1
00:00:13,740 --> 00:00:18,020
When I was a child, I devoured
every book I could get my hands on.

2
00:00:18,020 --> 00:00:21,700
I loved losing myself in colourful
and dramatic stories

3
00:00:21,700 --> 00:00:23,980
and my absolute favourite was this -

4
00:00:23,980 --> 00:00:26,620
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

5
00:00:26,620 --> 00:00:29,020
Everything about it electrified me.

6
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And when I re-read Dahl's books
as an adult,

7
00:00:32,060 --> 00:00:35,060
they surprised me.
There was nothing prescriptive

8
00:00:35,060 --> 00:00:38,220
or predictable about them,
with little sense of narrative rules,

9
00:00:38,220 --> 00:00:40,620
and they're nearly all perfect.

10
00:00:57,220 --> 00:01:01,100
'Boy pie might be better
bird pie,' he went on,

11
00:01:02,180 --> 00:01:08,020
grinning horribly. 'More meat, and
not so many tiny little bones.'

12
00:01:09,020 --> 00:01:12,540
Mr Twit is a very evil man, isn't he?
ALL: Yeah.

13
00:01:14,980 --> 00:01:18,540
The Twits,
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,

14
00:01:18,540 --> 00:01:22,260
Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox,

15
00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:25,460
legendary books that take
Roald Dahl's sales

16
00:01:25,460 --> 00:01:28,140
to 100 million worldwide.

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He is one of the bestselling
fiction authors of all time.

18
00:01:33,460 --> 00:01:38,260
I think Dahl is possibly the first
modern children's author.

19
00:01:38,260 --> 00:01:41,980
He was the first one who broke
the rules, as it were,

20
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and sided so utterly with the child.

21
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Children's books are often seen as
the poor relation of literature.

22
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But children are just as demanding
as adult readers,

23
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if not, more so.

24
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I should know,
I'm a children's writer myself

25
00:02:00,100 --> 00:02:02,540
yet I will never be as good as Dahl.

26
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In this film,
I want to try and understand

27
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where Dahl's magic touch came from.

28
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When I was growing up
in the 1970s and '80s,

29
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Dahl was a regular on television.

30
00:02:20,780 --> 00:02:23,620
As a child,
I was quite scared of him.

31
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If a bucket of paint falls
on a man's head,

32
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that's funny.

33
00:02:33,940 --> 00:02:36,980
If the bucket fractured his skull
the same time and kills him,

34
00:02:36,980 --> 00:02:39,020
that's not funny, it's tragic.

35
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He was unfeasibly tall, and bald,

36
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and dressed like a mad professor.

37
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He came across like an eccentric
and cantankerous uncle.

38
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He was an outsider
who sat alone all day,

39
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dreaming up wicked stories.

40
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His persona was so strong

41
00:02:55,900 --> 00:02:57,980
that people even parodied him.

42
00:02:57,980 --> 00:03:02,020
By the end of his life, it was like
he had become one of his characters.

43
00:03:05,420 --> 00:03:08,420
He was tall, he was distinguished,
he was marvellous to look at,

44
00:03:08,420 --> 00:03:10,460
a marvellous looking man.

45
00:03:10,460 --> 00:03:12,900
Rather like the North Pole,

46
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or whatever it is that attracts
the solar wind from the sun,

47
00:03:16,380 --> 00:03:18,180
he would magnetise you

48
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and then in some way rebuff you at
the same time.

49
00:03:20,420 --> 00:03:22,500
He wasn't the sort of person who
you'd run up

50
00:03:22,500 --> 00:03:24,940
and throw your arms around.
I wouldn't, anyway.

51
00:03:24,940 --> 00:03:26,900
I would have liked to.

52
00:03:29,060 --> 00:03:31,660
I've come to his home in
Buckinghamshire

53
00:03:31,660 --> 00:03:36,220
where he spent 30 years writing
stories for both children and adults.

54
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His widow Liccy Dahl
still lives at the house.

55
00:03:44,140 --> 00:03:46,100
(DOORBELL)

56
00:03:50,260 --> 00:03:52,020
Hello!
Hello, Liccy!

57
00:03:52,020 --> 00:03:56,140
Welcome to Gipsy House. Thank you
so much for having us, thank you.

58
00:03:56,140 --> 00:03:59,060
Thank you. Not at all. Come on in.
Can I take you coat?

59
00:03:59,060 --> 00:04:01,100
Ah, thank you. Thank you very much.

60
00:04:04,100 --> 00:04:07,060
Wow! That's one bookcase!

61
00:04:07,060 --> 00:04:09,180
Yes, isn't wonderful?

62
00:04:09,180 --> 00:04:14,260
So this is the Chinese Charlie
And The Chocolate Factory?
That was the first... Yes.

63
00:04:14,260 --> 00:04:18,900
The first of Roald's books to me
printed in China.

64
00:04:18,900 --> 00:04:20,700
It's kind of horrible cover as well.

65
00:04:20,700 --> 00:04:23,980
Printed on lavatory paper.
It's absolutely horrible. (LAUGHS)

66
00:04:23,980 --> 00:04:25,940
Thank you.

67
00:04:28,140 --> 00:04:30,220
Beautiful house.

68
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It's rather fun.
Yes.

69
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Was he very private about his work?

70
00:04:34,940 --> 00:04:36,900
Very. Yes.

71
00:04:38,300 --> 00:04:45,140
He would sort of suddenly say, 'I've
got a little idea for my new book.

72
00:04:45,140 --> 00:04:50,260
You know, I think - a little boy
who's able to move objects around.'

73
00:04:50,260 --> 00:04:54,300
And you'd say fine.
And that would be about it.

74
00:04:54,300 --> 00:04:58,620
And then he'd go off into
his hut and...

75
00:05:00,660 --> 00:05:02,980
..you wouldn't hear any more

76
00:05:02,980 --> 00:05:06,020
until he'd got a first draft
more or less ready.

77
00:05:06,020 --> 00:05:09,500
Would he let you read the first
draft? No, he'd read it to me.

78
00:05:09,500 --> 00:05:13,940
Oh. And he'd read it to me in bed,
and sometimes I fell asleep.

79
00:05:13,940 --> 00:05:18,180
And that was...erm...not very good.

80
00:05:18,180 --> 00:05:20,100
Did he have any negative feelings

81
00:05:20,100 --> 00:05:22,540
about writing for children rather
than adults?

82
00:05:25,220 --> 00:05:27,380
No. I think he probably
had more fun.

83
00:05:29,980 --> 00:05:32,180
Because his adult stories
are quite dark.

84
00:05:32,180 --> 00:05:34,580
When he started to write
for children -

85
00:05:34,580 --> 00:05:36,540
I think that's part of the charm -

86
00:05:36,540 --> 00:05:38,660
he points out how badly
adults do behave,

87
00:05:38,660 --> 00:05:40,660
and, of course, children love that.

88
00:05:40,660 --> 00:05:45,220
But, no, I think he got far more
fun out of writing for children.

89
00:05:45,220 --> 00:05:50,140
There were moments that the
establishment rejected him

90
00:05:50,140 --> 00:05:55,780
or he felt they rejected him because
he was a children's writer.

91
00:05:55,780 --> 00:06:01,820
You know, that was not...the thing
to be.

92
00:06:01,820 --> 00:06:05,260
And I think that upset him
quite a bit.

93
00:06:07,460 --> 00:06:11,300
Every day, Roald Dahl walked to his
writing hut in the garden.

94
00:06:11,300 --> 00:06:14,540
This was the womb that gave birth
to all his stories.

95
00:06:15,420 --> 00:06:20,180
Despite the gorgeous view, Dahl chose
to seal himself off with curtains.

96
00:06:20,180 --> 00:06:23,940
He closed himself away like
Willy Wonka in his factory.

97
00:06:28,300 --> 00:06:30,260
Here's the hut.

98
00:06:31,500 --> 00:06:33,740
Not quite as I imagined it.

99
00:06:33,740 --> 00:06:36,220
I was thinking it was going
to be a shed for some reason

100
00:06:36,220 --> 00:06:38,260
but it's a brick building.

101
00:06:38,260 --> 00:06:41,460
But I love this walkway.

102
00:06:42,900 --> 00:06:45,100
Feels like he would have had
a real routine,

103
00:06:45,100 --> 00:06:48,340
come out the house, taking this
walk, whatever the weather.

