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This programme contains
some strong language.

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MUSIC: "Rule Britannia"

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Before the dawn of time
in the last millennium,

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at Her Majesty's Theatre in London,

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comic history was made.

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Monty Python teamed up
with Beyond The Fringe
in aid of Amnesty International.

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The success of these shows has
lasted nearly 30 years. They led
to Live Aid and Comic Relief.

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They were such a landmark
that those of us who took part
can't remember much about them.

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Good evening, madam. Your name is?
Mrs Yeti Goosecreature.

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I'm sorry I can remember
so little about it!

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Plenty of people remember you.
We all want to see Basil Brush
back on TV! It's not Basil Brush!

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I can't remember anything about it.

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I most royally shall now to bed
to sleep off the nonsense I've said!

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I can't remember any of the events.

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Then I want to end it,
if I may, "Norwich".

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"Norwich," yes.

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Well, it's an idiomatic way
of saying, "Knickers off ready
when I come home."

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I've forgotten the words,
but I must've said it 1200 times!

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I'd forgotten being involved in it.

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I can't remember what happened...
Nibble! Leave Orifice alone!

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If I could remember... One thing.

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You don't even know me, do you,
Saunders? You don't even realise...

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SNORES

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I remember being shite and thinking
we should've rehearsed this.

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# Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh... #

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I forget who was on drums.

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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# I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night
and I work all day

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# He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night
and he works all day... #

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The series of shows, The Secret
Policeman's Ball, was a turning
point in British comedy and music.

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A rich mix of styles and talents
was brought together
for the first time.

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# He goes to the lavatory
On Wednesdays he goes shopping
and has buttered scones for tea

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# He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night
and he works all day

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# I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers

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# I put on women's clothing
and hang around in bars

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# He cuts down trees,
he skips and jumps
He likes to press wild flowers

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# He puts on women's clothing
and hangs around in...bars? #

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The first benefit show was
the brainchild of John Cleese,
a godfather of British comedy.

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His reputation persuaded performers
to give their services for free.

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They wanted to raise money and
awareness for Amnesty International

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which was then a little-known
charity fighting to end torture
and free prisoners of conscience.

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# He's a lumberjack and he's OK... #

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Don't worry. Don't worry about it.

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'It began when Amnesty had
very little money at all.'

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One day I noticed a cheque go by,
signed "J Cleese".

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I knew somebody who vaguely
knew him, so I phoned her up

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and she gave me his phone number.

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One day I phoned John. There was a
crunching sound on the phone because
John was eating a lettuce sandwich.

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And he said, "How can we raise
money for Amnesty?"

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It seemed the most obvious thing.

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A stage show was the one thing
that I knew how to organise.

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He said, "We've got to do it for two
or three nights. There's no point
in doing it just for one night.

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"You find the theatre. I'll give you
the phone numbers of the people."

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Except for a couple,
they all said yes.

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We wanted it to be something
people could go to in the evening.

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It was ten when the show started.

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Actually, it was nearer midnight.

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There'd been a proper
professional show in the theatre
that had just finished.

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Then we'd entertain them,
hopefully, for two hours.

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Ah! Even I remember
the words of this one.

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'Oh, God!'

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The Dead Parrot sketch.
Oh, dear me!

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I wish to register a complaint.

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'The content of the Amnesty show
was very simple.

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'It was stuff people knew well,
wouldn't have to rehearse for long'

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and which was tried and trusted.
We knew it was gonna work.

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Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue,
innit, eh? Beautiful plumage.

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The plumage don't enter into it.
He's stone-dead.

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No, no, he's resting. All right,
if he's resting, I'll wake him up.

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Hello, Mr Polly Parrot.
I've got a nice, fresh cuttlefish
for you if you wake up...

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There, he moved! No, that was you!

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This is only 1976
and yet the sketch is already
a cliche of comedy.

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John and Mike know it backwards
and the audience knows it backwards
as well!

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'John and Mike could be miming.'

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Oh, wakey, wakey!

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'This is one of the best
stage performances we ever did.

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'I've never seen John at
such high voltage. He was terrific.'

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He does a great routine with it.

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There should be an Olympic sport
of parrot bashing. He would win.

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Bom, bom, bang, bang, whack, bang!

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Where does he get it from?

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Incredible!
I've never seen him do that before.

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We did that show many times. I don't
think it ever worked quite as well.

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Now, that's what I call
a dead parrot.

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He's stunned.

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'The audience is already laughing
because they know what's coming.

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'And sometimes
it throws their timing.'

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Because the timing is different,
the performance becomes different.

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'And Mike often starts laughing.'

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He's probably pining for the fjords.

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PINING for the FJORDS?

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SPLUTTERS WITH LAUGHTER

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Pining for the fjo-o-ords?

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What kind of talk is that?

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Look...

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This is nothing to laugh at!
Why did he fall flat on his back
when I got him home?

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The Norwegian Blue prefers kipping
on his back. Remarkable bird,
squire. Beautiful plumage.

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Some sketches became
national treasures.

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Remember when Margaret Thatcher
used part of this sketch
at a Tory conference?

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It was about the Lib Dem Party
and they persuaded her to do it.

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She was good at many things,
but not at this. They coached her.

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This is an ex-parrot.

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It is not merely stunned.
It has ceased to be, expired
and gone to meet its maker.

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She actually used quite a lot of it

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and the Pythons were all convinced
that we should sue her
for breach of copyright.

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When Peter says, "Oh, saucy
Wooster, dost thou lie so low...?"

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Jonathan Miller directed
the first show.

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He was a member of the theatrical
revue, Beyond The Fringe,

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along with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore
and top playwright, Alan Bennett.

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Beyond The Fringe captured
the mood of Britain in the '60s.

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Their success in London and New
York launched the satire movement.

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The trouble with being a miner

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is as soon as you're too old and
tired and ill and sick and stupid
to do your job properly,

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you have to go.

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Well, the very opposite applies
with the judges.

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'Things they were saying about the
country and government were things
that no-one had ever done before.'

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We were brought up believing
that archbishops, generals, MPs
and lords and ladies were there

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because they were somehow...
they deserved that place
and they had wisdom,

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then a fairly quick process
of disenchantment was setting in
in the '60s

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and our leaders were out of touch,

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certainly with how younger people
were thinking about the world.

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Beyond The Fringe
articulated that so well.

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Accurate observation of
social styles and class styles

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was characteristic
of Beyond The Fringe.

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That is what amused the audiences.

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'Because we were not
traditional showbiz characters,

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'but were university performers,

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'there was a higher level
of sort of comic literacy.'

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Are you using "yes" here
in the affirmative sense?

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No.

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"Who am I?"
he would cry despairingly.

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"You are Lawrence of Arabia,"
passers-by would stop him and say.
"And I claim my £5."

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They're very rigorous, the exams.
They're noted for their rigour.

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People come staggering out saying,
"My God, what a rigorous exam!"

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The audience didn't know
how scary it was for all concerned.

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This was the first time Beyond
The Fringe was on stage with
Monty Python, a coup for Amnesty.

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Those comedians were giants, but
their styles were very different.

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No-one knew if it would end
in laughter or tears.

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Even for the Pythons,
we were the old men of comedy.

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They were seniors,
like a school set-up.

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They were school prefects
and we were third-form ticks.

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They were much smarter
than we were.

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We liked being silly
and they weren't silly.

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'To be in the same rooms
as these guys was exciting.'

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You don't seem competitive
like we were.

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I couldn't work with Jonathan.
We just wouldn't get on really.

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Some of the comics had never
even met, let alone performed
in each other's sketches.

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Dudley Moore was in Hollywood,
so Terry Jones took his role

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in the classic Beyond The Fringe
parody of Shakespeare.

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It doesn't matter how it goes.
It plays itself, it's so ludicrous.

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I do remember there are
great barren patches in this,
chiefly the bits I'm involved in.

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'One of the things
that surprised Alan and myself'

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was what seemed to us to be
the unaccountable admiration

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that the Python people had
for the Fringe,

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as if we were pioneers of something
which they then carried on

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with much greater success.

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Beyond The Fringe were gods to us.

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They were gods
when we were at university,

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so I always felt a bit intimidated

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by Peter and Jonathan Miller
and Alan Bennett.

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When I had to play Dudley Moore's
part, it was nerve-wracking.

