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00:00A complex that hosted an unlikely Cold War matchup.
00:07It was a real barn burning.
00:11The fact that the Soviets could match them is really quite impressive.
00:16A British facility caught up in a battle between trade unions and the Iron Lady.
00:23She was determined to use every weapon in her arsenal to crush them.
00:29And a Gothic tower in Memphis. Plague from its inception.
00:37This is where they made a crucial mistake.
00:40And it was one that would haunt the building for the rest of its life.
00:44In Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, a derelict structure evokes memories of a remarkable sporting moment.
01:02We come across this plaza, but it's kind of falling apart.
01:12Looming over all of it is a grand building with a very distinctive design.
01:18Almost like a spaceship that's come and landed here.
01:22It's concrete, it's brutalist in style.
01:27It has all the feelings of a Soviet building.
01:30Inside, it quickly becomes apparent this is some type of arena.
01:36In some ways, it recalls a little bit Lincoln Center in New York City,
01:42the great concert hall, or even the Sydney Opera House.
01:45This is a building with real aspirations for greatness.
01:51Built to showcase Soviet excellence, an American billionaire ensured it would host a unique Cold War showdown.
02:01Landing deep behind enemy lines, this group of Americans were treated as heroes.
02:07The players must have thought this was the strangest thing they'd ever seen.
02:19July 1988.
02:24Thousands of Lithuanians have gathered outside the building, filling the plaza.
02:29There were a lot of militias everywhere, and a few checkpoints.
02:38But these aren't protesters.
02:41They're basketball fans.
02:43Desperate to get inside and catch a glimpse of NBA superstars,
02:48making a rare appearance behind the Iron Curtain.
02:52Ginteras Krapikas was one of the lucky ones.
03:01We all knew about NBA basketball.
03:03However, we never had the opportunity to watch it.
03:06No television here ever broadcast it, and it was like a myth.
03:10It was incredible for the fans to be able to watch them play live.
03:13Everyone was just in awe.
03:16But how did an NBA team come to play in this arena during the Cold War?
03:28Its seeds were sown back in the 1920s,
03:31when Lithuanian Americans imported basketball into the country.
03:37Journalist Vidas Matciulis has been covering the nation's favorite game for 60 years.
03:46In Lithuania, we call basketball our second religion.
03:50Everyone loves it.
03:51Everyone respects it.
03:53And it's 102 years old.
03:57The sport caught on quickly,
03:59and Lithuania was crowned European champions in 1937 and 1939.
04:05But these glory days were soon cut short.
04:09In 1940, shortly after World War II had broken out,
04:16the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania,
04:19and the national team was absorbed into the Soviet system.
04:24By the mid-1960s, Soviet communism reached its zenith.
04:29The Soviets were ahead in spaceflight.
04:34Their political system seemed to be gaining power around the world.
04:39Their sports teams were some of the best in the world.
04:44The Soviet leaders really wanted to project this image of success
04:47to the rest of the world and to their own citizens.
04:51And they embarked on a series of ambitious projects across its empire.
04:56Here in Lithuania, construction began in 1965 on this.
05:03The Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports.
05:08It hosted a range of events and sports,
05:11including the country's beloved basketball.
05:14I see the main VIP stand. I was there many times.
05:29Sitting alongside Soviet leaders,
05:31it wasn't always the most relaxed atmosphere.
05:35We were too reserved to clap.
05:41We were too shy to cheer for the team that we supported.
05:47And we were afraid to cheer for the musical band.
05:50In the 1980s, with the Cold War beginning to thaw,
05:59the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev instituted a series of reforms
06:03that promoted a new level of transparency and openness across the Soviet Union.
06:08Gorbachev chose to release the pressure where he could,
06:14almost like letting some steam out of a boiler that's close to exploding.
06:19So he began to allow cultural exchanges.
06:23In the United States, Ted Turner, a media mogul and owner of the Atlanta Hawks,
06:28was closely watching international affairs.
06:31Turner was a real character, real entrepreneur.
06:37With CNN, he invented the whole idea of 24-hour cable news,
06:41and he had a real idealistic streak.
