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00:30Hungary, land of the Magyars, has had a tough 20th century.
00:47Ninety years ago, this bridge connected two parts of Hungary, but after defeat in World
00:52War I, they lost so much land that this is now an international frontier.
00:57The cathedral on the hill at Esztergom remains one of the great symbols of Hungarian national
01:02pride.
01:06Dominating the Danube, it was where Stephen, their first Christian king, was crowned, a
01:10thousand years ago.
01:14The castle at Visegrad is another reminder of a proud past, and in the town below, crowds
01:19are gathering to celebrate the heroic years of the Middle Ages.
01:26But more recent traumas are clearly not forgotten.
01:28It's interesting, these are maps of Hungary before World War I, when it was actually two
01:39thirds bigger than it is now, when the land was taken away by the peace treaty of Trianon
01:43in 1920.
01:44And I mean, obviously, they're selling a lot, so it's obviously something that smoulders
01:50Today it's the 15th century they're celebrating, the days of Matthias Corvinus, the king who
02:11raised one of Europe's first standing armies, and helped rally the peoples of Europe to
02:15take arms against the Ottoman Turks.
02:41Here in Visegrad, the days of valour and chivalry are remembered, and Hungary's golden
02:46age is brought briefly back to life.
02:53One of the highlights is a display of horseback archery by Lajos Kassai.
02:57It was a skill perfected by the armies of Attila the Hun.
03:06This technique was a military breakthrough.
03:08An arrow fired at the gallop had twice the piercing power of one fired from station.
03:21Kassai can shoot 12 of them in 17 seconds.
03:24As he puts it, every Hungarian feels in his heart he is Attila.
03:37There are plenty of boats going down the Danube into Budapest at this time of year.
03:42Oh dear, it's gone without me.
03:47Oh well, there's bound to be another along soon.
04:01And the later you arrive in Budapest, the better, the city at night is magnificent.
04:20I'm staying at the Gellert, a Budapest landmark.
04:27Now nearly 90 years old, its glories may be fading, but the Gellert still sits at the
04:32heart of Budapest life.
04:36I look out at Freedom Bridge, which connects what were once two cities, Buda, and on the
04:41other side, Pest.
04:43The river is as busy as the roads, as boats leave for Bratislava and Vienna.
04:51The Gellert Spa comes with instructions.
04:54Please read carefully our short introduction to the usage of the spa facilities, which
04:58will help you to enjoy the unique experience of the 80-year-old Gellert Bath.
05:04From the hotel, you have to go to the elevator at the north wing of the building, which you
05:08can access on the second, third, or fourth floors.
05:12Follow the signs and you won't miss the manned elevator.
05:29Best practice is, if you change in your own room or suite and you enter the elevator in
05:33your bathing suit and bathrobe, you won't waste time with changing or spending valuable
05:38minutes in the locker rooms.
05:49During the trip with the elevator, from the attendant, you will get a plastic card, which
05:54you'll need to get through the entrance gate when entering and leaving the baths area.
05:58Ah, this is the famous card, to get in the pool, always have this, OK?
06:03Always, always have both.
06:05As you come out of this elevator, please turn to the right and show the barcode on the card
06:16to the sensor screen at the entry machine.
06:21Walk through the main hall past the public cash desk.
06:26This entrance on the right is the thermal baths, for ladies only.
06:30In the centre is the indoor swimming pool and the access to the outdoor pool, and then
06:37the entrance to the thermal baths for gentlemen, which is the third entrance on the right.
06:42In case of any question, please turn to our front desk staff or the hostess of the baths.
06:53By the time I reach the Sun Terrace, I feel like Ulysses, and not a moment too soon, my
06:59body is whiter than the towels.
07:02Ah, that's better.
07:09No sooner I started sunbathing, did I feel an urgent need to cool down.
07:14The pool looks wonderfully inviting, but deep in the bounds of the hotel, something is stirring.
07:23No one had warned me that every hour on the hour, the paddler's piece is shattered.
07:48Wave after wave scours the pool like a riptide.
08:07The Gellert wave machine is in action, as it has been since the 1930s.
08:12Toddlers, teenagers and TV presenters are tossed about like flotsam.
08:16Oh, it's wonderful.
08:24The finest building on the waterfront is the Parliament, built at the height of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
08:32My guide is Peter Zvak, who as a child escaped Nazi-occupied Budapest.
08:38He later became Hungarian ambassador in Washington, and after that an independent MP.
08:43So he knows his way around.