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Alan comes on and sits on a seat
in the centre and you put yourself
sweetly and coyly at his feet.

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I thought he plucked hard... But
they were all totally discordant.

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That's right. # Ooh! #

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I think it was even just one string,
rather than...

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Just one string, then what you do
is make it as accurate as you can,

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rather than putting
any sort of comment on it.

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As near as possible to this.

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# Oh, Death, his face
my shroud hath hid

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PLUCKS DISCORDANT NOTE

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# And Lethe drowned
my poor love's soul

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# Oh, let us flee to Pluto's realm

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PLUCKS NOTE
# And in his arms
I shall grow old...

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LOW TUNELESS NOTE

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Wise words in mouths of fools
do oft themselves belie.

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'Beyond The Fringe was watched
and applauded almost entirely

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'by middle-aged, middle-class
people, not by young people.'

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Young people became absolutely
passionate about Monty Python.

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INDISTINCT SONG

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Their fame and their reclame
and just the fact that they had fans

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in a way that we never had fans...

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That was the first time
I'd seen that and to see a theatre
full of them was extraordinary.

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Dudley Moore's absence
led to another unique pairing.

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Sing, sing!

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John Cleese got to perform
with Peter Cook.

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00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:40,920
'Everyone of my generation thought
that Peter was the great genius.'

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When he performed on these shows,
you could hardly find space
in the wings.

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'And I'd heard about this sketch

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'and it was marvellous
to go on stage and do it with him.'

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Did you know that you've got four
miles of tubing in your stomach?

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No, I didn't know that.
It's a good thing I'm here then.

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Aren't you interested
in your intestines?
Not particularly. You should be.

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00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:15,800
Because without your intestines,
you'd be unable to digest.

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Then you'd look a bit of a fool,
wouldn't you?

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Would you like to see
a diagram of your intestines?

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00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:32,280
I've got a diagram
of your intestines here.

197
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:36,080
Well, it's not actually
YOUR intestines.

198
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'Peter never stuck to the script.'

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He would always just make it up
at the end. "Peter, are you going
to do this line about so-and-so?"

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He'd say, "Yes, very probably."
It was no help
if you had the line after that.

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Did you know that the whale is not
really a fish? It's an insect.

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The great advantage of doing
sketches with Peter is that
he'll come in and drive you mad,

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but you'll have a newspaper
with all the lines in it,
so I have the entire script.

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See how far it has to go, the food?
Four miles at one mile an hour.

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This means none of the food
that reaches your stomach
is ever really fresh.

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00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:31,960
Shall I tell you something?

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You are one of the most boring,
tedious, uninteresting, monotonous,

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00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:45,560
flatulent, flat-headed, cloth-eared,
swivel-eyed, fornicating
little gits I've ever laid eyes on!

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00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:52,720
Is that a fact?

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How very interesting!

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It was based on this servant
at my school called Arthur Boilett

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00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:09,960
who would tell you these boring,
which he thought interesting facts.

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00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:12,560
He had a line. He said, um...

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00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:18,440
"Do you know that stone which used
to lie just outside the, um...

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00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:23,160
"the left-hand side
of the gravel driveway?

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00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:27,440
"I sold that yesterday
because I thought I saw it move."

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00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:32,360
And he kept selling things
which he thought he saw move.

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If anything moved, it was valuable.

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The Oxbridge styles of the Fringe
and the Pythons differed from
the new wave of stand-up comedians.

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00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,240
But these two guys were in Rome.

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00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:51,240
Billy Connolly was
a hot young comic from Scotland,

222
00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:55,480
bringing with him a special brand
of Glaswegian humour.

223
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:59,320
The sun was belting down on them.
You know, belt!

224
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:03,840
"Hey, the sun's beltin' doon on me."
"Come on and get a bevvy."

225
00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:09,680
They shot...
So they shot into a wee bar in Rome.

226
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:14,640
And right up to the bar and said,
"Jimmy, give us two pints of heavy."

227
00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:21,840
And he says, "Whit?"

228
00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:24,360
In Italian, like, you know...

229
00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:29,880
"Two pints of heavy.
Are you deaf or something?"

230
00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,680
He said, "Look... We...

231
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:40,160
"We don't have heavy in Rome.
We've got all sorts
of clever things, but not heavy.

232
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:44,000
"But you're welcome
to anything you see here."

233
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,480
"I don't know
about any of thae things an' that.

234
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:52,120
"I tell you what.
What does the Pope drink?"

235
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:58,640
The guy says, "Creme de menthe.
He likes a wee glass
of creme de menthe now and again."

236
00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:01,280
"Give us two pints of that!"

237
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:06,120
'One thing I discovered was the
stand-ups had a great advantage.

238
00:19:06,120 --> 00:19:10,520
'If you put a sketch after
a stand-up, the energy dropped.'

239
00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:15,080
If you stand there on your own
in a spotlight with a microphone,

240
00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:20,120
there's such a focus of energy and
the microphone gives you such power

241
00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:24,840
that it was very hard to follow
the best stand-up performers.

242
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:29,320
It was very hard
to follow Humphries, for example.

243
00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:36,920
I knew Barry a little bit. You bump
into people here and there.

244
00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:39,520
Barry was doing a show in town.

245
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:45,680
I said, "After your show,
could you come along and do a bit?"
And he did.

246
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:49,640
I'll finish here
and I'll stay in Edna's clothes.

247
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:54,280
I think I'll stay in that.
Yeah, fine.

248
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:58,800
I'm not going to walk
down the Haymarket wearing it. No.

249
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,240
I'll organise a car... Yes.

250
00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:09,040
That will take me and Iris,
my accompanist... Yeah.
..down to the theatre.

251
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:12,880
I forgot to tell you something,
Iris. Oh?

252
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:17,240
I agreed a long time ago
to do a charity appearance

253
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:23,000
on Thursday, Friday
and Saturday nights after the show.
After the show?

254
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,520
And I haven't told you yet.

255
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:28,080
Why? Does it affect me? Yes.

256
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:32,120
It would be nice...
I can't do it alone, Iris.

257
00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:36,640
Well, I did hear, but I didn't know
whether it affected me.

258
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:40,680
Would you mind being there
just in case I lose my voice?

259
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:47,480
That would be lovely. Thanks, Iris.
I'm sorry that you had to be
told this on camera, as it were.

260
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:49,680
Bless your heart.

261
00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:55,520
# The English have a quality
I'd like to sing about

262
00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,800
# It's not the sort of quality

263
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:02,520
# Bestowed on wog or Kraut

264
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:06,200
# They think
you're on the sticky side

265
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,960
# You never throw a tizz

266
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:12,640
# A special something
sees you through

267
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:16,120
# I'll tell you what it is...

268
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:22,320
# Spunk, spunk, spunk
You're so full of British spunk

269
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:27,640
# Though our tum-tums are a-rumbling
and our members sadly shrunk... #

270
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:30,600
LAUGHTER
So...

271
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:35,800
Don't spoil yourselves.
Don't be unnecessary.

272
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,400
Remember you're out!

273
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:46,800
This is an early incarnation
of Barry Humphries' Dame Edna.

274
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:54,640
She's kind of slightly...
not quite as biting
as she becomes later on, I think.

275
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:58,760
# So in a time of crisis
there's nothing quite so nice

276
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:02,320
# As British spunk, spunk,
spunk, spunk, spunk! #

277
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:06,200
In those days,
comedy was largely men only.

278
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:10,720
In the first show, the only major
comedienne was Eleanor Bron.

279
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:15,240
She was in a sketch that was very
unpolitically correct, thankfully!

280
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:17,840
There's something I must tell you.

281
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:23,440
Yes, dear? There can be no possible
doubt about it any longer.

282
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,760
I'm going to have a baby.

283
00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,280
For goodness sake, Penelope!

284
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:37,240
How many times do I have
to tell you? It's not a baby.
It's a balloon.

285
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,560
Charles... It is a baby.

286
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:47,200
It's a balloon, Penelope.

287
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,000
It's a baby, darling!

288
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:55,080
It's a balloon, Penelope.
It's a baby. It's a balloon!

289
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,600
LOUD BANG
Oh!

290
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,480
Prick!

291
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:05,520
If you talk to some of the women who
were contemporaries of John Cleese

292
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,000
and Graham Chapman
and Tim Brooke-Taylor,

293
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,600
they don't have kind things to say.

