1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,446 CHILDREN LAUGH 2 00:00:08,190 --> 00:00:10,720 As one of the great storytellers of the 20th century, 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:16,250 Roald Dahl has held generations of children around the world in his thrall. 4 00:00:16,250 --> 00:00:19,390 He was a highly imaginative man, 5 00:00:19,390 --> 00:00:24,930 and I have a feeling he sometimes found it very difficult to part truth from imagination. 6 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:32,710 The fantastic ideas in his books are matched by the extraordinary events of his life. 7 00:00:32,710 --> 00:00:35,190 ALL SQUEAL 8 00:00:35,190 --> 00:00:38,660 And he never stopped telling stories. 9 00:00:38,660 --> 00:00:45,930 I can remember going very wide-eyed and thinking, "Really? Are you telling the truth?" I never knew. 10 00:00:47,610 --> 00:00:53,196 It had to be... What was the word he was always using? It had to be sparky. 11 00:00:57,320 --> 00:00:59,940 "He sat there watching her and smiled. 12 00:00:59,940 --> 00:01:03,460 "He thought, 'I'm going to eat this child. 13 00:01:03,460 --> 00:01:07,820 "'Compared with her old grandmamma, she's going to taste like caviar. ' 14 00:01:07,820 --> 00:01:15,830 "Then Little Red Riding Hood said, 'But Grandma, what a lovely great big furry coat you have on. ' 15 00:01:15,830 --> 00:01:22,260 "'That's wrong!' cried Wolf, 'Have you forgot to tell me what big teeth I've got? 16 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:26,940 "'Ah, well, no matter what you say, I'm going to eat you anyway. ' 17 00:01:26,940 --> 00:01:30,040 "The small girl smiles. 18 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:32,100 "One eyelid flickers. 19 00:01:32,100 --> 00:01:34,870 "She whips a pistol from her knickers. 20 00:01:34,870 --> 00:01:40,020 "She aims at the creature's head, and bang, bang, bang, 21 00:01:40,020 --> 00:01:42,550 "she shoots him dead." 22 00:01:42,550 --> 00:01:44,620 ALL CHEER 23 00:02:03,370 --> 00:02:05,990 You can't control children who are excited... 24 00:02:05,990 --> 00:02:12,230 A week or so ago, Roald Dahl's family gathered at Gypsy House, his home in Great Missenden, 25 00:02:12,230 --> 00:02:14,950 to celebrate the opening of the Dahl museum. 26 00:02:14,950 --> 00:02:19,020 .. mad cow disease... After talking at length to them for this film, 27 00:02:19,020 --> 00:02:22,680 and digging deep into his personal archive, 28 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:27,600 it's clear that they too remain under his inimitable spell. 29 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:31,210 Daddy claimed - but it might have been his wonderful storytelling - 30 00:02:31,210 --> 00:02:35,060 that the next day, he'd been past the field and had seen the farmer 31 00:02:35,060 --> 00:02:38,990 counting the sheep, scratching his head. 32 00:02:38,990 --> 00:02:43,120 When you're old enough to write a book for children, 33 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:50,060 by then you've become pompous and grown-up, and you've lost all your jokiness. 34 00:02:50,060 --> 00:02:53,710 Unless you are a kind of... undeveloped... 35 00:02:53,710 --> 00:02:55,450 adult... 36 00:02:55,450 --> 00:02:58,960 and you still have an enormous amount of childishness in you, 37 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:01,400 I don't think you can do it. 38 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,120 Roald Dahl never lost that jokiness. 39 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:09,600 It's part of a reason why it was hard to tell where his storytelling ended and reality began. 40 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:13,030 James And The Giant Peach, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, 41 00:03:13,030 --> 00:03:15,140 The Witches, Matilda, 42 00:03:15,140 --> 00:03:18,510 all his children's stories belong to a folk tale morality 43 00:03:18,510 --> 00:03:23,570 with a black and white sense of good and evil but they also have a subversive streak. 44 00:03:23,570 --> 00:03:28,590 He saw himself as on the side of the small child surrounded by giants, 45 00:03:28,590 --> 00:03:32,760 "the enemy", he called them, even though he himself was the biggest, 46 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,320 and when he chose to be, the friendliest of the lot. 47 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:41,201 The limbs, I remember these long, long limbs. 48 00:03:42,180 --> 00:03:44,620 A sort of reedy, 49 00:03:44,620 --> 00:03:46,680 creaky, 50 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:48,930 elegant grasshopper. 51 00:03:48,930 --> 00:03:52,590 And that was the thing about being hugged by him, 52 00:03:52,590 --> 00:03:57,320 you would be sort of enveloped in these long limbs. 53 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:04,220 He was quite formidable and I remember there were two boys who were eight or nine or something, 54 00:04:04,220 --> 00:04:10,080 and they asked, "What do you do if someone doesn't like your work?" 55 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:15,090 That sort of thing. Roald said, "We hit them." 56 00:04:15,090 --> 00:04:17,150 HE CHUCKLES 57 00:04:17,150 --> 00:04:21,330 It was exactly the right answer. It was the answer they wanted, really. 58 00:04:21,330 --> 00:04:26,900 His grandchildren called him "Mouldy", it was their version of his Norwegian name, Roald. 59 00:04:26,900 --> 00:04:30,610 When he gave his grandson Luke a party for his fourth birthday, 60 00:04:30,610 --> 00:04:34,310 Mouldy knew instantly what it was like to be that age. 61 00:04:34,310 --> 00:04:37,360 The cake was going to made out of a caravan, 62 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:40,080 and the baguette was shaped like the Enormous Crocodile. 63 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,420 SOPHIE: And it had eggs for eyes. 64 00:04:42,420 --> 00:04:46,170 Artichoke pieces on it so it had the scales of a crocodile. 65 00:04:46,170 --> 00:04:49,550 One thing after another would come out of the kitchen. 66 00:04:49,550 --> 00:04:54,650 I was just remembering the story he told about his fourth birthday. 67 00:04:54,650 --> 00:04:58,310 He got so excited about the prospect of it. 68 00:04:58,310 --> 00:05:02,860 "'We'll put fancy dress on the invitations', my mother said. 69 00:05:02,860 --> 00:05:04,690 "'They'll love it. ' 70 00:05:04,690 --> 00:05:08,300 "I'd be Little Boy Blue because it was my favourite nursery rhyme. 71 00:05:08,300 --> 00:05:14,760 "My excitement and nervousness caused such a ferment within my bladder, the floodgates opened, 72 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:18,230 "and out shot a stream of pee-pee like a jet from a pressure hose. 73 00:05:18,230 --> 00:05:25,272 "In no time at all, the entire front of my beautiful powder blue velvet trousers was covered with an enormous black wet stain. 74 00:05:26,950 --> 00:05:30,800 "I began to howl and I was whisked out of the room by my mother, 75 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,730 "who changed me into ordinary grey flannel shorts, and a white shirt. 76 00:05:34,730 --> 00:05:38,440 "'Never mind,' she said. 'If they ask you who you're meant to be, 77 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:43,730 "'say you're dressed as yourself, because that's what you'll be for the rest of your life. '" 78 00:05:43,730 --> 00:05:47,670 His keepsakes of those early days, and most of his life, 79 00:05:47,670 --> 00:05:52,170 were treasured in his tiny writing hut in his Buckinghamshire garden. 80 00:05:52,170 --> 00:05:55,170 SOPHIE: It was not somewhere you just dropped in. 81 00:05:55,170 --> 00:06:00,380 It was quite an honour to be sent to tell Mouldy that it's supper time. 82 00:06:00,380 --> 00:06:03,420 You'd knock on the door, "Come in!" 83 00:06:03,420 --> 00:06:05,775 In you'd go. 84 00:06:10,450 --> 00:06:12,660 He would frighten children. 85 00:06:12,660 --> 00:06:16,410 He used to say, "There are wolves in my hut, 86 00:06:16,410 --> 00:06:20,810 "and sometimes you can hear them. 87 00:06:20,810 --> 00:06:23,530 "They may be asleep at the moment, but... 88 00:06:23,530 --> 00:06:26,250 "when they wake up, you can hear them. 89 00:06:26,250 --> 00:06:28,460 "But you must be very careful." 90 00:06:28,460 --> 00:06:31,080 These children were scared to death. 91 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:33,750 They were convinced there were wolves inside. 92 00:06:33,750 --> 00:06:37,970 When he did ask them in, they really didn't want to go into the hut. 93 00:06:37,970 --> 00:06:41,670 In this unlikely place of mystery and magic, 94 00:06:41,670 --> 00:06:46,084 he hoarded ideas and revisited his youth. 95 00:06:54,380 --> 00:06:59,070 At home, his mother and three sisters always called him "boy". 96 00:06:59,070 --> 00:07:02,490 His father died when he was three 97 00:07:02,490 --> 00:07:05,820 and his mother Sophia became the centre of his life. 98 00:07:05,820 --> 00:07:10,740 The letter he wrote home after arriving at his boarding school at the age of seven 99 00:07:10,740 --> 00:07:15,990 was the first of 917 to his mother over the next 40 years. 100 00:07:15,990 --> 00:07:18,520 He told her everything, 101 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:21,940 but from an early age, he always took charge. 