. 133 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:26,040 And the tragedy about this is that Winston didn't see this. 134 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:30,520 If only the picture was still here, 135 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:35,600 we would all love and revere it and say "this is Britain." 136 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,880 All portraits are born of from a tug-of-war between sitter, 137 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:47,760 artist and public. 138 00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:52,480 In this one, it was the portrait which was torn apart. 139 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:00,240 Sutherland would later brood that he should never have accepted the commission. 140 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:03,920 Perhaps it was, from the start, a hopeless challenge. 141 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:09,160 After all, how do you paint a saviour? 142 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:24,440 Deep in the Hertfordshire countryside is 143 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:26,360 a saviour from another age. 144 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:36,520 Here in the village of Piccotts End, it was hidden away for centuries. 145 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:40,720 This is a doorway to another world. 146 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:53,560 It's a time machine, this little cottage. 147 00:12:56,560 --> 00:13:00,800 This house was once a hostel on an ancient route of pilgrimage. 148 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,200 It's easy to think of medieval carts 149 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,240 and pilgrims trudging to the nearby monastery. 150 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:12,360 Where there is a relic of holy blood. 151 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:16,600 Painted over 500 years ago, 152 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:23,480 its walls are aglow with images of Christ, The Virgin, and the Saints. 153 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:27,320 All enveloped in a dense garden of leaves and flowers. 154 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:32,000 We'll never know who painted these beautiful things. 155 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,200 But it was a job that you had, 156 00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:39,520 you had the job of providing these glorious images 157 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:45,400 for pilgrims and a Christian world that was full of being looked at. 158 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:50,360 There was never a moment when the faces of the Bible weren't 159 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:56,320 looking at you, and you could pause to look back at them for reassurance. 160 00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:01,520 And you'd be blessed by those faces. 161 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,480 This is the important part of contemplation. 162 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:21,040 It is not just that we are contemplating Christ 163 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:23,520 but Christ is looking at us. 164 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:27,280 "I exist because God looks at me." 165 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:34,760 You would see the images of Christ, the Mother of God, 166 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:36,600 the angels and the saints. 167 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:38,080 And you wouldn't just look at them 168 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:40,880 you would go and kiss them an honour them. 169 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:43,040 You would want a living relationship with them, 170 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:44,720 a tangible one. 171 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:53,000 Both the Greek and the Latin words for face also mean person, 172 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,240 person and face mean the same thing. 173 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:58,440 And it's interesting that a face has eyes to see the other, 174 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:02,320 ears to hear the other, lips to speak with the other, 175 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:06,800 so, person means communion, and it's essential for the Christian faith. 176 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:14,200 But then came the Reformation. 177 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:20,640 As Henry VIII carved England away from the rest of Christendom, 178 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:26,720 so the paintings here became condemned as Roman idolatry. 179 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:27,760 They had to go. 180 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:36,040 The defacing was done by protestant reformers in the middle of 1530s 181 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:41,440 because they were insecure about the power of faces to control the imagination. 182 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:49,080 "Defaced" means, like that, to take the face away, 183 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:56,800 so that you lose connection with talismanic presences. 184 00:15:56,800 --> 00:16:00,840 You take away the magic and you leave a community, 185 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:04,400 in this case the community of Catholic England, without 186 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:11,640 someone to look to for prosperity, safety, happiness and abundance. 187 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:13,160 You're on your own. 188 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:19,240 But the architects of the Reformation understood 189 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:21,960 the psychological need for a powerful face. 190 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:29,560 And as they defaced Catholic imagery, they made new icons of salvation. 191 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:38,840 Christ in majesty was replaced by the King in majesty. 192 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:45,920 But it was his daughter who would create an entirely new cult of images. 193 00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:48,960 Exit the Virgin Mary... 194 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:53,320 ..enter The Virgin Queen. 195 00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:00,760 It was Elizabeth I who would construct a face of power that would 196 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:05,240 channel the old devotion to win a new allegiance. 197 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:12,760 Hatfield House. 198 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:19,600 A centre of power during Elizabeth's long, often threatened, reign. 199 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:28,720 From here, her most trusted councillors maintained 200 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:31,600 constant vigilance over the realm. 201 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:38,080 Excommunication had given Catholic assassins license to kill, 202 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:41,040 and Elizabeth's failure to marry 203 00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:46,760 and provide a Protestant heir put the realm in even greater jeopardy. 