104
00:07:02,060 --> 00:07:04,220
It's quite a long way
from the house as well,

105
00:07:04,220 --> 00:07:06,940
he definitely wanted to be isolated.

106
00:07:13,220 --> 00:07:17,300
To better understand where Dahl's
extraordinary imagination came from,

107
00:07:17,300 --> 00:07:20,860
I've come to Cardiff, which was one
of Britain's largest ports

108
00:07:20,860 --> 00:07:22,820
in the early 20th century.

109
00:07:23,980 --> 00:07:26,300
Through its maritime trading
with Norway,

110
00:07:26,300 --> 00:07:29,180
it became home to a large Norwegian
community,

111
00:07:29,180 --> 00:07:31,140
including Dahl's parents.

112
00:07:35,220 --> 00:07:39,780
Born in 1916, Dahl's childhood was
overshadowed by tragedy.

113
00:07:39,780 --> 00:07:41,860
At just three years old,

114
00:07:41,860 --> 00:07:45,660
he lost both his elder sister
and his father to illness.

115
00:07:46,700 --> 00:07:49,460
He formed a very close relationship
with his mother.

116
00:07:51,020 --> 00:07:53,780
I think Sofia Hesselberg Dahl

117
00:07:53,780 --> 00:07:57,380
was an extraordinary, forceful,
strong woman.

118
00:07:57,380 --> 00:08:04,460
She was a mystic. She read people's
fortunes. She was a tough old bird,

119
00:08:04,460 --> 00:08:06,460
as he might have said.

120
00:08:09,180 --> 00:08:13,900
Roald's mother read him Norwegian
fairy tales as he was growing up.

121
00:08:15,340 --> 00:08:19,020
To find out how these stories may
have influenced the young Dahl,

122
00:08:19,020 --> 00:08:21,820
I've come to the Norwegian church
in Cardiff,

123
00:08:21,820 --> 00:08:23,860
where he was baptised.

124
00:08:23,860 --> 00:08:26,700
I'm meeting with Giles Abbott,

125
00:08:26,700 --> 00:08:30,460
and expert in storytelling with an
interest in Norwegian myths.

126
00:08:31,980 --> 00:08:35,820
So, Giles, what's distinctive about
Norwegian fairy tales?

127
00:08:37,420 --> 00:08:39,580
They have a very distinctive
context -

128
00:08:39,580 --> 00:08:43,820
the isolated, snowbound land,
and mountains of Norway.

129
00:08:44,740 --> 00:08:48,460
They have distinctive flavour
as well. There's a humour,

130
00:08:48,460 --> 00:08:50,940
there's darkness,
and there's trolls.

131
00:08:50,940 --> 00:08:52,780
And what is a troll?

132
00:08:52,780 --> 00:08:57,180
Trolls are usually stupid. They can
be outwitted by clever human beings.

133
00:08:57,180 --> 00:09:00,140
Could be me you're describing here.
Could it be? I don't know.

134
00:09:00,140 --> 00:09:02,940
I think they often take
on qualities of nature

135
00:09:02,940 --> 00:09:05,220
so a troll can have
a rock-like aspect

136
00:09:05,220 --> 00:09:08,580
or sometimes when the sun comes up,
they turn into rocks.

137
00:09:08,580 --> 00:09:11,220
If you've seen rocks and you
can sort of see a face - Yeah.

138
00:09:11,220 --> 00:09:13,060
You can imagine how that would
happen.

139
00:09:13,060 --> 00:09:16,300
Wow. So there's kind of threat
everywhere in these stories.

140
00:09:16,300 --> 00:09:18,980
Yes.
Nature even can't be trusted.

141
00:09:18,980 --> 00:09:23,700
Well, nature can't. In particularly,
in a land as challenging as Norway.

142
00:09:23,700 --> 00:09:26,980
There's threat and danger everywhere
in those dark forests,

143
00:09:26,980 --> 00:09:31,140
in those great lakes,
behind those great mountains.

144
00:09:31,140 --> 00:09:34,860
I have a friend who grew up
in Norway in the 1940s,

145
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and she says that the trolls would
be things like

146
00:09:37,860 --> 00:09:40,100
if you see a tree covered in snow,

147
00:09:40,100 --> 00:09:42,860
it can take on a humanoid shape,
but it's massive.

148
00:09:42,860 --> 00:09:45,820
And whenever her family met with
other branches of her family,

149
00:09:45,820 --> 00:09:47,740
the first thing they would do
is sit down

150
00:09:47,740 --> 00:09:50,700
and the older people would tell
troll stories to the children.

151
00:09:50,700 --> 00:09:54,460
You can imagine the young Dahl asking
for the most macabre stories.

152
00:09:54,460 --> 00:09:57,700
Oh, yeah. And asking his mother to
hear them over and over again.

153
00:09:57,700 --> 00:10:01,380
In The Witches, the boy hero
is told stories by his grandmother

154
00:10:01,380 --> 00:10:03,540
and this what Roald writes.

155
00:10:03,540 --> 00:10:07,700
My grandmother was Norwegian. The
Norwegians know all about witches.

156
00:10:07,700 --> 00:10:10,860
For Norway, with its black forests
and icy mountains,

157
00:10:10,860 --> 00:10:13,100
is where the first witches came from.

158
00:10:13,100 --> 00:10:17,220
Oh... Fantastic, but amazing
that he connect Norway...

159
00:10:17,220 --> 00:10:22,020
And the landscape. Yeah.
To witches, to horrifying things.

160
00:10:25,180 --> 00:10:28,460
'Vitches of Inkland!',
shouted the Grand High Witch.

161
00:10:28,460 --> 00:10:30,540
She herself, I noticed,

162
00:10:30,540 --> 00:10:33,860
had not taken off either her wig
or her gloves, or her shoes.

163
00:10:33,860 --> 00:10:36,940
'Vitches of Inkland,' she yelled.

164
00:10:36,940 --> 00:10:41,460
The audience stirred uneasily and
sat up straighter in their chairs.

165
00:10:41,460 --> 00:10:46,860
'Miserrable vitches,' she yelled.
'Useless, lazy vitches.

166
00:10:46,860 --> 00:10:49,780
Feeble, frrribling vitches.

167
00:10:49,780 --> 00:10:54,220
You are heap of idle
good-for-nothing vurms!'

168
00:10:56,820 --> 00:10:58,500
Dahl's widowed mother took him

169
00:10:58,820 --> 00:11:02,340
to the mountains and fjords
of Norway every summer.

170
00:11:03,140 --> 00:11:06,100
Decades later,
as he settled in Buckinghamshire,

171
00:11:06,100 --> 00:11:08,340
nature was still important to him.

172
00:11:14,380 --> 00:11:18,660
Coming here has made me realise just
how much Dahl must have loved nature.

173
00:11:18,660 --> 00:11:24,220
He chose to live surrounded
by fields and trees

174
00:11:24,220 --> 00:11:26,740
and I know he was a great lover
of country walks.

175
00:11:27,420 --> 00:11:29,260
It really gives you time to think.

176
00:11:29,260 --> 00:11:32,140
For me, I like to think
when I'm swimming,

177
00:11:32,140 --> 00:11:36,780
but he probably liked to think while
he was walking across these fields.

178
00:11:37,780 --> 00:11:41,740
Dahl's Norwegian background
also made him an outsider.

179
00:11:42,300 --> 00:11:45,780
With an outsider's ability
to see the world differently.

180
00:11:47,100 --> 00:11:50,860
His first children's book came from
him sitting in his hut,

181
00:11:50,860 --> 00:11:54,220
and thinking,
'Why do fruits stop growing?

182
00:11:54,220 --> 00:11:56,420
Why don't they just go on growing

183
00:11:56,420 --> 00:11:59,060
and getting bigger and bigger
and bigger.'

184
00:11:59,060 --> 00:12:03,300
And he didn't feel that science
provided all the answers.

185
00:12:03,300 --> 00:12:06,580
I mean, science provided some of
the answers

186
00:12:06,580 --> 00:12:11,020
but his mind was always open to
the idea that we don't know

187
00:12:11,020 --> 00:12:15,340
that trees aren't screaming when
you saw a branch off.

188
00:12:15,340 --> 00:12:20,180
We don't know that grass doesn't
feel pain when you mow the lawn.

189
00:12:20,180 --> 00:12:25,620
He was always looking beyond
the surface for something

190
00:12:25,620 --> 00:12:29,540
and so magic very, very quickly came
into his life.

