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Good evening.

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London, England,
a busy, modern city.

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I want to ask you, if I may,
tonight, to join me in an experiment.

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An experiment to turn back time,

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to suspend belief
in the here and now,

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and journey into the past.

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Come with me now,
to a London before two wars,

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when the city was very different
to the one we live in now.

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And this house you see behind me

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was the London home of one of the
most powerful men of this century.

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We're filming!
LAUGHTER

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After the success of Monty Python,

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Michael Palin and Terry Jones
decided to embark

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on a radical, new comedy series.

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Set in the heyday of empire,

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Ripping Yarns was a series of
nine glorious comedy dramas,

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broadcast between 1976 and 1979.

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Well played, boy, well played!

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It featured schoolboys,

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soldiers, explorers...

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We only left Paddington at 4.30,
and I've already lost three men.

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..spies...

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..and a whole host of
mad colonial characters...

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Excellent.

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..from a long-lost era.

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Set her free, Mrs Angell.

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LAUGHTER

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She is free, dear.

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There's been no slavery in
this country for donkey's years.

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We've used a lot of very
conventional establishment attitudes

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but undermined them.

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Sir. Morrison,
I think you know what to do.

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A way you could deal with it
was with humour.

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SINGLE GUNSHOT

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THUD

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Ripping Yarns took its inspiration
from the boys' books and magazines

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that were popular
up until the Second World War.

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I think we were celebrating
the British Empire,

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and the Boy's Own stories, really.
I think they were celebrating that.

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Before the days of video games
and cartoons,

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these stories fuelled
the imaginations

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of generations of young people.

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They were tales full of
empire, adventure,

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British pluck, danger, derring-do.

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And these colossal,
larger-than-life heroes.

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These are the real ripping yarns.

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Until relatively recently,
being a boy meant certain things.

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You explored the outdoors.

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I used to cycle all over the place,
without anybody worrying.

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We were in the forest, in
the woodlands, we knew every tree.

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We went wild. We'd be out all day.

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'Nowadays, I think people are so
worried about letting their children

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'go off and do something
on their own.'

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You had hobbies.

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I've got some very good stamps,
actually, in my...

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I used to get lots of stamps
on approval.

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Then, I realised, if I didn't write
back within a week, I'd bought them.

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So my father had to take me
to one side and say,

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stamp collecting can lead you
into dangerous, dangerous ways,

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rack and ruin.

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St Kitts and Nevis. Natal.

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Falkland Islands, unmarked.

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You were expected to be resilient.

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After the war,
there was very little around.

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And life was pretty grim.

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I think that was very much the ethos
to deal with the difficult times,

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to make yourself a man,
harden yourself up.

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You respected the establishment,
and you were proud to be British.

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It was inculcated into us

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at primary school that we were
right at the heart of this empire.

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We were told it was
the biggest empire ever.

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So, when they sat down to write
what would become Ripping Yarns,

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Palin and Jones looked back
to their childhoods.

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Palin and Jones looked back
to their childhoods.

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Compared to the groovy '70s,

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the world they grew up in,

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so steeped in old-fashioned pluck
and Victorian values,

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seemed ripe for mockery.

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It was my brother who suggested
we do stories from Boy's Own Paper.

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All this stuff that I'd giggled at,
at the back of the class in school,

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these heroic attitudes.

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Actually, you can see it all
from a different perspective.

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There's quite a lot in it
which was ridiculous, absurd,

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which humour could deal with.

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CLASS SINGS:
# My school, my school... #

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The first of the Ripping Yarns
was Tomkinson's Schooldays.

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Sorry, Grayson.

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You can call me School Bully.

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You miserable little tick.

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I went to a public school,
and I remember

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I was given a book
before I went there.

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My father said, "This is a book
about the school, old boy."

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It was called The Bending of a Twig.
ALEXANDER LAUGHS

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And it was all about some boy,

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some young lad of initiative
and individuality,

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who had been sent to the school.

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And then, gradually,
been worn down

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to become the useful member of
society he was to be later on.

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It was called The Bending of a Twig.

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It was all really about
what the schools were about,

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which was getting people
and giving them discipline.

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CANE THWACKS

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'Everything about the place seemed
designed to crush the soul,

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'and break down any reserve of pride
I ever had.'

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Thank you, Foster.

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Next, please.

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Next, please.

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'Beating the headmaster
was just one of those ghastly...'

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Changing their nature,
very slightly.

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Well, turning them into, sort of,
conformists.

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Useful cogs. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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I think Tomkinson's Schooldays
came out of Mike being horrified

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when his parents sent him
to boarding school.

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when his parents sent him
to boarding school.

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I think there's a lot of
bile in that, you know.

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And I think that's
what it came from.

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The cruelty of it.

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Oh, Lord, we give thee humble
and hearty thanks for this,

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thy gift of discipline.

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Knowing that it is only through
the constraints of others

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that we come to know ourselves.

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And only through true misery
can we find true contentment.

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LAUGHTER

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Tomkinson's Schooldays pokes fun
at the school story.

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These tales, usually set in
boys' public schools,

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were popularised by
the legendary Boy's Own Paper,

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but appeared in hundreds of
other books and magazines too.

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Whether written in 1910 or 1950,

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the school story never strayed far
from a tried-and-tested formula.

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The school story has only
a few ingredients.

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Public school.

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Group of chums.

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And an arch enemy,
usually an evil headmaster,

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or possibly a school bully.

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There were always a few scrapes
and, quite often,

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a bit of healthy sporting rivalry.

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And that's pretty much it.

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These ingredients remain unchanged

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for decade after decade
after decade,

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as comforting and reassuring
as a mug of hot cocoa.

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It's hard to convey
just how popular these stories were.

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They appeared weekly
in The Boy's Own Paper,

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and in scores of copycat magazines,
like Magnet, Gem and Chums.

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We need to understand what a central
part of youth culture they were.

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We have one survey from St Pancras
in the 1930s

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which found that 86% of boys were
reading at least one magazine a week

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and an astonishing 15% said
that they were reading

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six boys' weeklies every week.

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Typically, stories were serialised
first in the boys' weeklies,

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and later published in book form,
thus launching a writer's career.

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One bestselling writer,
almost totally forgotten today,

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was Talbot Baines Reed,
known as Tibbie.

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He wrote the wildly popular
Fifth Form At St Dominic's.

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I say wildly popular, this sold over
a quarter of a million copies

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in 1907 alone.
Absolutely fantastic book.

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I'm going to read you a little bit
from chapter four.

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' "Well bowled, Sir,
shouted Master Paul,"

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'as a very swift ball
from Ricketts

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'took Bullinger's middle stump
clean out of the ground.

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' "Rattling well bowled, I say." '

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You see, to us,
that sounds very comical.

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This is a dashed bad show,
I must say.

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But you have to remember,
at the time,

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this kind of language of the school
stories was widely copied.

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That's it, good egg, good egg.

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Much like American slang might be
picked up, like "toodley"

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by children watching cartoons today.

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There were "bounders of the remove"
and "rotters of the fourth".

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Boys "swanked" and "gassed",

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and said things like, "I say",
"ripping" and...

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Oh, my hat!

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This was a private language,

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that set children apart
from the boring world of adults.

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The most prolific writer of
school stories was Charles Hamilton,

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also known as Frank Richards,
Clifford Owen, Owen Conquest,

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and several other pseudonyms.

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Charles, Frank, Martin,
whatever you want to call him,

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is estimated to have written
100 million words in his lifetime.

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He began a lengthy career in 1908

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with a story written for the Magnet
magazine, later published as a book.

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Richards' character, Billy Bunter,
the Fat Owl of the Remove,

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is probably the most famous
of all his creations.

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Look out, here comes Quelch.

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We look at someone like
Charles Hamilton, Frank Richards,

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and look at how much he is writing.
It is absolutely extraordinary.

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Bunter! Argh!

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We're talking about,
over his lifetime,

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the equivalent of
1,000 full-length novels.

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He's said to have invented somewhere
between 50 and 100 different schools

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using his various pseudonyms.

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He's got these whole school stories,
churning out thousands of words,

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perhaps 70,000 words a week.

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He is absolutely extraordinary.
How can that not be pap?

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'How I long to be able to hop
like the second-year boys.

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'And not to have to ask permission
to breathe out after 10.30.'

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Much of the magic of the school
story came from its depiction

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of arcane rules and rituals.

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'There was also the compulsory fight
with the grizzly bear

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'which all new boys
had to go through.'

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You have this idea that
the boy arrives on day one

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and has to be broken, frankly.

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Whether it's the bullying
or the fagging,

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or being made to stand on a table
and sing a solo,

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all that kind of thing
is all about eradicating

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what the boy was like before.

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Just get rid of all of that,
begin again,

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and you can be made,
remade in the image of the school.

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Physical hardship
and the occasional flogging

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were all part of the fabric
of school life.

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Corporal punishment
wasn't just regarded as

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a necessary evil in schools,

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but as an actual benefit
to the boys.

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It was character forming.

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No pupil could hope to gain
the respect of his peers

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until he had been given
six of the best.

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00:11:57,580 --> 00:11:58,620
Hello, Mumsy.

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00:11:58,620 --> 00:12:02,500
What he needs is a damned
good thrashing. Clive, please.

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00:12:02,500 --> 00:12:04,620
He needs the skin taken off his back

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00:12:04,620 --> 00:12:09,900
with a triple-thonged,
bamboo-backed leather strip.

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That's what he needs.

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'And there was St Tadger's Day
when, by an old tradition,

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'boys who had been at the school
for less than two years,

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'were allowed to be nailed
to the walls by senior pupils.

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I dare say, there was
no nailing to the walls going on?

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No nailing to the walls, but

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they only stopped just short of that.
THEY LAUGH

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00:12:33,740 --> 00:12:37,140
But what I liked in
Tomkinson's Schooldays was that

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you could do it with a twist,

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so it wasn't that the boys
were nailed to the walls,

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it was that the boys were ALLOWED
to be nailed to the walls. Yes.

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That was a privilege. That was good,
you got on in school.

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PHONE RINGS

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School bully.

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00:12:54,660 --> 00:12:58,300
Casting a dark shadow over the
proceedings was the school bully.

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'He had twice won the
Public Schools Bullying Cup.

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'And, last year,
beat the extraordinarily vicious

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'Ackroyd of Charterhouse at a kick-in
of fags at the Hurlingham Club.'