294
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:16,480
It was, "Oh, we need a woman
in this sketch" to feed some lines.

295
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:19,040
Men got all the good jokes.

296
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,880
When I was in the Footlights Club
at Cambridge,

297
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:27,640
many people, now famous comedians,
didn't want women in the club.

298
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:34,640
And, of course, Monty Python,
which is in patches
a really great show...

299
00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:39,400
is the most
misogynistic show...ever.

300
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:46,400
'It's got six guys who play women
half the time, hideous old crones,

301
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:52,560
'and apart from that,
the only women in the show
were a couple of bimbos really.'

302
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,880
But one woman made
a major contribution.

303
00:23:56,880 --> 00:24:03,920
Connie Booth was then married
to John Cleese. She co-scripted
and co-starred in Fawlty Towers.

304
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,240
The hit of the second show
was their sketch.

305
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:13,760
I wonder if you might have
The Amazing Adventures
Of Captain Gladys Stoat-Pamphlet

306
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:18,080
And Her Intrepid Spaniel Stig Among
The Giant Pygmies Of Beccles...

307
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:23,440
..Volume Eight?

308
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:30,280
No, we don't have it. Funny, we've
got a lot of books here. I wonder
if you'd... No, we haven't.

309
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:34,400
We're closing for lunch.
No, but I saw it over there!

310
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:41,680
What? Olsen's Standard Book
Of British Birds. Olsen's Standard
Book Of British Birds? Yes.

311
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:47,080
Yes, we do have that as a matter
of fact. The expurgated version.

312
00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:53,760
The expurgated version of Olson's
Standard Book Of British Birds?!

313
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:56,680
The one without the gannet.

314
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:02,440
They've all got the gannet. It's a
standard British bird, the gannet!

315
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,000
It's in all the books!

316
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,960
I don't like them.
They wet their nests. Right!

317
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:16,560
Any other birds you don't like?
The robin. Right, the robin...

318
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:20,720
There we are.
Anything else? The nuthatch.

319
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:25,720
There! No gannets, no robins,
no nuthatch. There's your book.

320
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,200
I can't buy that. It's torn!

321
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:32,840
Another first for Amnesty was the
use of celebrities in the sketches.

322
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:37,360
It was a coup to get
Britain's first female newsreader.

323
00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:41,400
'I was asked if I'd do something
for the show in 1979

324
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:45,840
'and I said yes without knowing
what I would be asked to do.'

325
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,680
Good evening, mystery celebrity,
and welcome.

326
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:55,480
'And then they said that they were
going to run this competition'

327
00:25:55,480 --> 00:26:00,720
where a member of the public guesses
which celebrity is beating them up.

328
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,760
Terry Jones was the poor victim.

329
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,320
Are you ready? Yes.
BANGS GONG

330
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:13,200
'Terry and I had a practice
behind the scenes.
I had a pair of boxing gloves.'

331
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:17,240
We practised rolling over
and hitting and him going,

332
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,320
"Oh, get off! It's Angela Rippon,
it's Sandy Gall!"

333
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,840
'But it was just fantastic fun.'

334
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:27,880
It must be Robin Day.
No, but you're warmer.

335
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,920
A well-known television celebrity?
Yes. Sandy Gall.

336
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:36,720
Not Sandy Gall, but very close.
I'll give you a hint. He's female.

337
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,360
Richard Baker? Not Richard Baker.

338
00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:47,760
She really was beating me up.
She wasn't just playing.
She really punched me!

339
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:52,840
Not Tony Benn. She was kicking me
while I tried to remember my lines.

340
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:58,320
'I wanted to get to the end quickly
because she was really hurting me.'

341
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:02,160
He must exaggerate.
I didn't touch him.

342
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,560
Very near. Anna Ford, Anna Ford!

343
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,240
APPLAUSE

344
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:13,760
'It was unusual for people to see
celebrities step out of their role.'

345
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:20,120
Seeing a newsreader do
something different was not common.
Maybe that made it funnier.

346
00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:23,920
Would you like
to come back next week?

347
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,520
Oh, yes, please, Brian.

348
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:32,120
During one of the shows...
We did the opening night.

349
00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:37,400
We got a decent review somewhere,
the Guardian, the Independent.

350
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,920
But they said, "What happened
to the biting satire?"

351
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:45,760
The Jeremy Thorpe trial
had just finished

352
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:50,600
and Peter went right home
that afternoon and wrote a piece.

353
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:57,720
In 1979, the Liberal leader
Jeremy Thorpe made headlines
in a libel suit

354
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,560
involving a man
called Norman Scott.

355
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:08,560
Scott's case was that Thorpe
had hired a hit man to murder him,
but Scott's dog was shot instead.

356
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,200
Millions followed every revelation.

357
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:18,480
Norman Scott announced to an
astonished judge and press gallery
that he had been Thorpe's lover,

358
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:23,080
the splendid, dashing, Old Etonian
leader of the Liberal Party.

359
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:29,880
He was married to the ex-wife
of the Earl of Harwood and was
as Establishment as you could get.

360
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:34,920
There had been no hint that Jeremy
Thorpe might not be as other girls.

361
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:41,480
And this rather hysterical figure,
Norman Scott, claimed it was a plot
to have him killed

362
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:46,320
because he might tell the world
that he was Jeremy Thorpe's lover.

363
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:50,080
It went to trial.
Jeremy Thorpe sued.

364
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:56,520
The trial ended
with the judge advising the jury
to return a verdict of "not guilty"

365
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,120
and thereby clearing Thorpe's name.

366
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:06,560
The judge had come out
with this outrageously biased
direction to the jury

367
00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:09,120
about how they ought to vote

368
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:14,080
and Peter had written this...
this sketch

369
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:16,800
and performed it that night.

370
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,720
It was really like live theatre,

371
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:25,720
live comment on something political
that was actually happening
that day.

372
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:28,360
In the last few weeks,

373
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:32,880
we've all heard some pretty
extraordinary allegations

374
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:36,560
being made
about one of the prettiest,

375
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,520
about one of the most
distinguished politicians...

376
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,160
..ever to rise

377
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:47,680
to high office

378
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,200
in this country...

379
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:52,200
or not.

380
00:29:53,280 --> 00:30:00,080
Over the evidence of the so-called
hit man, Mr Olivia Newton-John...

381
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,960
..I prefer to draw a discreet veil.

382
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:10,880
He is, as we know,
a man with a criminal past,

383
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:13,880
but no criminal future.

384
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,320
Ha-ha-ha!

385
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:21,960
He is a piece of ordure,

386
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:24,800
a piece of excrement,

387
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:29,880
unable to carry out
a simple murder plot...

388
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,520
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

389
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:41,280
..without cocking
the whole thing up.

390
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,720
Ladies and gentlemen...of the jury,

391
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,240
you are now to retire,

392
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:50,720
as indeed should I...

393
00:30:56,120 --> 00:31:02,120
You are now to retire
carefully to consider your verdict

394
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:04,360
of "not guilty".

395
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:12,040
And of course,
looking back at that piece,

396
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,600
the ridicule that Peter was heaping

397
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:19,880
on this judge's biased summing up
in favour of a politician,

398
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,920
it still seems relevant
in the wake of the Hutton Report.

399
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:30,960
The sketch became such a hit,
it was published in Private Eye
and even released as a single.

400
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:37,520
It's just fantastic how judges still
have this extraordinary propensity
to believe someone

401
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:42,080
because they have an Old Etonian tie
or they're a peer of the realm

402
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,840
or because they are
the Establishment.

403
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:53,320
And, of course, it introduced
to the world fantastic epithets
and euphemisms for acts of gay love.

404
00:31:53,320 --> 00:32:00,320
I remember Peter said to us just
before he went on, "I just want one
more euphemism for a homosexual.

405
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:02,720
"Any new ones?"

406
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:07,240
Then Billy Connolly said,
"In Glasgow there is a phrase

407
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:10,840
"called the player
of the pink oboe."

408
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:15,840
It was time for the sketch. Peter
goes on and halfway through it...

409
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:20,560
We have been forced to listen
to the testimony...

410
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,840
of Mr Norma St-Jean Scott.

411
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:31,880
A scrounger, parasite,

412
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,120
pervert,

413
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:36,520
a worm...