102 00:07:21,940 --> 00:07:25,220 "Please could you send me some conkers as quick as you can, 103 00:07:25,220 --> 00:07:30,010 "but don't send too many. Send them in a tin and wrap it up in paper." 104 00:07:32,250 --> 00:07:35,110 "Where are thou? Mother Christmas? 105 00:07:35,110 --> 00:07:39,190 "I only wish I knew why Father should get all the praise, 106 00:07:39,190 --> 00:07:41,250 "and no-one mentions you. 107 00:07:41,250 --> 00:07:46,500 "I bet you buy the presents and wrap them large and small, 108 00:07:46,500 --> 00:07:52,600 "while all the time, that rotten swine pretends he's done it all." 109 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,630 "So hail to Mother Christmas who shoulders all the work, 110 00:07:56,630 --> 00:08:02,216 "and down with Father Christmas, that unmitigated jerk!" 111 00:08:04,460 --> 00:08:07,790 I got him to speak to some children's librarians at a conference once, 112 00:08:07,790 --> 00:08:10,550 and the theme was something like... 113 00:08:10,550 --> 00:08:13,930 political correctness in children's writing today, 114 00:08:13,930 --> 00:08:17,350 he said, "I'll do it, I don't need to know what the theme is." 115 00:08:17,350 --> 00:08:23,020 And he turned up and just told us the story about what his sex education had been. 116 00:08:23,020 --> 00:08:27,190 On the last day, we all knew we would get a terrific lecture 117 00:08:27,190 --> 00:08:30,570 from the headmaster, where all secrets would be told. 118 00:08:30,570 --> 00:08:32,966 All mysteries unfurled. 119 00:08:32,966 --> 00:08:35,826 And in we went, eight of us, 120 00:08:35,826 --> 00:08:38,966 and stood around his desk. 121 00:08:38,966 --> 00:08:41,866 There were touches in it of storyteller's art. 122 00:08:41,866 --> 00:08:46,606 He said his headmaster's hair was slicked back with brilliantine, 123 00:08:46,606 --> 00:08:50,446 so smooth that it was like the top of a creme brulee. 124 00:08:50,446 --> 00:08:53,256 You think, "That's a neat phrase." 125 00:08:53,256 --> 00:08:58,796 He said, "All of you boys have attached to your body, 126 00:08:58,796 --> 00:09:02,826 "an organ..." AUDIENCE LAUGHS 127 00:09:02,826 --> 00:09:08,636 "If you look carefully next time you're having your bath, you'll see it. 128 00:09:08,636 --> 00:09:13,696 "Thanks to the high standards of etiquette in this school, 129 00:09:13,696 --> 00:09:17,966 "you don't know about those things, but I expect you can guess." 130 00:09:17,966 --> 00:09:22,416 We stood there waiting to know what was going to come next. 131 00:09:22,416 --> 00:09:28,086 He said, "This organ of yours is the exact equivalent of an electric torch. 132 00:09:28,086 --> 00:09:34,136 "And the end of the organ, as you can see from its shape, is the bulb of the torch." 133 00:09:34,136 --> 00:09:37,556 I got him, I was with him there, you know. 134 00:09:37,556 --> 00:09:39,296 AUDIENCE LAUGHS 135 00:09:39,296 --> 00:09:43,326 He said, "Now, listen carefully to this. 136 00:09:43,326 --> 00:09:48,386 He said, "If you so much as touch that torch organ, 137 00:09:48,386 --> 00:09:52,466 "with one finger or even with the tip of one finger, 138 00:09:52,466 --> 00:09:57,336 "the torch will switch on and the bulb will light up. 139 00:09:57,336 --> 00:10:02,736 "And what happens to any torch that switches on?" 140 00:10:02,736 --> 00:10:05,356 He said, "The battery runs down." 141 00:10:05,356 --> 00:10:07,236 AUDIENCE LAUGHS 142 00:10:07,236 --> 00:10:13,236 "And I may say that little boys like you have very small batteries." 143 00:10:13,236 --> 00:10:15,996 AUDIENCE LAUGHS 144 00:10:15,996 --> 00:10:22,046 When his American publisher recognised the quality of Dahl's boyhood memories, 145 00:10:22,046 --> 00:10:27,106 he persuaded him to write a book about his childhood entitled simply Boy. 146 00:10:27,106 --> 00:10:33,106 It soon became clear that he carried on telling stories whether or not he was writing fiction. 147 00:10:33,106 --> 00:10:37,186 He talks about his father who'd lost an arm. 148 00:10:37,186 --> 00:10:41,216 And he talks his father having sharpened one edge of a fork, 149 00:10:41,216 --> 00:10:45,206 so he could use it as a knife. I thought that's marvellous! 150 00:10:45,206 --> 00:10:50,316 What a good idea. I said "Did your father really..." "No, he didn't." He made it up. 151 00:10:50,316 --> 00:10:56,166 I thought, "If that's what you're making up, keep making it up." It doesn't get better. 152 00:10:56,166 --> 00:10:58,746 For him, it was all about storytelling. 153 00:10:58,746 --> 00:11:03,666 And he took anything he had access to and turned it into the best story possible. 154 00:11:03,666 --> 00:11:07,706 He said at the beginning of Boy, "This isn't autobiography, 155 00:11:07,706 --> 00:11:10,426 "but everything in this is true." 156 00:11:10,426 --> 00:11:12,856 Well, that would be a typical... 157 00:11:12,856 --> 00:11:17,776 That would be a typical, er... Dahl approach to it. 158 00:11:17,776 --> 00:11:21,526 What does that mean? I don't know what it means but, um... 159 00:11:21,526 --> 00:11:25,796 If I wanted to put some high fallutin' spin to it, I would say because... 160 00:11:25,796 --> 00:11:30,386 there's more truth in story than there is in details, facts. 161 00:11:30,386 --> 00:11:35,636 Dahl's search for adventure led him to train as an RAF fighter pilot 162 00:11:35,636 --> 00:11:38,036 at the outbreak of war. 163 00:11:39,816 --> 00:11:43,466 He served in north Africa, Palestine and Greece, 164 00:11:43,466 --> 00:11:46,656 and shot down six German aircraft. 165 00:11:46,656 --> 00:11:51,355 He always carried his Zeiss camera with him. He was a talented photographer. 166 00:11:53,176 --> 00:11:56,596 This here is one of my favourite photographs, 167 00:11:56,596 --> 00:12:00,486 a photograph of men lining up to board trains, 168 00:12:00,486 --> 00:12:04,896 going off to war in Mombassa, in 1939, from a ship. 169 00:12:04,896 --> 00:12:11,736 At the time, he was thinking about enlisting and so this would've had a special significance for him. 170 00:12:11,736 --> 00:12:14,876 I also love this mysterious group of figures up here. 171 00:12:14,876 --> 00:12:20,686 This group of British cads, who were probably his group who he's probably ventured off from to take the photo. 172 00:12:20,686 --> 00:12:25,566 This is another one of my favourite pictures which is... 173 00:12:25,566 --> 00:12:31,846 he's taken once he's actually enlisted and he's in training and he's gone to Baghdad in 1940. 174 00:12:31,846 --> 00:12:34,986 There's a great description he sent to his mother, 175 00:12:34,986 --> 00:12:39,396 saying he loved the dusty air, and he wasn't sure the photo would come out, 176 00:12:39,396 --> 00:12:42,576 but there were these amazing shafts of light coming down. 177 00:12:42,576 --> 00:12:47,646 It's a mysterious picture with the boy standing there looking at you. 178 00:12:47,646 --> 00:12:50,876 It's sort of similar to his writings. 179 00:12:50,876 --> 00:12:56,036 Dahl was invalided out of the Air Force after a horrific crash. 180 00:12:56,036 --> 00:13:01,656 It gave him chronic back pain for the rest of his life but it also launched him as a writer. 181 00:13:01,656 --> 00:13:07,146 His first short story described how he's been shot down by enemy gunfire in the desert. 182 00:13:07,146 --> 00:13:11,366 He first submitted it to the veteran adventure writer CS Forester. 183 00:13:11,366 --> 00:13:14,876 And I got a letter back, saying I didn't touch it, 184 00:13:14,876 --> 00:13:17,596 the Saturday Evening Post bought it at once for $1,000, 185 00:13:17,596 --> 00:13:21,396 the agent takes 10%, here's my cheque for 900 bucks. 186 00:13:21,396 --> 00:13:25,059 I thought, "My God, it can't be as easy as all that!" 187 00:13:26,876 --> 00:13:29,556 The fee was actually $300, 188 00:13:29,556 --> 00:13:32,316 but the agent called it a remarkable piece. 189 00:13:32,316 --> 00:13:35,876 "Did Lieutenant Dahl write it without any assistance whatever? 190 00:13:35,876 --> 00:13:40,806 "If so, he should write more, he's a natural writer of superior quality." 191 00:13:40,806 --> 00:13:45,166 It was a vivid story but the facts were more prosaic. 192 00:13:45,166 --> 00:13:49,616 He actually crashed when making a forced landing because he was running out of fuel. 193 00:13:49,616 --> 00:13:55,236 He was never shot down, he wasn't flying a Hurricane, he wasn't even on a combat mission. 194 00:13:55,236 --> 00:13:59,316 He was alone flying in a rather mystical space. 195 00:13:59,316 --> 00:14:03,486 Flying, I think, influenced him a great deal, 196 00:14:03,486 --> 00:14:06,446 and helped him as a fantasist 197 00:14:06,446 --> 00:14:09,256 or fuelled his love of fantasy. 198 00:14:09,256 --> 00:14:13,806 He served the rest of the war as a diplomat in Washington, 199 00:14:13,806 --> 00:14:17,786 but 60 years on, the war hero's glamour still glows. 200 00:14:17,786 --> 00:14:21,396 I will meet ladies of a certain age 201 00:14:21,396 --> 00:14:25,426 who'll say, "Was your grandfather Roald Dahl?" I'll say, "Yes." 202 00:14:25,426 --> 00:14:31,616 And they'll say "Oh, he took me out for lunch once to the 21 Club." 203 00:14:31,616 --> 00:14:35,746 And, you know, the bosom will start heaving and, you know, 204 00:14:35,746 --> 00:14:41,836 the eyes will go moist and you realise he was a phenomenal lady-killer. 205 00:14:41,836 --> 00:14:44,926 Ah, he was so handsome. 