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00:13:07,500 --> 00:13:10,540
In those days, people would say
bullying was part of school,

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"You'll find that, old boy,
you'll have to deal with it."

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Thank you, thank you, bully.

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00:13:15,900 --> 00:13:19,260
In Tomkinson, parents sent
their children to that school

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00:13:19,260 --> 00:13:22,900
to be bullied by him, because he had
won the Public Schools Bullying Cup.

243
00:13:22,900 --> 00:13:25,340
So that was an observation,
really, on where we were

244
00:13:25,340 --> 00:13:28,180
with the kind of social attitudes
at the time.

245
00:13:39,860 --> 00:13:41,620
BICYCLE BELL

246
00:13:41,620 --> 00:13:44,380
SPORTS TEAMS SHOUT

247
00:13:55,340 --> 00:13:58,060
Of course, many a school story
centres around

248
00:13:58,060 --> 00:14:00,620
some kind of sporting contest.

249
00:14:00,620 --> 00:14:04,780
Encouraging fair play and
hard, physical combat

250
00:14:04,780 --> 00:14:06,860
was seen as a vital part
of education.

251
00:14:10,020 --> 00:14:11,940
Oh!

252
00:14:11,940 --> 00:14:13,300
CRASH

253
00:14:13,300 --> 00:14:14,660
He won!

254
00:14:14,660 --> 00:14:16,940
He's bloody won!

255
00:14:16,940 --> 00:14:18,420
HE WHIMPERS

256
00:14:21,260 --> 00:14:23,220
HE SHOUTS WITH JOY

257
00:14:27,220 --> 00:14:30,940
The very first issue of
The Boy's Own Paper in 1879

258
00:14:30,940 --> 00:14:34,140
kicked off with a story called
My First Football Match.

259
00:14:35,260 --> 00:14:37,220
For the next 90-odd years,

260
00:14:37,220 --> 00:14:40,860
the paper ran articles on
almost every sport you can think of.

261
00:14:43,020 --> 00:14:46,700
From the obvious ones -
cricket, rugby and hockey -

262
00:14:46,700 --> 00:14:51,500
to the more obscure, like Harrow
Footer and the Eton Wall Game.

263
00:14:51,500 --> 00:14:56,380
'Both sides push and shove,
and heave and tug.'

264
00:15:02,340 --> 00:15:06,700
There was this tremendous emphasis
on physical education and on games.

265
00:15:06,700 --> 00:15:09,300
That's why there's
so much about rugby and cricket

266
00:15:09,300 --> 00:15:12,100
because these are believed
to be healthy.

267
00:15:12,100 --> 00:15:15,340
And in the correspondence
column of the Boy's Own Paper,

268
00:15:15,340 --> 00:15:18,780
you get so many requests about,
"How can I get stronger?

269
00:15:18,780 --> 00:15:21,220
"How can I grow to be a taller boy?

270
00:15:21,220 --> 00:15:23,700
"How can I become more muscular?"

271
00:15:23,700 --> 00:15:24,140
And so on, so there's a terrific
concern there about manliness -

272
00:15:24,420 --> 00:15:26,700
And so on, so there's a terrific
concern there about manliness -

273
00:15:26,700 --> 00:15:28,420
how can we become more manly?

274
00:15:29,980 --> 00:15:31,580
After 12 and a half miles,

275
00:15:31,580 --> 00:15:35,300
I saw Venner of 5A fall
and die of exhaustion.

276
00:15:39,340 --> 00:15:41,220
And after 17 miles,

277
00:15:41,220 --> 00:15:44,340
he was joined by Apsley,
Critworth PE, Spitwell,

278
00:15:44,340 --> 00:15:46,540
Emerson and Zappa Major.

279
00:15:48,740 --> 00:15:51,620
This interest in sport was
all part of a more general

280
00:15:51,620 --> 00:15:53,580
pre-occupation with the physical.

281
00:15:55,940 --> 00:15:59,260
I'm going to read you this fantastic
little thing, Gorilla Hunters by

282
00:15:59,260 --> 00:16:02,780
RM Ballantyne, and there's a passage
here that sums it up pretty well.

283
00:16:02,780 --> 00:16:07,460
He says, "Boys ought to practise
leaping off heights into deep water.

284
00:16:07,460 --> 00:16:09,940
"They ought never to hesitate
to cross a stream on a narrow,

285
00:16:09,940 --> 00:16:12,700
"unsafe plank for fear of a ducking.

286
00:16:12,700 --> 00:16:15,500
"They ought never to decline
to climb a tree to pull fruit,

287
00:16:15,500 --> 00:16:18,660
"merely because there is
a possibility of their falling off

288
00:16:18,660 --> 00:16:20,260
"and breaking their necks.

289
00:16:20,260 --> 00:16:23,140
"I firmly believe that boys
were intended to encounter

290
00:16:23,140 --> 00:16:25,820
"all kinds of risks in order
to prepare them to meet

291
00:16:25,820 --> 00:16:27,180
"and grapple with the risks

292
00:16:27,180 --> 00:16:29,300
"and dangers incident
to man's career with cool,

293
00:16:29,300 --> 00:16:30,060
"cautious self-possession -

294
00:16:30,260 --> 00:16:30,620
"cautious self-possession -

295
00:16:30,620 --> 00:16:33,060
"a self-possession founded
on experimental knowledge

296
00:16:33,060 --> 00:16:36,500
"of the character and powers
of their own spirits and muscles."

297
00:16:38,740 --> 00:16:41,660
Of course, risk-taking these days
in the 21st century

298
00:16:41,660 --> 00:16:44,700
is something that is thought
to be avoided at all costs.

299
00:16:45,860 --> 00:16:49,900
It's a big part of the Boy's Own
literature as well, actually,

300
00:16:49,900 --> 00:16:52,860
the necessity of risk
and embracing risk,

301
00:16:52,860 --> 00:16:57,580
facing up to it and not avoiding it.
Yeah, it was definitely part of it.

302
00:16:57,580 --> 00:17:00,820
You should learn these things,
and you learn the hard way.

303
00:17:00,820 --> 00:17:02,820
I mean discomfort was very important

304
00:17:02,820 --> 00:17:05,340
because life is going to be
uncomfortable.

305
00:17:05,340 --> 00:17:08,380
What are those, Uncle Jack?
Oh, they're buboes, lad.

306
00:17:08,380 --> 00:17:10,820
A touch of bubonic plague
I picked up at the weekend.

307
00:17:10,820 --> 00:17:12,220
Gosh, weren't you scared?

308
00:17:12,220 --> 00:17:15,260
A bit of bubonic plague?
I should say not.

309
00:17:15,260 --> 00:17:17,740
As long as you get a rabid dog
to lick the poison out.

310
00:17:17,740 --> 00:17:21,300
Do you want to see the rats?
Oh, rather. Go on, then.

311
00:17:22,700 --> 00:17:24,900
Oh, that's rather good.

312
00:17:24,900 --> 00:17:26,980
'Alongside school stories and sport,

313
00:17:26,980 --> 00:17:29,540
'one of the big features of
the Boy's Own Paper

314
00:17:29,540 --> 00:17:31,180
'was the hobbies pages.'

315
00:17:32,980 --> 00:17:34,980
What is that, Tomkinson?

316
00:17:37,380 --> 00:17:39,380
It's a model icebreaker, sir.

317
00:17:39,380 --> 00:17:41,620
It's a bit big for a model,
isn't it?

318
00:17:41,620 --> 00:17:43,100
It's a full-scale model, sir.

319
00:17:45,860 --> 00:17:51,100
The Boy's Own Paper had a very high
kind of interactive quality to it.

320
00:17:52,340 --> 00:17:56,660
You could turn to the pages of
how to make things, do-it-yourself,

321
00:17:56,660 --> 00:18:02,060
and in these, you could make a toy
yacht, a toy fire engine, furniture.

322
00:18:03,620 --> 00:18:05,900
They have to make their
own patterns, diagrams,

323
00:18:05,900 --> 00:18:10,060
cut things out, heat wood, bend it,
do all kinds of things with

324
00:18:10,060 --> 00:18:13,180
apparatus that we would have
no idea how to use today.

325
00:18:13,420 --> 00:18:14,220
apparatus that we would have
no idea how to use today.

326
00:18:14,220 --> 00:18:16,420
Hobbies were very important,

327
00:18:16,420 --> 00:18:20,100
they were part of the established
sort of way of growing up.

328
00:18:21,180 --> 00:18:24,060
My father had been a great
collector of birds' eggs which,

329
00:18:24,060 --> 00:18:26,300
of course, now you wouldn't
be allowed to take...

330
00:18:26,300 --> 00:18:29,420
No, absolutely not.
..these little birds' eggs.

331
00:18:29,420 --> 00:18:34,220
I went for the more predictable
things. I was a trainspotter.

332
00:18:35,380 --> 00:18:37,740
I also collected cheese labels.

333
00:18:42,660 --> 00:18:46,900
Dad was a keen collector of stamps,
so he got me going.

334
00:18:48,380 --> 00:18:53,380
I collected only stamps
in the British Empire.

335
00:18:53,380 --> 00:18:56,220
There was no room for dullards
on the hobbies pages.

336
00:18:56,220 --> 00:18:58,660
They provided a stern test
for the boy reader.

337
00:18:59,900 --> 00:19:02,580
One of the things that
I love about the Boy's Own Paper

338
00:19:02,780 --> 00:19:03,140
One of the things that
I love about the Boy's Own Paper

339
00:19:03,140 --> 00:19:07,060
is the way that it assumes that
boys are really competent

340
00:19:07,060 --> 00:19:11,940
and can be trusted with all kinds
of equipment in ways that health

341
00:19:11,940 --> 00:19:15,740
and safety in schools today
would find absolutely shocking.

342
00:19:15,740 --> 00:19:18,820
When they're preserving
insects, for instance,

343
00:19:18,820 --> 00:19:21,860
they're told from the very beginning
that the chemist might not

344
00:19:21,860 --> 00:19:25,300
sell you this because it's a
dangerous poison and if he does

345
00:19:25,300 --> 00:19:27,780
sell it to you, you have to be
careful about how you store it

346
00:19:27,780 --> 00:19:29,820
and make sure that nobody
else can get it.

347
00:19:37,900 --> 00:19:40,700
The Boy's Own Paper's
hobbies pages had a particular

348
00:19:40,700 --> 00:19:42,180
focus on science,

349
00:19:42,180 --> 00:19:44,780
although there was
nothing dry or classroom-y

350
00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:47,220
in the way they wrote about it.

