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00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,520
We haven't had
a stoppings like this for ages,

2
00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:10,040
not since the week before last.

3
00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:16,440
I'm terribly sorry about it.
You don't want to be sorry, squire.

4
00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:18,440
It makes a nice little break,
doesn't it?

5
00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:19,480
(HORN BLARES)

6
00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:22,880
(AGITATED CHATTER)

7
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,080
What's up now?
Dinner time. Come on, cock.

8
00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:29,720
Blimey, all go today, innit?

9
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:31,640
Released in 1959,

10
00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:34,920
I'm All Right Jack went to the top
of the British Box Office.

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A film that spoke to its times

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00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:40,320
and gazed suspiciously
into the future.

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00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:44,280
Beneath the laughter lies
a provocative study of politics,

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00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:48,680
class, aspiration,
greed, and division.

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00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:53,720
A vision that, chillingly, still
holds true over 60 years later.

16
00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,840
There is a lot of British comedy
in that era which is very funny,

17
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but it's very parochial, you know,

18
00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:00,800
it will usually be
about jewel robbery

19
00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,760
or sort of some people in prison,

20
00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,040
or robbing a bank or something.

21
00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:10,560
Whereas I'm All Right Jack,
right from the first frame,

22
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it is very much
setting itself out as being

23
00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:16,920
a state of the nation film.

24
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It's a very ambitious film,

25
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it's making a big, bold statement

26
00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,120
about British society since the war.

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Hey you, you!
What do you think you're doing?

28
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I'm frightfully sorry,

29
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I'm afraid I haven't quite got
this thing buttoned up yet.

30
00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,200
What's your name?
Windrush.

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00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:40,680
The permanently bewildered
Ian Carmichael

32
00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:44,320
makes for a splendid patsy
as Stanley Windrush,

33
00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:48,080
the post twit who is landed
on the factory floor,

34
00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,400
a pawn both for the
self-important union

35
00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:53,280
and the scheming bosses.

36
00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,039
But the movie belongs to Sellers.

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What makes Kite so memorable,

38
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is that he rises above caricature.

39
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He is an idealist, even a romantic,

40
00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:09,479
trapped in his dreams
of class equality and a truculent,

41
00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:12,600
very British,
devotion to the rules.

42
00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:15,480
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC)

43
00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,360
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC CONTINUES)

44
00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:49,400
MAN: 'Look hard,

45
00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:53,200
for this is the last
we shall see of Sir John,

46
00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:54,760
a Justice of the Peace,

47
00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,480
Chairman of the Rotten
Unionist Association,

48
00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,160
Vice-president of his local
British Legion,

49
00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:02,280
Honorary Chairman
of the Regional Board

50
00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:04,920
for the Adjustment
of Distressed Gentlewomen,

51
00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,640
and Sleeping Partner
in that vast financial complex,

52
00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,400
the City and Threadneedle Trust.

53
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:15,160
Yes, there goes Sir John,

54
00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:18,160
a solid block in the edifice
of what seemed to be

55
00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:20,400
an ordered and stable society.

56
00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:25,440
There he goes, on his way out.

57
00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:29,280
(CHEERING)

58
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,040
For with victory came a new age,

59
00:03:37,079 --> 00:03:40,800
and with that new age,
a new spirit.'

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00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:42,280
(LAUGHS)

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00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:43,920


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00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:45,520


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00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,320


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The film is filled
with British greats.

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Not only Sellers
and Carmichael,

66
00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:56,040
but Terry-Thomas,
Dennis Price,

67
00:03:56,079 --> 00:03:58,560
Richard Attenborough,
Irene Handl,

68
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:00,000
and Margaret Rutherford.

69
00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,080
It was directed
by the versatile John Boulting,

70
00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:05,560
and produced by his twin Roy,

71
00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:07,880
the brothers behind Brighton Rock.

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00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,240
I'm All Right Jack
is a social satire

73
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where, possibly for the first time
in British cinema,

74
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:16,839
the filmmakers were looking

75
00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,440
to really go into detail
about the trade union movement

76
00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,160
and its relationship
with management.

77
00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:23,880
This hadn't really been done before.

78
00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,320
There had been a number of films
about, for instance, class conflict

79
00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:30,440
between the ranks in the army
and the upper classes in the army,

80
00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:33,760
or there's been street-based
sequences with class,

81
00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,000
but the idea of moving it
into the workplace

82
00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:39,240
and examining workplace tensions,
was actually revolutionary.

83
00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:40,960
It was also accurate.

84
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,840
The people who made this film
wanted to create a realistic comedy

85
00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:49,240
with over-the-top
satirical characters.

86
00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:51,800
This beginning of the challenging
and understanding

87
00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:53,800
the interpretation
of British institutions.

88
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It's a revolutionary
piece of work in many ways,

89
00:04:56,240 --> 00:05:00,560
and it... it changed the way
that comedy was made.

90
00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:03,360
A lot of the archetypes
we see in this film go on to become

91
00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:05,040
strong archetypes in British comedy

92
00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:06,920
throughout the 60s, 70s,
and onwards.

93
00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:10,520
So they wanted to draw out
what was happening,

94
00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:13,920
but also make a much
broader statement

95
00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:18,840
about the structure of the society.
It's a commentary as much as a joke.

96
00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:22,040
Mr Hill, are you any nearer
a settlement with the employers

97
00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:24,000
today than you were yesterday?

98
00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:28,160
No. The fight is on.

99
00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:31,840
There's no prospect as we see it
of a settlement being reached,

100
00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:34,480
and this great assembly here today

101
00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,840
proves conclusively
that the spirit of the workers

102
00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,000
is solid and determined
to win at this great struggle.

103
00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:42,400
Do you think...
(APPLAUSE)

104
00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:46,400
It's really, at heart,
it's a class comedy.

105
00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:50,480
It's about the management
and the workers,

106
00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:56,440
with Windrush's aunt as, even
above that, the sort of upper class.

107
00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:00,440
And it's very heavily built around
the sort of stock characters,

108
00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,000
the sort of devious boss,

109
00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:06,640
the union leader, who constantly
uses slightly too long words

110
00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:09,360
that he doesn't quite know
what they mean.