191
00:12:29,540 --> 00:12:31,300
It is a sign of a master.

192
00:12:31,300 --> 00:12:33,100
He sets a rule. It's his world.

193
00:12:33,100 --> 00:12:36,140
Everything happens the way he says
it's going to happen

194
00:12:36,140 --> 00:12:38,180
and you don't argue with it.
You go with it.

195
00:12:38,180 --> 00:12:41,020
Wherever that peach goes,
however high it flies,

196
00:12:41,020 --> 00:12:43,980
even when it ends up spiked on top
of the Empire State Building,

197
00:12:43,980 --> 00:12:46,420
it's there because he says so.
That is the pleasure

198
00:12:46,420 --> 00:12:50,060
of reading the books. You never
question Dahl. You just go with him.

199
00:12:51,460 --> 00:12:53,980
Every year, at Dahl's old school,

200
00:12:53,980 --> 00:12:56,500
the Cathedral School in Llandaff,
Cardiff,

201
00:12:56,500 --> 00:12:59,900
the children bring to life one
of Dahl's stories

202
00:12:59,900 --> 00:13:02,540
that subverts the laws of nature.

203
00:13:02,540 --> 00:13:04,620
Golden Gloss Shampoo?

204
00:13:04,620 --> 00:13:07,580
ALL: Yes.
Toothpaste? Yes.

205
00:13:07,580 --> 00:13:10,260
Superfoam Shaving Foam.
Yes.

206
00:13:11,060 --> 00:13:13,140
'In George's Marvellous Medicine,

207
00:13:13,140 --> 00:13:15,700
George is fed up with his grumpy
grandmother,

208
00:13:15,700 --> 00:13:19,540
and thinks he can cure her with
his own special medicine.'

209
00:13:19,540 --> 00:13:21,540
Granary seeds.
Yes.

210
00:13:21,540 --> 00:13:25,220
'The original ingredients are so
disgusting and foul,

211
00:13:25,220 --> 00:13:27,580
we've made a few substitutions.'

212
00:13:27,580 --> 00:13:29,620
Horseradish sauce?
Yes.

213
00:13:29,620 --> 00:13:33,140
OK, let's do it. Find the engine oil,
pour a little bit in. Oops.

214
00:13:33,140 --> 00:13:35,220
No, that's good. Pour it all in.

215
00:13:35,220 --> 00:13:40,100
What shall we go with next?
Let's all grind up these horse pills.

216
00:13:43,020 --> 00:13:45,100
Smash them in the bowls.

217
00:13:45,100 --> 00:13:47,820
Just get them a good old smash.
More, more, more.

218
00:13:47,820 --> 00:13:49,860
Just give it a stir.

219
00:13:49,860 --> 00:13:51,900
OK.

220
00:13:51,900 --> 00:13:54,620
Would you eat that? Maybe not.

221
00:13:54,620 --> 00:13:56,540
Come on.
(CHUCKLES)

222
00:14:00,940 --> 00:14:02,940
Wow, looks lovely, doesn't it?

223
00:14:02,940 --> 00:14:06,140
Next, I think, is curry powder.

224
00:14:06,140 --> 00:14:08,060
ALL: Errrgh!
(SCREAMING)

225
00:14:09,900 --> 00:14:14,100
Shall I try it? Shall I see what it
tastes like? Shall I?

226
00:14:14,100 --> 00:14:16,180
No? (LAUGHS)

227
00:14:16,180 --> 00:14:19,380
It's more fun than normal lessons,
isn't it?

228
00:14:19,380 --> 00:14:21,460
Push it in!

229
00:14:21,460 --> 00:14:24,300
George stood in his bedroom,
gazing at the shambles.

230
00:14:24,300 --> 00:14:26,380
There was a big hole in the floor,

231
00:14:26,380 --> 00:14:29,980
and another in the ceiling.
And sticking up like a post

232
00:14:29,980 --> 00:14:33,140
between the two was the middle part
of grandma.

233
00:14:33,140 --> 00:14:35,620
Her legs were in the room below,

234
00:14:35,620 --> 00:14:37,700
her head in the attic.

235
00:14:37,700 --> 00:14:42,100
'I'm still going!' came the old
screechy voice from up above.

236
00:14:42,100 --> 00:14:45,900
'Give me another dose, my boy,
and let's go through the roof!'

237
00:14:45,900 --> 00:14:49,020
'No, Grandma, no.'
George called back.

238
00:14:49,020 --> 00:14:51,140
'You're busting up the whole house!'

239
00:14:51,140 --> 00:14:54,020
'To heck with the house!'
She shouted.

240
00:14:54,020 --> 00:14:58,060
'I want some fresh air.
I haven't been outside for 20 years.

241
00:14:58,060 --> 00:15:01,500
With a heigh-nonny-no and up we go!'
She shouted.

242
00:15:01,500 --> 00:15:03,460
'Just watch me grow!'

243
00:15:04,940 --> 00:15:08,540
Imagine if the headmaster
did actually eat it?

244
00:15:08,540 --> 00:15:12,100
He probably won't. If we put it in
his coffee, he probably would.

245
00:15:12,100 --> 00:15:14,940
(LAUGHING)
However wacky the inventions,

246
00:15:14,940 --> 00:15:19,060
however ridiculous the events,
all Dahl's stories are believable.

247
00:15:19,060 --> 00:15:21,700
They may not be realistic

248
00:15:21,700 --> 00:15:23,780
but they are believable.

249
00:15:23,780 --> 00:15:29,100
Dahl has this amazing understanding
of what makes kids tick,

250
00:15:29,100 --> 00:15:31,780
so he can create worlds
that they believe in.

251
00:15:33,180 --> 00:15:36,900
He has the most extraordinary ability
to see the world

252
00:15:36,900 --> 00:15:39,740
as he did when he was a child.

253
00:15:46,750 --> 00:15:48,950
Oh, Daddy, we'll never find it.

254
00:15:48,950 --> 00:15:50,790
We must keep looking.

255
00:15:50,790 --> 00:15:53,750
Roald Dahl didn't just write
legendary children's books,

256
00:15:53,750 --> 00:15:56,670
he co-wrote the screenplay
for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,

257
00:15:56,670 --> 00:15:59,550
stamping on it his unique
storytelling.

258
00:15:59,550 --> 00:16:02,270
He created the infamous
child-catcher,

259
00:16:02,270 --> 00:16:04,310
who wasn't in the book.

260
00:16:04,310 --> 00:16:07,230
I can smell them!

261
00:16:07,230 --> 00:16:10,270
'I think the child-catcher's one
of Dahl's greatest creations

262
00:16:10,270 --> 00:16:13,510
and I think it's possibly
the greatest villain in cinema.

263
00:16:13,510 --> 00:16:16,590
It really kind of speaks to what's
brilliant about Dahl.'

264
00:16:16,590 --> 00:16:19,590
A lot of people are quite dismissive
about him

265
00:16:19,590 --> 00:16:22,430
because he does use beautiful
description,

266
00:16:22,430 --> 00:16:24,870
he's not psychologically subtle.

267
00:16:24,870 --> 00:16:27,670
There's not a lot of sort
of the finer arts

268
00:16:27,670 --> 00:16:30,270
of writing evident in Dahl.

269
00:16:30,270 --> 00:16:33,750
But he's got this thing that very
very few people have got

270
00:16:33,750 --> 00:16:36,670
where he can just go straight
to the nerve.

271
00:16:36,670 --> 00:16:40,110
I mean, the child catcher, it just
seems to be speaking

272
00:16:40,110 --> 00:16:44,150
to your nervous system. It's like
that injection of adrenaline

273
00:16:44,150 --> 00:16:47,270
in Pulp Fiction that just thumps
into your chest.

274
00:16:47,270 --> 00:16:50,830
And he just seems to bypass
all your cognitive abilities

275
00:16:50,830 --> 00:16:53,390
and really rattle you in
a visceral way.

276
00:16:53,390 --> 00:16:56,110
And that's a very, very,
very rare gift.

277
00:16:57,310 --> 00:16:59,750
Here we are, children.

278
00:16:59,750 --> 00:17:01,670
Come and get your lollipops.

279
00:17:04,790 --> 00:17:06,750
Lollipops!

280
00:17:13,710 --> 00:17:16,670
Dahl's fascination with extreme
characters

281
00:17:16,670 --> 00:17:18,950
can be seen right from his years
at school.

