1 00:00:04,700 --> 00:00:09,380 In the 1890s, the last decade of Queen Victoria's life, 2 00:00:09,380 --> 00:00:12,220 the forces of progress that have powered her reign 3 00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:13,300 enter a new phase. 4 00:00:16,740 --> 00:00:19,740 And the modern world erupts. 5 00:00:24,140 --> 00:00:27,100 In this series, Dr Hannah Fry, 6 00:00:27,100 --> 00:00:29,700 Paul McGann, and I, Philippa Perry, 7 00:00:29,700 --> 00:00:32,060 are time-travelling back to an era 8 00:00:32,060 --> 00:00:34,100 when anything seemed possible. 9 00:00:35,140 --> 00:00:36,220 APPLAUSE 10 00:00:36,220 --> 00:00:41,220 We've seen how advances in technology gave the Victorians 11 00:00:41,220 --> 00:00:43,460 superhuman powers. 12 00:00:43,460 --> 00:00:45,260 But what if science could go further? 13 00:00:47,020 --> 00:00:50,220 Opening the door to other worlds... 14 00:00:50,220 --> 00:00:52,620 ..even the afterlife itself. 15 00:00:54,820 --> 00:00:59,900 I'm a psychotherapist, and I want to understand the strangest aspect 16 00:00:59,900 --> 00:01:02,380 of the late Victorian mind. 17 00:01:02,380 --> 00:01:06,220 How their love of science coexists with their deep belief 18 00:01:06,220 --> 00:01:08,060 in the paranormal. 19 00:01:08,060 --> 00:01:10,940 If you can hear me, I'm already dead! 20 00:01:10,940 --> 00:01:15,540 And I'll see how the 1890s boom in new media and entertainment 21 00:01:15,540 --> 00:01:17,580 brings ghosts into the home... 22 00:01:20,020 --> 00:01:21,500 ..conjures them in films... 23 00:01:23,260 --> 00:01:25,980 ..lays the foundations of today's connected world... 24 00:01:29,260 --> 00:01:34,780 ..and culminates in the first global mass media event. 25 00:01:34,780 --> 00:01:37,620 Welcome to the decade the future landed. 26 00:01:56,100 --> 00:02:02,420 In May 1897, the Italian radio pioneer, Guglielmo Marconi, 27 00:02:02,420 --> 00:02:06,700 comes to this remote part of the Bristol Channel to carry out one of 28 00:02:06,700 --> 00:02:08,540 his ground-breaking experiments. 29 00:02:12,220 --> 00:02:17,500 It's here that he sends a wireless telegraph signal across open water 30 00:02:17,500 --> 00:02:19,020 for the first time in history. 31 00:02:27,220 --> 00:02:32,700 After two days of frustration and failure, they finally manage it. 32 00:02:32,700 --> 00:02:36,460 And one of Marconi's team writes about it like this. 33 00:02:36,460 --> 00:02:39,980 "Five of us stood round the apparatus in a wooden shed, 34 00:02:39,980 --> 00:02:43,140 "sheltered from the gale, with eyes and ears directed towards 35 00:02:43,140 --> 00:02:47,220 "the instruments, with an attention which was almost painful, 36 00:02:47,220 --> 00:02:50,620 "and waited for the hoisting of a flag, which was the signal 37 00:02:50,620 --> 00:02:51,780 "that all was ready. 38 00:02:58,420 --> 00:03:01,820 "Instantaneously we heard the first 'tic tac, tic tac', 39 00:03:01,820 --> 00:03:05,340 "and saw the Morse instrument print the signals which came to us 40 00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:09,100 "silently and invisibly from the island rock. 41 00:03:09,100 --> 00:03:13,420 "It came to us, dancing on the unknown and mysterious agent - 42 00:03:13,420 --> 00:03:14,420 "the ether." 43 00:03:14,420 --> 00:03:16,060 MORSE CODE BEEPS 44 00:03:17,540 --> 00:03:20,060 The message, when it came, was rather prosaic. 45 00:03:20,060 --> 00:03:23,060 It said, "Can you hear me?" 46 00:03:23,060 --> 00:03:28,780 And the answer joyfully came back, "Yes - loud and clear!" 47 00:03:28,780 --> 00:03:33,660 This landmark moment paves the way for radio and Wi-Fi, 48 00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:34,900 and our networked world. 49 00:03:36,340 --> 00:03:38,820 It's an extraordinary breakthrough, 50 00:03:38,820 --> 00:03:42,100 but there's something else that intrigues me. 51 00:03:42,100 --> 00:03:47,180 The late Victorians are also excited about the psychic potential 52 00:03:47,180 --> 00:03:51,020 of this unknown and mysterious agent - the ether. 53 00:03:51,020 --> 00:03:53,660 This is a quote from the spectator. 54 00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:59,700 "Why in fact, if one wire can talk to another without connection, 55 00:03:59,700 --> 00:04:03,180 "save through ether, should not mind talk to mind 56 00:04:03,180 --> 00:04:05,140 "without any wire at all?" 57 00:04:09,460 --> 00:04:13,740 In the 1890s, people aren't just interested in telegraphy - 58 00:04:13,740 --> 00:04:18,140 they think science can help them achieve telepathy. 59 00:04:18,140 --> 00:04:22,300 Belief in the ether, an invisible medium thought to fill space, 60 00:04:22,300 --> 00:04:23,340 is widespread. 61 00:04:25,820 --> 00:04:29,100 Oliver Lodge is one of the scientists fascinated 62 00:04:29,100 --> 00:04:31,580 with the potential of the ether, 63 00:04:31,580 --> 00:04:35,260 and finding ways to communicate through it. 64 00:04:35,260 --> 00:04:38,820 He's the professor of physics at University College, Liverpool, 65 00:04:38,820 --> 00:04:42,740 and his early experiments with radio waves lay the foundation 66 00:04:42,740 --> 00:04:44,620 for Marconi's wireless telegraphy. 67 00:04:46,420 --> 00:04:51,700 In 1894, Lodge begins a series of remarkable demonstrations 68 00:04:51,700 --> 00:04:54,100 in London and Oxford. 69 00:04:54,100 --> 00:04:58,780 The crowd of expectant scientists watches as Oliver Lodge 70 00:04:58,780 --> 00:05:01,820 sets up his equipment, and the experiment begins. 71 00:05:03,500 --> 00:05:05,820 The induction coil sparks into life... 72 00:05:11,780 --> 00:05:14,340 ..harnessing electrical surges in the room, 73 00:05:14,340 --> 00:05:16,460 sending a signal across it. 74 00:05:19,100 --> 00:05:22,620 For the Victorians, this is an invisible, 75 00:05:22,620 --> 00:05:24,260 almost magical force. 76 00:05:27,700 --> 00:05:31,980 It's the first time in Britain that anyone has demonstrated 77 00:05:31,980 --> 00:05:36,380 electromagnetic waves, and tracked their movement with a small beam 78 00:05:36,380 --> 00:05:37,580 of light on a spot metre. 79 00:05:38,860 --> 00:05:42,700 Lodge even manages to detect this invisible energy 80 00:05:42,700 --> 00:05:45,220 from over 50 metres away. 81 00:05:45,220 --> 00:05:50,300 Does this breakthrough mean that now he can detect other unseen energies? 82 00:05:50,300 --> 00:05:51,620 Even other realms? 83 00:05:55,660 --> 00:05:59,340 Lodge is convinced that the paranormal is the cutting edge 84 00:05:59,340 --> 00:06:01,180 of science. 85 00:06:01,180 --> 00:06:04,020 He dreams up a bold plan to explore it, 86 00:06:04,020 --> 00:06:07,020 as if it's another land to be conquered by the British Empire. 87 00:06:09,220 --> 00:06:11,860 Lodge's method is scientific rigour. 88 00:06:11,860 --> 00:06:14,100 He has no time for superstition, 89 00:06:14,100 --> 00:06:15,980 which he regards as close to savagery. 90 00:06:17,460 --> 00:06:21,260 He describes the world of psychic phenomena as 91 00:06:21,260 --> 00:06:25,300 "an intermediate region, bounded on the north by psychology, 92 00:06:25,300 --> 00:06:29,580 "on the south by physics, on the east by physiology, 93 00:06:29,580 --> 00:06:32,860 "and on the west by pathology and medicine. 94 00:06:32,860 --> 00:06:36,740 "The whole region seems to be inhabited mainly by savages, 95 00:06:36,740 --> 00:06:40,740 "many of them, so far as we can judge from a distance, 96 00:06:40,740 --> 00:06:43,220 "given to gross superstition. 97 00:06:43,220 --> 00:06:46,860 "I say it has been left to them long enough. 98 00:06:46,860 --> 00:06:51,260 "We prefer to creep slowly from our base of physical knowledge 99 00:06:51,260 --> 00:06:56,780 "to engineer carefully as we go, establishing forts, making roads, 100 00:06:56,780 --> 00:06:59,260 "and thoroughly exploring the country." 101 00:07:04,100 --> 00:07:07,900 Lodge isn't alone in wanting to journey into this paranormal realm. 102 00:07:09,700 --> 00:07:12,460 He's part of a scientific movement spearheaded by the 103 00:07:12,460 --> 00:07:17,740 Society for Psychical Research - an organization that feverishly 104 00:07:17,740 --> 00:07:21,180 gathers data into phenomena such as clairvoyance, 105 00:07:21,180 --> 00:07:22,660 hypnosis, and telepathy. 106 00:07:24,020 --> 00:07:28,500 The impressive roll call of members includes William James, 107 00:07:28,500 --> 00:07:30,900 the father of psychology. 108 00:07:30,900 --> 00:07:33,580 The biologist, Alfred Russell Wallace, 109 00:07:33,580 --> 00:07:36,500 who developed theories about evolution in parallel 110 00:07:36,500 --> 00:07:38,420 with Charles Darwin. 111 00:07:38,420 --> 00:07:41,500 And even the Prime Minister, William Gladstone. 112 00:07:43,100 --> 00:07:47,020 The membership of the SPR seems remarkable to us today, 113 00:07:47,020 --> 00:07:51,220 as psychical research is seen as a fringe or eccentric activity. 114 00:07:51,220 --> 00:07:55,260 But back then, it was a new frontier for scientific study. 