351
00:19:47,220 --> 00:19:50,380
They cleverly wrapped up
scientific concepts in articles

352
00:19:50,380 --> 00:19:51,580
about popular hobbies

353
00:19:51,580 --> 00:19:54,260
so you would learn about
fluid dynamics in an article

354
00:19:54,260 --> 00:19:58,020
about boat-building,
or about zoology in an article
about collecting insects

355
00:19:58,020 --> 00:20:02,060
and, of course, it was all done
with such breathless enthusiasm

356
00:20:02,060 --> 00:20:04,660
that no boy
could fail to be captivated.

357
00:20:04,660 --> 00:20:05,220
Now, I've come here to the Royal
Institution in London to conduct

358
00:20:05,460 --> 00:20:08,020
Now, I've come here to the Royal
Institution in London to conduct

359
00:20:08,020 --> 00:20:12,060
an experiment that
was first written up in
the Boy's Own Paper in the 1880s.

360
00:20:25,580 --> 00:20:29,260
So, what do you make of my spiders?
I think they're fantastic.

361
00:20:29,260 --> 00:20:31,300
'I'm joined by Dr Peter Wothers,

362
00:20:31,300 --> 00:20:33,660
'from Cambridge University no less,

363
00:20:33,660 --> 00:20:37,180
'to have a go at making
exploding spiders.'

364
00:20:37,180 --> 00:20:40,060
We're sort of following a recipe
from a Boy's Own Paper

365
00:20:40,060 --> 00:20:41,660
from the 1880s.

366
00:20:41,660 --> 00:20:44,780
This is written by a chemist,
John Scoffern.

367
00:20:44,780 --> 00:20:46,540
And it's sold as a jape.

368
00:20:46,540 --> 00:20:49,380
Basically, you make your spider
here and he even says,

369
00:20:49,380 --> 00:20:52,140
"You can stick it by means
of a gum to the wall," and then

370
00:20:52,140 --> 00:20:54,260
when your maiden aunt
comes in and thinks there's

371
00:20:54,260 --> 00:20:56,700
a spider on the wall,
she reaches for her parasol,

372
00:20:56,700 --> 00:21:00,100
gives it a prod
and the result is very funny.

373
00:21:01,580 --> 00:21:04,100
Now, we need the chemical part
which is trying to make these things

374
00:21:04,300 --> 00:21:04,860
Now, we need the chemical part
which is trying to make these things

375
00:21:04,860 --> 00:21:07,900
explode. What is the compound
we're going to be putting in there?

376
00:21:07,900 --> 00:21:10,900
So, it's something called
nitrogen triiodide, which is

377
00:21:10,900 --> 00:21:13,460
an incredibly sensitive explosive.

378
00:21:13,460 --> 00:21:15,780
I mean, in fact,
it can't be used as an explosive

379
00:21:15,780 --> 00:21:18,260
because you can't move it once
it's been made.

380
00:21:19,460 --> 00:21:22,180
So, how are you going to do that?
What's the process?

381
00:21:22,180 --> 00:21:25,340
So, I'm going to go away
and make it and prepare it wet,

382
00:21:25,340 --> 00:21:29,540
but as soon as it's dried,
it's pretty unstable stuff.

383
00:21:29,540 --> 00:21:31,940
Now, what's extraordinary,
and I think laudable,

384
00:21:31,940 --> 00:21:35,580
is that in a Boy's Own Paper,
they're being entrusted with

385
00:21:35,580 --> 00:21:41,460
the recipe for making this
extremely unstable compound.

386
00:21:41,460 --> 00:21:43,860
I mean, would you ever
get this happening now?

387
00:21:43,860 --> 00:21:47,300
Would any child be allowed to put
this together themselves now?

388
00:21:47,300 --> 00:21:51,060
I can't see today's chemistry sets
telling you exactly how to

389
00:21:51,060 --> 00:21:52,660
make this sort of compound.

390
00:21:53,860 --> 00:21:56,580
We can't show you how
the compound is made -

391
00:21:56,580 --> 00:21:58,940
it's apparently too dangerous -

392
00:21:58,940 --> 00:22:02,180
so you're going to have
to look at a picture of spiders now.

393
00:22:03,460 --> 00:22:05,220
And another picture.

394
00:22:06,940 --> 00:22:09,980
And another. Good, aren't they?

395
00:22:12,020 --> 00:22:13,460
You see, in the 1880s,

396
00:22:13,460 --> 00:22:16,940
they didn't really bother
with health and safety.

397
00:22:16,940 --> 00:22:20,580
Once Peter returns with
the explosive compound,

398
00:22:20,580 --> 00:22:22,820
it's time to load up our spiders.

399
00:22:22,820 --> 00:22:25,140
Careful not to drop any little bits.
Right.

400
00:22:25,140 --> 00:22:27,180
Is that a good quantity in there,
do you think,

401
00:22:27,180 --> 00:22:28,380
or should we do a bit more?

402
00:22:28,380 --> 00:22:31,020
Let's have a little bit more,
just don't knock the other ones.

403
00:22:31,020 --> 00:22:33,380
And I wouldn't scrape too hard.

404
00:22:33,380 --> 00:22:35,300
PETER LAUGHS

405
00:22:35,300 --> 00:22:37,020
That's a nervous laugh, isn't it?

406
00:22:37,020 --> 00:22:40,820
It's a "I've seen this before" laugh.

407
00:22:40,820 --> 00:22:43,220
OK, good. Right.

408
00:22:54,700 --> 00:22:58,660
So, Peter, we've both been issued
with a standard issue

409
00:22:58,660 --> 00:23:02,660
maiden aunt's parasol
with which to prod the spiders.

410
00:23:02,660 --> 00:23:05,100
So, shall I attack the first one?
Yeah, attack the first one.

411
00:23:06,860 --> 00:23:09,620
OK, let's give it a prod, then.

412
00:23:09,620 --> 00:23:10,780
Oh!

413
00:23:10,780 --> 00:23:14,900
THEY LAUGH

414
00:23:14,900 --> 00:23:16,860
Yeah, that worked.

415
00:23:16,860 --> 00:23:20,620
I tell you what, it's upset this one
here but these... Here's a leg.

416
00:23:20,620 --> 00:23:24,020
Oh, there we are, a little
memento for me. Yeah.

417
00:23:27,380 --> 00:23:30,020
You need a bit of a... Oh!

418
00:23:30,020 --> 00:23:32,140
I wasn't doing it hard enough.

419
00:23:34,660 --> 00:23:36,260
You're getting good at it now.

420
00:23:41,820 --> 00:23:43,820
And if the boy reader
made a mistake -

421
00:23:43,820 --> 00:23:45,780
he couldn't get his spiders
to explode,

422
00:23:45,780 --> 00:23:47,940
or he had some
other burning question,

423
00:23:47,940 --> 00:23:50,540
he would send a letter to
the editors of the paper,

424
00:23:50,540 --> 00:23:52,340
asking for help.

425
00:23:52,340 --> 00:23:55,620
They'd never publish the letters,
so you'd just get the reply

426
00:23:55,820 --> 00:23:57,420
so you had to kind of try

427
00:23:57,420 --> 00:24:01,140
and work out what the query might
have been and this is from

428
00:24:01,140 --> 00:24:04,620
Boy's Own Paper, it must have been
about sort of just before the war.

429
00:24:04,620 --> 00:24:07,940
First War, that is, and there's
just a couple here cos they're

430
00:24:07,940 --> 00:24:12,300
so wonderful. "Fred L..."
They'd always identify the writer.

431
00:24:12,300 --> 00:24:16,100
"Fred L, one,
by all means remove your moustache

432
00:24:16,100 --> 00:24:18,620
"if you're only five feet high.

433
00:24:18,620 --> 00:24:22,820
"It may not help your growth,
but there's no harm in trying it."

434
00:24:22,820 --> 00:24:24,180
What are we doing here?

435
00:24:24,180 --> 00:24:28,100
"At any rate, you're sure of a little
fresh air when you let it grow."

436
00:24:28,100 --> 00:24:30,980
And then,
"Two, it makes no difference

437
00:24:30,980 --> 00:24:33,140
"if you do not overtire yourself."
That's it.

438
00:24:33,140 --> 00:24:34,620
So, they're just wonderful

439
00:24:34,620 --> 00:24:38,220
and there's a last one here which is
just, again, a lovely non-sequitur.

440
00:24:38,220 --> 00:24:41,380
It's called Swallow and it has one -

441
00:24:41,380 --> 00:24:44,540
"The birds must have been
included in the catalogue in error.

442
00:24:44,540 --> 00:24:47,820
"They're certainly not British..."
It was always a very admonitory term.

443
00:24:47,820 --> 00:24:50,100
"..and have never been
recognised as such."

444
00:24:50,100 --> 00:24:53,460
And then, "Two, have a
cold bath every morning.

445
00:24:53,460 --> 00:24:56,780
"Wash yourself all over,
head and all."

446
00:24:56,780 --> 00:24:59,540
What's that got to do with swallows?
But, anyway.

447
00:25:00,820 --> 00:25:04,820
The idea of the cold bath, so
beloved by the Boy's Own Paper,

448
00:25:04,820 --> 00:25:08,060
was first popularised by
its no-nonsense correspondent

449
00:25:08,060 --> 00:25:09,740
Dr Gordon Stables.

450
00:25:11,020 --> 00:25:15,900
A former Arctic explorer, naval
surgeon, and fanatical caravanner,

451
00:25:15,900 --> 00:25:18,500
Stables had some
very trenchant opinions.

452
00:25:22,380 --> 00:25:25,020
He was a health nut -
advocating fresh air,

453
00:25:25,020 --> 00:25:27,820
lifting dumb-bells, never smoking...

454
00:25:29,900 --> 00:25:33,140
..and, of course,
endless cold bathing.

455
00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:34,660
Take a cold tub, sir.

456
00:25:34,660 --> 00:25:37,540
This is what Stables would recommend
to all his readers

457
00:25:37,540 --> 00:25:38,860
on a very regular basis.

458
00:25:38,860 --> 00:25:42,340
In fact, a cold bath was his remedy
for any kind of affliction,

459
00:25:42,340 --> 00:25:44,340
whether psychological or physical.

460
00:25:44,340 --> 00:25:47,580
In fact, he even advised
working boys to rise at five,

461
00:25:47,580 --> 00:25:50,620
scrub themselves down in a cold tub
so they could get dressed,

462
00:25:50,620 --> 00:25:53,220
comb their hair
and be at work for six.

463
00:25:53,220 --> 00:25:55,980
Ah! That is...

464
00:25:55,980 --> 00:25:57,300
Ah!

465
00:25:59,100 --> 00:26:00,340
OK, here goes.

466
00:26:02,300 --> 00:26:05,020
ALEXANDER GASPS

467
00:26:07,820 --> 00:26:08,820
Nee!

468
00:26:08,820 --> 00:26:10,140
Ah!

469
00:26:11,220 --> 00:26:13,260
Jeez-ha-ha!

470
00:26:14,980 --> 00:26:19,060
I can feel my character
building before your very eyes.

471
00:26:19,060 --> 00:26:21,100
I think that's probably
enough of that.

472
00:26:21,100 --> 00:26:25,740
Time to get dressed, comb my hair
and I can be at work by six.

473
00:26:29,460 --> 00:26:32,220
The cold tub was something
he advised as a remedy

474
00:26:32,220 --> 00:26:36,300
for another sort of problem that
worried many of his teenage readers.

475
00:26:41,380 --> 00:26:45,580
Stables speaks of nervousness
and certain debilitating habits

476
00:26:45,580 --> 00:26:50,140
learnt at school that led to trouble
that can never be shaken off.

477
00:26:50,140 --> 00:26:53,660
He was referring, of course,
to the menace of self-abuse.

478
00:26:53,660 --> 00:26:56,900
The correspondence pages
of the Boy's Own Paper are filled

479
00:26:56,900 --> 00:27:00,300
with dire warnings of what might
happen to boys who gave in to

480
00:27:00,300 --> 00:27:00,820
these dangerous and unnatural urges.

481
00:27:01,020 --> 00:27:02,780
these dangerous and unnatural urges.

482
00:27:11,100 --> 00:27:14,140
"Those habits lead thousands to
misery and illness,

483
00:27:14,140 --> 00:27:16,940
"and often to death or insanity.

484
00:27:16,940 --> 00:27:18,780
"You will ruin your constitution

485
00:27:18,780 --> 00:27:22,180
"and earn for yourself
a miserable manhood.

486
00:27:22,180 --> 00:27:25,300
"Such habits often end
in lunacy and suicide.

487
00:27:25,300 --> 00:27:29,060
"Don't trust to quacks or men who
send out pamphlets and advertise.

488
00:27:30,700 --> 00:27:34,780
"Banish madness from your mind
and leave the dog alone."

489
00:27:36,740 --> 00:27:40,220
To our modern ears,
these letters make for pure comedy,

490
00:27:40,220 --> 00:27:42,580
but at the time,
this was serious stuff.

491
00:27:42,580 --> 00:27:45,020
The whole of British society
was worried.

492
00:27:45,020 --> 00:27:47,620
I will not have
the trappings of whoremongery

493
00:27:47,620 --> 00:27:51,420
and free-loveism under this roof.
No, don't touch it. Turn away, woman.

494
00:27:51,420 --> 00:27:54,260
Unless it arouses you
to unseemly lubricity.

495
00:27:54,260 --> 00:27:55,900
This is the devil's work!

496
00:27:57,620 --> 00:28:00,540
People tried all sorts of weird
and wonderful means

497
00:28:00,540 --> 00:28:02,660
to prevent themselves
becoming aroused.

498
00:28:04,180 --> 00:28:07,260
These are called Jugum penises
and... They're called what?

499
00:28:07,260 --> 00:28:08,820
SHE LAUGHS

500
00:28:08,820 --> 00:28:11,100
The great name of Jugum penises.
Jugum?

501
00:28:11,100 --> 00:28:14,260
Jugum, and they were designed
to prevent what the Victorians

502
00:28:14,260 --> 00:28:18,060
called "spermatorrhoea", a slightly
deadly term that essentially

503
00:28:18,060 --> 00:28:21,460
means the unnecessary
loss of semen.

504
00:28:21,460 --> 00:28:24,140
I suppose they felt there
was a finite supply.

505
00:28:24,140 --> 00:28:26,500
Well, it was held
in very high regard

506
00:28:26,500 --> 00:28:30,620
and what they thought was this
unnecessary loss would make you ill,

507
00:28:30,620 --> 00:28:32,940
so spermatorrhoea
caused a very wide range

508
00:28:32,940 --> 00:28:36,580
of debilitating diseases,
both physical and mental.

509
00:28:36,580 --> 00:28:39,980
And how does this work? Let's just
get down to the nitty-gritty.

510
00:28:39,980 --> 00:28:43,060
It's got a kind of bicycle clip.

511
00:28:43,060 --> 00:28:46,300
It would've been worn at night
and the idea being that,

512
00:28:46,300 --> 00:28:49,540
should the sleeper become
unnaturally aroused,

513
00:28:49,540 --> 00:28:52,180
shall we say,
the pain would wake you up

514
00:28:52,180 --> 00:28:55,260
because you would engage with these
teeth round the edge.

515
00:28:55,260 --> 00:28:57,740
Right, OK.

516
00:28:57,740 --> 00:29:00,540
There were a number of different
contraptions all along similar

517
00:29:00,540 --> 00:29:04,260
lines, through to whole body suits
that you could wear to

518
00:29:04,260 --> 00:29:08,660
bed at night, we think,
that had flaps at various strategic

519
00:29:08,660 --> 00:29:11,740
points that could be closed or
opened, accordingly.

520
00:29:11,740 --> 00:29:13,340
What are you making, mother?

521
00:29:13,340 --> 00:29:16,620
Something that will cover
the entire human body, dear.

522
00:29:16,620 --> 00:29:18,500
You say there was
a school of thought,

523
00:29:18,500 --> 00:29:19,980
it becomes almost more than that,

524
00:29:19,980 --> 00:29:24,700
it becomes almost the rule
that you must, at all costs, avoid.

525
00:29:24,700 --> 00:29:27,740
So, this was really taken up,
not just within medical circles,

526
00:29:27,740 --> 00:29:30,580
but by moralists, educators...

527
00:29:30,580 --> 00:29:33,140
The word we come across again
and again is self-pollution.

528
00:29:33,140 --> 00:29:35,300
Self-pollution. Self-pollution.

529
00:29:35,300 --> 00:29:40,180
So, here we've got, representing
the last stage of mental

530
00:29:40,180 --> 00:29:43,220
and bodily exhaustion
from onanism or self-pollution.

531
00:29:43,220 --> 00:29:45,260
I mean, surely,
that just passes though.

532
00:29:45,260 --> 00:29:47,820
That's only for a couple
of days...and then he's

533
00:29:47,820 --> 00:29:48,900
back on his feet again.

534
00:29:48,900 --> 00:29:51,540
I mean, it could kill you,
the effects could be...

535
00:29:51,540 --> 00:29:54,300
But this is just,
I mean, this is nonsense, isn't it?

536
00:29:54,300 --> 00:29:57,820
How extraordinary. Or is it?
Are you here to tell me otherwise?

537
00:29:57,820 --> 00:30:01,060
Well, no, I think it sort of fuelled
this anxiety and it snowballed

538
00:30:01,060 --> 00:30:04,620
so everybody was terrified
of the effects that this might have.

539
00:30:06,180 --> 00:30:06,540
Over the years, the tone of the
letters pages mellowed a little.

540
00:30:06,780 --> 00:30:09,180
Over the years, the tone of the
letters pages mellowed a little.

541
00:30:09,180 --> 00:30:10,540
In the '30s,

542
00:30:10,540 --> 00:30:14,220
personal issues were dealt with in
a column called The Padre's Talk,

543
00:30:14,220 --> 00:30:17,380
and in the '40s,
by Between Ourselves.

544
00:30:17,380 --> 00:30:20,220
But the advice remained
much the same.

545
00:30:20,220 --> 00:30:23,220
May I touch you, Captain? No!

546
00:30:23,220 --> 00:30:26,420
It's bad enough with a girl,
but you're a...you're a man.

547
00:30:26,420 --> 00:30:28,820
Sexual thoughts were to be avoided.

548
00:30:28,820 --> 00:30:31,700
Part of what the Ripping Yarns were
were the things that were

549
00:30:31,700 --> 00:30:32,980
unexpressed, you know.

550
00:30:32,980 --> 00:30:35,420
There was a certain
level of repression,

551
00:30:35,420 --> 00:30:38,060
a certain level of
real sexual hang-ups, that we

552
00:30:38,060 --> 00:30:41,500
just touched on because you
weren't allowed to touch on them

553
00:30:41,500 --> 00:30:45,260
so even just referring to them
made them funny.

554
00:30:45,260 --> 00:30:49,220
Well, Mr Russell,
since you are a man,

555
00:30:49,220 --> 00:30:52,100
maybe it'll be all right
for me to...

556
00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:53,900
rub something on them.

557
00:30:56,620 --> 00:31:00,500
Keeping boys' energies focused on
innocent and improving pursuits

558
00:31:00,500 --> 00:31:02,660
was one of the aims of
the boys' weeklies.

559
00:31:04,100 --> 00:31:07,780
In the Boy's Own Paper, much was
made of the importance of bracing

560
00:31:07,780 --> 00:31:12,980
outdoor activities, such as natural
history, gardening and hiking.

561
00:31:14,220 --> 00:31:17,860
They wanted to produce
a kind of wholesome image of boyhood

562
00:31:17,860 --> 00:31:19,940
that was exciting as well.

563
00:31:19,940 --> 00:31:23,300
They wanted the boys to go out,
to exercise, to play games,

564
00:31:23,300 --> 00:31:26,540
to get involved in sport,
to climb trees with jack-knifes,

565
00:31:26,540 --> 00:31:31,460
to take risks, to be what
we now think of as proper boys.

566
00:31:33,660 --> 00:31:35,740
This focus on the great outdoors

567
00:31:35,740 --> 00:31:38,060
had grown out of
turn-of-the-century concerns

568
00:31:38,060 --> 00:31:40,180
about the malign influence
of cities.

569
00:31:52,580 --> 00:31:55,860
Many people believed the country
was going to the dogs,

570
00:31:55,860 --> 00:32:00,220
locked into a toxic cycle
of physical and moral degeneration.

571
00:32:00,220 --> 00:32:03,540
After decades of industrialisation,
the cities were growing

572
00:32:03,540 --> 00:32:07,940
and, along with them, a huge
urban underclass - poorly fed,

573
00:32:07,940 --> 00:32:12,940
unfit and, it was believed,
steeped in crime and immorality.

574
00:32:12,940 --> 00:32:15,700
There was a kind of question
in society, you know,

575
00:32:15,700 --> 00:32:20,820
had the grit of the modern boy
become somehow diminished?

576
00:32:20,820 --> 00:32:24,940
Hello, you, boy, in the corner
there. You ought to be a Boy Scout.

577
00:32:24,940 --> 00:32:28,140
You're a fine-looking fella
and I know you would make a jolly,

578
00:32:28,140 --> 00:32:30,140
good backwoodsman
by the look of you.

579
00:32:30,140 --> 00:32:31,660
You're ugly enough, anyway.

580
00:32:32,900 --> 00:32:36,260
Robert Baden-Powell,
a columnist for the Boy's Own Paper,

581
00:32:36,260 --> 00:32:38,660
founded the Scout Movement
in 1908 with

582
00:32:38,660 --> 00:32:42,500
the explicit intention of improving
the calibre of the modern boy.

583
00:32:44,500 --> 00:32:49,940
Baden-Powell hoped
that by creating a youth movement

584
00:32:49,940 --> 00:32:54,900
built around the countryside,
about camping and wood craft,

585
00:32:54,900 --> 00:33:00,140
that this would counteract
the evil effects of the city

586
00:33:00,140 --> 00:33:03,460
and improve the health
of the nation's youth.

587
00:33:10,580 --> 00:33:13,620
As well as encouraging
their readers to get outdoors,

588
00:33:13,620 --> 00:33:16,980
the boys' weeklies provided
plenty of manly role models

589
00:33:16,980 --> 00:33:18,380
to inspire them.

590
00:33:20,500 --> 00:33:24,500
The strong, intrepid, outdoorsy hero
is a recurring figure in boys'

591
00:33:24,500 --> 00:33:28,220
fiction and, of course, nobody was
more celebrated than the explorer.

592
00:33:28,220 --> 00:33:30,980
Whether he was conquering the Arctic
wastes or fighting his way

593
00:33:30,980 --> 00:33:34,420
through the Amazon, the explorer's
every move was minutely

594
00:33:34,420 --> 00:33:36,860
charted by boys' books
and magazines.

595
00:33:36,860 --> 00:33:39,660
So, what's your expedition
looking for?

596
00:33:39,660 --> 00:33:42,540
Well, we're looking to see
if there's a channel, a river

597
00:33:42,540 --> 00:33:47,020
passage, linking the Ganges with the
Brahmaputra River through Bhutan.

598
00:33:47,020 --> 00:33:48,420
But this is Maidenhead.

599
00:33:53,660 --> 00:33:57,140
The figure of the explorer
loomed large in popular culture

600
00:33:57,140 --> 00:33:59,260
until well into the 20th century.

601
00:34:03,260 --> 00:34:06,460
I wanted to be
an explorer from very early on,

602
00:34:06,460 --> 00:34:09,460
I mean, nine or ten years old,
that's what I wanted to do.

603
00:34:11,540 --> 00:34:14,420
And I read stories
of great explorers,

604
00:34:14,420 --> 00:34:16,140
especially people who disappeared.

605
00:34:16,140 --> 00:34:19,700
I don't know why I was fascinated
by people who were never seen again.

606
00:34:19,700 --> 00:34:22,820
There were stories
like Fawcett, Colonel Fawcett.

607
00:34:22,820 --> 00:34:25,980
He went to the Amazon
and was never seen again.

608
00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:28,220
As someone said,
"Dead, believed eaten."

609
00:34:29,420 --> 00:34:32,980
In 1953, I was ten years old,
and that's when Everest was climbed.

610
00:34:32,980 --> 00:34:35,460
Someone had gotten to the top
of the highest mountain.

611
00:34:35,460 --> 00:34:38,540
They'd found the source of
the Amazon and the Nile

612
00:34:38,540 --> 00:34:42,060
and that sort of thing,
so there was very little left.

613
00:34:42,060 --> 00:34:47,620
But the idea of exploration appealed
to me greatly and I think it was not

614
00:34:47,620 --> 00:34:51,340
just because they were brave men

615
00:34:51,340 --> 00:34:54,740
but they were going to places
that no-one had ever seen before.

616
00:34:56,940 --> 00:34:59,820
The Boy's Own Paper published
stirring tales like

617
00:34:59,820 --> 00:35:03,180
In the Power Of The Pygmies
and Nearly Eaten

618
00:35:03,180 --> 00:35:04,540
in which a professor escapes

619
00:35:04,540 --> 00:35:08,180
from a horde of voodoo-worshipping
cannibals in Haiti.

620
00:35:12,100 --> 00:35:15,700
Explorer novels like
King Solomon's Mines

621
00:35:15,700 --> 00:35:19,220
were a fixture on
every boy's bookshelf.

622
00:35:21,660 --> 00:35:25,900
Tales like these, usually set in
remote outposts of the Empire,

623
00:35:25,900 --> 00:35:30,060
provided readers with a heady mix
of exoticism and danger.

624
00:35:32,580 --> 00:35:37,380
The polar explorer, Rear Admiral
Sir Vincent Smythe-Obelson.

625
00:35:37,380 --> 00:35:37,620
Applause! Applause!

626
00:35:37,900 --> 00:35:39,100
Applause! Applause!

627
00:35:41,180 --> 00:35:45,340
Polar exploration was a recurring
theme for the Boy's Own Paper.

628
00:35:45,340 --> 00:35:49,940
It printed no less than 17 articles
on Scott of the Antarctic,

629
00:35:49,940 --> 00:35:53,300
particularly the ill-fated
Terra Nova expedition which took

630
00:35:53,300 --> 00:35:55,380
the lives of Scott and his comrades.

631
00:35:56,540 --> 00:35:58,420
Scott and Oates, in particular,

632
00:35:58,420 --> 00:36:02,620
were really raised as the
pre-eminent heroes in Britain

633
00:36:02,620 --> 00:36:04,420
on the eve of the First World War

634
00:36:04,420 --> 00:36:09,740
and the Boy's Own Paper played
a significant part in that process.

635
00:36:11,020 --> 00:36:16,100
They actually published a special
plate of Captain Oates with

636
00:36:16,100 --> 00:36:20,860
a line saying, "This plate
of Captain Oates should find

637
00:36:20,860 --> 00:36:24,820
"an honoured place in the den
of every BOP reader."

638
00:36:28,980 --> 00:36:32,660
And not all these explorer heroes
were grown men.

639
00:36:32,660 --> 00:36:34,740
In the 1920s,

640
00:36:34,740 --> 00:36:38,260
we were introduced to James Marr,
the 18-year-old boy scout

641
00:36:38,260 --> 00:36:41,540
who accompanied Ernest Shackleton
on a trip to the Antarctic.

642
00:36:45,940 --> 00:36:50,660
The story of the expedition written
by Marr himself was serialised

643
00:36:50,660 --> 00:36:55,260
in Chums magazine and then later
published as a book in 1923.

644
00:36:55,260 --> 00:36:58,340
It must have been the most
incredible adventure for this

645
00:36:58,340 --> 00:37:01,940
young 18-year-old scout,
but I imagine no picnic.

646
00:37:01,940 --> 00:37:06,180
He was working as a normal member
of the crew, working day and night.

647
00:37:06,180 --> 00:37:08,060
Judging by the way he's writing it,

648
00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:09,900
he's certainly in the teeth
of it all,

649
00:37:09,900 --> 00:37:11,740
he's getting the full experience.

650
00:37:11,740 --> 00:37:14,780
Listen to this,
"Wednesday, 28th December, 1921.

651
00:37:14,780 --> 00:37:17,220
"The gale had increased
to hurricane violence.

652
00:37:17,220 --> 00:37:20,580
"It was a grand sight to watch those
foam-decked mountains of water

653
00:37:20,580 --> 00:37:23,300
"bear down upon us." I bet it was.

654
00:37:23,300 --> 00:37:25,940
"The ship rose on top of them
like a cork

655
00:37:25,940 --> 00:37:28,380
"and then down the other side."
Woo-hoo!

656
00:37:29,780 --> 00:37:31,980
That's tough, that's really tough.

657
00:37:31,980 --> 00:37:34,420
And remember, as I say,
he's 18 years old.

658
00:37:34,420 --> 00:37:37,300
I suppose if anyone questioned
the sense of sending an 18-year-old

659
00:37:37,300 --> 00:37:39,940
scout off on a trip like this,
I suppose here's your answer.

660
00:37:39,940 --> 00:37:42,980
He's getting a fantastic education
sort of borne out

661
00:37:42,980 --> 00:37:45,020
through his even-handed prose.

662
00:37:45,020 --> 00:37:47,660
Unless, of course,
maybe he was actually just writing,

663
00:37:47,660 --> 00:37:50,980
"O-M-G, I was bricking it
last night in those high seas,"

664
00:37:50,980 --> 00:37:53,820
and maybe it just got back to base
and somebody just put a red line

665
00:37:53,820 --> 00:37:56,380
through it and wrote it in
a slightly more Boy's Own style.

666
00:37:56,380 --> 00:37:57,780
But I doubt it.

667
00:37:59,700 --> 00:38:01,260
It's explorers like these -

668
00:38:01,260 --> 00:38:04,140
cool to the last and
indifferent to danger -

669
00:38:04,140 --> 00:38:08,740
that Palin and Jones' affectionately
sent up in the fifth Yarn.

670
00:38:08,740 --> 00:38:12,140
In 1927, Captain Walter Snetterton,

671
00:38:12,140 --> 00:38:14,740
least loved of all
English explorers,

672
00:38:14,740 --> 00:38:18,940
decided to go across
the Andes by frog.

673
00:38:21,620 --> 00:38:25,540
We are the expedition from England.
I'm Captain Snetterton.

674
00:38:25,540 --> 00:38:26,780
Wonderful characters.

675
00:38:27,820 --> 00:38:30,140
Pervious to anything.

676
00:38:30,140 --> 00:38:33,580
Mr Gregory, those frogs have
been in training for months.

677
00:38:33,580 --> 00:38:36,780
They're mentally and physically at
their peak, a delay could be fatal.

678
00:38:36,780 --> 00:38:39,620
The thing about Snetterton was,
actually, that he

679
00:38:39,620 --> 00:38:44,740
represents a certain type
of traveller and explorer, of which

680
00:38:44,740 --> 00:38:48,420
there are many around still who want
to make it difficult for themselves.

681
00:38:48,420 --> 00:38:51,300
I shall stay here until this
frog expedition has achieved

682
00:38:51,300 --> 00:38:53,140
everything it set out to achieve.

683
00:38:53,140 --> 00:38:56,140
Everyone wants to be the first to do
something to do something really,

684
00:38:56,140 --> 00:38:59,380
really difficult which is actually,
in a way, quite admirable.

685
00:38:59,380 --> 00:39:01,380
I think there's something
very British

686
00:39:01,380 --> 00:39:04,380
and something rather good
about the British kind of...

687
00:39:04,380 --> 00:39:05,660
Well, we could call it...

688
00:39:05,660 --> 00:39:08,660
Some would call it silliness,
others would say it's independence

689
00:39:08,660 --> 00:39:11,100
and testing yourself,

690
00:39:11,100 --> 00:39:17,420
so he was just really that kind of
explorer who'd chosen to do the most

691
00:39:17,420 --> 00:39:21,580
difficult thing which was to actually
ride across the Andes on a frog.

692
00:39:23,540 --> 00:39:26,420
The glory days of British
exploration may be over,

693
00:39:26,420 --> 00:39:29,020
but there are still
a few explorers out there.

694
00:39:34,700 --> 00:39:36,140
I've come to Dorset to meet

695
00:39:36,140 --> 00:39:40,100
the founder of Operation Raleigh,
John Blashford Snell.

696
00:39:40,100 --> 00:39:44,260
In his time, he's fought bandits,
searched for meteorites in Bolivia,

697
00:39:44,260 --> 00:39:47,340
and taken a grand piano
through the South American jungle.

698
00:39:48,700 --> 00:39:50,540
Careful with the frogs!

699
00:39:57,100 --> 00:40:01,500
Ah, Alexander, I presume. Good
morning. How very good to meet you.

700
00:40:03,860 --> 00:40:06,140
Wow!

701
00:40:06,140 --> 00:40:10,500
How many expeditions have you
been on? Do you keep a tally?

702
00:40:10,500 --> 00:40:12,380
I don't keep a tally,

703
00:40:12,380 --> 00:40:15,980
but somebody told me the other day
it's over 100 now. Over 100.

704
00:40:15,980 --> 00:40:18,580
Do you have a particular
favourite expedition?

705
00:40:18,580 --> 00:40:21,100
The most dramatic one,
without a doubt,

706
00:40:21,100 --> 00:40:25,500
was the Blue Nile in 1968 where we
literally had to fight our way

707
00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:29,500
out from bandits and so on
and there were crocodile attacks

708
00:40:29,500 --> 00:40:30,980
and that type of thing.

709
00:40:30,980 --> 00:40:34,660
You are very much in the tradition
of the Great British explorer.

710
00:40:34,660 --> 00:40:39,100
Do you see yourself in that?
Not really, no! A nutcase, I think!

711
00:40:39,100 --> 00:40:45,420
No, I suppose going back to
the days of Stanley and Livingstone,

712
00:40:45,420 --> 00:40:50,460
they were a little bit eccentric,
probably, by modern standards.

713
00:40:50,460 --> 00:40:53,700
'John's inspiration
was General Gordon

714
00:40:53,700 --> 00:40:57,780
'and the great Victorian explorers
Stanley and Livingstone.'

715
00:40:57,780 --> 00:41:01,380
These are some great heroes
that I had as a young man,

716
00:41:01,380 --> 00:41:04,220
who featured in the Boy's Own Paper
and so on.

717
00:41:04,220 --> 00:41:07,460
I remember my grandmother used
to read it to me. Really?

718
00:41:07,460 --> 00:41:11,060
And there were lots of things
I learned from it.

719
00:41:11,060 --> 00:41:14,580
I can remember in particular
with Boy's Own Paper,

720
00:41:14,580 --> 00:41:16,900
they taught you about making things.
Yes.

721
00:41:16,900 --> 00:41:20,740
I remember making a crystal radio
with the instructions that

722
00:41:20,740 --> 00:41:23,620
were given. You found the bits
and pieces you needed?

723
00:41:23,620 --> 00:41:27,420
Yeah, you made them and you can buy
a few bits, but you didn't need much.

724
00:41:27,420 --> 00:41:29,260
The other thing was photography.

725
00:41:29,260 --> 00:41:32,500
I developed an early interest
in photography and my mother,

726
00:41:32,500 --> 00:41:36,460
as a result of that, gave me
my first camera and there it is.

727
00:41:36,460 --> 00:41:39,420
With that,
I took all my first pictures.

728
00:41:39,420 --> 00:41:42,020
Then, of course,
everyone had to have a knife.

729
00:41:42,020 --> 00:41:43,900
Nowadays, that would be frowned on.

730
00:41:43,900 --> 00:41:48,300
And my first knife was given to me
by my mother again.

731
00:41:48,300 --> 00:41:51,300
This was a very old sheath knife,
as a Boy Scout.

732
00:41:51,300 --> 00:41:53,660
Yeah. And Scouts
were very much part of...

733
00:41:53,660 --> 00:41:57,740
My father had been a Scoutmaster and
my mother had been a Guide Mistress.

734
00:41:57,740 --> 00:42:01,380
A friend of mine had
one of these on the Blue Nile in 2005

735
00:42:01,380 --> 00:42:04,900
when his inflatable boat
was attacked by a crocodile.

736
00:42:04,900 --> 00:42:08,020
And so that was very useful
in defence.

737
00:42:08,020 --> 00:42:10,460
'During the Second World War,

738
00:42:10,460 --> 00:42:14,620
'the young John made his own
contribution to the war effort.'

739
00:42:14,620 --> 00:42:17,220
Tell me about your Home Guard.

740
00:42:17,220 --> 00:42:21,220
Well, where I was brought up,
in Herefordshire, of course,

741
00:42:21,220 --> 00:42:24,660
we were very concerned with making
sure the Hun didn't overrun

742
00:42:24,660 --> 00:42:28,780
Herefordshire and
so we recruited a gang of choirboys

743
00:42:28,780 --> 00:42:31,780
and choirgirls
and armed them to the teeth.

744
00:42:31,780 --> 00:42:34,940
Of course, Boy's Own Paper had
taught us all how to make bows

745
00:42:34,940 --> 00:42:38,540
and arrows, and we had spears,
and we would go off everywhere,

746
00:42:38,540 --> 00:42:42,100
looking for any signs of the Hun
and we were...

747
00:42:42,100 --> 00:42:47,060
The ARP, as they were called, used
to encourage us to look for spies.

748
00:42:47,060 --> 00:42:50,060
I imagine the ARP were rather glad.

749
00:42:50,060 --> 00:42:53,980
Well, our job was to...
If the Germans had invaded,

750
00:42:53,980 --> 00:42:57,380
our job was to carry
messages on our bicycles

751
00:42:57,380 --> 00:43:01,180
and we had a little pouch and you
were told that you had to take

752
00:43:01,180 --> 00:43:04,260
this message from A to B if all
the telephones stopped working.

753
00:43:04,260 --> 00:43:06,340
Luckily, it didn't get to that state.

754
00:43:06,340 --> 00:43:09,380
It was rather frustrating
at the end of the war

755
00:43:09,380 --> 00:43:11,300
when the Germans hadn't invaded!

756
00:43:16,500 --> 00:43:20,780
'The Boy's Own paper was more
than mere entertainment.

757
00:43:20,780 --> 00:43:22,980
'It taught real practical
life lessons

758
00:43:22,980 --> 00:43:24,580
'to boys like the young John.'

759
00:43:28,100 --> 00:43:33,420
Such was Victoria's empire,
a way of life, a state of mind,

760
00:43:33,420 --> 00:43:37,700
and whatever one thought of it,
a mighty powerful,

761
00:43:37,700 --> 00:43:42,940
impressive structure, millions upon
millions, all together,

762
00:43:42,940 --> 00:43:46,340
under the flag upon
which the sun never sets.

763
00:43:48,220 --> 00:43:51,340
But while Boy's Own tales inspired
and improved

764
00:43:51,340 --> 00:43:55,580
generations of readers, there was
a more troubling aspect to them.

765
00:43:55,580 --> 00:44:00,180
Set in far flung parts of the
empire, many stories featured exotic

766
00:44:00,180 --> 00:44:05,340
foreign people who were rarely
seen in a very flattering light,

767
00:44:05,340 --> 00:44:06,860
compared to the British.

768
00:44:06,860 --> 00:44:09,660
What's the matter with them?

769
00:44:09,660 --> 00:44:12,540
Ah, yes. Um...
I'm not quite sure, actually.

770
00:44:14,340 --> 00:44:16,300
One of the tricks,

771
00:44:16,300 --> 00:44:21,020
if you like, of the stories
is that fair play is endlessly

772
00:44:21,020 --> 00:44:26,380
repeated as an English quality,
or a British quality,

773
00:44:26,380 --> 00:44:31,660
so it is characteristic
of the portrayal of foreigners in

774
00:44:31,660 --> 00:44:34,820
the boys' weeklies that they
are duplicitous, that they

775
00:44:34,820 --> 00:44:39,620
are scheming, that they are liars,
and this is endlessly

776
00:44:39,620 --> 00:44:44,460
contrasted with the upstanding
proper English gentleman.

777
00:44:45,820 --> 00:44:49,100
The papers had story after story
featuring plucky

778
00:44:49,100 --> 00:44:52,340
British Empire gents
bestowing wisdom

779
00:44:52,340 --> 00:44:55,380
and benevolence on grateful
native populations.

780
00:44:57,700 --> 00:45:00,740
There is something just a little bit
maddening about this constant

781
00:45:00,740 --> 00:45:03,340
hectoring tone that you get
in some of the writing.

782
00:45:03,340 --> 00:45:06,020
By no means all of it,
but just a tone that suggests that

783
00:45:06,020 --> 00:45:08,860
Britain knows best and the rest
of the world should jolly well

784
00:45:08,860 --> 00:45:11,140
be grateful
for her civilising influence.

785
00:45:11,140 --> 00:45:14,620
Oh, cor. I thought
you were one of the nig-nogs, sir.

786
00:45:14,620 --> 00:45:17,220
I wish you wouldn't call them
nig-nogs, Sergeant Major.

787
00:45:17,220 --> 00:45:20,140
They're rational human beings
with an indigenous culture

788
00:45:20,140 --> 00:45:22,820
as worthy of respect as our own.
Yes, sir.

