Welcome to the sleaze, shocks and scandals of 1986.
Verbal, physical, moral anarchy.
A year when TV whipped up a storm...
They're sordid. They show the depth of depravity.
..God moved in mysterious ways...
How have they missed that? Such a blatant handball.
..and the soaps busted taboos.
Oh, come on, now.
Are you trying to tell me that you and Colin are...
homosexuals?
You'd think World War Three had started.
SCREAMING
We'll relive the celebrity scandals that made Britain gasp...
He's smoking drugs. Oh, my God!
It became more about the headlines,
with Michael Jackson, than the music.
..the moment we stared at our TV screens in sheer disbelief.
Wait, wait, wait. You're dead, aren't you, bruv?
I was just happy to have Bobby back, in the shower.
And we'll reveal the truth behind some outrageous tabloid tales.
One of the most famous front-page headlines of all time.
That can't be true, can it?
A year of sex...
Filth like this shouldn't be seen on British screens.
..drugs...
I turned the news on, and it was mentioned in Parliament.
..and hyperbaric oxygen chambers.
If it's good enough for Michael Jackson, it's good enough for me.
So, strap in, hold on, and prepare to be both shocked...
It was so frightening to us as kids.
..and entertained...
It is a golden moment of TV.
..as we throw ourselves headlong into the stories that were so...
Ah, 1986. I remember it well.
It was the year Jeffrey Archer sensationally resigned
as Tory party chairman.
The News Of The World said he'd offered a prostitute money
to leave the country in an attempt to avoid a possible scandal.
An attempt to avoid a possible scandal
that didn't exactly work out as planned.
That same year,
thrill-seeking tycoon Richard Branson was in his powerboat
smashing the world record for the fastest-ever Atlantic crossing.
Meanwhile, one popular kids' TV series
was also making waves,
both here in Britain and across the pond, too.
GRANGE HILL THEME
Nowadays, kids are hooked on the school series Sex Education,
but this was the original,
as these comic book titles and squelchy synthesiser theme
announced another episode of Grange Hill.
In 1986, this weekly show provided watercooler moments
for millions of British kids,
reflecting inner-city comprehensive life
in all its dramatic glory.
Grange Hill was so popular at the time.
Viewing figures at one point between nine and 12 million,
which is, you know, unheard of now.
The school first opened its doors in 1978.
You've been a naughty boy, in't you, gutsy? No.
Grange Hill's early years mainly tackled
familiar high school issues like bullying.
I've only got enough for a packet of crisps.
That'll do. Hand it over.
But pinching small change would give way
to a truly shocking storyline in series nine.
Up until 1986, this fella -
Samuel McGuire, AKA Zammo -
was just another cheeky schoolboy.
Since starting at Grange Hill in 1982,
he mainly busied himself with low-level mischief.
Oi, give that back! Get him!
That's for taking his dinner! And throwing rubbish!
Zammo was a bit cocky, you know, a bit of a scallywag,
he was always in trouble with the teachers,
but a lovable scallywag.
The kid behind the kid was teenager Lee MacDonald.
Zammo was his first major TV role, and with millions watching,
he soon found himself at the centre of Grange Hill mania.
We was in the middle of a square, and it was really scary.
The kids went mad. They just mobbed us.
We was in the middle.
The police come and was pushing us out the way, weren't it?
And I remember running down the street,
and people pointing at me and shouting my name.
All these girls, and I got my shirt grabbed.
And they was all really tall.
And they was just everywhere, grabbing me.
My neck was round there, and my face, like...
For me, it was amazing,
getting chased by, you know, 20 or 40 girls.
Never happen now, but at the time, it was just unbelievable.
Look, if you still don't trust me,
I'll stay in here while you go and get the money.
Then in '86, Zammo pivoted
from pestering posh kids to a darker storyline,
which pushed the boundaries of what could be shown on kids' TV.
Heroin was, like, a taboo subject.
In my head, it was just, like, really bad people did heroin,
and I think that's what most people thought at that time,
so choosing Zammo, which was a really nice guy,
it showed the turnaround
that good people can get involved with heroin.
You know what we're here for, don't you?
No, I don't.
You've been keeping those second-hand shops busy of late, eh?
Don't know what you mean.
I had no idea it was gonna have such an impact
or the controversy around it.
Zammo's fall into the desperate life of an addict
was documented in grim detail.
Oh, no!
The downfall of the character was unbelievable.
Yeah, well, sometimes, she gets home early.
Well, you better put those things in your bag, then,
haven't you, greebo?
To go from this really likeable person
to stealing from his mum,
lying to his girlfriend,
punching his best friend, Kevin... Zammo!
..and it was quite difficult to do.
The main episode, for me,
is when Roland walks into the toilet,
and he finds Zammo...
Zammo! You all right?
And people don't know whether he's dead or he's just passed out.
You know who that is, don't you?
Yeah... but not Zammo.
It was a real kind of seminal change-making moment
in terms of kids' TV.
Look, you better get him out of here.
Boss doesn't like junkies.
It was so serious and so frightening to us as kids.
It got everyone talking on the playground
about how terrifying drugs were.
With shocking scenes like that, it's no surprise
the heroin storyline caused a storm of controversy.
While some felt the series had gone too far
in its graphic portrayal of addiction,
many applauded Grange Hill for raising awareness.
All the politicians could say it, but Grange Hill meant a lot more.
They could relate to the characters in Grange Hill,
so I think they did a really good job.
The anti-drug message had gone far beyond expectations.
Everyone was talking about it.
A new campaign has been launched
to warn the under-16s about the dangers of drug abuse.
The main feature of the campaign is a pop video made by the cast
of the BBC children's series Grange Hill.
# Just say no No
# Just say no Just say no... #
Yes, the '80s was the era of the worthy campaign single,
so, of course, the cast, complete with iffy choreography,
found themselves unlikely pop stars.
They said to me, "Lee, we want you to do the main vocals,"
and I can't sing,
so on the record, Roland is singing my bits.
# Just say no... #
And I can't dance, either,
so on video, I'm doing weightlifting.
You would be number 40 in the charts.
You'd come back, and then you'd be number 35.
And then each week, we come, and we go, "Wow, we're number 20.
"We're number 15. We're number ten. We're in the top ten."
And then we're on Top Of The Pops.
Imagine being 16, being on Top Of The Pops.
The cast of Grange Hill, they're giving some very good advice.
Grange Hill's unlikely pop stars even broke America,
as the Just Say No message
was allied with the anti-drugs campaign
spearheaded by First Lady, Nancy Reagan.
What will you do when someone offers you drugs?
CROWD: Just say no!
Ha! That's wonderful.
The final bit was walking in the White House,
sitting down with Nancy Reagan...
Let's sit down.
..this awful suit on,
and giving her a copy of the 12-inch version of Just Say No.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, that's very nice.
I'm sure it got thrown under the chair pretty quickly,
but just that memory
of sitting in the White House with Nancy Reagan was unbelievable.
From a fictional comprehensive to the White House,
Zammo's journey proved that controversy
can sometimes change things for the better.
I was determined it wouldn't beat me,
determined to give it up for all the people that helped me fight.
There's no way an addict would ever do this.
Still get people come up and say, "I didn't do drugs because of you."
You're not crying, are you?
'And it's so lovely that people have got fond memories of it.'
Coming up...
Tabloids go Technicolor,
as one outrageous newspaper went further than any other...
"Hide-and-seek Champ Found Dead In Cupboard."
It's a brilliant headline. Let's be honest.
The Sunday Sport was complete and utter trash,
but people bought it.
..and what really happened when Freddie met Hammy?
"Freddie Starr ate my hamster." "What?!"
Urban myth or truth? I don't know.
JAN LEEMING: Welcome back to the mid-'80s -
1986, to be precise...
..when you could spend hours loading one game onto your home computer.
REPORTER: In homes throughout Britain,
computers are now used mostly for entertainment.
At the cinema, we felt the need for speed
as Top Gun turned Tom Cruise into a superstar.
Although Top Gun has done remarkably well
at the American box office, it's not without its detractors.
Some people have said that the film amounts to nothing more
than a slickly produced recruiting poster for the American Navy.
And in politics,
Margaret Thatcher was hoping there'd be no slip-ups
with her controversial plans to ease financial regulations
and weaken workers' rights.
Popular capitalism is a crusade.
A crusade to enfranchise the many in the economic life of Britain.
For me, 1986 is pretty much peak '80s, really.
It's when the kind of Thatcher revolution really kicked in.
On Monday, the Stock Exchange
goes over to a new system of share dealing.
The so-called Big Bang, or deregulation,
will allow the buying and selling of shares by telephone and computer,
instead of face-to-face on the floor of the Stock Exchange,
as it's done now.
You have the Big Bang of the London Stock Exchange,
which certainly reverberated all the way across London,
that was suddenly full of yuppies.
VOICE-OVER: There's more money being made
in the city now than ever before.
Share prices reached record levels this week.