06:44And he especially was focused on doing what he could
06:49to sort of bridge this divide between the West and the Soviet Union.
06:55In 1988, the Atlanta Hawks set off to cross the Iron Curtain
06:58and play a series of three exhibition matches against the Soviet national team.
07:04The second of the three matches would take place here.
07:08Excitement spread throughout the basketball-crazed nation.
07:17I couldn't believe it.
07:19I started looking for tickets very early
07:21because I realized what it meant to Lithuania
07:24and what it meant for basketball.
07:26And I did well because the tickets were almost impossible to come by.
07:33Although the arena only held 5,000,
07:36over a million people competed for tickets.
07:40In fact, it said that they went for the equivalent of a month's wages
07:45on the black market.
07:47So the authorities decided to also sell tickets to the practice sessions.
07:51And the citizens of Vilnius just packed the stands,
07:55watching these players practice in absolute silence.
07:58It was as if they were in church.
08:01The players must have thought this was the strangest thing they'd ever seen.
08:04On July 27, 1988, the two teams stepped out onto this court for the much-anticipated showdown.
08:14It would prove a classic encounter, won by a slam dunking legend.
08:18In July 1988, NBA stars of the Atlanta Hawks found themselves behind the Iron Curtain, playing a series of exhibition games in the USSR.
08:37Game 2 was held in the basketball-mad country of Lithuania.
08:47It was a real barn burning.
08:53This is a real hard-fought competition.
08:57This Soviet team, these guys were not pushovers.
09:01On the Atlanta Hawks was all-star Dominique Wilkins,
09:05one of the greatest slam dunkers in NBA history.
09:08There were moments where our jaws dropped because we were so impressed by the opportunities created,
09:18the bravery and the athleticism that we hadn't seen or faced before.
09:23But the Soviet team just kept coming back.
09:30They were known for their extraordinary level of physical condition.
09:34After a nail-biting match, the buzzer went, ending the game, and the score was knotted at 92-92.
09:44Now it was time for another shock for the American team.
09:46The Soviets thought, OK, that's fine, the game's a tie. Isn't that nice?
09:53And the Americans were saying, there's no ties in basketball.
10:00Eventually, the Soviets relented, and they agreed to extend the match into overtime.
10:06At this point, NBA legend Dominique Wilkins took the initiative.
10:11Then in overtime, their biggest star Dominique Wilkins took the ball and in a short time scored eight points.
10:23And after a very intense fight, won the game.
10:30The final score was Hawks 110, USSR 105.
10:34The Hawks' victory was a highlight for this facility.
10:41But soon after, the palace became the focal point for a rising independence movement.
10:49The Soviet House of Cards came tumbling down.
10:55After the fall of the Soviet Union, Lithuania is broke.
11:03And they don't have the money to support their reconstructed national basketball team.
11:10The 1992 Olympics were coming up, and it was the first time in almost half a century for Lithuania to play its favorite national sport as an independent country.
11:21Gintaras was one of the players who answered the fledgling nation's call.
11:30The team came to play for their country for nothing, for no salary.
11:34As well as playing for free, the team desperately searched for sponsors to help them fulfill their dreams of representing their country at the Olympics.
11:48And this becomes kind of a cause celeb for many people in the U.S.
11:55A lot of NBA players thought very fondly of the Lithuanians and their team, so they lobbied to raise money to help them compete.
12:03The Grateful Dead of all bands takes an interest in the plight of the Lithuanian team.
12:10They contribute money for new uniforms and hire a great designer to design this new kit.
12:17It was an incredible experience to play for Lithuania, wearing the T-shirt that said Lithuania.
12:32At the Olympics, the Lithuanian team did really well. They made it all the way to the semifinals.
12:36It's only when they come up against the American Dream Team that they're defeated. In the end, they came away with a bronze.
12:45We had a huge motivation to become better, and we wanted to show that to the whole world.
12:51Olympic Games and becoming independent gave us that chance.
13:06This was a turning point for Lithuanian basketball players, proving themselves on an international stage.
13:15Arvidas Sabonis was one of the first Lithuanians to join the NBA.
13:21First drafted in 1986, the Soviets refused to let him leave for the U.S.
13:28It wasn't until nearly a decade later that he finally joined the league.
13:32But players like Sabonis helped pave the way for the many Lithuanians, including his son, to become NBA stars.
13:43And although the Palace fell into disrepair and closed in 2004, the match against the Atlanta Hawks is fondly remembered as the high point of this stadium's history.
13:55I was in the peak years as an active athlete. Looking at those players who played like that gives you motivation. And that match is the most memorable for me.
14:10In the English village of Clipston, a towering structure stirs memories of a fateful battle with a powerful leader.
14:27We're in the centre of England near the city of Nottingham. It feels quiet and rural.
14:40On what looks like the village green are two enormous metal monuments reaching into the sky.
14:46It feels quite odd that these vast structures are marooned in the middle of a field. Could this have once been part of a much larger operation?
14:59Delving into the bowels of this beast, a strange sight appears underground.
15:05Directly beneath the tower is a large circular pad possibly concealing something.
15:14Exploring this place, you'd have no idea of the riches that are buried beneath it or the controversies that would surround them.
15:26This structure symbolises one of the greatest social battles in Britain's history.
15:30It was a brutal fight between capitalism and socialism. Margaret Thatcher reverses the trade unions.
15:40Many have never forgiven the Iron Lady.
15:53For nearly 30 years, Doug Broadfoot relied on this facility for his livelihood.
15:58This was the main place of employment for the village.
16:08Apart from this, there was nothing. There was just one or two local shops.
16:13When Doug first worked here, this was part of an industry Britain couldn't function without.
16:19Coal had powered the Industrial Revolution and hundreds of coal mines were scattered across the land.
16:34So much so that in the 19th century, it was mining two thirds of the world's coal.
16:39This is the Clipston Colliery.
16:46When it opened in 1922, it proved to be a coal mining powerhouse.
16:52It quickly became one of the most productive mines in Britain, extracting more than 4,000 tons per day by the 1940s.
17:01But this was a decade of dramatic change.
17:11In 1947, as part of the post-World War II shake-up, the coal industry was nationalised.
17:17The first day of a new era.
17:23Its new owner was the British government.
17:27And they wouldn't always see eye to eye with the powerful trade union, which represented around a million miners.
17:34The National Union of Mine Workers, or NUM, who had long represented miners across the country, supported the nationalisation.
17:45But eventually, the two sides would come to an almighty clash.
17:50In the 1950s, these two giant towers, or headstocks, were installed.
17:58At the time, they were the tallest in Europe, and allowed access to deeper coal seams.
18:07An elevator shaft would take the men more than 3,000 feet underground.
18:15The elevator could travel up to 27 miles per hour.
18:19Just imagine hurtling at that speed, for that long, down towards the centre of the Earth.
18:24And down in the depths, the conditions were brutal.
18:31You could be killed by cave-ins, dangerous gases, fire, and even a condition called black lung.
18:39There was dangers lurking around every corner.
18:43So you had to be on your toes and alert.
18:48You looked after each other down there.
18:51Despite digging deeper to save their jobs, by the 1980s, Doug and his colleagues were increasingly in fear of the mine closing down.
19:03Coal was being replaced by new energy sources, such as nuclear, gas, and oil.
19:10By 1984, the number of British miners had fallen from over a million 50 years earlier, to barely 200,000.
19:20As the numbers of unemployed rose, the miners' union was gradually becoming more radical in its outlook.
19:30More and more pits were being closed, setting the stage for an almighty war between the miners and a new prime minister famous for getting her own way.
19:40In 1979, Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister.
19:49She planned to close inefficient mines and begin to depend on cheaper imports.
19:54She also believed that trade unions like the NUM had too much power.
20:02She became determined to break their influence.
20:07Ready for battle, in March 1984, Thatcher announced a new wave of pit closures, with the loss of 20,000 jobs.
20:18It triggered a strike which quickly spread around the country.
20:25Miners arrived at Clipston to find picket lines of strikers blocking them from going to work.
20:33And they came down, and there were some pickets there.
20:38And asked our support, and so I said, yeah.
20:42Because we were fighting for their jobs.
20:44It wasn't just our job, it was their jobs as well.
20:48From then on, we didn't really look back.
20:53Initially, three quarters of miners across the country joined the strike.
20:59At Clipston, Doug himself was in the minority, as most chose to continue working.
21:05Thatcher seized on this by idolizing the working miners, describing them as heroes who simply wanted to go to work, rather than submit to the threats of the strikers.
21:19Reports appear of those who have been intimidated, because they seek to go to their place of work, to pursue their occupation, and to support their families.
21:29As well as attempting to divide the miners, Thatcher mobilized an army of police.
21:39The dispute was threatening to escalate into all-out war.
21:44In 1984, Clipston Coal Mine was at the heart of a battle between British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Coal Miners Union, or NUM.
22:05The Iron Lady unleashed an army of police to crush a national strike and break the pickets.
22:16They set up roadblocks throughout Nottinghamshire to prevent any suspected strikers from traveling.
22:21Clipston continued to operate under police protection, and the entire village was locked down.
22:31There was literally hundreds of thousands of police in this area.
22:37It was absolutely flooded with police stopping the pickets coming in.
22:42And this was happening all over the country as well.
22:45Some criticized Thatcher for using the police as a paramilitary wing of the state.
22:53They weren't here to keep the law.
22:57They were here to make sure that the workers who wanted to work got into work and they kept producing coal.
23:03Nothing else.
23:05Scenes of violence played out on TV screens every night, shocking the British public.
23:11Nearly 300 were arrested and more than 200 pickets and policemen injured.
23:18But an ugly streak of violence has disfigured our television screens night after night.
23:26Many strikers felt the police were unnecessarily brutal with beatings and random arrests, something Doug personally witnessed.
23:34The majority of miners are still on strike.
23:38They got strikers sacked, arrested for doing absolutely nothing, and some of them have never worked since.
23:45Some of the miners, their lives were ruined with injuries as well.
23:51It happened here at Clipston where one or two of the lads got arrested, and sorry, but they did absolutely nothing.
24:00It was all trumped up charges.
24:06Thatcher had also changed the law, so that strikers' families were prevented from receiving emergency benefits.
24:12The Layton's and other striking families have put together to make sure they have all they need.
24:19The families of strikers like Doug were forced to rely on the NUM s charity soup kitchens.
24:26But the union s charity funds had almost run out.
24:31More and more desperate miners were starting to return to work.
24:35The strike had lasted an entire year.
24:45In the years after the strike, the pace of closures was accelerated, with many pit villages falling into deep poverty.
24:54Clipston survived this turbulent period and continued operating, but with a much smaller workforce, before closing down in 2003.
25:05Today, there are just a handful of coal mines in Britain, employing less than 500 people.
25:17But Clipston is set to find new life as an event center and museum.
25:22In southwest Tennessee, a monolithic structure towers over a city with a proud musical heritage.
25:37Memphis is a bustling town on the Mississippi River, and it's filled with country music and blues and jazz, and it's a really vibrant, happening city.
25:53More than anything, it is known as the birthplace of rock and roll.
26:02Right in the heart of it all is this towering monolith. It is an imposing structure. It looks strong and sturdy.
26:13Trying to piece together what this place was used for isn't easy.
26:19There are dentist chairs, old medical equipment, signs for attorney's offices, collection offices.
26:26There's even a bathroom with leopard print wallpaper on the walls.
26:30Once known as the Queen of Memphis, this place attracted rock and roll royalty.
26:39He had a company called Stars Inc. on the 19th floor, and he was the manager of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
26:45This was the biggest, the best, the most luxurious building Memphis had ever seen.
26:53It was designed as a monument to success, but its founders sowed the seeds of its destruction at its inception.
27:03This is where they made a crucial mistake, and it was one that would haunt the building for the rest of its life.
27:09Like many locals, Stuart Harris was drawn to the mystery of this vast cavernous structure.
27:28He still remembers the day it was closed down.
27:32The building was abandoned when I was nine years old.
27:36And I always wondered what was going on in there.
27:41It stood out to me as being very unique.
27:43It felt almost like a 30-story haunted house.
27:47While it looks monolithic, it's packed full of surprises.
27:55So after decades of wondering what the inside looked like, I had an opportunity to visit it.
28:00And it was so mysterious, and in some ways not at all what I expected.
28:08When it was built, this lobby was neo-gothic.
28:11It was very grand, high ceilings, bronze rosettes, leaded glass, no expense spared.
28:18The concept was a city within a city.
28:23An office block that had everything a worker might need, all housed in one building.
28:31It had a cigar stand, a news stand, a barber shop, beauty shop, lawyers, dentists, doctors, everything you could possibly imagine.
28:41Two and a half million dollars were pumped into its construction, which began in 1928.
28:52Its owners were two wealthy Texans, Ross S. Sterling and Wyatt Hendrick.
28:59They decided to merge their last names, and the Sterling Building was born.
29:06900 offices, accommodating 5,000 office workers, spread across 29 floors.
29:18It was born in the Roaring Twenties.
29:23An era sometimes known as the Jazz Age.
29:27Memphis is absolutely booming, and it's the center of the cotton trade.
29:34Between 1880 and 1920, over 70% of the cotton in America was harvested within 200 miles of Memphis.
29:43And that meant a lot of money, and a lot of jobs, and a lot of new buildings.
29:48This real estate boom was seized on by Sterling and Hendrick.
29:53And being Texans, and Texans either go big or go home, decided they were going to make a splash.
30:00And they picked the busiest corner in central downtown, the corner of Madison and 3rd Street, which is now B.B. King.
30:07One of the things they added were eight high-speed elevators.
30:14These elevators were manned by eight ladies in dresses and bows, who would greet visitors and act almost as a concierge to take them to whatever floor they were visiting.
30:25By the 40s and 50s, this building is absolutely at full occupancy.
30:35Among these occupants were some famous rock and rollers.
30:39A dilapidated tower in Memphis, designed as a city within a city, once hosted an eclectic mix of businesses.
30:57Sterling was home to lots of local radio stations, and it was also where Bob Neal, a famous early DJ, had his offices and studios.
31:09He had a company called Stars Inc. on the 19th floor, and he was the manager of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
31:16He set up the King's first live performance here in Memphis, and put on local variety shows, where you could see these soon-to-be global superstars for just 50 cents a ticket.
31:31Bob helped Elvis, found Elvis Presley Enterprises, and is the managing company of Graceland, Elvis' mansion in South Memphis.
31:41But with Elvis clearly heading for the big time, Neal, tired of life on the road, decided not to renew his contract.
31:51And the now infamous Colonel Tom Parker took over.
31:58Times were good, and the owner of the Empire State Building bought the tower.
32:03But urban depopulation that impacted cities across America in the 1960s and 70s, was compounded in Memphis by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
32:18As more people began to leave the city and move to the suburbs or take their offices elsewhere, it really began this process of a death by a thousand cuts.
32:33In 1973, the bank foreclosed on the property, and it was taken back by the lender.
32:40This brought attention to the original contract, signed by Sterling and Hendrick in 1926.
32:49And it was far from conventional.
32:52So, incredibly, they didn't buy the land where their skyscraper would be.
32:58They simply leased it for 99 years.
33:03If anyone wanted to make improvements to this building, why would they want to do that when, in 2025, all of the improvements, every dime they spent on the building would go entirely back to the family that owned the land?
33:17No one was willing to make that investment.
33:19But Stewart is part of an ownership group that has managed to break the curse of the 99-year lease.
33:29In 2023, we were able to come to an agreement with all parties to dissolve the entire lease structure and create a fee simple structure of ownership so that lease is no longer standing.
33:43Plans are underway to convert the tower into an apartment block combined with hotels and restaurants.
34:02We really hope that it's going to be a catalytic project that really radiates activity from here around the neighborhood and really affects the core of downtown New York.
34:12We really hope that it's going to be a part of downtown Memphis.
34:20On the outskirts of Kuala Terengganu in eastern Malaysia, the bustling urban sprawl quickly gives way to nature.
34:35You don't have to stray too far from the city before things start getting very remote.
34:41I'm talking hot, dense jungle.
34:47In a small clearing set back from a winding river, you come across a curious collection of wooden buildings.