08:46Was this wonderful building much damaged during the war?
08:49It was very bad. It was first bombed by the Soviets, and afterwards by the Allies.
08:56And the city, you can still see it today, even though the city was rebuilt pretty much.
09:02But you still see bullet holes and...
09:08In the extravagantly grand Chamber of Representatives, deputies sat throughout the communist years, rubber-stamping decisions made at party headquarters.
09:18I never thought this would change. I thought until my death we were going to live under communism here.
09:24And it happened one day to the other.
09:26If you were in Parliament now, Peter, what would you be fighting for?
09:31I'd be still fighting for corruption. I still would like to be a civil lawyer.
09:36But today the biggest problem in a small country like this is envy.
09:42Envy, jealousy, hatred, because there's such social differences due to the breaking in of freedom.
09:50The people got very rich illegally.
09:54So there's a real hatred towards these new rich.
10:00Nothing I've learnt on my journey prepares me for Hungarian, one of Europe's least-spoken languages.
10:07But I'm determined to give it a try, and have chosen the Budapest subway system as my first victim.
10:15This is dangerous, Peter. I've been learning this for weeks. We'll see if it works.
10:19I'm Ed Sheeran. You're getting it correct.
10:23Am I going to get a hippopotamus? No, a ticket. Brilliant. Thank you.
10:28How much?
10:31Personal?
10:49Opened in 1896, this was the very first underground system in mainland Europe.
10:58I get off halfway along Andrássy, the smart boulevard of Budapest,
11:04one of whose neoclassical mansions harbours a sinister past.
11:10There was one house on this grand and elegant street where you never wanted to end up.
11:14For a while it was the most feared address in Budapest, 60 Andrássy Street.
11:21Now a museum called the House of Terror,
11:24No. 60 had been headquarters of both fascist and later communist secret police.
11:33On display in one gallery is the propaganda of communism.
11:37It projected a wholesome, progressive world.
11:41But as early as 1956, the Hungarian people could see through it.
11:46Budapest is in revolt.
11:48With uncontrolled fury, Kraut set fire to Russian flags and put Soviet books to the torch.
11:53A red star is sent tumbling into the gutter.
11:55The Hungarian uprising was the first big test of Moscow's control of her European satellites.
12:00The rebels ride their tanks triumphantly through the streets.
12:03The Russians have given their word that they will withdraw all communist troops from Budapest.
12:09But the troops did go back in.
12:11The uprising was crushed and its leaders subjected to a show trial.
12:20In a room painted in red, Kraut and his wife,
12:36In a room papered with legal documents, the film of the trial runs on a loop,
12:42including the moment when the ultimate punishment was passed on Prime Minister Imre Nagy,
12:46a communist, but not Moscow's kind of communist.
13:05Hungary had to wait more than 30 years before it could properly taste the freedom it had come so close to winning in 1956.
13:36But perhaps the most unsettling exhibit in the House of Terror is in the lift.
13:51It's a macabre interview with a retired prison service employee who attended executions.
14:06He was given two meals a day, but nothing else.
14:14In fact, the last day he was beaten to a pulp.
14:19Usually the executions were in the morning or in the morning.
14:23Then they were led out and the sentence was re-read.
14:30They only executed completely healthy people,
14:34and it was also a kind of a protracted thing, that they were beaten to a pulp in front of me.
14:41When this reading took place, the prosecutor said,
14:47that the sentence should be re-read and that I should fulfill my duty.
14:53After the uprising, thousands of Hungarians were executed in places like this,
14:58along with their Prime Minister, Imre Nagy.
15:02More than a quarter of a million fled abroad.
15:09It's a relief to get back to the noise and bustle of the boulevard.
15:14But the one good thing about the whole grim story is that it's not just a story.
15:20The one good thing about the whole grim story is that in 1989,
15:24there was a reburial ceremony for Imre Nagy, here in Heroes Square.
15:35Maybe it's a leftover from the wealthy years at the heart of a Central European Empire,
15:40but Budapest exudes a stylishly confident approach to the way things look.
15:45And Kati Zob, a theatrical costumier turned designer,
15:48is carrying on the tradition with some very cool fashions.
15:53Then why on earth has she asked me to be one of her models?
15:57Hello, hello.
15:59Hello and welcome.
16:00It's Michael, yes.
16:01I've come to this palace of beauty to be dressed for something or other.
16:05Welcome.
16:06So please follow me.
16:07I'm in your hands.
16:08I was already waiting for you.