204 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:50,600 Elizabeth's councillors knew that the Queen image could be 205 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:56,080 a powerful weapon in securing the allegiance of hearts and minds. 206 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:59,200 But the image makers initially weren't very good. 207 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,080 From the moment of her accession, 208 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:07,960 jobbing painters had been turning out faces of the Queen. 209 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,760 Most of them were feeble and clumsy pictures. 210 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:24,680 So the council of state had to take decisive action. 211 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:28,680 "Her Majesty perceiveth that a great number of her loving subjects 212 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:33,440 "are much grieved and take great offence with the errors 213 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:37,480 "and deformities already committed by sundry persons." 214 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:42,080 'In 1563 a proclamation was drafted.' 215 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:49,800 'It banned anyone from producing unauthorised portraits of the Queen.' 216 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:54,320 'Until an official image was designed and disseminated by the state.' 217 00:18:54,320 --> 00:19:00,040 "..the showing or publication of such as are apparently deformed." 218 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:06,000 Illicit pictures of the Queen were to be destroyed 219 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:09,800 and the Queen's face re-branded. 220 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,040 The message was clear. 221 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:19,000 We control the picture of the Queen you are going to have. 222 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:24,160 It's in our power to tell you what the face of the Queen is. 223 00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:27,880 We will tell you what the face of England is to be. 224 00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:42,240 Usually, state controlled image making is the kiss of death 225 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:44,120 to painterly inspiration. 226 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:47,240 But not this time. 227 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:53,240 This time painters were inspired to make magic. 228 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:03,920 Elizabeth's natural face disappears inside a formulaic mask. 229 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,000 Perpetually luminous, 230 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,240 impervious to the ravages of time. 231 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:15,240 Her body becomes encrusted with symbols, 232 00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:19,000 many of them adapted from the Virgin Mary. 233 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:33,840 Under the painter's spell, Elizabeth had become the Virgin Queen - 234 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:40,680 devoted to the care of her subjects, married to no-one but the realm. 235 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:51,720 But the radiance of the Virgin Queen reached its consummation 236 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,800 in the greatest of all her portraits. 237 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:58,080 It's known as the Rainbow Portrait. 238 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:04,000 This is fabulous, isn't it? And I mean literally fabulous. 239 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:09,080 This is the stuff of fable, legend, the imagination. 240 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,840 The older she got, the more fantastic the image had to be. 241 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:18,600 The painting was made just a few years before Elizabeth's death. 242 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,960 Yet she remains untouched by age. 243 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,600 The real Elizabeth is an old lady in her mid-60s 244 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:28,720 she is blackened toothed, 245 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,600 shrunken, complexion like jaundice. 246 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:33,560 So this won't do. 247 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:38,200 And if you concentrate enough on a stupendous image like this, 248 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:41,440 that's what will be imprinted in your mind. And we actually have 249 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:46,480 documents from ambassadors saying, "My God, she's still so beautiful". 250 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:51,240 And it doesn't get more beautiful, more amazing than this. 251 00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,960 And as in so many of the later portraits of Elizabeth, 252 00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:04,920 this one pulls you into a labyrinth of signs and symbols. 253 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,080 Emblem, allegory, symbol, fantasy, 254 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,160 visual hyperbole is what it's all about. 255 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:22,400 She belongs to some extraordinary sort of astral presence 256 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:25,400 that's looking after her subjects. 257 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:31,880 There is a suspended glove, a gauntlet and 258 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,800 that stands for trust, for faithfulness. 259 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,240 The jewelled serpent represents wisdom. 260 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:44,080 A bodice is covered with spring flowers, 261 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,200 the emblem of perpetual future. 262 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:51,360 The rainbow is the symbol of peace and harmony 263 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:53,240 and future prosperity. 264 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:55,840 She grips it with her right hand. 265 00:22:55,840 --> 00:23:00,200 And at the heart of the picture, almost its most telling, 266 00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:07,880 certainly its most unusual feature, is this glorious golden robe. 267 00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:12,400 The lustrous fabric is embroidered 268 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,920 with the most mysterious symbols of all. 269 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:20,200 Eyes, ears and mouths. 270 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:25,040 That suggests one meaning of this fantastic decoration, 271 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:29,280 namely, Elizabeth is the personification of fame. 272 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,360 The mouths speak her renown to the rest of the world. 