1 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:19,280 DRUM ROLL 2 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:23,600 Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, 3 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,800 I introduce to you, the circus! 4 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,040 As the Second World War passed into history, 5 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:38,920 Britain looked to an old friend 6 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:40,520 to cheer itself up. 7 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:51,160 There is something quite amazing about that corner in the park, 8 00:00:51,160 --> 00:00:53,640 that suddenly has a circus arrive on it 9 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:56,520 and becomes something like Las Vegas. 10 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:03,920 The travelling circus brought some much-needed dazzle to an age of austerity. 11 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,160 For a generation brought up on war, 12 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:12,760 the Big Top was the stuff of dreams. 13 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,880 They would come in so excited, looking everywhere. Everywhere. 14 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:19,120 They didn't know where to look next. 15 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:23,040 The circus was pure magic to young eyes. 16 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,080 The atmosphere, the smell, the artistry. 17 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:29,680 It was beyond belief, 18 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:31,560 it was an explosion of delights. 19 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:37,320 Exotic people. At that time, we never saw people from other countries 20 00:01:37,320 --> 00:01:40,000 and other nations who spoke other languages. 21 00:01:43,320 --> 00:01:46,600 I'd think, "Who are these people, where were they yesterday, 22 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:48,400 "where are they going to be tomorrow? 23 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:57,400 In the immediate post-war years, circus rode the crest of a wave. 24 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,440 With big operations such as Bertram Mills and Chipperfield's 25 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:07,080 travelling the length and breadth of the country, 26 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:08,960 to meet the growing demand. 27 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,360 It was into this bright, sequinned world that a new circus 28 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:19,240 came to town. 29 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:21,680 And it seemed to arrive from nowhere. 30 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:29,400 My father always wanted to own his own circus. 31 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,040 When we started the circus back in 1946, 32 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,040 my God, we didn't know nothing about it at all. 33 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:45,360 Billy Smart was a showman by instinct, 34 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:49,080 a big man with big ambitions. 35 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:51,480 My father always went for the best, you know. 36 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:53,880 When he wanted something, he went for the best. 37 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:57,240 And quite honestly, he couldn't afford it, 38 00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,560 but he managed it and he did it. 39 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:04,040 Any money that we made in the business was always poured back into the business. 40 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:09,480 Smart's Circus quickly became very successful 41 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:12,120 and Billy Smart gained celebrity status. 42 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:17,000 He would go on to be the face of circus for the next 20 years. 43 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:24,760 Although Billy was most definitely the governor, he had the support of a wider working family, 44 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:27,360 including his son, Ronnie. 45 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:30,240 It is the only way you can do it, with a big family. 46 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:32,480 We had a very large family. 47 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:37,720 They didn't all perform in the ring. Only one person performed in the ring, and that was Kay. 48 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:43,280 But it had to be a family concern, there is no doubt about it. 49 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:45,440 Kay Smart, Ronnie's wife, 50 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,760 had been a performer in the music hall, 51 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:50,480 but then trained to become a trapeze artist. 52 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:54,760 The hardest thing I had to do was to learn to walk up this rope ladder. 53 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,760 It was 30 foot up and it just was terribly hard 54 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:01,760 trying to walk up a rope ladder, in the middle of nothing, 55 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:04,280 with not a wall near to hang on to. 56 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:06,040 But I got it. 57 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:08,800 You look down and you can see how full the house is 58 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:11,600 or if they're enjoying it, and all that sort of thing, 59 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:15,480 and you know the trick you're going to do next is a good one, 60 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,440 and you do it better, if you see they're all with you. 61 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:25,440 Of all the thrilling and dangerous spectacles in the circus, 62 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:28,680 the aerial acts are perhaps the most glamorous. 63 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:37,520 I fell in love with the high-wire act ladies, 64 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:41,280 I definitely did. I think my first erotic stirrings were caused 65 00:04:41,280 --> 00:04:45,440 by watching women 30 feet above me. 66 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,840 And they had their hair done fancy, 67 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:55,600 so they were something else altogether. 68 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:01,280 As a young trapeze artist, Laci Enrdresz enjoyed all the attention. 69 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:03,960 It is a wonderful thing, the flying trapeze. 70 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:06,280 You are the star act, normally, in the show. 71 00:05:06,280 --> 00:05:11,360 When you're 18 or 19 years old, the girls, pop-star status, the girls all over you. 72 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:14,240 You can live with that when you're 18, 19, 20 years old. 73 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:17,840 There's something about the high wire 74 00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:19,760 and its blend of grace and danger 75 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,160 that taps straight into the realm of fantasy. 76 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,480 When I was very tiny, we went to Bertram Mills Circus at Olympia. 77 00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:33,160 I was completely entranced. The aerial acts were just wonderful. 78 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:35,040 We went back to school 79 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:36,800 and we started hanging upside down off the wall bars 80 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:39,040 wanting to be trapeze artists. 81 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,400 But the one that sticks in my mind 82 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:45,880 was a girl on a crescent moon in a sparkly costume. Gina on the moon. 83 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:55,400 And, you know, all our lives, we say, "Oh, remember the girl on the moon." 84 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:06,000 The things in the circus for me are the skill and the beauty. 85 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,080 The whole act has to be aesthetically pleasing. 86 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:11,480 But if they're sparkly - 87 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,400 in the traditional circus, sparkle is everything. 88 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,360 If they open an umbrella and glitter falls out, 89 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:19,720 it's just so special, every time. 90 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:23,040 It doesn't matter how many times you've seen it, it's wonderful. 91 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:24,880 APPLAUSE 92 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:34,440 But behind all the glitz and glamour lie years of training. 93 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:38,760 One mistake, and the consequences can be devastating for the performer. 94 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,120 I was twice paralysed, from the neck down. 95 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,160 You know, my right hand side was completely paralysed, 96 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:49,840 I was hung by the neck by the doctors in Austria for days before they gone back in place 97 00:06:49,840 --> 00:06:52,760 and many, many bones in my body. 98 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:56,960 I mean, one fall, we had 14 bones broke in my body, 99 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:01,120 falling down from 40 foot high without a net. 100 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,480 I fall in the net and I broke my neck in the net. 101 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:08,680 The circus thrives on the elemental appeal of danger, 102 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:13,000 and aerial attacks push human ability to the extreme. 103 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:19,080 For the first time in your life, as a child or even as an adult, 104 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,560 you were faced with something, which was a matter of life or death. 105 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:28,920 And it's a wild, crazy emotion, to be observing somebody 106 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,560 taking their life into their hands. And this is what circus performers 107 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:34,520 appear to be doing. 108 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:38,200 The idea that somebody is actually, for a split second, 109 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:41,760 in mid-air, doing a somersault, 110 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:45,200 to catch hands with somebody else that they trust. 111 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,360 That's life and death, and it's an incredible, visceral thing. 112 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,840 You have to have the danger in circus, it's part of it, 113 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:56,280 it's part of their lives. 114 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:58,280 You have to have the beauty and skill. 115 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:06,280 Britain wasn't alone in rediscovering the power of circus. 