206 00:14:44,926 --> 00:14:49,896 I met him at Lillian Hillman's, big party, she had. 207 00:14:49,896 --> 00:14:57,676 And I said to Lillian, "Who is that man?" And shouted "Roald Dahl," at the top of her voice. 208 00:14:57,676 --> 00:15:02,836 The actress Patricia Neal met him on the rebound from her affair with Gary Cooper. 209 00:15:02,836 --> 00:15:07,106 I sat next to him at supper, you know. 210 00:15:07,106 --> 00:15:10,566 He only talked to Leonard Bernstein across the table. 211 00:15:10,566 --> 00:15:13,196 He had not one word to say to me 212 00:15:13,196 --> 00:15:15,776 and I did not like him. 213 00:15:15,776 --> 00:15:21,726 He was a rude man! Ha ha ha! He really could be in those days. 214 00:15:21,726 --> 00:15:26,696 And then he called me up for a date about one or two days later, 215 00:15:26,696 --> 00:15:29,366 and I said, "So, sorry, can't go." 216 00:15:29,366 --> 00:15:32,926 And then, um... then he called me again. 217 00:15:32,926 --> 00:15:37,526 I couldn't think of an excuse so I said yes, and we started. 218 00:15:37,526 --> 00:15:40,526 I'm very happy that we did. 219 00:15:40,526 --> 00:15:44,276 I wanted to get married. 220 00:15:44,276 --> 00:15:49,616 I wanted children and he was about the best I saw. 221 00:15:49,616 --> 00:15:53,326 They went on their honeymoon through France and... 222 00:15:53,326 --> 00:15:56,506 apparently it was ghastly because Mum slept the whole way, 223 00:15:56,506 --> 00:16:01,756 and Dad desperately wanted to look at the vineyards and all the things he loved and he suddenly thought, 224 00:16:01,756 --> 00:16:05,936 "What have I done? I've married this woman who doesn't like what I do." 225 00:16:05,936 --> 00:16:10,946 Although the marriage was to last 30 years and produce five children, 226 00:16:10,946 --> 00:16:13,576 it was a struggle from the start. 227 00:16:13,576 --> 00:16:16,616 Even in the early days, Dahl was talking of divorce. 228 00:16:16,616 --> 00:16:21,116 They got back to England and she was introduced to his family, 229 00:16:21,116 --> 00:16:26,136 and this house had been bought in her absence by his mother, 230 00:16:26,136 --> 00:16:29,185 in Buckinghamshire, she'd come from Hollywood. 231 00:16:33,454 --> 00:16:38,654 The strain in their relationship was compounded by three family disasters, 232 00:16:38,654 --> 00:16:41,657 which deeply affected Dahl. 233 00:16:44,323 --> 00:16:48,601 They give fresh meaning to the dark twists in his writing. 234 00:16:49,574 --> 00:16:53,654 The first tragedy came in 1960, in a New York street 235 00:16:53,654 --> 00:16:57,263 when their baby son Theo was just four months old. 236 00:16:57,263 --> 00:16:59,934 A taxi jumped a light 237 00:16:59,934 --> 00:17:06,734 and crashed into Theo's carriage and carried the carriage across Madison Avenue into the back of a bus, 238 00:17:06,734 --> 00:17:10,953 and bounced off the back of the bus on to the wall of a school. 239 00:17:10,953 --> 00:17:15,694 And Tessa had to watch this whole thing happening. 240 00:17:15,694 --> 00:17:18,974 I was pushing the pram with my nanny, 241 00:17:18,974 --> 00:17:21,974 and I, um... 242 00:17:21,974 --> 00:17:25,534 witnessed it, obviously, and it was horrific, 243 00:17:25,534 --> 00:17:30,927 and I didn't realise till many, many, many years later, the profound effect it had on me. 244 00:17:36,263 --> 00:17:38,943 Oh, it was just terrible. 245 00:17:38,943 --> 00:17:41,233 The doctor came in, 246 00:17:41,233 --> 00:17:44,566 and he said, "He is dying." 247 00:17:45,643 --> 00:17:51,363 Theo did pull through but the brain injuries caused hydrocephalus. 248 00:17:51,363 --> 00:17:56,094 Every time the baby came out of hospital, he had to go back. 249 00:17:56,094 --> 00:17:59,943 We were with Pat and Roald on New Year's Eve. 250 00:17:59,943 --> 00:18:03,923 We literally watched Theo's head get bigger, 251 00:18:03,923 --> 00:18:06,593 as it swelled up with cerebral fluid. 252 00:18:06,593 --> 00:18:10,063 He had to have operations, 253 00:18:10,063 --> 00:18:13,443 to take the fluid out of his brain, 254 00:18:13,443 --> 00:18:16,343 because it couldn't get out. 255 00:18:16,343 --> 00:18:21,553 Dahl didn't rely on the doctors alone to limit the brain damage to his son. 256 00:18:21,553 --> 00:18:26,803 He devoted all his energy to developing a new device to drain fluid from the brain. 257 00:18:26,803 --> 00:18:30,174 He only had to say, "Well, what I need is... 258 00:18:30,174 --> 00:18:32,383 "a chemical engineer who can make it, 259 00:18:32,383 --> 00:18:35,423 "a doctor who says what he hasn't got and what he wants. 260 00:18:35,423 --> 00:18:42,313 "I'll put up the money and we'll make it." To see Roald driven in that way was absolutely awesome. 261 00:18:42,313 --> 00:18:47,523 By the time the valve was developed, Theo's condition had improved, 262 00:18:47,523 --> 00:18:51,454 but it was used in hundreds of other cases around the world. 263 00:18:51,454 --> 00:18:57,223 Being the only boy of the family was a privilege. I grew up with my father, 264 00:18:57,223 --> 00:19:01,728 and, er... it was very special, it was very special. 265 00:19:03,783 --> 00:19:07,303 When the next disaster struck two years later, 266 00:19:07,303 --> 00:19:12,694 Dahl had no chance to use his medical knowledge or to leap into practical action. 267 00:19:12,694 --> 00:19:16,303 This time, at home in Great Missenden, 268 00:19:16,303 --> 00:19:20,615 the victim was their eldest child, Olivia, who was seven. 269 00:19:21,603 --> 00:19:26,663 Poor Olivia was upstairs in the bedroom with measles, 270 00:19:26,663 --> 00:19:33,223 and I remember Pat leaning out of the window and saying, "Hello, everybody, isn't it the most wonderful day? 271 00:19:33,223 --> 00:19:36,923 "And poor Olivia," the usual things you'd expect. 272 00:19:36,923 --> 00:19:40,353 The following day, we heard that Olivia had died. 273 00:19:40,353 --> 00:19:43,583 Dahl left an account of Olivia's last hours 274 00:19:43,583 --> 00:19:46,393 which has only recently come to light. 275 00:19:46,393 --> 00:19:50,713 "The day before she died in the morning, I taught her chess. 276 00:19:50,713 --> 00:19:53,283 "She learnt all the moves quickly, 277 00:19:53,283 --> 00:19:58,723 "and we played a game. I fooled around a bit, and as a result, she beat me. 278 00:19:58,723 --> 00:20:02,894 "The morning of the day she died, I said, 'Do you want to play chess?' 279 00:20:02,894 --> 00:20:07,023 "'No thank you,' she said, 'I'm too tired, I feel tired. 280 00:20:07,023 --> 00:20:09,503 "'I have a headache here. '" 281 00:20:09,503 --> 00:20:12,083 Olivia was in our bed, 282 00:20:12,083 --> 00:20:16,633 and she obviously eyes that way, foaming at the mouth. 283 00:20:16,633 --> 00:20:20,713 Measles had developed into encephalitis. 284 00:20:20,713 --> 00:20:24,323 The Dahls left their daughter in hospital overnight 285 00:20:24,323 --> 00:20:28,443 unprepared for the speed at which the crisis was overtaking them. 286 00:20:28,443 --> 00:20:32,003 The phone rang and the doctor said to me, 287 00:20:32,003 --> 00:20:34,913 "Mrs Dahl, Olivia's dead." 288 00:20:34,913 --> 00:20:40,683 And I didn't say a word, and he said, "Did you hear me?" 289 00:20:40,683 --> 00:20:43,353 "I said Olivia's dead." 290 00:20:43,353 --> 00:20:46,163 I said, "Thank you," and hung up. 291 00:20:46,163 --> 00:20:49,073 It was just horrendous. 292 00:20:49,073 --> 00:20:52,583 Roald had gone back to the hospital. 293 00:20:52,583 --> 00:20:55,963 "Two doctors advanced on me from waiting room, 294 00:20:55,963 --> 00:21:00,654 "'How is she?' 'I'm afraid it's too late. ' 295 00:21:00,654 --> 00:21:04,633 "I went into her room. Sheet was over her. 296 00:21:04,633 --> 00:21:09,138 "Doctor said to nurse, 'Go out, leave him alone. ' 297 00:21:10,303 --> 00:21:14,993 "I kissed her, she was warm. I went out. 298 00:21:14,993 --> 00:21:19,823 "'She's warm,' I said to doctor in hall. 'Why is she warm?' 299 00:21:19,823 --> 00:21:24,237 "'Of course,' he said. I left." 300 00:21:25,633 --> 00:21:28,494 And then Roald came home... 301 00:21:28,494 --> 00:21:31,214 soon after that. 302 00:21:31,214 --> 00:21:35,243 And we embraced one another, we just wept, you know? 303 00:21:35,243 --> 00:21:38,193 And then Roald went to bed, 304 00:21:38,193 --> 00:21:42,463 and I was up all night, and I looked at the... 305 00:21:42,463 --> 00:21:45,553 looked at the great moon... 306 00:21:45,553 --> 00:21:50,663 and then the sun was arising and I saw the sun rise and... 307 00:21:50,663 --> 00:21:55,498 Olivia's dead, you know, there's nothing you can do. 308 00:21:56,574 --> 00:22:01,500 She'd be 49 now, I think, if she were living. 309 00:22:02,763 --> 00:22:05,721 Well, I guess she was meant to die. 310 00:22:08,993 --> 00:22:14,383 "First of all, you began to care terribly about everything that existed far below you on the world. 311 00:22:14,383 --> 00:22:18,273 "About people, trees, rivers, cows, 312 00:22:18,273 --> 00:22:21,183 "houses, cherries, mountains, 313 00:22:21,183 --> 00:22:23,763 "grains of soil and grasshoppers, 314 00:22:23,763 --> 00:22:29,523 "and all the great mass of tiny living things, and all the wide scattering of odd inanimate objects, 315 00:22:29,523 --> 00:22:31,633 "upon the surface of the Earth. 