273 00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:37,080 The rest of the world's eyes and ears are on her. 274 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,800 But after a while, it all gets just a little worrying. 275 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:52,360 Another word for omniscience, after all, is spying. 276 00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:03,680 So, it's extraordinary spooky to have the ears constantly listening, 277 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,200 the eyes constantly watching. 278 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,000 It's an amazing piece of visual performance which 279 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:16,680 situates this picture exactly between the theatrical and the spectacular on the one hand, 280 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:21,720 and the creepy and the paranoid and the vigilant on the other hand. 281 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,400 Elizabeth knew the power of the Royal stare. 282 00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,960 She may have let herself be depicted like a goddess, 283 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:40,960 but she always stayed in touch with the mortal beneath the mask. 284 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:44,360 The same could not be said of her successors. 285 00:24:48,360 --> 00:24:53,840 In 1626, London saw the coronation of a new monarch. 286 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:03,560 The Stuart King, Charles I, believed he was a little God on Earth. 287 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:07,200 Little he certainly was, 288 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:08,520 with a marked stammer. 289 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,120 But his sense of majesty was colossal 290 00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:19,240 and he would let art help him do the talking. 291 00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:30,960 His subjects would be dazzled into submission by spectacular painting, 292 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:35,920 which turned unprepossessing reality into imperial magnificence. 293 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:42,120 The best of them courtesy of the wonder-working artist Anthony van Dyck. 294 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,240 Van Dyck understood how the figure of the mounted prince, 295 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,720 in firm command of a noble steed, 296 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:56,640 could project an image of imperial power like no other pose. 297 00:25:56,640 --> 00:26:01,920 Here he is, then, the British Caesar, riding high above mere mortals. 298 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:11,240 So powerful was this equestrian image that in the very same 299 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:16,360 year that it was painted, the King and his horse leapt off the canvas. 300 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:22,680 This is Charles I on Horseback. 301 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,360 Here he is riding towards Whitehall down there, 302 00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:30,040 Trafalgar Square just behind him. 303 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,440 The person who made this was actually a French sculptor 304 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,240 a man named Hubert Le Sueur, who'd come over with 305 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:40,360 Charles I's French Queen, Henrietta Maria, 306 00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:44,680 and it was based on the statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Rome. 307 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:51,200 This is a very short King, 5'4, 308 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,800 meant to be on a very big horse, 309 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:58,000 and the sculptor panicked a bit about his proportions, 310 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,520 so the horse is weirdly sausage-like 311 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,200 and it's too small, it looks almost like a training pony. 312 00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:06,560 But never mind the details, 313 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,160 we'll forgive him his mediocre incompetence 314 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:14,720 because actually the story this has to tell us is very, very important. 315 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:17,320 It's a story about how a King 316 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:21,880 wished to have the face of his power represented, 317 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:27,240 and it has in it both the comedy of imperial pretentions 318 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:29,440 and Charles I's tragic end. 319 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,720 When the cavalier king was defeated, those who had pulled him 320 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:40,520 down from his high horse needed to get rid of any images 321 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:42,520 which might keep him in the saddle. 322 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:50,840 And it was then that the remarkable history of this statue began. 323 00:27:54,960 --> 00:28:00,680 Oliver Cromwell himself had two objections to Le Sueur's creation - 324 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:05,000 that it was in itself a kind of idol, 325 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:10,080 and that, if not destroyed, it might become a focus for royalist diehards. 326 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,240 But when the destroyers came to break it up, 327 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,120 they found that the statue had disappeared. 328 00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:33,400 For five years they searched in vain, until a tip-off lead them here, 329 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:38,000 to the Churchyard of St Paul's, Covent Garden. 330 00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:46,400 The order is now to melt it down, to get rid of it. 331 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,640 No trace of Charles I on horseback, 332 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:52,920 around which secret royalists could rally. 333 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:58,000 They give it to someone called John Rivet, who's a master brazier. 334 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:04,200 But John Rivet was not a man who did what he was told. 335 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,320 He pretends to have dismantled 336 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:11,920 and melted the statue down. 337 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,520 What he actually does is to bury it, underground, in this garden. 338 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,600 I might be standing on the spot. 339 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:23,960 So you feel that actually Master Rivet, the brazier, 340 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,160 is giving Charles I, at least in statue form, 341 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,760 the proper burial which the beheaded king had been denied. 