116 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:09,760 The Big Top was big business in post-war America too. 117 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:16,000 Ever the entrepreneur, Billy Smart headed across Atlantic to see 118 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:17,840 what he could pick up. 119 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:20,560 He was mainly looking for new acts, but he ended up 120 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:22,960 with a tip from a Hollywood film director. 121 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:29,760 We went across to see the Barnum And Bailey show, actually. 122 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:33,560 I think they'd just made the film The Greatest Show On Earth. 123 00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:37,320 And they had a blue big top. 124 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:39,560 The blue big top was something new 125 00:08:39,560 --> 00:08:42,720 because Cecil DeMille, who was the producer director, 126 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:47,480 he wanted to film during the day, so therefore he had to have a blue tent 127 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:50,520 so he could get all the colours and all that sort of thing. 128 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:54,680 So we came back and we said, "We're going to buy a blue tent." 129 00:08:54,680 --> 00:08:57,320 And we did. Blue big top, never been heard of before. 130 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:01,040 The blue canvas meant the acts looked just as spectacular 131 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:05,320 during the day as they did at night, drawing ever bigger crowds. 132 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:11,600 There was a regular, say, 5,000 people twice a night, anyway. 133 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:17,320 A huge operation like Smart's required a great deal of organisation. 134 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:21,520 By the '50s, they had to employ a large staff. 135 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:24,360 We had tent masters, second tent masters, 136 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:27,080 electricians, second electricians, you know. 137 00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:30,600 We had a complete, good, working thing. 138 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:36,000 But everybody had two jobs. A shirt-sleeve job and a spangle job. 139 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:40,080 When it's going up, in it goes, the circus ring, 140 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,720 it was the clowns' job to set this exactly right 141 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:48,440 so it didn't part and all the pieces joined together like a good jigsaw. 142 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:52,280 And then it was, say, the acrobat who did tumbling. 143 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,720 It was to their benefit that there wasn't any stones. 144 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:57,440 So that was what they did. 145 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,120 And when the stones were all gone, 146 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:04,000 then the good sawdust went in and a bit of glitter on top of it. 147 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:08,560 So that where you were working was really some place you wanted to be. 148 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:16,200 As well as being a trapeze artist, Kay orchestrated the music for the acts. 149 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:18,080 This was a crucial role. 150 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:22,120 In a circus, everything was choreographed with split-second timing, 151 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:24,600 and that included the animals. 152 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:26,440 We ended up putting the music 153 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:30,440 to the horses and to the bears, to the lions and different things. 154 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:36,160 The elephants knew it, they all know the music, the animals, the horses, 155 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,120 every animal knew its music, because if its music started 156 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,240 there was "Rrrruuurr" behind the curtains, you know. 157 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:43,880 Performing animals were 158 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:47,320 a key draw for the circus back in the '50s, 159 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,720 when attitudes were very different to those of today. 160 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:58,840 For many, it would be the first time they had ever seen a wild animal. 161 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:02,520 It could be a terrifying experience. 162 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:07,480 There's a great clattering as men in overalls arrive 163 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,360 and start erecting a cage all the way around the arena. 164 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:16,640 And then inside the cage these stands are put and then we can see a tunnel 165 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:20,720 and then a man with a very large whip and a gun arrives. 166 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:26,840 And it's, "Haiich! Haaich! Hi!" And then in come the lions. 167 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:29,280 Now this is frightening. 168 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:32,960 I know what these things can do and there they are, 169 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:38,640 growling and snarling and this guy is poking them with his whip 170 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:42,400 and they're jumping up and they're doing this, that and the other. 171 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:46,600 But then he brings in a tiger, as well. Lions and tigers. 172 00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:48,200 Surely this cannot be? 173 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,720 And I'm absolutely staggered, 174 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,960 captivated and can't believe there can be any life more glamorous 175 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:59,000 than having a whip and a gun and a lion. 176 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,960 The threat of danger was never far from the surface in the circus, 177 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,680 both in the minds of the audience and the performers. 178 00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:13,280 This element of risk gave rise to some unusual beliefs 179 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:14,840 among circus people. 180 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:17,080 They are so funny, the old superstitions. 181 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:19,320 A bird flying around the tent is unlucky. 182 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:21,560 Never sit with your back to the ring. 183 00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:25,000 You'd never put your circus ring directly on top of the circus ring 184 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,200 where the previous circus had been. You'd move it a bit to one side. 185 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:30,440 You should never whistle. 186 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:32,920 You wouldn't see circus artists wearing green. 187 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:37,280 Circuses are full of superstition. It's a nightmare! 188 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:42,720 This deep-rooted folklore goes back to the origins of the circus. 189 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:44,960 Its history is over 200 years old 190 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:48,080 and it was born out of very tumultuous times. 191 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:51,720 Circus started in the United Kingdom in 1768, 192 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:54,800 when an equestrian horseman called Philip Astley 193 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,080 set up Astley's Amphitheatre in London. 194 00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:03,640 This was a period of fierce nationalism and imperial conflict. 195 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,840 In 1763, the Seven Years War came to an end, 196 00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:13,320 which led to the discharge of large groups of former British cavalrymen and horse grooms. 197 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:17,240 Philip Astley was one of those veterans. 198 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:20,280 He had embarked on a career in trick riding, 199 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:22,680 which was popular at the time. 200 00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:27,360 He had the idea to rope off a piece of land 201 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:28,760 and put a wall around it. 202 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:33,440 The creation of the ring was just the starting point. 203 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:36,680 Astley was an entrepreneur, a showman, 204 00:13:36,680 --> 00:13:40,400 who started out with a simple aim but quickly spotted an opportunity 205 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:43,880 to create something truly unique and innovative. 206 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:50,520 Astley's initial remit for himself 207 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:55,680 was to show the expertise on horseback. 208 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:59,720 Astley could see that there was an appetite for trick riding 209 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,920 and no shortage of skilled people to take part. 210 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:04,760 But he wasn't the only one, 211 00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:07,240 and so he decided to try something new. 212 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:14,360 He introduced other performers, such as acrobats, jugglers and clowns, 213 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:18,760 acts that he found in the fairs and marketplaces of Britain. 214 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:22,760 This was a defining moment. 215 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:27,000 By combining all these different acts in one circular ring, 216 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:30,320 Astley became the father of the circus. 217 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:34,840 It wasn't long before his show was in demand far and wide. 218 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:39,520 He travelled all over Europe, built 17 amphitheatres. 219 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:41,920 So his roped-off piece of land with a wooden wall 220 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:43,440 turned into an amphitheatre 221 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:46,400 and he then built 17 amphitheatres right across Europe. 222 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,880 But the horse acts still remained the driving force for the shows 223 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:54,920 and Astley made them spectacular. 224 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,720 He loved to sort of re-enact. 225 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:00,800 He re-enacted the storming of the Bastille. 