414
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:42,720
..a self-confessed player
of the pink oboe.

415
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:47,520
And Peter, in the time he got
from the wings to the sketch,

416
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:53,560
had thrown in "self-confessed"
which really made
"player of the pink oboe" work.

417
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:57,640
WHISTLES AND APPLAUSE
Quiet, please!

418
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:03,160
Into this dazzling line-up
came newcomer Rowan Atkinson.

419
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:11,480
'I know I needed,
as soon as I walked on, just a look
to take control of the audience.'

420
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:13,640
Ainsley?

421
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:20,800
You may not know what I'm about,
but what I'm gonna try and do

422
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:26,840
is I'm just going to assume this
role of this sardonic, sarcastic

423
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:33,320
and sadistic schoolmaster
and stick to that characterisation
until the end of the sketch.

424
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:35,840
Ellsworth Beast-Major?

425
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:43,240
Ellsworth Beast-Minor... Here!

426
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,800
I have a detention book.

427
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:58,840
Haemoglobin?

428
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:05,120
'If the audience knows
you're funny, they'll laugh
almost at whatever you do.'

429
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:11,640
If you are John Cleese,
you can come on and go, "Right!"
and everyone starts laughing.

430
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:16,480
But if they've never seen you
before, it's so much harder.

431
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,080
Nancy Boy Potter?

432
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:24,360
'No-one really knew
who I was or what I did.'

433
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:29,440
They were educated in those three,
four spots throughout the evening

434
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:36,240
and the schoolmaster was the first
thing that I did which said,
"Here I am and this is what I do."

435
00:34:36,240 --> 00:34:41,200
If I see it once more this period,
Plectrum, I shall have to tweak you.

436
00:34:45,240 --> 00:34:47,800
Do you have a solicitor, Plectrum?

437
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,840
You're lying, Plectrum,
so I shall tweak you anyway.

438
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:03,320
See me afterwards to be tweaked.
Yes, isn't life tragic?

439
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:09,960
'I'm not sure
you could so successfully write
or perform a sketch like that now.'

440
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,800
Since corporal punishment
was stopped in schools,

441
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:18,360
those sort of characters slipped
out of favour in comedy terms

442
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:23,720
because yet again the character
landscape has changed so much

443
00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:28,200
and headmasters are very different
now. They're far less sadistic.

444
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,680
Don't snigger, Babcock!

445
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,160
It's not that funny.

446
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,840
Antony and Cleopatra
is not a funny play.

447
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:43,280
If Shakespeare had meant it
to be funny, he would have put
a joke in it, wouldn't he?

448
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:49,400
The absence of Eric Idle created
a gap in the Monty Python line-up.

449
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:53,440
Rowan took his part
in the Four Yorkshiremen sketch.

450
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:57,280
We used to drink out
of a rolled-up newspaper.

451
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:02,240
The best we could manage was
to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

452
00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:09,560
'I was living a fantasy, being
on stage with the Monty Python team
doing a Monty Python sketch.'

453
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:13,560
I felt as though I kept my end up
as best I could.

454
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,160
But it was a great privilege. Hmm...

455
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:23,240
We used to live
in a tiny, tumbledown house
with great holes in t'roof.

456
00:36:23,240 --> 00:36:25,640
A house?

457
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:29,280
You were lucky to have a house.

458
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:36,280
We used to live in one room,
26 of us, no furniture
and half the floor was missing.

459
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:43,440
A poor Yorkshire accent, I'm afraid.
My accents are not at all good.
Accents are not my thing.

460
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:48,000
We used to have to get out the lake
at 3am, clean the lake,

461
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:54,840
eat a handful of hot gravel,
work 20 hours a day at t'mill
for tuppence a month, come home

462
00:36:54,840 --> 00:37:01,160
and Dad would beat us about the head
and neck with a broken bottle...
if we were lucky!

463
00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:04,760
Right, hmm...

464
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:11,680
I used to get up in the morning
at half past ten at night, half
an hour before I went to bed...

465
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:16,680
..eat a lump
of freezing cold poison,

466
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:22,000
work 28 hours a day at t'mill and
pay mill owner to let us work there

467
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:29,840
and when I got home, our dad used
to murder us in cold blood
each night and dance on our graves,

468
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:31,840
singing "Hallelujah!"

469
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:39,960
Now, you try and tell
the young people of today that

470
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:43,240
and they won't believe you. No.

471
00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:47,600
By the end of the evening,
Rowan Atkinson had stolen the show.

472
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:54,640
In the End Of The World sketch,
he discovered something that would
make him an international star.

473
00:37:54,640 --> 00:38:00,160
Will there be a mighty wind?
Certainly there'll be
a mighty wind.

474
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:04,160
DISTORTED CROAKY VOICE:
Will this wind be so mighty

475
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:06,800
as to lay low

476
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:09,800
the mountains of the earth?

477
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:17,400
All I was trying to do
with a croaky voice was to do
a Dudley Moore impersonation.

478
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:24,680
What's odd, looking at it now,
is it is the forerunner of the voice
that I homed in on for Mr Bean.

479
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:28,800
As to lay low...
As to lay low...

480
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:32,800
the moun-TAINS...
the moun-TAINS...

481
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:35,240
of the "eurghth".

482
00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:40,640
It felt funny at the time and so
I thought when we tried to think -

483
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,240
ten years later, it must have been -

484
00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:50,960
for a voice for Mr Bean, that was
the voice I'd done that had amused
me the most. And so we used it.

485
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,520
Prepare for the end of the world.

486
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:57,120
30 seconds.

487
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:00,760
Have you brought the picnic basket?

488
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:07,960
'My defining comic hero of the time
was John Cleese.'

489
00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:13,520
You know, I was 23, whatever I was
at the time, and John was the man.

490
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:19,880
Michelangelo, I want
to have a word with you about
this Last Supper of yours. Oh, yes?

491
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:24,840
I'm not happy with it. You don't
like the kangaroo? What kangaroo?

492
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:31,200
I'll paint it out. I never saw
a kangaroo. It's at the back.
I'll make it into a disciple.

493
00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:34,720
That's the problem.
What? The disciples.

494
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:40,720
Are they too Jewish?
I made Judas the most Jewish.

495
00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:45,080
No, it's just
that there are 28 of them.

496
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,760
Not all the sketches
were old favourites.

497
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:54,760
Cleese wrote The Last Supper
for the BBC
who rejected it as blasphemous.

498
00:39:54,760 --> 00:40:02,280
'John phoned up and said he'd got
this sketch which he had written
for Python, but the BBC had banned.

499
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:06,000
'I don't know
who it would have offended.'

500
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,520
We were both very busy
with other work that week

501
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:14,360
and we never got together
to rehearse it,

502
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:18,840
so we memorised it separately
and rehearsed it over the phone.

503
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:21,920
We only ever did it at the show.

504
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:26,960
The Last Supper is a significant
event in the life of Our Lord.

505
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:33,200
The Penultimate Supper was not,
even if they had a conjurer
and a steel band.

506
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:38,360
I commissioned the Last Supper and
that is what I want. But look...

507
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:40,800
12 Disciples and one Christ!

508
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:43,840
One?!

509
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:49,760
'The Amnesty audiences
were just terrific.'

510
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:56,640
There was a great responsiveness
and it was such a friendly audience
that when you went on,

511
00:40:56,640 --> 00:41:04,040
you were very loose and being funny
in comedy is all about that
relaxation. It's just like sport.

512
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:09,760
If you feel tight, it never quite
happens, it's never really good.

513
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:15,920
They were just great. They knew
the score and they were wonderful
to perform to.

514
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:21,160
Why in God's name have you painted
this with three Christs in it?

515
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,400
It works, mate. It does not work.

516
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:29,920
It looks great. The fat one
balances the two skinny ones.

517
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:32,520
There was only one Saviour.

518
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:39,320
I know that, but what about a bit
of artistic licence? One Redeemer.
I tell you what you want.

519
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:44,240
You want a bloody photographer,
not a creative artist!

520
00:41:44,240 --> 00:41:49,040
I'll tell you what I want. I want
a Last Supper with one Christ,

521
00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:53,800
12 Disciples, no kangaroos
by Thursday or you don't get paid!

522
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,280
You bloody fascist!

523
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:00,520
I'm the bloody Pope, mate.