342 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,960 The statue would remain buried for another five years. 343 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:52,760 But in its place a new and more potent face of the King emerged. 344 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,200 A circle of unrepentant royalists 345 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,680 was determined to keep the image of the King alive. 346 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:14,920 Within days of his beheading, his image was brought back to life. 347 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,840 A powerful new portrait was printed and distributed. 348 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:22,760 "Oh Lord, we offer unto thee, 349 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:26,640 "all praise and thanks for the glory of thy grace that shined forth 350 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,080 "in thine anointed servant, Charles." 351 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,080 It was an image that exalted the dead king. 352 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,800 And it was found 353 00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:42,640 within the pages of a subversive text, the Eikon Basilike: 354 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:44,120 The Portrait Of The King. 355 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:47,400 "For that part of it here militant 356 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,720 "through thy son, thy blessed servant, Jesus Christ." 357 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,680 Three of the first publishers were arrested. 358 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:06,720 In 1649 it was a capital offence to question what Parliament had done. 359 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:11,560 It's very beautifully imprinted on the front 360 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:15,520 with an image of King Charles surrounded by the crown of thorns 361 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:17,840 and his celestial crown above. 362 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:20,920 But the spine of the book is completely plain 363 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:24,320 so if this was on a bookshelf and you were being searched 364 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,800 by Parliamentarians, it wouldn't stand out at all. 365 00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,320 To own this book was an act of treason. 366 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:39,080 To open it was to see Charles transfigured. 367 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:46,280 No longer aloft on his high horse, Charles is shown on bended knee. 368 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,280 The mighty Emperor had become a humble martyr. 369 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,200 With his right foot Charles is trampling on the earthly crown, 370 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,640 a crown he'd fought so bitterly and so hard to defend. 371 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:09,920 With his right hand he's grasping that crown which identifies him 372 00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:14,480 with the suffering and martyrdom of Jesus himself, the crown of thorns. 373 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:20,280 And with his eye, all in the same complicated 374 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:23,080 but immediately readable image, 375 00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:27,640 he's eying the heavenly crown, the true crown. 376 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:31,360 Essentially, it sums up in image, in portraiture, 377 00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:37,560 the sense that Charles had died as a martyr for the cause of God. 378 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,600 For true believers, this portrait turned political loyalty 379 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,480 into religious devotion. 380 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:50,720 I think If you look into the face, 381 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:55,880 you can see he was a man of the most extraordinary principle. 382 00:32:55,880 --> 00:33:00,840 I mean, he did pray in forgiveness for those who beheaded him. 383 00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:07,320 The portrait went through 35 editions in the first year alone. 384 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:11,920 Endlessly imitated, refined and embellished, 385 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:14,600 this sanctified face of the King kept 386 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:18,240 the flame of monarchy alive throughout those dangerous years. 387 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:27,280 And when the Restoration came, the statue of Charles was 388 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:30,440 disinterred and resurrected, 389 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:32,440 here in the heart of central London, 390 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:36,800 just a few hundred yards from where Charles had been executed. 391 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,680 But soon a new class of ruler would be in the saddle. 392 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:51,320 By the late 17th century, 393 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:56,440 country had displaced court as the true centre of British power. 394 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:04,920 Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, kings and queens would 395 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:09,200 rule only by permission of the landed aristocracy. 396 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:15,640 And they would harness the image of the horse to justify their new 397 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:17,240 claim to power. 398 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:24,520 Althorp in Northamptonshire is the ancient seat of the Spencer dynasty. 399 00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:35,120 Step inside and you find yourself surrounded by a new 400 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,480 expression of power in paint. 401 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:47,600 This is the portrait gallery of the Spencers, 402 00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:50,840 except what you see are horses. 403 00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:55,000 You see this magnificent 18th century symphony 404 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,760 to the horsey and hunting life. 405 00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:04,600 The Spencers are here actually as chaps, but they don't dominate the landscape. 406 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:11,520 Here they're swallowed up by a melee of dogs and horses 407 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,760 and the exquisite beauty of the estate itself, 408 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:20,480 acres and acres of true English land. 409 00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:28,360 No 18th century visitor could fail to be impressed by such 410 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:30,480 abundance and affluence. 411 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:36,680 But there's another more essential message in these paintings. 