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BRITCOM 4
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00:01So, how would you sum your life up to a stranger?
00:05I know that I have several times been extremely lucky.
00:13They say you make your own luck in life, Freddie.
00:16Some you do, but some you don't.
00:18I've got the bullet in the next door. Do you want me to go get it?
00:30Yeah.
00:31The bullet on the chain.
00:37I mean, if we go back to this, good luck that I could reach for it.
00:42Say, for example, put that in there and reach for it.
00:49I believe very firmly I've had it over my life, extraordinarily good luck.
00:53Oh, yeah.
00:53I'd be the right place, right time, met the right person.
00:58Or occasionally not met, for example, that 7.62 NATO calibre rifle bullet
01:08that went through my hair in an African war.
01:12Actually went through, well, I had more hair then.
01:15But I sometimes think, if the bastards didn't get me with that one, they'll never get me.
01:22Freddie Forsythe is a best-selling author in the Western world
01:25and wrote a book which has sold 6 million copies so far.
01:28It's been translated into over 20 million.
01:30You've discovered the secret of international success.
01:35I wonder if you'd ever been able to analyse exactly what it is
01:38that makes all these people buy your books.
01:40Oh, whoops.
01:40Right.
01:41We're in, so to speak.
01:42When do we begin?
01:43Just bear with us one second.
01:44We just need to adjust something.
01:45I'm glad you weren't in charge of the invasion of Normand in 1944.
01:52You would still be...
01:53Somewhere on the beach.
02:17OK.
02:37Great.
02:38Right.
02:39Let's start at the beginning.
02:40Yes, OK.
02:41I came from a very small one-horse town called Ashford in Kent.
02:51In Ashford during the Second World War, almost all the children had been evacuated.
02:56It's goodbye to the cities and danger areas.
02:59And not forgetting their gas masks, the children head for the special train.
03:04So I had no companions of my own age.
03:06I played, therefore, by myself.
03:10I was also an only child.
03:11If you are an only child, you invent your own games, which fires imagination.
03:18And you tend to become self-sufficient.
03:23It might have seemed that I'd be destined to take over my father's shop.
03:28But my dad said, don't do what I do for the rest of your life.
03:34Frankly, it's boring.
03:35Go and see the world.
03:37I got a scholarship at the Tunbridge School.
03:41My dad couldn't afford Tunbridge School.
03:44But with the scholarship paying for 95% of it, he could.
03:48Ready?
03:49Yep.
03:50When you're ready, press play.
03:52That's Tunbridge School.
04:01Yep.
04:06I didn't have a very happy experience at Tunbridge.
04:10All my contemporaries were the sons of doctors, surgeons, lawyers, bankers.
04:17And my father was a shopkeeper.
04:23I was relentlessly bullied.
04:28Schoolwork thrown all over the room.
04:31I had bedclothes on the floor.
04:34Pushing and shoving, punching.
04:38I longed to leave.
04:41But back then, it was, sift up a lip, don't make a fuss.
04:47And that caused me to withdraw into myself.
04:52I would shut myself away in my cubicle, close the door.
04:57The habit of solitude became very ingrained in me.
05:02But at 16, I was skipping school.
05:13Taking a secret flying of classes.
05:15And then a tiger moth.
05:19And looping over the Medway estuary.
05:23And then I would go back to Tunbridge.
05:29Had I been discovered, I would have been expelled immediately.
05:35Since I was a boy, I wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force.
05:41That ship was right underneath the Battle of Britain.
05:46And I remember, I must have been about three years old,
05:49standing on the lawn of our house.
05:53My father's khaki-trousered leg, next to me.
05:58He was staring upwards.
06:02In the sky were Spitfires and Hurricanes,
06:05flying against the Luftwaffe.
06:08My dad revered those young men.
06:18So, naturally, I wanted to fly a Spitfire, too.
06:25My dad was a powerful influence in my childhood.
06:28I thought he was an extraordinary man, a remarkable man.
06:32I worship my dad's memory to this day.
06:40When I sat at Tunbridge that I was going to leave early and join the Air Force,
06:44I got an awful lot of schoolmasterly opposition.
06:48A lot of pressure.
06:50Eventually, they sent my father to try and talk him into talking me out of it.
06:55And one after another, they lectured him very much from on high to down below.
07:03And Dad, God bless him, just sat there and listened to this.
07:07And when they'd all had their ten minutes each lecturing him,
07:11he delivered one single sentence.
07:13He said, gentlemen, if my son wants to become a British fighter pilot,
07:19I'm going to give him all the help and encouragement that I can.
07:23And then he got up and walked out.
07:31Oh, yeah. I remember that.
07:34Three years of struggle, from 15 to 18, and I finally got it.