316 00:22:31,633 --> 00:22:33,843 "Yet at the same time, 317 00:22:33,843 --> 00:22:38,433 "at the very same time, there was within you a small rebellious voice, 318 00:22:38,433 --> 00:22:45,134 "whispering strange rebellious things, telling you that nothing anywhere on Earth was worth a jot, 319 00:22:45,134 --> 00:22:51,141 "that nothing anywhere was worth a moment's thought, or love or sorrow." 320 00:22:55,783 --> 00:23:01,823 In his torment, Dahl decided to seek spiritual comfort from his old headmaster, Geoffrey Fisher, 321 00:23:01,823 --> 00:23:06,283 who'd just retired from the highest office in the Church of England. 322 00:23:06,283 --> 00:23:11,763 We went to see the Archbishop of Canterbury, 323 00:23:11,763 --> 00:23:15,753 and Roald had all kinds of things to ask him. 324 00:23:15,753 --> 00:23:19,593 And Roald said, "Well, I suppose she'll be all right, 325 00:23:19,593 --> 00:23:22,123 "because she's got her dog with her." 326 00:23:22,123 --> 00:23:25,593 Um... and the archbishop said, 327 00:23:25,593 --> 00:23:30,143 "Oh no, dogs aren't allowed in heaven." 328 00:23:30,143 --> 00:23:35,063 He didn't believe in heaven for dogs or cats, 329 00:23:35,063 --> 00:23:38,153 or birds or animals or anything. 330 00:23:38,153 --> 00:23:42,753 He just believed in human beings. That upset Roald so much. 331 00:23:42,753 --> 00:23:47,814 He thought, how can anybody say that, 332 00:23:47,814 --> 00:23:53,863 to a father who's just lost his child and is clinging on to any kind of... 333 00:23:53,863 --> 00:23:56,343 string to give him hope. 334 00:24:02,483 --> 00:24:08,014 FELICITY DAHL: He really could not believe that he had not been able 335 00:24:08,014 --> 00:24:11,302 to save his child's life. 336 00:24:13,313 --> 00:24:17,113 He was shattered by it. 337 00:24:17,113 --> 00:24:20,534 I've never seen anybody so bad as he was. 338 00:24:20,534 --> 00:24:24,563 It was hard for him to talk, to do much of anything. 339 00:24:24,563 --> 00:24:30,193 He just barely got through every day. He was just so grief-stricken. 340 00:24:30,193 --> 00:24:35,534 He would suddenly stop the car and shout at me, "Why can't you sing like she could? 341 00:24:35,534 --> 00:24:39,043 "Why can't you sing about the trees and the fields like she could?" 342 00:24:39,043 --> 00:24:42,283 And I'd try and I couldn't. 343 00:24:42,283 --> 00:24:47,763 I don't think he could help making me feel 344 00:24:47,763 --> 00:24:49,974 that I should have died. 345 00:24:49,974 --> 00:24:55,124 I don't think that's cruel, I think that's just a terribly broken heart. 346 00:24:55,124 --> 00:24:58,783 The Dahls struggled to return to normality. 347 00:24:58,783 --> 00:25:03,703 Roald sought solace in his writing, Pat continued her screen career, 348 00:25:03,703 --> 00:25:08,014 and won an Oscar in 1964 playing opposite Paul Newman. 349 00:25:08,014 --> 00:25:12,193 You're a good housekeeper. You're a good cook. You're a good laundress. 350 00:25:12,193 --> 00:25:15,284 What else you good at? 351 00:25:15,284 --> 00:25:18,703 I've taken care of myself. 352 00:25:18,703 --> 00:25:21,703 Shouldn't have to, woman looks like you do, 353 00:25:21,703 --> 00:25:27,233 That's what my ex-husband used to tell me. What did you do to make him take off? 354 00:25:27,233 --> 00:25:30,009 Wear your curlers to bed? 355 00:25:31,124 --> 00:25:33,703 Ed's a gambler. 356 00:25:33,703 --> 00:25:39,473 He's probably up at Vegas Arena right now dealing at night, losing it all back up in the daytime. 357 00:25:39,473 --> 00:25:42,613 He sounds no better than a heel. 358 00:25:42,614 --> 00:25:45,524 Ain't you all? 359 00:25:45,524 --> 00:25:50,023 Don't go shooting all the dogs cos one of them's got fleas. 360 00:25:50,023 --> 00:25:52,694 I was married to Ed for six years, 361 00:25:52,694 --> 00:25:57,614 all he's good for is to scratch my back where I can't reach it. 362 00:25:57,614 --> 00:25:59,923 You still got an itch? 363 00:26:01,743 --> 00:26:07,134 A few months later came the third disaster in California. 364 00:26:07,134 --> 00:26:13,974 Pat was three months pregnant and bathing Tessa when she got shooting pains in her head. 365 00:26:13,974 --> 00:26:17,204 It was a massive stroke, another brain emergency. 366 00:26:17,204 --> 00:26:21,753 Dahl recognised the symptoms and called a top brain surgeon at home. 367 00:26:21,753 --> 00:26:24,423 He said, "I don't think she'll stand an operation." 368 00:26:24,423 --> 00:26:31,463 I said, "What happens if you don't operate?" He used a funny phrase, "Then she will succumb for certain." 369 00:26:31,463 --> 00:26:34,974 I said, "Then you've bloody well got to operate, haven't you?" 370 00:26:34,974 --> 00:26:37,694 I was operated on that night. 371 00:26:37,694 --> 00:26:40,694 And I was not expected to live. 372 00:26:40,694 --> 00:26:45,054 She had an eight-hour operation and then she was unconscious for 20 days. 373 00:26:45,054 --> 00:26:51,103 About halfway through, I said to Charlie Carter, the surgeon, "She's going to live now, isn't she?" 374 00:26:51,103 --> 00:26:54,993 He said "Yes, she is, but I'm not sure I've done you a favour, 375 00:26:54,993 --> 00:26:57,996 "because the odds are, it's a vegetable." 376 00:26:59,534 --> 00:27:04,463 She'd gone from being a very stunning, beautiful, glamorous... 377 00:27:04,463 --> 00:27:07,553 magnetic woman to... 378 00:27:07,553 --> 00:27:09,753 to this decrepit monster. 379 00:27:09,753 --> 00:27:14,254 No hair, she tried to put lipstick on because she knew I was coming, it was down her face. 380 00:27:14,254 --> 00:27:18,663 She couldn't move her right side and she was trying to say "love" to me. 381 00:27:18,663 --> 00:27:21,993 But she was going "urgh", like that. 382 00:27:21,993 --> 00:27:26,023 I was thoroughly paralysed. It was just awful. 383 00:27:26,023 --> 00:27:29,684 And they asked me if I wanted to feed her. 384 00:27:29,684 --> 00:27:32,303 And I said yes, 385 00:27:32,303 --> 00:27:36,473 but there was nothing I wanted to do less than feed her. 386 00:27:36,473 --> 00:27:42,004 I wanted to get out of there, get away from her and never see her again. She was terrifying. 387 00:27:42,004 --> 00:27:44,780 Because she wasn't your mother? She was a monster. 388 00:27:45,854 --> 00:27:48,804 She was an idiot, you know. 389 00:27:48,804 --> 00:27:53,913 But the surgeon gave me one great tip, he said, "Get cracking. 390 00:27:53,913 --> 00:27:58,088 "Every week that's lost in rehabilitation is lost forever." 391 00:27:58,088 --> 00:28:02,728 Back in England, Pat gave birth to their fifth child, Lucy. 392 00:28:02,728 --> 00:28:05,118 But Roald never let up. 393 00:28:05,118 --> 00:28:07,648 He organised a punishing programme of therapy. 394 00:28:07,648 --> 00:28:13,278 Valerie Eaton-Griffiths spent six hours a day with Pat, five days a week. 395 00:28:13,278 --> 00:28:15,898 At first it seemed hopeless. 396 00:28:15,898 --> 00:28:19,328 She had the saddest eyes I've ever seen. 397 00:28:19,328 --> 00:28:24,388 To capture her attention was incredibly difficult. 398 00:28:24,388 --> 00:28:28,418 She was just miles away, staring into the distance. 399 00:28:28,418 --> 00:28:31,698 And she hadn't got many words then, 400 00:28:31,698 --> 00:28:35,918 and she got "red hairdryer" for a dry martini, I think, 401 00:28:35,918 --> 00:28:38,258 and she got "oblagon" for cigarette. 402 00:28:38,258 --> 00:28:44,588 That's what we all think the two things stood for, her great needs of the time! But not many words. 403 00:28:44,588 --> 00:28:48,338 Roald, challenging man that he is, walked in and said, 404 00:28:48,338 --> 00:28:55,278 "I booked you two to go over and talk to the New York Association of Brain Injured Children." 405 00:28:55,278 --> 00:28:57,298 He said, um... 406 00:28:57,298 --> 00:29:01,698 "They want you to give a speech in New York City." 407 00:29:01,698 --> 00:29:05,498 I didn't wanna do it. I said, "Mngh!" 408 00:29:05,498 --> 00:29:11,498 Reading was desperately difficult for her, couldn't get to even try reading until I'd got some... 409 00:29:11,498 --> 00:29:16,748 Is it Louella Parsons? A gossip columnist from Hollywood. ..got some of her stuff over. 410 00:29:16,748 --> 00:29:21,668 Then she really wanted to know what it said, and I wouldn't let her know until she'd worked at it. 411 00:29:21,668 --> 00:29:27,478 Dahl knew the lure of the showbiz world would force the pace of her recovery. 412 00:29:27,478 --> 00:29:33,338 And I walked on, and everybody stood up. It was the greatest thing in the world! 413 00:29:33,338 --> 00:29:38,828 PATRICIA NEAL ON RECORDING: 'I am so happy and grateful for being alive, 414 00:29:38,828 --> 00:29:41,408 'alive, alive-oh!' 415 00:29:41,408 --> 00:29:43,468 APPLAUSE 416 00:29:43,468 --> 00:29:48,628 INAUDIBLE 417 00:29:48,628 --> 00:29:52,798 "She leaned forward until her face was directly over the basin, 418 00:29:52,798 --> 00:29:55,658 "and looked straight down into William's eye." 419 00:29:55,658 --> 00:29:59,498 "'Hello, dear', she whispered. 'It's me, Mary. ' 420 00:29:59,498 --> 00:30:03,628 "The eye stared back at her with a peculiar fixed intensity. 421 00:30:03,628 --> 00:30:10,098 "The optic nerve connecting the underside of it to the brain looked like a short length of spaghetti. 422 00:30:10,098 --> 00:30:13,608 "'Are you feeling all right, William? ' she said. 423 00:30:13,608 --> 00:30:19,468 "It was a queer sensation, peering into her husband's eye when there was no face to go with it. 424 00:30:19,468 --> 00:30:21,908 "'You know what,' she told herself, 425 00:30:21,908 --> 00:30:27,018 "looking behind the eye now and staring hard down at the great grey pulpy walnut, 426 00:30:27,018 --> 00:30:29,548 "that lay so placidly under the water. 