282
00:17:23,310 --> 00:17:27,390
On Llandaff High Street,
Dahl visited his local sweet shop.

283
00:17:27,390 --> 00:17:32,470
In his autobiography, he recalled it
as being owned by a Mrs Pratchett.

284
00:17:33,390 --> 00:17:36,190
Today, it's a Chinese takeaway.

285
00:17:37,230 --> 00:17:41,350
Dahl described Mrs Pratchett
as a small, skinny, old hag

286
00:17:41,350 --> 00:17:44,430
with goat's legs and black
fingernails.

287
00:17:44,430 --> 00:17:47,910
Her blouse had bits of breakfast
all over it -

288
00:17:47,910 --> 00:17:52,710
toast crumbs and tea stains,
and splotches of dried egg.

289
00:17:52,710 --> 00:17:55,950
She would say things like,
'I'm watching you,

290
00:17:55,950 --> 00:17:59,590
so keep your thieving fingers off
them chocolates.'

291
00:18:00,950 --> 00:18:04,270
You do wonder if Mrs Pratchett
inspired many

292
00:18:04,270 --> 00:18:06,190
of Dahl's darkest creations.

293
00:18:10,710 --> 00:18:13,350
So fired up was the young Roald

294
00:18:13,350 --> 00:18:16,950
that he masterminded the perfect
revenge on Mrs Pratchett,

295
00:18:16,950 --> 00:18:20,590
leaving a dead mouse in one
of the sweet jars.

296
00:18:22,270 --> 00:18:25,990
Found out, Dahl was sent to the
headmaster for punishment.

297
00:18:25,990 --> 00:18:27,950
(CANE WHIPS)

298
00:18:29,350 --> 00:18:34,070
Dahl remembered, 'It felt, I promise
you, as though someone had laid

299
00:18:34,070 --> 00:18:38,670
a red-hot poker against my flesh,
and was pressing down on it hard.'

300
00:18:41,110 --> 00:18:42,950
But despite these experiences,

301
00:18:42,950 --> 00:18:45,470
he never lost his anarchic spirit.

302
00:18:48,470 --> 00:18:53,310
This is a letter Dahl wrote
to his mother in 1930 when he was 13.

303
00:18:53,950 --> 00:18:56,830
You seem to have been doing
a lot of painting,

304
00:18:56,830 --> 00:19:00,270
but when you paint the loo,
don't paint the seat,

305
00:19:00,270 --> 00:19:03,710
leaving it wet and sticky or some
unfortunate person

306
00:19:03,710 --> 00:19:08,310
who has not noticed it will adhere to
it and unless his bottom is cut off,

307
00:19:08,310 --> 00:19:12,830
unless he chooses to go about with
the seat sticking behind him always,

308
00:19:12,830 --> 00:19:15,230
he will be doomed to stay where he is

309
00:19:15,230 --> 00:19:18,310
and do nothing but shit for the rest
of his life.

310
00:19:18,870 --> 00:19:23,270
Now already you can see Dahl is
inviting the reader

311
00:19:23,270 --> 00:19:26,510
enter a world of his dark and
surreal humour.

312
00:19:26,510 --> 00:19:29,310
It's really, really fascinating

313
00:19:29,310 --> 00:19:32,950
that he kind of gets an idea
and he runs with it.

314
00:19:32,950 --> 00:19:36,190
He's visualising it already.
He's visualising someone

315
00:19:36,190 --> 00:19:38,830
with a seat stuck to their arse.

316
00:19:38,830 --> 00:19:41,670
It's funny.
Quite inappropriate really

317
00:19:41,670 --> 00:19:44,310
for a letter to your mother aged 13.

318
00:19:44,310 --> 00:19:47,310
Especially the use of the word
'shit' in 1930

319
00:19:47,310 --> 00:19:50,750
but...this is the birth of a genius.

320
00:19:52,590 --> 00:19:57,110
Everything I heard from people who
remember the Dahl household

321
00:19:57,110 --> 00:20:01,950
leaves me think that it was
a pretty chaotic, riotous place.

322
00:20:01,950 --> 00:20:03,990
I mean, his school friends
said to me,

323
00:20:03,990 --> 00:20:07,750
'Gosh, to go and stay at the Dahl's,
it was like staying in a madhouse.'

324
00:20:07,750 --> 00:20:09,790
Some of them found it quite shocking

325
00:20:09,790 --> 00:20:12,030
because all the kids swore like
troopers

326
00:20:12,030 --> 00:20:14,630
and Sofia Magdalene didn't seem to
give a damn.

327
00:20:14,630 --> 00:20:17,630
And I think that was
very important him

328
00:20:17,630 --> 00:20:20,910
because he was used to a home
environment that had no rules

329
00:20:20,910 --> 00:20:23,990
and he really...he really kicked
against rules,

330
00:20:23,990 --> 00:20:26,510
anybody telling him what to do most
of his life.

331
00:20:26,510 --> 00:20:30,670
I think, not to put too fine a point
upon it, he hated school.

332
00:20:30,670 --> 00:20:33,470
I think he really really
had a bad time there.

333
00:20:34,950 --> 00:20:37,030
Adults are like....

334
00:20:37,030 --> 00:20:41,750
(GRUMBLES) 'You have to do this,
you have to do that.'

335
00:20:44,030 --> 00:20:46,110
Yeah.

336
00:20:46,110 --> 00:20:50,150
Matilda, one of his last books,
is a story of a brilliant child,

337
00:20:50,150 --> 00:20:54,870
her beastly parents and nasty
headmistress - Miss Trunchbull.

338
00:20:55,670 --> 00:21:00,350
'What's she look like?
Nasty little worm, I'll be bound.

339
00:21:00,350 --> 00:21:06,070
I have discovered, Miss Honey,
during my long career as a teacher

340
00:21:06,070 --> 00:21:13,630
that a bad girl is a far more
dangerous creature than a bad boy.

341
00:21:13,630 --> 00:21:17,910
What's more they're much harder
to squash.

342
00:21:17,910 --> 00:21:22,790
Squashing a bad girl is like trying
to squash a bluebottle.

343
00:21:22,790 --> 00:21:26,950
You bang down on it and the darn
thing isn't there.

344
00:21:26,950 --> 00:21:31,390
Nasty, dirty things,
little girls are.

345
00:21:31,390 --> 00:21:34,310
Glad I never was one.'

346
00:21:36,430 --> 00:21:40,230
Hmmm. So that's Miss Trunchbull.

347
00:21:40,230 --> 00:21:44,750
She's got to be the most evil
teacher in the world. ALL: Yeah.

348
00:21:46,830 --> 00:21:49,830
Roald Dahl was physically and
mentally hurt

349
00:21:49,830 --> 00:21:52,310
by the way in which he was
treated at school.

350
00:21:52,310 --> 00:21:54,110
There's no question of it.

351
00:21:54,110 --> 00:21:56,750
You can see in the way he writes
about beatings and so on.

352
00:21:56,750 --> 00:21:59,350
So he's poured all this in
to Miss Trunchbull

353
00:21:59,350 --> 00:22:02,990
and then by exaggerating it,
in a way, you make it safe,

354
00:22:02,990 --> 00:22:05,750
psychologically,
from his point of view.

355
00:22:05,750 --> 00:22:08,310
If you exaggerate something,
you end up laughing at it.

356
00:22:10,550 --> 00:22:13,750
Dahl's extreme characters have
been brought to life

357
00:22:13,750 --> 00:22:16,310
through the illustrations
of Quentin Blake.

358
00:22:18,150 --> 00:22:22,790
I think Matilda....
I think that got the most...

359
00:22:22,790 --> 00:22:25,390
I seem to remember there's 100
drawings in that.

360
00:22:25,390 --> 00:22:28,070
It's of the longest of his books.
He was very pleased.

361
00:22:28,070 --> 00:22:30,350
It would be interesting
to look at the process

362
00:22:30,350 --> 00:22:33,310
of he describes Miss Trunchbull
and then how you drew her.

363
00:22:33,310 --> 00:22:36,310
Yes. She's one of your most
sympathetic characters, isn't she?

364
00:22:36,310 --> 00:22:38,950
Yes. I'm very close to her. Yes.

365
00:22:38,950 --> 00:22:41,350
She was, above all,
a most formidable female.

366
00:22:41,350 --> 00:22:43,150
She had once been a famous athlete

367
00:22:43,150 --> 00:22:45,830
and even now the muscles were still
clearly in evidence.