It was red braces a-go-go.
It was just the beginnings of mobile phones the size of bricks.
It was suddenly this shiny, glamorous, exciting new world.
This shiny new world may have been exciting
if you were one of those red-braces-wearing capitalists,
but for workers of the blue-collar variety,
not so much.
Take the newspaper industry,
where a technological revolution
was about to whip up a storm of controversy
thanks to high-flying Manchester businessman Eddy Shah -
a man who didn't see things in black and white.
VOICE-OVER: This is a year of crisis for Fleet Street.
Eddy Shah's on course to bring out
Britain's first full-colour daily paper.
For Shah's the catalyst for the revolution in technology
and job losses that's finally arriving in Fleet Street.
Eddy Shah was determined to try and use
Margaret Thatcher's new legislation against the trade unions
and against strikes, in order to bring in
new technical ways of doing things in the newspaper industry.
Eddy Shah's colour tabloid will be produced in an electronic newsroom,
where journalists will feed their stories directly into the paper
through computer terminals known as Magician.
Everything was gonna be computers.
It was gonna be in colour! We could not imagine the use of colour.
Designed electronically,
the size and colour of pictures or graphics
adjusted at the touch of a button.
Like much else, the idea came from America,
where USA Today had rewritten the newspaper rules,
with a modern style and full-colour photos.
Eddy Shah wanted a piece of that action here,
with his new tabloid, also called Today.
INTERVIEWER: Why's it called Today?
Because it is today's paper, it is a modern paper,
and we felt we wanted a title that reflected a modern viewpoint.
Newspapers have been a staple of the British diet for centuries.
No-one had tried to use colour before.
Britain's newest national newspaper is now rolling off the presses
this evening in London, in Birmingham
and in Manchester. It was pioneering.
Pioneering, yes, wildly successful, no.
By the mid-'90s, Today was yesterday's news.
But Shah's high-tech tabloid
had given an often divisive Australian media mogul
a few ideas on how to increase profits.
And if that caused some controversy, did he care?
By 1986, the olden days of the Fleet Street printing presses,
using hot metal and ink that stained your hands,
needed to be phased out.
And Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon,
had been working on an all-new glossy printing plant in Wapping
that would be using new technology.
REPORTER: Thanks to Rupert Murdoch,
the wind of change is blowing down Fleet Street.
Many fear it can never be the same.
The print unions were deeply unhappy about it,
and there was very little they could do
because it didn't need the manpower to turn out the papers.
It was absolute revolution.
And Murdoch...
..had the guts to do it.
We are securing the future of journalism
and giving it the proper role in newspapers,
which is one of far greater importance.
6,000 workers protested
and said that they were going to go on strike.
And Rupert Murdoch simply dismissed them.
There were more clashes late last night between police
and demonstrators outside the News International plant at Wapping.
I was there bringing the news,
as we reported nightly on the war of Wapping,
when picketers clashed with police
as they tried to stop newspapers leaving the plant.
REPORTER: Under police helicopter searchlights, at the weekend,
Murdoch's juggernauts roll.
This dispute actually went on for a year
and became extremely heated
because Rupert Murdoch brought in so many security,
and the police became heavily embroiled,
and they used special branch officers
to infiltrate the protesters.
You had policemen on horseback, you had informants...
Behind extraordinary prison-like security,
this is Rupert Murdoch's Fortress Wapping.
In the end, Rupert Murdoch won.
The Wapping plan went ahead,
everyone converted to the new method of doing things,
and those who'd been dismissed did not get their jobs back.
There'd rarely been a more profitable time to sell newspapers,
and with the circulation war in full frenzy,
the scene was set for another new publication
to burst rudely onto our newsstands.
A controversial tabloid that was so jaw-droppingly outrageous,
it made all other red tops look tame by comparison.
Well, this Sunday sees the launch of a new paper
that promises to make The Sun and The Star
look about as racy as Good Housekeeping.
the Sunday Sport, when it came out, I remember someone bought a copy,
we were all reading the headlines out to each other
in this sort of disbelief that this had happened -
how could this happen in Britain?
Because it brought that whole National Enquirer
American-style newspaper to Britain.
And the wizard of outrage behind the Sunday Sport
was millionaire soft-porn baron David Sullivan.
We feel that there is a hole in the market at the bottom end.
The sort of market the News Of The World used to cater for,
but since it's become a very much all-round family paper,
it's no longer caters for that particular slot,
and that's the hole we are trying to fill.
The Sunday Sport promised readers a nipple count
because there were so many bare boobs inside the pages.
They did really disgusting things like featuring photographs
of 15-year-old glamour models
and counting down until those girls' 16th birthdays,
which is when they could legally have photographs printed
of themselves that were topless.
The Sunday Sport was complete and utter trash, but people bought it.
A lot of women do say they find... That's right, they do.
..this kind of paper offensive. And some don't.
But to those who do, what would you say,
as somebody whose face is also going to appear in this newspaper?
Buy the Guardian.
With so many tabloid racks battling it out on the newsstands,
controversy was the name of the game
when it came to getting our attention.
Editors demanded ever more outrageous headlines
for their front pages and didn't always worry about the truth
getting in the way of a juicy story.
INTERVIEWER: Tell me, what would the ideal Sunday Sport story be,
then, if you were able to write your own headline?
Princess Di sunbathing nude on a public beach.
The Mirror and The Sun were in a circulation war.
Each of them wanting to get THE exclusive,
the most outrageous headline, the story that would make people
look at the front page and go, "I've got to buy that."
And then along came the Sunday Sport,
and they kind of took what had already begun to veer
just slightly into the realms of believable fantasy.
And they took it, and they moved it so far out there
that nobody cared any more.
They found Hitler on the moon wearing a raincoat and suspenders.
This headline here, "Charles' Sex Romp Shock,"
that does not accurately reflect the story, does it?
It does, yes.
You think that's an accurate reflection
of what the story is as a whole? Yes.
It's about Prince Charles, and he's had a shock.
It was the start of clickbait headlines.
You know, we didn't call it clickbait then.
It was so ridiculous,
and you knew that the story couldn't possibly be true.
What?! The Elvis statue on Mars doesn't exist?
If there was a Pulitzer prize for fact-free headlines,
The Sunday and Daily Sport would have won it weekly.
And here's a few to enjoy.
"Gordon Ramsay Sex Dwarf Eaten By Badger."
Who thinks of this stuff?
"Hide-And-Seek Champ Found Dead In Cupboard."
I mean... HE LAUGHS
It's a brilliant headline. Let's be honest, it's a good gag.
"Locked In Loony Bin For Sex With Pop Tart."
Oh, my word. Honestly, only in the Sunday Sport, eh?
"Help! I've Got A Jamie Oliver Garlic Press Up My Arse."
Oh, dear. They wonder what killed the papers.
But none of the Sunday Sport's controversial front pages
can hold a candle to one outrageous tabloid headline.
On the 13th March, 1986, The Sun came up with a lead story
so ridiculous, so head-scratchingly weird,
it raised eyebrows across the globe.
"Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster."
It's just one of those headlines where you go, "I wanna read that."
That can't be true, can it?
I mean, it can't be. How did he eat the hamster?
How has he got that between two slices of bread?
Was it two slices of bread? What did it taste like?
Urban myth or truth? I don't know.
"Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster"
has to be one of the most famous front-page headlines of all time.
So incongruous, so outrageous and so ridiculous
but such was Freddie Starr's reputation in 1986
that, did he do it?
It's quite possible that he did.
And she said... HE SHRIEKS
LAUGHTER
You totally believed it because you knew Freddie was capable.
You know, Ozzy Osbourne had bitten the head off a bat,
why wouldn't Freddie eat a hamster?
Do you find it tiring bombing around doing these one-night stands?
Erm...
Scouse comedy whirlwind Freddie Starr started off
on the Northern club circuit...
Do you want one?
..before TV beckoned in the '70s.
Starr by name, star by nature.
He was unpredictable, untamed and often unhinged.
Go on, go on.
But by the '80s, his antics were starting to look tired
as a new wave of comedians like Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson
were taking the spotlight.
Freddie needed a way to get back onto the front pages.
The story goes like this,
Freddie Starr had been performing in a nightclub in Manchester.
He went to stay at the house of his friend afterwards,
Vince McCaffrey,
and Vince's girlfriend, Lea La Salle.
He demanded that Lea make him a sandwich
because it was late, and he was hungry, and she refused.
So he then got two slices of bread himself, got her hamster,
put the hamster between the slices of bread and ate the hamster.
The RSPCA weren't best pleased,
but the point is that it had the desired effect,
it made the already famous Freddie Starr even more famous.
I seem to recall that his tour dates suddenly got extended,
and he did very well on it.
I always think I'm right in saying that Freddie Starr was vegetarian.
It didn't take Hercule Poirot to work out
that this bizarre story was fake news.
It later transpired that Freddie's controversial rodent-munching antics
were a work of fiction,
dreamt up by his publicist to sell some gig tickets.