427 00:30:29,548 --> 00:30:36,670 "'I'm not at all sure that I don't prefer him as he is at present. Quiet, isn't he, ' she said. 428 00:30:38,218 --> 00:30:43,238 Dahl pressed on with further challenges for Pat. 429 00:30:43,238 --> 00:30:48,255 Some of her friends felt his relentless determination was almost brutal. 430 00:30:49,798 --> 00:30:53,498 I would say, "I want to kill myself," and he would say, 431 00:30:53,498 --> 00:30:55,848 "Well, we'll have to get a gun..." 432 00:30:55,848 --> 00:30:58,748 Or something like that! 433 00:30:58,748 --> 00:31:01,608 She used to call him "the bully", 434 00:31:01,608 --> 00:31:03,998 with a great smile. 435 00:31:03,998 --> 00:31:07,988 I think it was good that he did that, I really do. 436 00:31:07,988 --> 00:31:13,188 Even though I was angry with him and it was awful. 437 00:31:13,188 --> 00:31:16,848 It's very difficult to know whether it was right or wrong. 438 00:31:16,848 --> 00:31:20,498 He WAS hard, but it turned out very well. 439 00:31:20,498 --> 00:31:25,288 Pat's illness meant Roald had much more contact with their children. 440 00:31:25,288 --> 00:31:28,048 He became virtually a single parent. 441 00:31:28,048 --> 00:31:32,408 He got their meals, he took them for walks, he answered all their questions, 442 00:31:32,408 --> 00:31:35,178 and he did the school run every day. 443 00:31:35,178 --> 00:31:40,428 TESSA DAHL: He'd teach our times-tables in the car, we'd sing them every day. 444 00:31:40,428 --> 00:31:44,498 He was there - not emotionally - but he was there. 445 00:31:44,498 --> 00:31:46,748 You never doubted his... 446 00:31:46,748 --> 00:31:51,348 his closeness or love at all. Or at least, I didn't. 447 00:31:51,348 --> 00:31:56,688 I remember him coming home from a walk with Ophelia in the woods, 448 00:31:56,688 --> 00:32:01,428 and he said to my mum, "Pat, she's just like Olivia. 449 00:32:01,428 --> 00:32:06,858 "She lifted up the stones and she saw the ants and she them all having their little villages, 450 00:32:06,858 --> 00:32:09,958 "this is just like Olivia." 451 00:32:09,958 --> 00:32:14,968 I can remember leaning on him, or touching him in some sort of way, 452 00:32:14,968 --> 00:32:19,798 or sitting on his lap, but he wasn't a hugger or a kisser. 453 00:32:19,798 --> 00:32:22,238 Roald did a superb job. 454 00:32:22,238 --> 00:32:26,828 Got the family all going to the dentist, took over everything. 455 00:32:26,828 --> 00:32:30,118 He's quite a good cook. I mean you know, he could... 456 00:32:30,118 --> 00:32:32,828 But when you ARE a bit better... 457 00:32:32,828 --> 00:32:36,348 when she'd finished the films, stopped working with me, 458 00:32:36,348 --> 00:32:40,238 suddenly there was nothing for her to do at all. Not easy. 459 00:32:40,238 --> 00:32:46,428 Tessa would say, "Daddy, bleuleudadum, Daddy, bleuleudadum." 460 00:32:46,428 --> 00:32:50,878 And I would say, "Talk to me! Talk to me!" 461 00:32:50,878 --> 00:32:53,928 And Roald would say, "Talk to Mummy." 462 00:32:53,928 --> 00:32:58,188 And she couldn't talk to me, it was an awful thing to go through. 463 00:32:58,188 --> 00:33:01,518 He was obliged to become the main breadwinner. 464 00:33:01,518 --> 00:33:03,958 For years, he'd written adult stories. 465 00:33:03,958 --> 00:33:07,378 Now the bedtime stories he'd been improvising for the children 466 00:33:07,378 --> 00:33:12,258 about a giant peach or a chocolate factory offered a new line of business. 467 00:33:12,258 --> 00:33:18,348 He became a children's author because every night, he would come up and tell us a story. 468 00:33:18,348 --> 00:33:21,678 And then he would go to his hut the next day and write it. 469 00:33:21,678 --> 00:33:25,008 To stay the night at the Dahls' house was far better 470 00:33:25,008 --> 00:33:30,158 than staying anywhere else because he would wake you up in the night 471 00:33:30,158 --> 00:33:35,318 and take you down the lane in your pyjamas in the dark, 472 00:33:35,318 --> 00:33:38,978 to wait for the last train to come over the bridge. 473 00:33:38,978 --> 00:33:44,038 And we would stand in the tunnel under the bridge and wait for this train to come up, 474 00:33:44,038 --> 00:33:46,238 and he would tell spooky stories. 475 00:33:46,238 --> 00:33:48,958 "In the silvery moonlight, 476 00:33:48,958 --> 00:33:53,318 "the village street she knew so well seemed completely different. 477 00:33:53,318 --> 00:33:57,168 "The houses looked bent and crooked like houses in a fairy tale. 478 00:33:57,168 --> 00:34:01,148 "Everything was pale and ghostly and milky white. 479 00:34:01,148 --> 00:34:06,168 "Sophie allowed her eye to travel farther down the street. 480 00:34:06,168 --> 00:34:12,168 "Suddenly she froze. There was something coming up the street on the opposite side. 481 00:34:12,168 --> 00:34:17,088 "It was something black. Something tall and black. 482 00:34:17,088 --> 00:34:20,138 "Something very tall and very black, 483 00:34:20,138 --> 00:34:22,390 "and very thin." 484 00:34:24,818 --> 00:34:29,418 We were just so excited to know what was going to be the next story. 485 00:34:29,418 --> 00:34:33,538 We couldn't wait till the next day, the next night, you know. 486 00:34:33,538 --> 00:34:40,898 "'Augustus, ' cried Mr Wonka, hopping up and down. 'You must come away, you're dirtying my chocolate. '" 487 00:34:40,898 --> 00:34:44,318 The children, being very sparky, 488 00:34:44,318 --> 00:34:47,978 and sparked by two very sparky parents, 489 00:34:47,978 --> 00:34:53,138 would egg him on and say, "Tell us more about that character. Did he do this?" 490 00:34:53,138 --> 00:35:00,398 "The pressure was terrific. Something had to give. Something did give. That something was Augustus." 491 00:35:00,398 --> 00:35:02,608 He'd say, "If you write a children's book, 492 00:35:02,608 --> 00:35:07,058 "you grab the little blighter by the throat on page one and don't let go." 493 00:35:07,058 --> 00:35:11,608 "Two jokes a page," he'd say. "Don't stop for sunsets." 494 00:35:11,608 --> 00:35:17,278 "Charlie picked it up and tore off the wrapper. And suddenly, from underneath the wrapper, 495 00:35:17,278 --> 00:35:20,788 "there came a brilliant flash of gold. 496 00:35:20,788 --> 00:35:26,038 "Charlie's heart stood still. 'It's a golden ticket! ' screamed the shopkeeper, 497 00:35:26,038 --> 00:35:32,608 "leaping about a foot in the air. 'You've got a golden ticket! You've found the last golden ticket!' 498 00:35:32,608 --> 00:35:39,028 "'Hey, would you believe it? Come look at this, everybody! The kid's found Wonka's last golden ticket. 499 00:35:39,028 --> 00:35:42,638 "'There it is. It's right here in his hands. '" 500 00:35:42,638 --> 00:35:50,228 He liked chocolate and I liked chocolate. It was "a boy book", as they call it. 501 00:35:50,228 --> 00:35:56,468 It were just... my book. It was meant to be my book and nobody else's book. 502 00:35:56,468 --> 00:35:59,978 God, that's so deep! Look at that! 503 00:35:59,978 --> 00:36:04,008 Dahl became an expert on chocolate in his schooldays. 504 00:36:04,008 --> 00:36:10,148 In the 1930s, Cadbury's would test out their new chocolate bars on him and his pals 505 00:36:10,148 --> 00:36:14,418 and get them to mark them out of ten. It was a habit he never lost. 506 00:36:14,418 --> 00:36:21,258 He referred to me as Mrs Cadbury because six out of the ten of our choices were Cadbury's, 507 00:36:21,258 --> 00:36:22,998 which he was amazed at 508 00:36:22,998 --> 00:36:27,778 cos, in his eyes, how could we have anything but a Mars Bar at number 1? 509 00:36:27,778 --> 00:36:32,658 That's probably the greatest invention. 1932. 510 00:36:32,658 --> 00:36:36,448 I sent him a Twirl, at the time my daughter's favourite. 511 00:36:36,448 --> 00:36:40,528 He said it wasn't a patch on a Flake and didn't know why they'd bothered. 512 00:36:40,528 --> 00:36:45,588 The very first one that was ever invented was the Dairy Milk Flake, 513 00:36:45,588 --> 00:36:50,658 in 1921. I've never been to a chocolate factory, but obviously they had a slit... 514 00:36:50,658 --> 00:36:55,668 "Why don't we push the stuff through a thin slit and let it roll on top of it?" Wonderful! 515 00:36:55,668 --> 00:37:01,578 You could ask him any question about chocolate and he would give you an answer right back. 516 00:37:01,578 --> 00:37:07,448 Kit-Kats, 1935, all that sort of thing. Maltesers? Yeah, 1936. 517 00:37:08,988 --> 00:37:16,768 I mean, it IS like the Italian Renaissance is to painting, the '30s is to chocolate. 518 00:37:16,768 --> 00:37:20,988 Chocolate bars rounded off every meal at Gypsy House. 519 00:37:20,988 --> 00:37:25,438 The feast laid on by Fantastic Mr Fox for his family and friends 520 00:37:25,438 --> 00:37:29,098 became part of the Dahl daily ritual. 521 00:37:29,098 --> 00:37:35,238 Very noisy! I always ended up hearing things I probably shouldn't have heard, 522 00:37:35,238 --> 00:37:37,911 probably wildly inappropriate, but... 523 00:37:38,938 --> 00:37:42,918 .. he would sit at the head of the trestle table, 524 00:37:42,918 --> 00:37:46,528 you know, with that enormous chair! 525 00:37:46,528 --> 00:37:52,018 And it's all very symbolic, this man amongst these adoring women 526 00:37:52,018 --> 00:37:54,638 often joshing for position... 