368
00:22:45,830 --> 00:22:48,470
You could see them in the bull neck,
in the big shoulders

369
00:22:48,470 --> 00:22:51,430
and the thick arms, in the sinewy
wrists and the powerful legs.

370
00:22:51,430 --> 00:22:54,870
Look at her, you got the feeling this
was someone who could bend iron bars

371
00:22:54,870 --> 00:22:56,830
and tear telephone directories
in half.

372
00:22:56,830 --> 00:22:59,790
This was another moment where we
changed it a bit,

373
00:22:59,790 --> 00:23:03,510
or Roald changed it,
because when he described her,

374
00:23:03,510 --> 00:23:07,670
she was like a...
I think she had a collar and tie,

375
00:23:07,670 --> 00:23:10,190
and...

376
00:23:11,470 --> 00:23:14,750
Well, I did a slight moustache
but I'm not sure whether

377
00:23:14,750 --> 00:23:17,230
that was in the text or whether
I made that up.

378
00:23:17,230 --> 00:23:19,350
I don't think you'd be that cruel,
Quentin,

379
00:23:19,350 --> 00:23:21,190
I think that must have been Roald's.

380
00:23:21,190 --> 00:23:23,230
He bought out another side in me.

381
00:23:23,230 --> 00:23:25,190
But...

382
00:23:25,510 --> 00:23:29,110
So that the presentation
was very masculine

383
00:23:29,110 --> 00:23:32,550
and I think that when we
saw Roald said,

384
00:23:32,550 --> 00:23:37,230
'She's got to be terrible,
but has got to be a woman.'

385
00:23:37,230 --> 00:23:41,190
So, yes, that's right,
we gave her...

386
00:23:41,190 --> 00:23:46,190
She actually does have
a feminine hairstyle.

387
00:23:46,190 --> 00:23:52,470
And then Roald found a photograph of
someone wearing the sort of costume

388
00:23:52,470 --> 00:23:58,430
that she is wearing,
with this rather...

389
00:24:00,310 --> 00:24:03,670
I invented that nasty buckle
on the belt actually

390
00:24:03,670 --> 00:24:05,670
which is sort of...

391
00:24:06,630 --> 00:24:09,870
Quite contains her, doesn't it,
really? Yes, that's right and then...

392
00:24:11,390 --> 00:24:13,470
She bursting out even if...

393
00:24:13,470 --> 00:24:18,310
Yes, that's right. And then the
cuffs and the...

394
00:24:19,670 --> 00:24:21,630
Great big hands.

395
00:24:22,550 --> 00:24:25,670
Is it more fun drawing the monstrous
characters

396
00:24:25,670 --> 00:24:30,110
or the sort of larger-than-life
characters than the kids?

397
00:24:30,790 --> 00:24:35,910
It's different. I mean, you need
that roughage in your diet,

398
00:24:35,910 --> 00:24:41,070
I think, really. It's interesting.
You can modify the dose as it were.

399
00:24:41,070 --> 00:24:45,070
They are caricatures, you know,
frightening caricatures.

400
00:24:45,070 --> 00:24:47,150
But they're slightly less
frightening

401
00:24:47,150 --> 00:24:49,230
because they're caricatures
in a way.

402
00:24:49,230 --> 00:24:51,830
Is it hard selecting which bits
to illustrate

403
00:24:51,830 --> 00:24:54,150
or is it very natural
on your first read?

404
00:24:54,150 --> 00:24:56,910
No, it takes quite a lot of thought,
I think.

405
00:24:56,910 --> 00:24:59,470
It's an important bit of the job,
actually.

406
00:25:02,670 --> 00:25:05,750
There's an example I've quoted
in the past

407
00:25:05,750 --> 00:25:10,070
where the boy eats the whole
chocolate cake, you know,

408
00:25:10,070 --> 00:25:12,790
and Miss Trunchbull
is so annoyed about that,

409
00:25:12,790 --> 00:25:15,950
that she picks up the empty plate,
bashes it over his head.

410
00:25:15,950 --> 00:25:18,270
And of course, he's kind of
anaesthetised

411
00:25:18,270 --> 00:25:21,110
with the chocolate cake so it's all
right, you know.

412
00:25:21,110 --> 00:25:23,950
But I thought I don't want
to draw that,

413
00:25:23,950 --> 00:25:27,590
I'll just draw her lifting
the plate.

414
00:25:27,590 --> 00:25:32,550
So we all have the pleasure of
anticipation.

415
00:25:32,550 --> 00:25:35,510
I know what you mean. You don't want
to see that illustration

416
00:25:35,510 --> 00:25:38,550
of the plate connecting before you've
read that passage, no.

417
00:25:38,550 --> 00:25:40,630
That's right.

418
00:25:40,630 --> 00:25:44,510
Matilda was written in the mission
control for Dahl's creativity -

419
00:25:44,510 --> 00:25:46,590
his famous hut.

420
00:25:46,590 --> 00:25:51,070
The interior has recently been
relocated to the Roald Dahl museum.

421
00:25:52,670 --> 00:25:56,350
What really strikes me about this
writing hut is how ramshackle it is.

422
00:25:57,070 --> 00:26:01,190
There's an electric heater hanging
from two wires on the ceiling.

423
00:26:02,110 --> 00:26:05,710
An angle-poised lamp that's broken
so Dahl's attached a golf ball

424
00:26:05,710 --> 00:26:07,870
with some sellotape to it
to weight it.

425
00:26:07,870 --> 00:26:12,550
There's fossils, part of his hip
bone, shavings from his spine.

426
00:26:13,510 --> 00:26:18,390
And of course, he's got his special
yellow American legal notepaper,

427
00:26:18,390 --> 00:26:20,470
and his pencils.

428
00:26:20,470 --> 00:26:23,430
It actually speaks of someone who
doesn't necessarily find it

429
00:26:23,430 --> 00:26:26,470
that easy to write.
It's all very ritualistic.

430
00:26:27,430 --> 00:26:30,910
It's almost like he's saying,
'I can't create magic,

431
00:26:30,910 --> 00:26:33,310
unless I have all these things
around me.'

432
00:26:39,830 --> 00:26:41,870
Dahl wrote to a daily schedule,

433
00:26:41,870 --> 00:26:44,430
gambling on horses in the afternoon.

434
00:26:44,430 --> 00:26:48,310
But in his hut, he was a disciplined,
great craftsman.

435
00:26:49,550 --> 00:26:52,590
The simplest stories can be the
hardest to write,

436
00:26:52,590 --> 00:26:55,350
and Dahl's books could take many
drafts.

437
00:26:56,030 --> 00:26:59,150
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,
one of Dahl's first books,

438
00:26:59,150 --> 00:27:01,110
took two years to write.

439
00:27:02,190 --> 00:27:04,070
It's like treasure, isn't it?
I know.

440
00:27:05,550 --> 00:27:08,710
As you can see, it's originally
called Charlie's Chocolate Boy.

441
00:27:09,950 --> 00:27:12,870
Well, I think he was right to change
the title, wasn't he?

442
00:27:12,870 --> 00:27:15,310
Well, he changed the whole plot
as well.

443
00:27:15,310 --> 00:27:17,870
So is it very different
from in...

444
00:27:17,870 --> 00:27:23,870
Yes, very, very different. So how do
the drafts change over time?

445
00:27:23,870 --> 00:27:26,310
Well, in this version,

446
00:27:26,310 --> 00:27:30,350
there are ten children and then in
the next draft it goes down

447
00:27:30,350 --> 00:27:33,750
to seven, and then in the final,
published version

448
00:27:33,750 --> 00:27:36,750
there are five children
including Charlie.

449
00:27:36,750 --> 00:27:38,550
You'll like this one.

450
00:27:38,550 --> 00:27:40,870
So this is technically
the third draft.

451
00:27:40,870 --> 00:27:45,710
OK. You can see it's down to seven
children and he's writ them all out.

452
00:27:45,710 --> 00:27:48,870
Charlie Bucket - a nice boy.
Augustus Gloop - a greedy boy.

453
00:27:48,870 --> 00:27:51,230
Marvin Prune - a conceited boy.

454
00:27:51,230 --> 00:27:54,390
Herpes Trout - a television crazy
boy.

455
00:27:54,390 --> 00:27:57,510
He changed the name from Herpes...

456
00:27:57,510 --> 00:28:01,870
Yes. I think quite sensibly
as it's a children's story.