115 00:07:55,260 --> 00:08:01,420 The 1890s was an age of X-rays, electricity, vaccines - 116 00:08:01,420 --> 00:08:06,060 and people thought there must be other invisible energies at work. 117 00:08:11,140 --> 00:08:14,820 I think the pace of change and the scientific breakthroughs 118 00:08:14,820 --> 00:08:18,060 that revolutionised the decade are so extraordinary, 119 00:08:18,060 --> 00:08:22,540 that even unlocking the mysteries of the afterlife starts to look 120 00:08:22,540 --> 00:08:24,820 tantalisingly possible for the SPR. 121 00:08:30,100 --> 00:08:33,100 And the public share their fascination - 122 00:08:33,100 --> 00:08:36,660 attending seances and seeking out communication with the dead, 123 00:08:36,660 --> 00:08:37,700 via spirit mediums. 124 00:08:38,780 --> 00:08:43,260 When the SPR decides to investigate people who claim they can speak 125 00:08:43,260 --> 00:08:46,140 to spirits, Oliver Lodge eagerly joins in. 126 00:08:50,740 --> 00:08:54,540 If you think about it, the idea that if we can talk to dead people, 127 00:08:54,540 --> 00:08:59,060 if we can communicate with these new unseen forces - if that's real, 128 00:08:59,060 --> 00:09:00,540 that is one of the most exciting, 129 00:09:00,540 --> 00:09:03,140 most major scientific breakthroughs imaginable. 130 00:09:03,140 --> 00:09:06,420 And one of the mediums that first really, really excited him about 131 00:09:06,420 --> 00:09:08,420 the possibility was an Italian 132 00:09:08,420 --> 00:09:10,900 medium named Eusepia Palladino. 133 00:09:10,900 --> 00:09:14,660 One of the things Lodge would say about his work with Palladino 134 00:09:14,660 --> 00:09:18,340 is he said, "It's best not to think of her, effectively, as a person - 135 00:09:18,340 --> 00:09:20,900 "it's better to think of her as a delicate instrument". 136 00:09:20,900 --> 00:09:23,860 And Lodge actually travelled specifically to a friend's house 137 00:09:23,860 --> 00:09:27,860 on an island in France, made a special trip just to spend several 138 00:09:27,860 --> 00:09:30,980 nights watching her in action with a team of other researchers - 139 00:09:30,980 --> 00:09:32,820 some of them from the SPR. 140 00:09:32,820 --> 00:09:37,060 So, how did they try to control her during this experiment? 141 00:09:37,060 --> 00:09:39,900 So, they came up with a whole bunch of brand-new techniques. 142 00:09:39,900 --> 00:09:42,460 So again, this was all very, kind of, Wild West, 143 00:09:42,460 --> 00:09:44,340 scientifically speaking. 144 00:09:44,340 --> 00:09:48,740 One of her best-known functions was that she was able to apparently 145 00:09:48,740 --> 00:09:51,300 move objects with invisible forces. 146 00:09:51,300 --> 00:09:54,580 So...when she would be entering into her trance state, 147 00:09:54,580 --> 00:09:57,460 they would have guys sitting to her left and to her right, 148 00:09:57,460 --> 00:10:00,660 and they would try and hold her arms and hold her legs. 149 00:10:00,660 --> 00:10:03,500 And so, allegedly what would happen is that despite all this, 150 00:10:03,500 --> 00:10:06,940 despite what they believed were strict controls, 151 00:10:06,940 --> 00:10:09,580 was that she was able to move objects around the room. 152 00:10:09,580 --> 00:10:13,300 Another thing that happened is that they would feel people touching them 153 00:10:13,300 --> 00:10:15,940 all over - people rummaging through their hair, 154 00:10:15,940 --> 00:10:18,140 and apparently invisible hands. 155 00:10:18,140 --> 00:10:20,660 And sometimes the hands would go visible. 156 00:10:20,660 --> 00:10:23,660 There's reports where the guys would see this whitish substance 157 00:10:23,660 --> 00:10:26,020 would come out from her body - 158 00:10:26,020 --> 00:10:28,300 like a supernumerary limb, they talked about. 159 00:10:28,300 --> 00:10:31,980 And this is where you hear, kind of, the Ghostbusters terminology, 160 00:10:31,980 --> 00:10:34,380 but it starts the phrase "ectoplasm". 161 00:10:34,380 --> 00:10:38,140 So, they're making up new scientific terms? They were, yeah. 162 00:10:38,140 --> 00:10:40,900 And so, in addition to the controls we talked about where they would 163 00:10:40,900 --> 00:10:44,380 hold her down, they created this kind of dynameter, where it would 164 00:10:44,380 --> 00:10:47,980 measure grip strength, and so the idea was they could get a baseline 165 00:10:47,980 --> 00:10:51,420 of what her normal abilities were, and then, see if she had special 166 00:10:51,420 --> 00:10:54,020 superhuman abilities when she was in her trance state, 167 00:10:54,020 --> 00:10:57,260 or possibly being possessed by her spirit controls. 168 00:10:57,260 --> 00:11:00,260 And did she? She did, in fact, according to them. 169 00:11:00,260 --> 00:11:03,340 They measured her with a phenomenally higher grip strength - 170 00:11:03,340 --> 00:11:06,540 way more than like many of the men could grip it. 171 00:11:06,540 --> 00:11:09,900 Way, way higher up, in terms of the grip strength. 172 00:11:09,900 --> 00:11:13,140 And so, for them, they're like "Oh, clearly something is happening. 173 00:11:13,140 --> 00:11:16,780 "This is empirical evidence of something otherworldly, something 174 00:11:16,780 --> 00:11:20,460 "that we don't have currently a natural physical explanation for it. 175 00:11:20,460 --> 00:11:23,140 "So, we better start rewriting physics to accommodate 176 00:11:23,140 --> 00:11:24,180 "the ghost people." 177 00:11:26,860 --> 00:11:31,460 Palladino exhibits eerie powers that Oliver Lodge and his team 178 00:11:31,460 --> 00:11:32,860 simply can't explain away. 179 00:11:34,700 --> 00:11:38,100 They leave convinced she's genuine. 180 00:11:38,100 --> 00:11:40,340 But not everyone passes their tests. 181 00:11:41,700 --> 00:11:44,980 The SPR know that this field is full of charlatans. 182 00:11:46,780 --> 00:11:50,500 Eager to protect the reputation of psychical research, 183 00:11:50,500 --> 00:11:53,740 the society investigators are relentless in their pursuit 184 00:11:53,740 --> 00:11:56,140 of fraudulent mediums. 185 00:11:56,140 --> 00:12:01,300 They sit through countless seances - watching every move, and exposing 186 00:12:01,300 --> 00:12:03,900 anyone they think is a con artist. 187 00:12:03,900 --> 00:12:06,660 But what were the tricks of this lucrative trade? 188 00:12:08,180 --> 00:12:10,340 People would often hold these in very dark, 189 00:12:10,340 --> 00:12:13,060 sometimes pitch-black rooms. 190 00:12:13,060 --> 00:12:15,540 And the medium, when they got into it, or when they were feeling 191 00:12:15,540 --> 00:12:18,540 the forces around them, it would be - I guess you'd describe it today 192 00:12:18,540 --> 00:12:21,020 as something quite like a seizure. Mm-hmm. 193 00:12:21,020 --> 00:12:23,500 So their eyes would roll back into their head, 194 00:12:23,500 --> 00:12:25,300 and they'd have spasmodic motions. 195 00:12:25,300 --> 00:12:27,980 There would be the noises, there would be the instruments, 196 00:12:27,980 --> 00:12:29,740 there would be this atmosphere, 197 00:12:29,740 --> 00:12:33,420 and the more traditional, of course, was...the knocking. 198 00:12:33,420 --> 00:12:35,300 LOUD SLAM 199 00:12:35,300 --> 00:12:39,620 So, we're going to walk through one of the old, kind of, classic tricks 200 00:12:39,620 --> 00:12:42,660 from the mediums - not a super elaborate one, and the idea was 201 00:12:42,660 --> 00:12:46,900 the spirits would generate writing on blank slates. 202 00:12:46,900 --> 00:12:49,980 You would take just a teensy piece of chalk, and you'd sandwich 203 00:12:49,980 --> 00:12:52,820 them together. Ohh! Right? Yeah. 204 00:12:52,820 --> 00:12:56,740 And so, again - you're providing the spirit world with material 205 00:12:56,740 --> 00:12:59,460 with which to communicate - was the theoretical foundation. OK. 206 00:12:59,460 --> 00:13:02,580 We'll fast-forward this a little bit, but traditionally, you would 207 00:13:02,580 --> 00:13:06,300 sometimes do this for hours, so waiting for something to happen. 208 00:13:06,300 --> 00:13:07,500 Want to just take a look? 209 00:13:08,900 --> 00:13:11,420 OK. So, this is authentic... Oh! I'm very disappointed. 210 00:13:11,420 --> 00:13:13,500 I was hoping my late mother will have... See? 211 00:13:13,500 --> 00:13:15,660 ..told me to brush my hair, or something. 212 00:13:15,660 --> 00:13:18,060 Let's see what we can do. Are you any good with knots? 213 00:13:18,060 --> 00:13:19,580 Knots? Not really, no. 214 00:13:19,580 --> 00:13:22,300 OK, well, this is one of the kinds of controls. 215 00:13:22,300 --> 00:13:24,780 So, let's leave these alone for a little bit. 216 00:13:24,780 --> 00:13:27,860 Let's just leave those with you. Oh, thank you. 217 00:13:27,860 --> 00:13:30,300 We'll check back in a moment, I'm sure Mum's going to... 218 00:13:30,300 --> 00:13:33,100 ..do something with that in a minute. Whoa. 219 00:13:33,100 --> 00:13:36,420 Fraudulent spirit mediums use magician's tricks and 220 00:13:36,420 --> 00:13:39,180 sleight-of-hand to swap objects in and out 221 00:13:39,180 --> 00:13:40,900 when the clients are distracted. 