If I asked you,
"What is Britain's answer to Hollywood?" - where would you think?
Well, today the BBC Antiques Roadshow has come to Elstree,
and Elstree Studios, just outside London,
have produced some of the most
memorable movies and TV programmes over the past years.
These rather nondescript buildings have produced things like Star Wars,
Indiana Jones, The Dam Busters,
The Shining, and then on TV,
The Muppet Show, The Avengers...
Strictly is made here...
..and Holby City.
213, take five.
Last year, we asked you to get in touch with your stories connected to
the world of entertainment,
and not just TV and movies, but also music and stage.
So where would make the perfect backdrop for such a programme?
Where are we?
EASTENDERS THEME MUSIC PLAYS EastEnders, of course.
We're privileged to have Albert Square as our backdrop
for this entertainment special.
Yes, we'll hear from stars of EastEnders
over a tipple in the Queen Vic,
meet unsung heroes behind famous movies like Star Wars,
come face-to-face with Basil the rat, as well as meet fans of stage,
screen and music legends.
I think we can guarantee a nostalgic feast as we turn the spotlight onto
showbiz on tonight's Antiques Roadshow.
Well, I've got the privilege of introducing
one of the earliest heroes of my life.
So, without any further ado...
PIANO PLAYS
# We want Muffin, Muffin the Mule
# Dear old Muffin, playing the fool
# We want Muffin, everybody sing
# We want Muffin the Mule. #
Hello. So you're here at last.
So, the star of the show, and you are?
Will McNally. And tell me, Will,
what is your association with this fabulous mule?
Well, it was my grandparents who owned and worked him,
back in the '40s and '50s, and through into the '60s, I suppose.
I mean, was he always called Muffin the Mule?
Well, well no, he was actually made in 1933,
so, as a puppet, he's 84 years old this year,
and it was when my grandparents, who were Ann Hogarth and Jan Bussell,
and they were well-renowned puppeteers of the Hogarth Puppets,
and they were touring around the country in a caravan
that converted to a puppet theatre,
and they were doing their shows and they found that they
were five, ten minutes short in their length,
so they needed something else.
So, one night my grandfather was there,
and he decided on a kicking mule,
and the kicking mule was to come on at the end of the puppet circus
and sort of shoo and chivvy the clowns off the stage...
Oh! ..chasing them around this way and that,
and it all went down very well and the audiences loved it... Yes.
..but, after a while, my grandparents grew a little bit
bored of it and they decided to cut that part of the act
out of the show.
And so my grandfather was working for the BBC as a producer and he
met Annette Mills, and Annette Mills wanted to do a programme for
children, singing songs at a piano, and she wanted something to go on
the piano top, to help illustrate the songs,
so she approached my grandfather and said,
"Oh, Jan, would you make me a puppet?" and he sort of said,
"Why don't you come round to my house and select one of my puppets?"
Well, Annette fortunately thought that was a great idea, and so
she went round to their house the very next day
and selected the kicking mule, and named him Muffin the Mule.
Wonderful, wonderful.
And as for Annette Mills, who by the way was the sister of John Mills,
Sir John Mills... Correct, yes.
..we've got a photograph of her, way back at the BBC, at her piano,
with Muffin, in full flow, and you can see your grandparents up there.
That's right. Well, Annette was the face that everyone knows, you know,
because she was the one on TV,
but it was my grandmother who worked Muffin.
My grandfather worked the others, and he was the TV producer and
director of the show back in those days.
This is a programme that lasted until 1955, am I right to say?
That's right, yes. So tell me, where is he stabled these days?
Oh, back home with me in Devon.
But he's never out of retirement, is he?
No, we go around and we do a few presentations here and there... OK.
..and I'm hoping I might be able to get him back on TV one day.
Yeah. Well, you know, I've... I've got to value this fella.
I mean, how do you value a TV icon?
Very difficult. It's really, really difficult.
Now, I should point out for the benefit of the viewers that there
are a lot of Muffin the Mules out there which are
made from a die-cast metal. That's right.
I mean, I mean they produced thousands of them, and they do
turn up with a certain amount of regularity on the Roadshow.
They certainly do, yeah. But what we're looking at here
is much larger in scale and is the original.
He is the original, he is the one and only that was made in 1933.
I will give you a modest,
a modest guestimate that he's worth at least £5,000...
Oh, yeah. ..but I'm tempted to opening the bidding to all these
people here and see where we go, but thank you so much. LAUGHTER
Oh, it's a pleasure. And...this sounds a bit silly,
but despite the years I... I still want to kiss this fella.
Do you mind if I...? Of course not. Come here, come here,
I've missed you too. Mwah! LAUGHTER
You can call me bonkers, I don't care, I don't care.
Ahh...
Next, Roadshow viewer Geoff
recounts his unusual brush with fame to expert Jon Baddeley.
So, Diana Dors, sometimes known as the English Marilyn Monroe.
Tell me the story of when you met her.
1977, I was driving up the M1, one Sunday evening on my own,
very little traffic. A large Lincoln Continental flew past me at
great speed, and I was going very slowly in a wreck of a car, and
a little further up the road, there it was, stuck by the side of the
road, with clouds of steam coming out one end, and Diana Dors standing
there with a T-shirt on, with her own name across her chest
and a picture of Paul Newman on the back, thumbing a lift.
So you were the knight in shining armour...
Apparently, yes. ..come to her rescue.
Yes, yes, and then she was quite happy
to be taken to the Queen's Hotel in Leeds.
She was absolutely lovely. She was very down to earth.
She was one of the most, sort of, normal,
if you like, people I could talk to,
and the one thing I really remember her talking about
with some amusement was, was her affair with Elvis.
That kind of stuck very much in my mind.
A year later or so, she was signing this book,
the first one she produced, at Boots in Leeds.
And when we got to the front of the queue,
a book was handed to her and I said
to her, "Hello, Di, how's the car?" And she... She looked at me,
instant recognition. "Oh, hello, how are you?"
and told the manager she was giving me the book.