457
00:28:01,870 --> 00:28:04,150
So how radical was this book at the
time?

458
00:28:04,870 --> 00:28:08,830
It's totally different from anything
that anybody else had ever written

459
00:28:08,830 --> 00:28:11,830
and that the reading public
had ever seen before.

460
00:28:11,830 --> 00:28:15,110
The themes were considered too
adult for children

461
00:28:15,110 --> 00:28:18,910
but the fact that the main
characters are children

462
00:28:18,910 --> 00:28:22,150
ruled it out as an adult book,
an obvious adult book.

463
00:28:22,150 --> 00:28:27,550
And also, just the way...
His writing style,

464
00:28:27,550 --> 00:28:31,510
it just seemed terribly rude
and shocking if you come across it.

465
00:28:31,510 --> 00:28:33,430
It's very blunt, isn't it? Yes.

466
00:28:33,430 --> 00:28:37,830
The way all the children just keep
disappearing and where they've gone
to is never explained.

467
00:28:37,830 --> 00:28:41,830
That's the bit I love the most. Well,
actually, I think you see them

468
00:28:41,830 --> 00:28:46,270
at the end sort of...they're all sort
of misshapen and then they come back

469
00:28:46,270 --> 00:28:49,510
into the factory but I think, as
it happens,

470
00:28:49,510 --> 00:28:51,470
you do think they've all been killed

471
00:28:51,630 --> 00:28:54,510
which is why children like it so
much of course

472
00:28:54,510 --> 00:28:58,150
and that's why a publisher's gonna
be scared initially.

473
00:28:58,150 --> 00:29:04,590
Yes. This is as it was published
apart from a last-minute change

474
00:29:04,590 --> 00:29:10,470
when Roald Dahl goes through
all the manuscript

475
00:29:10,470 --> 00:29:12,750
and crosses out all these
Whipple-Scrumpets.

476
00:29:12,750 --> 00:29:15,190
Whipple-Scrumpets become
Oompa-Loompas. Yeah.

477
00:29:15,190 --> 00:29:17,310
And they were so nearly
Whipple-Scrumpets.

478
00:29:17,310 --> 00:29:19,590
Yeah, that's so much better.
It's interesting.

479
00:29:19,590 --> 00:29:22,710
Just the last minute. Exactly.
But when you think, he was still

480
00:29:22,710 --> 00:29:25,030
on the case, still thinking of
improvements.

481
00:29:25,030 --> 00:29:28,270
How he can make it better. Even when
he was ostensibly satisfied.

482
00:29:30,310 --> 00:29:32,390
Yeah, it's great, isn't it?

483
00:29:32,390 --> 00:29:35,390
He's just crossed it out and written
Oompa-Loompas. I know.

484
00:29:35,390 --> 00:29:39,830
He was just obviously sitting in his
hut and goes, 'Oompa-Loompas!'.

485
00:29:39,830 --> 00:29:43,110
'Finally!' But it's great he got
there before the book was published

486
00:29:43,110 --> 00:29:45,830
cos sometimes, having written
a few children's books,

487
00:29:45,830 --> 00:29:49,270
you sometimes deliver
them and then you go,
'Oh, I should have done that.'

488
00:29:49,270 --> 00:29:51,150
I know, it's...
Then it's too late.

489
00:29:52,790 --> 00:29:54,990
Not only did Dahl have difficulty

490
00:29:54,990 --> 00:29:57,950
in publishing
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,

491
00:29:57,950 --> 00:30:00,150
but when it came out
in the early 1960s,

492
00:30:00,150 --> 00:30:02,390
many librarians refused to stock it,

493
00:30:02,390 --> 00:30:04,710
thinking it crude
and unsophisticated.

494
00:30:09,350 --> 00:30:12,870
I love chocolate.
I could have some right now.

495
00:30:12,870 --> 00:30:15,710
Like five chocolate right now.

496
00:30:20,190 --> 00:30:22,310
The squirrels pulled Veruca
to the ground,

497
00:30:22,310 --> 00:30:24,790
and started carrying her across
the floor.

498
00:30:24,790 --> 00:30:30,630
'My goodness, she is a bad nut
after all.' said Mr Wonka.

499
00:30:30,630 --> 00:30:34,110
'Her head must have sounded
quite hollow.'

500
00:30:34,110 --> 00:30:36,990
Veruca kicked and screamed
but it was no use,

501
00:30:36,990 --> 00:30:40,990
the tiny, strong paws held her
tightly and she couldn't escape.

502
00:30:40,990 --> 00:30:44,910
'Where are they taking her?'
shrieked Mrs Salt.

503
00:30:44,910 --> 00:30:49,790
'She's going where all the other bad
nuts go,' said Mr Willy Wonka,

504
00:30:49,790 --> 00:30:51,750
'down the rubbish chute.'

505
00:30:52,630 --> 00:30:55,950
Do think that's cruel that Veruca
gets put down the rubbish chute?

506
00:30:55,950 --> 00:30:58,590
ALL: Yeah.
But she's a bad child, isn't she?

507
00:30:58,590 --> 00:31:04,670
But she's not a nut! She's not a
nut. She's not a nut, no. She's not.

508
00:31:09,550 --> 00:31:12,590
There's a fine line and you just
have to try to find it.

509
00:31:13,750 --> 00:31:17,750
You never describe any
horrors...happening,

510
00:31:17,750 --> 00:31:21,230
you just say that they do happen.

511
00:31:21,230 --> 00:31:24,110
You can not let evil triumph.

512
00:31:26,790 --> 00:31:29,150
For children seeking
a moral compass,

513
00:31:29,150 --> 00:31:33,470
it is right there amidst Willy
Wonka's chocolate temptations.

514
00:31:34,870 --> 00:31:37,630
Isn't that what grown-ups
are dreaming of?

515
00:31:37,630 --> 00:31:42,230
In our Western society, all we can
think about, it seems to me,

516
00:31:42,230 --> 00:31:45,630
is how you can get more money
and get more things.

517
00:31:45,630 --> 00:31:48,110
And how, in Charlie And The
Chocolate Factory

518
00:31:48,110 --> 00:31:50,390
or Willy Wonka And The Chocolate
Factory,

519
00:31:50,390 --> 00:31:52,590
how you can see how this
can go badly wrong.

520
00:31:54,670 --> 00:31:57,870
How some of the children who won
those golden tickets

521
00:31:57,870 --> 00:31:59,830
had a dreadful time.

522
00:32:02,150 --> 00:32:04,230
As with Charlie's golden ticket,

523
00:32:04,230 --> 00:32:07,910
everything can change in a moment
in Roald Dahl's stories.

524
00:32:08,830 --> 00:32:13,510
The same was true in his life.
Roald narrowly avoided death

525
00:32:13,510 --> 00:32:16,270
from a crash landing when he was
a RAF pilot.

526
00:32:16,910 --> 00:32:19,870
In an article, he claimed
to have been shot down,

527
00:32:19,870 --> 00:32:23,310
but the reality was he'd run out
of fuel.

528
00:32:24,310 --> 00:32:28,270
What mattered was what's the best
story? And for him,

529
00:32:28,270 --> 00:32:31,590
definitely being shot down was
a better story.

530
00:32:31,590 --> 00:32:34,390
He wrote it, he improved it,
he changed little details,

531
00:32:34,390 --> 00:32:39,110
but he wasn't going to change
the being shot down

532
00:32:39,110 --> 00:32:42,710
to 'I crashed my plane
in the desert.'

533
00:32:43,870 --> 00:32:47,430
The accident left Dahl struggling
with pain for the rest of his life.

534
00:32:48,270 --> 00:32:51,590
As can be seen in this replica
of his writing art.

535
00:32:55,630 --> 00:32:58,190
Dahl had his chair specially adapted

536
00:32:58,190 --> 00:33:01,430
because he was in so much pain due to
his flying accident.

537
00:33:01,430 --> 00:33:04,310
He had a blanket wrapped over
his legs.

538
00:33:04,310 --> 00:33:08,390
It's a bit like being strapped into
the cockpit of a fighter plane.

539
00:33:08,390 --> 00:33:11,110
Maybe Dahl was flying away,

540
00:33:11,110 --> 00:33:14,470
flying away like Charlie
in the Great Glass Elevator,

541
00:33:14,470 --> 00:33:19,590
flying away from tragedy,
and flying into his imagination.