34:56Seven different structures set on stilts are connected by walkways.
35:00The construction looks old-fashioned, but the fact that it's made of timber makes it really hard to date it.
35:10In this tropical climate, nature is rapidly reclaiming what once belonged to the jungle.
35:17So some of the planks have rotted away, the structure is starting to collapse, and it's just really hard to tell what it was used for.
35:28However, when you enter the building, there are surprising signs of modernity.
35:35You look around and you see beautifully tiled bathrooms, a fridge, even an air conditioning unit.
35:41It's also filled with the remnants of what looks to be perhaps some textile industry.
35:48This was much more than just a home.
35:51This was one man's dream to safeguard his nation's heritage.
35:54But when tragedy struck, his vision was shattered.
36:00I first came here in 1992.
36:14There was nothing but the jungle.
36:21Syed Hanafia is a carpenter and helped construct this complex with Tengu Ishmael,
36:27the man behind a bold and unusual vision.
36:34Tengu Ishmael was warm and friendly to the people, approachable and very easy to talk to.
36:44He may have been a man of the people, but he came from royalty.
36:50Tengu actually means prince, which is what he was.
36:53He was the prince of the local Terengganu royal family.
36:59While his great-grandfather, Sultan Ziyanel Abeddin III, had ruled over the entire Terengganu province,
37:06Ishmael was far removed from the direct line to the throne.
37:10Tengu Ishmael was born in the 1950s, and being the second cousin to the ruling sultan,
37:16you know, he was in no danger of becoming king.
37:20But he still grew up with all the trappings of being in an aristocratic family.
37:24That included living in his great-grandfather's royal palace.
37:31There, he fell in love with the traditional Malay architecture and culture,
37:36including songket, a traditional cloth sewn in silk or cotton,
37:42then highlighted with gold or silver thread to create a silky metallic fabric.
37:47In 1970, that passion took him to the Osaka Expo in Japan,
37:56where he not only represented Malaysia, but he also displayed the songket cloth for the world.
38:03While in Japan, he took the opportunity to visit the Nijojo Palace, built in 1603.
38:10It was a transformative moment.
38:14He was so impressed by what he saw and the way that these wooden structures were preserved
38:19that he decided he would do the same thing for his own cultural heritage.
38:27Tengu Ishmael once lamented to me that the traditional Terengganu houses were going extinct.
38:34He wanted to preserve them.
38:36So he decided to salvage traditional Terengganu homes and unify them into one structure
38:49to imitate an 18th-century royal palace, just like the one he grew up in.
38:55The ambitious project was called Pura Tangjung Sabtu,
39:00which is a combination of the local village name and the word for palace.
39:04In 1992, he began scouring Terengganu for these traditional wooden houses.
39:12These very old houses are put together with no nails, no screws.
39:18It's just been all cut and built by very skilled workers.
39:23So what he has to do is take them all apart, transport them to his space,
39:29and then put them all together.
39:31So the carpenters have to be extremely skilled at cutting the different wooden pieces
39:38so they slide together and fit snugly without seam or lock.
39:43Part of Ishmael's project was attempting to revive his beloved song, Ket.
39:48On the ground floor, he had an entire area dedicated to the manufacture and display of the fabric.
39:59When complete in 1996, it opened as his personal residence, but also a museum and a hotel.
40:08And in 2007, his efforts appeared to have paid off.
40:17He was nominated for the Aga Khan Architecture Award.
40:22The awards celebrate design excellence in societies with predominantly Muslim populations.
40:28Tengu Ishmael described it as one of the happiest moments of his life.
40:34Finally, it seemed as if everything was coming together.
40:37In June 2011, the Prince traveled to London for a popular international weaving exhibition.
40:44Held at the School of Traditional Arts and supported by King Charles III's charitable foundation,
40:53his Songkhet collection was a central feature.
40:57But tragically, the Prince died of a heart attack before he left London.
41:01And his beloved palace has since fallen into disrepair.
41:14There was some talk of turning it into a heritage site that tourists could visit.
41:20But until someone's willing to fund that enterprise, it will continue to decompose.
41:31To be continued...
41:32To be continued...
41:33To be continued...
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