111
00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:11,720
They're all from a gallery
of British characters.

112
00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:15,040
You can imagine them all
in cartoons, newspaper cartoons,

113
00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,120
and you'd recognise them instantly,

114
00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:19,000
the boss with the moustache,

115
00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,040
the slightly dodgy ex-military type.

116
00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:25,600
The workers constantly
having tea breaks.

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00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:29,440
They're all...
they all feel like a familiar...

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00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,240
gallery of British life.

119
00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:34,400
That's all right
for the brass at head office,

120
00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:36,800
they don't actually have
to deal with the workers.

121
00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:39,520
But the personnel officer,
that's my job, God help me.

122
00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:42,240
And I can tell you
they're an absolute shower.

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00:06:42,280 --> 00:06:44,880
A positive shower.But my
instructions, Major Hitchcock,

124
00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,480
are to carry out a time and motion
study in every department.

125
00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:48,760
Whose bright idea was that?

126
00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,840
There is absolutely no question
that the Boulting brothers

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00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:55,840
took the baton of Michael Balcon's
Ealing Studios comedies,

128
00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:59,040
and ran with it into the next era.

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00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:03,960
The Ealing comedies, of course,
characterised by wonderfully cosy

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00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,040
armchair anarchy,
but an anarchy it was, you know,

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00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:12,880
anti-establishment, comedies that
of course stood the test of time.

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00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:18,520
The Boultings took that anarchy
and just made it more jaundiced.

133
00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,560
They had a more jaundiced view
of society

134
00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:25,240
by the time that they got around
to making their great comedies.

135
00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:29,800
One of the reasons is that their
own experiences in filmmaking

136
00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:34,080
up to that point,
was that they had come across

137
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,600
all kinds of difficulties

138
00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:40,159
involving unions,
communist infiltration,

139
00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:43,080
management problems,
all sorts of things like that,

140
00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,000
which actually had turned them
slightly politically.

141
00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,200
And so they had a pretty sort of
bitter view

142
00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:54,720
of the industry,
as well as British society.

143
00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,440
And they were objective enough
to be able to sort of see it,

144
00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:00,080
but clever enough to know that,

145
00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:02,560
if they wanted to get
these messages across,

146
00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:04,000
they had to be entertaining.

147
00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:07,480
So they made a series of comedies

148
00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:12,600
which basically targeted the sort
of great institutions of Britain,

149
00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:14,840
the law, the Foreign Office,

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00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:17,240
but greatest of all,

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00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:20,000
industry and the unions.

152
00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:23,960
And that's why, I think, by the time
they got around to making

153
00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:29,080
I'm All Right Jack,
they were in the absolute prime

154
00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:33,720
of their sort of satirical ideas
and how to express them.

155
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,000
Is he in?
Ah, good morning, Mr Kite.

156
00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:40,520
Well, he's very busy, but I know
he is always pleased to see you.

157
00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:42,159
Will you come this way?

158
00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:47,360
The Works Committee to see you,
major.

159
00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:51,600
Ah, come in. Take a pew.
Cigarette?

160
00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,000
After due deliberation,
Major Hitchcock, the Works Committee

161
00:08:55,040 --> 00:08:57,920
has had to call a stoppage
in response to our members' wishes.

162
00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:00,760
Oh really?
Well, what precisely is the trouble?

163
00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,840
The reference they made,
I'm all right Jack,

164
00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:07,560
was a piece of military slang,
and it is supposed to have begun

165
00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,120
in the Second World War
as a sort of a naval term

166
00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:11,880
for when you're abandoning your ship

167
00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:13,440
and you pull the ladder up
after you,

168
00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,440
shouting to the men below,
"Sod you, I'm all right Jack."

169
00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:19,000
It was this idea of,
at a moment of crisis,

170
00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:21,840
the person who decides
that they're for themselves

171
00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:23,440
and they're not
for the collective.

172
00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:26,360
What the filmmakers wanted to show
is the attitude of looking out

173
00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,520
for number one,
looking after only yourself

174
00:09:28,560 --> 00:09:30,160
is permeating British society.

175
00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:34,320
And so everybody in this film,
with the exception of one person,

176
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:36,400
is making sure that
they're all right.

177
00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:40,560
There are numerous candidates for
Peter Sellers' finest performance.

178
00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:43,280
The great actor comedian
was a chameleon,

179
00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:46,320
disappearing inside the skin
of his characters.

180
00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:48,720
But the answer is simple.

181
00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:52,640
Fred Kite, shop steward
of Missiles Limited,

182
00:09:52,680 --> 00:09:55,720
the factory at the heart
of I'm All Right Jack,

183
00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:59,240
not only a razor sharp
political satire,

184
00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:02,640
but an indelible slice
of post-war British life.

185
00:10:02,680 --> 00:10:05,920
My colleagues here have instructed
me to put to you one question,

186
00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,280
Major.
Certain, go ahead, my dear fellow.

187
00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,800
Is it, or is it not your intention
to sack this man?

188
00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:13,120
Sack him?
Of course.

189
00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:31,360
I'm obliged to point out, Major,
that if you sack this man,

190
00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:33,880
the company is in breach
of its agreement with the union.

191
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:35,440
But surely he's not a union member.

192
00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:37,120
Correct,
but that is merely technical.

193
00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:39,520
But didn't you say
that he was incompetent

194
00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:41,040
and couldn't do his job properly?

195
00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:44,000
We do not and cannot accept
the principle that incompetence

196
00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:47,080
justifies dismissal. That is
victimisation.That's right.Yeah.

197
00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,680
I'm All Right Jack was born
out of a rich comedy heritage.

198
00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:01,160
The Ealing tradition was
drawing to a close in 1959,

199
00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:04,840
but it had bequeathed
the concept of social enquiry

200
00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:07,080
into a new generation of films.

201
00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:11,080
Based on the novel
Private Life by Alan Hackney,

202
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:14,360
this is technically
a sequel to Private's Progress,

203
00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:17,080
made by John Boulting in 1956.

204
00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:21,520
In that wartime satire,
Ian Carmichael's lolly-gagging

205
00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:25,320
Windrush, proves himself to be
less than officer material.

206
00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:30,120
One of the things that is
interesting about it, is that,

207
00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:33,320
officially, it was a sequel
to a film called Private's Progress,

208
00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:35,160
and it shares
a lot of the same characters,

209
00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:37,480
but the thing about
Private's Progress, was that

210
00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:41,280
it was looking back to the war,
set in the war,

211
00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:45,880
whereas I'm All Right Jack,
in a way,

212
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:49,800
is looking forward to the next
20 years of British life,

213
00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:53,680
because that way of being,

214
00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:57,720
in constant strikes, industrial
relations and the unions arguing,

215
00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,680
that went on for another 20 years.

216
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,480
That went on right up until 1979
when Margaret Thatcher was elected,

217
00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:10,240
specifically to put a stop to the
kind of world of I'm All Right Jack.

218
00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:12,520
So, weirdly, it's...

219
00:12:12,560 --> 00:12:15,040
almost a look ahead to the future,

220
00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:19,560
as well as being
a look at Britain now, ie in 1959.

221
00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:22,000
We're now inside what they call
the assembly line.

222
00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:24,040
In the normal way
we wouldn't be able to shoot here

223
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:26,000
because of the terrific
noise of machinery,

224
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:28,440
which, as you can see,
is now stopped and dead.

225
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:31,840
Now this is Colonel Buckmaster,
who is the Public Relations Officer.

226
00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,360
Colonel Buckmaster,
can you tell me

227
00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:36,720
how long the lines have been
stopped?Yes, since last night.

228
00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:40,040
Will it be, sir, before the stoppage
extends to the rest of the plant?

229
00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:41,480
I'm afraid that will be tomorrow.

230
00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:44,520
How many men will that lay off?
Approximately 15,000.

231
00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:47,520
How official is this strike on the
part of the Brigs Farveys men?

232
00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:50,920
It's completely unofficial,
the first the management heard of it

233
00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:54,320
was at lunchtime yesterday,
when men went out to lunch

234
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:56,960
and didn't come back again,
which caused, of course,

235
00:12:57,000 --> 00:12:59,960
the slowdown and eventually
the stoppage of the whole plant

236
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:01,880
because there was no work
for the others to do.

237
00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:06,040
I'm All Right Jack picks up with
a demobbed Ian Carmichael's attempts

238
00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:10,200
to join the upswing of post-war
Britain in the 50s.

239
00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,120
Skewering both
political and working life,

240
00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:17,480
the sequel follows
rival arms factories

241
00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,120
scheming to raise the profit margin

242
00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:23,440
on a deal to sell missiles
to the Middle East.

243
00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:26,840
A plan that will involve
fermenting a strike

244
00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:29,600
around the issue
of time management.

245
00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:32,760
Well, Mr Mohammed, I'm afraid
there's a distinct possibility

246
00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:36,000
that Missiles will be unable
to fulfil your contract.

247
00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:38,600
But you are joking.

248
00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:40,480
The peace of the Middle East
depends on it.

249
00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:42,800
No, my dear fellow, I'm not joking.

250
00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:44,880
Cox, perhaps you can
explain to Mr Mohammed.

251
00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,800
Well, there's an engineering concern
that I happen to own.

252
00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:52,480
I own the shares
and Bertie owns the tax losses,

253
00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:54,880
only not in his name, of course.

254
00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:57,480
The Britain that
I'm All Right Jack depicts,

255
00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:00,840
is one that is...
has emerged, in a sense,

256
00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:02,880
from the darkest shadow of the war,

257
00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,640
and indeed people,
whilst they have...

258
00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:08,840
All the people in this film will...
The characters in this film

259
00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:11,560
will have served in the war,
they don't discuss it.

260
00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:13,320
It's something that
happened in the past,

261
00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:15,400
much as the country
had left that behind.

262
00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,600
The country is battling
with a number of different things.

263
00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:20,880
On the one hand,
consumer culture,

264
00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:23,960
teenagers coming up with,
listening to rock and roll,

265
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,880
this whole sort of new Britain is
beginning to emerge on the streets.

266
00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:30,360
On the other hand, Britain
is trying to understand its place

267
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,000
in the world. So, by the time
the film had come out,

268
00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,560
we had just had the Suez crisis
where Britain had tried

269
00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,680
to exert its old imperial power,
and failed dismally.

270
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:40,800
So there was a sense
that the old country,

271
00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:45,080
the old muscle that Britain had
internationally, was decaying.

272
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,560
At the same time,
the society itself was changing.

273
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:52,280
So there's a sense of grasping
for what actually is this country

274
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:54,160
and what's the tradition
that we still have,

275
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,560
where are we going with this,
who can we trust?

276
00:14:56,600 --> 00:15:00,040
And the film, really,
comes to the conclusion

277
00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:01,920
that everybody is on the make now.

278
00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:05,400
The consumer society offers
opportunities to make a quick buck

279
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:09,120
selling fast goods, or for instance,
in the case of I'm All Right Jack,

280
00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:12,880
to sell weapons overseas,
literally to our former enemies.

281
00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:16,520
They're selling missiles
to someone who is clearly

282
00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:19,000
a reference to an Egyptian
army officer.

283
00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:21,000
So post-Suez,
the factory in question

284
00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,000
is selling missiles
to the Egyptians.

285
00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:25,920
There's this sense that
the country is recovering

286
00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:29,160
from its post-war bankruptcy
by selling everything it can

287
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:33,560
all the time, and, really,
without a sense of identity or pride

288
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:35,560
that it's trying to grasp at.

289
00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,800
Handed a job by his unscrupulous
uncle Bertram,

290
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:43,280
an oily Dennis Price,
Carmichael's bumbling Windrush

291
00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:45,400
will be thrown
onto the factory floor,

292
00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,080
essentially to stir up trouble.

293
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:52,640
But the comic twist is that
he will be ostracised by both sides.

294
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:57,960
Because he proves to be too good at
his job of driving a forklift truck.

295
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,320
He begins as a fool,
and emerges as the voice of reason.

296
00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,040
What the hell do you think you are
doing?Shut that bleeding door!

297
00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:09,160
Go on, get off out of it, will you?
I do beg your pardon. I'm new here.

298
00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,080
I should bloody well think you are.
If you bring those things back here

299
00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:15,440
you get back up the other end,
that's where you ought to be.

300
00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:16,520
You berk.

301
00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:18,160
(FORKLIFT TRUCK POWERS ON)

302
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:26,160
I don't know, they're taking
on some proper charlies nowadays,

303
00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:28,160
aren't they, hey?

304
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:29,920
Right, here we go again.

305
00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:34,200
I find that really funny,
cos that's so true, you know,

306
00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:36,760
that you only have to look
at British politics

307
00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:39,000
in the last few years
to think that the idea

308
00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:41,720
that you can drift out of Oxford
and do anything,

309
00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:45,560
even if you have no experience in it
and no particular aptitude for it,

310
00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:48,760
is a mistake
that we still make today.

311
00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:52,520
And those are really funny scenes
at the beginning, I think,

312
00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,200
when the character of Windrush,

313
00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:58,400
one of the things
that's so funny about him is that

314
00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,960
he's completely oblivious
to how rubbish he is.

315
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,280
You know, he genuinely thinks
that there's nothing to these jobs,

316
00:17:05,319 --> 00:17:09,200
that you can just turn up
and just do them.

317
00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:12,119
It's funny, cos it reminds me
of David Cameron,

318
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,000
who was asked why did he want
to become Prime Minister,

319
00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:18,000
and he said, "Because I thought
I'd be rather good at it".

320
00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,599
And that's precisely what
Windrush would say, you know,

321
00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:23,480
why do you want to work
for this detergent company?

322
00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:25,640
"Ah, I thought I'd be
rather good at it."

323
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:28,240
The brothers John and Roy Boulting,

324
00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,720
who alternated
being director and producer,

325
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:33,840
were committed liberals.

326
00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:37,280
They mixed drama,
including the great Brighton Rock,

327
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,720
with telling satires
of British institutions

328
00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:43,920
such as the academia of Lucky Jim,

329
00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:47,880
or the diplomatic circles
of Carlton-Browne of the FO.

330
00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:53,680
With I'm All Right Jack, they paint
a cynical picture of 1959.

331
00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:56,360
Across the spectrum of British life,

332
00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:59,320
there was a fear
of escalating strikes,

333
00:17:59,360 --> 00:18:02,040
even of revolution from below,

334
00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:06,680
and of manipulation
and corruption from above.

335
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:11,400
Roy tended to be the producer
in many films,

336
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:13,840
and John tended to be the director.

337
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:16,200
However, that is not exclusive.

338
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:20,080
They were almost interchangeable
in a way that some of the actors,

339
00:18:20,120 --> 00:18:23,200
I think it was Terry-Thomas,
actually, said, you know,

340
00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,960
if Roy took off his glasses,

341
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,640
you had absolutely no idea
who you were talking to.

342
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:31,800
It was only the glasses
that actually would...

343
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:34,360
that they could distinguish
one from the other.

344
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:37,160
So...
And they had the same sort of ideas.

345
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:41,600
They were completely interchangeable
and they worked brilliantly together

346
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:44,920
because they understood film,

347
00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:47,800
they understood the techniques
that they were using,

348
00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:51,560
and they also understood
that they were looking at society

349
00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:54,480
in a way that perhaps
hadn't been done before.

350
00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:56,840
They had, strangely enough,

351
00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,440
they evolved in the same way too,

352
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:04,000
in terms of moving from
perhaps...

353
00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:07,880
the left, politically,

354
00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:10,320
a little bit more to the right,

355
00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:13,600
just as a result
of their joint experiences,

356
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:16,200
and because they had
experiences together,

357
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,480
that they actually
carried on evolving together,

358
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:21,440
almost as one unit.

359
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:23,280
As they moved into the 1950s,

360
00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:27,640
they started using comedy
to make their point.

361
00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:30,560
So they would take jabs
at British institutions,

362
00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:33,280
for instance they had a film,
Carlton-Browne of the FO,

363
00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:36,720
which was mocking British foreign
policy and the civil service.

364
00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,520
But they always rooted it
in that idea of showing real life.

365
00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:42,960
They used location shooting
as much as possible,

366
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:47,280
they wanted to anchor their stories
in a very real world.

367
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:50,920
The comedies would also have
a strong satirical edge,

368
00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:53,680
and sometimes they would push
the comedy out

369
00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:55,080
into the almost fantastical,

370
00:19:55,120 --> 00:19:58,600
not quite fantastical as in a dream
sequences, but in terms of the plot.

371
00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,520
They would exaggerate the plots
to make the point.

372
00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:03,120
It was reductio ad absurdum.

373
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:05,920
They would get to the point
where they lionised a particular

374
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:08,280
institution to the point
where it seemed ridiculous.

375
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:11,360
In the case of I'm All Right Jack,
for instance, they used

376
00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:15,120
mock industrial adverts saying
how wonderful British industry was,

377
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:17,840
which were very accurate depictions
of those industrial adverts

378
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:20,360
of the time, "British industry
makes great strides",

379
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:22,120
and then they would juxtapose that

380
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:24,360
with the real nature
of a British factory.

381
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:26,640
So reality, illusion,
comedy, satire,

382
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,720
these are all merged together
in a sequence of excellent films.

383
00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,160
I am now nearing
the end of my journey.

384
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,680
I hope I still have
some services to render.

385
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:43,000
But in 1955, the advance
of time did to Churchill

386
00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,560
what dictators, armies,
and war planes had failed to do.

387
00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:46,960
He chose to surrender.

388
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,760
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip
attended a formal dinner party

389
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,440
at the venerable statesman's
residence at 10 Downing Street.

390
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,720
Sir Winston had announced
the retirement at the age of 81,

391
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,720
an inspirational life of
public service that had spanned

392
00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:01,800
the reigns of Victoria
and Elizabeth, was now at an end.

393
00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:06,560
This is a changing Britain
under the satirical microscope.

394
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,640
The old empire has gone
with the war,

395
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:13,360
and the upper classes are plotting
to hold on to the money.

396
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,200
However, inspired by
the distant call of Karl Marx,

397
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,560
the workers are putting up a fight.

398
00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:37,520
Oh, very good...

399
00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:49,200
Dirty beast.

400
00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:01,560
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS)

401
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:15,480
Yes, here is another good
one to start on.

402
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,920
Collective Childhood
Factory Manhood.

403
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,840
Oh, it sounds fun.
Here, it's very descriptive.

404
00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,480
It's all about how they run
factories in a worker's state.

405
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:25,480
However, I won't spoil it for you.

406
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:29,240
Have you ever been to Russia,
Mr Kite?No, not yet.

407
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:31,680
One place I'd like to go to, though.

408
00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:34,640
All them cornfields
and ballet in the evening.

409
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:38,440
I wish I knew as much about it
as you do.

410
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,800
Ian Carmichael's Windrush
is a candid figure,

411
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:49,520
pawed by each side,

412
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:53,800
oblivious to politics,
immune to the class struggle.

413
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:56,800
He just wants to find
his place in the world,

414
00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:01,280
and, in a sense, represents
the emerging British middle class.

415
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:05,640
He is also a parody of the
angry young man of the 50s,

416
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:09,400
finally stirred into denouncing
all sides of the argument,

417
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:10,680
though no-one listens.

418
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,920
Dad, tell mum I'll be in
late tonight, will you?

419
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,800
Very well, Cynthia. You on overtime,
are you?Don't be daft.

420
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,640
Going out west, dancing.

421
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,560
My daughter Cynthia works here
spindle polishing.

422
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,520
Really?

423
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:39,880
Ha, quite a job.

424
00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:44,320
Because he has no idea
what's going on,

425
00:23:44,360 --> 00:23:47,120
he is sort of used and abused

426
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:50,440
by both the top brass,
the management,

427
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:55,520
and the union workers,
although, strangely enough,

428
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,880
he develops quite
an interesting relationship

429
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,920
with Peter Sellers as Fred Kite.

430
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,440
Fred Kite is...

431
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:09,680
one of Peter Sellers' greatest
achievements as an actor.

432
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,360
In fact, it's his first
great achievement

433
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:16,400
as a fully-fledged actor,
as opposed to just a comic actor.

434
00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:21,240
He didn't originally want to play
this role, he was rather reluctant.

435
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:24,080
He had done a film
with the Boulting brothers before,

436
00:24:24,120 --> 00:24:28,600
he got a small role
in Carlton-Browne of the FO.

437
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:33,640
And when he was given the script
for I'm All Right Jack,

438
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,280
he didn't think it was funny.

439
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:39,360
It took all the Boulting Brothers'
sort of powers of diplomacy

440
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:42,240
to persuade him
that this was going to be funny.

441
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,600
It was a fairly sketchy character
in the original script,

442
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:50,200
but they gave him carte blanche
to create the character.

443
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,080
And...

444
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:56,160
Sellers went
right into deep research.

445
00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:00,920
He started looking at newsreels
of the union leaders,

446
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,240
not just here,
but in the Soviet Union.

447
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,680
He started thinking about
how the guy would walk,

448
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,720
how he would talk,
what his language would be,

449
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:15,600
how he would dress,
and basically,

450
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:19,000
Sellers is responsible
for the character

451
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,880
that then emerged on the screen,
that has become synonymous

452
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:28,840
with the kind of petty
Napoleonic union leader

453
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:30,880
or a shop steward,
as we say,

454
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:34,480
who thinks of himself
as vitally important,

455
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,080
is an incredibly pompous little man,

456
00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:41,080
and, yet, has power.
He does have power

457
00:25:41,120 --> 00:25:44,200
because he can actually call
a strike at any time he wants to.

458
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,520
Mr Stevens, you're Chairman
of the Shop Stewards' Committee,

459
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,320
you have decided today
not to go back to work on Monday.

460
00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:51,360
Why is that?

461
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:56,880
Well, the feeling by the mass
of the workers on an amendment

462
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,680
to our resolution
as a strike committee,

463
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,920
now a resolution being
to return to work on Monday,

464
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:08,120
the workers are so incensed,
they're so incensed by the fact

465
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,360
that they are not prepared to accept
that intolerable conditions

466
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,120
that are being placed upon them,
and are prepared to struggle

467
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:18,080
until they get certain assurances
from the Ford Motor Company.

468
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:27,640
Right, brothers,
have we all gathered?

469
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:32,960
My purpose in convening you
is to lay before you certain facts.

470
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:34,040
A few minutes ago,

471
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,440
I was handed this paper by a
representative of the management.

472
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,160
It purports to contain certain
timings made by the management,

473
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,400
which directly affect the rates
for the job that you are doing.

474
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:47,120
This is the first time that
this has been mooted to the works

475
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:49,760
committee, everything about it
constitutes quite definitely,

476
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,400
quite definitely, a definite breach
of the existing agreements

477
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,360
that exist between management
and the unions.

478
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,720
A diabolical liberty.
ALL: Hear, hear.

479
00:26:56,760 --> 00:27:00,040
But it is Peter Sellers
who makes the film

480
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,800
like nothing he had ever done
before.

481
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,720
Kite hints at something real,

482
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,960
with his short back and sides
and toothbrush moustache,

483
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,000
a Chaplin of the factory floor.

484
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,640
Sellers is meticulous
in his creation of character.

485
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:20,640
Kite is gloriously humourless
and therefore very funny.

486
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,800
There is an air of tragic
pretence about it.

487
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:29,920
He calls for a Marxist Utopia
on a British industrial estate,

488
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:33,480
but at heart,
yearns simply for importance.

489
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:37,080
The film begins with a Peter Sellers

490
00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:42,080
sort of elaborate colonel character
in a club, an old fusty club.

491
00:27:42,120 --> 00:27:44,560
And this in a way
represents the old Britain.

492
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,720
And then appears much later
as a Trade Union official

493
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:51,480
from the new world, living a very
particular modern kind of life.

494
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:53,200
So Sellers, if you like,

495
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,920
represents the flip... He flips
in the way that society is flipping.

496
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,160
And there's something
significant in that choice.

497
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,760
The Boulting brothers made
a deliberate example of one person

498
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:04,960
flipping from one character
to another,

499
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,800
and therefore demonstrating
the way the world is changing.

500
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:11,160
Er, have you ever read
any of Lenin's works, have you?

501
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,600
No, I'm afraid I haven't.

502
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,920
That'll lighten your eyes for you.
Is he still on about Russia?

503
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,320
I'll tell you straight, it's all
we ever get to hear in this house.

504
00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:24,920
The thing that we must mention
is of course that Fred Kite

505
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:27,160
is obsessed with the Soviet Union.

506
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,720
He is obsessed with Russia,
all things Russian.

507
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,200
He doesn't ever refer
to himself as a communist,

508
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:34,800
he says because, you know,

509
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,720
my politics are between
my conscience and the ballot box.

510
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:43,440
But he is obviously, in his heart,
he's a communist.

511
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,040
But he's got a sort of strange grasp

512
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,080
of what it is to be
in the Soviet Union,

513
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:50,320
and he sort of dreams
of this place where,

514
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:53,720
you know, full of cornfields and
then there's ballet in the evening.

515
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:57,360
You can see that the man is deluded,
although he's not malicious,

516
00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:01,360
he's not cruel, he's just sort of...
sort of power crazed,

517
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,120
and completely deluded.

518
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:06,040
The Boultings are taking
a swipe at everyone.

519
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:09,040
Kite's workers are hardly heroic,

520
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:13,320
including such familiar
comedy figures as Terry Scott,

521
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,520
Kenneth Griffith, and Victor Madden,

522
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,080
they are portrayed as
work shy and devious,

523
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:23,360
as equally the target of the smug
meaning behind the title,

524
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,760
I'm All Right Jack,
as their self-serving bosses.

525
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,000
One of the delights of the film
is there's a gallery

526
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,920
of British comedy actors
who have all worked together before.

527
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:35,040
Boulting brothers know them,
and they are able to cast them

528
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,040
in roles that they just inhabit

529
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,160
without even thinking about it.

530
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:44,440
You have Terry-Thomas
as the sort of personnel manager,

531
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,120
who is kind of the liaison between
the management and the workers.

532
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:52,360
He has no respect for the workers
obviously whatsoever,

533
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:57,440
and very quickly delineates them
as shower,

534
00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:59,760
"They are just like some shower."

535
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:01,920
And he recognises Windrush,

536
00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:05,200
of course, immediately,
he sees his name on the card.

537
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:09,680
He says, "He was a stinker in the
army, and he's a stinker now".

538
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:11,200
But he doesn't really have...

539
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,440
He doesn't really have much respect
for the management either.

540
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,880
So when he realises that

541
00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,200
what they're trying to do
with Windrush,

542
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:22,080
he's got this expression
of sort of, "Oh, crikey,

543
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,840
you really don't know what
you're getting into, do you?

544
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,320
There's John Le Mesurier,

545
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,000
as a very 50s thing called
Time in Motion Man,

546
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,160
which is sort of, in a way,

547
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,360
a forerunner
of management consultancy.

548
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:40,360
He's essentially there
to tell the company

549
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:44,160
how they can make their systems
more efficient.

550
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:48,880
So he's constantly hated
by everybody wherever he goes.

551
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,040
And, as a result,
he has this twitch,

552
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,720
the whole time,
which is very funny

553
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:59,040
because you know that
he's got this totally thankless job,

554
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:03,760
where he's basically there
to work out

555
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,720
just how lazy the workers are,

556
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,960
and how the management
can make them work harder.

557
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,320
And he knows that
everyone hates him,

558
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:16,640
and he's still...

559
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,400
John Le Mesurier
has this perfect face for that.

560
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,680
In a lovely, ironic sub-plot,

561
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,400
the authoritarian Kite
finds himself in thrall

562
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,120
to the new-found ideals
of his wife,

563
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:30,920
the always delectable
Irene Handl.

564
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:35,440
Weary of waiting upon her
egalitarian husband hand and foot,

565
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,880
SHE decides to go on strike.

566
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:43,000
While his daughter, Liz Frazer,
a factory worker, keen on Windrush,

567
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:47,080
will prove another thorn in the side
of the great socialist leader.

568
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:52,040
The film's satirical targets are,
in effect, everybody in the UK,

569
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:53,840
the way the country is changing.

570
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:58,080
So everything
is held up for mockery.

571
00:31:58,120 --> 00:31:59,960
What survived with this film,

572
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,280
and what perhaps gives
this film its reputation,

573
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,280
is it's one of the first films
to pick the trade union movement

574
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,760
as an object of mockery and satire.

575
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:12,400
And that's because,
at this point,

576
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:15,200
the trade union movement is
part of the establishment in itself.

577
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:17,880
It is a powerful force
in the country.

578
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:19,800
If we were to make this film now,

579
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:23,320
we would look far more closely at
the deals the management are doing.

580
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,680
The management are up to the kind
of corrupt deals

581
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:28,240
that still feature in films,
dodgy arms deals,

582
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:32,040
you know, forcing workers
into particular forms of behaviour.

583
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,200
But in those days, the idea
that the trade unions had a force

584
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,440
and a power to play and had
their own level of corruption,

585
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,680
was socially real,
it was socially appropriate,

586
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:44,360
and also relatively novel
to depict on screen.

587
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,880
It had to be depicted carefully
because a lot of people

588
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,600
in the country, the audience,
the people who have paid to go

589
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:53,000
and see this film, would be
in work places, in trade unions.

590
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:57,000
You had to get it right, get that
mockery, that satire, spot on.

591
00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:59,080
It's easier to lampoon, you know,

592
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,200
a foolish former major than it is

593
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,480
to make a joke about
someone's work mates

594
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,520
that they recognise
and laugh along with and at.

595
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,400
Opposite Kite
and his slovenly workers

596
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:13,080
are the cads
and bounders of management.

597
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:18,760
Dennis Price is the untrustworthy
factory owner Bertram Tracepurcel.

598
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:23,480
While Terry-Thomas is the twitchy
middle manager, Hitchcock.

599
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,680
In a rare, rakish tone,
Boulting favourite,

600
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:31,080
Richard Attenborough, has a whale
of a time as Sydney DeVere Cox,

601
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:35,160
head of the rival factory,
in cahoots with Bertram.

602
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,640
Here!
Where do you think you're going?

603
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:41,520
On strike, gov.
On strike?

604
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,240
What are you on strike for?
In sympathy with Missiles.

605
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,080
Sympathy?
What about a bit of sympathy for me?

606
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,760
Excuse me, Mr Cox?
Ah, shut up!

607
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:18,480
Don't know what that lot's
suddenly turned up for,

608
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:20,480
they won't see nothing,
the strike is solid.

609
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:24,080
Why don't you tell them to
ph-photograph something worthwhile?

610
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,679
Hello?
What's he come here for?

611
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:45,159
Set in an unnamed British city,
the exteriors of Missiles Limited

612
00:34:45,199 --> 00:34:48,080
were filmed at the Flexilo factory
in Slough,

613
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,960
and the interiors
at Shepperton Studios.

614
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:53,800
It could be described as docudrama,

615
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,800
or indeed,
docu-comedy in style,

616
00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,640
but there is great visual contrast
between the factory yard,

617
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:02,840
the mundane management offices,

618
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,120
and the plush clubs
where the plotting is done.

619
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:09,200
The fact that the film is set
in a missile factory is critical,

620
00:35:09,240 --> 00:35:10,680
although understated.

621
00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:14,160
It features as a sub-plot,
but the driving sub-plot.

622
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:16,880
It's the idea that moves
the whole film forward.

623
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:21,040
What is also showing is that Britain
is no longer portraying itself

624
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:23,840
as a military power
that can exert force.

625
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,440
It's now a military trader.
It sells weapons.

626
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,520
In this case, it's selling
weapons to the Egyptians.

627
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:31,480
Of course,
this is just after the Suez crisis,

628
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,080
where British troops and Egyptian
troops had exchanged fire.

629
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:37,640
So we are now selling a missile
to the Egyptian army,

630
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,120
who, for all intents and purposes,
who knew,

631
00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,640
it could be used against British
troops in the future.

632
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:44,920
That's the way
we do business these days.

633
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:47,200
And you're a provocateur,
that's what you are.

634
00:35:47,240 --> 00:35:49,760
No, no, Mr Kite.
You whited sepulchre, you.

635
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,360
Talked your way into the union,
wormed your way into my house,

636
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,160
and all the time you was a... you
was a fifth column in our midst.

637
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:58,440
I didn't mean to upset you
like this, Mr Kite.

638
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:00,920
Do you mind if I drive on into the
factory?Oh, no, you don't.

639
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:02,040
Come on.

640
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:06,920
(CROWD BOOING)
Fascists!

641
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:12,080
All right, go on in,
if you're going.

642
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:18,480
You filthy traitor, Windrush!

643
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:19,520
Judas!

644
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:21,680
What the bosses are trying to do

645
00:36:21,720 --> 00:36:26,160
is exploit Ian Carmichael's
incompetence,

646
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,400
Windrush's incompetence,
for their own ends.

647
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,480
And, in fact,
it backfires on them

648
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:36,440
because his incompetence
creates this sort of

649
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,680
accidental whistle blower,

650
00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:41,840
who, then, after a while,

651
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:44,080
becomes a national hero.

652
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:48,400
He is the one who eventually
turns up at the factory gates,

653
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,800
in a bubble car, no less,
and a bubble car of course,

654
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:57,160
was emblematic of the new era
of the 1960s.

655
00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:01,320
You know, a proper bubble car too,
not the Messerschmitt one,

656
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:04,000
which was kind of, you know,
just incredible.

657
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:06,320
It was, the next one was the Mini,
you know,

658
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:07,920
but this was before the Mini.

659
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,000
So he's already
sort of looking ahead.

660
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:14,440
And he walks in and says
I've got to work. And he becomes...

661
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,920
He's sent to Coventry
and he becomes a national hero.

662
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,320
And the...

663
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:23,920
That gives him the power
in a funny sort of way,

664
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,400
although he doesn't realise it,
to actually change things.

665
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:31,760
"With gratitude for your fight
against the rising cost of living,

666
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:35,760
this gift comes to you
from five Cheltenham ladies

667
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:37,760
living on fixed incomes."

668
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:39,640
How very kind, Stanley.

669
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:41,840
Jolly kind indeed, Aunt.

670
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:43,960
Just listen to all that cheer.

671
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:45,520
(WOMEN CHEERING OUTSIDE)

672
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,600
How long have they been there,
Aunt Dolly?Hours, dear.

673
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:51,400
What a nation we British are
once we are stirred.

674
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,040
CROWD: (CHANTS)
..who are born of thee

675
00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:03,320
wider still, and wider...

676
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:05,880
And the children
of Babylon are destroyed

677
00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:09,280
and become an abomination
in the eyes of lasciviousness.

678
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,560
Three cheers for Mr Churchill
and Stanley Windrush.

679
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:14,200
Hip, hip, hooray!

680
00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:18,680
Hip, hip, hooray!
CROWD: We want Stanley!

681
00:38:18,720 --> 00:38:22,960
The two big sides in this film
are the management and the workers,

682
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,120
although around this, the Boulting
brothers put the government,

683
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,680
they put the media,
they mock tabloid press, you know,

684
00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:32,040
they mock the way that
the country sees this conflict.

685
00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:34,520
But the real conflict is
between management and the workers.

686
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:36,680
If you look at the script
and you look at who is mocked

687
00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:38,120
and what they're mocked for,

688
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:41,480
both sides are equally venal,
equally silly.

689
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:44,360
What Peter Sellers brought to Kite

690
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:48,920
was so strong and so influential
and so recognisable,

691
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,080
that that became the stand-out role
from the film.

692
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,600
And so it, in a way,
it was seen,

693
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:59,360
it's become an example of a joke
about trade unionism.

694
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,320
But the script doesn't do that.
The script is pretty even handed.

695
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,280
It's just the brilliance
of Peter Sellers' performance,

696
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:08,080
that made people recognise something
for the first time.

697
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:11,200
It became this symbolic gesture
about the problems

698
00:39:11,240 --> 00:39:13,360
with the trade union organisation
in the workplace.

699
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:15,400
I don't think that's
what the Boulting brothers

700
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,360
were intending to do. They weren't
making this an anti-union film.

701
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:20,000
It was the strength
of the performance

702
00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:21,720
that made people
interpret it that way.

703
00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:25,440
As the strike escalates
to a nation-wide scale,

704
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,520
Windrush will be invited
onto a television

705
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:31,120
discussion programme
called "Argument",

706
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:33,760
hosted by the actual
Malcolm Muggeridge.

707
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:38,160
As Windrush plaintively
calls for sense,

708
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:41,120
the programme,
and by association, Britain,

709
00:39:41,160 --> 00:39:43,680
descends into total chaos.

710
00:39:43,720 --> 00:39:46,040
The film caused a stir
on its release.

711
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:50,400
The left-wing press saw it
as an attack on the union movement,

712
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:54,560
while the right-wing papers
declared it as anti-establishment.

713
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:56,480
They were right on both counts,

714
00:39:56,520 --> 00:40:00,200
and it became
the number one film of 1959.

715
00:40:00,240 --> 00:40:02,680
Though more broadly comic,

716
00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:05,800
here were the early stirrings
of the British new wave.

717
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:10,360
It's difficult to say how much

718
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:15,560
I'm All Right Jack
still means to Britain

719
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:18,960
in terms of the 21st century,
where we are.

720
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,960
Certainly as a snapshot of its era,

721
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:25,480
it is vitally significant,
no question about that.

722
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:28,360
Not just in terms
of the relationships

723
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:32,680
between various parties
involved here,

724
00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:36,360
but also just in the way
of looking at the locations.

725
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:38,760
It's a snapshot
of a sort of a lost landscape.

726
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:41,560
(HORN BLARES)

727
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,240
(HORN STOPS)
(AGITATED CHATTER)

728
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:02,960
Essential problems,

729
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:06,160
which are industrial relations,

730
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:11,960
but beyond that,
human venality and greed

731
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:14,680
are still with us, and of course
they will always be with us.

732
00:41:14,720 --> 00:41:19,320
People will always be looking
to find...

733
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:21,840
the next opportunity
to make a fast buck.

734
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,680
The only thing that's different,
is, of course,

735
00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:30,000
that there are many, many, many more
zeroes on the end of the cheque.

736
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:34,000
I'm All Right Jack, is both
a historical political document,

737
00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:37,000
and, terrifyingly, a very relevant
political critique

738
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,560
of the way that Britain is trying
to make its way in the world.

739
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,320
This is a film that says
to the audience at the end of the

740
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:47,440
Second World War, we don't really
know how to build our own...

741
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:53,480
consumer culture, we don't know
how to exert our military power.

742
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:57,200
The idea of a useless
missile company

743
00:41:57,240 --> 00:41:59,800
is something that
you could make today.

744
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:02,520
Submarines firing off missiles
that don't work

745
00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:05,040
is very much a part
of the British news today.

746
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:09,280
Governments walking out of debates
and falling out on television,

747
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:10,560
this is a part of today.

748
00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:16,280
There's almost nothing in this film
that isn't about now, and then.

749
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:18,360
It joins together these two moments.

750
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:22,520
And both of these ideas are about
a country that's losing its way

751
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,720
in the world, a country
that's trying to understand,

752
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:29,960
after an enormous history
as one particular kind of country,

753
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,760
still, I feel,
the country hasn't come to terms

754
00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,680
with what happened in the 1950s,
and the after effects of that.

755
00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:39,360
We're still groping for
a particular sense of identity

756
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:42,400
and the comedy in that,
is very easy to find.

757
00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:46,320
What the Boulting brothers note
and do very, very subtly,

758
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:49,120
is that there is also a deep,
deep tragedy too.

759
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:53,040
I think the film really
sets itself out

760
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:54,800
as a document of post-war Britain.

761
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:58,280
I think it does it very
deliberately, right from the start.

762
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,200
The jokes in the film
are on all levels, you know,

763
00:43:01,240 --> 00:43:05,880
they're very sort of clever verbal
jokes, particularly from Fred Kite.

764
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:10,960
But there is also
some really broad visual comedy,

765
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:15,200
such as the moment
when Ian Carmichael

766
00:43:15,240 --> 00:43:19,560
is being forced to eat
so many Num-yum samples,

767
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:22,080
that he's now feeling sick,

768
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:25,760
and the big machine,
which produces the Num-yum stuff,

769
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:30,360
is designed in a shape of two
big eyes and a big mouth.

770
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,440
And just at the moment he totters
off the screen to be sick,

771
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:38,720
the machine disgorges a load
of Num-yum fluid,

772
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,320
which is very, very clearly designed

773
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:44,160
to look like the machine
is being sick.

774
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:47,880
And it's a really, really big...

775
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,760
childish joke, and really funny.

776
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:54,200
Boil it down,
and I'm All Right Jack

777
00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:57,800
is about the central political
divide of post-war Britain,

778
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:00,720
between socialism and conservatism,

779
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,600
or the working-class
and the upper class,

780
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:06,800
with the emerging middle class
caught between.

781
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:11,760
There's a film that spoke to us era,
but what is so telling

782
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:15,440
is that everything the Boultings
took to task in 1959

783
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:17,800
remains relevant today.

784
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:22,600
It was a premonition of a future
where nothing has changed.

785
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:24,560
Oh go on, be a sport!

786
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:27,160
I bet you're jolly good!
Oh, come on, Stanley!

787
00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:29,080
None of us are terribly hot,
you know.

788
00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:32,560
I wouldn't be any good, honestly.

789
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:34,640
Rubbish!
He's only just being modest.

790
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:38,080
Come on, ladies,
come and make him play.

791
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:39,960
(WOMEN LAUGHING)

792
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:43,120
Oh, no!

793
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,360
No, Father!

794
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:47,400
Help!

795
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,280
(WOMEN LAUGHING)

796
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,280


797
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,600


798
00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:07,480

feather your nest

799
00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:10,320

I couldn't care less

800
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:13,080

I'll do the same for you, Jack

801
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,760


802
00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:19,161
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