542
00:33:22,870 --> 00:33:26,310
Dahl's son Theo would also
have a near-death accident.

543
00:33:26,310 --> 00:33:30,750
In response, the ever-creative Dahl
co-invented a device -

544
00:33:30,750 --> 00:33:35,030
this valve, which has since saved
thousands of lives of sick children.

545
00:33:36,790 --> 00:33:39,310
Within a few years of his son's
accident,

546
00:33:39,310 --> 00:33:43,830
Dahl was creating the bizarre
machines in Willy Wonka's factory.

547
00:33:45,910 --> 00:33:49,790
Theo survived,
but then at seven years of age,

548
00:33:49,790 --> 00:33:52,670
his daughter Olivia caught measles.

549
00:33:53,390 --> 00:33:56,870
Dahl's handwritten account of
the doctor's struggle to save her

550
00:33:56,870 --> 00:34:00,710
was found after his death
in a drawer in his hut.

551
00:34:04,350 --> 00:34:06,710
Called Phillip Evans,
he called the hospital.

552
00:34:06,710 --> 00:34:09,910
Called me back. 'Shall I come?'
'Yes, please.'

553
00:34:09,910 --> 00:34:13,670
I said,
'I'd tell hospital he was coming.'

554
00:34:13,670 --> 00:34:18,710
I called. Doc thought I was Evans.

555
00:34:18,710 --> 00:34:21,550
He said, 'I'm afraid she's worse.'

556
00:34:22,470 --> 00:34:25,390
I got in car, drove to hospital,

557
00:34:25,390 --> 00:34:28,870
walked in, two doctors advanced on
me from waiting room.

558
00:34:28,870 --> 00:34:31,190
'How bad is she?'

559
00:34:32,070 --> 00:34:34,030
'I'm afraid it's too late.'

560
00:34:35,070 --> 00:34:38,190
I went into the room.
Sheet was over her.

561
00:34:38,190 --> 00:34:43,030
Doctor said to nurse,
'Go out. Leave him alone.'

562
00:34:43,030 --> 00:34:46,150
I kissed her. She was warm.

563
00:34:47,310 --> 00:34:52,390
I went out. 'She's warm.'
I said to the doctor in the hall.

564
00:34:52,390 --> 00:34:54,150
'Why is she warm?'

565
00:34:55,630 --> 00:34:59,030
'Of course,' he said. I left.

566
00:35:01,110 --> 00:35:03,390
That's a really harrowing account,
isn't it?

567
00:35:03,390 --> 00:35:07,190
I think the economy of it
is what's so ghastly.

568
00:35:07,190 --> 00:35:14,070
That he couldn't handle...trying to
fictionalise it any way.

569
00:35:14,070 --> 00:35:16,470
He just had to tell it as it was.

570
00:35:16,470 --> 00:35:19,870
So Olivia died, she was seven.
She died in 1962.

571
00:35:19,870 --> 00:35:25,310
Yes. How do you think her death
affected him and his writing?

572
00:35:25,710 --> 00:35:29,590
Tragedy had been
part of his childhood too

573
00:35:29,590 --> 00:35:34,630
so he had... I feel all his
writing displays a strong sense

574
00:35:34,630 --> 00:35:36,710
of the importance of family,

575
00:35:36,710 --> 00:35:40,030
and how blessed you are when
that's going well.

576
00:35:40,030 --> 00:35:48,270
And I think that... His sister died
when she was very young.

577
00:35:48,270 --> 00:35:52,310
And of course he lost his father when
he was very young as well.

578
00:35:52,310 --> 00:35:54,590
He lost his father, exactly.

579
00:35:54,590 --> 00:35:57,990
Tragedy and difficulty had been part
of his upbringing.

580
00:35:59,150 --> 00:36:01,230
He knew bad things happened

581
00:36:01,230 --> 00:36:07,270
and he could countenance in fiction
them happening to bad people.

582
00:36:07,270 --> 00:36:09,550
He thought the world wasn't
a fair place.

583
00:36:09,550 --> 00:36:14,270
So the books themselves perhaps
occupied more of a moral universe

584
00:36:14,270 --> 00:36:18,470
than they would have done if he
hadn't had those tragedies

585
00:36:18,470 --> 00:36:22,470
because he thought why should awful
people get away with things?

586
00:36:22,470 --> 00:36:25,670
Why should they?
Was he judgemental in real life?

587
00:36:26,590 --> 00:36:28,590
He was quick to make judgements,
yeah.

588
00:36:28,590 --> 00:36:31,070
He was quick.
People were either good or bad.

589
00:36:31,070 --> 00:36:33,230
There weren't many shades
of grey with Roald.

590
00:36:37,870 --> 00:36:42,470
After Olivia's death, Dahl's first
wife Patricia Neal almost died

591
00:36:42,470 --> 00:36:45,430
after having three strokes
while pregnant.

592
00:36:46,870 --> 00:36:50,270
Mr Fox looked at the four small
foxes and smiled.

593
00:36:51,150 --> 00:36:53,350
What fine children I have,
he thought.

594
00:36:53,350 --> 00:36:57,030
They're starving to death and they
haven't had a drink for three days

595
00:36:57,030 --> 00:36:59,070
but they're still undefeated.

596
00:36:59,070 --> 00:37:01,150
I must not let them down.

597
00:37:01,150 --> 00:37:05,030
'I...suppose we could give it a
try.' he said.

598
00:37:05,030 --> 00:37:07,910
'Let's go, Dad. Tell us what you
want us to do!'

599
00:37:07,910 --> 00:37:10,870
Slowly, Mrs Fox got to her feet.

600
00:37:10,870 --> 00:37:12,670
She was suffering more than any

601
00:37:12,670 --> 00:37:14,510
of them from the lack of food and
water.

602
00:37:14,510 --> 00:37:16,470
She was very weak.

603
00:37:16,950 --> 00:37:18,750
'I'm so sorry,' she said,

604
00:37:18,750 --> 00:37:20,950
'but I don't think I'm going to be
much help.'

605
00:37:20,950 --> 00:37:24,350
'You stay right where you are,
my darling.' said Mr Fox.

606
00:37:24,350 --> 00:37:26,950
'We can handle this by ourselves.'

607
00:37:34,910 --> 00:37:39,710
Dahl the patriarch led his family
through this terribly tragic time.

608
00:37:40,790 --> 00:37:42,790
Like any parent, he had his faults,

609
00:37:42,790 --> 00:37:45,310
but family was very important to him.

610
00:37:46,630 --> 00:37:49,790
Soon after this time, he wrote
Danny, The Champion Of The World.

611
00:37:49,790 --> 00:37:52,950
This gypsy caravan in his garden
features heavily in the story

612
00:37:52,950 --> 00:37:55,630
and soon after that came
Fantastic Mr Fox.

613
00:37:55,630 --> 00:37:58,270
Both are about heroic fathers

614
00:37:58,270 --> 00:38:00,550
leading their families through
adversity.

615
00:38:02,590 --> 00:38:05,430
I think without doubt you can say

616
00:38:05,430 --> 00:38:08,950
that every child is torn

617
00:38:08,950 --> 00:38:11,750
about all sorts of feelings about
their parents.

618
00:38:12,950 --> 00:38:15,510
Every page in Danny,
The Champion Of The World

619
00:38:15,510 --> 00:38:18,950
talks really about a love for a man
who has problems

620
00:38:18,950 --> 00:38:22,230
and the son, in a sense,
is able to help his dad

621
00:38:22,230 --> 00:38:24,270
or go along with his dad and so on.

622
00:38:24,270 --> 00:38:29,070
It's an incredibly caring, loving
book about someone in difficulty,

623
00:38:29,070 --> 00:38:31,150
namely the dad more so than the boy.

624
00:38:31,150 --> 00:38:35,710
He really digs in to a relationship
there and set of actions

625
00:38:35,710 --> 00:38:38,350
that you won't find in many books.
Powerful stuff.

626
00:38:40,990 --> 00:38:44,590
Dahl's books resonate with their
emotive and moral worlds

627
00:38:44,590 --> 00:38:48,230
and they are always,
always wickedly funny.

628
00:38:49,550 --> 00:38:51,510
(CHUCKLES)

629
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,240
When Roald Dahl started writing
for children,

630
00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,680
he broke all the rules.

631
00:39:08,360 --> 00:39:11,360
Let's see Red Riding Hood
splattered over the wall.