412 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:44,000 The horses and the dogs speak of an obsession with breeding, 413 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:48,760 blood-stock and lineage. 414 00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:56,960 These were the founding principles of the aristocratic right to rule. 415 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:05,680 So, power in England rested on dynasty, pedigree, 416 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:10,880 blood-stock - the purity of the family entitlement. 417 00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:17,400 So, in a sense this is a wonderful, idealised 418 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:23,120 harmony of everything that goes to make up the true rulers of England. 419 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:31,720 And it was here at Althrop that one historic event would confirm 420 00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:36,240 aristocratic supremacy over the Crown. 421 00:36:36,240 --> 00:36:39,600 In 1695, Robert Spencer, the Earl of Sunderland, 422 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:42,520 invited King William III to Althorp. 423 00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:44,840 They dined in the Long Gallery, 424 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:47,920 overlooked by beauties and blue bloods. 425 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:51,480 We have eyewitness accounts of a huge 426 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:55,880 banquet in that room for William III when he came to visit, 427 00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:59,640 and the whole place was apparently ablaze with plate. 428 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:05,400 It must have been very much part of our history, 429 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:09,560 the great handing over of power from the Crown to Parliament. 430 00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:16,000 Looking down on the King, these faces made an emphatic statement: 431 00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:24,160 You are outnumbered, outclassed, outbred. 432 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:26,400 The message was clear. 433 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:31,040 This is a grand family that's here to support you... 434 00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:36,080 ..and in return you're going to have to do some of our bidding. 435 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:41,600 On the walls of the country houses, 436 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:45,040 dynastic portraits held sway. 437 00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:48,040 But in Parliament and the city, 438 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:51,600 their control over their image was not so secure. 439 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,480 It was a revolution in art. 440 00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:10,200 Attack portraits with the power to make or kill a political career. 441 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:18,720 And the lethal weapon was laughter. 442 00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:26,040 Comic satire twisted the face of power... 443 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:31,360 ..and exposed it to the snigger of the streets. 444 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:35,960 And when reverence turned to raspberries, 445 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:39,840 you were just another clown in power. 446 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:49,120 - RADIO: - 'The headlines this morning: 447 00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:51,560 'MPs have warned that the public is losing faith in the 448 00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:54,720 'Chilcott Enquiry into the invasion of Iraq when it was revealed that 449 00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:59,200 'the findings would not be published until after the General Election.' 450 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,920 These buggers are put there to have control 451 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,520 over our lives, and what you're doing is saying 452 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:05,760 "Hey, wait a minute." 453 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:13,440 You've got to laugh at these people, you've got to attack these people, 454 00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:16,960 you've got to pull them down a peg or two, 455 00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:22,120 and there's nothing more upsetting to a politician than to be laughed at. 456 00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:28,680 Of course, they have to pass it off as though they enjoy joke 457 00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,720 when I don't think they do. 458 00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:44,920 Political satire that we know and love began in the 18th century. 459 00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:48,880 And its greatest exponent was James Gillray 460 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:53,480 This is an absolutely amazing image, 461 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:59,040 because it represents everything that's special about Gillray. 462 00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:05,080 This cartoon was published in 1791. 463 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:09,520 And in it Gillray takes aim at Prime Minister William Pitt. 464 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:14,480 So what does Gillray do to the great national leader? 465 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,080 He turns him into a toadstool 466 00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:22,960 So, Pitt's face, with the weak, disappearing, toffish chin, 467 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:29,200 the nose, besides which Pinocchio's nose is merely retrousse, 468 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,800 is on this kind of horrible mushroomy stalk 469 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:35,840 and it's planted upon a heap of crap. 470 00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,280 And what is the heap of crap? 471 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,240 It's the royal family, 472 00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:43,160 because the roots of the toadstool 473 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:46,560 form the unmistakable shape of a crown. 474 00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:54,680 If this is an image of comic hatred, 475 00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:58,520 it's an image of intense artistic love, too. 476 00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:03,520 It's produced with all the intense care that would be 477 00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:06,600 lavished on a great oil painting. 478 00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,120 It's very, very exquisitely done, 479 00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:11,720 it's restless, 480 00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:15,400 it kind of curls and curves and moves. 481 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:17,000 Fabulous form. 482 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:22,360 Gillray's poison pen didn't stop with the Prime Minister. 