226 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:03,520 I can kind of imagine that being like the News At Ten, 227 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,880 so people in London could hear what's just happened in France, 228 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:10,120 hear about the revolution, and then they could go to Astley's 229 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:13,880 and see it performed, see what was happening, almost like a newsflash. 230 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:17,920 Astley had lit the touchpaper. 231 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,520 His circus spawned many imitations and the circus 232 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:26,200 was soon a hugely popular and established form of entertainment. 233 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:28,000 Right from the beginning, 234 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:30,840 entrepreneurs realised the huge potential audience 235 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:34,080 and wanted to take the circus beyond the fixed venue 236 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:35,960 of the amphitheatre building. 237 00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:43,880 What they would do was to find wasteland, or an available space, 238 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:46,640 get an architect to draw up a plan, 239 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:50,440 take the plan to the local wood yard, buy the wood, 240 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:55,920 hire a builder to put the building, put the building up. 241 00:15:55,920 --> 00:16:01,120 Stay there for as long as an audience would pay to come and see the show. 242 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,200 And then, when they'd exhausted the audience, 243 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,400 dismantle the building, sell it back to the wood yard, 244 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,560 and move on to the next town and repeat the process. 245 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:13,560 For now, circuses were either open air 246 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:17,560 or confined to makeshift or permanent buildings. 247 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:22,480 But as the circus moved into the 1800s, it continued to develop. 248 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:25,320 And thanks to Victorian ingenuity, 249 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:29,720 it took on many of the aspects we are familiar with today. 250 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:35,600 Circus in the Victorian period really was one of its high peaks. 251 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:40,120 There was 15,000 people performing in the circus. That's extraordinary. 252 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:44,200 More and more variety was introduced. 253 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:50,680 Certainly the horses were still there 254 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,320 as the sort of focal point, 255 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:56,440 but with sort of exotic animals and animal trainers, 256 00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:58,600 which had started to come in as well. 257 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:04,520 The idea of performing wild animals was born out of the menagerie tradition, 258 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:08,600 which may have held a fascination for Victorian audiences 259 00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:12,200 but dated back as far as the 12th century, 260 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:16,120 when royalty and titled gentry kept exotic animals. 261 00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:25,680 In 1842, this very British creation benefited from the arrival of an American import. 262 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:28,400 The Big Top had arrived. 263 00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:33,800 This and other technological advances of the period, 264 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:36,680 like steam power, allowed travelling showmen 265 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,680 to take more and more elaborate circuses out on the road. 266 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:45,520 The most celebrated of these was "Lord" George Sanger. 267 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:47,800 He travelled around towns and villages 268 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:52,040 with at least ten wagons loaded with equipment 269 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:55,080 requiring 150 horses to pull them. 270 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:58,720 In a convoy that would stretch for miles. 271 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:02,080 Sanger took the circus to the people. 272 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:06,200 And everyone flocked to see it. 273 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:10,360 He boasted that there would not be a town in England with a population more than 100 274 00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:13,920 that a Sanger's circus wouldn't have visited. 275 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,320 He was so successful that, in 1871, 276 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:26,280 he purchased Astley's thriving amphitheatre in London. 277 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,360 Permanent shows were still drawing the crowds 278 00:18:32,360 --> 00:18:37,120 and the Victorian period saw more and more intricate and glamorous buildings 279 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:39,160 spring up to showcase the circus. 280 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,040 Every major city in United Kingdom had a permanent building. 281 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:45,720 And the giveaway is in the name. 282 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,320 When you see something called the Hippodrome, 283 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:50,360 you know its roots was a circus building. 284 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:55,960 The word "hippodrome" comes from the Greek words, "hippos" for horse, 285 00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:58,600 and "dromos" for race or course. 286 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:03,720 One of the most impressive circus buildings was created 287 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:07,000 in the seaside town of Blackpool. 288 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,240 We are now in the Tower Circus, which is the oldest continuous circus 289 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:15,800 in the United Kingdom in continuous use. It was founded in 1894. 290 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:20,000 The wonderful interiors that you see now are 1899, 1900. 291 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:25,960 And this is still the permanent site for circus in United Kingdom, 292 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:28,400 always has been and always will be. 293 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,760 But this Victorian heyday was not to last. 294 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:43,520 By the end of the 19th century, the circus faced a rival for the public's affections. 295 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,320 Music hall had been growing in strength 296 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:52,200 and audiences in large towns suddenly had a more diverse choice of entertainment on offer. 297 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:56,080 As a result, the circus suffered a decline in popularity 298 00:19:56,080 --> 00:20:00,040 and some of the permanent buildings were forced to close. 299 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:07,360 It was years before a showman came along who would turn the fortunes of the circus around. 300 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:09,920 In the '20s, you get Bertram Mills, 301 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,880 who comes in and takes over the circus at Olympia 302 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:17,720 and turns it again into something that Londoners see as part of their everyday holiday. 303 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,600 Bertram Mills put on the most lavish circus shows 304 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:24,400 that the capital had ever seen. 305 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:26,760 He made circus a real event again 306 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:30,360 and became renowned for showcasing performers of the highest calibre. 307 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:37,680 I think the thing about Bertram Mills was that he really was 308 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:39,360 interested in quality. 309 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,320 He would bring people in from all the big international shows 310 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:48,600 and made British circus again a truly international phenomenon. 311 00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:51,600 And people considered it a very prestigious thing 312 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:53,760 to be able to work for Mills. 313 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:59,040 He had established his position where it was awfully good for your prestige to have worked for him. 314 00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:03,400 Bertram Mills presented the circus at its best, 315 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:07,080 combining glamorous, highly skilled performances 316 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:11,400 with comedy and exotic novelty acts audiences couldn't find anywhere else. 317 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,920 NEWSREEL: 'Now for the piece de resistance...' 318 00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,960 You had things like the tight-walking lion. 319 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:22,280 'Walking along a tightrope looks easy, but the animal knows 320 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:26,600 'it's the directing eye and hand of his trainer that will see him safely over. 321 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,800 'One slip and the whole act will end in pandemonium 322 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:32,040 'and perhaps injury to man and beast. 323 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,800 'It's a fine act that will earn great applause.' 324 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:38,360 He had this amazing female magician called Koringa, 325 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:43,800 who could actually mesmerise crocodiles. 326 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:48,600 'The crocodile looks fierce but watch her quietly. 327 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:52,960 'See how stiff it's gone, proving that it's completely under her control, 328 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,440 'and will do anything she willed it.' 329 00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:01,400 Bertram Mills managed to reignite the popularity of the circus but he, 330 00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:06,800 like other circus proprietors, faced a new adversary. 331 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,480 An organisation called the Performing Animals Defence League 332 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:15,320 had been lobbying Parliament to pass a bill prohibiting the use of performing animals. 333 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,520 A select committee was set up in 1921 to investigate. 