222 00:13:42,860 --> 00:13:45,300 We can maybe try the slates again. 223 00:13:47,820 --> 00:13:49,860 Come on, slates. 224 00:13:49,860 --> 00:13:51,780 SHE GASPS 225 00:13:51,780 --> 00:13:54,260 Ooh... Something - what's it say? 226 00:13:54,260 --> 00:13:58,100 "Philippa, don't trust this man." 227 00:13:58,100 --> 00:14:01,140 That's definitely from my mother. It's needlessly hostile. 228 00:14:01,140 --> 00:14:04,980 That's the sort of thing she would always say about all men. 229 00:14:04,980 --> 00:14:06,220 Yeah. 230 00:14:06,220 --> 00:14:08,820 They would collect information about people. 231 00:14:08,820 --> 00:14:11,100 And so, if there was a particular person that you wanted 232 00:14:11,100 --> 00:14:15,180 to come through, they would note that information, 233 00:14:15,180 --> 00:14:18,220 And they would have these little books - they often called them 234 00:14:18,220 --> 00:14:21,740 "blue books" - and different communities of mediums 235 00:14:21,740 --> 00:14:24,700 would all collect information about people that were interested 236 00:14:24,700 --> 00:14:25,780 in spiritualism. 237 00:14:25,780 --> 00:14:28,380 So if you went to one medium, and wanted to talk to say, 238 00:14:28,380 --> 00:14:32,500 your Aunt Tilly - and maybe Tilly came through, maybe she didn't. 239 00:14:32,500 --> 00:14:35,780 But when you went to the next medium, even if you didn't ask them, 240 00:14:35,780 --> 00:14:37,780 Aunt Tilly might come through... HE CHUCKLES 241 00:14:37,780 --> 00:14:40,940 ..because they'd passed the word that you were coming, and they know 242 00:14:40,940 --> 00:14:42,380 who you're looking for. 243 00:14:42,380 --> 00:14:45,020 And if you didn't know about that little extra communication, 244 00:14:45,020 --> 00:14:48,260 it would seem that they'd somehow divined that from some sort of 245 00:14:48,260 --> 00:14:50,260 mysterious external force - 246 00:14:50,260 --> 00:14:53,940 which was actually just passing off the information. 247 00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:58,300 With the spirit of the age all about "what are these invisible forces," 248 00:14:58,300 --> 00:15:00,220 we were so ready to believe! 249 00:15:00,220 --> 00:15:03,900 I mean, I WANTED to believe that this was magic. 250 00:15:03,900 --> 00:15:05,540 I loved it. 251 00:15:05,540 --> 00:15:08,100 And I can imagine myself - 252 00:15:08,100 --> 00:15:12,780 if I didn't have decades of cynicism on me, 253 00:15:12,780 --> 00:15:16,140 and I was right back there in the 1890s - 254 00:15:16,140 --> 00:15:19,780 I'm damn sure I would've believed in that, because I would be 255 00:15:19,780 --> 00:15:20,940 set up to believe in it. 256 00:15:24,420 --> 00:15:27,900 So why are people, including scientists, 257 00:15:27,900 --> 00:15:31,740 so open to the supernatural at the end of the 19th century? 258 00:15:32,820 --> 00:15:37,620 I think some of this is a hangover from Darwin's theory of evolution, 259 00:15:37,620 --> 00:15:38,780 a generation before. 260 00:15:39,820 --> 00:15:44,060 It's now getting rather difficult to reconcile traditional Christian 261 00:15:44,060 --> 00:15:46,300 ideas with contemporary science. 262 00:15:47,780 --> 00:15:51,740 Spiritualism appears to offer palpable proof of an afterlife. 263 00:15:52,860 --> 00:15:56,820 This is a great comfort at a time when your loved ones can be 264 00:15:56,820 --> 00:16:01,340 snatched away by cholera, TB, typhoid, and smallpox. 265 00:16:02,540 --> 00:16:07,580 It's easy to underestimate how profoundly this ever-present death 266 00:16:07,580 --> 00:16:10,180 must have shaped the way they saw their world. 267 00:16:14,380 --> 00:16:19,380 The Society for Psychical Research carries out public surveys, 268 00:16:19,380 --> 00:16:23,580 compiling an enormous database in an attempt to properly document 269 00:16:23,580 --> 00:16:25,740 paranormal phenomena. 270 00:16:25,740 --> 00:16:30,220 Their archives are held here, at the heart of British academia - 271 00:16:30,220 --> 00:16:33,300 the Cambridge University Library - 272 00:16:33,300 --> 00:16:36,620 where one of the most incredible artefacts in the collection 273 00:16:36,620 --> 00:16:39,660 is the Census of Hallucinations. 274 00:16:39,660 --> 00:16:44,580 To create this, more than 400 SPR volunteers scour the country - 275 00:16:44,580 --> 00:16:48,900 from factory floor, to middle-class dinner party - gathering accounts. 276 00:16:50,300 --> 00:16:55,060 The SPR were very methodical and thorough in their research. 277 00:16:55,060 --> 00:17:00,220 They did a census to which 17,000 people replied 278 00:17:00,220 --> 00:17:03,460 with experiences of a ghostly nature. 279 00:17:03,460 --> 00:17:05,740 And they ask, "How were you occupied at the time? 280 00:17:05,740 --> 00:17:09,980 "Were you in health? Were you suffering from grief or anxiety? 281 00:17:09,980 --> 00:17:13,020 "What were you in the habit of eating and drinking? 282 00:17:13,020 --> 00:17:15,860 "Who were you in the habit of seeing? 283 00:17:15,860 --> 00:17:18,140 "Were there any other persons present? 284 00:17:18,140 --> 00:17:21,460 So, they're very thorough in all their questions. 285 00:17:21,460 --> 00:17:27,260 And people are very serious in how they're filling all these forms in. 286 00:17:27,260 --> 00:17:31,500 And everything is catalogued very precisely. 287 00:17:31,500 --> 00:17:34,740 So, name, date, and conditions - 288 00:17:34,740 --> 00:17:37,700 they've listed every account and they've coded it. 289 00:17:37,700 --> 00:17:42,820 "INCD - Incompletely developed apparition." 290 00:17:42,820 --> 00:17:46,820 "Rel - Angel or religious phantasm." 291 00:17:46,820 --> 00:17:50,060 "Fab" - that must stand for "fabulous", I think. 292 00:17:50,060 --> 00:17:53,300 "Grotesque, horrible, or monstrous apparition." 293 00:17:53,300 --> 00:17:54,420 And so on. 294 00:17:56,060 --> 00:17:59,380 "Saw her dead husband standing by her bed. 295 00:17:59,380 --> 00:18:00,820 "She spoke to him..." 296 00:18:00,820 --> 00:18:02,460 "Saw her dead mother..." 297 00:18:02,460 --> 00:18:03,500 "Saw a man..." 298 00:18:05,340 --> 00:18:08,900 "At the foot of her bed... across the room, and disappeared 299 00:18:08,900 --> 00:18:10,380 "through opposite wall." 300 00:18:10,380 --> 00:18:15,540 "Saw a man with a rope round his neck pass under window at dusk..." 301 00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:17,420 "An elderly man walking..." 302 00:18:17,420 --> 00:18:19,700 OVERLAPPING: "The same man in same place..." 303 00:18:19,700 --> 00:18:21,660 "Saw her father... disappeared after." 304 00:18:23,780 --> 00:18:29,660 One of the favourite ones was a crisis apparition - CA. 305 00:18:29,660 --> 00:18:35,260 This is when a ghost appeared to give notice of their own death 306 00:18:35,260 --> 00:18:38,580 before the actual news of the death got to them. 307 00:18:39,620 --> 00:18:41,860 "From the Reverend Matthew Frost. 308 00:18:43,140 --> 00:18:46,940 "While sitting at tea with my back to the window and talking with 309 00:18:46,940 --> 00:18:52,300 "my wife in the usual way, I plainly heard a rap at the window. 310 00:18:52,300 --> 00:18:56,660 "And looking round, I said to my wife, 'Why, there's my grandmother', 311 00:18:56,660 --> 00:19:00,100 "and went to the door, but could not see anyone. 312 00:19:00,100 --> 00:19:03,180 "And still feeling sure it was my grandmother, and knowing - 313 00:19:03,180 --> 00:19:07,380 "though 83 years of age - she was very active and fond of a joke, 314 00:19:07,380 --> 00:19:10,500 "I went round the house, but could not see anyone. 315 00:19:10,500 --> 00:19:13,940 "On the following Saturday, I heard news that my grandmother died in 316 00:19:13,940 --> 00:19:18,220 "Yorkshire about half an hour before the time I heard the rapping. 317 00:19:19,460 --> 00:19:22,500 "I did not know that my grandmother was ill." 318 00:19:26,300 --> 00:19:30,460 I feel quite sad after reading all these crisis apparitions, 319 00:19:30,460 --> 00:19:31,460 one after the other. 320 00:19:32,900 --> 00:19:37,740 And I really believe the people filling in the census 321 00:19:37,740 --> 00:19:40,260 were completely genuine. 322 00:19:40,260 --> 00:19:41,500 They feel like they are. 323 00:19:45,580 --> 00:19:49,500 It's hardly surprising that people are seeing so many ghosts. 324 00:19:49,500 --> 00:19:53,220 In a very real sense, spirits do haunt the Victorian home. 325 00:19:55,020 --> 00:19:59,100 Every innovation - from photographs to moving pictures, 326 00:19:59,100 --> 00:20:03,220 phonographs to fantasy books - has its own supernatural genre. 327 00:20:06,340 --> 00:20:08,460 Take bedtime reading. 328 00:20:08,460 --> 00:20:13,780 In the 1890s, popular fiction caters to a newly-educated public, 329 00:20:13,780 --> 00:20:16,340 with literacy rates now over 90%. 330 00:20:18,500 --> 00:20:23,340 The occult tales of Marie Corelli - blending mysticism, religion, 331 00:20:23,340 --> 00:20:26,300 and psychic phenomena - dominate the bestsellers. 