789
00:45:22,820 --> 00:45:26,460
Of course, we have to put
such attitudes into their
historical context,

790
00:45:26,460 --> 00:45:30,700
which is very different to our own,
but even at the time,

791
00:45:30,700 --> 00:45:34,220
some of the magazines were accused
of aggressive imperialism.

792
00:45:35,460 --> 00:45:36,740
For all their racism,

793
00:45:36,740 --> 00:45:40,740
the boys' weeklies
are at least quite even-handed

794
00:45:40,740 --> 00:45:42,780
in their treatment of foreigners,

795
00:45:42,780 --> 00:45:44,860
because they disparage all of them.

796
00:45:46,820 --> 00:45:50,100
So an endless cast
of foreigners appear.

797
00:45:52,060 --> 00:45:55,020
George Orwell is pretty withering
in this brilliant essay

798
00:45:55,020 --> 00:45:58,020
he writes on boys' weeklies.
He complains that,

799
00:45:58,020 --> 00:46:01,340
"Foreigners are comics who are
put there for us to laugh at.

800
00:46:01,340 --> 00:46:03,700
"They're classified in much
the same way as insects."

801
00:46:03,700 --> 00:46:06,060
Then he goes on to list
the characteristics

802
00:46:06,060 --> 00:46:08,220
you will invariably find in boys'
weeklies. "Frenchman - excitable.

803
00:46:08,460 --> 00:46:09,580
you will invariably find in boys'
weeklies. "Frenchman - excitable.

804
00:46:09,580 --> 00:46:11,820
"Wears beard, gesticulates wildly.

805
00:46:11,820 --> 00:46:15,860
"Spaniard, Mexican, etc -
sinister, treacherous.

806
00:46:15,860 --> 00:46:19,860
"Arab, Afghan, etc -
sinister, treacherous.

807
00:46:19,860 --> 00:46:24,220
"Chinese - sinister, treacherous.
Wears pigtail.

808
00:46:24,220 --> 00:46:28,460
"Italian - excitable. Grinds
barrel organ or carries stiletto."

809
00:46:28,460 --> 00:46:30,820
These snooty, patronising,

810
00:46:30,820 --> 00:46:32,900
even racist attitudes,

811
00:46:32,900 --> 00:46:35,500
are key to the comedy
in Ripping Yarns.

812
00:46:37,860 --> 00:46:39,420
Nice shot, father.

813
00:46:39,420 --> 00:46:41,180
APPLAUSE

814
00:46:41,180 --> 00:46:43,620
Making people laugh
is a way of dealing with

815
00:46:43,620 --> 00:46:47,860
a lot of attitudes that we find
difficult, and that, I think, is

816
00:46:47,860 --> 00:46:53,020
what sort of pushed us into making
them the kind of stories they are.

817
00:46:58,980 --> 00:47:00,860
In many Boy's Own stories

818
00:47:00,860 --> 00:47:05,380
lay a deep-rooted suspicion that
Johnny Foreigner was up to no good.

819
00:47:05,380 --> 00:47:08,380
This anxiety reached fever pitch
in the early 20th century.

820
00:47:08,380 --> 00:47:09,900
GUNSHOT

821
00:47:09,900 --> 00:47:10,900
The Pathans.

822
00:47:11,900 --> 00:47:13,100
Dave and Edna?

823
00:47:13,100 --> 00:47:14,620
No!

824
00:47:14,620 --> 00:47:16,820
The violent but proud tribe
of hill people

825
00:47:16,820 --> 00:47:18,580
who threaten our very existence.

826
00:47:19,860 --> 00:47:22,460
I must go and be kind to them.
Don't be silly, dear.

827
00:47:22,460 --> 00:47:24,540
The servants have orders
to come and tell us

828
00:47:24,540 --> 00:47:26,100
if there's a Pathan uprising.

829
00:47:26,100 --> 00:47:28,140
LAUGHTER

830
00:47:28,140 --> 00:47:31,860
From the 1890s onwards, there was
a growing worry about the threat

831
00:47:31,860 --> 00:47:36,260
of invasion - from France, from
Russia, even from the planet Mars,

832
00:47:36,260 --> 00:47:40,980
and these paranoias played out
on the pages of boys' literature.

833
00:47:40,980 --> 00:47:43,460
This wonderful magazine, Chums,
here, in 1908,

834
00:47:43,660 --> 00:47:44,180
This wonderful magazine, Chums,
here, in 1908,

835
00:47:44,180 --> 00:47:46,820
features a story called
The Perils Of The Motherland,

836
00:47:46,820 --> 00:47:51,820
a story of war in 1911 - set in
the near future - and sees Britain

837
00:47:51,820 --> 00:47:52,380
invaded by Russia. Look at the front
cover, here. You can see

838
00:47:52,660 --> 00:47:55,300
invaded by Russia. Look at the front
cover, here. You can see

839
00:47:55,300 --> 00:47:57,700
the plucky workers of Cradley Heath
in the Midlands

840
00:47:57,700 --> 00:48:00,980
fighting off the Russians
with staves and hammers,

841
00:48:00,980 --> 00:48:04,820
the Russians, meanwhile, with
their rifles and bayonets.

842
00:48:04,820 --> 00:48:07,580
There are these bricks
hurling through the air.

843
00:48:07,580 --> 00:48:09,620
You've got to admire
those plucky Brits,

844
00:48:09,620 --> 00:48:12,540
some of them just in shirtsleeves.

845
00:48:13,820 --> 00:48:17,100
We have a highly trained force
waiting to move into England.

846
00:48:17,100 --> 00:48:21,340
600 vicars, 1,000 shepherds.
Two divisions of cockneys.

847
00:48:21,340 --> 00:48:27,180
44 drudges, a dozen eccentrics,
850 private nannies.

848
00:48:27,180 --> 00:48:29,500
'There were lots of stories
about spies.

849
00:48:29,500 --> 00:48:31,380
'Almost the best example of this'

850
00:48:31,380 --> 00:48:35,300
are the stories about
Billy Bunter and Greyfriars School,

851
00:48:35,300 --> 00:48:41,460
and a lot of those stories, published
by The Magnet, around 1910,

852
00:48:41,460 --> 00:48:44,020
are about the peculiar behaviour
of people

853
00:48:44,020 --> 00:48:48,060
who are walking along the coast,
and they are seen flashing lights,

854
00:48:48,060 --> 00:48:51,260
or they are speaking
in funny languages.

855
00:48:54,220 --> 00:48:55,540
It appears in all the papers.

856
00:48:55,540 --> 00:48:58,660
It appears in the newspapers, it
appears in public speeches and so on.

857
00:48:58,660 --> 00:49:01,060
There was tremendous anxiety.

858
00:49:02,460 --> 00:49:06,580
And born out of this pre-war
paranoia was a new genre of fiction,

859
00:49:06,580 --> 00:49:09,860
the espionage thriller,
where one or two resourceful Brits

860
00:49:09,860 --> 00:49:14,820
single-handedly saved the nation
from a shadowy foreign threat.

861
00:49:14,820 --> 00:49:16,260
LAUGHTER

862
00:49:16,260 --> 00:49:18,780
MAN WHISPERS: My God, the Kaiser!

863
00:49:20,420 --> 00:49:23,900
You see it in everything,
from Erskine Childers' 1903 novel

864
00:49:23,900 --> 00:49:25,260
Riddle Of The Sands...

865
00:49:25,260 --> 00:49:29,740
100,000 German troops
towed across the North Sea in barges

866
00:49:29,740 --> 00:49:32,420
and landing on the flats of the Wash
on the undefended

867
00:49:32,420 --> 00:49:36,180
east coast of England
with a whole grand fleet in support,

868
00:49:36,180 --> 00:49:39,820
and a total element of surprise.
Perfect.

869
00:49:39,820 --> 00:49:42,860
..to John Buchan's
classic, The 39 Steps...

870
00:49:44,500 --> 00:49:45,580
..the wildly popular

871
00:49:45,580 --> 00:49:47,260
Bulldog Drummond stories...

872
00:49:48,460 --> 00:49:50,300
..and Ian Fleming's James Bond.

873
00:49:52,060 --> 00:49:55,980
And let's not forget
Winfrey's Last Case.

874
00:49:55,980 --> 00:49:59,740
In the last four months, I've
brought the Balkan wars to end,

875
00:49:59,740 --> 00:50:02,540
averted a revolution in Russia
for the second year running,

876
00:50:02,540 --> 00:50:04,460
started a civil war in Persia,

877
00:50:04,460 --> 00:50:07,020
annexed two new colonies...

878
00:50:07,020 --> 00:50:10,700
I've been saving this country every
year since 1898 and I need a holiday.

879
00:50:10,700 --> 00:50:14,020
Winfrey is one of those people
who, you know,

880
00:50:14,020 --> 00:50:16,260
was very common
in comics and literature then.

881
00:50:16,260 --> 00:50:19,540
Someone who'd just solve all the
problems of the world just like that,

882
00:50:19,540 --> 00:50:22,140
was so incredibly competent
and good and efficient.

883
00:50:22,140 --> 00:50:25,340
Well done, Gerald!
You've saved us again.

884
00:50:25,340 --> 00:50:27,580
'And what I quite liked about that
is that you've got

885
00:50:27,580 --> 00:50:29,500
'all the top brass of the Army,
you know,'

886
00:50:29,500 --> 00:50:32,340
huge amounts of money
spent on an army and an air force,

887
00:50:32,340 --> 00:50:35,060
a navy and all that, and yet
he just comes in and says,

888
00:50:35,060 --> 00:50:36,700
"You're all wrong. I can do this."

889
00:50:36,700 --> 00:50:39,580
Surely there won't be a war now.
I've, er, caught them all for you.

890
00:50:39,580 --> 00:50:41,740
Oh, there will, Gerald.

891
00:50:41,740 --> 00:50:44,540
And it'll be a proper one,
thanks to you.

892
00:50:44,540 --> 00:50:47,020
And if this one's successful,
they'll want to do a follow-up.

893
00:50:57,140 --> 00:51:00,140
And when war broke out
in July 1914,

894
00:51:00,140 --> 00:51:03,060
it started a wave of war stories
that would dominate

895
00:51:03,060 --> 00:51:05,780
boys' literature through
the next war and beyond.

896
00:51:07,980 --> 00:51:11,900
Famously, or infamously,
these magazines have thought,

897
00:51:11,900 --> 00:51:14,860
and rightly thought, I think,
to be very jingoistic,

898
00:51:14,860 --> 00:51:17,780
very martial in their attitude to war

899
00:51:17,780 --> 00:51:21,900
and the idea that boys would find
war exciting, that they would see

900
00:51:21,900 --> 00:51:25,780
it as an opportunity for adventure
and to go off and be boys together.

901
00:51:28,740 --> 00:51:30,780
Across the North Sea steamed
the British fleet,

902
00:51:30,780 --> 00:51:33,780
and off the coast of Jutland,
they met.

903
00:51:38,700 --> 00:51:41,340
There were inspirational tales
of true life heroes,

904
00:51:41,340 --> 00:51:45,140
like 16-year-old Jack Cornwell,
fatally wounded

905
00:51:45,140 --> 00:51:48,940
in the Battle of Jutland in 1916,
and posthumously awarded a VC.

906
00:51:56,740 --> 00:52:00,220
There were informational
articles about uniforms, weapons,

907
00:52:00,220 --> 00:52:01,660
historical battles...

908
00:52:09,420 --> 00:52:11,940
..but, of course, it's
impossible to tell a story like this

909
00:52:11,940 --> 00:52:15,980
without referring to the greatest
fictional war hero of them all.

910
00:52:15,980 --> 00:52:17,460
Biggles.

911
00:52:19,020 --> 00:52:22,500
Biggles was an air ace in
two world wars, a charter pilot,

912
00:52:22,500 --> 00:52:24,980
even an airborne detective.

913
00:52:24,980 --> 00:52:29,100
At his peak, he was the most popular
juvenile fiction hero in the world.

914
00:52:30,900 --> 00:52:35,340
I read Biggles when I was 12,
actually.

915
00:52:35,340 --> 00:52:35,500
Captain WE Johns wrote Biggles.
That's right. Yes.

916
00:52:35,740 --> 00:52:39,580
Captain WE Johns wrote Biggles.
That's right. Yes.

917
00:52:39,580 --> 00:52:41,820
Very impressed
with the "Captain" bit.

918
00:52:41,820 --> 00:52:47,300
But I read, also... I read escape
stories from prisoner of war camps.

919
00:52:47,300 --> 00:52:52,660
They were then coming out and people
were writing their memoirs.

920
00:52:54,620 --> 00:52:57,380
They were quite nasty stories,
some of them, you know.

921
00:52:57,380 --> 00:53:00,460
Bamboo And Bushido - I remember
that, which was all about...

922
00:53:00,460 --> 00:53:04,380
What happened in Bamboo And Bushido?
It's about the Japanese and how

923
00:53:04,380 --> 00:53:07,500
beastly they were, and the tortures
of people in prison camps.

924
00:53:07,500 --> 00:53:11,700
So, actually, weirdly, at quite
a young age, I was exposed to

925
00:53:11,700 --> 00:53:15,540
some awful behaviour,
but they were very gripping stories.

926
00:53:15,540 --> 00:53:17,740
GERMAN ACCENTS: What about
the Red Cross?!

927
00:53:17,740 --> 00:53:19,580
To hell with the Red Cross!

928
00:53:21,060 --> 00:53:24,540
Listen, what's the use of having
a war where nobody does anything
bad to each other?

929
00:53:24,860 --> 00:53:26,740
Listen, what's the use of having
a war where nobody does anything
bad to each other?

930
00:53:29,620 --> 00:53:32,580
But it was the Germans
who were the number-one enemy

931
00:53:32,580 --> 00:53:34,100
for generations of boys.

932
00:53:36,060 --> 00:53:39,540
It was perfectly OK
to be critical of the Germans,

933
00:53:39,540 --> 00:53:43,700
or to portray the Germans as they
had been portrayed in the war,

934
00:53:43,700 --> 00:53:46,620
by our cartoonists
and our publicity and all that,

935
00:53:46,620 --> 00:53:50,060
as all being, you know,
snarling and dangerous.

936
00:53:50,060 --> 00:53:54,100
Nowadays, we call that racist,
but there was no racism then.

937
00:53:54,100 --> 00:53:56,500
That had been identified.

938
00:53:56,500 --> 00:53:58,820
We just fought a war,
two wars, against the Germans -

939
00:53:58,820 --> 00:54:01,220
you know, they deserved
all they got, sort of thing.

940
00:54:01,220 --> 00:54:03,860
Now, of course, the Germans
are seen, quite rightly,

941
00:54:03,860 --> 00:54:05,980
as very reasonable, decent...
Of course.

942
00:54:05,980 --> 00:54:08,980
..democrats and all that sort of
thing, but at that time,

943
00:54:08,980 --> 00:54:12,660
it was something you could use,
and you could use it in comedy.

944
00:54:14,260 --> 00:54:18,500
Although the comedy in Stalag Luft
was more about obsessive escaping,

945
00:54:18,500 --> 00:54:20,860
because I'd read so many
escape stories.

946
00:54:27,180 --> 00:54:29,420
HE WHISPERS: Ginger!

947
00:54:29,420 --> 00:54:31,980
Ginger! The escape's on!

948
00:54:31,980 --> 00:54:36,140
What?
It's on, tonight. Let's go. No, no.

949
00:54:36,140 --> 00:54:37,660
I don't want to go.

950
00:54:37,660 --> 00:54:38,940
Gin... It's the escape!

951
00:54:38,940 --> 00:54:41,860
'Just the idea that the boys
all want to have a night's sleep,'

952
00:54:41,860 --> 00:54:45,060
and someone comes round and says,
"We're going to escape tonight."

953
00:54:45,060 --> 00:54:46,780
"Oh, no, please - I'm half asleep!"

954
00:54:46,780 --> 00:54:48,780
HW WHISPERS: Carter!

955
00:54:48,780 --> 00:54:50,940
Oh, piss off.

956
00:54:50,940 --> 00:54:52,820
Major Errol Phipps was a legend

957
00:54:52,820 --> 00:54:55,260
among prisoners
in the First World War.

958
00:54:55,260 --> 00:54:58,500
He had attempted over 560 escapes,

959
00:54:58,500 --> 00:55:01,580
200 of them before he left England.

960
00:55:01,580 --> 00:55:04,340
On arrival in Germany,
he escaped regularly - every day,

961
00:55:04,340 --> 00:55:06,980
and twice a day at weekends.

962
00:55:06,980 --> 00:55:09,500
And in the end, of course,
they all escape apart from him.

963
00:55:09,500 --> 00:55:11,780
Apart from him. Even the Germans
escape and leave him,

964
00:55:11,780 --> 00:55:14,500
and just as he's about to escape,
the war ends.

965
00:55:14,500 --> 00:55:17,460
CHEERING, BELLS TOLLING

966
00:55:20,860 --> 00:55:23,100
Major Phipps became the only man

967
00:55:23,100 --> 00:55:26,180
never to escape
from Stalag Luft 112B.

968
00:55:32,420 --> 00:55:34,860
He returned home a broken man,

969
00:55:34,860 --> 00:55:36,780
and died three months later.

970
00:55:40,860 --> 00:55:44,500
He was buried here
in Totnes Churchyard,

971
00:55:44,500 --> 00:55:47,220
but his body was found
two years later,

972
00:55:47,220 --> 00:55:48,220
over by the fence.

973
00:55:59,860 --> 00:56:03,940
For the Boy's Own Paper and many
other boys' weeklies, the war meant

974
00:56:03,940 --> 00:56:08,180
paper shortages, an increase
in price and a decline in quality.

975
00:56:10,780 --> 00:56:14,900
I took it myself in the 1940s,
and I remember reading it in 1940...

976
00:56:14,900 --> 00:56:18,220
And it was a compact little magazine.
I'll tell you what it was like.

977
00:56:18,220 --> 00:56:20,500
It was a bit like a glossy diary.

978
00:56:20,500 --> 00:56:24,740
It was 64 pages, but I looked
at a copy only the other day,

979
00:56:24,740 --> 00:56:26,500
and of those 64 pages,

980
00:56:26,500 --> 00:56:30,540
most of them were black-and-white
photographs of a sport, of football,

981
00:56:30,540 --> 00:56:36,380
of pop singers, and there were only
about 10, 12 pages of fiction.

982
00:56:36,380 --> 00:56:40,700
It was all... It had become
a - decent - general magazine.

983
00:56:40,700 --> 00:56:44,340
It was no longer the Boy's Own
Paper that it had been founded to be.

984
00:56:47,100 --> 00:56:51,260
By the '60s, the paper was losing
both readers and advertisers,

985
00:56:51,260 --> 00:56:54,380
and was facing competition
from television.

986
00:56:56,300 --> 00:57:00,380
The magazine finally
closed its doors in 1967.

987
00:57:05,700 --> 00:57:09,580
The most famous boys' magazine
of all has gone for good,

988
00:57:09,580 --> 00:57:13,380
and Ripping Yarns evokes an era that
many people no longer recognise.

989
00:57:14,540 --> 00:57:16,180
Guard, fire!

990
00:57:16,180 --> 00:57:19,300
Not above their heads!

991
00:57:19,300 --> 00:57:22,220
But a few remnants of that world
may still remain.

992
00:57:24,460 --> 00:57:28,020
MUSIC: "Land Of Hope And Glory"

993
00:57:28,020 --> 00:57:30,340
# Land of hope... #

994
00:57:30,340 --> 00:57:34,740
'I don't think the world has changed
completely from the old...

995
00:57:34,740 --> 00:57:38,900
'the days of the public schools
and all that sort of thing.'

996
00:57:38,900 --> 00:57:40,820
Down you go, belly on the floor!

997
00:57:40,820 --> 00:57:44,260
'I mean, near where I live in
London, they have military fitness

998
00:57:44,260 --> 00:57:47,140
'classes, where young bankers and
lawyers come along to be shouted at

999
00:57:47,140 --> 00:57:49,660
'in very cold weather, and made to
run up and down hills.'

1000
00:57:49,660 --> 00:57:52,020
One, two, three! Come on!

1001
00:57:52,020 --> 00:57:55,060
And they love it. And they love it!
They're disappointed if they're...

1002
00:57:55,060 --> 00:57:57,460
The old cold-shower regime
is still there.

1003
00:58:38,260 --> 00:58:39,900
How was that? Felt good?

1004
00:58:39,900 --> 00:58:41,500
Once again, love.

1005
00:58:41,500 --> 00:58:42,780
What?

1006
00:58:42,780 --> 00:58:44,180
Not quite right.