334 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:24,040 Although a resulting bill in 1925 did introduce regulations, 335 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:25,840 it did not call for a ban. 336 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:31,160 So, the circus was able to continue as it had always done. 337 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:38,880 Over the coming decades, it was to prove more popular than ever, 338 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:42,160 thanks to the new medium of television. 339 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,320 TV pioneers were quick to recognise 340 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,360 the visual richness of circus 341 00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:50,440 and used it to demonstrate the new medium in 1946. 342 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:58,040 Then, in 1950, the BBC deemed it important enough 343 00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:04,720 to take centre stage in the first live outside broadcast from France. 344 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,480 NEWSREEL: 'August 27th, 1950. 345 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,520 'As our filmed pictures end, and live sound and vision 346 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:14,200 'reach out across the dark waters of the Channel...' 347 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:20,040 'Probably you'll realise that should the girl 348 00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,120 'miss the edge of the table as she comes down, 349 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:27,000 'with her hands, it would be her neck that would hit it. 350 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:28,680 'Three chairs.' 351 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:35,920 Broadcasters saw that the circus worked well on television 352 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,480 and were excited by its potential to pull in viewers. 353 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:42,400 So, in the early '50s, 354 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:45,680 the BBC made overtures to Billy Smart. 355 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:50,360 And the showman embraced the opportunity with both hands. 356 00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:52,440 # Come to the circus 357 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:56,160 # Come to the circus 358 00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:58,520 # See the circus... # 359 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:03,000 I think they paid us a large sum of £200 for a one-hour show. 360 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:04,680 We were glad to do it. 361 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,400 Smart's signed to the BBC in 1952, 362 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,680 for a deal that would go on to last over 20 years. 363 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:18,560 Chipperfield's were courted by ITV and took the plunge in 1955. 364 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,960 But not everyone was quite so easily seduced. 365 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,600 The Bertram Mills Circus had had to be rebuilt 366 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:27,840 after the impact of music hall. 367 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:29,200 They steered clear, 368 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:33,560 fearing that television could have a similar negative impact. 369 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:38,200 The arrival of television actually was a boom period for the circus in the '50s, 370 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:41,240 because the Smarts allowing the circus to be filmed, 371 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:43,360 it actually got it to a wider audience. 372 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,680 So in some ways it was their best advance publicity they could get. 373 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,160 They didn't need someone to fly the town any more 374 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,000 because they had the television. 375 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:57,000 The love affair between television and circus was rewarded with massive viewing figures. 376 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,960 One Christmas I think we had just over 20 million viewers, 377 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:06,360 and we got what they call the Silver Camera Award, 378 00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:10,680 which you get - when you've got 20 million viewers, you get the Silver Camera. 379 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,640 But, you know, it wasn't a true story, 380 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,880 because, quite honestly, it was more than 20 million 381 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,600 because they went to 30 other countries at the same time. 382 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:23,040 So you imagine, you add all that 30 countries to the 20 million, 383 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:27,080 I don't know how many millions we'd be talking about, but would be a lot of people. 384 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,440 I actually loved it on TV. 385 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,800 Almost as much as I loved it in the flesh. 386 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,680 It was in black-and-white, 387 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:53,080 so you are deprived of perhaps 70% of what was actually the splendour of going to the circus. 388 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:57,560 But the fact that in a circus you are in a fixed vantage point, 389 00:25:57,560 --> 00:25:59,320 you're watching at one angle. 390 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,600 The TV did have that advantage 391 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:03,080 of three or more cameras, 392 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:07,200 which bring to life the circus from all sorts of different viewpoints. 393 00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:14,680 For Billy Smart's and the BBC, it was a partnership made in heaven. 394 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:19,080 The next day you had a queue at your box office, if the show was good, and it was good. 395 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,720 As result of their success, the Smart family 396 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:25,960 began to mix with Hollywood stars. 397 00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:35,560 Billy's son, Billy Smart Junior, became a celebrity in his own right and a tabloid favourite. 398 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:40,840 He appeared in gossip columns which hinted at liaisons with well-known starlets. 399 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,400 He certainly was the playboy of the circus, there was no doubt about it. 400 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:49,040 Among his rumoured conquests was Jayne Mansfield. 401 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,360 I don't think Billy got that friendly! 402 00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:55,440 But she did get particularly up close and personal 403 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:59,520 to one of the star acts of Smart's Circus, Burma the elephant. 404 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,920 She would lay down, and Burma would come in to the special music. 405 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,360 DRUM ROLL 406 00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:09,240 And she was so scared, she kept calling for her husband, 407 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:11,880 "Mickey, Mickey, I can't do this, I can't do this!" 408 00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,680 But she did do it! She got up 409 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,040 and she was very pleased she did it, actually. 410 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,120 The link to the wider entertainment world 411 00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:28,480 helped circus appeal across all classes. 412 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:33,800 When you had a big gala show, a lot of stars used to turn up 413 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,040 and they'd want to take part. 414 00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:41,520 Even the Bertram Mills Circus allowed the cameras in 415 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,600 to capture the Queen attending a performance in 1952. 416 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,000 All the ambassadors used to go, 417 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,520 all the celebrities, the celebs of the day. 418 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:57,960 I remember going one year, Field Marshal Montgomery was there, and Winston Churchill was there. 419 00:27:57,960 --> 00:27:59,880 It was very interesting. 420 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,680 Television pushed circus to the forefront 421 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,720 of our popular culture, but with the success came pressure. 422 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,480 Proprietors had to work harder and harder to seek out fresh acts 423 00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:16,320 to keep a mass audience interested. 424 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:23,280 But circus had long been a global phenomenon. 425 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:27,040 There was a whole world of acts out there to choose from. 426 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,800 Even at the height of the Cold War, international borders 427 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:39,000 were no barrier for circus people, as Ronnie found out when he went to Russia. 428 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,920 I was booking a programme for the BBC, 429 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:47,560 and the BBC had the entry to get into the eastern zone, you know, the other zone. 430 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:51,720 And I remember getting in the cab and getting across the border. 431 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,320 I was so surprised to get through, 432 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,040 the word "circus", we're agents for the circus and BBC, 433 00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,760 and they just let us through, actually. 434 00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:05,000 But anyway, we did get there, we did see some sensational Russian acts, 435 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:06,480 which were outstanding. 436 00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:11,240 They quickly snapped them up for their show. 437 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:15,760 The Soviets had long valued the cultural importance of the circus. 438 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:19,440 There were over 70 circus buildings in the Soviet Union, 439 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,880 as well as a network of specialist training schools. 440 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:28,560 Thousands of circus performers were employees of the state. 441 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:32,360 In the years following the war, they were so keen to show off 442 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:36,320 the advantages of their "people's culture", that, in 1956, 443 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:40,960 the Moscow State Circus was dispatched to London. 