524
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:05,080
I may not know much about art,
but I know what I like!

525
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:10,760
He has an extraordinary presence
which is not just charisma,

526
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,320
it's also slightly frightening.

527
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:20,840
If you watch the close-ups of the
lawyer in the courtroom sketch, it
shows you those extraordinary eyes

528
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:25,400
and he will go just further than
any other comedian would ever go.

529
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:31,200
It's like looking into the eyes
of someone very mentally disturbed!

530
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:34,920
I suggest you murdered
these people. I did.

531
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:41,320
I put it to you that you murdered
these people. I did. I submit that
you murdered these people. I did.

532
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:48,320
Did you or did you not murder
these people? Yes. Yes or no?
Yes, I murdered these people.

533
00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:50,920
Answer the question!

534
00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:53,640
I...I murdered these people.

535
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:57,480
We've wheedled it out of you
at last, have we?

536
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,320
A-ha-ha-ha!

537
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:06,720
Mr Bartlett, you do realise
you're meant to be
the counsel for the defence?

538
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,720
MUSIC: "Cavatina"

539
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:24,200
As well as the comics,
a rich mix of musicians took part.

540
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:31,160
Classical guitarist John Williams
played Cavatina from the Vietnam
War film, The Deer Hunter.

541
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,800
I was never interested much
in music for its own sake.

542
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:57,800
I wanted something that was
vaguely amusing, that would be
a point song with witty lyrics.

543
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:02,880
Ladies and gentlemen, I've suffered
for my music. Now it's your turn.

544
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:08,960
'I thought the best thing I could do
under those circumstances
was the protest song.

545
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:12,760
'Some people said
it's an attack on Bob Dylan'

546
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:17,800
and Donovan said, "My friends say
you're having a go at me." I'm not!

547
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:22,840
It's just that at that time a lot
of people were doing protest songs

548
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:28,640
and they were making a lot of money
doing it, so that was my angle.

549
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:33,360
# All the prophets of doom
can always find room

550
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:37,240
# In a world full of worry and fear

551
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:42,640
# Tipped cigarettes
and chemistry sets

552
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:46,640
# And Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

553
00:44:47,720 --> 00:44:52,040
# So I'm going back
to my little old shack

554
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:55,360
# And drink me a bottle of wine

555
00:44:56,440 --> 00:45:01,240
# That was mis en bouteille
before my birthday

556
00:45:01,240 --> 00:45:04,680
# And have me
a fucking good time... #

557
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:10,960
There was still a sense,
I suppose a hangover
from Watergate and the Vietnam War

558
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:15,960
that young people were naturally
inclined to protest injustice

559
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:21,280
in a way that now in our very
cynical, ironic, post-modern way

560
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,840
we find
rather kind of hysterical perhaps

561
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:27,320
and rather inarticulate.

562
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:31,480
Young people are now so soaked
in financial worries

563
00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:38,040
and career thoughts and ambitions
that they have little time
for international politics.

564
00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:42,920
# When rain has hung
the leaves with tears

565
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:45,520
# I want you near

566
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:48,520
# For to kill my fears

567
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:51,160
# To help me to leave

568
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:55,320
# All my blues behind...

569
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:02,280
# For standing in your heart

570
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:05,560
# Is where I wanna be

571
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:08,120
# And long to be

572
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:11,200
# But I may as well

573
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:13,800
# Try and catch

574
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,760
# I may as well try and catch... #

575
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:22,840
I felt we were the last generation
of people who went to university

576
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:29,600
who still cared about being
socially different and daring
and wanted to change the world.

577
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:32,520
# We'll be fighting in the streets

578
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:36,080
# With our children at our feet

579
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:40,800
# And the morals that they worship
will be gone

580
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,240
# And the men who spurred us on... #

581
00:46:45,240 --> 00:46:51,600
When Pete Townshend played
with John Williams, there was
no time to set up equipment,

582
00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:55,640
so Pete played an acoustic version
for the first time.

583
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:59,680
# I'll take a bow
for the new constitution

584
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:02,920
# Turn and grin
at the new revolution

585
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:06,720
# Smile and grin at the change
all around... #

586
00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:11,920
'Tomorrow will be only the start
of a season of violence in Chile,

587
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:16,440
'but the security forces killed
eight people and arrested 300.

588
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:22,120
'Amnesty says it's likely these
people will have been tortured.'

589
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:34,840
'It is, in particular, the people
in other countries who are mouthy
who get it in the neck

590
00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:40,000
'and you don't have to be a comic
or a writer or a singer to do that.

591
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,960
'You can just be an ordinary person
who talks too much.'

592
00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:51,480
And that's essentially what comics
and singers and writers do.

593
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:57,640
They just talk too much. God bless
us, we can do that. They can't.

594
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:00,120
Singer-songwriters were murdered

595
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:03,600
just for being singer-songwriters
in Chile.

596
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:06,080
Victor Jara was a case in point.

597
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:10,720
I sang in the stadium
he was murdered in

598
00:48:10,720 --> 00:48:16,720
and danced with mothers of people
who had also been murdered
in that very spot.

599
00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:20,480
It was a very symbolic
and emotional thing.

600
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:32,040
It really touches something
when you realise that what you do,
you do in freedom.

601
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:35,400
In another regime,
you can be murdered for it.

602
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:37,920
# History can't be blamed

603
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:42,880
# Cos the banners were all flown
in the last war... #

604
00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:48,240
Governments are really keen on
locking people up they don't like.

605
00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:52,720
So I think one's got to have eyes
and ears out all the time

606
00:48:52,720 --> 00:48:56,360
and voices that will shout,
"This is wrong!"

607
00:48:56,360 --> 00:48:59,440
# We don't get fooled again... #

608
00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:04,680
In my travels when I'd meet the
leader or president of that country

609
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:09,720
the first thing I'd do is read them
the Amnesty report on that country.

610
00:49:09,720 --> 00:49:14,280
And it really terrifies
these brutes.

611
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:32,040
After the Thatcher election
in 1979,

612
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:34,600
a new ethos swept the country.

613
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:40,640
With the selfish culture of
the '80s came a more ruthless breed
of political comedy.

614
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,400
Mrs Thatcher's hand, aw!

615
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:46,440
She had a sore hand. Aw!

616
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:50,200
Four million unemployed, but awww!

617
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:54,880
Yeah, cos the tendons
were constricting in her hand.

618
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:58,520
The tendons were drawing in
the fingers

619
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,760
to form a claw!

620
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:08,000
You mustn't deal with these people.
Why not, Nancy, old honey bun?

621
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:12,640
Because they're communists.
Communists? Where? There!

622
00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:17,680
That's your hand. Your hand's a
communist? You've been infiltrated?

623
00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:22,000
No, no, those people.
Come on, Nance. How do you know?

624
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,600
Because they want
to free dissidents.

625
00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:30,160
The Amnesty shows changed direction
with more savage humour.

626
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:36,840
This was even reflected
in the new Oxbridge comics,
Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

627
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:39,040
Jim! Jim!

628
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:41,920
Dear God!

629
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:44,640
I want to go to bed with you.

630
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:47,160
What was I doing?

631
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:54,600
Jim, you were in the middle
of a messy divorce with the woman
who wrote most of your scripts.

632
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:59,400
And it was from then on that things
started to go wrong for you.

633
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,200
Blimey! Ooh!

634
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:06,600
Jim, once you stopped being mad,
did you stop being funny?

635
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:09,280
SOBS
You know?

636
00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:15,680
And then you let down Amnesty
by refusing to do
their annual charity show.

637
00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:18,200
SOBS LOUDLY

638
00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:23,680
It was damn sporting of Mr Cleese
to allow us to do that, wasn't it?

639
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:28,240
He's got nothing to say. Without
his dead parrot, he's nobody.

640
00:51:28,240 --> 00:51:31,840
This is the wreck
of a once noble comedian.

641
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:34,560
# I've had it up to here with sex

642
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:37,240
# Those nylon vests and hairy necks

643
00:51:37,240 --> 00:51:41,000
# They expect you to be flighty
and they act like God Almighty

644
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:44,760
# Cos they've got a cock
and they can mend a flex...

645
00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:51,960
# And when they proudly strip
and pose

646
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:55,960
# I want to say
"What's one of those?"