483 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:24,720 The royal family was fair game, too, 484 00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:27,800 and he made no-holds-barred images of them, 485 00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:30,040 unthinkable today. 486 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:33,000 Every time you turn over a page it's still shocking. 487 00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,840 George III falling in and out of sanity. 488 00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:41,880 The licentious Prince Regent. 489 00:41:45,240 --> 00:41:49,440 The Queen, a withered, half naked hag. 490 00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,840 Giving us the licence to laugh at the powerful, 491 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:58,720 satire was a uniquely British tool in keeping despotism from the door. 492 00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:05,000 The freedom of British politics is attached to the liberties 493 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,280 it could take with solemn portraits. 494 00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:12,520 And that tells us something about a democracy of vision, 495 00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:16,360 a democracy of vision, which is charged with political dynamite, 496 00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:21,560 is being created here in Britain and only in Britain. 497 00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:25,600 So, whatever else is wrong with aristocratic, unreformed Parliament, 498 00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:30,000 the monarchy, or whatever, something extraordinary has 499 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:34,840 happened in the relationship between art, portraiture and the people. 500 00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:44,800 Laughter and liberty danced freely around the pretentions of the mighty. 501 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:48,560 But after the French Revolution had given not just the Crown 502 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,800 but almost all of Britain a terrible scare, 503 00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:55,960 there was a real need to rebrand the monarchy. 504 00:42:55,960 --> 00:43:02,440 And a spectacular new art form came along which could do just that. 505 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:15,760 Photography came to Britain in the 1840s and it captured 506 00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:20,520 the Victorian imagination with its alchemy of science and art. 507 00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:31,880 In photographic studios like this one, 508 00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:37,440 thousands upon thousands of faces lined up for the lens-man. 509 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:43,720 Their image taken from the world and miraculously, perfectly fixed. 510 00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:52,040 Once, the portrait had been the preserve of the rich, 511 00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:57,080 but now almost anyone could own an image of themselves and their families. 512 00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:06,200 Look at these faces and you see the awakening of modern democracy. 513 00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:11,720 Victorian reforms meant that these were the people in whose hands 514 00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:14,480 power was destined to arrive. 515 00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:23,360 And it was with them that the monarchy now sought to build a connection, 516 00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:27,600 and they did so in the most intimate way. 517 00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:40,160 These amazing images are so touchingly beautiful. 518 00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:44,720 They are unlike any other image of the royals there'd ever been. 519 00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:49,240 These photographs of Victoria and Albert 520 00:44:49,240 --> 00:44:51,760 created a new image of monarchy, 521 00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:56,560 not as a grand dynasty, but as a loving family. 522 00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:01,040 Victorian life, with all its hypocrisies, 523 00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:06,400 and all of its repressed nervy secrets and desires and anguishes 524 00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:12,600 was built around the possibility of leading a perfect family and married life. 525 00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:16,440 So here is the hero and heroine of our story, 526 00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:20,600 and here's hubby sitting down reading as Prince Consulate liked to do, 527 00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:24,040 something serious, and here's the Queen standing next to him. 528 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:27,880 But look at that pose - she's got her arm round his shoulders. 529 00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:32,240 That is a happily married couple, isn't it? 530 00:45:32,240 --> 00:45:35,240 That's a happily married, comfortable couple. 531 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:36,520 A husband and wife. 532 00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:45,640 Moved by these portraits of simple, unadorned affection, 533 00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:50,800 the public placed 60,000 orders in the first days alone. 534 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:55,200 And set on side tables across the land, 535 00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,680 they allowed the British to live with 536 00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:01,920 pictures of the royal family, and treat them as one of their own. 537 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:08,040 The royal family, and the way we love it 538 00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:10,640 and the way we engage with it as a family, 539 00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:15,840 the possibility of identifying with them, begins through these images. 540 00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:21,920 I think everybody should have one item 541 00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:23,360 with the royal family on, 542 00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,000 just to say, you know, that's our royal family. 543 00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:31,080 I know I've got more than that, 544 00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:33,880 but I think everybody should have something. 545 00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,040 People do say to me, "It sounds as though they're 546 00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:44,120 "an extension of our own family" and in a way they are. 547 00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:47,920 I was always interested from the age of eight, really, because that's 548 00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:51,160 when King George VI died, and I remember my parents were very upset. 549 00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:54,520 It was like someone in my family had died. 550 00:46:56,120 --> 00:47:00,640 The idea of the royals as our exemplary national family 551 00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:04,800 generated deep affection from their subjects. 552 00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:08,800 But no sooner had the hearts of the people been won 553 00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:11,960 than this royal love story lost its leading man. 554 00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:18,960 Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861, 555 00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:21,480 the Queen went into deep mourning, 556 00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:25,840 shutting herself off within the walls of Windsor Castle. 557 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:34,080 As if to fill the void left by the abrupt withdrawal of her actual presence, 558 00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:39,840 Victoria issued a new set of photographs that were more revealing than ever before. 559 00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:44,680 The inconsolable widow sits with her eyes shut, 560 00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:50,720 with her chin slumped on her hand, thinking of her terrible loss. 561 00:47:50,720 --> 00:47:54,480 And the dignified face of Prince Albert that had 562 00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:59,080 appeared in the early photos, is now framed on the wall. 563 00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:05,040 This must've actually, in a way, been really quite hard for her to do. 564 00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:09,000 But she was really determined to do it. 565 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,680 We think about Victoria as very stuck in her ways, 566 00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:15,560 but how adaptable she must have been to doing this. 567 00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:21,120 Even in the midst of her own personal tragedy, 568 00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:27,360 the Queen understood the importance of being visible to her subjects, come rain or shine. 569 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:30,760 I mean, the royal family, 570 00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:33,640 especially the Queen, knows that they're there to be seen. 571 00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:38,760 I mean, she has see-through umbrellas so that if it's raining people can still see her. 572 00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:43,200 I think if you can't see the face of your monarch it is a great loss. 573 00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:45,600 You want to see them, you just do. 574 00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:51,480 But face-time with ordinary people would become 575 00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:55,760 all-important in our own age of mass democracy. 576 00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:08,600 Today, power resides with us all - in theory, at least. 577 00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:14,080 But public suspicion of politicians is a way of life. 578 00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:18,840 And so, it's more important than ever for the powerful to 579 00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:22,640 shape an image of themselves we can all relate to. 580 00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:30,680 No-one had that political art nailed better than Margaret Thatcher. 581 00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:37,200 And her most brilliant coup at image making took place here. 582 00:49:41,680 --> 00:49:45,440 19 Flood Street in Chelsea was once the home of Mrs Thatcher. 583 00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:53,040 This was her power base as she plotted to oust 584 00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:56,520 Edward Heath and become leader of the Tory party. 585 00:49:56,520 --> 00:50:00,160 - MARGARET THATCHER: - Well, Mr Heath's been leader for ten years, 586 00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:03,280 and the party decided that there should be a contest. 587 00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:06,800 You can't have a contest without a contestant, obviously. 588 00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:08,720 And I'm one of the main ones. 589 00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:13,240 Her challenge was to persuade the Tories 590 00:50:13,240 --> 00:50:17,400 that a woman could lead the party, and even the nation, too. 591 00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:25,160 But as the party faithful prepared to vote, 592 00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:29,360 it seemed that Thatcher's bid was doomed. 593 00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:33,280 There's a week to go before the crucial leadership poll, 594 00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:36,520 and Margret Thatcher is so much the underdog. 595 00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:39,040 She's running a poor third. 596 00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:42,600 So, on that weekend before the election 597 00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:45,160 reporters come to her house here, 598 00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:50,440 and they want her to make a prediction about what's going to happen, and she won't do that. 599 00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:55,040 And she does something brilliant instead - it's turned into a photo op. 600 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:03,120 As the press lay in wait, Thatcher stepped out of her home. 601 00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:09,920 But she avoided a queenly wave, and instead did something remarkable. 602 00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:17,760 She took a broom and decided to sweep her path. 603 00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:24,240 The image taken would grab the headlines the following day 604 00:51:24,240 --> 00:51:28,400 and forever change Thatcher's political fortunes. 605 00:51:29,720 --> 00:51:33,520 She's got perfectly coiffed hair but it's a practical hair cut, 606 00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:38,080 she's got her sleeves rolled up for the task ahead. 607 00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:43,160 And above all is the broom - the broom emerges. 608 00:51:43,160 --> 00:51:44,760 She has a weapon. 609 00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:48,360 The weapon is going change Britain, but it's also 610 00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:54,280 the weapon of a woman, the new broom that is going to sweep clean. 611 00:51:54,280 --> 00:52:01,680 And as much as Elizabeth I is festooned in the pearls of her virginity, 612 00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:06,240 this is a perfectly simple, effective icon 613 00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:10,680 of a woman who's determined to take power. 614 00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:17,080 This Boudicca with the broom brushed Heath aside 615 00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:21,400 and it became the sword in her political crusade. 616 00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:27,800 With this sort of image, she cuts to the quick of British life, 617 00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:35,360 which is profoundly domestic about keeping house and home together, 618 00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:39,160 and she's going to do it with kind of militant briskness. 619 00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:45,680 This is the morning after your election. How do you feel about it now? 620 00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:46,920 There's so much to be done. 621 00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:49,120 Are you a little apprehensive about this new job? 622 00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:51,520 Of course. Of course. Everyone is, starting a new job. 623 00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:54,480 Have you thought at all about Mr Heath this morning? 624 00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:56,520 Of course I have. 625 00:52:56,520 --> 00:53:00,440 From there on, Thatcher was resolute in the planning 626 00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:03,200 and control of her image. 627 00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:07,240 But when the dignity of a painted portrait was bestowed on her, 628 00:53:07,240 --> 00:53:10,760 the result was a frozen icon. 629 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:18,320 The picture was commissioned in 1983 from the artist Rodrigo Moynihan, 630 00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:21,840 following another Conservative triumph from the polls. 631 00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:23,440 No sooner had work begun, 632 00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:26,120 than Thatcher's interfering got out of hand. 633 00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:32,080 Over eight sittings, the hair was deemed a little off-colour. 634 00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:37,920 An unflattering squint was endlessly re-worked. 635 00:53:39,720 --> 00:53:43,920 And the deep blues eyes were made a steely shade of grey. 636 00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:46,320 All at the Prime Minister's behest. 637 00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:53,040 The result is something that which was acceptable, unobjectionable. 638 00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:55,520 The kiss of death to great portraiture. 639 00:53:57,280 --> 00:53:59,880 But there's one last portrait. 640 00:53:59,880 --> 00:54:05,560 And its story is about what happens when the powerful lose control, 641 00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:07,480 if only for a minute. 642 00:54:08,720 --> 00:54:13,800 The result can be unpredictable and miraculous. 643 00:54:17,720 --> 00:54:22,440 No place captures the spirit of British democracy like number 10. 644 00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:29,960 Its walls lined with Prime Ministers past and present, 645 00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:34,280 their portraits ostentatious in their modesty. 646 00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:40,080 But when that democracy came under threat, 647 00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:44,320 a portrait was made which itself became a weapon. 648 00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:50,720 A portrait of the man who began this history. 649 00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:53,440 Winston Churchill. 650 00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:04,240 Late 1941. Continental Europe had fallen to the Nazis. 651 00:55:09,960 --> 00:55:14,280 As the German war machine rolled on, Churchill went to North America, 652 00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:18,840 desperate for resources on which the future of the war depended. 653 00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:25,080 He's feeling very tired, 654 00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:30,760 he's feeling the weight of the war, Britain's near isolation, 655 00:55:30,760 --> 00:55:34,800 the struggle, he's feeling it in his bones in his blood and his body. 656 00:55:35,960 --> 00:55:39,560 Yet another great welcome awaited Mr Churchill in the Canadian House of Commons. 657 00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:42,560 In Ottowa, Churchill summoned up his last 658 00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:47,040 reserves of strength to deliver one of his finest speeches. 659 00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:52,600 We shall never descend to the German and Japanese level. 660 00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:57,320 But if anybody likes to play rough, we can play rough, too. 661 00:55:57,320 --> 00:56:00,640 Words which brought the House to its feet. 662 00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,960 Exhausted, Churchill left for the speaker's chamber, 663 00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:10,760 looking forward to a much-needed scotch. 664 00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:18,400 And he's hit by an immense bank of floodlights and spotlights. 665 00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:23,440 He's going to have a photo session and he is furious about it. 666 00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:27,520 This is not what he wants to do at this particular moment. 667 00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:34,560 Behind the camera was a photographer by the name of Yousuf Karsh. 668 00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:41,240 And as he looked Churchill in the eye, 669 00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:45,800 he was seized by a bolt of creative audacity. 670 00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:49,160 He walks up to Churchill. 671 00:56:49,160 --> 00:56:55,920 He reaches for that face, and pulls the cigar out of Churchill's mouth. 672 00:56:55,920 --> 00:56:59,640 Everybody is stricken with horror and terror. 673 00:56:59,640 --> 00:57:04,200 Karsh simply walks back to the camera and releases the shutter 674 00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:11,000 and what he catches is that look on Churchill's face of petulant fury. 675 00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:18,480 What Karsh had captured was 676 00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:20,240 one of the greatest portraits 677 00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:21,480 of the 20th century. 678 00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:29,200 One that's defined our memory of Winston Churchill. 679 00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:37,640 It's a portrait that says over and over, "We will never surrender." 680 00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:44,040 But it had come about exactly when Churchill had surrendered, 681 00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:47,160 to the brilliant instinct of the artist. 682 00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:53,160 Because at that decisive moment, it was the photographer, 683 00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:57,720 not the Prime Minister, who knew exactly what the people needed. 684 00:58:01,960 --> 00:58:08,160 Karsh said, "I think I've given them the Churchill they wanted." 685 00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:13,120 What they wanted was Bulldog bravura, implacable strength, 686 00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:16,000 indomitable resolve. 687 00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:20,960 No-one needed to know that what the world was looking at 688 00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:25,360 was just the face of a man who had lost his cigar.