444 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:45,000 The fruits of the Soviet system were to be seen by all. 445 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,560 The British, it seemed, couldn't get enough of the circus. 446 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:55,000 Demand was such, up and down the country, that all the major circuses 447 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:59,440 did their best to satisfy it by taking their shows out on tour. 448 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:05,720 They took them to every town, even the UK's most northerly city. 449 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:14,080 In that time, Inverness was a smallish town. 450 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,320 It had one very, very small theatre, 451 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,160 but here was a West End show from London 452 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,040 that came and parked and it was absolutely fabulous. 453 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:25,880 I was blown away with it. 454 00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,960 And they came every three years after that. 455 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:32,960 The arrival of the circus was a hugely exciting event for the locals. 456 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:35,440 And the circus proprietors made the most of it, 457 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:39,840 putting on spectacular parades to announce that they were in town. 458 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:55,200 People, I think, have forgotten how important a part of social ritual it was in this country. 459 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:03,240 And the parade would be clowns preceding them, giving out flyers. 460 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,000 They'd be followed by ladies on horseback. 461 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,280 Occasionally, if you were very, very lucky, 462 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,440 a lion would be in a cage, pulled along by horses. 463 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,000 The elephants would go up Market Street 464 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:22,800 and it happened in winter, in the bleak, miserable greyness of winter. 465 00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:26,280 Watching the parade lived long in the memory. 466 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:31,960 But one lucky teenager in 1962 was given the opportunity to take part. 467 00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:41,200 Way back when I was 16, we saw an advert in the local newspaper, 468 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,360 when the circus - Billy Smart's Circus - came to town, 469 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:47,400 and they were asking for girls to ride the elephants 470 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:51,560 from the local train station where they arrived to where they were performing. 471 00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:56,680 There was a catch - 472 00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,640 you had to be wearing your bathing suit 473 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,720 and it was the middle of winter. 474 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,760 16th December, to be exact. 475 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:08,080 So my mother decided that I should volunteer. 476 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:10,080 So we went down to the auditions. 477 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:14,480 Well, it wasn't really an audition - it was just whoever was brave enough to do it. 478 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,160 And I got picked. 479 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:21,760 So we had to turn up at the station, and it was freezing! 480 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:26,640 We all had our coats on but underneath... Oh, and we had to wear high heels as well. 481 00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:28,520 And then the elephants arrived. 482 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:37,520 It was like, "Oh, my gosh, how are we going to get on top of them?" 483 00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:42,160 So the one that I was stood next to, he just put his leg up like this, 484 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,000 and the man said to me, "Put your leg up." 485 00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:48,440 So I hauled myself up. 486 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,200 He had, like, chains round his neck, so I got hold of the chains, 487 00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,760 and just hauled myself up. 488 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,840 And then we set off through the streets. 489 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:02,320 It must have been well advertised because there was hundreds of people watching and cheering 490 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,160 for the circus. 491 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:12,120 If you put your animals on the train, they have to walk back from the station to the circus site 492 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,480 and that's the best publicity you could have. 493 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:18,600 I mean, the girls, we'd have about six to eight girls, 494 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:20,120 and they'd ride camels 495 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,520 and do elephant riding, looking gorgeous 496 00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:24,000 and all that sort of thing. 497 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,880 It was fantastic. Something that I've obviously never forgotten. 498 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:31,760 I've loved elephants ever since. 499 00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,920 I mean, where are children going to see 20 elephants walk along the street, 500 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,800 amongst tram cars, etc? Which we did. 501 00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:43,360 If a circus parade walked through Oxford Street now, 502 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:49,400 I think it would be just as mind-blowing as it had been 60 years ago. 503 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:52,040 But the parade wasn't all about animals. 504 00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,200 Taking a lead role would be the clown - 505 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:57,320 an important figure in every circus. 506 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:01,400 You could say that the clown was the linchpin of the circus. 507 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:07,720 He will fill in. He will tell the jokes that keep the audience amused 508 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:11,680 whilst one act goes off and the other act comes on. 509 00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:15,600 Whilst a lot of the focus of the circus is on exceptional human ability 510 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:19,440 and consists of performers at their physical peak... 511 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,960 the clown is portrayed as the opposite - 512 00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:23,640 clumsy and silly. 513 00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:29,280 He wears big shoes and, of course, the idea of... 514 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:33,320 the grotesque parts of the body are enhanced, 515 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:39,720 so the big shoes and a big nose sort of signifies a fool. 516 00:34:39,720 --> 00:34:45,600 One of the most famous clowns of all time was Latvian-born Coco. 517 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:46,800 COCO LAUGHS 518 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:48,400 You like that one. 519 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,920 NEWSREEL: 'Here's Coco to say hello. 520 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:58,480 'And not being able to raise his hat, does the next best thing.' 521 00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:01,640 But in fact, he wasn't technically a clown at all. 522 00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:05,120 The clown is the white face. 523 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:08,560 A lot of people think the clown is the guy with the red nose. 524 00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,760 The clown is the white-faced clown with a sparkly costume. 525 00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:17,080 Coco was an auguste. 526 00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,560 The auguste is usually the one with the red nose, 527 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:22,000 which people class as the clown. 528 00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:28,280 I think technically it comes from the German word "a fool" - "August." 529 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,440 And he's the red nose - he's the one that gets everything wrong. 530 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:39,320 Clowns are one of the few circus acts who have become celebrities in their own right. 531 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:44,760 This may be do with the fact that clowns generally served long residencies in individual circuses, 532 00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:49,120 allowing them to build up a lasting relationship with their audience. 533 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,720 Coco worked for decades for the Bertram Mills Circus. 534 00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:00,880 With the advent of television, Coco became even more popular, 535 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,800 a friendly face with a familiar sense of humour. 536 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:09,560 In the 1960s, he appeared in a campaign to teach children about road safety. 537 00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:13,640 But whilst TV was kind to the clown, the exposure it brought 538 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,040 was devastating for other acts that relied on the element of surprise. 539 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:21,280 Once their act had been seen by the massive TV audience, 540 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:24,680 it lost its novelty and was difficult to repeat. 541 00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,360 And this wasn't the only problem that television created for the circus. 542 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,320 As broadcasting came of age, 543 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:33,800 the choice of programmes on offer increased, and with television 544 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:37,600 becoming a much bigger draw, live entertainment took a bashing. 545 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:44,520 The fears of Bertram Mills were proved right. The circus began to lose some of its appeal. 546 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:48,640 Business did drop off during the television times, of course, 547 00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:54,360 when television got stronger and people were staying at home and not going out to shows. 548 00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:58,400 I mean, we were doing OK but not as good as we would like to have done. 549 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,960 The television was now a rival to the circus 550 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:08,160 and this spelt disaster for some of Britain's biggest circuses. 