332 00:20:28,300 --> 00:20:31,980 Arthur Conan Doyle's detective fiction and short stories 333 00:20:31,980 --> 00:20:34,980 are infused with his love of the ghostly. 334 00:20:34,980 --> 00:20:39,060 From the apparently supernatural Hound of the Baskervilles, 335 00:20:39,060 --> 00:20:43,340 to tales of possession and hypnosis in The Parasite. 336 00:20:43,340 --> 00:20:48,060 And what his readers don't realise was that Conan Doyle was drawing 337 00:20:48,060 --> 00:20:53,660 inspiration from his own experiences as a real-life ghostbuster. 338 00:20:53,660 --> 00:20:59,380 An 1893, he took a train down to the Dorset coast to take part in 339 00:20:59,380 --> 00:21:01,580 an investigation for the SPR. 340 00:21:03,580 --> 00:21:08,300 Conan Doyle wasn't here to track down some criminal mastermind 341 00:21:08,300 --> 00:21:11,580 like his hyper-rational creation, Sherlock Holmes. 342 00:21:11,580 --> 00:21:16,740 Oh, no - he was here with a group of SPR investigators, 343 00:21:16,740 --> 00:21:21,700 because there'd been reports of a household tormented by a spirit. 344 00:21:24,300 --> 00:21:27,180 Conan Doyle's memoirs take up the story. 345 00:21:33,140 --> 00:21:35,780 "We sat up there two nights. 346 00:21:35,780 --> 00:21:37,980 "On the first, nothing occurred. 347 00:21:39,980 --> 00:21:44,700 "We had, of course, taken every precaution to checkmate fraud, 348 00:21:44,700 --> 00:21:48,020 "putting worsted threads across the stairs, and so on. 349 00:21:53,380 --> 00:21:55,220 "In the middle of the night... 350 00:21:56,380 --> 00:21:58,540 "..a fearsome uproar broke out. 351 00:22:01,540 --> 00:22:04,100 "It was like someone belabouring 352 00:22:04,100 --> 00:22:05,180 "a... 353 00:22:05,180 --> 00:22:06,780 ..with a..." 354 00:22:09,220 --> 00:22:11,980 "So we rushed at once into the kitchen, 355 00:22:11,980 --> 00:22:15,140 "from where the sound had surely come. 356 00:22:19,820 --> 00:22:21,940 "There was nothing there. 357 00:22:21,940 --> 00:22:26,100 "Doors were all locked, windows barred, threads unbroken. 358 00:22:27,340 --> 00:22:29,260 "Some years later, the... 359 00:22:32,940 --> 00:22:34,340 "..was dug up in the garden. 360 00:22:36,060 --> 00:22:40,260 "The suggestion was that the child had been... 361 00:22:45,340 --> 00:22:49,900 "The unknown and the marvellous press upon us from all sides." 362 00:22:52,340 --> 00:22:54,820 THUNDER ROLLS 363 00:22:55,940 --> 00:22:58,020 THUNDER CLAPS 364 00:23:04,700 --> 00:23:07,940 But could you ever capture the unknown and the marvellous? 365 00:23:09,660 --> 00:23:12,220 I think that for many late Victorians, 366 00:23:12,220 --> 00:23:13,620 the key lies in technology. 367 00:23:16,220 --> 00:23:20,140 Photography already seems to catch ghostly figures unawares. 368 00:23:21,620 --> 00:23:26,660 In 1891, Britain is fascinated by an infamous photograph from 369 00:23:26,660 --> 00:23:30,260 Combermere Abbey, which suggests a spectral presence. 370 00:23:31,780 --> 00:23:36,260 So-called "spirit photographers" promised the public proof that dead 371 00:23:36,260 --> 00:23:37,700 relatives linger on. 372 00:23:39,540 --> 00:23:43,620 After all - if they can see it, they will believe it. 373 00:23:48,420 --> 00:23:53,100 What they do is have the sitter keep very, very still for the 374 00:23:53,100 --> 00:23:57,100 long exposure needed, and surreptitiously get an assistant 375 00:23:57,100 --> 00:23:59,340 to waft around behind them, 376 00:23:59,340 --> 00:24:01,180 being some sort of apparition. 377 00:24:02,380 --> 00:24:05,820 Photography's pretty spooky, anyway - it captures a moment 378 00:24:05,820 --> 00:24:08,380 in time forever. 379 00:24:08,380 --> 00:24:11,940 So it's so perfect for the ghost to get in on the act. 380 00:24:51,620 --> 00:24:56,460 So, there are two mean techniques that Victorians would use in order 381 00:24:56,460 --> 00:24:58,460 to create this illusion of ghosts. 382 00:24:59,900 --> 00:25:03,100 So, one of them is a, sort of, in-camera process, 383 00:25:03,100 --> 00:25:06,260 so it will happen in the camera. 384 00:25:06,260 --> 00:25:07,780 And... 385 00:25:07,780 --> 00:25:12,020 ..you can do all very long exposures, where one element moves, 386 00:25:12,020 --> 00:25:15,220 like the ghost, or a double exposure... Right. 387 00:25:15,220 --> 00:25:17,980 ..where you just expose twice the same scene. 388 00:25:17,980 --> 00:25:21,340 So, in this one - what it is, is that the sitter has to stay 389 00:25:21,340 --> 00:25:23,540 very still to get exposed. 390 00:25:23,540 --> 00:25:26,500 So, in that time, when they're concentrating on being still, 391 00:25:26,500 --> 00:25:31,060 someone can creep in behind them, and because they haven't been there 392 00:25:31,060 --> 00:25:33,900 very long, they look translucent. Exactly. 393 00:25:33,900 --> 00:25:39,540 And the other technique is to use two negatives for one same print. 394 00:25:39,540 --> 00:25:41,300 Ah, right. 395 00:25:41,300 --> 00:25:44,140 This is a long exposure with someone playing the ghost - 396 00:25:44,140 --> 00:25:47,660 just moving around on the same exposure. OK. 397 00:25:47,660 --> 00:25:51,660 And that will create the multiple faces. 398 00:25:51,660 --> 00:25:55,140 And then, we have your negatives that I've placed here in this area, 399 00:25:55,140 --> 00:25:58,140 where it hasn't been exposed yet, because this area has been masked... 400 00:25:58,140 --> 00:25:59,740 OK. ..before it. 401 00:25:59,740 --> 00:26:02,740 So basically, what you're showing me here is 402 00:26:02,740 --> 00:26:05,140 the Victorian version of Photoshop? 403 00:26:05,140 --> 00:26:06,180 Yeah, totally. 404 00:26:07,380 --> 00:26:11,340 I think if you really wanted to believe in ghosts and spirits, 405 00:26:11,340 --> 00:26:13,540 cos you've found it's a comfort, 406 00:26:13,540 --> 00:26:16,260 you could easily be taken in by this. 407 00:26:16,260 --> 00:26:20,300 And I don't think the Victorians were any more gullible 408 00:26:20,300 --> 00:26:21,740 than we are today. 409 00:26:21,740 --> 00:26:24,100 They just wanted to have this comfort. 410 00:26:29,860 --> 00:26:34,540 Ghosts find their way into other machines with a new craze, 411 00:26:34,540 --> 00:26:37,860 which allows the Victorians to receive communications 412 00:26:37,860 --> 00:26:38,940 from the past. 413 00:26:40,140 --> 00:26:44,780 Invented by Thomas Edison, the phonograph has the ability to 414 00:26:44,780 --> 00:26:49,220 capture the human voice and play it back for the first time. 415 00:26:49,220 --> 00:26:53,940 Known as "recording angels", they really take off once wax cylinders 416 00:26:53,940 --> 00:26:55,780 are available from the 1890s. 417 00:26:58,620 --> 00:27:02,780 Edison's agents in Britain even hold phonograph parties to promote them. 418 00:27:05,420 --> 00:27:07,780 And by the end of the decade, they're a staple of 419 00:27:07,780 --> 00:27:08,940 the middle class home. 420 00:27:12,140 --> 00:27:16,580 Conan Doyle writes about their unnerving power in the story of 421 00:27:16,580 --> 00:27:21,220 The Japanned Box, in which a young man spies on his employer 422 00:27:21,220 --> 00:27:23,900 as he plays back a recording of his dead wife. 423 00:27:32,420 --> 00:27:35,740 These are all phonographs - 424 00:27:35,740 --> 00:27:38,100 sometimes called graphophones - of 1890s. 425 00:27:39,300 --> 00:27:41,260 And there's boxes of records there. 426 00:27:41,260 --> 00:27:43,780 One of the big selling points of the phonograph, of course, 427 00:27:43,780 --> 00:27:46,660 was that you could use them for recording at home... Oh, really? 428 00:27:46,660 --> 00:27:49,300 ..and make recordings - which you would treasure forever - 429 00:27:49,300 --> 00:27:52,100 of your family and your young ones as they were growing up, 430 00:27:52,100 --> 00:27:55,740 and in the same way that you would collect their photographs. 431 00:27:55,740 --> 00:28:00,500 It must have been just amazing for the Victorians to hear a living 432 00:28:00,500 --> 00:28:02,900 voice coming out of a machine. 433 00:28:02,900 --> 00:28:06,420 They must have thought they'd reached peak technology. 434 00:28:06,420 --> 00:28:10,780 And of course, to keep a voice is like capturing more than 435 00:28:10,780 --> 00:28:11,900 just a moment. 436 00:28:11,900 --> 00:28:14,780 A photograph captures a moment, and it's like, it's still. 437 00:28:14,780 --> 00:28:16,580 Whereas this is living. 438 00:28:16,580 --> 00:28:23,700 They were played on anniversaries... and over the intervening century, 439 00:28:23,700 --> 00:28:26,300 most of these recordings are very faint. 440 00:28:26,300 --> 00:28:29,500 If you could get 150 plays out of the cylinder, 441 00:28:29,500 --> 00:28:32,220 you could listen to a loved one at least twice a year 442 00:28:32,220 --> 00:28:36,220 until you passed yourself. Absolutely, yes. 443 00:28:36,220 --> 00:28:39,620 You know, what I'd really like to do is make a recording for 444 00:28:39,620 --> 00:28:42,780 my loved ones, so they can hear me after I've gone. 445 00:28:42,780 --> 00:28:45,500 What a wonderful idea. Let's do it. 446 00:28:45,500 --> 00:28:49,100 So, do I need a speaking horn? Yes, you do. 447 00:28:49,100 --> 00:28:50,740 So, this is the wax cylinder, 448 00:28:50,740 --> 00:28:53,020 on which we're going to record your voice. 449 00:28:53,020 --> 00:28:55,020 And I put it on the machine. 450 00:28:56,740 --> 00:29:00,980 As the cylinder rotates, a sapphire cutter - 451 00:29:00,980 --> 00:29:05,540 very similar to the ones used in vinyl - is going to engrave 452 00:29:05,540 --> 00:29:09,300 the vibrations of your voice onto the wax. OK. 453 00:29:09,300 --> 00:29:12,220 I invite you to sit. Oh, thank you. 454 00:29:12,220 --> 00:29:15,740 It's ready, once you have the horn on, to take your recording. 455 00:29:15,740 --> 00:29:18,140 You need to have your mouth about two inches from the horn, 456 00:29:18,140 --> 00:29:20,700 and you just speak as you would in a cocktail party. 457 00:29:20,700 --> 00:29:24,060 OK, so I'm at a noisy cocktail party... A noisy cocktail party. 458 00:29:24,060 --> 00:29:25,100 OK, got it. 459 00:29:26,820 --> 00:29:28,540 There you go. 460 00:29:28,540 --> 00:29:33,060 Dear ones - if you can hear me, I'm already dead. 461 00:29:33,060 --> 00:29:35,500 I'm so sorry about that. 462 00:29:35,500 --> 00:29:39,220 Remember, my love will live in your hearts forever. 463 00:29:39,220 --> 00:29:42,260 And please don't forget to feed the cat. 464 00:29:42,260 --> 00:29:43,340 Goodbye! 465 00:29:44,660 --> 00:29:46,260 I've nothing else to add. 466 00:29:46,260 --> 00:29:47,340 HE CHUCKLES 467 00:29:51,140 --> 00:29:55,820 PHONOGRAPH: Dear ones - if you can hear me, I'm already dead. 468 00:29:55,820 --> 00:29:58,180 I'm so sorry about that. 469 00:29:58,180 --> 00:30:02,140 Remember, my love will live in your hearts forever. 470 00:30:02,140 --> 00:30:05,140 And please don't forget to feed the cat. 471 00:30:05,140 --> 00:30:06,180 Goodbye! 472 00:30:09,220 --> 00:30:11,780 I have nothing else to add. "I have nothing else to add." 473 00:30:11,780 --> 00:30:13,980 I'm sure that will be a great comfort to them. 474 00:30:13,980 --> 00:30:17,460 They can play that, and I'll live on forever. Mm-hmm. 475 00:30:17,460 --> 00:30:18,780 I'm quite convinced of it. 476 00:30:21,260 --> 00:30:25,660 Thomas Edison's agents in Britain also tried to whip up interest 477 00:30:25,660 --> 00:30:31,100 in the phonograph by inviting famous celebrities to record their voices. 478 00:30:31,100 --> 00:30:33,780 Now, here we have Florence Nightingale. 479 00:30:33,780 --> 00:30:37,020 Now I've heard of her forever, but I've never HEARD her. 480 00:31:07,060 --> 00:31:09,740 It's powerful stuff. It's amazing! 481 00:31:09,740 --> 00:31:13,140 To think that I've heard Florence Nightingale! 482 00:31:13,140 --> 00:31:17,660 And her voice made the very vibrations in that cylinder, 483 00:31:17,660 --> 00:31:20,380 so I can hear it - ooh, stop it. 484 00:31:20,380 --> 00:31:21,420 THEY CHUCKLE 485 00:31:28,260 --> 00:31:31,740 Through photographs and phonographs, the Victorians have worked out 486 00:31:31,740 --> 00:31:33,980 how to capture reality. 487 00:31:33,980 --> 00:31:38,940 But in 1896, the decade's greatest media innovation 488 00:31:38,940 --> 00:31:40,820 almost magically appears. 489 00:31:42,940 --> 00:31:44,900 Moving pictures. 490 00:31:47,660 --> 00:31:51,940 This is one of the great gifts of the Victorian age. 491 00:31:51,940 --> 00:31:56,660 A new art form that blows everyone's mind, and forever changes the way 492 00:31:56,660 --> 00:31:57,660 we see the world. 493 00:32:00,340 --> 00:32:04,460 I'm amazed by how sophisticated the first film-makers are, 494 00:32:04,460 --> 00:32:08,220 and how quickly they adapt the techniques of spirit photography 495 00:32:08,220 --> 00:32:09,580 to make ghosts come alive. 496 00:32:14,540 --> 00:32:18,580 These early short films soon find a place in the existing 497 00:32:18,580 --> 00:32:22,300 entertainment world, showing at music halls and theatres 498 00:32:22,300 --> 00:32:23,820 all over the country. 499 00:32:26,500 --> 00:32:29,300 They're a novelty, fighting for the attention 500 00:32:29,300 --> 00:32:33,380 of punters alongside funfairs, the magic lantern shows, 501 00:32:33,380 --> 00:32:34,980 and circus performers. 502 00:32:37,580 --> 00:32:40,580 Alexandra Palace is one of the pioneering venues 503 00:32:40,580 --> 00:32:44,020 where these rare films, now restored by the BFI, 504 00:32:44,020 --> 00:32:45,300 were first shown. 505 00:32:47,620 --> 00:32:51,820 So when film arrives in the 1890s, 506 00:32:51,820 --> 00:32:56,780 it would have been shown in the kind of pre-existing 507 00:32:56,780 --> 00:32:58,820 kind of entertainment world. 508 00:32:58,820 --> 00:33:01,460 It could have gone another way, could have been this kind of 509 00:33:01,460 --> 00:33:05,180 scientific thing almost, like a novelty you would see 510 00:33:05,180 --> 00:33:07,940 like the microscope or X-rays or something. 511 00:33:07,940 --> 00:33:11,820 But actually it kind of lived in places like this, 512 00:33:11,820 --> 00:33:14,660 like Alexandra Palace, you know, these big music halls 513 00:33:14,660 --> 00:33:16,700 and theatres. 514 00:33:16,700 --> 00:33:20,260 So what I really love about these little fragments 515 00:33:20,260 --> 00:33:23,620 that are left to us, a film from this age, 516 00:33:23,620 --> 00:33:27,300 is their endless creativity and invention. 517 00:33:27,300 --> 00:33:31,100 They were all produced by these very young men, 518 00:33:31,100 --> 00:33:33,260 young film-makers, and they are making them 519 00:33:33,260 --> 00:33:38,140 for this very young, vibrant, youthful, urban audience. 520 00:33:38,140 --> 00:33:44,220 The median age of a Victorian person in 1901 was 24. 521 00:33:44,220 --> 00:33:45,660 Oh, goodness. 522 00:33:45,660 --> 00:33:50,020 The age now, 40 years old. Yeah. 523 00:33:50,020 --> 00:33:54,060 So they've got this sort of youthful energy about them. 524 00:33:54,060 --> 00:33:56,140 So much illusion in this. 525 00:33:56,140 --> 00:33:58,060 A disembodied head with wings. 526 00:33:58,060 --> 00:33:59,780 Exactly, quite scary. 527 00:34:01,500 --> 00:34:03,180 They are very rare now. 528 00:34:03,180 --> 00:34:08,100 We've got, at the BFI archive, we have, I don't know, 529 00:34:08,100 --> 00:34:12,540 just over 500 left of thousands that would've been made 530 00:34:12,540 --> 00:34:20,020 at this time, and to see them projected in this place, 531 00:34:20,020 --> 00:34:23,700 where they would've originally been seen 120 years ago, 532 00:34:23,700 --> 00:34:26,380 it's just fabulous, it's such a treat. 533 00:34:31,900 --> 00:34:35,740 So this is a film called, Upside Down, or The Human Flies, 534 00:34:35,740 --> 00:34:38,980 and it's a great example of a trick film. 535 00:34:38,980 --> 00:34:43,420 Very popular, because this is what the new moving image does best. 536 00:34:43,420 --> 00:34:48,300 And what the Victorians found fascinating was that intersection 537 00:34:48,300 --> 00:34:53,620 between magic and spiritualism, that kind of thing, 538 00:34:53,620 --> 00:34:56,580 the unseen and the mysterious. 539 00:34:56,580 --> 00:34:58,620 And the technical. 540 00:34:58,620 --> 00:35:02,100 And what they loved was to be fooled, and then to find out 541 00:35:02,100 --> 00:35:04,060 how it works. 542 00:35:04,060 --> 00:35:06,500 So they were very, they were very curious and quite 543 00:35:06,500 --> 00:35:08,660 sort of scientific minded. 544 00:35:08,660 --> 00:35:10,780 I mean, I can't work out how this is done. 545 00:35:10,780 --> 00:35:15,060 So they just turn the scenery upside down, and the people 546 00:35:15,060 --> 00:35:17,500 are on the floor, but then you just turn the whole 547 00:35:17,500 --> 00:35:19,620 film upside down. Very clever. 548 00:35:19,620 --> 00:35:21,420 It's simple, but clever. 549 00:35:21,420 --> 00:35:25,980 I'm really surprised that this film is, 550 00:35:25,980 --> 00:35:28,460 you know, at the end of the Victorian era 551 00:35:28,460 --> 00:35:32,540 because I've got in my mind a vision of the Victorians being sort of 552 00:35:32,540 --> 00:35:35,380 terribly serious, and this is so fun, 553 00:35:35,380 --> 00:35:39,420 it's so playful, it's, it's such a good joke. 554 00:35:39,420 --> 00:35:44,300 And it reminds me a little bit of YouTube clips now. Yeah. 555 00:35:44,300 --> 00:35:47,540 It would be mind expanding, mind altering. 556 00:35:47,540 --> 00:35:51,540 Yeah, they tried everything in the 1890s, and in fact the first 557 00:35:51,540 --> 00:35:57,380 five years, so there was this flurry of different genres and different 558 00:35:57,380 --> 00:36:00,340 types of films, and all the things you could do with it. 559 00:36:00,340 --> 00:36:02,420 So you had the kind of straight thing, 560 00:36:02,420 --> 00:36:06,260 like news, and you had sort of story films, 561 00:36:06,260 --> 00:36:10,380 and trick films, and dramas, and comedy, and animation. 