Freddie Starr ate my hamster!
But it didn't stop "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster"
from being voted as The Sun's greatest-ever headline.
Now I'm mad.
This is the quintessential Sun headline.
It's what you shout across the street to a neighbour.
"It's war, petrol's down 20p!
"Freddie Starr ate my hamster!" "What?!"
So it's got everything and the absolute punch line,
there's not a word of truth to it.
Coming up...
Well, you've patronised me for the last time!
..the soaps get serious...
It was gritty, it was raw.
..with the most controversial storylines
that rocked our screens in 1986.
It's shocking to look back at the newspapers of the time
and see headlines such as "EastBenders".
JAN LEEMING: Welcome back to the seriously scandalous 12 months
that was 1986.
A vintage year for TV, in which we first set eyes on Bread
and Brush Strokes,
the "will they, won't they" of Moonlighting
and those olden Golden Girls.
But if you wanted true ratings busters,
you looked no further than the soaps
which decimated all competition nightly.
Hello, lover boy.
Happy New Year.
Comforting old Corrie found itself under siege
against grittier storylines from EastEnders and Brookside.
You, the big man,
standing behind your fruit and veg...
Well, you've patronised me for the last time!
ALL SHOUT AT ONCE
The soap battle escalated in the mid-'80s,
the battle to get those bums on seats,
and it was very much driven by tackling issues
that hitherto hadn't been tackled.
And that's really how you got the headlines back then.
I think the one thing that soaps do really well
is it gets into people's homes
and can talk to them about stuff that's hard,
that they might not be talking about elsewhere.
Brookside hadn't shied away from hot topics
like suicide and gambling addiction.
Then, in 1986, it went further than ever before
with the shocking rape of one of its most popular characters,
Sheila Grant, played by Sue Johnston.
MAN: Sheila.
SHE WHIMPERS, SCREAMS
RICHARD ARNOLD: I would've been about 16 years old...
SHE SCREAMS SHEILA: No!
..cos I remember sitting with my parents and watching it
and thinking, "I've never seen anything quite like this
"in a soap opera."
WATER RUNNING
I can still picture that scene now,
where Sheila Grant is in the shower washing herself.
SHE GASPS, SOBS
It was gritty, it was raw.
There was nothing pretty about it.
There was nothing comfortable about it.
BOBBY: Sheila? KNOCK AT DOOR
I thought you were going down The Swan, eh?
You've been to his house. You haven't been near The Swan.
Sue Johnston is such a great actress,
and she made it so real.
What the hell's going on?
For God's sake, what's going on?
Then you got a real sense of... how such a traumatic event
can impact not just the individual, clearly,
but those living with her.
She...
SHE BREATHES SHAKILY
I've been...
Mm...
Man... What's the matter?
SHE WHIMPERS
R-R-R... Raped.
For Sue Johnston, this wasn't just acting.
Shockingly, she'd first-hand experience
of what her character had undergone.
Sue Johnston said in her autobiography later
that she herself had been sexually assaulted in 1970.
Acting that role made her think about what had happened
and also prompted viewers to consider this crime
and get in touch with her
and talk about things that had happened to them.
When they came to put rape into the storyline,
they knew that I'd had an experience, if you like,
and therefore asked me if I would mind covering that issue.
People kind of use you as a sounding board,
in fact, an agony aunt, don't they?
I think not just to me, to most people
who are in soap operas, you get people...
I think it's almost therapeutic that they can write to these people.
They feel... They feel that they know them.
Mm. And it's a release.
SIAN WILLIAMS: But it must've been terrifying at the time,
having gone through something personally
and then having to play something out to the public
and not knowing how that's going to affect you.
And she did it beautifully
and, I think, sensitively.
# Twenty-one today, 21... #
The harrowing ordeal of Sheila Grant
wasn't the only big drama storyline to cause controversy in 1986.
Morning. Morning. Morning.
Having a gay couple on a soap was strictly taboo,
until EastEnders boldly broke the mould in 1986.
Didn't drink that much, did I? No, only about 23 pints.
Gary Hailes was cast as one half of that couple,
and at first, he thought he was walking into just another job.
I've never seen you there before.
They gave me a script, explained what it was,
told me that I was sworn to secrecy,
and then they started to get into a more serious conversation
about, erm...
what the role entailed,
that it would be quite a controversial role,
and if I were to be offered it,
would I be prepared to accept what may come as a result?
I'm an actor, I'm just like, "Yeah, just give me the job."
BIKE BRAKES SQUEAL
Are you all right? Yeah, fine, thanks.
See, I have that effect on people.
I told you it all tensed up, didn't I?
Yeah, yeah. Er... See you. Ta-ra.
A bit out of your league, in't he?
I'd have said the opposite.
It wasn't something that I considered
to be as controversial as it clearly was.
Remember, up until this point on TV...
I don't know what to say.
..gay people and their relationships were often marginalised and mocked.
Previously on television,
gay characters were always stereotypical.
My horoscope said I was going to get a new position.
LAUGHTER
But I interpreted it quite differently.
LAUGHTER Are You Being Served?
Mr Humphries, "Ooh!" You know, all that.
Oh! Stop it, I can't stand it any longer!
And they were seen as kind of almost joke characters,
but Colin and Barry were just regular guys.
They were normal people
that you would meet in the pub or work with.
It was real.
You know, this "yuppy", such was the buzzword at the time,
and this young market stall "ragabond" kind of guy
getting together.
It just actually really did make sense
that the opposites attract, and they complemented each other.
We supposed to be partners, aren't we?
It's a good job we weren't up the Hippodrome
when they have them naff gay weddings.
You'd have had us being bride and groom.
I'll ignore that remark.
To have two gay characters in a soap back then,
just living their lives like any other character,
going through the motions with their own soap storyline,
I think was a key part in breaking down stigma.
What are you doing? I'm doing my hair.
I always do my hair in the mornings, you know that.
But why are you doing it in here?
Particularly at a time, and I think we have to remember,
that LGBTQ+ people were experiencing a load of discrimination.
Sadly, it didn't take long for Gary to realise
just why the EastEnders producers had warned him of the repercussions
that might come with taking this role.
Every morning before I went off to film,
I'd get into my little blue Ford Escort,
or whatever it was, and there were builders opposite,
and I would just say, "Good morning."
And the day after it came out, I came out in the morning,
and the very same builders that I'd been saying "good morning" to
every day for the last six weeks and just, you know, chatting to,
suddenly hurled abuse across the road
from their scaffolding.
I was just a bit shocked and a bit like,
"Oh, this is what they meant."
HE CHUCKLES "Now I get it."
As Colin and Barry's relationship became more serious...
I bought you a present. Like it? Hate it. Take it out again.
..including soap's first, albeit remarkably chaste, gay kiss...
Promise me you'll take the day off, and I'll ring you lunchtime, OK?
..it wasn't just builders stoking the homophobia.
And it's shocking, I think,
to look back at the newspapers of the time
and see headlines such as "EastBenders"
and highlighting how shocking it is to feature two characters
kissing prior to the watershed.
Dot, the icon of the square, played by the wonderful June Brown,
was very much against Barry and Colin.
But are you trying to tell me that you and Colin are...
homosexuals?
Sure. Didn't you know? No!
I certainly did not. I mean... I thought you was just friends.
You know, flatmates. Yeah, well, we are.
Yes, but... I mean, forgive me if I'm wrong,
but you're telling me that you and Colin are involved...
You know... Right?
She was very much voicing what a lot of people at home
may well have been thinking.
Oh, my goodness.
I drank a cup of coffee out of your flask.
Oh, Dot, don't be so ridiculous.
It's me you're talking to. Barry, right? No...
It would have been a risk for EastEnders at the time
because you risk exposing Dot as a bigot,
and she's this beloved character in the Square.
But good Christian Dot finally saw the light
and eventually formed a touching friendship with Colin.
That's very thoughtful of you. Oh, it's just a little something.
A token, you know, for the season.
Colin and Barry's relationship lasted just one year...
This isn't gonna work, is it? What?
This relationship, it just isn't gonna work.
I mean, we're too different. You know that.
But the legacy of that relationship was a landmark
in representing the LGBTQ+ community
in front of millions of viewers.
Despite the controversy,
there was so much more positive than there ever was negative.
I get letters from people where they'd say, you know,
"watching Colin and Barry gave me the courage to come out
"and gave me the courage to, you know, be who I am,"
and that's... that's pretty powerful stuff.
When June Brown passed away in 2022,
EastEnders gave her a moving tribute as Dot was laid to rest.
And among those celebrating her life were two once-controversial faces
now welcomed back as old friends.
Thirty years ago, I was his little chicken.
Now we're just two old queens.
Oh, stop... Speak for yourself!
I remember when Dot used to call me "one of them homosexuals".
I went back to EastEnders,
and Colin and Barry finally got the kiss
that they were never allowed to have in the '80s.
And there was no outrage, there was no problem.
In fact, quite the reverse. There was a lot of support.
It's phenomenal to see that there has been that much change.
This place doesn't change much, does it?
I don't know about that.
It's not perfect,
but it does feel good that we were part of
making that change in our own little way.
And I'm waiting for the spin-off, you know,
Colin And Barry In Marbella or something,
I'm sure there's a series there, if you're watching.
Stay tuned for more moments of gobsmacking controversy from 1986,
when we were bowled over by Ian Botham's drugs confession...
Tabloids unleashed their full frenzy,
and Botham became public enemy number one.
..and Maradona got very handy at the World Cup.
When Diego Maradona was asked about the goal, he said,
"A little bit the head of Diego, a little bit the hand of God."
Are you suggesting that God advocates cheating?
LAUGHTER
APPLAUSE, LAUGHTER
JAN LEEMING: Chat-show hosts were kings of telly in the '80s.
From Parky...
HE MIMICS AEROPLANE, LAUGHTER
..and Harty...
She said, you know, "Do you believe in sex before marriage?"
And I said, "Not if it delays the ceremony."
..to chat-master himself Terry Wogan.
If you're moral, you can't sleep with a man without being married,
so I marry them, I sleep with them, and when I've had enough, I leave.
LAUGHTER
Then there was the long-running Des O'Connor Tonight.
Thank you very much. Ha-ha-ha! LAUGHTER
The clues were in the title.
It was on at night and hosted by Des O'Connor.
I went on one of those pound-stretcher holidays.
You can go to anywhere in the world on a stretcher for a pound.
LAUGHTER
Des O'Connor was a consummate professional
at those sort of chat-show formats.
He was brilliant.
And how is mother-in-law at the moment?
Well, she came to live with us three months ago.
As soon as I heard the knock on the front door,
I knew it was her...
cos the mice were throwing themselves on the traps.
LAUGHTER
We had big international stars on, British and American.
Unusually, even at that time, it was done live.
By 1986, Des had jumped ship from the BBC to ITV,
where he was about to be reminded of the perils of live broadcasting.
Here's the source of the O'Connor controversy -
Liverpool comic Stan Boardman, with his World War II fixation.
It was his use of a German military term
that turned into a bombshell for poor Des.
Stan Boardman is a fascinating comedian
because his brother was actually killed by a German bomb in the war.
So when he talked about the Germans "bombing my chippy",
which became his great, big standing joke for many years,
he knew exactly what it meant.
Everyone's asked me about the Germans cos they say,
"Well, did they bomb your chip shops?"
I said "Yeah, but they bombed everybody's chip shops."
I mean, they bombed...
In Poland, I mean, they bombed Polish chip shops.
But they haven't... WOMAN LAUGHS
All right? Is she Polish?
LAUGHTER
When it starts,
he tries to do a gag about bombing Polish chip shops or something,
and it doesn't work.
There's tumbleweed blowing across the stage,
so he probably thinks, "I'm gonna have to up the ante."
"I am in the Spitfire, and all of a sudden,
"I see in front of me two Fockes."
LAUGHTER
He decides to tell this collision
of the German name for an aircraft being a Focke
and the well-known English expletive.
"I thinks to myself,
" 'I must shoot one of the Fockes down.' "
Des doesn't quite know what to do.
The more he makes it obvious that he understands the joke,
the worse it is.
"And the other Focke..." LAUGHTER
"..went into the cloud, so I followed him.
"And I lose the Focke."
Des knows he's a goner.
There is no point in stopping it.
The train has left the station, and it's hurtling down the track.
By now, Des O'Connor has got his head in his hands,
he doesn't know where to go.
"I look behind me, the Focke is behind me."
LAUGHTER
And I think by now, we're at the eighth or ninth
or tenth incantation of the word "Fockes".
He ultimately gets to the punch line.
Eamonn Andrews said, "Hang on, Charlie Polanski,
"you've got to explain to the viewers that, you know,
"during the war,
"the German fighter plane was a German Focke-Wulf.
He said, "That is correct, Eamonn,
"but these fuckers were Messerschmitts!"
LAUGHTER
It's a golden moment of TV.
If Des O'Connor was having a difficult time in 1986,
it was nothing compared to
the sticky wicket endured by one British sporting legend.
Three?
Ian Botham was a cricketer of such prodigious strength,
he could even eat three Shredded Wheat,
as shown in this memorable commercial from the time.
MAN: Who can eat more than two?
But in 1986, we learned the England all-rounder
had been dabbling in something stronger.
I think what was really interesting about Ian Botham
was that he wasn't the kind of classic cricketer.
He was a bit more of a lad.
Ian "Beefy" Botham taking on the establishment.
That splendid mullet and the short moustache
that made him the legend he was.
PRESENTER: And he's won so many awards and set many records,
it simpler just to say
he's the greatest all-rounder this country's ever produced.
In 1985, Botham took his mullet and moustache
on an epic 874-mile walk from John O'Groats to Land's End,
raising over £1 million for leukaemia and lymphoma research.
He could do no wrong.
INTERVIEWER: Ian, 23 miles to go, do you think you'll make it?
Yes, I'll make it, Mark, no problems.
He was almost untouchable, until he had the temerity
to smoke some marijuana.
Ian Botham's admission that he smoked marijuana
has got him dropped from the England cricket squad,
and it could have finished his Test career for good.
Yes, it transpired the hallowed turf at Lord's
wasn't the only grass Beefy Botham had become familiar with.
In May '86, he admitted to smoking marijuana
in an interview with a Sunday newspaper.
I haven't smoked a joint since my early 20s.
It's a long time ago,
so I don't know what the big fuss is all about.
This is 1986, where it was still seen as this,
"Oh, wow," you know.
"He's smoking drugs, and he's Ian Botham?
"Oh, my God!
"He's out of control, he's had some weed."
The tabloids, in their fabulous way, unleashed their full frenzy,
and Botham became public enemy number one.
Even as a 12-year-old, I remember thinking,
"OK, he smoked cannabis, but it's not that bad, is it?"
But the England and Wales Cricket Board thought it was.
They took a much dimmer view
and decided, in their infinite wisdom,
that they would ban England's greatest player of the time
for, I think, 63 days.
It was quite a long ban.
He smoked a funny cigarette.
I accept, you know, that he shouldn't boast about it,
but to deny a person his livelihood,
I think, is unduly punitive.
Well, everybody was smoking weed in 1986.
Typically for him,
Botham didn't shy away from the media spotlight,
but wherever he went,
the questions over his drug use wouldn't go away.
Where do we stand on drugs?
I mean, what is the definitive situation?
Have you used them recently? Was it years ago?
As I said at the time, it's all in my past, it's history.
You've had nothing to do with it for, what, years?
Oh, long enough now.
See, the time element is confusing me.
He is trying hard, isn't he? LAUGHTER
Beefy took refuge on a kids' current affairs show,
where surely the questioning would be less combative.
Wrong!
Why do you think that, as a cricketer,
you've become wider known for your antics off the field
rather than for your performance on the field?
Thanks to the British media.
Why, when you complained so much about publicity,
do you go out of your way to attract attention to yourself?
Is it for financial gain?
Attract attention to myself? What, you mean, be good at my sport?
Open To Question was a fascinating show
where you'd put a celebrity in front of an audience of teenagers,
and they pulled no punches.
Don't you think it's a very sexist remark
to say that changing nappies is women's work?
No. I think it is.
You know, if you want to send me the nappies through the post,
I'll wash them and send them back.
Wow, they did get stuck into him, didn't they?
As someone who is always in the public eye,
promoting health, fitness and sport,
why did you turn to drugs that destroy health?
I'm not saying it's right or wrong,
all I'm saying to you is it's something happened in my life.
HE LAUGHS Oh, my Lord. Poor bloke.
How long did you take marijuana for?
I dabbled in it a few times.
Well, how long? Over 12 years, whatever?
IAN LAUGHS
No, I said dabbled in it over a few times.
I don't know, I'm sorry I didn't log it.
I'm sure he didn't realise that was gonna happen,
but he handled it pretty well, I thought.
Having played a straight bat to those tricky deliveries,
it wasn't long before Beefy was back in his cricket whites
and ready to do what he did best.
So, the first Test when he comes back into the England side,
he comes on to bowl, and he comes running in,
he's got the entire crowd doing "ooh", like this.
First ball, wicket.
And he turns round to the Members' stand like that.
I thought, if he could've done that, he would've done.
With his reputation as a sporting superstar restored,
Botham then announced his next mission
was to trek across the Alps with a herd of elephants.
On reflection, maybe not the best way to reassure people
you're off the wacky baccy.
And after a successful career in the media,
this once-rebellious outsider was made a life peer
in the 2020 Honours List.
This is a man who is now in the House of Lords.
So somebody who was so outside of the establishment back then
is now essentially right there in the heart of it,
which just does show you how much our society has changed over time.
But while Ian Botham looked set to play the role
of sporting pantomime villain in 1986,
even he couldn't match the national outrage caused that summer
by this diminutive and divisive Argentinian footballer.
This was World Cup year,
and Bobby Robson's England team jetted off to Mexico
with high hopes of emulating the heroics of 1966.
Thanks to the goal-scoring prowess of Gary Lineker,
the Three Lions made it through to the quarter-finals,
where they would face a familiar foe.
England had started the tournament as outsiders
but grown into it and gotten better and better.
The win over Paraguay means England play Argentina on Sunday.
And here they were against Argentina who, for many people,
were the favourites because they had Maradona,
who at this time, was the greatest player in the world.
Maradona was completely rock 'n' roll.
You know, he was just a kid from a barrio in Argentina
who ended up being the greatest footballer of his generation.
Total genius, doing things that people didn't think were possible,
making it look really, really easy.
Maradona and his Argentinian teammates
had extra motivation to beat England.
The game between England and Argentina
had quite a serious background to it.
It wasn't that many years after there had been armed conflict
between the British Army and Argentina
over the Falklands, as we call them,
the Malvinas, as they're called in Argentina.
A territorial dispute.
REPORTER: In five days, three British warships were lost.
And now they're lining up on a football pitch.
REPORTER 2: Police and army are to visibly step up security measures
for the England versus Argentina match.
So, imagine being the referee or a linesman.
You wanna make sure you get every decision right.
And they did... apart from one.
In the first half, it was nip and tuck.
It was neck and neck.
It comes to the second half,
the ball ricochets up in the England area.
Peter Shilton goes up to punch it away,
and Maradona, who is eight inches shorter than Peter Shilton,
somehow rises above him
and heads the ball into the goal
as far as the referee and the linesmen were concerned.
Everybody else saw that his hand was at least a foot above his head,
and he'd slam-dunked it into the net basketball style.
I think he's such a good actor.
You know, he was like, "No, no, it's all fine. It's all good."
Referee allows it, the goal is accepted.
Maradona, he cheated, didn't he? It's football for you.
When you're viewing it through today's prism, you're thinking,
"Well, straightaway, that would go to VAR."
There was no VAR.
The replays we saw in our lounge just made us madder and madder.
And you think, "How have they missed that?"
Such a blatant handball.
Maradona could use his feet when he wanted,
and four minutes later scored what many considered
the greatest goal ever.
A few days ago, Argentines were saying,
"How can you win a cup with just one player?"
Now they're saying, "With Maradona, we can go anywhere."
CHANTING: England, go home. England, go home.
And so England did go home,
returning to a country seething with injustice at Maradona's handiwork.
There's still bitterness over the 2-1 defeat by Argentina.
Diego Maradona, who scored both Argentine goals,
has admitted his first came after he handled the ball.
The media in Britain was absolutely apoplectic,
outraged, incensed.
And it was called "the hand of God" because afterwards,
when Diego Maradona was asked about the goal, he said,
"A little bit the head of Diego, a little bit the hand of God."
Are you suggesting that God advocates cheating?
Is that what you're suggesting - that God's put it in the net for you
over Shilton's head with your hand because he wanted you to win?
If that's the path you're going down, good luck with that.
Would you have owned up if you'd... against Argentina?
If you'd put the hand in and...
Would you, as a true British sportsman, have owned up to that?
No. LAUGHTER
I think one of the things about it is
it held up two different world views.
There was that very supposedly English notion
of, you know, fair play.
And then there was the much more South American idea
of the kind of... the street hero,
the man who can get away with it, the artful dodger.
I mean, and that's what he was, basically.
He picked a pocket or two.
Coming up... You want more celebrity scandal?
You're welcome. The King of Pop gets a new nickname...
People made up their mind. He was Wacko Jacko, and it stuck.
..Madonna causes a commotion - for a change...
She's always been opinionated, she's always been outspoken.
She doesn't care about her critics.
...and in cinema, well, where do you even start with this?
There is something really odd about seeing Thomas Howell
in blackface and a wig.
JAN LEEMING: It's 1986,
a year Britain got out the Union Jack bunting
and party poppers to celebrate a royal wedding.
REPORTER: The day the girl they called Fergie rode
in a fairy-tale coach wearing a fairy-tale dress
to marry her prince.
Yes, Prince Andrew's days of playing the field were over,
and he went on to live a blameless life,
untainted by even the slightest whiff of impropriety (!)
While the Windsors played happy families in 1986,
it was left to pop royalty to cause all the controversy.
And one newspaper headline was to change our perception
of a global icon forever.
1986 was a very sort of key year
in Britain's relationship with Michael Jackson.
CROWD CHANTING: We want Michael! We want Michael!
CROWD SCREAMS
He'd been this incredible, untouchable pop star
who was a bit eccentric.
He had Bubbles the chimp.
Well, you know, all pop stars have a chimp, don't they?
But then we saw him in his oxygen chamber
on the front of The Sun and the headline "Wacko Jacko".
And in a way, that can be seen as a sort of tipping point
in the public perception of him, certainly in this country.
LAUGHTER
If it's good enough for Michael Jackson,
it's good enough for me.
People made up their mind. At that point, he was Wacko Jacko,
and it stuck.
It was the moment MJ went from the King of Pop
to the king of doing really weird stuff.
But was there more to the infamous oxygen chamber story
than we thought?
I actually knew Michael a bit,
I spent three months with him writing a book.
And he said what happened was he went to open a new wing
of the Los Angeles Children's Hospital,
and they had a hyperbaric oxygen chamber thing.
The PR people said, "Would you mind going in there
"and having the media photograph you in the chamber?"
He said, "Yeah, sure, I'll happily do that."
And so the picture came out, and somebody wrote this headline
"Wacko Jacko", which really hurt him,
cos he thought he was just doing a kind thing
for the LA Children's Hospital.
But in the mid-'80s, there were so many headlines about Jacko,
it was hard to separate fact from fiction.
I think at one point, he was trying to buy the bones
of John Merrick, The Elephant Man.
And he built for himself a roller-coaster and a zoo
at his Neverland Ranch.
Neverland obviously named after JM Barrie's Peter Pan,
this phenomenon about never growing up.
It's what you do when you're rich, and you're in Hollywood,
and you've got too much time and too much money.
It became more about the headlines,
with Michael Jackson, than the music.
It was like a volcano erupting.
So you were not even thinking about
the Michael Jackson music that you used to love,
you were thinking about, "Did he, didn't he?"
It may come as little surprise
that the King of Pop's main rival for column inches in 1986
was the Queen of Pop.
After a string of top-ten hits,
she's become the darling of the teenyboppers
and inspired a generation to copy her distinctive style.
1986 was supposed to be Madge's biggest year yet,
with a new movie, third album and a big-star Hollywood husband.
Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Oh, wait. This is Madonna, remember?
Madonna has been the queen of controversy her whole career,
has been interwoven with controversial images,
controversial performances, controversial decisions.
REPORTER: What does your mum think of Madonna?
Erm, not much.
Well, most parents don't, really. They think she's... bad.
She's always been opinionated, she's always been outspoken.
She doesn't care about her critics.
Which was just as well,
because those critics were about to have a field day
when she teamed up with hubby Sean Penn for a new movie.
So, there's this pneumatic superstar, Madonna.
Long, blonde hair, great pair of lungs.
And she's just got herself a new consort, Sean Penn.
Tell you what, fellas, let's put them in a movie together.
A caper movie, a romp, have a bit of fun. Isn't that great?
Well, no, it's not great.
While making Shanghai Surprise,
the couple the press had nicknamed "the Poison Penns"
found themselves besieged by paparazzi.
Sean Penn already had a reputation as someone who was a bit fiery.
And you know that it's gonna be one of those relationships
that is completely intense,
is really, really passionate but also totally tempestuous.
Penn was clearly not someone who enjoyed the attention
that came with being Mr Madonna.
When faced with photographers,
he often let his fists do the talking.
Then in July '86,
Penn was charged with battery for attacking a man
who he claimed was trying to kiss Madonna.
They said sort of years and years after
that they were the loves of each other's lives.
It's terribly sweet, but he did not stop hitting people.
OK, so, while her movie tanked,
and her personal life was splashed over the papers,
at least Madonna's pop career could steer her back
into less controversial waters, couldn't it?
Well...
In 1986, she released a song about that totally uncontentious issue,
teenage pregnancy.
CARRIE GRANT: Papa Don't Preach was a kind of new image,
a new identity for Madonna.
She's got short hair. She's wearing jeans.
She's got flat shoes on.
# Papa, I know You're going to be upset... #
She's playing a teenager who gets pregnant,
and then she's saying to her dad, "I'm gonna keep the baby."
Her dad, played by Danny Aiello from The Godfather.
You know she's taking a chance on keeping this baby.
Because this guy knows people,
and he might make your boyfriend an offer that he can't refuse.
# Daddy, Daddy If you could only see
# Just how good He's been treating me... #
Madonna was like a magic mirror back then.
You saw what you wanted to.
# Cos we are in love... #
Some accused her of promoting teen motherhood.
Others saw an anti-abortion message.
# Papa, don't preach I'm in trouble deep... #
I can remember there being so much hullabaloo
about this woman singing about keeping a baby
and being strong and telling women, "Don't be told what you wanna do.
"If you wanna keep the baby, you can."
It's quite a moral song, because she wants to keep her baby,
and she's in love with her boyfriend.
It's not as if she's saying, "I eat babies for breakfast.
"And I like a bit of Satan worship in the afternoon."
It wasn't just the keeping of the baby that was causing problems.
Some commentators speculated on the use of the words "papa"
and "preach" as having a deeper religious message.
And that led to Pope John Paul II wading in on the debate.
To actually involve the head of the Catholic Church,
that was really unheard of.
So, ironically, "Papa" did preach.
Madonna qualified the song's meaning
as about challenging male authority figures -
a message her female fans lapped up.
The young Madonna wannabes of the '80s who all dress like her,
that situation is so identifiable for them,
because that would be the situation they'd be talking about at school.
What would happen if you went too far with your boyfriend?
What would you say to your mum, what would you say to your dad?
All those things absolutely connects with her audience,
and that's very clever.
I like the way she acts,
because I think all women should be able to act like they want
without being run down by men at all.
They think of the '60s, it was all about the pill being introduced etc,
but thinking about the '80s and socially, saying to somebody,
"Listen, not be pressurised. One, you don't have to marry them,
"and two, you don't have to get rid of the baby.
"Three, we will support you if you decide to have that child."
So really, really strong messages
which, at the time, were ground-breaking.
There was another famous blonde causing controversy in 1986.
While Madonna was empowering women, the main character of 9½ Weeks
was a submissive female, sexually dominated by her partner.
Take off your dress.
What?
Will you take off your dress?
Based on an already controversial erotic novel by Elizabeth McNeill,
the movie hyped itself up
as the most sexually explicit big-budget film
since 1972's infamous Last Tango In Paris.
The film is about two strangers that go on a blind date,
played by Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke.
It's about a kind of controlling relationship
that develops between them.
He orders her to do certain things, purportedly for sexual reasons.
Sometimes, in the film, I find it's played for laughs,
and sometimes, it's played for erotica.
There are several moments
where Elizabeth is made to do things by him.
The scene with the ice cube is very famous,
cos it's so close-up.
I think there were so many close-ups of body parts,
and so artfully lit and artfully shot.
But ultimately, it was attempting to be a study of obsession.
The film's director was no stranger to big-screen sex.
Adrian Lyne gave us some of the era's raunchiest screen outings,
like Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal and Flashdance.
He had begun his career in commercials
and can be argued as one of the originators
of the 1980s' slick, sensual cinema style.
MUSIC: 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' by Joe Cocker
# Baby, take off your coat
# Real slow... #
Adrian Lyne is, like, one of the great '80s film-makers,
and his visual style
and the way he made things erotic was very arty.
Lots of smoke and shadows
and light coming through, you know, Venetian blinds.
The whole film was so fabulously stylised.
The music was just absolutely amazing.
And you are hearing records like Bryan Ferry's Slave To Love
and Joe Cocker, Leave Your Hat On.
# You can leave your hat on
# You can leave your hat on... #
It was like you were stepping into a long-form pop video.
Elizabeth, we're gonna play a little game.
The full monty fun didn't last, though,
as the film transmuted into a dark and unsettling dive
into power dynamics and dominance.
I can't get excited unless I see...
you get on your hands and your knees and crawl across the floor.
Because of the S&M involved, because of her complicity in it,
that's the debate, really,
is that is this a comfortable depiction to watch
because Elizabeth, this is Kim Basinger's character,
does seem so willing to indulge
in a lot of his fantasies.
I don't wanna crawl.
Get on all fours and crawl.
Elizabeth, I don't wanna argue with you.
Now... Now crawl.
John, don't play with me like that.
Now, through the lens of today,
where you see the sort of sadomasochism in it,
and you see all this horrible sort of male domination...
SHE SCREAMS
Don't touch me!
..and the way that she is objectified by Mickey Rourke...
Pick up the money.
I don't wanna pick up the money! I don't like the money!
Pick up the money.
..it feels more shocking now than it did then.
Synonymous with the 1980s,
the glossy, big-budget erotic thriller
largely went out of fashion in the '90s and '00s
before making a comeback in a big way
with a film centred around a powerful businessman
who gets his kicks controlling and humiliating women.
Sound familiar?
Fifty Shades Of Grey must have been influenced by 9½ Weeks,
because there are so many similarities.
You've got the domineering, sexy guy,
and then the young woman who's being really kind of perhaps coerced
into a submissive relationship.
And then it's played almost as a romantic drama.
Both films come from a similar place.
In one sense, we haven't really travelled that far at all.
Because Fifty Shades Of Grey
is more or less 9½ Weeks for the 2010s
but with less good music.
Strap yourselves in, because another big-screen offering from '86
made the storm over 9½ Weeks seem like a mere blip
on the outrage-o-meter.
Picture the scene - a bunch of Hollywood types have an idea.
Let's make a teen comedy about a white law student
pretending to be Black to get into Harvard.
At that point, someone should have said, "Are you kidding?"
But instead, they all yelled, "Green light it."
No, really.
Here we are, in 1986, and Soul Man came out.
And what's the strapline?
"He didn't give up. He got down."
Soul Man has the kind of premise where you just go,
"H-How? How did this ever exist? How did this ever happen?"
You wanna feel good about yourself, don't you, son?
Sure, Dad.
HE CHUCKLES
That's why decided to let you pay your own way.
So, we have spoilt rich kid Mark Watson,
whose privileges are suddenly brought to earth with a bang.
Oh, I think it is.
What are you saying, Dad?
I'm saying that I've taken your money from your tuition account
and used it to buy a time-share in a condo on Barbados.
Here is a young white lad
who can't afford his college fees
because his very wealthy family decide
that they're no longer going to fund his education.
Well, the joke's on you, sucker, because I'm going to Harvard.
And don't call me a liar!
That asshole thinks I'm lying.
Mark, you are lying.
And if he wants to go to university, he's gonna have to do it himself.
And he discovers that there is a scholarship on offer.
But the scholarship is for Black students.
But where the hell are you gonna get $53,000?
Brace yourselves. It's worse than you can imagine.
Congratulations, Mr Watson, and good luck at Harvard.
Thank you, sir. I'll do my best.
It was controversial to a lot of people
because of the main character switching
from white to Black, in a very unique way.
He did it by taking lots and lots of tanning pills.
I didn't know that that could work.
Mark, I don't know how to tell you this,
but you're not tanned.
You're Black. Yeah.
I exceeded the recommended dosage.
Gordo, these babies are my ticket into Harvard Law School!
Throughout the '80s, there were various films popping up
that were trying to do this switch reversal
to give the audience an alternative perspective.
We saw that in films like Big, where he became young.
This tried to do it with race.
I don't think they did it very well.
Names? Mark Watson.
Okey dokey, why don't we just take Mark on our team,
and you can have, uh...?
Gordon Bloomfeld.
No, why don't you guys take Gordon, and we'll take Mark?
Oh, well, you know, look, I wrote it down this way,
and I know the way you hate a messy team list, so, uh...
I actually have got to say its heart was in the right place
because the idea is that this white person becomes Black,
and then he discovers... from being, like, a posh white person,
he discovers what discrimination feels like.
# I'm a soul man... #
JAN LEEMING: So, here's the kind of joke you can expect from Soul Man.
The sports jocks think Mark is Black,
so therefore it follows he has to be great at basketball.
But WE know he's white and little more than useless.
For some, this was a parody of white expectations.
But for others, it was reinforcing stereotypes.
DAVID GRANT: The food jokes, the walk jokes,
the clothes jokes, the music jokes,
the dancing jokes - they're all there.
And you just think, "Yeah, I can see what you're trying to do."
But this is as clumsy
as trying to thread a needle in boxing gloves.
Raspberry tart, Mark? Oh, no, thank you.
I really couldn't eat another bite.
All my life, I've only been able to think about one thing...
..white women!
And now, at last, I'm going to have one!
Yep, that actually happened.
In its own way, it was slightly parodying
what people expect of Black culture and Black representation.
But I do remember thinking there is something really odd
about C Thomas Howell in blackface and a wig.
And I do remember thinking,
"This is the weirdest film I've seen."
That's an understatement.
Although the film is said to have hauled in
$35 million at the box office,
its release was met with protest and condemnation.
It was a box-office success,
and there were some really good actors in it.
I just think that because of where the world was by 1986,
a lot of Black people just found it offensive
and said, "We don't care about your reasons.
"We don't want you representing us like that.
"We don't think it's right."
On the subject of "just not right",
we're about to revisit another screen storyline
that had the world gasping with disbelief,
when murdered Bobby Ewing lurched back into life.
It was the most bonkers thing
that could possibly ever have happened in a soap opera.
And in political dramas,
Ronald Reagan went into arms dealing -
very badly.
Sticking your nose in somebody else's affair.
Which the Americans, of course, are past masters at doing.
JAN LEEMING: If you could distil the '80s into one TV show,
this was it.
From the skyscrapers in its famous split-screen title sequence
to the outrageous storylines and flamboyant outfits,
Dallas had it all.
Big hair, big frocks, big storylines
and, in '86, a big suspension of disbelief.
Dallas was the first example of watercooler telly.
It was preposterous
and therefore incredibly entertaining.
Teeth and tans, everyone!
We're in the world of oil barons, sibling rivalry and double-dealing.
Are you telling me that she works for you?
Works for me?
That is what you're saying?
You had JR, everyone's favourite soap baddie,
and his brother, Bobby, the show's heart-throb.
Bobby, you're my brother. I just wanna help you.
I just want help in return.
It's Cain and Abel, isn't it? Like, good brother, bad brother.
Agh!
I was completely obsessed with Bobby Ewing
because, er, he was very cute.
Cute maybe, but by the eighth series,
Patrick Duffy's fame had outgrown the show,
so he sensationally quit to pursue a movie career.
And just to make sure he couldn't be brought back
in some unbelievable and controversial plotline,
he asked for Bobby to be killed in one last heroic act,
saving Pam, the love of his life.
Pa-a-a-am!
This proved to be a bad idea for all concerned.
They can't possibly kill off
one of the most famous characters in this huge soap opera.
I love you...
..so much.
But kill him off they did,
and there wasn't a dry eye in the hospital,
as season eight ended in the most dramatic way imaginable.
BEEPING INTENSIFIES
CONTINUOUS BEEPING
No.
No!
You can't do this to me, Bobby.
Don't leave me.
Bobby, don't.
So, goodbye, Bobby.
No one character was bigger than the show, right?
INTERVIEWER: Do you think that the format of Dallas itself
can cope with the vacuum that Bobby's character will leave?
Are you asking my ego, or are you asking my business sense?
Both. Yeah, my ego says no.
And his ego was right.
With Bobby gone, viewers started leaving Southfork, too.
As ratings nosedived for series nine,
the bosses realised they had to pull off
a Lazarus-style comeback - and fast.
"Listen... rating's really bad.
"We gotta do something about this.
"Who's our most popular character?" "Bobby."
"Get him on the phone, bring him back.
"I don't care how much he wants."
"But how are we gonna bring him back? He's dead."
"That's YOUR problem."
How complimentary were they when they tried to lure you back?
Did they actually say, "Look, the ratings are dropping.
"We need you?" What did they do?
Well, basically, yes.
Um, you know, it's not a good negotiating ploy
to come on your knees to somebody
and say that, "We can't live without you,"
so that didn't happen until after I signed.
LAUGHS
Do you think you'll be able to manage on $75,000 an episode?
I was happy making what I made, and I'll be...
even more happy, if that's possible, on what my new salary is,
which I won't disclose,
and no-one yet has accurately forecast what it is, so...
You're not even in the ballpark yet.
The scene was set for Patrick Duffy to make a dramatic comeback.
There was just one teeny-weeny problem.
Bobby Ewing was still a bit... well, dead.
If you've got an actor you really want to employ again,
and they've agreed on a contract, and they've given in to the money,
then you're gonna bring them back somehow
if you're running a soap, and that's what happened.
The writers' room must have been perfectly ridiculous,
and what they came up with was perfectly ridiculous.
And remember, Stephanie was in The Colbys.
But so it came to pass that on the 8th October 1986,
British TV viewers tuned in to witness a soap-opera miracle,
as Pam woke up from a very, very deep sleep.
WATER RUNNING
Pamela, his widow,
woke up, and there was Bobby in the shower.
Good morning.
And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait!
"You're dead, aren't you, bruv?"
Pam, what's the matter?
There had been rumours circling
that Patrick Duffy was back as Bobby's twin
or someone who'd had Bobby-style plastic surgery,
but what actually happened was even more startling.
And she realised
that the whole of the previous series
had been a dream.
Darling, what's the matter?
You look like you just saw a ghost.
For a minute, I thought I did.
And it was ridiculous!
It was the most bonkers thing
that could possibly ever have happened in a soap opera.
But when I woke up, I thought that you were dead.
What?
I had a nightmare, a terrible nightmare.
It's a hell of a kip she had.
It must have been 31 hours of sleep
to have all the episodes of series nine.
Pam, I'm right here. And I'm fine.
LAUGHS: It was all a dream.
Oh, there was so much more, and, Bobby, it seemed so real.
The oldest and laziest plot twist in the book had been resurrected.
So, let's see how that went down with the viewers, shall we?
REPORTER: The climactic moment came right at the end of the programme.
WOMAN: Uh-oh!
SCREAMING, LAUGHTER
I tell you, I was never satisfied with the whole episode at all,
and not with his reappearance
and with the way that it's been set up.
Very disappointed.
NINA WADIA: I think some fans were absolutely fuming.
Like, this is outrageous and ridiculous,
and how could you possibly do it?
Erm, I was not one of them.
I was just happy to have Bobby back, in the shower.
I'm glad he's back, and, uh... and I was real happy to see him.
I liked the way it was done, too.
And we forgot very quickly, didn't we?
It was, "Oh, yeah, he's back from the dead. Let's carry on now."
But whatever craziness TV writers can come up with,
you can bet politicians will top it in real life.
Along with Bobby's second coming,
another unbelievable drama was taking place on America's screens -
although this time, the weirdness came
not from Southfork but the White House.
REPORTER: The situation this morning -
the White House is under siege.
The President says, "I'm not going to back off.
"I'm not going to crawl into a hole."
The '70s had Nixon and Watergate.
The '80s had Reagan and the Iran-Contra affair.
It's taken six years for the President's casual,
even light-hearted, approach to his job to get him into trouble,
and it is serious trouble.
Reagan and the Iran-Contra scandal.
You've got to think of a really...
..outrageous Hollywood film,
and you've got to think of the most preposterous plots ever.
President Reagan has again pledged to get to the bottom
of the Iranian arms scandal
and the money which was funnelled off
to rebel forces in Central America.
OK, pay attention.
Here's the story of this controversy in bite-size form.
In the Middle East, you have got some American hostages,
in Lebanon, and...
Ronald Reagan says to his advisers, "Let's get them out.
"I want the Americans home."
They come up with a plan,
and the plan is to sell arms to Iran.
Now, it was illegal.
They're not supposed to be selling arms to Iran.
But the idea was that if they did that...
..Iran would allow these American hostages to go home.
At the same time,
the money that was going to be made by selling arms to Iran
could be funnelled to Nicaragua
to actually give to the Contras,
so that they could be armed in their struggle against Communism.
Or to sum it up more succinctly...
Sticking your nose in somebody else's affair.
Which the Americans, of course, are past masters at doing.
It's kind of amazing, right?
That Ronald Reagan thought,
"Well, this sounds like a great idea,
"and no-one's ever gonna find out."
Anyway, it all blew up in Reagan's face when it was discovered,
and that was the scandal.
This supposedly top-secret arms deal
became a proper Thanksgiving gift for the world's press.
REPORTER: Mr Reagan was presented with the traditional
eve-of-Thanksgiving Turkey,
but the White House press corps were sharpening THEIR knives
for the President. SHOUTING
MAN: Mr President, what did you know about money going to the Contras?
All I know is this is just gonna taste wonderful,
and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
He's not looking forward to it...
MAN: Mr President! ..but I am.
How much trouble are you in because of this Contra revelation?
Did you know about the Contras, sir?
Here's somebody who took pride on being straight.
You know, "I'm a kind of straight-talking president."
I was not fully informed on the nature
of one of the activities undertaken in connection with this initiative.
And this information was coming out that was showing that,
A, he wasn't being straight with people,
and B, there was actually quite a lot of incompetence
around this deal.
Either Reagan knew it was going on,
and he's lying to the American public,
or else he's incredibly stupid and, uh...
inept at keeping an eye over things.
He should've let the people know what he was doing
instead of trying to go behind their back.
AS REAGAN: Remember the diseased colon I had a while back?
Oh, during the operation,
the Soviets infiltrated the theatre
and secretly implanted a large bugging device.
Somebody must have told 'em that I talk through my ass.
LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE
Reagan eventually did the honourable thing
that most presidents do when in a tight spot.
He let others take the blame -
namely, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North,
of the National Security Council.
Despite the "Contra-versy",
the arms to Iran scandal didn't bring down Reagan
as some thought it might.
In fact, his popularity remained high.
Reagan was a film star. I mean, he had star quality.
He had that appeal to people.
They called him the "Teflon President"
because nothing ever stuck to him.
And somehow, he managed to survive.