551 00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:15,200 One of the first and most dramatic casualties was the Bertram Mills Circus in 1965. 552 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:20,000 'And now the Rolls-Royce of circuses, the greatest road show of them all, 553 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,760 'has ground to a final halt here at Ascot, and is selling up. 554 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:31,080 'This is only one tiny part of the vast wardrobe which, 555 00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:36,240 'for 35 years, has gaudily clad the Bertram Mills Travelling Circus. 556 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:42,800 'They're all coming under the hammer here at the Bertram Mills Winter Quarters at Ascot. 557 00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:46,720 'The Big Top, the really Big Pop, just doesn't pay any more.' 558 00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:50,040 'The tented towns are disappearing, 559 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,560 'forced out of business by the sheer economics of the 1960s.' 560 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,200 So, ironically, the Bertram Mills Circus, 561 00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:00,320 which had refused to be televised, was one of the first victims. 562 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:03,920 His son had to suffer the indignity of a public auction. 563 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:09,280 Mr Mills, you're one of the joint managing directors of Bertram Mills Circus, 564 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:15,040 and how do you personally feel about the end of the travelling circus, your own travelling circus? 565 00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:18,400 Well, having been at it for about 35 years, 566 00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:21,880 naturally, I'm sad that it's over. 567 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,440 Does this mean the death of all travelling circuses, do you think? 568 00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:28,160 Good heavens, no. Why should it? 569 00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:31,000 Well, if it was very costly and uneconomic for you to run, 570 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,120 why should anybody else be able to do it? 571 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:37,600 Maybe other people are cleverer than we are. I hope they are because I don't want to see it die. 572 00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:40,120 They weren't alone. 573 00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:42,920 Sanger's Circus closed in 1962 574 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:46,200 and within a couple of years, another of the circus giants, 575 00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:48,960 Chipperfield's, emigrated to South Africa. 576 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:55,920 # And away went my very last day as a child 577 00:38:55,920 --> 00:39:01,160 # The day that the circus 578 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,600 # Left town... # 579 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,200 Even Billy Smart's parked up their caravans 580 00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:11,280 and gave up regular touring in 1971. 581 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:13,760 The overheads, you know, 582 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:15,920 cost so much money to move from town to town. 583 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,600 It was a sad time, actually. 584 00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:22,280 It looked as if circus might be over for good. 585 00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:26,600 But all was not lost and the departure of the big circuses actually opened up 586 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,640 new opportunities for smaller circuses to get a foothold. 587 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:35,040 The spirit of Bertram Mills would live on, thanks to a young outsider 588 00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:39,120 who, like so many before him, had fallen in love with the circus. 589 00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,720 The first circus I saw was Bertram Mills' circus in Olympia. 590 00:39:43,720 --> 00:39:46,200 And... I just don't know - from that day I just wanted 591 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:48,440 to be the boss, and that was it. 592 00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,560 And I never really wanted to be the world's greatest juggler 593 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:55,680 or flying trapeze act or an animal trainer. I just knew I wanted to be the boss. 594 00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:59,080 At the age of 15, Gerry Cottle ran away from home, 595 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:03,320 and after a few years of working for other people, 596 00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:07,840 achieved his ambition and started his own circus in 1970. 597 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:13,520 He went into business with his friend, Brian Austin, 598 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:17,720 but in order to make it work, they would have to do things very differently. 599 00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:21,240 TV REPORTER: 'They're an odd pair to be in partnership. 600 00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:26,680 'Gerry Cottle is the outfit's tycoon. An ex-grammar schoolboy, the son of a stockbroker, 601 00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,960 'he is the business manager, the public relations department, 602 00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:32,840 'the publicity and advertising division.' 603 00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:38,120 I'll put it in the corner. All right. Tell everybody about it, won't you? I will do. It's a very good show. 604 00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,120 You'll enjoy it. 605 00:40:41,720 --> 00:40:43,000 'We took a show out. 606 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:47,840 'We had an old tent that we bought in Ireland. 607 00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:49,760 'We had a limited budget. 608 00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:52,480 'We didn't have any facilities.' 609 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,080 They were determined to make a go of it. 610 00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:02,720 'There's still a lot of heavy work before the show can be put on. 611 00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:06,520 'Seats to be carried in and put up, cables to lay, lights to fix, 612 00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:10,400 'the amplifier to rig, the props to check, the generator to service, 613 00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:14,320 'a trailer wheel to change and diesel oil to fetch.' 614 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,240 It was very hard work. 615 00:41:19,240 --> 00:41:22,960 Yeah, it was difficult, but I just think we just did it. 616 00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,000 We had to do it, and we went out... 617 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:28,040 Circuses traditionally never started till Easter, 618 00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:31,840 but we needed the money, we needed the turnover, not always a profit, 619 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,600 so we'd start late February, half-term in February. 620 00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:38,000 The weather was terrible. I've got pictures of us knee-deep in snow! 621 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:42,160 Tent about to collapse. We didn't think of anything else. It's what we wanted to do. 622 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:46,720 Life on the road for a small circus was tough. 623 00:41:46,720 --> 00:41:49,520 Unlike the big circuses that had come before, 624 00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,840 they did everything themselves to make ends meet. 625 00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:54,520 It was relentless work. 626 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,240 When we did the one-day stands in the early days, 627 00:41:57,240 --> 00:42:03,120 you'd get up about five o'clock, drive to the next town, you'd put the tent up. 628 00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:04,880 You'd get ready for letting people in the door, 629 00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:08,120 selling tickets or starting the generator. 630 00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:10,800 Three children? 631 00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,600 In-between, you'd practise if you wanted to practise. 632 00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:15,360 Are you ready? 633 00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:16,960 Right. Ready? 634 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:19,800 And then you'd do the shows at five o'clock. 635 00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:23,560 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, 636 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:26,120 and welcome to the circus. 637 00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:28,000 It's on with the show. Here come the clowns! 638 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:30,680 THEY SHOUT 639 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:35,880 Keeping the string in the magic bag...and they come out Tide! 640 00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,720 I'd better get off. 641 00:42:38,720 --> 00:42:41,520 Ta-ta, boys and girls. 642 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:42,960 Ooh, I say! 643 00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:47,080 Even after the show, there wasn't any rest. 644 00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:50,720 What've you done with that bulb, Brian? It's over the back there. 645 00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:53,560 Everything had to be packed up before bed, 646 00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:55,960 ready to move on again in the morning. 647 00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:01,040 It was non non-stop. I must've been a terrible husband because I just worked, 648 00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:04,640 you know, I wasn't really a great father in that respect. 649 00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:06,480 Hello. Ooh! Good morning. 650 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:16,120 For small circuses, moving around from site to site 651 00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,880 on a daily basis, living conditions were fairly basic. 652 00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:21,720 There's no electric on all day. 653 00:43:21,720 --> 00:43:26,400 You have to run generators for that, and there wasn't the silent generators like there is now. 654 00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:28,160 There wasn't washing machines. 655 00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:34,200 Every town you're in is different. You've then got to find the shops or the supermarket. 656 00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,800 Another crucial aspect of life on the road 657 00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:42,720 was ensuring the children were able to get an education. 658 00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:49,280 If you were born into the circus, life was anything but ordinary. 659 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:52,640 Typical day would be the circus would move in the morning, 660 00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,560 so we'd get up at six o'clock, drive through to the next town, 661 00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:58,040 probably only moving 15 or 20 miles, 662 00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:01,840 we'd arrive in the town and my mum's first job was to find the local school. 