She signed it for me and then she said,
"You're in the book. The story's in the book.
"Can't remember which page it is, but there you are,"
and all the people around were going, "Mavis, is he famous?
"Should we get his autograph, too? LAUGHTER
And she dedicated the book?
And she, yes, she said, you know, "To Geoff, thanks for the lift."
"Thanks for the lift! Diana Dors." What a lovely memory.
It is, yeah. Cos one sort of thinks about Diana Dors as somebody
who...all the scandal that went around her, she had...
She was notorious, wasn't she? But she worked really hard.
She was very active, not only as a film star
but also as a cabaret singer,
and I think she was a very popular guest on all the talk shows.
And what's the book worth? Not a huge amount.
To anybody else, it's worth, I don't know, £30 or £40.
To you, it's worth thousands. Yes, exactly.
There's not another one like it anywhere.
Next, it's all about outrageous outfits,
flamboyant performances and sheer excess.
Surrounded here by all this amazing stuff
from the world famous Liberace -
one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century.
Mr Showmanship himself, yes.
And unusually we've got two collectors here today.
Yes, and we've not met, which is very exciting.
And you've not met? Not till now. So, how did your obsession start?
You in the beautiful purple shirt first.
Thank you, yes, in honour of Liberace himself.
So I started about 20 years ago.
I collected the first Christmas card and I thought,
"Oh, this is interesting, maybe there's some others."
And Liberace had over 200 fan clubs around the world.
He received something like 10,000 letters a week.
I mean, there's actually 34 cards that were sent
from 1953 to the year just before he died in 1986.
This is the 1953 card.
What's interesting is that, actually, even in these early cards,
he slightly dyed his hair.
He was told he didn't look quite mature enough, so he actually dyed
his hair, and actually, in the later cards, he's got much darker hair. CHUCKLING
I love this one, this is so camp. Look at that.
Yeah, exactly, with the mobile, yeah.
I mean, just... I mean, they're very difficult to find now.
It's taken me, sort of, 20 years.
Of the 34 cards, I'm just missing six, so I've still got a little way
to go, but I'll get there, I'll get there.
And how did your obsession start? Well, my grandfather Joe
and my father John Bat both worked in MGM Studios...
Oh, really? ..which was just up the road from here
in the '50s and '60s. Yeah. So I've always
been a little bit starstruck, and of course, when Liberace passed
away, they sold all his items from his houses,
and I just had to have something, and obviously chandeliers and
pianos would have cost far too much, so I bought what I like,
which is fishes, and I got 12 fishes from his Malibu beach house.
Did you go over there to buy?
No, I rang up America and put a bid in of 500.
Oh, wow, yeah! And I got... For everything? Yeah. Wow!
That was a bargain. Yeah, it was. Yeah, for those who never quite
understood the thrill and the excitement of Liberace, tell us what
it is about him that appeals to you. It's interesting. In 1956, Liberace
came here and did a tour round England, and then he
toured Ireland as well, and there's a great review, actually.
Liberace was wearing all his fantastic costumes.
He was a very, very, very accomplished pianist -
there was nothing he couldn't play -
and by the end of the concert, the reviewer said,
"I wasn't a fan of Liberace. I am now."
And he influenced a lot of other performers. Oh, absolutely, yes!
He... I think, you know, James Brown was like a black version of him,
with the cape and the showmanship and...and Prince.
But let's get down to value.
Um, how many Christmas cards do you have?
About 75, probably just over. I'm not 100% sure, but it's around 75.
They've got to be worth...that's 75, I would say times 100,
and then you've got all the... Yeah, the signed photographs...
..signed photographs. ..are worth quite a lot, yes.
How much, how many of those have you got?
At least, probably, five to ten. Again I'm not 100% sure.
So, say you've got ten of those... Yeah. ..at about £300 each?
Probably, yes. I would say your whole collection altogether
has got to be £20,000. Wow! Well, he's worth every penny. LAUGHTER
You know, with all the things you've told me you've got... Yeah.
And your glass things that actually belonged to him... Yeah.
..I think have to be worth £2,000 today. Wow, wonderful!
Cos one still has the price tag on the bottom. Oh, yes, look at that!
12. One of the things I love about Liberace
is when he decorated his house,
he actually bought some fantastic and priceless antiques,
but next to it something from a junk shop,
and he valued both of them equally. It was really beautiful.
Well, if it was shiny, he liked it.
Exactly. If it was shiny, he liked it, yeah. Exactly, that's Liberace.
That's Liberace. That's right.
From one sequined showman to another...
In the late 1970s, Big Daddy was a wrestling legend
and a regular fixture of Saturday afternoon TV.
Plonking themselves down in front of a telly on a Saturday afternoon,
no child of the late 1970s or 1980s could have missed
the monumental man-mountain that was Big Daddy,
and his colleagues, or nemeses I suppose,
Giant Haystacks and Gorgeous George and Kendo Nagasaki.
You must have been a big fan.
Yeah, he was my hero.
I used to watch every Saturday afternoon,
but sadly I wasn't lucky enough ever to meet him,
so I sort of went down the road of life
of trying to collect his memorabilia.
What does he mean to you? Why is he your hero?
He just was. He was everyone's hero, wasn't he,
back in the late '70s and '80s?
Mums and dads, nans, grandads.
The music of We Shall Not Be Moved when he came out.
"Easy! Easy! Easy!" Well, there's the teddy bear.
His teddy bear that he used to come out with. Yes.
Yeah, the whole package with him, really.
You know, he met all kids, disabled kids, elderly people.
He treated everyone with total respect. Absolutely.
I mean, growing up Shirley Crabtree,
I think his father was a professional wrester as well.
Shirley Crabtree Junior, who became Big Daddy,
started in 1952, professional wrestling,
but it was really when he sort of hit World Of Sport that his,
his sort of... He began to get bigger and bigger and bigger
and more famous in Britain.
Definitely, yeah. He wasn't a big star till later on in his career,
till they changed the name to him. He used to be called The Guardsman,
and then he went on to be called Big Daddy,
and that's when it went through the roof, his celebrity status.
But you're, sort of, quite obsessive.
I mean, what we got here? We haven't just got the costumes.
I mean, we all recognise these oversized costumes,
but you've got his watch, you've got his driving licence.
I mean...slightly obsessed? Uh... Yes and no, really.
It's just artefacts that have appeared over the last
20 years or so.
His career, in 1987, hit a sort of hurdle,
with a fight with King Kong Kirk.
King Kong Kirk died shortly after and it was unconnected to the fight.
He had a heart condition. But his career
never really recovered from that. No, it didn't. He was meant to
be on a television programme called The Saturday Show, and he was going
to present that, but it sort of...
He done some more wrestling after that, but he...
He sort of faded away into insignificance, really, which was
so sad, cos a man of that magnitude at that time, he'd be a...
You know, an absolute superstar nowadays.
Well, I suppose, in many ways, he is sort of the forerunner, I suppose,
of many of, sort of, the wrestling stars of today.
He had that big personality, that big frame,
and that sort of big colour. really.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know, in this day and age, there's not many
stars that everybody likes, you know? No-one had a bad word for him.
Yeah, he was a legend, wasn't he? He was indeed. Absolutely,
and I don't think there's anybody out there who wouldn't recognise
these pieces and feel similar love - maybe not such deep love as you do
for Big Daddy, but in terms of financial value, I suppose,
what are we looking at?
The singlet might be worth maybe £80 to £100 each. Full costume,
maybe £200 or so, depending on what you're looking at.
These pieces, slightly harder to value, because it's going to take,
sort of quite a die-hard collector like you to, sort of,
want Big Daddy's driving licence,
but there we go, at least it's found a home.
You couldn't pay me a million pounds for it, it wouldn't matter.
Well, I don't think anybody would necessarily... LAUGHTER
..but we could be looking at, sort of collectively,
around £1,000 or so. Yeah, it means more to me than money, so...
A big heart for Big Daddy. Absolutely.
Thank you very much. No problem.
Well, if there was ever an icon of the entertainment industry,
it has to be Mickey Mouse.
In 2018, he's going to be 90. He doesn't look it.
But here we've got a wonderful, scribbled, quick cartoon of Mickey,
and it says here, "Hi, Mike." Now, am I looking at Mike? Yes, you are.
So, put the two together for me. How did, how did it work?
Well, in the 1970s, I was working for my newspaper,
a national newspaper, and I was in Anaheim, the home of Disney,
in California, working with an actress called Daryl Hannah,
she of the famous Splash film.
And after photographing Daryl, I was taken by the execs up to
Club 300, which is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.
I didn't know it at the time.
While we were having lunch, I'm sat opposite the Head of Studio
and the PR, and suddenly they both went... PROLONGED GASP
..and I thought, "Somebody's walked, a film star has walked in,"
so I looked around. All I could see were four old men,
sat at a table, and when I turned round to see my hosts again,
they were still going... PROLONGED GASP
And who were they? Who were they?!
Well, they were the original animators from the early days of
Walt Disney Studios.
So they were four of the remaining nine old men...
The nine old men, the famous nine old men.
You had Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas,
Wolfgang Reitherman, and, of course, Ward Kimball.
And I wanted to meet them, so they took me over and introduced me,
and I had the most amazing couple of hours with them.
But Ward and I got on famously. Well, let's just talk about Ward for
a moment, because, yes, he joined Disney as a proper animator in 1937,
and he was tasked with doing all kinds of things,
including a kind of makeover on Mickey.
If we look back to Mickey's birth in 1928
he was a very different kind of creature.
He premiered in his first film Steamboat Willie,
and he was quite lanky,
not very cuddly, a bit, I have to say, rat-like.
Yes, absolutely, yes. Just between ourselves.
But Ward then cosied him up.
he gave him fatter cheeks, he made him a little bit plumper,
he made his eyes slightly more endearing and...
And I think the whole Mickey that we know so well today, one has to,
to a large extent, plump that at Ward Kimball's makeover.
Absolutely. What was fascinating, I said to Ward...
"I loved Mickey Mouse as a child. How did it evolve?"
And he said, "Get me a piece of paper," and he started drawing.
Oh, this is, this is the whole thing happening!
And this is Ward starting, and suddenly Mickey is coming alive
on the paper, and when he'd finished it,
he wrote, "Hi, Mike, from Mickey and ol' Ward Kimball."
Brilliant. And the head of the studio said he'd never known him
to do that for anybody, ever. It's a fabulous object.
We then have to deal with the tricky issue of valuation.
The thing is that it's not from one of the films,
so, you know, is that a bad thing? But it is from Ward Kimball,
so that's a good thing.
It is to you. Is that a bad thing or is it a good thing?
So, at auction on the open market, I'd say between
about £500 and £800, but it's almost priceless to you
because it's your very own Mickey Mouse.
Thank you very much for bringing it in. Thank you very much.
Well, it's not all about the value.
A few kind words and a thoughtful gift
from the creator of your childhood hero can mean the world,
as Judith Miller's about to discover.
So, Harry Potter - a magical name
to millions of people all over the world.
But, Amy, you have a special link to JK Rowling.
Tell me about it.
Yes. My story started 20 years ago,
when I unfortunately lost my mum to cervical cancer.
She found out that she was 14 weeks pregnant with my little sister,
and she decided to go ahead with the pregnancy,
realising that she was probably going to sacrifice her life.
And then she lost her life. She did lose her life, yes,
unfortunately, in 1997. And this is your mum?
Yes, this is my mum here, and this is myself,
my little sister Hannah, and this is my stepdad David.
In 2003, my stepdad was approached
by the researcher of Make A Wish Foundation.
I don't know if you remember, they used to do Christmas
television specials and I was invited to go on the special.
I declined, because it had been quite a time since my mum had died.
It had been in the past and I didn't really want to rake it all up again.
No. They did say, "We'd still like to give you something."
Unbeknown to me, a big package arrived one day, and in that package
was what you see here today. So, the books here and also the photos
from JK Rowling. So how did JK Rowling know about your story, Amy?
Well, from all of the newspaper articles,
my love of Harry Potter kind of shone through there,
and I think she kind of got an inkling
and wanted to get in contact.
So you got a personal letter from JK Rowling. I did, yes.
What's in it, Amy? There's a few funny little quips
about how she doesn't normally write to people.
Little things about Gilderoy Lockhart,
one of the characters from Harry Potter.
Just... Just her admiration for my story and my courage.
It obviously really touched her, this story. Yes, absolutely.
That's lovely and what a lovely gift.
And what about the poster? So, the poster...
I was invited as a guest of hers to go to the studios where
The Goblet Of Fire was being filmed
and I actually got to meet some of the cast.
Surreal experience, sitting on Daniel Radcliffe's bed,
playing PlayStation with him, believe it or not. LAUGHTER
I was then taken into the make-up department, and Maggie Smith
was sat there, having her make-up done.
In walks Emma Watson. Big hello, handshake, "Nice to meet you."
Absolutely surreal experience for such a Harry Potter fan
that I am and still am.
Well, it's just amazing... Yeah, absolutely. ..that all this
came about because JK Rowling was really moved by your story.
Yes, yeah, yeah, and it's something that I won't...
The experience and the items themselves
will be something that I will treasure forever.
I have a little girl, so they will be passed down to her.
Which is wonderful. Yeah, absolutely.
But obviously they have a value.
Yes. Particularly, you know, with all the collectors round the world
and, I mean, all these Harry Potters, you know...
a first edition. The others are not first edition,
but this one is a first edition...
Yeah, it is, yes. ..is going to be £3,000, £4,000.
The rest, maybe another £1,500... Amazing. ..but probably
about £5,000 to £8,000.
I mean, for you, that's not the important thing, I'm sure.
It's isn't, no, it's the... It's the memory behind it, absolutely.
Marvellous. Thank you.
Now, even the briefest of encounters
can leave the longest of impressions.
Roadshow viewer Cheryl will never forget her brush with fame.
In 1963, I won a competition to have tea with The Beatles.
The tea never actually materialised, but I did meet them,
and Paul McCartney walked across the studio floor,
put his arm round my shoulder, and I died and went to heaven.
Later on, he signed the back of my hand, there,
and I was allowed to keep this signature for about three weeks
until it turned into a filthy little black spot
and my mother made me wash it.
The great thing for me, really, was I'd suddenly gone from a fairly
quiet, insignificant little schoolgirl,
and suddenly everybody wanted to know me,
take me to the cinema, dance with me.
So, um, yes, it was very good for the...for the ego.
Very good for a young, nervous 16-year-old.
Time to pull up a bar stool and meet two of our EastEnders hosts.
Well, I'm delighted to say, here we are in the Queen Vic
with two of EastEnders' longest-serving cast members.
Letitia Dean, June Brown - delighted to meet you here.
And you're... You're fans of the show, I gather,
of Antiques Roadshow.
Yes, I love old things, including myself.
LAUGHTER
Yes, we need to get you valued, June, don't you think?
You've both been on the series for decades.
I remember watching you when I was more or less your age, when you
came here as a child star. Yeah, about 16.
And this, the Queen Vic, has been the scene of so, so many dramatic
moments in EastEnders. I mean, what about you, Letitia?
I mean, big standout moments.
I think, when I was quite young, when I was about 17, 18,
I remember when a character called Lofty was in the show,
and I had to crawl, I couldn't get up there now,
but I had to crawl along the bar, literally trying to, sort of, go,
"Do you fancy me, Lofty? Do you want a kiss?"
I mean, I know I'm probably not your type, but which bit of me
really turns you on, eh?
Have I got the right legs for a mini? Yeah, yeah, of course.
Do you like tights?
It was so embarrassing for me to do, you know, it was really awkward. JUNE CHUCKLES
You know, it is at that age, isn't it? Sure. And what about you, June?
I mean, so many moments to pick from.
Well, I enjoyed practically every scene with my son Nick.
Yes. You know, I did love that.
Great one for you was your two-hander with Ethel.
I was just about to say, and I had one with Gretchen Franklin,
who was Ethel. She was wonderful. Which was absolutely lovely,
and the only extra person we had in was a baby in the pram, Vicky,
Michelle's baby, wasn't it? And we were looking after her.
Oh, that was lovely.
Sometimes I'm inclined to ramble on a bit, take no notice.
I never do. No, I don't mean I always ramble,
I mean, it's only sometimes. Here, look at this.
Who's that? Michelle as a baby.
Oh, I say, isn't she like Pauline? Yes.
She's not like her mother, is she?
Oh, I can see it. Oh.
What's the time? Oh, not time yet.
Well, thank you very much for joining us on
our Antiques Roadshow 40th anniversary year,
and here in the Queen Vic of all places. It's been a real thrill,
thank you. Oh, we are so honoured that you've come here for your 40th.
Yes, it's lovely. We really are.
Cos we're quite proud of this place, aren't we, June?
Before we hear from our next visitor to EastEnders, I want to let you
know about a special programme we're planning for 2018.
It will highlight the role of pioneering women as we approach
the centenary of women getting the vote in Britain.
If you've got an item and story that relates to a woman who's been
a pioneer, in any walk of life, we'd like to hear from you at...
Next up let's hear from Roadshow viewer Lionel,
who has a poignant memory of meeting Jimi Hendrix.
Back in the 1960s, as a young teenager,
I helped my parents out in their cafe in the King's Road,
and I often had my autograph book there, because
they would be getting The Stones and The Beatles and people like
that into the cafe, and one day Jimi came in,
and my father had his camera on him,
took a photo of us altogether, the family with Jimi,
and I was thrilled to get his autograph,
which he kindly signed, "stay sweet always",
rather than just his name in the book.
Jumping forward a few years, I was selling platform boots in
Kensington Market, made to measure, and my mother sent Jimi over
to get a pair of purple crocodile boots made,
which I measured him and took his deposit,
and they were going to take a week to make, and then the next morning
I got the news that he'd died that morning in his hotel,
and we took the deposit and bought some flowers,
which went to the funeral.
Another Roadshow viewer, Terri, got in touch with us
to tell us about the time she met the New York artist
who once said that, one day, we'll each be famous for 15 minutes.
Andy Warhol, probably the most iconic artist, or one of them,
of the 20th century. Amazing. Signed camisole. What's the story?
Well, I was very fortunate.
I was invited to join Andy Warhol's entourage for a day
at the university in Colorado.
I happened to be living there at the time, and I knew Kimiko through...
The subject of that poster? ..the subject of this poster,
because I lived in the same house as her stepson. Ah, right.
John Powers and his father...
John Powers. ..John Powers Senior had one of the largest private art
collections in the US at the time. Yeah.
So it was a wonderful connection, and a wonderful day I got to spend
with him. And that's a picture of you, I take it? That is, yeah.
Looking... Much younger. ..just as beautiful then as you are now.
Thank you. And he had in his studio, The Factory,
he was always inviting beautiful people and celebrities.
He created celebrity. Yeah, he did.
He really did, and he signed your camisole...
Yeah, he did. ..on that day.
He'd like to have signed other things as well.
What do you...? What? What do you mean?
Well, he offered to sign everything, but we went for my jeans,
my silk jacket I had on, which you see in the picture,
and my camisole, and I settled for the camisole. Ah, I see,
and another iconic magazine, Interview, he signed that.
Yes, he gave that to me later in the day.
And in this picture he had one of his silver wigs on.
Yes, he did, and I remember walking around with him, thinking,
"Is that real or is that a wig?" because it was quite a...
At the time, it was quite an unusual way to wear your hair.
Yeah, he was an interesting character.
Well, interesting story, amazing memory for you.
Yeah, it was fabulous. An amazing day, yeah, really.
Down to value.
Well, we've got this poster which is fairly iconic, typical Andy Warhol.
He did these things in silk screen prints as an original
but this is the poster and the unsigned poster is just
a poster for an exhibition, £200 or £300.
Right. With the Andy Warhol signature, and I presume...
This is Kimiko. ..the Kimiko Powers signature in Japanese. That's right.
Phwoar!
£3,000 to £4,000.
Really?
Wow.
The Interview magazine, signed by Andy Warhol,
I'd say £1,000.
This photograph I'm sure is by Lee Black Childers.
He was a fascinating guy, I think from Kansas originally,
worked in a brothel. Great. On the reception. It fits.
It fits perfectly. Crazy guy, I met him and I'm...
And I'm sure I went to an exhibition of his photographs recently
and a photograph like that, Andy Warhol in a wig,
beautiful woman standing behind him, I still think that's £500...
Wow. Wow. ..to £1,000.
This fits in with his idea of what art was,
that art could be anything, even if it was commercial, the soup tins,
the dollar bills, whatever,
so I think this is really iconic Andy Warhol,
and I would value this, with your story,
and him wanting to sign everything you were wearing,
I'd put this at...
£5,000. Oh, my God.
I'm going to cry.
Collective value, all told, £10,000.
Oh, God.
Oh, my God.
That's amazing.
Amazing. Thank you.
Time for a classic comedy moment,
as we meet an unlikely and somewhat furry star.
Quite simply the most famous rodent
on British television. That's right.
Shall we see him in action? That'd be good.
Uh, Polly, would you get the biscuits please?
Here they are, Fawlty.
Ah! Uh, Cheddar, Danish blue, Edam?
A little Danish blue please. Certainly.
Edam? No, thank you.
Biscuits?
Thank you.
LAUGHTER
What...? Would you, would you care for a rat or...?
Just, just the biscuits then, please, Polly.
Well, this little fellow did rather well that day.
How have you got him?
My husband made puppets for various children's TV programmes
and then end... Somehow ended up with the Visual Effects Department.
And so he made fabulous little Basil,
and of course he thought it was a hamster...
That's right, a Siberian hamster, yeah.
Siberian hamster! And so Manuel called him Basil. That's it.
And this little chap was sitting in the biscuit box. Yeah.
And this little chap was actually pulled across the floor.
At great speed across the floor, yes.
With fantastic ingenuity of drawing pins in the bottom
to make him speed a little bit faster. That, that's right, yes.
I mean we're talking about in the mid '70s but people remember Basil.
Yeah, yeah, they do.
So your husband's work, and had he always made puppets? Yes,
when he was about five years old I think he started making puppets.
Really? Yes, so we've got a houseful of puppets.
But was Basil the rat his most famous?
Uh, I think so, yes. Probably, yeah.
So, we now have the two rats.
Now, John Cleese got one, didn't he?
He asked if he could keep one, but unfortunately
he's recently spoken about losing it somewhere so...
So the other Basil has gone? Mmm, mm. Oh, no!
Well, actually what that does is make your Basils more desirable.
Mm-hmm. So because everybody
of a certain age in particular knows about Basil.
Yeah. And because that programme will go on and on,
I think these have...have value.
Right. This little chap here
with his little moving head and his charming little arms,
going up and down, I mean, how cute is that?!
I think...each one of them
is 2,000.
Really? Oh, my goodness.
Possibly even 3,000.
I mean... And, oh, my goodness.
They are just so important in the history of comedy.
Oh, wow. He'll be absolutely thrilled to hear that.
Thank you.
MUSIC: James Bond Theme
Wow. From memorable comedy to a famous movie franchise.
When we put out our call for stories we were delighted when we heard
from the daughter of the man who wrote this famous theme.
Monty, you are responsible for what I think is the most iconic
theme tune of them all, which is the James Bond theme tune.
Thank you. And you wrote it for a musical originally
that never got made. Yes.
So how did you come to use this piece of music for the Bond movies?
Because I'd worked several times with Cubby Broccoli.
The producer of the Bond movies. The producer.
And he'd just acquired the rights of the James Bond novels
from Ian Fleming. The first one he was going to do would be Dr No
and he wanted me to write the music.
And what was it about the theme tune that you already had
that you thought you could adapt to the Bond movies?
Well, what I did was I dug it out
and I played it and sang it to myself, and it went...
# I was born with this unlucky sneeze
# And what is worse I came into... #
And so on. Nothing like it!
And I suddenly realised that the way to do this is to split the notes,
so instead of... # Da-ee-a-da. #
..it became... # Dum-diddy-dum-dum
# Dum dum dum Dum-diddy-dum-dum... #
Well, the moment I heard that, I knew I was on to it.
It had everything I wanted for James Bond -
it had the ruthlessness, the sexiness and everything else.
So looking at your manuscript here, looking at the notes, this...
I know all the James Bond movies, I know your theme tune so well,
so you've got the opening notes...
# Da-nah-nah... # ..with a sharp note.
And then it goes on. That's right. Then you've got...
# Da dah-dah dah dah Da da da
# Da dah-dah dah... # Exactly. This is full...
I've brought... I must have written that, scribbled that down in 1961.
And why do you think your theme tune has lasted
through all the different changes in music style, music fashion?
Well, I can't even answer that but the, the point is
that with any major theme, it's the first four bars that matter,
and with that one...
# Dum da-da dum dum... # ..is all you need really,
because, from that, I wrote the whole thing organically.
And you went to Jamaica to be on the set of Dr No
with Sean Connery and Ursula Andress.
We've got you here. Here you are. And this chap is the, the director.
That's Terence Young, yes. And it must have been quite a thing.
I mean did anyone have any sense, either the director or Sean Connery,
Ursula Andress, that they were at the start of something that
would last so long and become so huge in the movie industry?
None whatsoever. It's not possible.
So when you go to the cinema now, and you watch a James Bond movie,
and you hear your music all these decades on,
what do you think, are you proud?
I'm very proud.
Nobody could have been sure that it was going to last this long,
and I certainly wasn't,
and I didn't even think I'd be here to find out!
Well, you're being very modest. It's a great piece of music,
and it's been lovely to talk to you. Thank you.
Now, I understand that you're a sort of amateur archivist for the
Elstree Studios. Well, yes, I act as a historian for Elstree Studios.
I first went there in 1960 as a lad.
My late father worked in the industry
and I've been involved really for the studios for 57 years now.
Wow, fantastic. And you've brought along two of these story reports
of I think a collection of up to 20.
Yes, there's about 20 volumes. I saved them from going into the skip
when part of Elstree Studios was sold off and we were dumping
material and I said I'd rather keep these because
they're a unique legacy. They were compiled by
the Reader's Department at Elstree Studios.
In those days, studios had readers who would look at scripts submitted,
new novels published, stage plays,
anything that could give them an idea for a film,
and they would have to compile a report, a synopsis of the story,
and their comments as to whether the film was
a possibility or not and submit it to management.
And there is the challenge. They've turned down films like
The Great Escape, Dr No, Passage To India,
all sorts of films over the years because
people trying to second guess what the market was for that,
and these, in a sense, reflect a moment in time.
So quite, quite an important historical document in many ways.
I think so because I don't believe any other studios kept them.
Let's delve into this one here and if I can just open this.
It's really heavy. Open it up...
..and this is, well, "Title Of Subject: Thunderball."
Yes. "Author: Ian Fleming.
"Type Of Material: Thriller."
And this is 25th of the 11th, 1960.
This is before Dr No was shot, so this is... Before Dr No.
We just go on a few pages and we go to the report,
and it says, "Reader's Comment:
"Pretty much the mixture as before, plus a few modern props.
"This time a typical James Bond adventure gets off to a good start,
"but fails to build up tension."
So pretty damning really. Very damning actually, yes,
cos it goes on to say that, "All through the main story
"this excessive use of modern gadgetry..."
Which is the Bond staple, wasn't it?
Yes! "..proves to be a substitute for character and intervention.
"These defects would be certain
"to show up more disastrously on the screen.
"I feel the story would not promote a successful film."
"No..." LAUGHTER
"No recommendation." No recommendation.
So a big mistake. Big mistake, yes. Let's move on to the one nearer you.
Well, this one goes back to 1951,
and this was for an idea of a film called The Dam Busters.
Now, did the public want a film about the dam busters,
because it was only seven or eight years earlier?
And here we see the reader's report.
"There is everything here for a truly memorial war film.
"The almost unbearable excitement,
"the humour behind the scenes and even a love interest.
"The whole thing would inevitably raise our prestige
"and the film could be launched in a splash of publicity
"as well as raising the morale of the nation at a time when
"the lion's roar is more like a bleat from a Pekinese pup."
LAUGHTER
And the film was green lighted for production at Elstree,
but it took two years preparing it, so it wasn't released
for, you know, a few years after that. Um...
It's very difficult to value an archive like... Without doubt,
it's an important document in the history of British film-making
and you've got 20 of those so, you know,
even if you put it as little as £500 on each,
that's 10,000 to 15,000, maybe more, for insurance,
so, you know, it is an important archive.
You saved it and I think we all owe you a great,
well, appreciation, because without you, these would be long gone.
Thank you. Thank you.
The role of studio workers, such as story reviewers, was invaluable,
as was the humble tea lady.
Thanks to a viewer getting in touch, we heard about Ruby,
who met a galaxy of stars while working at MGM Studios in Elstree.
I've been told that you and I have got something in common. We have?
Yeah, I used to be a hairdresser to the stars,
and I was told that you were a tea lady to the stars.
Yes, I was, up at MGM in 1949.
'49? Yep. Wow, before I was born.
Oh, stop bragging! LAUGHTER
So who are these two guys?
He is here because I used to serve him on the trolley.
Stewart Grainger? Stewart Grainger, and he used to come in specially
cos I used to do him bread and dripping. Oh, really?
He loved bread and dripping,
and I used to do that specially for him,
and I'll tell you a little thing about it, we used to bet.
He used to throw a coin,
and if I won, he paid for his bread and dripping,
but if he won I paid for his bread and dripping.
Really? Yeah. How amazing!
Yeah, but every time I won he used to say to me, "See my man."
I said, "Who the heck is your man?" I said, "You owe me money!"
That was, was when he was working on Beau Brummel.
Oh, right. Victor Mature and he was my heart-throb by the way.
Oh, really? I was asked to go to the cabin, with a tray,
and when I went in, Victor Mature was there.
I nearly fainted, I was so pleased to see him.
I got the shock of my life cos when I took in the tray
and put it down in front of him I turned round and asked him,
did he want me to pour his tea for him,
and he said, "Oh, no, thank you,"
and when he turned around he had a head full of pipe cleaners.
What, for curling his hair? Curling his hair,
and I thought that was natural, cos that's what I fell in love with.
Oh, my God. He had a mass of curly hair.
What was your impression
of the studios and the people that passed through it?
Oh, I mean, you just imagine!
I mean, I'm a pitman's daughter
and coming into this great MGM with lights and...
There's studios all around, you know, it was... It was just awesome.
I mean, it was the most wonderful experience of my life.
So happy. Yeah. Well, it's been incredible to meet you.
And you. Wonderful to hear some of your stories. Yes.
I mean, I'm going on to 92 so my memories are still good.
That is, that's incredible. Yeah. You look amazing.
Thank you. I really mean it.
Coming from you, thank you. Mwah. Thank you so much.
I regard myself as being a bit of musician so I know a little bit
about guitars, and although I'm a bass player, I know exactly what
that is. That's a Telecaster, that's a Fender Telecaster.
But what's the history behind it?
Well, this was the guitar that Mike Oldfield used to record
the electric guitar parts on Tubular Bells.
Right, so hence our copy of Tubular Bells here.
I was nine years old when Tubular Bells came out.
It was one of those albums that kind of, in a way, changed my life
as a boy, I just thought it was just incredible.
So, what's that? 1973 the album came out. Yeah,
Oldfield was 19 years old when he did that album as well.
It's staggering, isn't it?
I hate him! LAUGHTER
Oldfield was a non-reader, wasn't he? He couldn't read music.
That's right, he made up coloured charts
to annotate when different instruments were coming in.
Well, listen, you know,
I'm going to have to ask you, how did you acquire it?
Well, Mike put it up for auction for charity in 2009...
Right. ..and it failed to sell. Right.
But what I did was I got an old copy of the catalogue
and then contacted the charity direct. Right, OK.
And made them an offer
and they thought about it for a few days and accepted it.
The other interesting thing was that Mike got it from Marc Bolan.
Ah, one of my heroes. Yeah.
So it's had two very famous players own it.
I'd love to have a go on this guitar but I think it's more appropriate
if you could strum a tune for us. Would you mind doing that?
OK, I can do that, for a small fee. Lovely, OK, go ahead.
I think that's incredible also about this guitar is that, you know,
as you've just described, it was Marc Bolan's before.
I mean that, that's a sort of a double whammy on a guitar like this
really, isn't it? It's got history.
Why did he pass it on?
They were both signed to the NEMS agency -
you know, run by Brian Epstein... Right. And they were both involved
with a chap called Roy Guest, and Marc didn't get on with the guitar,
so when Roy heard that Mike was looking for one
to record Tubular Bells, he got the guitar from Marc for him.
Are you ready?
Brilliant.
I don't think I'm going to embarrass myself
and try and keep up with that.
It's very good. I mean, it is, you know,
it's a good enough guitar in its own right to be worth a lot of money
anyway, as an original '60s Fender Telecaster,
so if we're starting to kind of work it up and talk about its history
and think about what it's really, really worth,
you know it was Marc Bolan's to start off with.
Yeah. Absolutely incredible.
It then went on to be Mike Oldfield's, perhaps one of
the biggest selling artists of all time,
and here he is, picture of him in his studio,
with that Fender propped up next to him in the studio,
you know, 100% certain of that,
and how do we put a price on it? It's really, really difficult.
Do you mind me asking what you paid for it?
Uh, under 10,000. Under 10,000. Yeah.
Well, you know, it was a lot of money, wasn't it? Yeah.
But I still think it's worth a lot more than that,
and, quite frankly, I think if it were to come up for auction,
I would put £20,000 to £30,000 on that guitar.
It's a guitar with great history and I hope you enjoy playing it.
Thank you. My pleasure.
DOCTOR WHO THEME TUNE
From music royalty to television history,
so let's travel back in time for a unique memento
of TV's favourite Time Lord.
When I stepped onto Albert Square this morning,
the first thing that struck me was the amount
of television history that's here. We've got the square itself,
of course the Queen Vic behind me,
and from one iconic TV series, I suppose straight to another,
and the days of black and white television,
Doctor Who and The Tribe Of Gum,
a television script,
quite a rare thing, how did you get it?
Well, it was given to me by my grandfather.
I suppose I was about eight,
went down to see him in the summer, as we always did.
Grandad worked for a building company.
William Hartnell had just moved out of his cottage in Mayfield
in East Sussex, I think to somewhere in Kent,
and this was in the detritus that was being thrown out
during the refurbishment of the cottage,
and Grandad gave it to me cos I was an avid, and still am,
Doctor Who viewer. Wow. So did you...
Did you understand what it was, that it was a script for Doctor Who?
Well, I suppose at that age, yeah, I knew it was a script for Doctor Who,
I read it, yeah, cos there's technical stuff in there
and I thought, um, don't really understand some of it, at that age,
and it sort of just stayed with me when I moved round the country
and grew up, and it's something
I've always sort of wanted to know a little bit more about.
Well, fantastic. So the script has actually got this blue pencil
which shows the lines that the Doctor speaks,
and it makes you just wonder when William Hartnell,
the first Doctor Who, was going through this with his pencil,
probably sitting at home with his wife and working on his script,
what he was thinking, it's a new programme, it's...
No-one's seen this sort of thing before,
no-one's really done science fiction on the BBC before,
let alone at tea time on a Saturday,
but it's just lovely to see it and, for me, a real privilege,
it really, really is.
One thing that maybe you hadn't realised
this it isn't any old Doctor Who story.
This is a script for the very first Doctor Who story, 1963. No.
He was in 30 stories, he could have left 30 scripts in that house,
it just so happens that he left the script for the very first story,
and that's what we've got. This is the DNA of Doctor Who,
it's the Genesis of the programme.
So a very, very important thing.
Doctor Who, as we all know,
has an enormous fan following, it really does, and there are
fans who would give their eye teeth for something like that.
I don't see any reason for anyone wanting to fake this, it looks...
You've given a cast iron provenance and it's showing signs of age.
I think in terms of value we need to be looking at
between £5,000 and £7,000.
What?!
Oh, my!
Oh, dear!
It's not going back and sitting in a file.
You will never see another one.
Oh, wow. Thanks, Grandad!
Thanks.
When we put out the notice that we were doing a Roadshow special
on entertainment we hoped beyond hope that we would get
some wonderful film props,
and you have delivered because you've got three props here
for some of the greatest films ever made here in these studios,
but what's important about film props is the history
and the provenance. So what was your job here in the studio?
My job in the studio was scenic painter.
I painted anything that needed painting - a scene,
a set on the stage,
a prop - it was, "Ron, paint this."
Sometimes I didn't know what it was.
I wouldn't know what colour to paint it but I would paint it
and I then I would get an OK from an art director,
"Oh, yes, that's what we wanted."
So here we have the iconic mask, Darth Vader's mask.
Which series was this one from?
This was the first Star Wars in '76.
I started in January and this came to me
a fortnight after I started work,
and they said, "Spray this one."
They showed me a drawing and I painted it.
So we move from Star Wars on to Raiders Of The Lost Ark,
and here, again, a really important prop
because it was the one on the Staff Of Ra. I think it is, isn't it?
Yeah, the Staff Of Ra. And it's how they discovered the right location.
This was brought to me.
I did five of them for different scenes throughout the film
and they would come to me, collect one at a time,
because they were quite fragile.
I painted the actual Ark itself, the big gold Ark.
The actual Ark itself? So that's the same, same process
that I used for the Ark.
And the Ark I think is now in a private collection.
It's in George Lucas's shed in the garden. I think it is.
But again, film-used.
Yeah, film-used, yes.
And finally the axe. Yeah, the axe. This came to me...
I did 14 months on The Shining
and this came to me towards the end of the film.
So this was the axe actually used to batter down,
Jack Nicholson battered down the door.
It went right through the door and got caught on the other side
and when they pulled it out, it damaged the edge there,
it cracked and it became loose, so it couldn't be used again.
I was going to make a fibreglass one to copy
so they could use it safely.
So basically this is the original one that battered down the door.
That is the... ..and the fibreglass one that they could carry around.
Yeah, they could carry around.
So how did you come to keep such iconic pieces?
Well, this came back to me to be refurbished,
but I was waiting for the helmet, which is missing,
so I just put this to one side and the film eventually wound up,
cleared up, and everything was being thrown in the skip.
AUDIENCE: Oooh!
In the skip. So you saved it?
So I said, I'll save that.
The same with that.
It came back to me after the film,
and they said, "Here Ron, look after that," so I looked after it.
LAUGHTER
The same with this.
This is no good any more, cos it's broken.
We're not going to use it,
so it stayed in my workshop for...
..nearly five years, and then when I was clearing out,
I cleared this out with it. So you saved these for the nation.
I saved them. And it could all have gone in a skip.
It could have all gone in a skip. Fantastic.
So we have to talk about values, and prop prices have gone up
radically in the last few years, so there are many, many collectors out
there internationally, and these are truly international films,
and these are iconic pieces.
So what I'm trying to say, it ticks all these boxes. All the boxes.
Now, let's think about it if it went to auction.
The axe, if it went to sale, I certainly would see that making...
What shall I say? ..sort of £40,000 to £60,000.
CROWD GASP
The medallion, I would certainly think between
£60,000 and £100,000.
And, well, the most evilest iconic evil monster ever, ever produced -
arguably - Darth Vader,
known worldwide, so what's that worth?
If it should come to auction,
£150,000 to £200,000.
LAUGHTER Quite nice.
So what does that make? Quarter of a million, is that?
Low estimate. 350, top end.
Yeah. The best props I have ever seen.
Yeah. And where do they go next?
To my son, grandson. To your grandson.
What a wonderful thing.
What a stellar collection!
Our thanks to Ron and to all those who've joined us to share their
stories and reveal their mementoes from the world of entertainment.
Well, that is an incredible bequest from your grandfather.
Yes, yes. Did you know he was suddenly going to hand it
over to you? Not, not to me. I assumed
they would stay in the family, but not, say directly to myself.
So what do you think? That's great.
I mean I'm into my films and I do a bit of work
in that sort of industry myself.
It's not everyday you come across these sort of items though,
so it's a nice surprise. I'll say! Well, congratulations.
Thank you very much.
From the EastEnders set and the Antiques Roadshow team,
and of course Darth Vader, bye-bye.