16:09OK, all right, thanks.
16:10I've been in a terrible tizzy as to what to wear.
16:13I mean, these are not my sort of places at all.
16:16Lovely room.
16:18I think I'd look nice in one of those.
16:22Hello.
16:23Kati, I would like to introduce Michael to you.
16:26Hi.
16:27Hello, hello.
16:28Very, very nice to meet you.
16:29Nice to meet you.
16:30Yes, you've been very busy.
16:31Oh, thank you.
16:32Yeah, lots of wonderful things.
16:34I don't know what you can do for me.
16:36You are my favourite.
16:39Oh.
16:40Well, we're going behind the screens, I think.
16:42Thank you very much.
16:43Hello.
16:44Yes.
16:46Thank you very much.
16:47Well, that puts me at my ease a bit.
17:05It's enough.
17:06Thank you very much.
17:07Really?
17:08Really.
17:09Don't you measure the inside leg?
17:10No.
17:11Sorry, no.
17:12No, I'm just asking, because most shop assistants do.
17:15Maybe I have a mistake.
17:21You just sort of roughly...
17:24I have a good eye.
17:25You roughly sort of got a good eye.
17:26I have a very good eye.
17:27Yeah.
17:28All right.
17:31I'm rather frightened about this, to be honest, Kati,
17:34so can you set my mind at rest?
17:37This show will be some special event for angels and devils,
17:45and I would like if you...
17:49To be a devil?
17:50No.
17:51Oh, I want to be a devil.
17:52A little bit devil, a little bit angel.
17:54Oh, yes, all right.
17:55Well...
17:56For example, front size is angel.
18:01Yes.
18:03Or front size is the devil.
18:05Yeah.
18:06I think it will be interesting.
18:08So I'm going to be sort of bimoral.
18:12I'm a bit good, a bit bad.
18:14Sorry, that was just a...
18:15Bimoral.
18:16Bimoral.
18:17Like bisexual, you know?
18:18Mm-hmm.
18:19I'm bimoral.
18:20Really?
18:21Would you like a skirt?
18:25No, I mean, I think...
18:28Some lace?
18:29I think...
18:30Well, I might try that later,
18:32but I think the trousers would be better.
18:34Black lace skirts with white lining.
18:38Yes.
18:39Yes, now you're talking.
18:40A sort of see-through kilt.
18:41No.
18:42I would like...
18:46Tonight I'm seeing a rather different side of Budapest.
18:50I've been invited to eat at the Carpatio,
18:52which proclaims itself
18:53the classic Hungarian restaurant of Budapest since 1877.
18:59The owner, Akos Niklai, wants me to hear his discoveries.
19:03Two gypsy violinists, father and son.
19:19Their pièce de résistance is an intricate piece
19:22by the Romanian composer Dinicu, called The Lark,
19:26and it always brings the house down.
19:57WHISTLING
20:21What a lark!
20:23As they take a break,
20:24Akos deals gracefully with some rather impertinent questions.
20:28Hungarians were people of impeccable taste,
20:31very inventive people,
20:32but you haven't had much luck in wars.
20:34You've always sort of backed the losing side.
20:37Well, it happens twice to Hungary,
20:40but it is not always depending on the Hungarians, of course,
20:44due to the location of Hungary.
20:46As a result of this,
20:48I think 50% of the territory of Hungary was taken away,
20:54and again, in the Second World War, we had bad luck,
21:01but you also have to remember the location of Hungary,
21:04where we are located,
21:05and obviously Hungary has a sort of strategic location.
21:09Do you find any tendency in Hungarians to be depressive?
21:13I read somewhere that the country had the highest suicide rate.
21:16I would say yes and no.
21:21Hungarians have different moods.
21:23Sometimes we are very sad, and sometimes we are extremely happy.
21:27But there are situations when it is hard to handle the pressure.
21:31Maybe we are a little bit depressed, but...
21:36That's life.
21:41Another example of Hungarian flair
21:43is a national drink called unicum,
21:45a digestif produced to a secret formula
21:48by none other than my friend Pieter Zwack,
21:51and he's asked me to a tasting.
21:56In the cellars, he tells me how huge barrels of it
21:59were once used to bridge the Danube.
22:01And these barrels were floated on the Danube
22:05as so-called ponton bridges,
22:08because temporary wooden bridges were housed on top of these barrels.
22:14There was a pontoon of unicum barrels.
22:16Was the unicum in the barrels at the time?
22:18That I don't know.
22:20I don't know if they would have sunk or not.
22:22I didn't realise what a powerful bridge it was.
22:24How popular is unicum, Pieter?
22:28Well, thank God it's very, very popular,
22:31because if you take Hungary, which is a population of 10 million people,
22:35we sell 5 million bottles only in Hungary.
22:39So every second Hungarian drinks it.
22:41So it's very, very popular.
22:43So who knows the secret?
22:45It's still in the family.
22:47Now it's actually my wife and I who know it.
22:51Now we say we can't afford to divorce.
22:54You know?
22:56But it's really a secret recipe.
22:58And we very carefully watch that.
23:01It's rather complicated how the herbs in unicum
23:04come from all over the world.
23:06It's unique. There's nothing like it.
23:09And the success of it is, I always kiddingly even say,
23:1250% of the people will never drink it again once they try it.
23:17But the other 50% gets hooked on it.
23:19They will never drink anything else.
23:22This is the moment of truth.
23:25The moment of truth.
23:27When you taste this,
23:29I hope we're going to not end our short-born friendship.
23:34No, we'll remain friends,
23:36but you might have to come and visit me in hospital.
23:38OK.
23:39You have to sort of tap it a little bit.
23:42There we go.
23:43You drink it, do you, every day?
23:44I drink it every day.
23:45I drink one shot like this, half the glass, every evening.
23:50Two glasses of wine and the unicum.
23:53Well, here we go.
23:54Let's see if I'm one of the 50% who do and the 50% who don't.
23:57Knock it back in one?
23:58No.
23:59No? All right.
24:00I would say sip it, enjoy it, if you can.
24:04Oh, mm.
24:09That's magnificent.
24:11It really is.
24:12I love that.
24:13Mm.
24:14It's like being in the forest in the middle of a gale.
24:16Everything's blown at you.
24:17All sorts of taste and water as well.
24:19I love the definition.
24:20It's very...
24:21Ooh, very lively.
24:23Great.
24:24Complex.
24:25Yes.
24:26And it has a...
24:28It's a bit fruity.
24:30Yes.
24:31And it has a...
24:32It's a bit fiery later on.
24:34Yeah.
24:35Mm.
24:36It is like a sort of blast of concentrated mountain countryside.
24:42I've one more engagement left in this seductive city.
24:49Tonight is my debut as a model at Katty Zob's summer show.
24:53You should go and have a quiet seat.
24:55We are ready.
24:57I receive this under control because I have a lot of my colleagues.
25:03And you've done it before, haven't you?
25:06You've done this before.
25:07You've talked to audiences.
25:09They will love you.
25:10I bet they'll go,
25:11Hey, Katty!
25:13Wow!
25:14Yeah, my girl!
25:18I'll let you have a little bit of peace and quiet.
25:21I'll go and form some of my fellow models.
25:24Hello.
25:326.30 and the guests are arriving.
25:40Suddenly it's, well, serious.
25:44The doors are drawn back
25:45and the eyes of Budapest's fashionistas turn expectantly towards me.
25:54Hello. Good evening.
25:56As the oldest and least beautiful of all the models here tonight,
26:02it is a great honour, nevertheless, for me to be able to start this show.
26:06As you can see, Katty has brought out the devil in me tonight.
26:11And this is going to be the theme of the show.
26:13And she is a marvellous designer.
26:15It's been wonderful to work with her.
26:17Now it's time. On with the show!
26:236.30 and the guests are arriving.
26:54APPLAUSE
27:06It's all over far too soon for my liking.
27:09But thanks to Katty,
27:10my transformation from quiet Sheffield lad
27:13to outrageous old-fashioned queen is complete.
27:23Keleti Station is Budapest's gateway to the east.
27:27In its size, scale and the flourish of its architecture,
27:30it's typically Hungarian.
27:44I'm looking for the T-Shirt Express
27:46that runs between Budapest and Lviv in the Ukraine.
27:54ANNOUNCEMENT IN HUNGARIAN
28:02The T-Shirt, named after the second river of Hungary,
28:05connects the capital with the agricultural lands to the east.
28:16I've grown rather used to being in Budapest.
28:19It's so much the centre of the country
28:21with about 20% of the population living here.
28:24I've little idea what the countryside beyond will look and feel like.
28:34I just hope the flowers aren't plastic,
28:36like the ones on the train.
28:41Now this looks like my sort of place.
28:44Mad is well worth the detour,
28:46for despite the angry and possibly mad dogs,
28:49it's the home of something rather special.
28:53This is Mad.
28:54Well, actually, the joke doesn't work so well in Hungarian
28:56because it has an accent that's actually mad.
28:59But it's a small, modest village,
29:02yet on the slopes here are grown
29:04one of the most highly-prized wines in the world.
29:10These are the vines from which the renowned sweet wine Tokaj is made.
29:14During the Soviet years, they produced quantity rather than quality,
29:18but now skilled winemakers can produce bottles costing several hundred pounds.
29:25The secret is mixing wine from these grapes
29:27with others affected by botrytis, or noble rot,
29:31which produces azu,
29:33a juice from which wine is made of the colour and price of gold.
29:39Istvan Turaczi manages production
29:41for the British-owned Royal Tokaj Company.
29:44It's lovely.
29:45Lovely colour, stretching back to quite a long time.
29:49Yeah.
29:50Hundreds of years.
29:55The wine is matured in dark caves over 100 feet below ground,
30:00a suitable place for Istvan to tell me of the mysterious power of Tokaj azu.
30:05I mean, it's a very, very...
30:07It's been a very famous wine for a long time.
30:09I mean, who are the great people who have enjoyed this?
30:13For example, the Queen Mother loved it very much,
30:18who lived for 102 years.
30:20She loved the Tokaj azu wines.
30:22Ah, Queen Mother.
30:23Yes.
30:24She did.
30:25Did she?
30:26She was very discerning, yeah.
30:28And who else?
30:30Queen Victoria, who got, as present,
30:33a dozen of azu wine for each birthday.
30:38The number of dozens were as much as her age,
30:41so it ended at her birthday of 81
30:46with 972 bottles of azu wine
30:49of the different very good vintages of the region.
30:53The advantage of living a long time.
30:55Yes.
30:56Did you ever get any...
30:57Did they ever get any reaction from Queen Victoria?
30:59Did she say,
31:00look, you can stop now, I'm not going to finish these?
31:02Or did she like the wine?
31:03I think she loved the wine as well as Queen Elizabeth.
31:12The beautiful nine-arch bridge, built almost 200 years ago,
31:16carries me over the Tisza River towards the Pushta,
31:19the great Hungarian plain.
31:29Legend has it that this land of distant horizons
31:31was where Attila the Hun died of a nasal flux
31:35brought on by strenuous sexual activity with his new bride.
31:39If only the bicycle had been invented then,
31:41I could have had a much more healthy hobby.
31:47Nowadays the plain is the province of cowboys, called CsÃkos,
31:51and there are herds of massive and rather intimidating
31:54Hungarian grey cattle.
32:10Traditional methods are still used here.
32:13The CsÃkos water their livestock from chadouf-style wells,
32:16like those I've seen in Africa.
32:40This is now a national park,
32:42and the survival of the Hungarian cowboy
32:44is in the hands of visitors like us.
32:56Picking up the Tisza Express again,
32:58I take it through to the frontier town of Záhony,
33:01and from there, across into the Ukraine.
33:04Crossing the border is an uplifting experience,
33:08quite literally.
33:12This is Chop, just over the Ukrainian border.
33:15It's the middle of the night,
33:16and because of the incompatibility of the European and Russian rail networks,
33:21they're on a different gauge.
33:23Every coach has to be on a different gauge,
33:26and that's why I'm here.
33:28Because of the incompatibility of the Ukrainian and Russian rail networks,
33:32they're on a different gauge.
33:34Every coach has to be sort of jacked up into the air,
33:37and they've got to physically change all the bogies.
33:40And that's what they're doing at the moment,
33:42and you can see people on the train in the middle of the night,
33:47and six feet up in the air, these will all be changed.
33:51I mean, it is quite dramatic, but who's going to change?
33:54The Russian rail network or the European rail network?
33:58BELL RINGS
34:11The train, having been re-wheeled in an hour flat,
34:15we're on our way and back to sleep.
34:19TRAIN RUMBLES
34:26I've been this way before,
34:28but when I last took a train to Kiev, it wasn't part of the Ukraine.
34:32I was filming Pole to Pole, and this was still the USSR.
34:38On that journey, I got talking to a young Ukrainian called Vadim Kosteli.
34:42He said he sensed something in the air, something dangerous and exciting.
34:47I see Ukrainian history being revived.
34:49I see Ukrainian culture, you know, the culture which many people thought is gone forever.
34:56Now, we're getting back to some of our roots.
34:58There is so much to do here.
35:00If one feels Ukrainian, if one feels it's one's roots,
35:04this is a very exciting period to live through in the history of this land.
35:11And so it proved to be.
35:13The collapse of the USSR led eventually to the election of Viktor Yushchenko as president
35:18and the charismatic Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister.
35:22They called it the Orange Revolution.
35:37But Viktor and Yulia fell out, and when I arrive in Kiev for a second time,
35:41the ecstatic scenes in Independence Square are already a distant memory.
35:53There are still tents in the square, but there's a confusion in the camps.
36:00An election has just delivered a hung parliament.
36:03Yulia can't work with Viktor, and Viktor can't work with parties that support closer links to Russia.
36:10There's deadlock, and until it's broken, the faithful are pledged to stay on the streets.
36:16Who better to turn to for an explanation than the stranger I met on the train all those years ago?
36:23Vadim, you know, the eyes of the world were on this square during the Orange Revolution about a couple of years ago,
36:28and the flags are out again. Is this democracy in action in Ukraine?
36:33You know, the real problem is that many people in this country,
36:39after so many years of Russian empire and of the Soviet empire,
36:44they were used to being ruled by a strong hand which does everything very effectively
36:49without thinking about such stupid things as democracy or, you know, human rights or whatever it is.
36:55So when we suddenly got this president that we have now and this kind of a new government
37:03which is democratic in its ideas, which means slow and not as effective as the authoritarian regimes,
37:10many people just don't get it. They say, oh, we want a strong, we want discipline, we want order.
37:15There's a lot of young people out there in the tented city.
37:17I mean, do they believe in a democratic future for Ukraine?
37:21I think they are beginning to understand that this strange beast called democracy
37:28includes a number of very pragmatic things that young people want to have,
37:32like a possibility to go abroad and to study there,
37:35like a possibility to speak openly without being afraid of the policemen, you know, behind you.
37:41We last met 15 years ago and you sort of made a prediction, you said,
37:46things are going to move slowly but they are going to change.
37:49When we next meet, if we're both still alive in 15 years' time,
37:54what do you think you'll be saying about the world then and about Ukraine?
37:59Ukraine by that time should be much more sovereign, much more independent,
38:08well, of course, much more prosperous, hopefully a part, a real part of the European family
38:16and perhaps led politically by a good-looking lady.
38:23Who could that be?
38:26Well, there are a couple of.
38:28Oh, there's a few photos around there.
38:30Well, let's have a look, let's have a look.
38:32How do you like that lady over there?
38:34Oh, yes, she's nice. Would you like to run for Ukraine?
38:36No, in 15 years she can grow up to become a leading politician.
38:41Basing her appeal on an image of wholesome Ukrainian womanhood,
38:45Yulia Tymoshenko is still eye-catching.
38:47But now she has competition from her daughter.
38:53In a Kiev monastery, Eugenia Tymoshenko recently married Sean Carr,
38:58a market trader from Leeds.
39:05Sean's not a politician.
39:10He's a Death Valley screamer.
39:13Unable to make much headway in the UK,
39:16the group he founded has taken Ukraine by storm.
39:30Sean and Eugenia have thrown themselves behind the Tymoshenko campaign
39:34and I catch up with them on a morale-boosting visit to the troops.
39:37I mean, Sean, you know, you're a Yorkshireman.
39:40Maybe we don't do this sort of thing in England, do we?
39:42Put up a tent in Westminster Square.
39:45Good Lord, no.
39:47I don't know, it's...
39:49What do you think of it?
39:51At first I thought it was very, very strange.
39:53It was a massive shock, but now it's...
39:55They need to do this.
39:57This is a last... Well, not just a last resort.
39:59This is a last resort.
40:01They need to do this.
40:03This is a last... Well, not just a last resort.
40:05This is a peaceful way of resolving things.
40:07It's an amazing situation and amazing to meet someone like yourself here.
40:11So we'll watch. We'll see what goes on.
40:14Let's have a look around.
40:21I'm not the only one following them around.
40:24As they don't get much time to themselves here,
40:27they invite me to their country house for lunch the next day.
40:58Sean doesn't do public transport.
41:00Or a saddle, actually.
41:02But he doesn't half get you there fast.
41:06That's the way to arrive.
41:09The bike may be top of the market,
41:11but the house, in the woods outside Kiev,
41:13is quite modest by the standards of pop aristocracy.
41:17As we sit and have a drink,
41:19I can't help thinking that my fellow Yorkshireman fits in rather well here.
41:23There's a touch of the Cossack about him.
41:25Does your mother-in-law like your music, Sean?
41:28Yeah, she likes...
41:31To a certain extent.
41:33I wouldn't imagine she'd go out there and bop around to it.
41:36But, yeah, she likes what we're doing.
41:38I think she appreciates that we've worked really hard
41:41and we've brought a new sort of music here.
41:46It's very strange, because what we do in England...
41:50You sit every night in a pub or you walk in, there's a band playing.
41:54Whereas here, you play and the reaction is just phenomenal.
41:58Everybody... I mean, we've had 70-year-old grandmas
42:02coming down wearing Death Valley Screamer shirts
42:04and they're all bopping around.
42:06It's just like, hang on a minute, what's going on here?
42:09It's fantastic.
42:11Do you think that... Sorry.
42:13I was just going to say that my mum wanted to keep him dressed on the stage
42:17because he always takes his shirt off, you know.
42:20She was worried about that.
42:23So after some time, she accepted it as the way to be, you know.
42:27That's very English, you know, you have fun, you take your shirt off.
42:30Yeah, put your hair down.
42:32If your mother came to power,
42:34do you think there'd be a chance of a cabinet post for Sean?
42:38Yeah, he wants to be Minister of Roads, I think.
42:41Get the roadside out, first job.
42:44I think Sean would be a good adviser, you know,
42:47on the system of the roads and how they should be.
42:50Minister of Rock and Roads, that'd be good.
42:55I think you were the first Soviet girl,
42:58one of the first Soviet girls ever to go to an English public school.
43:02I mean, has this been a good experience for you?
43:05I really enjoyed my years there and I think...
43:09Although some papers say the system is not very good anymore,
43:13you know, the public school system should be changed,
43:16but I think it's great, it's a great system.
43:20Well, that's very good for rugby, they'll like that.
43:23Yes.
43:24What attracted, you know, a demure English public school girl
43:28like yourself to this wild rock-and-rolling motorbike maniac?
43:37Because, you know, the first time I saw him, he looked really unusual
43:41and, you know, I've always liked bikes and music like this,
43:47so I thought, ah, he's like a rock musician, he must be, you know.
43:50So I said, I have to pass by him, you know, and see what he looks like.
43:55But, you know, afterwards, you know, it's not really about bikes or music,
44:00it's more about Sean's personality, you know,
44:03that he's a really, really kind person and, you know, a lovely, lovely person.
44:09So that's why it's not really about...
44:12And, of course, it adds a lot of, you know, excitement to my life.
44:16It was just a bike.
44:17Something that I've never tried before.
44:18It was a bike, be honest about it.
44:19Yeah, it's just a bike, yeah.
44:20I have to admit it to you.
44:22Admit it, admit it.
44:27As Sean drives me back, I can't help hoping his mother-in-law
44:31will one day get back into power.
44:33Ukraine could use a new Minister of Roads.
44:37Kiev could be a European city
44:39with its glittering skyline of Christian monasteries.
44:42But the huge 300-foot monument called Nation's Mother,
44:46given to the city in Soviet times, faces towards Moscow,
44:50and there are many here who would like Ukraine to do the same.
44:56The Dnieper River flows through Kiev to the Black Sea,
44:59close to my next port of call, the Crimea.
45:02Thousands make for the Crimean coast every summer,
45:05leaving the train at Simferopol and continuing on by trolleybus.
45:10The route was opened in 1959 as cheap travel for the masses.
45:18A bus to Moscow, a bus to Kiev, a bus to the White Sea,
45:22a bus to Kiev, a bus to Moscow.
45:25And I'm going to take a bus to Moscow.
45:27I've got a bus.
45:33And I'll take a bus.
45:35I'll take a bus to Moscow.
45:36I'll take a bus to Moscow.
45:37masses. But it's not just any old suburban service. It covers 51 miles and
45:45crosses a 2,500 foot pass. The number 52 from Simferopol to Yalta is one of the
45:54great trolleybus journeys of the world.
46:02Mind you, it does take three hours.
46:37In February 1945, a conference was held here in Yalta that was to change the face of Europe.
46:43This is the Livadia Palace, the summer home of Russia's last Tsar, the ill-fated
46:49Nicholas II. It's also the place where, in 1945, the fate of Europe was decided
46:55by three powerful men. Joseph Stalin of the USSR, President Roosevelt of the USA,
47:01and Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill. President Roosevelt was a sick
47:07man. Observers described him as looking frail and ill. Indeed, within three
47:12months of the conference, he'd be dead. But because of his condition, he was given a
47:16room here at Livadia Palace. It was only a short wheelchair ride from there through
47:22into the main conference chamber. Around this table, the big three leaders and
47:29their delegations argued for four days over the borders and boundaries of their
47:34new Europe. When the day's horse trading was over, Churchill and the British
47:40delegation returned to their villa. It was built by Count Vorontsov, who spent 20
47:47years and a countless fortune building it, and never lived in it.
47:53Churchill loved this lion particularly. He told Stalin, it's like me, only without
47:59the cigar. In the great hall of the Vorontsov Villa, subsidiary meetings were
48:07held by the foreign ministers to thrash out the fine detail. Whether the Vorontsov
48:13Villa was bugged or not is a moot point, but the two observations by one of
48:17Churchill's party suggests someone might have been listening in. For instance, in
48:22completely private conversations, someone mentioned they'd seen a fish tank, and it
48:26was empty of fish. Two days later, full of goldfish. A similar confidential
48:31conversation about not finding enough lemon peel for the cocktails resulted
48:35two days later in a lemon tree in the conservatory. Maybe coincidence.
48:44Behind all the conviviality and the toastings and the mutual back-slapping,
48:49one inescapable fact hung over all their discussions. The Red Army already
48:54occupied Eastern Europe. Because of their vast resources of men and materials,
48:59Stalin wasn't prepared to give an inch. At the end of the final session, Stalin
49:06put his name to a document promising free and unfettered elections in all the
49:11countries occupied by the Red Army. They never happened. Within weeks, Churchill
49:20had written to Roosevelt saying that he thought they'd signed up to a fraudulent
49:23manifesto. This was scant consolation for the people of the Baltic states of
49:29Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania. For us, the war ended in 1945. For
49:36them, as a result of what was signed here, it could have been said to have gone on
49:40for another 50 years. I'd always imagined Yalta to be a cold, grey place, so it's
49:46quite a shock to find it's the holiday destination of choice for Ukrainians and
49:51Russians, with packed beaches and some interesting twin cities.
49:55Pozzuoli, Italy, Rhodes, Greece, Sanya, China, Fujisawa, Japan and Margate, England.
50:15Hello, Margate. You're remembered in Yalta.
50:23I wonder if those sandwiched on these beaches have any idea of Yalta's claim
50:28to fame. I asked Anja, a local girl, who's working to bring even more tourists here.
50:34Do many of the people who come here, or indeed yourself, who live here, Anja,
50:39do they know about the peace conference in Yalta in 1945? Of course, and
50:44Livadia Palace that was held is one of the most popular sightseeing objects.
50:51So people are aware that Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt got here and the
50:56significance for Europe? That is true, that is correct. What do people think of
51:01Stalin? Well, there are different points of view on that. Some people who remember
51:12the communist days treat him as a very fair and very firm leader, but some think
51:21that he was too cruel, I would say. What do you think from your studies? I've
51:30studied from different books and I'm still looking for my answer. Would you,
51:37you live here, would you go and sunbathe on a beach like that over there?
51:41I know better places, I know my own places.
51:49Crimean politicians were traditionally pro-Moscow, but as we walk along the prom,
51:54I'm quite surprised to find the great revolutionary himself, still on his feet,
51:59staring sternly out to sea. Why has Lenin survived here in Yalta, in the Ukraine after all,
52:08not even Russia, when so many other places have removed him? Well, Crimea was Russian until 1954
52:15and people here, like in the east of Ukraine, are pro-Russian and many of them have positive,
52:22nice memories of the Soviet days and it was decided to keep the monument as part
52:26of the historical heritage. After all, you cannot tear a page out of history, can you?
52:32But tonight is my last night here and I decide to close the history books
52:37and surrender to the relentless hedonism of Margate's twin town.
52:53Now, if I were here with my grandson Archie, what would you want to see me doing?
52:59Oh, no, no, not this.
53:05I've got a feeling there are things about Yalta that I should remember
53:09even more than the peace conference. Here we go.
53:28Oh, I'm glad I wore my jacket. I can throw up in the pocket.
53:52This is the furthest east I'll get in New Europe. Next time I'll be in the Baltics.
53:59Oh, wow.
54:08Okay, I confess, I never wanted to do another series. Himalaya was enough for me.
54:18I'll never do another one. Archie, if you can see me now, I did it for you.