663 00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,400 You arrive in Coventry on a Sunday night, 664 00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:10,080 you've got to find a new school at 8.30 in the morning on Monday morning in a city like Coventry, 665 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:12,880 and there is some kind of help for it, but it's not easy. 666 00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:18,080 And I actually went to some 350 different primary schools! 667 00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:23,440 Schooling often had to be fitted in wherever it could. 668 00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:30,520 They're usually very hard workers, circus kids. They're used to kind of erratic hours. 669 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:35,760 And in-between performing and schoolwork, there was practising 670 00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:37,800 Mum would pick me up at three o'clock, 671 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,160 then it would be straight back, I had a sandwich and a glass of milk, 672 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,400 and then I'd have to get changed into my clown clothes, 673 00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:49,120 and we'd have shows at five o'clock, I'd do the five o'clock show, the 7.30 show. 674 00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:53,480 TV REPORTER: 'Invariably, children born on the road have the wanderlust in their blood, 675 00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:56,880 'and stay in the circus game all their lives.' 676 00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:00,160 Children often follow their parents into the same act. 677 00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:03,760 When you're born into clown aristocracy, 678 00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:06,440 the boots are very big to fill. 679 00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:11,880 My father was Charlie Cairoli, Carletto, as he was known in France. 680 00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:17,560 My mother was Violet Fratellini from the Fratellini clowns. 681 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:23,080 Charlie was born in Milan to a travelling circus family of French origin. 682 00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:26,360 He began his performing career at the age of seven. 683 00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,360 He went on to become an international star. 684 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:33,160 In due course, his son, Charlie Junior, joined him in his act. 685 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:35,640 I did laugh with my father. 686 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:36,960 I had nine years with him 687 00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:38,520 where I started off as a stooge 688 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:41,360 and ended up doing the white face, and I laughed. 689 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:47,320 Ah! 690 00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:50,880 He would do things like... 691 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:56,440 His noses were made out of putty, and he used to varnish them and redden them every day. 692 00:45:56,440 --> 00:46:00,680 Some days, he would get a dead fly, cos there was animals there, and stick it on his nose. 693 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:05,720 Then he'd walk in the ring, nobody could see it, but when you're working very close to somebody, 694 00:46:05,720 --> 00:46:08,160 he'd be going, "Ph, ph, ph!" Like that. 695 00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:11,320 All you wanted to do was pull this fly off! 696 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,200 Oh, I got the other one now! 697 00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:21,880 He just did joke after joke after joke. 698 00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,320 Charlie Cairoli had a long-reaching career 699 00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:30,640 and performed every summer season at Blackpool Tower Circus for 40 years. 700 00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:34,880 Many circus performers lead much more transitory lives. 701 00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:40,200 Acts from all over the world come together for maybe just one season, and then go their separate ways. 702 00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:47,440 But for the time they are together, circus life is all-encompassing and international. 703 00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:49,440 'You can have this extraordinary sense' 704 00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:52,800 of an extended family and a small supportive network, 705 00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:56,640 and it's great, and really good fun, 706 00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:00,040 and very sweet to see lots of different nationalities 707 00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:03,400 and people who might, you know, be culturally, politically 708 00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:06,840 opposed to each other just all getting on and having a nice time. 709 00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:10,920 You just think, "Why can't the world be like a circus? Just get on!" 710 00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:15,520 Circus people are a distinct community. 711 00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:19,440 Over the years, they've even developed their own means of communication. 712 00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:21,880 We have a proper language, a circus language. 713 00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:24,360 I can speak to my kids in front of you 714 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:26,960 and you haven't got a clue what we're talking about. 715 00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:29,880 So, you know, you have this own language, 716 00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:33,400 which is a mixture of Italian, a mixture of Latin. 717 00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:35,840 Romany, a bit of Romany in it, I don't know why. 718 00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:37,520 A lot of kind of Army slang. 719 00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:40,160 For instance, you would call dogs buffers. 720 00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:41,360 Mangiare is food. 721 00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:44,040 Kind of nanti parlari, don't talk to that person there. 722 00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:47,200 The ground where the circus sets up on is called the tober. 723 00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:48,320 Dinari is money. 724 00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:50,640 Women are mozzies. 725 00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:54,320 These jags are the Noah's Ark, which means that person's a miserable sod. 726 00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:55,480 I could go on and on. 727 00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:59,560 There is a complete glossary of circus terms, which only circus people would know. 728 00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:04,320 If you had an outsider, they used to go, "He's a josser." 729 00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:08,480 A lot of times, the jossers had to prove themselves more. 730 00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:12,280 If you were from a circus family, you were accepted. "He'll be all right." 731 00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:16,120 If you were a josser, you had to really prove yourself, and it was hard. 732 00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:20,920 Yet it was often the jossers, or outsiders, 733 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:25,560 who would come in and turned around the fortunes of the circus. 734 00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:29,120 Whether Bertram Mills or Billy Smart, and now, 735 00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:34,200 Gerry Cottle too was reaping the benefits of all of his hard work. 736 00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:35,640 Tickets, please. 737 00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,080 The Big Top was paying again. 738 00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:46,960 Those children who had grown up in the golden age of circus in the '50s and '60s 739 00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:53,720 were now eager to take their own children along to share the experience they'd had. 740 00:48:53,720 --> 00:48:58,080 A whole new generation were experiencing the thrill of the circus. 741 00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:04,680 But proprietors like Phillip Gandey tried not to repeat the mistakes of the past 742 00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:08,000 by keeping the circus on a manageable scale. 743 00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:13,440 'We actually made a conscious decision never to buy wild animals.' 744 00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:18,600 We didn't want to be stuck with very expensive animals that we couldn't move on, or wouldn't want to move on, 745 00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:23,400 because they come part of the family, so we hired them in and because the bigger circuses had closed, 746 00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:28,400 we were able to hire Billy Smart's elephants, we hired Mary Chipperfield's lions and tigers, 747 00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:33,400 so we didn't have to have that expenditure, which enabled us to buy property and invest in other things. 748 00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:42,360 Success bred competition, and circus owners found creative ways to make sure they gained the upper hand. 749 00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:49,240 Oh, the rivalry was...quite nasty, really, but good fun. 750 00:49:49,240 --> 00:49:51,160 I don't mind that at all. 751 00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:53,360 We had absolute what we called billing wars, 752 00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:56,960 taking each other's posters down and all that nonsense. 753 00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,080 I remember another time, my nephew... 754 00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:02,040 We were having trouble with this other circus. 755 00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:04,280 They'd had a day off and they came over to us 756 00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:08,240 and Bo took them out drinking and got them completely paralytic. 757 00:50:08,240 --> 00:50:12,000 He got them arrested and the next day, they missed the show! 758 00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:15,840 The police didn't let them go till mid afternoon. They had a long way to go back. 759 00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:20,520 But those things don't happen very often, but they do make it fun, but it was quite nasty. 760 00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:23,840 In the coming years, Gerry and the other showmen 761 00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:27,200 came up against a problem that was not so easy to deal with. 762 00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:32,480 The debate about performing animals that had little impact back in the 1920s would resurface. 