527 00:37:54,638 --> 00:38:00,028 I suppose like a big Viking table, you know! 528 00:38:00,028 --> 00:38:03,688 Thor with his band of women. 529 00:38:03,688 --> 00:38:10,668 He liked to take his band of women to the gaming tables in London. It appealed to his daredevil streak. 530 00:38:10,668 --> 00:38:15,878 Remember, he'd been completely solo in a hut all day...on his own 531 00:38:15,878 --> 00:38:18,178 in his own little world. 532 00:38:18,178 --> 00:38:21,739 And he wanted to get out and see the lights. 533 00:38:23,048 --> 00:38:28,827 He played blackjack because... it requires complete concentration. 534 00:38:31,248 --> 00:38:37,208 I think this was the only time he could blank out everything. 535 00:38:37,208 --> 00:38:40,108 It was oblivion for him, it was heaven. 536 00:38:40,108 --> 00:38:47,938 He belonged to the Curzon House Club. But his fearlessness would often get him into trouble. 537 00:38:47,938 --> 00:38:50,247 He stood up and he said, 538 00:38:50,248 --> 00:38:55,778 "Ladies and gentlemen, I beg for your silence!" And, you know, 539 00:38:55,778 --> 00:39:01,638 he was six foot six. When he begs for your silence, you shut up. 540 00:39:01,638 --> 00:39:03,508 And he stood up and he said, 541 00:39:03,508 --> 00:39:06,088 "I BEG you not to be willing 542 00:39:06,088 --> 00:39:12,608 "to put up with eating this SHIT! It is just revolting! I mean, after all the money we give these people, 543 00:39:12,608 --> 00:39:16,920 "they think that they can just feed us this absolute crap?!" 544 00:39:20,148 --> 00:39:25,498 He started being heckled. "Go home if you don't like it!" Things like that. 545 00:39:25,498 --> 00:39:29,108 "Piss off!" "Shut up!" And so Dad sat down then, 546 00:39:29,108 --> 00:39:33,928 REALLY pleased with himself. "I've done it now." 547 00:39:33,928 --> 00:39:35,998 He was a troublemaker! 548 00:39:35,998 --> 00:39:39,038 He LOVED to cause a bit of trouble. 549 00:39:39,038 --> 00:39:45,698 "A message to children who have read this book. When you grow up and have children of your own, 550 00:39:45,698 --> 00:39:49,498 "do please remember something important. 551 00:39:49,498 --> 00:39:52,728 "A stodgy parent is no fun at all. 552 00:39:52,728 --> 00:39:58,268 "What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is sparky." 553 00:39:59,668 --> 00:40:04,168 But it wasn't just the parents. Children had to be sparky too. 554 00:40:04,168 --> 00:40:09,048 Dahl was like the BFG blowing dreams in through their bedroom windows. 555 00:40:09,048 --> 00:40:12,608 He wanted them to dream of adventure. 556 00:40:12,608 --> 00:40:16,168 There was this old Morris 1000 they had bought. 557 00:40:16,168 --> 00:40:22,028 Tessa was driving it around the orchard - and she was about 17 or 18 when I was 10 or 11 - 558 00:40:22,028 --> 00:40:27,468 and I LONGED to be behind the wheel of this car. So he taught me to drive 559 00:40:27,468 --> 00:40:29,528 one day in the orchard. 560 00:40:29,528 --> 00:40:36,048 He wasn't a GREAT teacher, but if you picked up on things quickly, he was pretty good. 561 00:40:36,048 --> 00:40:42,088 And I was bitten by some great driving bug. I just couldn't get it out of my system. 562 00:40:42,088 --> 00:40:46,588 I could go around and around this five-acre field for four hours in a row. 563 00:40:46,588 --> 00:40:50,158 The trouble was that I couldn't stay in the orchard, 564 00:40:50,158 --> 00:40:54,333 and I started taking the car out when he'd take a sleep in the afternoon... 565 00:40:56,018 --> 00:40:59,198 .. not just to the village but to local towns. 566 00:40:59,198 --> 00:41:04,308 I'd go and visit friends, go for cups of tea. I was 11 or 12 years old, 567 00:41:04,308 --> 00:41:06,938 driving around Great Missenden. 568 00:41:06,938 --> 00:41:08,858 The only reason I got caught 569 00:41:08,858 --> 00:41:11,948 was because I couldn't start the car once. 570 00:41:11,948 --> 00:41:18,238 I took the car to the village, went in the sweetshop, bought sweets, came back out and couldn't start the car. 571 00:41:18,238 --> 00:41:24,188 So I had to call him, and he was irritated that I'd woken him from a nap. And he seemed irritated that... 572 00:41:24,188 --> 00:41:29,198 not so much that I'd taken the car out, but rather that, "If you take the car out, 573 00:41:29,198 --> 00:41:34,498 "you HAVE to be able to start it if it doesn't start. You have to fiddle around and..." 574 00:41:34,498 --> 00:41:40,130 It was as though he was thinking, "I didn't tell you what to muck around with if the car wouldn't start." 575 00:41:41,158 --> 00:41:47,528 The one place where he could escape the turmoil of daily life at Gypsy House was his writing hut, 576 00:41:47,528 --> 00:41:49,462 his sanctuary. 577 00:41:50,768 --> 00:41:55,028 Every morning, he'd sit in his mother's old chair 578 00:41:55,028 --> 00:41:59,528 with six freshly-sharpened and surprisingly hard American pencils, 579 00:41:59,528 --> 00:42:02,858 ready to marshal his ideas into stories. 580 00:42:02,858 --> 00:42:07,878 Finally you get settled, you get into a sort of nest. 581 00:42:07,878 --> 00:42:11,962 You get really comfortable. And then you're away. 582 00:42:12,988 --> 00:42:19,358 He jotted down random ideas and phrases which appealed to him and which he'd come back to later. 583 00:42:19,358 --> 00:42:23,438 "Let's go into the garden and eat worms." 584 00:42:23,438 --> 00:42:29,298 "Nurse, I believe you put the bedpan in the icebox." That comes from some of his stays in hospital. 585 00:42:29,298 --> 00:42:33,428 "A pale grey face like a bowl of porridge." 586 00:42:35,068 --> 00:42:37,638 "A face like an old sea-boot." 587 00:42:37,638 --> 00:42:40,186 "A nose like a bathroom tap." 588 00:42:45,748 --> 00:42:50,108 He also made lists of words that he'd invented, 589 00:42:50,108 --> 00:42:54,431 and played with the vocabulary for The Big Friendly Giant. 590 00:42:55,458 --> 00:42:59,348 "The BFG looked at Sophie and smiled. 591 00:42:59,348 --> 00:43:03,518 "'Yesterday, ' he said, 'We was not believing in giants, was we? 592 00:43:03,518 --> 00:43:06,048 "'Today, we's not believing in snozzcambers. 593 00:43:06,048 --> 00:43:12,055 "'Just because we happen not to have actually seen something with our two little winkles, 594 00:43:12,098 --> 00:43:14,068 "'we think it is not existing. 595 00:43:14,068 --> 00:43:18,288 "'What about, for instance, the great squizzly scotchhopper? ' 596 00:43:18,288 --> 00:43:23,438 "'I beg your pardon? ' Sophie asked. 'And the humplecrimp?' 'What's that?' 597 00:43:23,438 --> 00:43:27,468 "'And the raprascal?' 'The what?' 'And the crumpscoddle. ' 598 00:43:27,468 --> 00:43:32,718 "'Are they animals?' 'They is COMMON animals,' said the BFG contemptuously. 599 00:43:32,718 --> 00:43:39,758 "'I is not a very know-all giant myself, but it seems to me you is an absolutely know-NOTHING human bean. 600 00:43:39,758 --> 00:43:45,288 "'Your brain is full of rotten-wool. ' 'You mean COTTON-wool,' Sophie said. 601 00:43:45,288 --> 00:43:47,908 "'What I mean and what I say 602 00:43:47,908 --> 00:43:52,738 "'is two different things,' the BFG announced rather grandly." 603 00:43:52,738 --> 00:43:55,508 We gave him a waistcoat. 604 00:43:55,508 --> 00:44:01,408 And you can see the waistcoat here. But we didn't quite know what to do about the footwear. 605 00:44:01,408 --> 00:44:04,978 We left that problem. Then finally he sent me... 606 00:44:04,978 --> 00:44:08,348 this... very strange sort of parcel 607 00:44:08,348 --> 00:44:13,178 and, when I opened it, I discovered it was one of his sandals, 608 00:44:13,178 --> 00:44:15,148 a Norwegian sandal. 609 00:44:15,148 --> 00:44:18,238 That's what the BFG wears. 610 00:44:18,238 --> 00:44:21,478 They are Roald's sandals. 611 00:44:21,478 --> 00:44:25,978 And it made it clear to me, in a sense, how close he was to him, as well. 612 00:44:25,978 --> 00:44:27,848 He told me that he thought 613 00:44:27,848 --> 00:44:32,488 the thing children thought was the funniest thing that could happen 614 00:44:32,488 --> 00:44:34,368 was when an adult farted, 615 00:44:34,368 --> 00:44:38,348 that children think that is amazingly funny. 616 00:44:38,348 --> 00:44:43,128 Dahl could explore this subject to his heart's content with the BFG. 617 00:44:43,128 --> 00:44:45,568 His champagne is frobscottle. 618 00:44:45,568 --> 00:44:50,398 And in frobscottle, the bubbles don't go up to make you burp, 619 00:44:50,398 --> 00:44:54,338 they got down. And we all know what's going to happen. 620 00:44:54,338 --> 00:44:59,208 Even though Dahl had coined a word for it, whizzpopping, 621 00:44:59,208 --> 00:45:03,288 his American publisher thought the scene was too near the bone. 622 00:45:03,288 --> 00:45:05,958 He told him the idea was "rather isolated". 623 00:45:05,958 --> 00:45:09,988 Of course, he just took it to a whole new level, said he agreed with me 624 00:45:09,988 --> 00:45:15,668 that it was isolated and it was much too good, so he was gonna put in a new scene. "So I've gone even further 625 00:45:15,668 --> 00:45:22,228 "and had the BFG doing a whizzpopper for the Queen. Slightly vulgar, perhaps, but you and I know 626 00:45:22,228 --> 00:45:26,778 "that the children will love it." It was perfectly clear to me that... 627 00:45:26,778 --> 00:45:30,758 let it go, this is brilliant, children WILL love this scene. 