647
00:51:55,960 --> 00:52:00,600
# They tend to feel a failure
if you don't love their genitalia

648
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:04,040
# Though why you should
Christ only knows! #

649
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:11,440
FAST RHYTHMIC DRUMBEAT

650
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:23,560
One of the things
that grew out of the Amnesty shows

651
00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:28,840
was the, as it were, seamless
takeover of that generation

652
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:34,360
by what were called, in the
early '80s, alternative comedians.

653
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:38,400
One of the features
of the third show was Alexei Sayle.

654
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:42,320
I went round to a friend's flat
the other night

655
00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:44,840
and I noticed a sickly, sweet smell.

656
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:48,360
Sickly, sweet bloody smell!

657
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:52,440
I thought, "Aye, aye!"
I thought, "Spam for tea!"

658
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:59,200
Then I saw the extra-long, nine-skin,
Gauloises dick compensators
he was rolling.

659
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:04,000
I said, "Byron..."

660
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:08,080
I said, "How do you manage
to get the Spam in there?"

661
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:15,120
Then I realised what was happening.
I said, "I'm hip to this groove.
Rock around the crocodile, man."

662
00:53:15,120 --> 00:53:21,080
So they all ignored me.
I sat down on the Habitat pine
scatter cushions.

663
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:27,240
'Because the one before had really
made the career of Rowan Atkinson,

664
00:53:27,240 --> 00:53:30,760
'I thought it would do
the same for me,

665
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:35,800
'irrespective of the fact that I was
aggressive, difficult to work with,

666
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:39,840
'not from Oxford or Cambridge.'
..if you eat the fuckers!

667
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:44,320
It didn't quite work out
like that, but...

668
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:48,680
'Certainly, I saw it
as a career opportunity.'

669
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:56,160
The lifestyle in Stoke Newington is
very alternative. But I can't get
behind all the people taking drugs

670
00:53:56,160 --> 00:54:00,000
and not giving me any,
the bastards!

671
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:05,080
'The stuff I was doing was all about
lifestyle, but that was all new.

672
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:11,720
'Nobody had done that stuff before
about drugs and the kind of clothes
they wore.'

673
00:54:11,720 --> 00:54:16,760
The chunky jumper and a suit with
a tailored pocket with a calculator,

674
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:20,760
all telling racy stories
about commodity investment.

675
00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:26,160
To see Alexei doing What's On In
Stoke Newington was quite anarchic.

676
00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:28,760
It was very unapologetically punk

677
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:32,760
and it was pretty sensational.
It was legendary.

678
00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:37,800
I had one toke of this dope and
I was paralysed from the waist down.

679
00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:40,360
I lost the use of my fingers.

680
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:44,160
I developed every single symptom
of typhoid.

681
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:46,800
It was fucking ama-a-a-azing!

682
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:50,800
They're going, "Oh, fucking amazing!
Oh, fucking fantastic!

683
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:53,480
"Oh, save the shrimp, man!"

684
00:54:54,680 --> 00:55:01,720
'The thing that was original about
me, unlike comics generally, they
have a desperate need for approval.'

685
00:55:01,720 --> 00:55:06,760
They want the audience to like them
and I didn't care if they did.

686
00:55:06,760 --> 00:55:14,280
In fact, I liked it if they didn't
like me. I wanted them to laugh,
but I goaded them, I was aggressive.

687
00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:18,080
Morris Minors,
it's like being inside a '50s radio.

688
00:55:18,080 --> 00:55:20,600
See them all pedalling away!

689
00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:25,120
Look, it's Noddy the social worker!
Ooh! Ooh! Shut...!

690
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:33,920
'Suddenly, you had
this very attitudinal stance that
alternative performers could take.'

691
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:40,760
The idea of the privileged classes
coming on to the stage and being
funny in an intellectual way

692
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:47,320
had been slowly subverted by folk
from the red-brick universities
and the secondary moderns

693
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:54,400
who had something funny to say and
believed the abuse of human rights
was wrong. It was a broader church.

694
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:59,400
# I feel like busting loose
with some bad jokes! Bad jokes!

695
00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:04,080
# I feel like busting loose
with some bad jokes! Bad jokes! #

696
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:09,720
'I don't think anybody had ever
orchestrated four jokes like this.'

697
00:56:09,720 --> 00:56:13,600
I'm a funkateer
so it was a no-brainer to say,

698
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:20,200
"Why don't you have a Chuck Brown
and the Soul Searchers
backing track for these jokes?"

699
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:24,520
We had backing singers,
funk musicians. It was great fun.

700
00:56:24,520 --> 00:56:28,600
# A man was in a hospital bed
Ooh, get down

701
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:32,320
# The doctor said,
"I've got some good news

702
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:34,720
# "And some bad news"

703
00:56:34,720 --> 00:56:38,080
# The man said,
"What's the bad news?"

704
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:42,720
# The doctor said, "We've had
to amputate both your legs"

705
00:56:42,720 --> 00:56:45,720
# He said, "Ooh!

706
00:56:45,720 --> 00:56:48,320
# "Good God! What's the good news?"

707
00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:54,520
# And the doctor said,
"The man in the next bed wants
to buy your slippers!" #

708
00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:59,680
'It summed up the Amnesty thing
of combining music with jokes.'

709
00:56:59,680 --> 00:57:04,720
I don't think the audience had ever
had funk in an Amnesty show before.

710
00:57:04,720 --> 00:57:09,840
So I brought the funk to the
barbed-wire candle. It was great.

711
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:12,880
# A man walked into a barber's shop

712
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:17,240
# He said,
"I want you to cut my hair

713
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:19,720
# "Just like Michael Jackson..." #

714
00:57:19,720 --> 00:57:24,960
God Almighty! You wouldn't want
your hair like Michael Jackson now!

715
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:33,000
# When he woke up, he was
completely bald, just like this guy

716
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,760
# He said "Barber...!" #

717
00:57:35,760 --> 00:57:42,760
I'm one of the first black people
to be on Amnesty. There might have
been a singer, but not a comic.

718
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:46,480
So there was a black guy on stage
being funny,

719
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:51,480
rather than people talking about
him being in jail! So it was good.

720
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:56,640
We toured all the way
round the Deep South.

721
00:57:56,640 --> 00:58:00,480
And there was a lot of segregation
going around.

722
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,960
We weren't allowed to play
in the same room as white folks.

723
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:09,480
You used to have to play
in a broom cupboard down the hall.

724
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:14,240
They used to send the applause back
in a little envelope.

725
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:18,680
'I get to perform black characters
from the community.'

726
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:23,760
And talk in a joshing way about
things like oppression and slavery

727
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:30,160
and I tell those jokes
and people go, "Oh!" Comedians have
the opportunity to do that.

728
00:58:30,160 --> 00:58:34,600
There is a relationship
between comedy and human rights.

729
00:58:34,600 --> 00:58:37,160
Comedians understand censorship.

730
00:58:37,160 --> 00:58:42,600
They understand how wrong it is not
to be allowed to express your mind.

731
00:58:42,600 --> 00:58:48,600
One of the essential things
in being a comedian is
absolute freedom of speech.

732
00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:50,880
And I mean absolute.

733
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:57,040
Therefore,
comedians are amongst the first
to be deeply distressed at the idea

734
00:58:57,040 --> 00:59:04,560
of those who are imprisoned or
stifled or tortured for speaking
their mind, for thinking freely,

735
00:59:04,560 --> 00:59:10,080
so it's a primal insult to the very
energy that makes a comedian.

736
00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:14,960
Comedy has always been a way
of escaping from your environment.

737
00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:20,960
The world presses in on you
and if you get them to laugh,
the bullies run away.

738
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:26,320
And if you get other people to
laugh, I'm out, I'm free at last!

739
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:30,880
This is gonna stop somebody
being tortured? Yeah, I'll do that.

740
00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:33,480
Somebody's gonna get stoned? What?

741
00:59:33,480 --> 00:59:38,880
Not stoned like that, like THAT!
Let's stop it now. We'll help.

742
00:59:38,880 --> 00:59:43,360
For one up-and-coming comedienne,
Amnesty launched her career.

743
00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:47,240
In a grim warning of the dawn
of celebrity culture,

744
00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:51,360
Ruby Wax had the job of
interviewing the stars backstage.

745
00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:53,880
I can get you into show business.

746
00:59:53,880 --> 00:59:57,720
You were the original presenter.
Well, there I was.

747
00:59:57,720 --> 01:00:02,720
I developed other skills because
I would have been so off the air!

748
01:00:02,720 --> 01:00:05,280
Tonight... Don't forget Amnesty.

749
01:00:05,280 --> 01:00:09,120
What's Amnesty?
They work for people behind bars.

750
01:00:09,120 --> 01:00:12,960
This is a show for bartenders?
No, it's a charity.

751
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:17,360
They're working for nothing? Of
course. We'll meet these suckers...

752
01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:19,920
Oh, look at it!

753
01:00:21,360 --> 01:00:26,320
'You know what? I like that high
neck there and the big panty wabs!

754
01:00:26,320 --> 01:00:32,280
'It was grotesque.
And a big fuchsia ball.
And I wonder why I didn't get laid?'

755
01:00:34,160 --> 01:00:37,200
You loved it. I loved it so much.

756
01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:40,680
# Put a quarter in the jukebox
and hit that beat

757
01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:44,720
# Everybody started rocking
My rock'n'roll Ruby... #

758
01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:47,600
'I look like a small Puerto Rican.'

759
01:00:47,600 --> 01:00:50,200
I'm not sure if I was being freed.

760
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:53,880
Mr Cleese,
how much excitement did you feel

761
01:00:53,880 --> 01:00:58,280
being on the same stage as
Liza Minnelli? Fuck off! Funny guy!

762
01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:03,240
It's sad, isn't it? What's sad is
there is no other person I can play.

763
01:01:03,240 --> 01:01:06,960
You can say, "I was in character."
That's me.

764
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:11,080
When did you realise you were funny?
It was a sexual experience.

765
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:16,920
I think the first time I came to
puberty, the first time I saw hair.

766
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:20,800
Why is this phallic-shaped thing
in my nose?

767
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:25,040
Len, I'm trying to make you famous.
Ruby, sod off!

768
01:01:25,040 --> 01:01:32,440
Why did comedians jump at the chance
of doing it? Everybody's so
egotistical. For the exposure. Yeah.

769
01:01:32,440 --> 01:01:36,520
But would you do it
for another charity? Why Amnesty?

770
01:01:36,520 --> 01:01:43,040
I always said those were the A-list.
It was the cachet
that the Pythons gave it initially.

771
01:01:43,040 --> 01:01:47,560
I don't think we'd save a donkey
unless the career's slipping.

772
01:01:47,560 --> 01:01:54,400
I may save a donkey in the next few
years. You can see where your career
is by what charities you do.

773
01:01:54,400 --> 01:02:00,640
I gave them your number.
AIDS is good, Amnesty is good,
but Save An Aardvark, forget it.

774
01:02:00,640 --> 01:02:03,120
GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC

775
01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:06,880
LAUGHTER

776
01:02:08,800 --> 01:02:13,440
While younger comics were taking
over from more established acts,

777
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:18,480
the same change was happening in
music, publicly, with no apologies.

778
01:02:18,480 --> 01:02:20,920
Will you stop a minute?

779
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:24,960
I think they're bored.
Could you...?

780
01:02:26,360 --> 01:02:28,800
He's your friend.

781
01:02:28,800 --> 01:02:31,280
You should tell him.

782
01:02:32,440 --> 01:02:37,280
The later Amnesty shows were
becoming a showcase for rock stars.

783
01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:40,880
# I just wanna see you at night

784
01:02:41,920 --> 01:02:46,040
# Don't come round my house
in the day

785
01:02:46,040 --> 01:02:48,680
# I love it when we start up a fight

786
01:02:49,720 --> 01:02:54,120
# I love it
when the fight ends your way

787
01:02:54,120 --> 01:02:57,040
# I love it when you call me names

788
01:02:57,040 --> 01:03:01,400
# I love it
when you call me names... #

789
01:03:01,400 --> 01:03:08,880
I remember being seriously nervous,
so I was surprised that I didn't
look as nervous as I know I felt.

790
01:03:08,880 --> 01:03:13,400
Throughout my whole career
I've done very few acoustic things.

791
01:03:13,400 --> 01:03:17,840
It's because I write the songs
and do all the arrangements

792
01:03:17,840 --> 01:03:21,680
and I like to hear
all the stuff I've put there,

793
01:03:21,680 --> 01:03:26,440
so I'm not that keen on playing
songs on my own. So that's unusual.

794
01:03:26,440 --> 01:03:31,960
'I think it's nice when you can play
something on your own with a guitar

795
01:03:31,960 --> 01:03:36,440
'and prove that the song stands up
to that kind of scrutiny.'

796
01:03:36,440 --> 01:03:40,080
# And he loves it
when she beats his brains out

797
01:03:40,080 --> 01:03:43,960
# He's pecked to death
but he loves the pain

798
01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:47,680
# And he loves it
when she calls him names... #

799
01:03:48,800 --> 01:03:55,040
# The silicon chip inside her head
gets switched to overload

800
01:03:55,040 --> 01:03:59,040
# And nobody's gonna go
to school today

801
01:03:59,040 --> 01:04:02,600
# She's gonna make them
stay at home... #

802
01:04:02,600 --> 01:04:09,080
My voice was crap
from singing all day in the studio
and I wasn't directing it out.

803
01:04:09,080 --> 01:04:11,640
I thought, "This isn't very good."

804
01:04:11,640 --> 01:04:16,040
I never expected the bloody thing
would crop up 35 years later,

805
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:18,480
whatever the fucking time it is.

806
01:04:18,480 --> 01:04:20,760
# I don't like Mondays

807
01:04:20,760 --> 01:04:28,400
# I wanna shoo-oo-oo-oot
the whole day down... #

808
01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:31,960
'You feel you could do
something different.'

809
01:04:31,960 --> 01:04:36,120
It gave me confidence to know
I could just play the piano.

810
01:04:36,120 --> 01:04:41,960
Being a drummer,
it wasn't something
I felt totally natural at.

811
01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:47,880
# I can feel it
coming in the air tonight

812
01:04:47,880 --> 01:04:50,360
# Oh, Lord...

813
01:04:52,840 --> 01:04:58,560
# I've been waiting for this moment
all my life

814
01:04:59,600 --> 01:05:02,240
# Oh, Lord... #

815
01:05:02,240 --> 01:05:08,240
'That was the very first time
I sat on stage on my own
playing the piano.

816
01:05:08,240 --> 01:05:10,680
'I had to look at my hands.'

817
01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:16,000
And if I did this
to wipe the sweat away...

818
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:18,560
This is my sweat spot.

819
01:05:18,560 --> 01:05:23,960
If I take my hand off, I may not
know where to put it down again.

820
01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:29,760
It was a big moment, becoming
confident on stage playing a piano.

821
01:05:29,760 --> 01:05:35,200
# I've been waiting for this moment
all my life

822
01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:38,440
# Oh, Lord

823
01:05:38,440 --> 01:05:40,680
# Oh, Lord... #

824
01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:47,680
There's little things I remember
as if they were yesterday,
mainly the music. One was Sting.

825
01:05:47,680 --> 01:05:51,120
# Message in a bottle... #

826
01:05:52,160 --> 01:05:56,600
'Message In A Bottle seemed
appropriate about feeling isolated,

827
01:05:56,600 --> 01:06:00,440
then not isolated
by other people contacting you,

828
01:06:00,440 --> 01:06:05,560
so it seemed a useful metaphor
for what Amnesty actually do -

829
01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:08,320
make people feel less alone.

830
01:06:08,320 --> 01:06:12,680
# Seems I'm not alone in being alone

831
01:06:13,920 --> 01:06:17,520
# A hundred billion castaways

832
01:06:17,520 --> 01:06:21,120
# Looking for a home

833
01:06:21,120 --> 01:06:24,760
# I'll send an SOS to the world

834
01:06:24,760 --> 01:06:28,040
# I'll send an SOS to the world

835
01:06:28,040 --> 01:06:31,480
# I hope that someone gets my...

836
01:06:31,480 --> 01:06:34,760
# I hope that someone gets my...

837
01:06:34,760 --> 01:06:41,760
# I hope that someone gets
my message in a bottle... #

838
01:06:41,760 --> 01:06:48,760
I was happy to be up there on my
own instead of having the whole band
there, the whole big production.

839
01:06:48,760 --> 01:06:53,800
You do the song, people recognise
it, sing along, you're out of there.

840
01:06:53,800 --> 01:06:58,400
In fact, it gave me the idea
that I didn't need to be in a band.

841
01:06:58,400 --> 01:07:04,840
It planted a seed for me creatively
as well as getting me
interested in Amnesty.

842
01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:10,160
# Oh, message in a bottle... #

843
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:15,760
Music moves you in a different way.
It's a visceral thing.

844
01:07:15,760 --> 01:07:20,600
With comedy, you're like this,
whereas music gets you right here.

845
01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:25,160
So somebody singing a song
about freedom is an amazing thing.

846
01:07:25,160 --> 01:07:29,040
It can really move you
and make you passionate.

847
01:07:29,040 --> 01:07:34,360
# Oh! I see my light come shining

848
01:07:35,920 --> 01:07:39,440
# From the west unto the east

849
01:07:41,400 --> 01:07:43,920
# Any day now

850
01:07:43,920 --> 01:07:47,240
# Any way now

851
01:07:47,240 --> 01:07:50,040
# I shall be...

852
01:07:50,040 --> 01:07:52,080
# Released

853
01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:55,240
# I shall be... #

854
01:07:55,240 --> 01:08:02,840
For the finale, veteran rock stars
Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton join
Sting doing a Bob Dylan number.

855
01:08:02,840 --> 01:08:05,720
# Every man needs protection... #

856
01:08:05,720 --> 01:08:11,240
Sting, whether he meant to
or he was asked to, kind of led.

857
01:08:11,240 --> 01:08:15,800
I think everybody else
was either too shy

858
01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:19,640
or just sort of stood back
and let him...

859
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:22,640
Cos he was a pushy little bloke.

860
01:08:22,640 --> 01:08:26,760
# I see my light come shining... #

861
01:08:26,760 --> 01:08:30,640
I'm kind of bossy
when it comes to music,

862
01:08:30,640 --> 01:08:36,640
so I found myself bossing
Eric around and bossing Jeff Beck,
these two icons.

863
01:08:36,640 --> 01:08:39,320
I can't believe I'm doing this.

864
01:08:39,320 --> 01:08:43,280
I'm telling them
what I think they should do.

865
01:08:45,800 --> 01:08:50,480
So many international rock stars
appeared in Amnesty shows

866
01:08:50,480 --> 01:08:54,600
that the Secret Policeman's Balls
became a hit in America.

867
01:08:54,600 --> 01:08:59,960
They raised awareness of the effort
to rescue prisoners of conscience.

868
01:08:59,960 --> 01:09:03,520
The seed was planted at Amnesty
for Bob.

869
01:09:03,520 --> 01:09:08,920
He saw what they were doing, how
entertainment helped that process

870
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:13,360
and he ran with the ball further
than anybody could imagine.

871
01:09:13,360 --> 01:09:17,400
I always felt I was
on his coat-tails in that regard.

872
01:09:17,400 --> 01:09:20,200
# Sending out an SOS

873
01:09:20,200 --> 01:09:23,520
# Sending out an SOS... #

874
01:09:23,520 --> 01:09:30,080
These shows led to a new style
of giant charity event
like Live Aid and Comic Relief.

875
01:09:30,080 --> 01:09:36,200
Because of television,
they were now slickly produced
and raised much more money,

876
01:09:36,200 --> 01:09:42,200
but people still remember
those early Amnesty benefits
with great affection.

877
01:09:42,200 --> 01:09:47,080
What I loved about it was the fact
that it was rough round the edges.

878
01:09:47,080 --> 01:09:51,640
Everybody had come together,
there wasn't a proper running order,

879
01:09:51,640 --> 01:09:59,000
you never quite knew what was
happening, but it happened because
of the energy everybody put into it.

880
01:09:59,000 --> 01:10:03,040
There was no idea of your image.
Or your ratings.

881
01:10:03,040 --> 01:10:08,520
Or if you had the right shoes.
It was more relaxed and easy-going.

882
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:11,080
You didn't need a director.

883
01:10:11,080 --> 01:10:17,600
You wanted a snatch squad
to get them off. Everybody did twice
as much as they said they would.

884
01:10:17,600 --> 01:10:25,120
We're normally treated like
royalty. There's too many royals
backstage, you all have to lump in.

885
01:10:26,200 --> 01:10:30,120
'Those dressing rooms
were appallingly small.'

886
01:10:30,120 --> 01:10:36,440
The conditions were terrible,
the food non-existent. Where
was Amnesty when you need them?

887
01:10:36,440 --> 01:10:42,920
As the old poet says,
"You can't hope to recapture
that first, fine, careless rapture."

888
01:10:42,920 --> 01:10:47,960
And in the early shows, there is
"a fine, careless rapture" about it.

889
01:10:47,960 --> 01:10:50,880
WHISTLES AND APPLAUSE

890
01:10:53,960 --> 01:10:58,920
# I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night
and I work all day... #

891
01:10:58,920 --> 01:11:03,800
'You felt that you were nailing
your colours to the mast.'

892
01:11:03,800 --> 01:11:08,680
With Comic Relief, you can be
ambiguous in your political intent,

893
01:11:08,680 --> 01:11:14,720
but with Amnesty
you are definitely saying,
"I am against this. This is wrong."

894
01:11:14,720 --> 01:11:18,680
And I think...
I think that gives it some mettle.

895
01:11:28,160 --> 01:11:30,680
# There's nothing in the streets

896
01:11:30,680 --> 01:11:33,520
# Looks any different to me

897
01:11:33,520 --> 01:11:38,800
# And the slogans are replaced
by-the-bye... #

898
01:11:38,800 --> 01:11:46,640
Amnesty presents this idealised
potential that we could treat
each other better. It is idealism.

899
01:11:46,640 --> 01:11:54,200
It's possible, so it's a potential.
We need to support organisations
that offer us that potential.

900
01:11:54,200 --> 01:11:56,680
# Just like yesterday

901
01:11:56,680 --> 01:12:00,600
# Then I'll get on my knees
and I'll pray

902
01:12:03,960 --> 01:12:06,200
# We don't get fooled again... #

903
01:12:06,200 --> 01:12:13,200
I had a strange thought recently
that I feel as though I'm probably
a member of the last generation

904
01:12:13,200 --> 01:12:16,480
to truly enjoy freedom of thought

905
01:12:16,480 --> 01:12:21,040
in the sense that you can't help
feeling that within 20 years,

906
01:12:21,040 --> 01:12:25,560
someone will have invented
a machine to read your mind.

907
01:12:25,560 --> 01:12:30,120
There's absolutely no reason
why that should not be the case,

908
01:12:30,120 --> 01:12:33,680
the rate at which
technology advances,

909
01:12:33,680 --> 01:12:38,200
whereas I know that my thoughts
are my own at the moment,

910
01:12:38,200 --> 01:12:45,720
but I cannot believe that many more
decades will go by when that will
be the case and that's frightening.

911
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:50,600
I haven't a clue what Amnesty can
do about it. Nothing, I suspect,

912
01:12:50,600 --> 01:12:57,120
but it just puts you in mind
of how fragile
and important a thing freedom is

913
01:12:57,120 --> 01:13:03,120
and sometimes you have
to take a stand against
what is deemed to be progress

914
01:13:03,120 --> 01:13:08,040
in order to re-establish
human dignity and human freedoms.

915
01:13:11,120 --> 01:13:17,080
# I'm just one of those people
who wanna feel good all the time

916
01:13:20,120 --> 01:13:25,520
# I don't want no bad news
messing with my mind

917
01:13:29,080 --> 01:13:34,080
# Well, who is and who isn't?
These days it's hard to tell

918
01:13:34,080 --> 01:13:38,040
# When so many people
have so many good reasons

919
01:13:38,040 --> 01:13:42,360
# To feel more
than just a little annoyed

920
01:13:44,480 --> 01:13:48,880
# But what can you do
when you're sure somebody

921
01:13:48,880 --> 01:13:53,080
# Is screwing around
with your reality?

922
01:13:53,080 --> 01:13:58,640
# I'm just one of those people
who wanna feel good all the time

923
01:14:00,680 --> 01:14:07,440
# I'm just one of those people who
wanna feel good all the time... #