The corruption and everything else, it's appalling.
I just look at it as a Hollywood script.
Still to come...
More TV outrage as Channel 4 becomes Channel Phwoar...
They are horrific, they're not artistic.
They are sordid, they show the depths of depravity.
..while the BBC got lewd, nude
and extremely rude.
Fleet Street just saw bums, the Beeb,
Mrs Whitehouse, and they went for it.
JAN LEEMING: While, for many,
the mid-'80s was a golden age of television,
not everyone was happy about the kind of stuff
that was being beamed into our living rooms.
Chief culprit in the controversy stakes -
you've guessed it, Channel 4,
who had been busy steaming up people's glasses
with some of their more racy output.
Channel 4 was already very radical,
it was always in trouble with the newspapers.
Every other day, another, "Channel 4 outrages the nation."
And there were always questions asked in the House of Commons
about what Channel 4 were doing next.
In '86, the channel announced
that a season of shocking foreign films would be aired,
movies that would push the British censorship laws to their limits.
They were known as the red triangle films.
ANNOUNCER: From time to time, in the late evening,
Channel 4 transmits films made for the cinema
which some viewers may find a bit strong for television.
From now on, as an experiment,
we'll be using this triangular warning symbol
before and during films which include explicit material.
The purpose of having the red triangle on screen
was that if you were flicking through the channels,
and you happened to stumble across Channel 4,
you wouldn't inadvertently see something
that you didn't want to see.
You may then decide not to watch a film
which might offend you or a member of your family.
For example, an intense sex sequence,
or maybe features cannibalism or long scenes of torture.
We hope that this will help you enjoy your viewing on Channel 4.
I think the ironic thing about having the red triangle on screen
is that it made it feel rather taboo.
And bizarrely, it ended up becoming quite a big success.
Of course, as planned, this was a red rag,
or rather a red triangle, to the bullish Mary Whitehouse,
who was in outrage heaven
with ten shocking films to get cross about.
Does that mean that you approve, for example,
of Channel 4's new system of a warning triangle?
Look, let's get one thing clear.
That triangle would not go on any programme
unless the programme concerned
was more extreme than would normally be seen on television.
I mean, it is just verbal, physical, moral anarchy.
There were people who were sort of vehemently talking about
how it was degrading public standards
and making TV go to a lower moment than it's ever done before.
They are horrific, they're not artistic.
They're sordid, they show the depths of depravity.
I would suggest, if people want to see this,
they should go to a special club where such films can be shown
for people who are perverted like that.
This is the worst, most controversial TV of all time.
Meanwhile, the tabloids,
seemingly oblivious to any irony or hypocrisy,
were apoplectic about the sex and nudity on offer,
rebranding Channel 4 as Channel Phwoar.
None of which did the ratings any harm at all.
I was lucky enough, not every kid had a TV in their room,
and I pretended I'd go to sleep, the lights would go out,
I could hear my mum and dad checking, knocking on the door,
then they'd go downstairs,
and then I'd sneak over to the TV in my room
and start watching for potential flashes
of boobs or bums or anything else.
MAN: Argh!
Although those secret late-night viewing sessions
could be seriously disturbing.
HE SCREAMS
Actually, a lot of the adult content wasn't of a sexual nature.
Some of the content was really harrowing.
SCREAMING CONTINUES
I remember watching a film about life in a Turkish prison,
and it was really shocking,
which was just absolutely devastating for me.
The red triangle films might not have been exactly
what the teenaged Bobby had been hoping for.
But there was bare flesh aplenty in a controversial BBC drama
that once more had Mrs Whitehouse reaching for the smelling salts.
The Singing Detective came from the controversy-laden typewriter
of Dennis Potter,
who'd been testing boundaries for years,
including the disturbing drama Brimstone And Treacle,
which the Beeb had banned in 1976.
What are you trying to say?
I had him.
I saw him.
MUMBLES
His latest work followed the story
of a bedridden writer called Philip Marlow.
MUMBLES
Nothing, just a babble. But he's more or less asleep now.
Everything's under control.
You were right to call me, but he'll sleep now for quite a while.
Forget supper, just leave him be...
Marlow escapes into fantasy,
imagining himself as the eponymous crooning sleuth
from his own mystery novels.
The Singing Detective was always going to be controversial.
Anything by Dennis Potter had controversy attached to it.
# Cruising down the river... #
It was broadcast on Sunday night,
had Michael Gambon in, big star, big budget.
I used to think that all I wanted
was the good opinion of honourable men
and the encouraging love of beautiful women.
HE SCOFFS
Now I know for sure that what I really want is a cigarette.
Just one more cigarette, Ali.
It has all of Potter's brilliance
and all of his depravity there on the screen.
The thing about this place,
it strips away all the unimportant stuff
like skin, like love, like loyalty, like passion and belief.
Anyone who saw it will never forget
Michael Gambon playing this guy
with this extraordinarily debilitating skin condition...
Thank you.
..which was based on something that Dennis Potter
actually suffered from.
I've reached the end.
Of what?
My tether. Oh, hush, now.
I'd like... Christ, I'd...
I'd like to get out of it.
I can't stand...
I... I truly, I cannot stand it.
People discussed it the next day,
and they discussed it because they sort of loved it,
even if they were shocked.
One infamous moment from The Singing Detective
certainly had everyone talking
as one flashback scene saw the ten-year-old Philip
witnessing his mother having an illicit rendezvous in the forest
with a friend of his father.
Christ, we've been going through this stuff for ages.
We must be half a mile from anywhere,
we haven't seen a soul.
There was a lot of shocked response to the, er...
to the scene where we see Patrick Malahide...
HE GRUNTS
..humping away.
MOANING
Some shocked viewers marched straight to the post office.
We've received over 200 letters about The Singing Detective,
mostly like this from Valerie Siggins of Cleckheaton.
Mrs EM Johnson of Darlington says...
But Paul Thompson of Shrewsbury asks...
But half a second of bum
was still half a second too long for Mary Whitehouse.
She suggested BBC controller Michael Grade
should be given his P45.
The tabloids, despite their own predilection
for flashing naked flesh, also weighed in.
I think, really, that Fleet Street just saw, you know,
it's bums, the Beeb, Mrs Whitehouse, it was a good runner,
and they went for it.
I think the saddest conversation I had last week was with a...
a reporter on the Daily Express, and he rang me up, and he said,
"No, really, we're all behind you, you know,
"I think it's great, it's a fantastic series.
"And, no, she's, you know...
"She's getting into a fuss about nothing, and we think it's great."
And I said, "Well, what is your newspaper saying about it?"
"Er... Filth like this shouldn't be seen on British screens."
Tabloids, particularly in the mid-'80s,
they sold copy by jumping on these kinds of things.
So it suited their interests to stir up
any complaint by the likes of Mary Whitehouse
to say, "This is obscene."
Obscenity was a big obsession of the mid-'80s.
The tabloid press create shock
out of nothing.
They say, you know, "Shock, outrage, screaming headlines."
And, of course, it leaves the impression
that things... that people are more easily shocked.
I think people are much more mature than the newspapers,
the popular newspapers, the tabloid newspapers
ever give them credit for.
But despite the controversy,
The Singing Detective has become hailed as a TV masterpiece.
Its ability to mix tragedy and comedy
and make us laugh and wince simultaneously
was summed up by this classic scene.
MARLOW, INTERNAL VOICE: 'Oh, cock, do not crow.
'Poor cock, do not stir.'
Gambon's character is trying not to become tumescent
as Joanne Whalley's nurse character
rubs this ointment on him
to alleviate the pain of his skin condition.
'Oh, think of something boring, for Christ's sake.
'Think of something very, very, very boring.'
And there is this brilliant speech,
Gambon's character trying to remember
all the most boring things he possibly can.
'Oh, no, no. Think, think, think, think really boring.
'A Welsh male voice choir. Everything in Punch.'
Ooh.
You poor thing.
Oh.
'Wage rates in Peru. James Burke. Finnegans Wake.
'All the bloody Irish. The dog in Blue Peter.
'Brian Clough, and especially James - Henry and Clive.'
He says so many things all at the same time,
you know, the fallibility and the stupidity of being a male,
isn't it, in a sense?
And also, the playfulness of the whole thing,
and also, the darkness of it.
Completely, utterly genius.
'Guardian woman's page...
'Oh, dear Christ.
'The Bible. And, oh, God...
'Reader's Digest special draw prize. No, no, no.
'Think Bible.
'Bible psalms. Song of Solomon. "Thy breasts are like..."
'Oh, no. No.'
It's grotesque, and it's fantastically funny,
and it's sort of filthy.
Ah! HE EXHALES
NURSE: Sorry. Was that too hard?
Too hard? Yes.
It's like iodine in a cut.
The most extraordinary television and extraordinary drama,
and the fact that that was being made
on mainstream national television was a real moment, I think.
I'm sorry, but I shall have to lift your penis now to grease round it.