628 00:45:30,758 --> 00:45:32,778 And they did. 629 00:45:32,778 --> 00:45:37,178 Shortly after the book came out, Roxburgh was on a train in England 630 00:45:37,178 --> 00:45:41,208 when he chanced on a small girl being read the story out loud. 631 00:45:41,208 --> 00:45:43,928 She was perched on the edge of her seat. 632 00:45:43,928 --> 00:45:48,568 And her eyes were getting larger and larger as it became apparent 633 00:45:48,568 --> 00:45:53,638 that Sophie was trying to convince the BFG not to whizzpop for the Queen, 634 00:45:53,638 --> 00:45:58,698 but the Queen thought that it was a musical instrument he was going to play. 635 00:45:58,698 --> 00:46:03,848 The climax builds quite dramatically. This little girl was sitting there... She was vibrating. 636 00:46:03,848 --> 00:46:08,358 She anticipated what was coming, but she couldn't quite conceive of this. 637 00:46:08,358 --> 00:46:11,448 And sure enough, at the whizzpopping moment, 638 00:46:11,448 --> 00:46:15,618 this little girl came off her seat. She just... 639 00:46:15,618 --> 00:46:19,418 I don't know whether she propelled herself or she just launched, 640 00:46:19,418 --> 00:46:24,478 but she just popped up off her seat! He'd got it dead right. 641 00:46:24,478 --> 00:46:29,968 He sent me a cutting from a newspaper which shows an extraordinary photograph 642 00:46:29,968 --> 00:46:31,978 of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor... 643 00:46:31,978 --> 00:46:33,338 jumping. 644 00:46:33,338 --> 00:46:37,888 "Surely the first recorded instance of royalty whizzpopping." 645 00:46:37,888 --> 00:46:41,218 Just the kind of thing he would've absolutely loved. 646 00:46:41,218 --> 00:46:47,218 The characters who perhaps more than any other bear the brunt of all Dahl's personal loathings 647 00:46:47,218 --> 00:46:49,138 are the Twits. 648 00:46:49,138 --> 00:46:54,998 His fixation on personal hygiene was given full reign in the character of Mr Twit. 649 00:46:54,998 --> 00:46:59,697 Dahl, you see, had a lifetime obsession about... beards. 650 00:47:00,808 --> 00:47:03,668 There's a description which children love 651 00:47:03,668 --> 00:47:08,168 of the sort of debris in the beard, you know, the decaying gorgonzola 652 00:47:08,168 --> 00:47:13,698 and the cornflakes and the sardine bones and that sort of thing, because he never washes it. 653 00:47:13,698 --> 00:47:17,168 He says, "He had a beard like a lavatory brush." 654 00:47:17,168 --> 00:47:22,278 And so I had to be sure that the bristles were sticking out each side, 655 00:47:22,278 --> 00:47:26,028 and round the bottom, if you see what I mean 656 00:47:26,028 --> 00:47:30,478 "There were always hundreds of bits of old breakfasts and lunches and suppers 657 00:47:30,478 --> 00:47:33,578 "sticking to the hairs around his face. 658 00:47:33,578 --> 00:47:35,868 "They weren't big bits, mind you, 659 00:47:35,868 --> 00:47:41,728 "because he used to wipe those off with the back of his hand, or on his sleeve while he was eating. 660 00:47:41,728 --> 00:47:45,298 "But if you looked closely - not that you'd ever want to - 661 00:47:45,298 --> 00:47:50,268 "you would see tiny little specks of dried-up scrambled egg stuck to the hairs 662 00:47:50,268 --> 00:47:54,298 "and spinach and tomato ketchup and fish fingers 663 00:47:54,298 --> 00:48:00,858 "and minced chicken livers and all the other disgusting things Mr Twit liked to eat." 664 00:48:00,858 --> 00:48:05,268 Oh, God! He never, ever stopped teasing me about the beard. 665 00:48:05,268 --> 00:48:11,308 He felt it as... Since you asked the question, you must know his feelings about it... as hiding something. 666 00:48:11,308 --> 00:48:17,588 He was relentless on the subject of what was wrong with my face because I felt I had to have this hair on it. 667 00:48:17,588 --> 00:48:22,048 And it wasn't just beards. At his daughter Tessa's wedding, 668 00:48:22,048 --> 00:48:25,698 he had some guests squirming with embarrassment. 669 00:48:25,698 --> 00:48:31,658 Instead of giving the traditional father-speech, he turned the whole thing on its head - 670 00:48:31,658 --> 00:48:36,718 was James, Tessa's husband, a good egg or not? 671 00:48:36,718 --> 00:48:40,378 The thing to do if you want to judge a man 672 00:48:40,378 --> 00:48:43,378 immediately and with absolute accuracy 673 00:48:43,378 --> 00:48:45,908 is to look in an earhole... 674 00:48:45,908 --> 00:48:47,918 LAUGHTER 675 00:48:47,918 --> 00:48:50,122 He knows that, deep down, 676 00:48:50,122 --> 00:48:55,753 we're all terribly worried about the kind of nasty bits of our bodies 677 00:48:55,753 --> 00:49:00,673 If... If you see tufts of hair... LAUGHTER 678 00:49:00,673 --> 00:49:05,503 .. sprouting like grass out of his earholes - 679 00:49:05,503 --> 00:49:11,553 a rich pubescence, as we earhole experts call it - 680 00:49:11,553 --> 00:49:15,673 you know for certain that the fellow's a bounder. 681 00:49:15,673 --> 00:49:17,922 'He did it wherever he could. ' 682 00:49:17,922 --> 00:49:19,842 He just liked to shock. 683 00:49:19,842 --> 00:49:22,333 APPLAUSE AND CHEERS 684 00:49:25,802 --> 00:49:28,612 Introducing Patricia Neal... 685 00:49:28,613 --> 00:49:33,063 I love this hour. Children in bed, alone with my husband... 686 00:49:33,063 --> 00:49:35,313 Coffee tastes especially good now... 687 00:49:35,313 --> 00:49:41,173 Years of shared of shared tragedy had kept the Dahls together, but they'd taken their toll. 688 00:49:41,173 --> 00:49:45,723 These commercials brought Roald into contact with Felicity Crossland, 689 00:49:45,723 --> 00:49:49,282 the attractive younger woman arranging Pat's wardrobe. 690 00:49:49,282 --> 00:49:55,663 I use Maxim because I think it's excellent but, more important, my husband thinks so, too. 691 00:49:55,663 --> 00:50:01,142 He came bursting in the front door with Tessa - they'd been out to buy a new car - 692 00:50:01,142 --> 00:50:07,752 and... I just turned round and saw 693 00:50:07,753 --> 00:50:13,805 this incredibly attractive, handsome, tall man. 694 00:50:15,253 --> 00:50:22,523 He just had a twinkle in his eye and a marvellously sort of warm feeling about him. 695 00:50:22,523 --> 00:50:28,562 And I just looked at him, and I thought, "Gosh, you are fantastic. You are fantastic." 696 00:50:28,562 --> 00:50:33,302 Was it love at first sight? Yes, it was. It was, definitely... 697 00:50:33,302 --> 00:50:35,884 I think, for both of us, yup. 698 00:50:36,913 --> 00:50:38,783 They began a secret affair. 699 00:50:38,783 --> 00:50:43,193 The teenage Tessa was the first to discover what was going on, 700 00:50:43,193 --> 00:50:45,493 and was asked to keep the secret. 701 00:50:45,493 --> 00:50:50,363 I so desperately wanted to be part of his life... 702 00:50:50,363 --> 00:50:56,882 and I so needed to be... 703 00:50:56,882 --> 00:51:01,193 someone that HE needed... 704 00:51:01,193 --> 00:51:03,772 um... 705 00:51:03,772 --> 00:51:07,473 th...that I said yes. 706 00:51:07,473 --> 00:51:12,303 Um... 707 00:51:12,303 --> 00:51:14,553 And I left... 708 00:51:14,553 --> 00:51:21,073 with this extraordinary mixed state of euphoria 709 00:51:21,073 --> 00:51:26,642 that at last it was going to be Daddy, me and Liccy. 710 00:51:26,642 --> 00:51:31,003 And this terrible feeling of guilt 711 00:51:31,003 --> 00:51:34,523 that my mother, who I loved and... 712 00:51:34,523 --> 00:51:41,323 You know, it had been a hard, long, strong battle to get Mummy well again. 713 00:51:41,323 --> 00:51:47,273 .. I had to keep the story, real-life story, from my mother. 714 00:51:47,273 --> 00:51:51,823 My ex-husband, he had... a lot of affairs. 715 00:51:51,823 --> 00:51:54,262 She wasn't the only one. 716 00:51:54,262 --> 00:51:57,542 And he was serious about her. 717 00:51:57,542 --> 00:52:04,242 And I-I didn't want to break up our marriage. I did not want to break it up, I didn't want it to break up. 718 00:52:04,242 --> 00:52:10,053 It was difficult because we never ever felt we would be able to marry. 719 00:52:10,053 --> 00:52:14,412 And we were feeling guilty, 720 00:52:14,412 --> 00:52:19,333 um, you know, primarily because of Pat 721 00:52:19,333 --> 00:52:21,913 and not hurting her, 722 00:52:21,913 --> 00:52:24,825 and upsetting the children. 723 00:52:25,942 --> 00:52:29,513 It was a dark, troubled time at Gypsy House. 724 00:52:29,513 --> 00:52:34,332 Finally, 16 years after her stroke, Pat was told to leave - 725 00:52:34,332 --> 00:52:37,382 kicked out, as she saw it, of her own home. 726 00:52:37,382 --> 00:52:43,573 When we broke up, I was the angriest person you will ever see in your life. 727 00:52:43,573 --> 00:52:47,323 No-one wanted anything to do with me. 728 00:52:47,323 --> 00:52:52,012 I was the most... I was un... 729 00:52:52,012 --> 00:52:54,683 I was impossible to be around. 730 00:52:54,683 --> 00:52:58,342 I could not believe that he had done this to me. 731 00:52:58,342 --> 00:53:00,879 But he did, baby. 732 00:53:01,903 --> 00:53:05,372 He said, "I'm tired and I just need 733 00:53:05,372 --> 00:53:09,542 "somebody who's gonna make me a cup of tea." And I knew what he meant. 734 00:53:09,542 --> 00:53:13,713 I was disappointed in my father for his inability to do it in a more... 735 00:53:13,713 --> 00:53:17,273 I guess, a more honest way. 736 00:53:17,273 --> 00:53:22,572 I think that he felt very, very uneasy in the role of the bad guy. 737 00:53:22,572 --> 00:53:24,633 "A leg of lamb. 738 00:53:24,633 --> 00:53:28,203 "All right, then, they would have lamb for supper. 739 00:53:28,203 --> 00:53:30,402 "She carried it upstairs, 740 00:53:30,402 --> 00:53:34,812 "holding the thin bone end of it with both her hands, 741 00:53:34,812 --> 00:53:38,373 "and, as she went through the living room, 742 00:53:38,373 --> 00:53:43,062 "she saw him standing over by the window with his back to her, 743 00:53:43,062 --> 00:53:45,593 and she stopped. 744 00:53:45,593 --> 00:53:50,463 "'For God's sake,' he said, hearing her, but not turning around. 745 00:53:50,463 --> 00:53:53,423 "'Don't make supper for me, I'm going out. ' 746 00:53:53,423 --> 00:53:59,282 "At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him 747 00:53:59,282 --> 00:54:05,793 "and, without any pause, she swung the big, frozen leg of lamb high in the air 748 00:54:05,793 --> 00:54:12,123 "and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head. 749 00:54:12,123 --> 00:54:18,123 "She might just have well have hit him with a steel club. 750 00:54:18,123 --> 00:54:22,342 "She stepped back apace, waiting, 751 00:54:22,342 --> 00:54:24,873 "and the funny thing was... 752 00:54:24,873 --> 00:54:32,291 "that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds, gently swaying. 753 00:54:35,142 --> 00:54:37,770 "Then he crashed to the carpet." 754 00:54:38,793 --> 00:54:43,292 Wish I'd been so clever as to do that. The leg of lamb. 755 00:54:43,292 --> 00:54:45,180 Can't go back now! 756 00:54:47,042 --> 00:54:50,463 But no, I... I loved Roald, 757 00:54:50,463 --> 00:54:55,113 and I... you know, was a little... angry, shall we say? 758 00:54:55,113 --> 00:54:59,003 But I'm not angry now. I'm thoroughly over it. 759 00:54:59,003 --> 00:55:04,902 After the deceit and betrayal, Dahl felt a sense of release when he married Liccy. 760 00:55:04,902 --> 00:55:09,122 For his final seven years, the books came thick and fast. 761 00:55:09,122 --> 00:55:12,822 There was a tenderness and closeness in the stories, 762 00:55:12,822 --> 00:55:17,893 whether between Matilda and Miss Honey, or the boy and his grandmother in the Witches, 763 00:55:17,893 --> 00:55:20,613 or the middle-aged couple in Esio Trot. 764 00:55:20,613 --> 00:55:25,433 From the age of seven up, he'd been responsible for everybody, 765 00:55:25,433 --> 00:55:30,683 and I think at last, you know, he could pass some of that responsibility to me. 766 00:55:30,683 --> 00:55:36,683 His life changed very much after he married Liccy - for the better for him. Much, much better for him. 767 00:55:36,683 --> 00:55:40,252 She was wonderful for him. She made him happy beyond belief. 768 00:55:40,252 --> 00:55:43,722 Those last few years of his life, he was so, so happy. 769 00:55:43,723 --> 00:55:46,342 He became a lighter man. 770 00:55:46,342 --> 00:55:51,873 I think some of his best books were written in that Liccy phase, when he didn't have to feel guilty 771 00:55:51,873 --> 00:55:55,343 about being with the person he'd fallen in love with. 772 00:55:55,343 --> 00:56:00,402 "Mr Hoppy flung open his front door and flew down the stairs two at a time 773 00:56:00,402 --> 00:56:04,153 "with the love-songs of a thousand Cupids ringing in his ears. 774 00:56:04,153 --> 00:56:08,422 "'This is it, ' he whispered to himself under his breath. 775 00:56:08,422 --> 00:56:11,702 "He caught sight of Mrs Silver standing at the open door, 776 00:56:11,702 --> 00:56:15,313 "waiting to welcome him, with a huge smile on her face. 777 00:56:15,313 --> 00:56:21,503 "She flung her arms around him and cried, 'You really are the most wonderful man I've ever met! 778 00:56:21,503 --> 00:56:24,972 "'Come in at once and let me make you a cup of tea. 779 00:56:24,972 --> 00:56:27,833 "'That's the very least you deserve. '" 780 00:56:27,833 --> 00:56:32,802 In 1990, Dahl was in and out of hospital with leukaemia, 781 00:56:32,802 --> 00:56:36,553 but he was, in his words, "the undeveloped adult" to the last. 782 00:56:36,553 --> 00:56:41,612 As his mother had said he should, he carried on as himself for the rest of his life. 783 00:56:41,612 --> 00:56:47,232 And the day he arrived, I got an urgent call that there was a problem, 784 00:56:47,233 --> 00:56:50,802 and when I got there, the problem turned out to be 785 00:56:50,802 --> 00:56:54,783 that Roald Dahl had insisted on smoking one of his large cigars. 786 00:56:54,783 --> 00:57:01,442 So this enormous man was hanging out of the window on the top floor of the hospital 787 00:57:01,442 --> 00:57:05,382 with a porter on each foot. They couldn't get him back. 788 00:57:05,382 --> 00:57:10,863 He was still smoking. And with the prevailing wind, it was all pouring in to the next room. 789 00:57:10,863 --> 00:57:16,022 With about six people, we managed to drag him back in. He promised not to do it again, 790 00:57:16,022 --> 00:57:19,813 and did the same thing the next day. But that was Roald Dahl. 791 00:57:19,813 --> 00:57:23,663 The sister had confiscated his matches and lighter 792 00:57:23,663 --> 00:57:28,673 cos she had caught him with his head out of the window trying to have a cigarette. 793 00:57:28,673 --> 00:57:34,633 So he realised the only place he could light his cigarette was on the gas ring in the nurses' kitchen. 794 00:57:34,633 --> 00:57:39,503 So he managed to get down there and he put his head down to light the cigarette 795 00:57:39,503 --> 00:57:44,562 and, of course, the flames burned his eyebrows and his eyelashes. 796 00:57:44,562 --> 00:57:48,032 And again he was caught, of course. 797 00:57:48,033 --> 00:57:53,282 And just when the staff and all of us were getting fed up with him, almost, 798 00:57:53,282 --> 00:57:56,945 this enormous charm would appear, and you were finished! 799 00:57:57,973 --> 00:58:04,252 And I went in, and he went, "Oh, Teddy," he said, "I nearly died today." 800 00:58:04,252 --> 00:58:11,663 He said, "It was really hard to stay alive, so what I did was I imagined I was in a fighter plane," 801 00:58:11,663 --> 00:58:14,993 "then I put each one of my children in that plane," 802 00:58:14,993 --> 00:58:18,463 "and I had you being shot down. 803 00:58:18,463 --> 00:58:25,532 "and it was which ones of you would have survived, and held it together, and stayed alive, 804 00:58:25,532 --> 00:58:29,243 "and which ones of you couldn't have done." 805 00:58:29,243 --> 00:58:32,943 I kissed him and I said, "I love you, Dad." 806 00:58:32,943 --> 00:58:35,942 And I walked to the door. 807 00:58:35,942 --> 00:58:38,802 And just as I got to the door, 808 00:58:38,802 --> 00:58:41,852 he said... 809 00:58:41,852 --> 00:58:46,585 "I love you too, Teddy, so very much indeed." 810 00:58:48,463 --> 00:58:55,073 And I left the room. And I was wearing my glasses and I just threw them against the wall. 811 00:58:55,073 --> 00:58:58,722 And Liccy came out and she said, "What's the matter?" 812 00:58:58,722 --> 00:59:02,572 And I said, "He's going to die." And she said, "Don't be ridiculous." 813 00:59:02,572 --> 00:59:08,397 I said, "He's going to die, I know he's gonna die." And she said, "Why?" And I said, "He said he loves me." 814 00:59:18,981 --> 00:59:22,781 "We have tears in our eyes As we wave our goodbyes, 815 00:59:22,781 --> 00:59:27,231 "We so loved being with you, we three. 816 00:59:27,231 --> 00:59:32,341 "So do please now and then Come and see us again, The Giraffe and the Pelly and me. 817 00:59:32,341 --> 00:59:36,471 "All you do is to look At a page in this book 818 00:59:36,471 --> 00:59:39,181 "Because that's where we always will be 819 00:59:39,181 --> 00:59:45,199 "No book ever ends When it's full of your friends. The Giraffe and the Pelly and me." 820 00:59:52,781 --> 00:59:56,951 Well, once when we were abroad, Roald went missing, 821 00:59:56,951 --> 00:59:59,441 and I was sent to try and find him, 822 00:59:59,441 --> 01:00:03,471 and I dashed all around and finally saw him walking along. 823 01:00:03,471 --> 01:00:09,511 And behind him were a whole mass of children. It just literally looked like the Pied Piper. 824 01:00:09,511 --> 01:00:15,141 How he'd gathered them, I'd no idea. There they just were, this great tall, slightly stooping man, 825 01:00:15,141 --> 01:00:17,621 and all these children behind! It was lovely. 826 01:00:17,621 --> 01:00:21,231 "'A whizzpopper,' cried the BFG, beaming at her, 827 01:00:21,231 --> 01:00:24,841 "'Us giants is making whizzpoppers all the time. 828 01:00:24,841 --> 01:00:30,421 "'Whizzpopping is a sign of happiness. It is music in our ears. 829 01:00:30,421 --> 01:00:32,441 "'You surely is not telling me 830 01:00:32,441 --> 01:00:36,661 "'that a little whizzpopping is forbidden among human beans?' 831 01:00:36,661 --> 01:00:40,361 "'No,!' Sophie cried, 'Don't! You're not to, I beg you!' 832 01:00:40,361 --> 01:00:43,731 "'Music is good for the digestion,' the Queen said. 833 01:00:43,731 --> 01:00:46,921 "'When I'm in Scotland, they play the bagpipes 834 01:00:46,921 --> 01:00:51,891 "'outside the window while I'm eating. Do play something!' 835 01:00:51,891 --> 01:00:54,701 "'I has her Magister's permission!' cried the BFG, 836 01:00:54,701 --> 01:00:57,231 and, all at once, he let fly with a whizzpopper 837 01:00:57,231 --> 01:01:01,591 "that sounded as though a bomb had exploded. 838 01:01:01,591 --> 01:01:05,161 "The Queen jumped. 'Whoopee!' shouted the BFG. 839 01:01:05,161 --> 01:01:09,381 "'That is better than bagglepipes, is it not, Magister?' 840 01:01:09,381 --> 01:01:12,991 "It took the Queen a few seconds to get over the shock. 841 01:01:12,991 --> 01:01:15,198 "'I prefer the bagpipes,' she said.