632
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:13,920
Let's have Cinderella
with her head on the floor,

633
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,200
because actually we're fed up
hearing their tedious stories,

634
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:19,880
year after year in pantomime and
everywhere else.

635
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:21,800
And finally here's a writer
who took them

636
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:23,600
and gave them what they deserved.

637
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:26,200
Delightfully subversive,
deliciously disgusting,

638
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:30,000
mildly malevolent, you name it.
He was all those things, yes.

639
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:33,480
As a comedian, I've spent a lot
of time trying to work out

640
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,120
how to say things that
if said in a serious way

641
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,560
would be completely unacceptable.

642
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:40,760
And I haven't always gotten away
with it.

643
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:45,800
In Dahl's world, a grandma can be
poisoned by her grandson.

644
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:49,800
Parents can be eaten by a rhinoceros
and yet, somehow,

645
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:51,880
it's acceptable.

646
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,440
It takes a true genius
to pull that off.

647
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:57,480
You are the Axis of Evil.

648
00:39:57,480 --> 00:39:59,880
You ought to be in prison.

649
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,560
You a rotting lump of pure wrong.

650
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:09,680
You are the dark heart of all that
is unholy in this land.

651
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:12,080
A black hole wrong-headedness.

652
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,320
Dahl's book Matilda,
about a spirited girl

653
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:20,280
facing the evil headmistress
Miss Trunchbull,

654
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,920
has now been adapted as an award
winning West End musical

655
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:26,920
by musician Tim Minchin
and writer Dennis Kelly.

656
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:30,840
# This school of late
has started reeking

657
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:32,920
# Quiet, maggots, when I'm speaking

658
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,320
# Reeking with a most disturbing
scent

659
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:37,720
# Only the finest nostrils smell it

660
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:39,560
# But I know it oh-to-well

661
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,680
# It is the odour of rebellion,
It's the bouquet of dissent

662
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:44,760
# And you may bet your britches

663
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,320
# This headmistress finds this foul
odiferousness

664
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,040
# Wholly olfactorily insulting

665
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:52,800
# And so to stop the stench's spread

666
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:55,240
# I find a session of phys ed

667
00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:58,160
# Sorts the merely rank
from the revolting #

668
00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:00,200
Very good. (CLAPS)

669
00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:03,520
That is fantastic and that does
seem like pure Dahl.

670
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:06,440
What do you think are the key
ingredients to a Dahl story?

671
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,120
He'll go somewhere quiet dark,

672
00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:11,280
and then think,
'I'm gonna go a bit further.'

673
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:13,800
And he sort of takes
it a little bit further

674
00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:15,960
and I really like that about it.

675
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:19,360
If you look at The Twits or
something where they end up dead.

676
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:21,280
They end up in their own shoes.

677
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:23,400
There's quite a lot of death
in his books.

678
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:26,760
It's very dark and in Matilda,
you sort of think,

679
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:29,440
the superpower thing,
did he sort of get there and think,

680
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:33,560
'I'm gonna give her a su...' And
there's a nice sort of sense really.

681
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,760
Someone once said to me
that the thing about Dahl is

682
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,840
that he relishes things, and that
really stuck with me for this.

683
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:44,760
He relishes... He likes worms
and burps and things.

684
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:48,200
He relishes that sort of stuff and
in a way, you do as a kid as well.

685
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:50,280
You like that sort of stuff.

686
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,720
For me, lyrically and even
musically, the sort of idea

687
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:57,720
of living in this onomatopoeic world
where everything rustles

688
00:41:57,720 --> 00:42:00,520
and shrivels and squirrels and
squaggles.

689
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:04,000
That's what it was for me. Even when
you're describing him there going...

690
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,600
Your face goes... Errgh,
he likes this, he likes this

691
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,520
and he likes going, 'Errrgh'.

692
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,320
How important is humour to telling
this story?

693
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,200
Humour is... It sort of doesn't work
without it, you know?

694
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:20,760
It's sort of... You need it to sort
of let you do all the dark stuff.

695
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:22,760
Yeah.
They sort of work side by side.

696
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:28,200
And actually, there's a moment in
it where Matilda's telling a story

697
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:31,160
to Mrs Phelps and she gets really
caught up in the story

698
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:34,640
and the story gets really dark,
really, really dark.

699
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:39,200
And you see that Mrs Phelps is
really offended, really upset by it,

700
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,200
the entire audience is like that.
And the Matilda turns around

701
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:44,000
and goes, 'And then it got worse.'

702
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,880
(LAUGHS) The audience does exactly
that. They all crack up.

703
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,480
Dahl says at the beginning of the
book that...

704
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:53,840
He gets Matilda saying that
children's books should always have
humour in, doesn't he?

705
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:55,880
All his books have humour in
them.

706
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:59,680
It's really important. Yeah, and you
can't have a despot like Trunchbull

707
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:03,480
and not have her also be funny
otherwise she's just Hitler.

708
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:05,480
There's a song which I can't
remember

709
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:07,520
because I wrote it very quickly one
day

710
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:09,480
but there's a chant in
it that goes -

711
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:11,960
# There's a place you are sent
if haven't been good

712
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:15,400
# And it's made of spikes and wood
and it isn't big enough to sit

713
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:17,720
# Even if you could, there are
spikes on the bottom

714
00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:19,520
# So you'd wish you'd stood #

715
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:24,040
And it's just fire and brimstone
but it's totally like, 'Ahh!',

716
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:26,480
and it's completely silly
and over-the-top.

717
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:30,320
But it's... Without the jokes,
it's child abuse, you know?

718
00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:33,400
(LAUGHS) Without the jokes,
this is a story about adults

719
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:36,840
being terribly abusive parents and
terribly abusive teachers

720
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:39,360
who throw children out windows by
their hair.

721
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,760
It's such an incredibly balancing
act. Yeah.

722
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:47,440
It's got to be exciting.
It's got to be fast.

723
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,400
It's got to have a good plot
but it's got to be funny.

724
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,000
It's got to be funny.

725
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:57,840
It is only such finely-tuned dark
comedy

726
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:00,200
that can stand the test of time.

727
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,400
It's interesting to see the kind of
connection

728
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:09,440
between Roald Dahl's writing and
Dickens' writing

729
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,440
which is also fantastically funny.

730
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:17,840
These stories are laced with
sadness, tragedy, loss, death,

731
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:24,200
extreme fear, darkness,
and hysterically funny observations.

732
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:27,040
And I think that this is the essence
of great storytelling.

733
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,640
For young people certainly
but also for older people,

734
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:35,120
for grown-up people. So the sooner
you can start reading it,

735
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:39,720
I think you might start with Dahl
and move very easily on to Dickens,

736
00:44:39,720 --> 00:44:42,920
maybe start with Dickens
and slip over into Dahl.

737
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,320
It is easy to underestimate the
challenge of writing for children.

738
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:58,160
As Dahl sealed himself away
in his hut,

739
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:03,000
he became a magician, carefully
crafting worlds full of fantasy,

740
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,640
humour, and morality.

741
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:08,320
He was a master writer

742
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,280
who threw off the constraining
rules of the adult world.

743
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:13,560
Just like a child.

744
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:26,120
I think there are two types
of people on this planet.
Two types of adult.

745
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:29,960
The ones who remember being a child
and still dream like a child,

746
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,800
and have ideas like a child and
enjoy things like a child,

747
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,000
and the one's who have forgotten all
that and are just adults.

748
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:38,080
And I know which ones I prefer.

749
00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:40,760
The second category are probably
politicians or bankers.

750
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:48,080
Children love to daydream.

751
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:51,280
And sometimes, adults do too.

752
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:56,000
Who hasn't thought about running wild
and defying rules and authority?

753
00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,680
And maybe that's why Dahl
has such an enduring appeal

754
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:01,400
and such a mass appeal,

755
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:08,240
because he understands there's
a dreamer and a child...in us all.

756
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:14,600
'He looked as though he'd been blown
up by a powerful pump.'

757
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:16,680
It's so horrible.

758
00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:20,880
'Great, flabby folds of fat bulged
out from every part of his body.

759
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,960
and his face was like a monstrous
ball of dough

760
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:28,800
with two small greedy currenty eyes
peering out upon the world.'

761
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:30,840
(CHUCKLES)

762
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:32,880
Outrageous.

763
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:34,840
No wonder children like them.

764
00:46:35,240 --> 00:46:37,200
itfc subtitles