562 00:36:13,940 --> 00:36:16,660 So this is Artistic Creation, 563 00:36:17,820 --> 00:36:22,900 who set up a kind of magic frame, easel, and he's drawing a picture 564 00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:26,460 of a lady, and then she comes to life. 565 00:36:26,460 --> 00:36:28,660 Yes, he's, he is creating a woman. 566 00:36:28,660 --> 00:36:32,900 That's what men always want to do, is create, create a woman! 567 00:36:33,940 --> 00:36:37,220 It's also, it's this delightful thing where he decides 568 00:36:37,220 --> 00:36:39,860 he's going to give her a present, which is a baby. 569 00:36:39,860 --> 00:36:41,140 Of course, she's long gone. 570 00:36:41,140 --> 00:36:43,020 She's seen what he's up to, and legged it. 571 00:36:43,020 --> 00:36:44,500 It's almost as if... 572 00:36:44,500 --> 00:36:46,580 Now he doesn't know what to do, so he's giving it to us. 573 00:36:46,580 --> 00:36:49,540 It's almost a feminist film. It is. 574 00:36:49,540 --> 00:36:53,140 It sort of like, "I know what women want, they want a baby" 575 00:36:53,140 --> 00:36:55,260 so he makes her a baby, and she's out of there. 576 00:36:55,260 --> 00:36:56,820 She doesn't want the baby. 577 00:36:56,820 --> 00:36:58,420 And she is a modern young woman. 578 00:36:59,500 --> 00:37:03,420 I'm feeling inspired to create my own amateur trick film 579 00:37:03,420 --> 00:37:07,220 in honour of these Victorian pioneers. 580 00:37:07,220 --> 00:37:10,300 The Big Swallow is a film by British director, 581 00:37:10,300 --> 00:37:14,100 James Williamson, and it shows an angry tourist, 582 00:37:14,100 --> 00:37:17,740 who's fed up with his privacy being invaded, 583 00:37:17,740 --> 00:37:21,660 and so he swallows the cameraman. 584 00:37:37,740 --> 00:37:40,340 That poor man wouldn't have liked it around here today 585 00:37:40,340 --> 00:37:45,580 with all the paparazzi, CCTV, constant surveillance. 586 00:37:45,580 --> 00:37:49,460 He would have had to swallow an awful lot of cameramen. 587 00:37:50,580 --> 00:37:53,980 Capturing people on camera particularly unsettled one early 588 00:37:53,980 --> 00:37:55,700 reviewer of these films. 589 00:37:56,780 --> 00:38:00,700 "Their smiles are lifeless, even though their movements are full 590 00:38:00,700 --> 00:38:05,980 "of living energy and are so swift as to be almost imperceptible. 591 00:38:05,980 --> 00:38:11,020 "The grey, the soundless, the bleak and dismal life, 592 00:38:11,020 --> 00:38:16,380 "it is terrifying to see the evil spirits that have cast entire cities 593 00:38:16,380 --> 00:38:18,020 "into eternal sleep." 594 00:38:20,860 --> 00:38:24,940 Audiences are beguiled though by early films of crashing waves, 595 00:38:24,940 --> 00:38:27,820 trains, and factory workers. 596 00:38:29,300 --> 00:38:33,020 Even the Pope and the royal family let the cameras in and become 597 00:38:33,020 --> 00:38:34,940 truly modern icons. 598 00:38:37,020 --> 00:38:42,340 But cinematic techniques soon blur the line between fact and fantasy. 599 00:38:43,900 --> 00:38:46,980 Explosion of a motorcar, I mean, motorcars are sort 600 00:38:46,980 --> 00:38:49,540 of relatively new as well. Really new. 601 00:38:49,540 --> 00:38:52,900 Wonderful kind of sort of new invention in the streets 602 00:38:52,900 --> 00:38:54,940 of London here. 603 00:38:54,940 --> 00:38:59,300 And again, this is a trick film, so it's relying on sort of shock 604 00:38:59,300 --> 00:39:01,580 value and, how did they do that? 605 00:39:02,940 --> 00:39:04,340 Bang! 606 00:39:04,340 --> 00:39:07,860 So all the passengers have been blown into space, 607 00:39:07,860 --> 00:39:10,660 as the bobby sees, oh, here they come. 608 00:39:10,660 --> 00:39:12,540 They're falling from the sky. 609 00:39:12,540 --> 00:39:13,980 Oh, oh... 610 00:39:13,980 --> 00:39:17,580 It's a bit gruesome. It's incredibly gruesome. 611 00:39:17,580 --> 00:39:21,700 So, this is an early example of us wanting 612 00:39:21,700 --> 00:39:24,260 to be frightened and shocked. Yeah. 613 00:39:24,260 --> 00:39:27,180 And seeing people being blown up. Absolutely. 614 00:39:27,180 --> 00:39:29,740 We know it's not real, you know, we know it's comedy, 615 00:39:29,740 --> 00:39:32,740 but at the same time, there is that yuck factor. 616 00:39:32,740 --> 00:39:35,980 He really doesn't know about leaving the scene untouched, 617 00:39:35,980 --> 00:39:37,700 to do the evidence, does he? 618 00:39:37,700 --> 00:39:40,340 No, he doesn't. 619 00:39:40,340 --> 00:39:45,100 Can you imagine how you would feel if this particular film 620 00:39:45,100 --> 00:39:48,940 was the very first moving image you saw? 621 00:39:48,940 --> 00:39:50,740 You would be so shocked. 622 00:39:52,620 --> 00:39:54,900 So this is another kind of film 623 00:39:54,900 --> 00:39:58,900 that's almost unique to Victorian film. 624 00:39:58,900 --> 00:40:02,220 Which is the staged reality, 625 00:40:02,220 --> 00:40:05,940 or a kind of dramatized version 626 00:40:05,940 --> 00:40:08,620 of a topical news event. 627 00:40:08,620 --> 00:40:11,820 This is called Beheading a Chinese Boxer. 628 00:40:12,860 --> 00:40:17,780 And it is a film ostensibly about the Boxer Rebellion 629 00:40:17,780 --> 00:40:20,860 in China in 1900s. 630 00:40:20,860 --> 00:40:27,100 It's a very gruesome scene, in which a group of Chinese soldiers 631 00:40:27,100 --> 00:40:29,660 are beheading a rebel. 632 00:40:30,860 --> 00:40:34,260 We quite soon realise that this is been staged 633 00:40:34,260 --> 00:40:35,860 for the cameras. 634 00:40:35,860 --> 00:40:38,460 The first time I saw it, I was really taken aback. 635 00:40:38,460 --> 00:40:40,420 I thought it was real. 636 00:40:40,420 --> 00:40:46,700 It's a horrible, gruesome forerunner of the modern execution films we see 637 00:40:46,700 --> 00:40:50,900 on the Internet, which unfortunately aren't fake, like this one is. 638 00:40:50,900 --> 00:40:54,700 It's absolutely horrific. Yeah, it is really quite nasty. 639 00:40:54,700 --> 00:40:58,020 I mean, the head on the spike thing is disgusting. 640 00:40:58,020 --> 00:40:59,820 Yeah, isn't it horrid? 641 00:40:59,820 --> 00:41:01,660 We think this was shot in France somewhere, 642 00:41:01,660 --> 00:41:03,300 we're not quite sure. 643 00:41:03,300 --> 00:41:06,020 It's very early, and these are difficult to identify, 644 00:41:06,020 --> 00:41:08,660 but they, you know, they've gone to a lot of trouble 645 00:41:08,660 --> 00:41:10,780 to stage this story. 646 00:41:10,780 --> 00:41:16,020 You can see on the film repeating that these people aren't actually 647 00:41:16,020 --> 00:41:19,020 Chinese, even though they are wearing traditional hats 648 00:41:19,020 --> 00:41:23,980 and the clothes on closer inspection do look more like dressing gowns 649 00:41:23,980 --> 00:41:26,020 and belts, but... 650 00:41:26,020 --> 00:41:27,740 It's real enough. 651 00:41:27,740 --> 00:41:31,340 And certainly when you immediately see it... Yeah. 652 00:41:31,340 --> 00:41:33,340 I'm going to have bloody nightmares about this. 653 00:41:33,340 --> 00:41:35,100 Yeah, it's a shocker. 654 00:41:37,420 --> 00:41:41,260 Dramatic events like The Boxer Rebellion are perfect fodder 655 00:41:41,260 --> 00:41:44,340 for this sensationalist treatment. 656 00:41:44,340 --> 00:41:49,380 This is the Wild West for the media, with nobody policing the divide 657 00:41:49,380 --> 00:41:52,180 between the real and the fake. 658 00:41:52,180 --> 00:41:55,100 A pioneering decade, when all bets are off, 659 00:41:55,100 --> 00:41:57,700 when it comes to ethics. 660 00:41:57,700 --> 00:42:01,620 And this spirit infuses the new tabloid journalism 661 00:42:01,620 --> 00:42:04,300 that emerges in the 1890s, 662 00:42:04,300 --> 00:42:08,380 catering to commuters in the industrial cities. 663 00:42:08,380 --> 00:42:12,740 The Daily Mail, set up by Alfred Harmsworth in 1896, 664 00:42:12,740 --> 00:42:16,020 is a national newspaper with a global network. 665 00:42:17,220 --> 00:42:21,100 The Mail's overseas offices use the latest high-speed cables 666 00:42:21,100 --> 00:42:25,580 to telegraph back stories, but these long distance 667 00:42:25,580 --> 00:42:28,380 communications were not always reliable. 668 00:42:30,260 --> 00:42:34,300 This is one of the most extraordinary pieces of fake news 669 00:42:34,300 --> 00:42:36,100 from the time. 670 00:42:36,100 --> 00:42:39,980 In the summer of 1900, the Boxer Rebellion is sweeping 671 00:42:39,980 --> 00:42:44,100 through China, and it's reported in the Daily Mail that all 672 00:42:44,100 --> 00:42:47,460 the British in Peking have been slaughtered. 673 00:42:47,460 --> 00:42:51,900 They write, "Men, women, and children, have shared one common 674 00:42:51,900 --> 00:42:55,940 "fate at the hands of demons in human form." 675 00:42:55,940 --> 00:42:59,620 The obituaries of the British victims are printed, 676 00:42:59,620 --> 00:43:02,700 the memorial service arranged at St Paul's Cathedral. 677 00:43:02,700 --> 00:43:07,260 But the memorial service had to be cancelled when it turns out 678 00:43:07,260 --> 00:43:09,820 that the story is completely made up. 679 00:43:12,260 --> 00:43:17,500 The most innovative tabloid journalist of the era is WT Stead, 680 00:43:17,500 --> 00:43:20,380 who shares Harmsworth's belief in the importance 681 00:43:20,380 --> 00:43:21,980 of fast communication. 682 00:43:22,980 --> 00:43:27,100 He had already conducted the first British newspaper interview, 683 00:43:27,100 --> 00:43:29,940 and made his name with campaigning investigations 684 00:43:29,940 --> 00:43:33,060 into child prostitution. 685 00:43:33,060 --> 00:43:36,620 In the 1890s, he begins to tap into a very different kind 686 00:43:36,620 --> 00:43:40,740 of network, to attain a supply of unusual news stories. 687 00:43:42,140 --> 00:43:45,980 And with his new publications, Stead discovers a thrifty way 688 00:43:45,980 --> 00:43:48,020 to reduce his overheads. 689 00:43:48,020 --> 00:43:53,220 By the 1890s, he has become a convinced spiritualist, 690 00:43:53,220 --> 00:43:55,860 and in 1892, he develops an ability 691 00:43:55,860 --> 00:43:58,780 in what's called automatic writing. 692 00:43:58,780 --> 00:44:01,620 That is where he sits down at a desk like this one, 693 00:44:01,620 --> 00:44:05,060 and he starts transcribing things that, as far as he is concerned, 694 00:44:05,060 --> 00:44:08,420 are being sent to him by the dead, and in particular, 695 00:44:08,420 --> 00:44:11,580 there is an American journalist, a woman called Julia Ames, 696 00:44:11,580 --> 00:44:14,300 who he meets, and he's very taken with her. 697 00:44:14,300 --> 00:44:17,300 Unfortunately she dies of pneumonia in the following year, 698 00:44:17,300 --> 00:44:20,300 but suddenly in 1892, Stead starts receiving 699 00:44:20,300 --> 00:44:22,140 messages from her. 700 00:44:22,140 --> 00:44:25,620 At the time, he's editing a journal called the Review of Reviews, 701 00:44:25,620 --> 00:44:29,860 which increasingly takes on kind of material about the spirits, 702 00:44:29,860 --> 00:44:32,740 but he then thinks, "Well, actually I need a new journal 703 00:44:32,740 --> 00:44:36,020 "just about the spirits" and it's a journal called Borderland. 704 00:44:36,020 --> 00:44:39,420 We have a copy of the very first addition here, 705 00:44:39,420 --> 00:44:43,780 and one of the main contributors to Borderland is Julia Ames, 706 00:44:43,780 --> 00:44:46,780 who, by this time, has been dead for over three years. 707 00:44:46,780 --> 00:44:50,060 He doesn't have to pay her very much? No, no! 708 00:44:50,060 --> 00:44:53,020 He is very good at getting kind of cheap copy. 709 00:44:53,020 --> 00:44:56,620 He also says that he saves money in all of his newspapers 710 00:44:56,620 --> 00:45:00,220 in that he doesn't have to spend money on sending telegrams, 711 00:45:00,220 --> 00:45:03,500 because he sends messages through telepathy. 712 00:45:03,500 --> 00:45:06,220 So he sees his body, he describes his body 713 00:45:06,220 --> 00:45:10,020 as a bifurcated telephone that he can communicate two ways, 714 00:45:10,020 --> 00:45:11,500 as it were. 715 00:45:11,500 --> 00:45:14,140 Now this becomes important for his editorial practices, 716 00:45:14,140 --> 00:45:15,780 particularly on Borderland. 717 00:45:15,780 --> 00:45:20,620 So the co-editor of Borderland is a woman called Ada Goodrich Fria, 718 00:45:20,620 --> 00:45:23,660 and they have many of their editorial meetings actually 719 00:45:23,660 --> 00:45:25,740 conducted through telepathy. 720 00:45:25,740 --> 00:45:29,660 So Stead writes down what he says are Fria's ideas for the next 721 00:45:29,660 --> 00:45:33,460 monthly issue of Borderland. 722 00:45:33,460 --> 00:45:36,540 Stead, his journalistic career comes to an end, 723 00:45:36,540 --> 00:45:41,460 to some extent, in April 1912, when he's a passenger 724 00:45:41,460 --> 00:45:43,460 on the Titanic. Really? 725 00:45:43,460 --> 00:45:46,940 On board the Titanic, and actually, the Titanic wasn't really the end 726 00:45:46,940 --> 00:45:49,180 of his journalistic career. 727 00:45:49,180 --> 00:45:52,420 Lots of people in the spiritualist community, mediums, 728 00:45:52,420 --> 00:45:56,580 receive messages from Stead after he dies aboard the Titanic, 729 00:45:56,580 --> 00:46:03,300 and he continues to publish items, pamphlets, up until the 1930s. 730 00:46:03,300 --> 00:46:07,700 So, Stead dies physically in 1912, 731 00:46:07,700 --> 00:46:10,620 but spiritually, his journalistic career continues 732 00:46:10,620 --> 00:46:12,540 for at least another two decades. 733 00:46:12,540 --> 00:46:15,460 He would have loved that. He would, absolutely. 734 00:46:17,700 --> 00:46:22,580 While Stead was getting stories from across the ether, 735 00:46:22,580 --> 00:46:27,460 fascination is growing with news from another mysterious realm. 736 00:46:27,460 --> 00:46:28,900 Outer space. 737 00:46:28,900 --> 00:46:30,780 Come on in. Wow! 738 00:46:33,140 --> 00:46:38,620 Newspapers in the 1890s start to speculate about life on Mars. 739 00:46:40,260 --> 00:46:42,860 Let's open up the dome and get some light in here. 740 00:46:42,860 --> 00:46:44,260 So... 741 00:46:44,260 --> 00:46:46,340 This is the Northumberland Telescope. 742 00:46:48,660 --> 00:46:51,260 And if you want to come over here and move the dome over. 743 00:46:51,260 --> 00:46:55,100 I, a little woman, can move this massive dome. 744 00:46:55,100 --> 00:46:56,500 Well, I can, as well. 745 00:46:58,500 --> 00:47:02,260 In this networked age of long distance communication, 746 00:47:02,260 --> 00:47:06,060 the ability to reach out beyond Earth inspires prominent 747 00:47:06,060 --> 00:47:08,620 thinkers, including the electrical genius, 748 00:47:08,620 --> 00:47:14,140 Nikola Tesla, and the influential scientist, Francis Golton. 749 00:47:16,580 --> 00:47:20,420 We can bring the telescope down just with one, one hand. 750 00:47:20,420 --> 00:47:21,820 And very... Very light. 751 00:47:21,820 --> 00:47:23,460 Very easily moved. 752 00:47:23,460 --> 00:47:26,580 Find our, our slit in the roof. 753 00:47:26,580 --> 00:47:29,380 Please take a seat in the observing chair. 754 00:47:29,380 --> 00:47:32,020 Without hitting my head. 755 00:47:32,020 --> 00:47:33,500 Woo! 756 00:47:33,500 --> 00:47:35,700 And then I should be able to see Mars, if I just wait 757 00:47:35,700 --> 00:47:37,140 for it to go dark. 758 00:47:37,140 --> 00:47:39,180 We've just got to wait for the sun to go down, 759 00:47:39,180 --> 00:47:41,020 and then we'll be able to have a look, yeah. 760 00:47:45,460 --> 00:47:49,940 The press coverage really centred around these moments when Mars, 761 00:47:49,940 --> 00:47:53,300 every couple of years, moves into what's called opposition, 762 00:47:53,300 --> 00:47:56,460 when it's in a particularly good position for observation, 763 00:47:56,460 --> 00:47:59,180 and at that moment, the press really, they knew 764 00:47:59,180 --> 00:48:02,300 opposition was coming, and they would go to these major 765 00:48:02,300 --> 00:48:06,620 observatories with big telescopes and start clamouring for news. 766 00:48:06,620 --> 00:48:11,060 In the weeks and months leading up to Mars moving into this ideal 767 00:48:11,060 --> 00:48:15,020 observational position, there are just so many reports, 768 00:48:15,020 --> 00:48:17,020 and this is a global phenomenon. 769 00:48:17,020 --> 00:48:20,540 These newspapers are able to telegraph their reports 770 00:48:20,540 --> 00:48:24,380 across the globe, and so if the Lick Observatory in California 771 00:48:24,380 --> 00:48:27,340 makes a new statement about what they might have seen on Mars, 772 00:48:27,340 --> 00:48:31,460 the papers in London, and in Paris, and in Calcutta, 773 00:48:31,460 --> 00:48:34,820 they can be publishing it that evening, the next morning. 774 00:48:34,820 --> 00:48:36,140 Wow! 775 00:48:36,140 --> 00:48:39,860 So, what made them think that there was intelligent life on Mars? 776 00:48:39,860 --> 00:48:43,660 One of the obvious things that is seen on Mars at this time 777 00:48:43,660 --> 00:48:47,780 is a lot of dark straight lines, which get called canals, 778 00:48:47,780 --> 00:48:51,220 and some people argue that this is evidence of actual 779 00:48:51,220 --> 00:48:53,180 built infrastructure on Mars. 780 00:48:53,180 --> 00:48:55,780 So these are genuine canals, that they're irrigation canals, 781 00:48:55,780 --> 00:48:58,500 and that means that Martians are engineers, 782 00:48:58,500 --> 00:49:01,060 that they're building really incredible, 783 00:49:01,060 --> 00:49:04,740 massive systems, that might span the entire planet. 784 00:49:04,740 --> 00:49:07,780 And of course, at the time that we're talking about, 785 00:49:07,780 --> 00:49:12,500 the 1890s, on Earth, the great technological development 786 00:49:12,500 --> 00:49:15,900 of the age, or one of, is wireless telegraphy, 787 00:49:15,900 --> 00:49:18,660 and so the idea that these Martians who might, remember, 788 00:49:18,660 --> 00:49:22,580 be more advanced than humans, would have a similar system, 789 00:49:22,580 --> 00:49:25,420 seemed reasonable for a lot of people. 790 00:49:25,420 --> 00:49:29,300 And so, given what the amazing technologists have been able to do 791 00:49:29,300 --> 00:49:31,980 with wireless telegraphy in such a short period of time, 792 00:49:31,980 --> 00:49:36,340 it didn't actually seem that wild, that crazy, that of course, 793 00:49:36,340 --> 00:49:40,500 Martians, like us, might well be sending out messages. 794 00:49:40,500 --> 00:49:44,060 Sending out signals in the hopes that we would reciprocate. 795 00:49:44,060 --> 00:49:46,540 Did anyone ever claim to have intercepted 796 00:49:46,540 --> 00:49:48,220 a message from Mars? 797 00:49:48,220 --> 00:49:52,140 Nikola Tesla in 1901 actually reported, 798 00:49:52,140 --> 00:49:55,780 to the astonishment of the world, that he believed that he had 799 00:49:55,780 --> 00:50:00,660 possibly received electromagnetic waves from outer space 800 00:50:00,660 --> 00:50:04,580 that might have been, what he described as purposeful. 801 00:50:04,580 --> 00:50:07,060 So they might have been messages. 802 00:50:07,060 --> 00:50:11,820 He had a system at his lab in Colorado that could detect 803 00:50:11,820 --> 00:50:14,500 distant electromagnetic waves and turn them into sound, 804 00:50:14,500 --> 00:50:18,460 and he heard this repeated bleeping sound one night. 805 00:50:18,460 --> 00:50:22,020 And he then reported to the world that these 806 00:50:22,020 --> 00:50:24,700 could be messages from Mars. 807 00:50:24,700 --> 00:50:28,380 The British public intellectual and eugenicist, 808 00:50:28,380 --> 00:50:31,580 Sir Francis Golton, Charles Darwin's half cousin, 809 00:50:31,580 --> 00:50:37,460 a very famous scientist, he publishes an article in 1896 810 00:50:37,460 --> 00:50:41,180 describing what he says is a method for being able 811 00:50:41,180 --> 00:50:43,380 to communicate with Mars. 812 00:50:43,380 --> 00:50:47,900 So he begins by describing the possibility that if we could 813 00:50:47,900 --> 00:50:50,820 signal mathematical signals, if we could start sending things 814 00:50:50,820 --> 00:50:54,780 like the value of pi into outer space, that Martians 815 00:50:54,780 --> 00:50:57,420 then might start sending back reciprocal signals, 816 00:50:57,420 --> 00:51:01,260 and through a mathematical language, we could build up a system 817 00:51:01,260 --> 00:51:02,900 of communication. 818 00:51:16,900 --> 00:51:20,900 The preoccupation with contacting other worlds is reflected 819 00:51:20,900 --> 00:51:22,700 in the books of HG Wells. 820 00:51:24,300 --> 00:51:28,740 In The War of the Worlds, he hitches imaginative fancy 821 00:51:28,740 --> 00:51:32,580 to a journalistic style, to tell the story of an alien 822 00:51:32,580 --> 00:51:35,260 invasion from Mars. 823 00:51:35,260 --> 00:51:37,580 But at the same time, he's writing another, 824 00:51:37,580 --> 00:51:40,860 more optimistic story, about communication 825 00:51:40,860 --> 00:51:42,900 with the red planet. 826 00:51:42,900 --> 00:51:47,660 The crystal egg is set in Mr Cave's antique shop. 827 00:51:47,660 --> 00:51:52,300 He notices one day a strange light emanating from it. 828 00:51:52,300 --> 00:51:56,060 He peers in and sees something extraordinary. 829 00:51:56,060 --> 00:51:59,580 A species, the likes of which he has never seen 830 00:51:59,580 --> 00:52:00,900 or heard of before. 831 00:52:02,620 --> 00:52:06,420 "Their heads were around and curiously human, 832 00:52:06,420 --> 00:52:10,620 "and it was the eyes of one of them that had so startled him 833 00:52:10,620 --> 00:52:13,300 "on his second observation. 834 00:52:13,300 --> 00:52:17,260 "They had broad silvery wings, not feathered, but glistening, 835 00:52:17,260 --> 00:52:20,140 "almost as brilliantly as new killed fish, 836 00:52:20,140 --> 00:52:22,660 "and with the same subtle play of colour. 837 00:52:22,660 --> 00:52:26,700 "And these wings were not built on the plan of a bird wing or bat, 838 00:52:26,700 --> 00:52:31,100 "but supported by curved ribs radiating from the body." 839 00:52:35,100 --> 00:52:39,140 What's fascinating about the story though is that the Martians can also 840 00:52:39,140 --> 00:52:41,420 use the egg to watch humanity. 841 00:52:43,820 --> 00:52:48,980 "After a time, he aspired to attract the attention of the Martians, 842 00:52:48,980 --> 00:52:52,900 "and the next time that the strange eyes of one of them appeared close 843 00:52:52,900 --> 00:52:57,340 "to the crystal, Mr Cave cried out and sprang away. 844 00:52:58,580 --> 00:53:01,340 "And they immediately turned on the light and began 845 00:53:01,340 --> 00:53:06,900 "to gesticulate in a manner suggestive of signalling." 846 00:53:19,380 --> 00:53:25,100 HG Wells hints at how future media technology will be used, 847 00:53:25,100 --> 00:53:28,700 and shows how communications underpin British power. 848 00:53:29,860 --> 00:53:35,220 In 1897, Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. 849 00:53:35,220 --> 00:53:39,820 The British Empire is still the world's undisputed superpower, 850 00:53:39,820 --> 00:53:44,300 and Victoria decides to use the new medium of film to send 851 00:53:44,300 --> 00:53:46,980 a message around the world. 852 00:53:46,980 --> 00:53:51,380 The British put on the most triumphant display of imperial 853 00:53:51,380 --> 00:53:54,220 strength that the country has ever seen. 854 00:53:58,700 --> 00:54:03,900 On the 22nd of June, 1897, London hosts this extraordinary 855 00:54:03,900 --> 00:54:07,340 event at a cost of £300,000. 856 00:54:07,340 --> 00:54:09,580 Over 20 million today. 857 00:54:28,780 --> 00:54:31,980 The city is scrubbed up and decorated to play host 858 00:54:31,980 --> 00:54:36,180 to the largest military force ever assembled in the capital, 859 00:54:36,180 --> 00:54:38,700 with troops from across the Empire. 860 00:54:43,340 --> 00:54:47,220 People cram into specially constructed viewing galleries, 861 00:54:47,220 --> 00:54:50,340 or pay to hire rooms with a view of the proceedings. 862 00:54:52,340 --> 00:54:55,380 3 million people come to watch the show, 863 00:54:55,380 --> 00:54:58,180 as they march along a processional route, 864 00:54:58,180 --> 00:55:01,500 ending in a Thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral. 865 00:55:05,740 --> 00:55:10,380 But thanks to 1890s technology, many more people are able 866 00:55:10,380 --> 00:55:12,100 to watch this spectacle. 867 00:55:16,140 --> 00:55:20,420 The different film companies compete for the best spots from Lumiere 868 00:55:20,420 --> 00:55:24,140 to RW Paul, Dixon's Biograph Company, 869 00:55:24,140 --> 00:55:26,980 to the French Beaumont, and LeCoultre. 870 00:55:34,540 --> 00:55:37,140 Within days, the footage has been developed, 871 00:55:37,140 --> 00:55:40,780 shipped, and distributed around the globe. 872 00:55:43,660 --> 00:55:47,900 This is priceless propaganda, projected around the Empire 873 00:55:47,900 --> 00:55:50,500 to millions of British subjects. 874 00:55:58,060 --> 00:56:02,260 This is the first modern mass media event, and it's brought to the world 875 00:56:02,260 --> 00:56:04,820 by a small army of film cameras. 876 00:56:06,860 --> 00:56:10,220 It's incredible to think the industry is barely a year old, 877 00:56:10,220 --> 00:56:14,020 and yet there's up to 40 cameramen recording this. 878 00:56:33,820 --> 00:56:37,060 Queen Victoria described it in her journal 879 00:56:37,060 --> 00:56:41,580 as "a never to be forgotten day" and we haven't forgotten it. 880 00:56:41,580 --> 00:56:45,420 Because this event became a blueprint for every 881 00:56:45,420 --> 00:56:47,340 subsequent state occasion. 882 00:56:53,780 --> 00:56:58,580 For me, these films capture the essence of the 1890s, 883 00:56:58,580 --> 00:57:03,020 the old Victorian order, an Empire and an Empress, 884 00:57:03,020 --> 00:57:06,460 rubbing shoulders with the world we recognise, 885 00:57:06,460 --> 00:57:11,180 a modern one of film cameras and superfast global communications. 886 00:57:30,020 --> 00:57:34,140 The close of the century signals the end of a feverish decade, 887 00:57:34,140 --> 00:57:36,900 full of contradictions. 888 00:57:38,380 --> 00:57:41,900 They view science to give themselves new powers, 889 00:57:41,900 --> 00:57:45,100 they've challenged traditional views of race, 890 00:57:45,100 --> 00:57:47,100 sex, and gender. 891 00:57:47,100 --> 00:57:50,860 And they've developed a new media, and opened their minds 892 00:57:50,860 --> 00:57:53,060 to other worlds. 893 00:57:53,060 --> 00:57:56,660 But the sheer pace of all this change has also 894 00:57:56,660 --> 00:57:58,900 revealed their innermost fears. 895 00:58:00,580 --> 00:58:04,540 The British of the 1890s are, in so many ways, 896 00:58:04,540 --> 00:58:06,660 modern and surprising. 897 00:58:06,660 --> 00:58:10,540 They're certainly not the dusty old Victorian cliche. 898 00:58:14,700 --> 00:58:18,820 They're cutting-edge disruptors, decadent artists, 899 00:58:18,820 --> 00:58:23,900 frauds and geniuses, and they sow the seeds for the future, 900 00:58:23,900 --> 00:58:26,100 our present.