763 00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:35,920 Reacting to mounting public opinion, some local authorities 764 00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:38,720 stopped allowing performing animals on their land. 765 00:50:38,720 --> 00:50:43,480 Animal circuses did survive, but this unofficial ban began to spread. 766 00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:48,440 One by one, all the major circus sites in the centre of the towns were being closed to us 767 00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:52,080 because the local authority would pass a ban saying no performing animals, 768 00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:55,680 so gradually, the big animal circuses were being forced out of the towns, 769 00:50:55,680 --> 00:51:00,120 onto sites which probably weren't as lucrative, weren't as visual, 770 00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:05,240 they just weren't as good for business, and I think people's taste was changing as well. 771 00:51:05,240 --> 00:51:09,920 An official ban on wild animal acts finally surfaced in 2011. 772 00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:14,040 As much as I loved seeing bears on bicycles, 773 00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,080 it's not what bears are designed to do. 774 00:51:16,080 --> 00:51:21,480 In the '80s and '90s, the traditional circus in Britain was suffering. 775 00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:23,880 It had become uneconomical yet again. 776 00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:29,320 Being the entrepreneurs they are, circus showmen looked for new opportunities elsewhere. 777 00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:35,560 Times were pretty tough, and I was quite adventurous. We went off to the Middle East, Bahrain and Oman, 778 00:51:35,560 --> 00:51:40,560 then a bit later we went off to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. 779 00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:45,800 Phillip Gandey also looked for untapped markets. 780 00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:49,800 We identified that where we wanted to be was where there weren't circuses, 781 00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:53,360 so we looked at the Middle East, which didn't have a tradition of circuses, 782 00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:56,000 but had this culture, which was becoming westernised, 783 00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:01,200 and we had a huge contract for the royal family in Saudi Arabia 784 00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:05,560 and we took not one but two circuses simultaneously to Saudi Arabia. 785 00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:09,920 We took a 4,000-seat Big Top in one city for one prince, 786 00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,960 and a 2,000-seat Big Top in another city for the second prince. 787 00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:16,640 Whilst the classic circus still appealed to international audiences, 788 00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:20,560 the British had grown disenchanted with it. 789 00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:26,680 But in 1990, audiences in the UK were treated to something altogether different. 790 00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:33,680 I'd never seen anything like it. 791 00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:38,440 It was men wearing leather jackets 792 00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:44,080 and basically having huge chainsaws, dropping down on steel wires. 793 00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:49,360 Archaos was created in France by Pierrot Bidon. 794 00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:53,600 He took the circus and reimagined it for the modern era. 795 00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:56,000 Archaos was dangerous, very dangerous. 796 00:52:56,000 --> 00:53:00,360 But in this new world, it was the chainsaw 797 00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:03,880 and not the lion that would strike fear into the audience. 798 00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:09,040 TV REPORTER: 'The globe of death billed as one of the most dangerous acts in the circus world. 799 00:53:09,040 --> 00:53:13,560 'Two motorcyclists pass within inches of each other at 60mph. 800 00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,640 'The last time it was performed in Britain, a man died.' 801 00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:20,240 This edgy, all-human circus embodied the idea of a circus 802 00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:24,000 where physical ability was pushed to the extreme. 803 00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:26,160 It appealed to a new audience of young adults. 804 00:53:28,120 --> 00:53:30,480 Archaos toured throughout the UK, 805 00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:35,880 culminating in a sell-out residence on Clapham Common for 12 weeks. 806 00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:37,920 It was chaotic, it was mad, amazing. 807 00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:44,240 Archaos had succeeded in transforming circus into a new kind of spectacle. 808 00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:51,880 But it wasn't until 1996 that, thanks to the arrival of another foreign production, 809 00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:57,200 this modern version of circus would itself be refashioned for a mainstream audience. 810 00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:05,360 State-funded Canadian circus Cirque du Soleil had a distinctive 811 00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:10,800 artistic approach, which combines street entertainment with traditional acrobatics. 812 00:54:10,800 --> 00:54:13,880 They came to the Royal Albert Hall in London, 813 00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:18,200 and that's when people started to take notice of contemporary circus. 814 00:54:20,400 --> 00:54:23,840 The fact that this circus appeared in the Albert Hall 815 00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:27,840 gave it a theatrical stamp and put it on a par with the other arts, 816 00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:32,120 raising the status of circus in many people's eyes. 817 00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:35,840 People who would not go to a tent to see a traditional circus, 818 00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:40,080 suddenly there was Cirque du Soleil, and it was everywhere. 819 00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:45,520 This was performance theatre and an unashamedly grown-up experience. 820 00:54:48,720 --> 00:54:52,800 All the papers, all the colour supplements had massive picture spreads on them. 821 00:54:57,040 --> 00:55:02,800 Cirque du Soleil has been phenomenally successful, expanding rapidly. 822 00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:11,920 They have now performed across the globe to an estimated audience of close to 100 million people. 823 00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:21,280 Cirque du Soleil have had a massive hand in creating a global circus 824 00:55:21,280 --> 00:55:24,480 that everybody finds very enthralling. 825 00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:32,840 And that was almost the start of a huge explosion in interest in circus. 826 00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:36,280 Circus is riding the crest of a new wave. 827 00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:40,080 In a world of computer-generated images, 828 00:55:40,080 --> 00:55:47,360 it seems the thrill of watching what real human beings are really capable of achieving is stronger than ever, 829 00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:50,880 and its impact is being felt right across the arts. 830 00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:54,240 You see circus absolutely everywhere. 831 00:55:54,240 --> 00:55:59,480 I don't think there is a performing art now, which doesn't have circus art, 832 00:55:59,480 --> 00:56:01,280 be it ballet or be it rock concerts. 833 00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:04,640 The demand for circus performers is at an all-time high. 834 00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:08,080 # Everybody let go, we can make a dancefloor just like a circus. # 835 00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:10,880 There were two big pop tours out recently, 836 00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:12,720 Take That and Britney Spears. 837 00:56:12,720 --> 00:56:15,880 Both called Circus, both with a huge amount of circus artists. 838 00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,760 # Just like a circus, don't stand there watching me 839 00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:22,920 # Follow me show me what you can do. # 840 00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:26,320 Alongside this corporate entertainment market, 841 00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:31,120 there's even room for the emergence of local small-scale heritage circuses, 842 00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,240 like the one run by Nell Gifford. 843 00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:41,440 Once again, a new circus is the brainchild of an outsider, a josser. 844 00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:47,400 Oxford graduate Gifford, who first ran away to join the circus at 18. 845 00:56:47,400 --> 00:56:53,200 Just like the creation of Astley's first circus back in 1768, 846 00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:58,000 it's her passion for horses that started the whole thing off. 847 00:56:58,000 --> 00:57:03,800 The whole kind of notion of horses in theatre, I just find it really, really interesting. 848 00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:08,440 A horse's presence, it really creates a sort of sense of occasion, 849 00:57:08,440 --> 00:57:11,800 like a sense of adventure. 850 00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:20,120 It's probably exactly what a small family circus in the 1930s was like. 851 00:57:20,120 --> 00:57:24,600 Heritage circus tapped straight into a deep-rooted nostalgia 852 00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:28,000 for our rural past, and for communal experience. 853 00:57:29,400 --> 00:57:35,280 I think that the excitement of the circus arriving in a village is completely undiminished. 854 00:57:35,280 --> 00:57:38,880 I mean, still now, you get people who'll come out and have picnics 855 00:57:38,880 --> 00:57:42,280 and watch us putting the tent up and watch us taking the tent down, 856 00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:47,240 or like children standing on doorsteps watching the circus wagons arriving. 857 00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:48,920 It's genuinely exciting. 858 00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:52,640 The success of Gifford's brings the story full circle. 859 00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:57,520 It proves that people are just as keen as ever to traipse over muddy fields to see the circus. 860 00:57:57,520 --> 00:58:00,840 The circus has got an incredible future. 861 00:58:00,840 --> 00:58:06,720 It's part of a whole enthusiasm and appetite for exciting live stuff, 862 00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:12,600 and I think that the more sort of digital our experience of the world is, 863 00:58:12,600 --> 00:58:16,960 then the more that that live experience will also be sought after by the public. 864 00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:23,480 Circus has managed to fight off every threat that has come its way, 865 00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,880 from the music hall to the television and the digital age. 866 00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:35,880 Incredibly, it has survived to leave its magical mark on all our imaginations. 867 00:58:58,000 --> 00:59:00,640 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 868 00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:03,080 E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk