1 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:08,840 'In our modern world, there's something 2 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:12,960 'we've all searched for - romantic love. 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,000 'I've been investigating its history. 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,200 'Seeing how the Georgians and Victorians invented 5 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,080 'so many of the traditions of romance.' 6 00:00:23,080 --> 00:00:25,680 # I wish a falling star 7 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:27,080 # Could fall forever...# 8 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:30,320 'But the main revolution is yet to come.' 9 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:34,560 # And sparkle through the clouds and stormy weather...# 10 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:36,560 'When the idea of finding The One 11 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,960 'would become the central focus of our desires.' 12 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:43,360 During the first half of the 20th century, 13 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:48,200 there was more social upheaval than at any point in history. 14 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:51,960 And out of this turmoil came romance as we know it today. 15 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:57,840 'As women became indispensible, their needs began to matter. 16 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:02,160 'A new kind of fiction emerged for a new kind of woman. 17 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:04,640 'It was racy, explicit. 18 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:09,000 'It was devoured avidly and lived out in reality. 19 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,520 'It didn't stop at boundaries of class, or sexuality. 20 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:17,880 'This new kind of romance was based on the idea that a soulmate 21 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:20,520 'was essential to personal fulfilment.' 22 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:27,400 By the end of the century, romance wasn't just highly desirable, 23 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:31,640 it had become a right, to be demanded by everybody. 24 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,200 Welcome to the age of modern romance. 25 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:37,880 # And let's never 26 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:41,960 # Stop falling in love. # 27 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,640 'It's 1917 and the Great War is at its peak.' 28 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:57,000 Millions of men have been taken away. 29 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,320 Not just from home, but from a generation of women. 30 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:04,560 The sixth formers of the Bournemouth Girls' School 31 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:09,440 have assembled for an important address from their senior mistress. 32 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:13,040 Girls, I have something terrible to tell you. 33 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:17,480 Only one in ten of you can ever hope to marry. 34 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:22,960 The men who might have married you have all been killed. 35 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:27,840 You will have to make your way in the world as best you can. 36 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:37,400 Sitting amongst the pupils in that classroom was Rosamund Essex. 37 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,680 And years later, when she came to write her autobiography, 38 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:43,680 she remembered what a significant moment that had been. 39 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:49,200 "It was one of the most fateful statements of my life. 40 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,880 "Quite simply, there was no-one available." 41 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:54,880 "There would be no husband, 42 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:58,040 "no children, no sexual outlet, 43 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:00,520 "no natural bond of man and woman. 44 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:03,320 "It was going to be a struggle indeed." 45 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,200 And it turned out that only one in ten 46 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,960 of Rosamund's classmates would get married. 47 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:12,400 And she was among those who didn't. 48 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,600 The gulf between the sexes had never been greater. 49 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:22,040 Many of the men who had survived the war 50 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,320 were physically or emotionally broken. 51 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:31,880 A generation of so-called surplus women were left unmarried 52 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:34,880 and were also left holding things together. 53 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:38,120 'Romance seemed far out of reach. 54 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:40,720 'Fortunately, help was at hand.' 55 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,760 In 1919, many thousands of British women 56 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:46,880 indulged in a little light relief. 57 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:48,400 The Sheik. 58 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,200 It was the 50 Shades of Grey of its day. 59 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:55,200 It was a steamy, erotic, sensational tale. 60 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,880 It was a must-read, whether you admitted it or not. 61 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:04,320 'The Sheik was so successful 62 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:07,880 'that Hollywood studios fought over the movie rights. 63 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:12,440 'Within a couple of years, the film, starring Rudolph Valentino, 64 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,240 'was breaking box-office records. 65 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:18,760 'It offered exactly the escapist thrill that women needed. 66 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:24,720 'A journey to a world that couldn't be further from reality. 67 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,400 'So, what's it all about? Well...' 68 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:31,240 The fiercely-independent Miss Diana Mayo 69 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:33,960 has rejected many offers of marriage. 70 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,800 She's chosen instead to go travelling in the Sahara Desert. 71 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,720 But now she's been captured by the dangerous 72 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,720 Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan and his followers. 73 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:45,400 This woman, who swore 74 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:49,640 that she would never bow down to the authority of a man, 75 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:52,680 is completely at the mercy of the sheik. 76 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:56,720 Here was a physically impressive alpha male. 77 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:01,520 A fantasy figure for women who wanted their men to be strong once again. 78 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,680 "She was trapped! Powerless, defenceless. 79 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:09,960 "And behind the heavy curtains near her 80 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,400 "was the man waiting to claim what he had taken." 81 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:20,320 "There was no help to be expected. No mercy to be hoped for. 82 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:23,560 "She clenched her hands in anguish! 83 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:29,440 "The flaming light of desire burning in his eyes 84 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:31,520 "turned her sick and faint. 85 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:33,760 "Her body throbbed with the consciousness 86 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:36,040 "of a knowledge that appalled her. 87 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:38,840 "She understood his purpose with horror. 88 00:05:38,840 --> 00:05:42,440 " 'Oh, you brute! You brute!' she wailed, 89 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:46,000 "until his kisses silenced her." 90 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,720 'But hang on a minute! Our hero is forcing himself upon our heroine? 91 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:54,840 'It doesn't make for an easy read today. 92 00:05:54,840 --> 00:06:00,280 'But in 1919, this was the only way that readers could accept Diana 93 00:06:00,280 --> 00:06:04,160 'embarking on a sexual relationship without being married.' 94 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,360 'And it's one that she ends up enjoying.' 95 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:17,520 The novel celebrates female sexual desire without any guilt. 96 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:20,720 "She lay shaking with passionate yearning, 97 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:25,160 "hungry for the clasp of his arms. Faint with longing." 98 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:30,160 This spicy page-turner was the debut novel 99 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:32,640 of the wife of a pig farmer from Derbyshire. 100 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:37,200 Edith Maude Hull, whose husband, Percy, 101 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:40,360 had been called up at the outbreak of war. 102 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:44,920 The bored and frustrated Edith wrote the book to distract herself 103 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,040 at a time when she felt all on her own. 104 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:50,360 And she obviously struck a chord. 105 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:52,960 Royalties for The Sheik and her later novels 106 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:56,200 came to the equivalent of £50 million. 107 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:57,720 Ker-ching! 108 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,680 The 20th century was putting the sex into romance. 109 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:05,560 And females everywhere were lapping it up. 110 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:10,720 EM Hull understood what women, 111 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:14,440 both married and unmarried, wanted in the post-war years. 112 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:18,440 Her novel was tapping into a curiosity about sex. 113 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:20,640 A subject that had been off-limits. 114 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:24,400 'It was also a topic that was exercising the minds 115 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:26,880 'of Britain's scientific community, 116 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,160 'where women were beginning to have an impact. 117 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:32,880 'It was from this world of academia 118 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:35,840 'that a new manifesto of love emerged.' 119 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:40,040 At its heart was a radical idea. 120 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:44,800 That romantic happiness lay in sexual satisfaction within wedlock. 121 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,280 Of the marriages that had survived the Great War, 122 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:50,120 many had been put under strain. 123 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:52,960 This book promised to reignite them. 124 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,080 "Every heart desires a mate. 125 00:07:57,080 --> 00:07:59,760 "We are incomplete in ourselves. 126 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,720 "There is nothing for which the innermost spirit yearns 127 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,480 "as for a sense of union with another soul." 128 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:10,800 Behind all this flowery, romantic language 129 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:12,600 lay a very practical purpose. 130 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:17,320 Married Love was an out-and-out sex manual. 131 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:19,360 It was full of really explicit detail. 132 00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:21,720 I love the fact that all this sexy stuff 133 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:25,960 isn't coming from some exotic continental psychoanalyst, 134 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:30,840 it was the work of a highly-respected expert in prehistoric plants. 135 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:34,960 Dr Marie Stopes was the embodiment 136 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:37,400 of the new emancipated woman. 137 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:41,560 But she believed she'd suffered as a result of sex ignorance. 138 00:08:41,560 --> 00:08:45,000 'She claimed that her first husband had been impotent 139 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,320 'and that marriage ended in divorce. 140 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:51,520 'So she was inspired to explore a new line of research.' 141 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:55,200 Marie Stopes' Marriage Manual is dedicated to, 142 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,560 "Young husbands, and all those who are betrothed in love". 143 00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:03,200 She set out to educate couples that having a good sex life, 144 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:05,200 a satisfying sex life, 145 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,320 was central to the physical and emotional wellbeing, 146 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:12,760 both of the man and, here's the surprising bit, of the woman, too. 147 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:17,640 "So complex, so profound, are woman's sex instincts 148 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:21,360 "that in rousing them, the man is rousing her whole body and soul. 149 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:23,960 "And this takes time. 150 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:28,040 "More time indeed than the average husband dreams of spending upon it." 151 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:32,760 OK, then, Marie, so, what's he actually supposed to do? 152 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,520 "The kissing and the tender fondling with the lips of a woman's breasts 153 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:39,600 "is one of the first and surest ways to make her ready 154 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:42,680 "for complete and satisfactory union." 155 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:44,280 Just to be absolutely clear, 156 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,360 what is it that you mean by, "complete and satisfactory union"? 157 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:52,480 "The half-swooning sense of flux which overtakes the spirit 158 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:55,640 "in that eternal moment at the apex of rapture 159 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:57,840 "sweeps into its flaming tides 160 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:00,120 "the whole essence of the man and woman. 161 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:05,160 "The heat of the contact vaporises their consciousness 162 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:08,120 "so that it fills the whole of cosmic space." 163 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:14,240 # Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. # 164 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:17,200 'Wow! 165 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:21,200 'The book became a massive talking point and a bestseller. 166 00:10:22,560 --> 00:10:26,960 'The scientist had succeeded in her intention to electrify the public.' 167 00:10:29,560 --> 00:10:33,280 Marie Stopes had rewritten the rules of romance. 168 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:38,360 Traditionally, the wedding had been seen as the climax of romantic love, 169 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,240 but now it was just the beginning. 170 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:44,840 If you followed Marie Stopes' advice and had great sex, 171 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:48,840 you could keep alive the excitement of courtship within marriage. 172 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:53,760 She was suggesting that your spouse could be a sort of one-stop shop 173 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:57,040 for all your emotional and physical needs. 174 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,640 'It was such a powerful idea that, after publishing her book, 175 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,600 'Stopes received up to 500 letters a day 176 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:09,560 'from people desperate to know the secret to a satisfying marriage.' 177 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:15,840 The Wellcome Library has a large collection of this correspondence 178 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:19,720 and Leslie Hall, Senior Archivist, has agreed to show me some. 179 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,280 So here is some...just some of the letters... 180 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:24,320 - Tiny sample... - ..written in, to her. 181 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:27,880 ..of the - what, something like 10,000 letters we have here. 182 00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:32,280 - Golly. - This is a young woman who's engaged to a young man - 183 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,360 "..and during this weekend we were discussing our future 184 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,440 "and my fiance revealed to me 185 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:41,120 "that he could not reconcile himself to having children, as he felt 186 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,800 "no sexual desire towards me, although he loves me exceedingly." 187 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:48,600 - Well, it's a good job she's discovered that at this stage! - Yes, yes, yes 188 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:51,720 and I think Stopes responds to that, pretty much saying, 189 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:53,840 "I don't think you should marry him." 190 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,200 "Don't do it! Run!" 191 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,920 A marriage was such...this thing that people did, 192 00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:02,680 that you feel a lot of people married 193 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:06,120 even if they didn't particularly feel sexual desire either towards 194 00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:09,560 - the person they were about to marry, or at all. - Yeah. 195 00:12:09,560 --> 00:12:13,040 This letter over here - he says, "My wife is now 53 years old. 196 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:14,960 "We've been married for 14 years 197 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:18,840 "and she has never experienced any pleasure in married life - 198 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:20,920 "what I believe you call orgasm," 199 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:23,760 and then he admits that "we've both done little to induce it. 200 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:24,840 "What should we do?" 201 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:26,800 There are lots of letters like that 202 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:30,520 and you even get people writing to her who had completely failed 203 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:36,280 to consummate their marriage for, you know, long periods of time, 204 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:37,920 and saying, well, you know, 205 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:40,680 "Is there any way we can finally achieve this?" 206 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:43,160 Yeah. So what Marie Stopes is doing is fantastic. 207 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:47,160 - She's putting all these people in touch with their sexual selves. - Exactly. Yes. 208 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,320 Does that suggest to you that people at the time were desperate 209 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:53,320 to know this sort of information, they were thirsty for it? 210 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:54,800 Absolutely, yes, there was 211 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:58,720 a real desire for the kind of information she was giving 212 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,160 in the way that she was giving it. 213 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:05,680 She's sort of wrapped it up in this very kind of idealistic 214 00:13:05,680 --> 00:13:09,760 marriage-focussed way that makes it very acceptable 215 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:14,560 in a way that I think going straight to the explicit would not have done. 216 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:18,600 Yeah. What do you think was the gift that Marie Stopes gave to couples? 217 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:22,520 She brought, as it were, a kind of romance into marriage. 218 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:25,240 It wasn't just the precursor to the union. 219 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:27,840 It was embedded within marriage. 220 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,520 She's opened up the genie's bottle a bit, hasn't she? 221 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:31,600 Oh, she has, yes. 222 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:34,680 I mean, she's saying it's good for you to experience... 223 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:37,040 She's saying it's good and it's important 224 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:40,120 and everybody should be having this wonderful experience. 225 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,000 Of course, lots of people couldn't. 226 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,440 What's going to happen? All sorts of trouble ahead. 227 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:46,040 All sorts of trouble ahead. 228 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:52,760 Marie Stopes had bound together romance and sexuality 229 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:57,720 and in doing so has helped fashion the modern notion of what a soulmate could be. 230 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:04,120 A very different writer wanted to explore similar territory 231 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:08,760 but he wasn't going to kowtow to contemporary moral convention. 232 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:14,160 DH Lawrence was a romantic maverick. 233 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,640 In his infamous book, Lady Chatterley's Lover, 234 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:19,760 he rips up the rulebook of romance. 235 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:24,320 He believes the pursuit of the perfect union shouldn't be 236 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:27,560 constrained by marriage or by class. 237 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:31,720 His heroine, the aristocratic Lady Constance Chatterley, 238 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:34,880 is married, but she finds her soulmate 239 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:37,200 in the gamekeeper Oliver Mellors. 240 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:40,360 When they finally get together, it's explosive. 241 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:46,120 "Her whole self quivered unconscious and alive, like plasm. 242 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:48,200 "She could not know what it was. 243 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,880 "She could not remember what it had been. 244 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:54,800 "Only that it had been more lovely than anything ever could be." 245 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:58,360 It's often remembered for being a steamy, sexy book 246 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:03,520 but I think that Lady Chatterley sits squarely in the great tradition of British romance. 247 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:08,920 And it's said to have been inspired by the real-life love affair 248 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:11,480 of one of Lawrence's acquaintances. 249 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,240 This is Lady Ottoline Morrell. 250 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:20,760 She was a very striking-looking person. 251 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:24,280 She had a habit of wearing red high-heeled shoes. 252 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,080 Some people said that she had strong features, 253 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:30,360 others that she looked like a horse! 254 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:32,840 This picture in the National Portrait Gallery 255 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:36,120 was painted by her one-time lover Augustus John. 256 00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:44,800 DH Lawrence said there was only one Ottoline and "she has moved one's imagination". 257 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,680 Lady Ottoline was a ferocious socialite. 258 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,960 In 1902, she'd married the MP Phillip Morrell 259 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:57,080 but her happiness ended the minute she took off her wedding dress. 260 00:15:57,080 --> 00:16:00,040 On their wedding night, Phillip suddenly announced 261 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,000 that he didn't want to have a sexual relationship with her. 262 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:04,840 Bit of a downer! 263 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,000 But just like Lady Chatterley in Lawrence's novel, 264 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,880 Ottoline found comfort elsewhere. 265 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:12,920 She had so many affairs that 266 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:18,080 Lady Ottoline Morrell earned herself the nickname of Lady Utterly Immoral. 267 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:23,640 But there was one affair that she kept deeply secret. 268 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:28,160 In 1920, a young stonemason called Lionel Gomme came to carry out 269 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:32,520 repairs at her country house, Garsington Manor. 270 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:37,320 The aristocrat was immediately drawn to this handsome workman. 271 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:42,200 # At last 272 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:47,840 # My love has come along... # 273 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:52,280 Ottoline wrote in her diary that she'd discovered this "remarkable boy". 274 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:57,360 He was "extremely beautiful with a very intelligent face". 275 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,600 But there was a problem - she was 47 years old, 276 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,360 more than 20 years older than him. 277 00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:07,680 She wondered whether he would ever show the slightest interest in her. 278 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:13,720 The sexual adventuress was reduced to a quivering schoolgirl. 279 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,680 But Lionel did respond eventually 280 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,080 and they embarked on a passionate affair. 281 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:27,640 The physical side of their relationship was a revelation to her. 282 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:32,640 She confessed that she'd never before experienced such wild sexual abandon. 283 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:38,160 In her diary, she describes Lionel as the only man 284 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:42,400 she had ever loved sexually AND emotionally. 285 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:46,400 But alas, this happiness would be short-lived. 286 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:52,000 In 1922, only two years after Ottoline first set eyes on him, 287 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:55,200 Lionel suffered a brain haemorrhage. 288 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:59,920 He died at her home in Oxfordshire, being cradled in her arms. 289 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:08,960 Despite Ottoline's efforts to keep her tragic love affair secret, 290 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,480 rumours of it reached Lawrence. 291 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:17,440 His novel celebrated the idea of passion breaking free of constraint. 292 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:23,080 But it was too much for its time, and in 1928, it was banned. 293 00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:29,320 However, other people in other places were also challenging 294 00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:30,800 romantic boundaries. 295 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:38,600 If you knew where to look in 1920s London, 296 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:43,240 you may have spotted a new social phenomenon - a lesbian scene. 297 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:46,400 For centuries, there had been a male homosexual subculture, 298 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,000 but now it was the turn of the ladies. 299 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:53,600 RAGTIME PIANO MUSIC 300 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:55,520 Women's freedom was growing 301 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,280 and many were now earning their own salary. 302 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:02,120 After work, they could be found drinking 303 00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:05,440 and letting off steam in bars and nightclubs. 304 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:10,360 Their new independence was also reflected in a trend 305 00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:12,240 for boyish clothing and hair. 306 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:23,640 You'd have seen plenty of androgynous-looking women in fashionable circles in the 1920s. 307 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,000 For some of them, the style took hold 308 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,000 because it expressed their sexuality. 309 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:33,800 It was a visible way of turning their backs upon traditional gender roles 310 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,320 and flirting with a new-found confidence. 311 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:39,280 # Masculine women, feminine men 312 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,640 # Which is the rooster, which is the hen 313 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,400 # It's hard to tell 'em apart today and say... # 314 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:47,320 Women in masculine attire 315 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:51,040 and their partners graced the dance-floors of bohemian nightclubs 316 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:54,400 like the Orange Tree and the Cave of Harmony. 317 00:19:56,520 --> 00:20:00,640 # Now we don't know who is who or even what's what... # 318 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:03,360 One such couple was the novelist Radclyffe Hall 319 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:05,280 and her partner, Una Troubridge. 320 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,080 OK, I know they may not look like they're the life and soul of the party here 321 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:13,560 but their lives were anything but glum. 322 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,440 Within their social circle, they - and others like them - 323 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:23,200 were able to conduct their relationships without drawing attention. 324 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,320 But the rest of society wasn't so open-minded. 325 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,840 Radclyffe Hall was tired of living a semi-secret life. 326 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,600 She decided to risk her successful career as an author 327 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:43,440 by writing a novel about what she called "sexual inversion". 328 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:46,640 The book's title was The Well of Loneliness. 329 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,680 Radclyffe Hall wanted to take things overground. 330 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:55,520 She thought that her romance was as valid a romance as anyone else's 331 00:20:55,520 --> 00:21:00,120 and what better way to prove it than by using the form of the romantic novel? 332 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:05,000 The book's protagonist, Stephen Gordon, has all the 333 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,200 qualities you'd hope for in a romantic hero - 334 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:13,520 expert rider, keen scholar, successful novelist 335 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:17,040 and a war veteran with a passion for sharp suits 336 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,200 and an eye for the ladies. 337 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,600 There's just one difference - Stephen Gordon is a woman. 338 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:33,360 After a series of doomed affairs, she finds romantic love with Mary, 339 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:36,600 whom she meets while driving ambulances during the war. 340 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:41,160 But living under society's disapproval, 341 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:45,280 they miss having a complete and normal existence. 342 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:56,200 Radclyffe Hall wanted to draw attention to the 343 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,840 loneliness and the isolation that could be experienced 344 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:04,120 by anyone living beyond the boundaries of heterosexuality. 345 00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:06,280 She knew that by coming out like this, 346 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,360 her life would never be the same again. 347 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:11,360 But she felt it was worth it 348 00:22:11,360 --> 00:22:14,440 to convey something of the doubt and the self-hatred 349 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:19,000 that might be felt by these so-called sexual deviants. 350 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,680 She told her publisher that her new book required complete commitment. 351 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:28,600 Not a single word was to be altered. 352 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,920 "Then Stephen took Angela into her arms, 353 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:39,280 "and she kissed her full on the lips, as a lover. 354 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,120 "Through the long years of life that followed after, 355 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:46,000 "Stephen was never to forget this summer when she fell quite simply and 356 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:51,040 "naturally in love, in accordance with the dictates of her nature." 357 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:57,800 When the novel was published in 1928, there was instant controversy. 358 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,040 One particularly vicious campaign 359 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:04,480 was orchestrated by James Douglas of the Sunday Express. 360 00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:08,800 "I", he said, "would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl 361 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,720 "prussic acid than this novel." 362 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:18,320 Some powerful contemporaries came springing to Radclyffe Hall's defence. 363 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,760 The novelist EM Forster led the protest 364 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:26,040 by drafting a letter in support of The Well Of Loneliness. 365 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:31,400 Despite this, on 9th November, the book became the subject 366 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:33,080 of an obscenity trial. 367 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:38,760 Radclyffe Hall renewed her vow to smash "the conspiracy of silence" 368 00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:40,240 on the lesbian issue 369 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,960 and to defeat censorship "on behalf of English literature". 370 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:50,400 At the trial, Radclyffe Hall's lawyer tried to argue that there was nothing wrong with the book - 371 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:54,360 it just showed innocent friendship between women. 372 00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:56,840 Radclyffe Hall herself was pretty furious. 373 00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,440 She saw this as a betrayal of her work. 374 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,800 She said, "I am proud and happy to have taken up my pen 375 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,600 "in defence of the persecuted." 376 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:09,560 Like many women of her generation, 377 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:15,440 her sexuality - lesbian or not - now formed a key part of her identity. 378 00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:17,040 She wasn't going to deny it. 379 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:22,040 Radclyffe Hall believed that she and others like her 380 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,920 should not be deprived of the right to love. 381 00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:30,280 The book's only real sexual reference consisted of the words 382 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,480 "and that night, they were not divided", 383 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:35,800 But she lost her battle and it was banned. 384 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:41,160 The establishment made sure those at the leading edge, like DH Lawrence 385 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:46,080 and Radclyffe Hall, would have to wait to get their ideas out. 386 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:50,600 But even in the mainstream, people were beginning to liberate themselves. 387 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:58,080 By the 1930s, a less inhibited generation were coming of age. 388 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:04,160 They wanted a romantic night out but with a greater level of intimacy. 389 00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:10,360 So much so that it's come to be seen as a golden age of courtship. 390 00:25:14,360 --> 00:25:18,960 The cinema offered excitement, glamour and romance. 391 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:20,120 Ticket, please! 392 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:27,840 But it wasn't just the escapist entertainment on screen that appealed. 393 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:32,440 To young people, the cinema also promised a different kind of pleasure. 394 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,200 Its dimmed lighting, comfortable seating 395 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,200 and hidden corners provided the perfect environment for hands to 396 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:46,160 roam and for members of the audience to get to know each other better. 397 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:51,760 My date for this evening is cinema expert Lawrence Napper. 398 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:54,760 What was it like for people in the 1930s, 399 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:58,000 going into a dark room full of other people? 400 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,360 Cinema's important in terms of client of courtship, partly because 401 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:04,320 it is... it's a public space, so, you can say, well, you know, 402 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,040 "I wasn't doing anything untoward. Everyone was around me. 403 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,680 "They could see me," but it's also a bit private, cos it's quite dark and 404 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:14,840 you CAN sort of get up to nefarious things without really be noticed. 405 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:16,400 Perfect for a date, then? 406 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,880 Perfect for a date, and of course, you know, 407 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:22,040 to enhance that feeling of romance you might want from the date, 408 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,880 you've got a film that's showing romantic activities, 409 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,520 which is kind of encouraging ideas of romance and glamour. 410 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:28,840 Just to get you into the mood. 411 00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:30,960 To get you into the mood, absolutely. 412 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:40,520 British audiences were being dazzled by Hollywood's version of romance. 413 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:44,480 Film had now replaced the novel in teaching us the rules of love. 414 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,760 What's the secret of the success of a film like Top Hat? 415 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:55,240 Well, it offers you an idea of an exciting physical encounter 416 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:59,520 with a member of the opposite sex that is pleasurable. 417 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:04,040 # Heaven, I'm in heaven 418 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:09,680 # And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak... # 419 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,640 And the dance, to a certain extent, is a kind of seduction 420 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,360 so you get these dance sequences where at the beginning, 421 00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:18,560 she's slightly resistant, he does a few taps, 422 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,240 she sort of, like, moves forward, she sort of mirrors him a bit. 423 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,920 But by the end of a number like Cheek To Cheek, of course, 424 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,680 she's completely submissive to him. 425 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,600 She's striking poses, she's doing all those jumps, 426 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:37,880 where actually, she is supported by him. 427 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:39,560 She couldn't physically do them 428 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,440 if he wasn't there supporting her in those dance moves. 429 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:46,440 You can think of the dance as a kind of metaphor for sex. 430 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:47,640 Well, totally. 431 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,600 There's that bit when she swoons and she's practically dead 432 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,400 and we all know what's happened there. 433 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,000 Absolutely, and Cheek To Cheek absolutely does that. 434 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,640 That number, you know, it builds up to climax where... 435 00:27:57,640 --> 00:27:59,840 - and as you say, she's like... - HE INHALES 436 00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:02,920 ..just breathing and then it's sort of, 437 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,560 the climax is the end of the dance, more or less. 438 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:10,160 People of all classes are flocking to the cinema, aren't they? They love it. 439 00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:13,280 Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's definitely something that 440 00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,800 appeals to people across the board. The cinema is somewhere where 441 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:19,480 you can kind of fantasise about a different life, 442 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:24,000 a life where romance is about having a really hot dancing partner, 443 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,720 - as opposed to maybe the slightly drab blokes who are knocking around... - Yeah! 444 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:29,960 ..that you actually might be able to go out with. 445 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:33,200 Well, good luck to them. I don't think they'll find a partner that good! 446 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,520 Though she went backwards and in heels, remember. 447 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:37,160 She did go backwards and in heels 448 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:39,640 and she was a pretty good dancer, it has to be said. 449 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:47,960 The cinema wasn't the only place where the new codes of dating 450 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:49,200 were being explored. 451 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,240 Amid the glitz of London's West End, 452 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:58,240 you could find another type of romantic encounter being perfected. 453 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,240 # Have you seen the well-to-do 454 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,360 # Up on Lennox Avenue 455 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,360 # On that famous thoroughfare 456 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:07,680 # With their noses in the air... # 457 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:12,400 A tryst that couldn't have happened just a few decades earlier. 458 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:14,960 It would have been completely unacceptable 459 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:19,480 for a respectable young lady to be wined and dined all by herself by a gentleman. 460 00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:24,480 But now, glamorous new eateries were opening up 461 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:28,440 and a table for two was the ultimate romantic date. 462 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:32,520 # Oh, come with me and we'll attend their two bits 463 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,600 # Puttin' on the Ritz. # 464 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:41,000 Quaglino's opened its doors in 1929 465 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,320 to cater for this new market of courting couples, 466 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,400 and it quickly became the place to be seen. 467 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:54,880 I'm lucky enough to be stepping out tonight with food writer James Pembroke. 468 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:56,440 There's your friend, the maitre d'. 469 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:58,880 Exactly. Maitre d'! 470 00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:01,200 Perfect. 471 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:03,160 Very good. 472 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:04,520 Now, let's get some champagne. 473 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:06,200 Excuse me! Champagne. 474 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,320 Ah, here we go. Wahey! 475 00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:13,640 I guess that this was a pretty intimate new situation that men 476 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:15,280 and women would find each other in? 477 00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,920 Absolutely. I think there was also a great ritual about it. 478 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:22,200 They'd all seen the big screen, they'd seen their film stars 479 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,280 descending on a table, they'd seen a man pull up a chair. 480 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:28,320 - They knew how to do it. They'd seen this in action. - Mmm. 481 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:30,960 - And also, restaurants were dimly lit. - Yes. 482 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:34,080 - You also had a very sexy waiter which made you feel better. - SHE LAUGHS 483 00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:39,040 - and he'd definitely, definitely not be English. - So the chaperone, your old maiden aunt, has turned into... 484 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:40,560 - Turned into... - ..a sexy young man. 485 00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,000 ..has basically turned into a very sexy Italian. 486 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,800 It's amazing to think that this is the first time that men 487 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:47,680 and women are sort of going out 488 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,960 and eating in each other's company on a really widespread scale. 489 00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:53,960 - It's not that long ago, is it? - No, it's not at all. Not at all. 490 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,640 Going out alone with a man in a restaurant 491 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:58,800 really would have been a risque thing to do, 492 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,400 - a certain type of woman would have done that. - Yes. 493 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,360 They certainly wouldn't walk into a restaurant until basically 494 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,400 after the First World War. They just wouldn't, in any way alone. 495 00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:09,840 - It was disreputable. - Absolutely, disreputable. 496 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:13,000 Some pretty loose characters in there and it was known for that. 497 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,440 How would a date work in the 1930s? You would ask me? 498 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,800 I would ask you and then we'd either meet for cocktails somewhere, 499 00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:23,800 or we'd meet at the restaurant, but what's different from nowadays is we wouldn't probably look at menus. 500 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,360 I would have rung ahead and I would have chosen the menu 501 00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:30,440 with the maitre d' and I'd probably try and find out if you didn't like fish or anything, 502 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:35,000 but everyone ate everything then, there were no allergies, so you kept going and collapsed if necessary. 503 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,200 They'd start with caviar, a typical menu would start with caviar. 504 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,840 - They'd then move on to turtle soup... - Turtle soup? - Turtle soup. 505 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,360 - Wow! - Left over from the sort of Georgian era. 506 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:49,080 And then they'd have a salmon mousse and then, which is 507 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:52,360 - still on the menu now, supreme de volaille. - Chicken supreme. 508 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,040 - This is it. - This is it. - Absolutely, same thing. 509 00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:58,120 And then after that, they would even have a little asparagus salad 510 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:02,040 and after that, a little light pudding and some frivolites, 511 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,200 - so little petit fours or cakes or something. - Frivolities. - Frivolites. 512 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,320 Exactly. I would have chosen the wines. 513 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:11,560 Probably a different wine with every course. And wine was cheap. 514 00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:15,280 - My goodness! - So going out was not that expensive, across the board. 515 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:19,120 It's a lot more expensive today, as a proportion of people's incomes. 516 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:22,160 - Massively more expensive. 150 times more expensive... - Wow! - Yeah. 517 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:25,120 - Absolutely. - And it was always the men that paid. - Always. 518 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:28,680 - It would have always been. - This is why people in the novels of the 1930s are going out 519 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,320 - the whole time, they can afford to do it. - Absolutely. 520 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:34,160 When it came to - let's go out tonight, love, the flicks was 521 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:36,880 all very well, but what they really wanted was a bit of glamour. 522 00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,400 They'd seen on the flicks people eating in restaurants, 523 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:41,720 it was the breakthrough and it was very widespread. 524 00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:44,560 Obviously Quaglino's was for the rich, definitely, 525 00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,520 but all over Soho, there were tonnes of little cheap restaurant, 526 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,880 for two and six, serving five course dinners, so there was a major 527 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:54,560 restaurant boom, cos basically people wanted to party. It was the jazz mania. 528 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,120 It was dancing, music, and it was wild times. 529 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:02,080 But the party looked set to end in 1939, 530 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,280 as another war broke out. 531 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,480 Britain experienced mass casualties on home soil for the first time. 532 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,120 You didn't have to be on the frontline to be at risk of death. 533 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:21,600 The bombs brought fear, but also a strange kind of thrill, 534 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,520 as the danger drew people together. 535 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,640 BOMBS EXPLODE 536 00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:29,720 One young woman who wrote frankly 537 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:33,320 about her experiences during the Blitz was Joan Wyndham. 538 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:39,520 Huddled in her air raid shelter, Joan wrote secretly and obsessively 539 00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:44,800 about the strange but exhilarating times that she was living through. 540 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,080 "The war," she remembered later, 541 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:51,480 "was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. 542 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,680 "One never knew what one was going to lose first - 543 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:56,720 "one's life or one's virginity." 544 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,720 In her memoirs, Joan candidly details her social 545 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,920 and sexual encounters throughout the war. 546 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:12,200 "I can't help feeling that each moment may be my last." 547 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:13,680 EXPLOSIONS 548 00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:16,960 "And as the opposite of death is life, I think 549 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:19,560 "that I shall get seduced by Rupert tomorrow. 550 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:25,480 "After lunch, we laid down and tried to sleep, 551 00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,280 "but there was another air raid. 552 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,520 "Then Rupert finally put his hand under my jersey, took 553 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:35,920 "hold of my right breast and said, 'Do you still want to be seduced?' 554 00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,120 " 'Yes,' I said." 555 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:41,960 # Put your arms around me, honey 556 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:44,480 # Hold me tight... # 557 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:48,240 And it wasn't just Joan who succumbed to war aphrodisia. 558 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,680 As one British housewife put it, "We were not really immoral. 559 00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,320 "There was a war on." 560 00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,680 Sexual restraint was suspended for the duration. 561 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:06,440 As the blackout came, London became one vast double bed. 562 00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:09,440 That's how the writer Quentin Crisp described 563 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,520 the lowering of sexual standards in the Second World War. 564 00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:16,440 There was the feeling that you might die tomorrow. 565 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:18,480 There is the adrenalin of the air raids 566 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:22,040 and then there was the cover of the darkness itself. 567 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,880 All these things encouraged some people to lose their inhibitions, 568 00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:27,520 along with their underwear. 569 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:33,400 But the war didn't just allow for snatched moments of sexual intimacy. 570 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:37,240 Women discovered other forms of freedom that they'd previously 571 00:35:37,240 --> 00:35:39,600 been denied. 572 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:45,000 In 1941, Joan Wyndham joined up with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. 573 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:48,120 Well, you were living on equal terms with men, 574 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,840 you were working with them, you were treated as an equal, totally. 575 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:55,160 And because you were doing your bit, you could go out 576 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:56,680 and not feel guilty. 577 00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:58,640 She quickly rose through the ranks 578 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:02,360 and ended up stationed here at Bentley Priory in Hertfordshire. 579 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:08,800 In Love Is Blue, she describes her first day. 580 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:14,680 "Well, here I am an officer and life is absolutely the cat's whiskers. 581 00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:18,320 "When I walked into the officers' mess, I nearly died of shock. 582 00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,160 "It was all chintz sofas and roaring log fires. 583 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:27,080 "And a suave blond said, "Hello, Wyndham. How about a gin and lime?" 584 00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:31,160 "The food is wonderful, the booze flows in abundance 585 00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:37,640 "and my fellow officers are fairly glamorous and a gay, wild lot." 586 00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:42,000 This luxurious atmosphere provided plenty of exciting encounters 587 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,800 with the opposite sex. Here, at Bentley Priory, 588 00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:50,680 what mattered was that women were playing their part to win the war. 589 00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:55,440 What they got up to in their private lives just wasn't a priority. 590 00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:58,920 The authorities were content to turn a blind eye. 591 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:02,680 You'd meet a man and you'd have a passionate affair with him 592 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:06,000 and then he'd be posted or he might even be killed. 593 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,080 Thank God, that never happened to me. 594 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:12,800 And so, being normal, you know, healthy girls, in six months' time, 595 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:16,240 we'd move on and find somebody else. 596 00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:20,520 Joan Wyndham is fascinating because her memoirs, in some ways, 597 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,480 show the Second World War as a sort of trial run 598 00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:27,480 for the kind of relationships that we think of as belonging 599 00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:30,360 to much later in the 20th century. 600 00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:34,000 That permissive, let it all hang out behaviour of the 601 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,720 '60s' generation was in fact pioneered by their parents. 602 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,920 This new emphasis on living life to the full put increasing 603 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,120 pressure on existing relationships. 604 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:52,040 And during the war, marriages broke down in record numbers. 605 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:55,760 The divorce rate multiplied by ten. 606 00:37:57,520 --> 00:38:00,560 Even though the laws surrounding divorce 607 00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:02,720 remained extremely restrictive. 608 00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:07,600 Even when both parties wanted a divorce, it wasn't 609 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:09,600 that easy to get one. 610 00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:14,880 The law did allow for divorce on the grounds of insanity or desertion, 611 00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:17,280 but that was very rarely granted. 612 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:21,480 The quickest way to get a divorce was to go for adultery, 613 00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,520 but how did you go about proving you'd committed adultery 614 00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:27,760 if either you hadn't or you didn't really want to. 615 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:29,880 Well, luckily, 616 00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:33,160 a novel had come out that took you through the whole process. 617 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,480 It was the perfect how to guide. 618 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,960 Holy Deadlock focussed on a couple who were desperate to divorce, but 619 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,840 had to go to extraordinary lengths to convince a court that the 620 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,200 husband had been unfaithful. 621 00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,680 Even though he hadn't. 622 00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:54,520 If collusion was suspected, their divorce would not be granted. 623 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:58,720 The author, AP Herbert, wanted to highlight the absurdity 624 00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:02,840 of a law that kept unhappy couples shackled together for life. 625 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:07,200 And he did this by detailing a practice that became 626 00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:09,680 known as the Brighton Quickie. 627 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,920 One member of the couple, usually the man, would take part 628 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:17,280 in a staged incident of adultery with a professional co-respondent. 629 00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:24,840 As the book says, "As a rule, the gentleman takes a lady to a hotel, 630 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:30,120 "Brighton or some such place, and he enters her in the book as his wife. 631 00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,000 "He shares a room with her 632 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:36,440 "and then he sends the bill to his actual wife back at home." 633 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:40,480 The success of the whole thing depends upon the real wife's 634 00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:44,640 agent being able to present watertight evidence that her 635 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:46,760 husband had been unfaithful. 636 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:54,840 Thanks to the novel, this pantomime became even more common. 637 00:39:56,120 --> 00:40:01,480 And by the 1940s, it had acquired its own cast of key characters who 638 00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:05,000 could later be relied upon as solid witnesses in court. 639 00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:10,240 # I've got my eyes on you 640 00:40:10,240 --> 00:40:14,600 # So best beware where you roam 641 00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:21,080 # I've got my eyes on you 642 00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:26,600 # So don't stray too far from home.... # 643 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:31,240 Firstly, there was the private detective. 644 00:40:31,240 --> 00:40:34,600 The husband would hire a detective to observe the couple 645 00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:36,600 going in to the hotel together. 646 00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:40,000 He might also follow them around the town and hope to catch them 647 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,000 having a kiss. 648 00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:48,800 Then, there was the hotel manager... Ah, hello. 649 00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:52,280 - Will you be Mr and Mrs Smith? - That's right. - Please, come on in. 650 00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:58,560 ..who would usually want a fee for his or her cooperation. 651 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:09,240 And lastly and most importantly, there was the chambermaid, whose job 652 00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:11,760 it was to discover the couple in bed 653 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,880 and be willing to testify to the fact in court. 654 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:16,480 I have seen you! 655 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,760 The Brighton Quickie might have had all the ingredients of a classic 656 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:30,960 farce, but it was the only way for many couples to obtain a divorce. 657 00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:34,440 For Lorraine Ferguson's parents, it enabled them 658 00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:37,080 to start a new life together. 659 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:40,160 Lorraine, tell me a bit about this wartime romance. 660 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:44,800 Well, my parents met in Austria at the end of the Second World War. 661 00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:47,280 He was a surgeon and she was a nurse. 662 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:50,240 And they spent four amazing months together in Austria 663 00:41:50,240 --> 00:41:53,160 before he was demobbed about eight months before her. 664 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:54,960 And so during those eight months, 665 00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:57,240 they wrote these letters to each other. 666 00:41:57,240 --> 00:42:00,520 They more than wrote! They exchanged hundreds of letters, didn't they? 667 00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:05,920 There are almost 300 letters here. My mother gave them to me before she died and they wrote every day, 668 00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:10,960 - sometimes twice a day. - So, here, she's writing to him, "forces overseas", 669 00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,520 it says, and he's back at home in Shropshire. 670 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:17,320 Yes, and you can see that she's kissed the back of the envelope. 671 00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:20,840 There's lipstick! Look at that! Sealed with a loving kiss. Mwah! 672 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:22,560 That's beautiful. 673 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:26,040 But there was one major problem with this romance, wasn't there? 674 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:29,520 My father had married before he went abroad, 675 00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:31,800 as a lot of people did in the war. 676 00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,720 He married literally two weeks before he was stationed abroad and 677 00:42:34,720 --> 00:42:36,520 when he did come back on leave, 678 00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:41,680 - his first wife had actually met somebody else. - Oh, dear. 679 00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:44,560 So by the time he met my mother, the marriage, 680 00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:47,680 as far as both parties were concerned, was over. 681 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,200 - What's to be done? A Brighton Quickie! - That's right. 682 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:51,960 That's exactly what had to be done. 683 00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:54,520 So obviously he's read the book Holy Deadlock, 684 00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:56,960 because he mentions it in this letter here, 685 00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:00,240 where he says, "Have you ever read Holy Deadlock?" 686 00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:03,800 It's exactly what he's got to do, he's got to provide evidence. 687 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:07,880 He didn't want to sue his first wife for divorce, because that would have 688 00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:11,040 been very shaming for her, so he had to create 689 00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,600 an adulterous situation so that she could sue him. 690 00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:17,280 - He did the gentlemanly thing. - He did indeed, yes. 691 00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:19,920 But of course he couldn't do that with the woman he loved. 692 00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:23,280 - Because that would have dragged her into the divorce courts. - Precisely. 693 00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:25,840 So how did he go about it then? 694 00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:28,040 He says here, "To my mother, 695 00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:29,600 "if I picked up a common tart, 696 00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:33,520 "she'd immediately have suspected something if I didn't sleep with her. 697 00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:35,840 "If I failed to oblige, she'd smell a rat. 698 00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:39,720 "If I did, I'd probably need a large course of penicillin." 699 00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:43,080 So obviously, whoever you asked, even if you paid them, 700 00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:47,160 they may well give the game away if they felt like it. 701 00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:49,680 Because it was breaking... They were being used to enable 702 00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:52,320 - the breaking of the law, weren't they? - It was a subterfuge 703 00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:54,960 that was going to be produced as a legal document. 704 00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,440 But then to this delight, his sister Margaret, 705 00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:02,360 who is in with the theatre set, 706 00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:05,600 has a friend who will do the deed with him. 707 00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:08,600 But not really do the deed. Pretend to do the deed. 708 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,520 And there's a lovely bit later on in the letter where he says that 709 00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:14,600 "she was a lovely person but not nearly as pretty as you, darling." 710 00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:16,720 Oh, good, so she won't be jealous. 711 00:44:16,720 --> 00:44:19,680 They didn't even hold hands, he assured my mother. 712 00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:24,400 It's very funny to think of all these people running rings around the law, isn't it? 713 00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:26,240 It's quite said that they have to do it. 714 00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:28,480 - They felt it was sad, didn't they? - Yes, they did. 715 00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:30,680 They felt it was sordid and unpleasant 716 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,280 and I think uncomfortable for them. 717 00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:36,280 That more, I think, than sad. 718 00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:40,160 There was a happy ever after, wasn't there? 719 00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:41,440 Yes, there certainly was. 720 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,080 In March 1947, they were finally able to get married. 721 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:51,120 The war had ignited all sorts of volcanic passions. 722 00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:55,080 It gave a glimpse of what was to come in the 1960s. 723 00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:56,960 But in the post-war years, 724 00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:00,280 a lot of people were keen to hold back the tide. 725 00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:03,160 They'd had enough of cheap and dirty sex 726 00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:06,160 and they were ready to re-embrace romance. 727 00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,920 A new morally conservative mood took hold, 728 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:15,880 and by the 1950s, "we'd never had it so romantic." 729 00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:23,280 More people tied the knot than ever before or since, and at younger ages. 730 00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:28,440 Commitment, it seems, was the perfect antidote to the horror of war. 731 00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:31,080 It was at this point 732 00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:35,280 that our most potent expression of romance was invented. 733 00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:41,000 # Under Orion's starry sky 734 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,920 # I lie in the moonlit garden 735 00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:49,000 # Wondering where to cast my eye 736 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,800 # For all that I see is heaven... # 737 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:55,200 The De Beers corporation realised that there might be a market 738 00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,800 for something symbolising permanence. 739 00:45:57,800 --> 00:45:59,960 Something indestructible. 740 00:45:59,960 --> 00:46:02,640 So they came up with an advertising campaign 741 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:07,120 with the most fantastic slogan - "A Diamond is Forever." 742 00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:09,440 And in doing this, they created 743 00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:15,160 the 20th century's most enduring and most sparkly love token. 744 00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:20,280 The diamond engagement ring was a strictly post-war phenomenon. 745 00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:24,000 Jewellery expert John Benjamin is fascinated 746 00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,720 by how quickly the idea took hold. 747 00:46:26,720 --> 00:46:30,640 This advert is produced by De Beers. 748 00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:32,560 It dates from the 1940s, 749 00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:36,560 and the campaign, "A diamond is forever," it started in America, did it? 750 00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,120 It did, and it was a brilliant strapline, 751 00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:42,360 because it just tapped in with all the subliminal issues 752 00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:45,720 of what a diamond represents, 753 00:46:45,720 --> 00:46:49,960 and also what your marriage will therefore represent. 754 00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:54,680 If you buy a diamond, it means that your marriage will last 755 00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:58,600 for the rest of time as well, so it was very clever in that respect. 756 00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:01,160 Very quickly, certainly by the end of the '40s 757 00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:02,680 and the start of the 1950s, 758 00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:05,880 diamond jewellery becomes the must-have item. 759 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:08,440 So this all looks very aspirational, but down here it says, 760 00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:11,640 "your diamond ring need not be costly." 761 00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:14,160 Quite right too. At that time, in the late '40s and '50s, 762 00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:18,120 when people got married, they had no money. 763 00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:22,680 And it's worth showing this diamond ring because this is the perfect way 764 00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:25,360 that diamonds are being set in those days. 765 00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:27,120 OK, let's look at that. 766 00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:30,880 Absolutely teeny-weeny little diamond chips. 767 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:32,360 Where is the diamond even? 768 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:36,720 It twinkles in the heart of the setting. 769 00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:39,760 By carving the setting, you somehow make the setting 770 00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:42,800 look like part of the diamond, and that gives a sense, 771 00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:45,400 - "Ooh, I've got a bigger diamond." - I like that! 772 00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:47,880 It works, it works, because at first sight you think 773 00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:49,920 those are three diamonds, but they're not. 774 00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:53,160 - They're three teeny-tiny diamonds. - Teeny-tiny little stones. 775 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,560 I feel really fond of the tiny diamond ring now. 776 00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:59,800 I feel like this was a real purchase made with feeling by somebody. 777 00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:03,880 The diamond ring tapped into a need to establish 778 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:06,400 a more stable world. 779 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,640 People wanted to believe in the power of love again, 780 00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:13,400 and so they reached for the romance novel. 781 00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:16,640 There'd been a return to the origins of the genre, 782 00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:21,120 as regency romances filled the best-seller lists. 783 00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:26,760 One author in particular made it her business to satisfy this desire. 784 00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:29,720 She clocked up more than a billion sales. 785 00:48:29,720 --> 00:48:32,520 She was British history's most prolific author, 786 00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,520 publishing 723 books 787 00:48:35,520 --> 00:48:38,960 and writing them at a speed of one a fortnight. 788 00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:41,360 I think it's fair to say that nobody else 789 00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:46,560 as precisely perfected the formula for a successful romantic novel. 790 00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:51,720 Of course, I'm talking about the indomitable Barbara Cartland. 791 00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:55,720 # I'll take romance 792 00:48:55,720 --> 00:49:00,080 # While my heart is young and eager to fly 793 00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:03,120 # I'll give my heart a try 794 00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:04,880 # I'll take romance. # 795 00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:08,640 Love is this thing that happens to everybody at one time in their life. 796 00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:12,920 I write about the moment when everybody has stars in their eyes. 797 00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:17,520 She dictated book after book to an army of secretaries... 798 00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:19,560 "Am I interrupting?" he said. 799 00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:24,400 A little hesitating voice replied, "No, I'm alone." 800 00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:27,160 "Why are you not at the dance?" he asked. 801 00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:29,320 "I had no partner," she answered. 802 00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:33,640 ..and created a brand that reflected the morals of an earlier age. 803 00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:36,760 Her characters inhabit a world 804 00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:40,760 that pre-dates the sexual excesses of the Second World War. 805 00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:44,080 It's inhabited by wenches and rakes, 806 00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:49,480 by impetuous duchesses and by dastardly dukes, 807 00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:53,000 and there's the occasional guest appearance by the Prince of Wales. 808 00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:59,600 The historical setting wasn't just a style decision. 809 00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:04,960 Barbara Cartland really wanted to turn back the clock. 810 00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:09,240 Born at the start of the 20th century, 811 00:50:09,240 --> 00:50:13,880 she'd personally experienced much of its social upheaval. 812 00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:19,640 She saw her mother widowed and lost two brothers as a result of war. 813 00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:24,480 And her first marriage ended in divorce, 814 00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:26,760 attracting lurid newspaper articles 815 00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:31,320 because to its charges and counter-charges of infidelity. 816 00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:35,680 Despite all this, she retained her belief in romance, 817 00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:40,160 although she found it increasingly lacking in the modern world. 818 00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:46,080 Society had moved on and she felt it had gone too far. 819 00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:51,840 There was less and less restraint. 820 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:54,920 The sexual freedom glimpsed during the war 821 00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:58,800 had now fully exploded into the mainstream. 822 00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,480 Explicit sex now seemed to be everywhere, 823 00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:04,120 much to Barbara Cartland's distress. 824 00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:06,880 We don't have to have all this terrible promiscuousness. 825 00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:09,800 I'm so sick of naked bodies and hairy chests rolling about on beds. 826 00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:13,400 I mean, it really does... I think it's so revolting and so unromantic. 827 00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,800 If you have a lovely dream about yourself, you may be half-naked. 828 00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:20,080 The man is always in full regimentals with his spurs, you know. 829 00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:23,400 Looking glorious and romantic and exciting! 830 00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:27,400 Why we should have to have the men naked, 831 00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:29,040 who does it attract? Not women. 832 00:51:30,240 --> 00:51:33,880 Barbara Cartland was almost evangelical in her mission 833 00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:36,880 to take the actual sex out of romance. 834 00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:39,680 She always left the couple at the bedroom door 835 00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:41,960 on their wedding night. 836 00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:45,480 But the hero and heroine were allowed a first kiss 837 00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:48,040 and that could be pretty special. 838 00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:52,200 "She felt a sudden flame shoot through her body. 839 00:51:52,200 --> 00:51:55,240 "She felt her lips respond to his 840 00:51:55,240 --> 00:51:59,080 "and knew that this was a love which would never alter or grow less. 841 00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:03,480 "She felt him draw her closer still until they were one, indivisible - 842 00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:07,640 "one heart, one soul, one love for all eternity." 843 00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:11,440 Goodness, if that's just the first kiss, 844 00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,000 imagine what was going on behind that bedroom door. 845 00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:21,080 Passionate stuff! No wonder she had such devoted readers! 846 00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:25,840 In the 1970s, Barbara Cartland and her fans 847 00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:29,320 were also able to get their fix of romance elsewhere, 848 00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,840 as television adaptations of classic love stories 849 00:52:32,840 --> 00:52:34,520 burst onto our screens. 850 00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:39,240 The most popular of them featured the work 851 00:52:39,240 --> 00:52:42,280 of that real queen of British romance, Jane Austen. 852 00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:46,920 The authors of romantic fiction had originally used 853 00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:51,520 their writing to examine the reality of life in their own time. 854 00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:56,040 But now they were providing escapism for people who felt that romance 855 00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:59,160 was missing from modern life. 856 00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:01,680 It's a love affair that's lasted. 857 00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:05,720 When it comes to romance, we seem to prefer our heroes and heroines 858 00:53:05,720 --> 00:53:08,440 in crinolines and breeches, 859 00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:09,760 and I'm no exception. 860 00:53:11,240 --> 00:53:15,240 When I was a teenager in the 1980s, there was one film 861 00:53:15,240 --> 00:53:17,680 that I watched again and again. 862 00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:22,320 It was the Merchant Ivory adaptation of A Room with a View. 863 00:53:22,320 --> 00:53:25,680 I loved it, partly because the heroine was called Lucy 864 00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:30,320 and had great hair, but mainly because of one particular scene. 865 00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:36,200 The pivotal point in the poppy field. 866 00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:37,960 The beautiful setting 867 00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:42,000 and the surging Puccini give you a great big gush of emotion. 868 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:46,680 When George kisses Lucy so masterfully, 869 00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:49,760 you know at once that they are soulmates. 870 00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:52,560 Passion will eventually conquer all. 871 00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:56,320 As a schoolgirl living in Nottingham, 872 00:53:56,320 --> 00:53:59,600 this was the most romantic thing that I could imagine. 873 00:54:03,720 --> 00:54:05,000 For one moment, 874 00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:09,360 the characters break through the rigid rules that govern society 875 00:54:09,360 --> 00:54:11,280 at the turn of the 20th century. 876 00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:14,240 There are no interfering chaperones, 877 00:54:14,240 --> 00:54:17,000 there's no consciousness of class. 878 00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:21,000 These are barriers to love that my generation has never had to face, 879 00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:25,840 but they're the classic ingredients of romantic period drama, 880 00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:27,680 and we love it! 881 00:54:29,720 --> 00:54:32,680 But there was one barrier that did remain intact 882 00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:36,080 throughout the 20th century. 883 00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:39,640 It was the focus of the novel that the producer/director team 884 00:54:39,640 --> 00:54:44,040 Merchant Ivory chose as their follow up to A Room with a View. 885 00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:47,880 It was another adaptation of an EM Forster novel. 886 00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:53,760 Maurice is radically different from A Room with a View. 887 00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:58,000 It's still a passionate romance, but this time it's between men. 888 00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:02,400 Without a doubt, this was EM Forster's most intensely personal work. 889 00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:06,720 It's a homosexual coming-of-age novel, 890 00:55:06,720 --> 00:55:08,440 and just like Lady Chatterley, 891 00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:11,800 the protagonist's in love with a working man. 892 00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:15,960 "He loved men and had always loved them. 893 00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:19,560 "He longed to mingle his being with theirs." 894 00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:25,680 The novel was so controversial that it was only published in 1971, 895 00:55:25,680 --> 00:55:27,960 nearly 60 years after it was written. 896 00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:33,640 Like Maurice, the main character, Forster was gay, 897 00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:37,760 and he deliberately suppressed his own book during his lifetime. 898 00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:42,800 He knew that while homosexuality remained illegal, 899 00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:45,920 a novel with a happy ending for two men in love 900 00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:47,680 would not be tolerated. 901 00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:52,160 At one point, Maurice expresses his loneliness, 902 00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:56,320 doubting that he will ever find lasting love. 903 00:55:56,320 --> 00:55:58,880 "I suppose such a thing," he says, 904 00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:02,160 "can't really happen outside sleep." 905 00:56:05,720 --> 00:56:10,080 At the end, Forster's hero does get it together with Scudder, 906 00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:12,720 the gamekeeper, his soulmate, 907 00:56:12,720 --> 00:56:17,080 but even so, it's a happy ending tinged with sadness. 908 00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:23,200 The couple will be forced to live apart from society. 909 00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:29,720 A self-imposed exile, which means they have given up everything for love. 910 00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:34,240 Maurice and Scudder may have been united in love, 911 00:56:34,240 --> 00:56:37,560 but unlike couples in traditional romantic fiction, 912 00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:41,440 they were denied the happy ending of a wedding. 913 00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:45,520 Even as the restrictions fell away during the 20th century, 914 00:56:45,520 --> 00:56:49,520 marriage between two men was as impossible in the '80s, 915 00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:53,000 when the film came out, as it had been when the book was written 916 00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:55,120 in Edwardian Britain. 917 00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:00,320 The gay rights movement had been active since the 1960s, 918 00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:05,280 and in the 21st century, it focused on this goal of equal marriage. 919 00:57:07,480 --> 00:57:10,040 When it was finally made legal in the UK, 920 00:57:10,040 --> 00:57:14,480 it was with the sense that everybody has the right to choose a life-partner. 921 00:57:15,800 --> 00:57:18,160 A human-rights based approach to love 922 00:57:18,160 --> 00:57:20,800 is an awfully long way from where we started, 923 00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:24,760 when romance seemed mainly to be about property interests. 924 00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:28,920 It would have been hard for EM Forster to imagine it, 925 00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:31,640 but 100 years after he wrote his novel, 926 00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:35,000 his heroes would no longer be social outcasts. 927 00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:37,680 They too could settle down and get married. 928 00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:41,320 For me, this change has happened 929 00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:45,600 because of the overwhelming importance we now place on romantic love. 930 00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:52,680 That idea that you should share your life with a special someone 931 00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:56,360 is essential to our notions of self-fulfilment. 932 00:57:59,080 --> 00:58:02,160 Over three centuries, romance has taken us 933 00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:06,440 from being a nation where courtship was rigidly controlled... 934 00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:13,600 ..to a country where everybody has the right to choose a soulmate, 935 00:58:13,600 --> 00:58:15,600 no matter who they are. 936 00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:20,680 Isn't it nice that the story of British romance 937 00:58:20,680 --> 00:58:23,840 really does have a happy ending? 938 00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:29,240 # We got love power 939 00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:32,400 # It's the greatest power of them all 940 00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:36,960 # We got love power 941 00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:40,040 # And together we can't fall 942 00:58:40,040 --> 00:58:42,920 # Sometimes we're up 943 00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:45,080 # Sometimes we're down 944 00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:49,040 # But our feet are always on the ground 945 00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:51,040 # We always laugh 946 00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:53,120 # Don't have to cry 947 00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:56,960 # And this is the reason why. #