07:40The wings of an RAF pilot were on my chest.
07:44My parents were about ten feet away.
07:47I know they were very proud that day.
07:50Dad really was bursting.
07:53Yeah.
07:54I did two years natural service.
08:00And after that, the question arose,
08:03are you going to sign it on in the RAF,
08:06or are you going to leave?
08:08I wanted to be assigned to a supersonic squadron.
08:14I was told rather pityingly that I'd be commanding a desk.
08:18So, I left.
08:22I just want to show you this letter you wrote.
08:26I've completely forgotten this.
08:27Why I do not want to sign on in the Royal Air Force.
08:35Oh, dear.
08:36In the Air Force of today, as I have seen it,
08:42there is far too little scope for energy, enthusiasm,
08:47initiative, drive, brains or talent,
08:52or any of those qualities usually associated with success.
08:58Are they harsh words?
08:59Yes, they are.
09:05Don't forget why I was their only child,
09:09and only children do tend to be sometimes a bit self-obsessed
09:15and don't understand why anybody else
09:19should not subscribe to their rules.
09:22So, that can create problems in life.
09:26Is that you, Freddie?
09:27Yep.
09:28Yep.
09:29Definitely.
09:33I thought, what the hell are you going to do now?
09:38I know, foreign correspondent.
09:41I'll be like those men that used to be in Dad's paper.
09:45When I was a boy.
09:48I got a job on the Eastern Daily Press in Norfolk.
09:53And there, I learned journalism.
09:56To keep it accurate.
09:58How to interview.
10:00How to track down sources.
10:02Damn good training in the business of accuracy.
10:08But I wanted a much bigger map of the world.
10:13So, I went down to London.
10:17And I hawked myself around Fleet Street.
10:21I was rebuffed at every single door.
10:26And they ended up in a bar.
10:28And a middle-aged man on the same bar looked at me and said,
10:33You're pretty fed up.
10:35My boy, what's the matter?
10:36I said, I'm trying to get into journalism.
10:39Oh, he said, why don't you come with me and we'll cross the road.
10:43I'm with the Press Association.
10:46But as soon as he learned that I spoke French and German, he said,
10:49You want Reuters?
10:55And I started in Reuters.
10:57Paris office.
11:02Wow.
11:04This is the French press garden.
11:07Which I would flash when I wanted to get access to somewhere in Paris.
11:17Paris is always very lively.
11:22I'm enjoying life.
11:24My flat was just near the Moulin Rouge.
11:27I had a girlfriend after girlfriend after girlfriend.
11:33What was your brief for Reuters in Paris?
11:37I was covering repeated attempts to assassinate the president of France, Charles de Gaulle.
11:41The extreme right wanted him dead.
11:54So it was a very tense time to be in Paris.
12:00I managed to find a bar the extreme right-wing frequented
12:05and sat nursing a beer.
12:07They drank too much, got loose-thunged, and I listened.
12:14And that was plotting to assassinate the president?
12:17Yeah.
12:18How and when and where and who.
12:24Reuters was suddenly advised,
12:26that I suspect by British officialdom,
12:29to get me out of Paris.
12:31How old were you when all this is going on?
12:3322.
12:34That's pretty young.
12:36Yeah.
12:37Yeah.
12:38Yeah.
12:41So I was transferred
12:44to the communist hell of East Germany.
12:55After the building of the Berlin Wall,
12:57the Reuters man was the only Western journalist left,
13:01east of the wall.
13:03Room bar, bedroom bar, office barbed,
13:07and my phone was bugged.
13:09So I was living under a microscope.
13:12What was followed everywhere?
13:14How much did you tell your parents about
13:23what you were really up to?
13:29Not a lot.
13:29Mother would have worried.
13:34But then mum wouldn't worry about anything.
13:36Why cross the road, she worried.
13:46I went back to London to join the BBC.
13:49I'm doing reports for the evening news.
13:51Mr.
13:53Joe Mears, the chairman of Chelsea Football Club,
13:56who's also chairman of the Football Association,
13:58has declined to be interviewed about the whole matter.
14:02And someone said,
14:03will you go to Africa for us?
14:04I said, I don't do Africa.
14:07And they said, oh, come on.
14:08It's only a week.
14:10Maybe 10 days.
14:12Fly down there, file a report, fly back.
14:15There's been an outbreak of civil war in Nigeria.
14:22Five million Igbo tribesmen in Nigeria's eastern region,
14:25the Afra, as they now call it,
14:27have declared independence.
14:28This is a cruel war with modern weapons
14:31in its way as cruel as the war in Vietnam.
14:34And having got there,
14:45I discovered that what was going out on the BBC
14:48was a complete rubbish.
14:50Absolute nonsense.
14:51It had nothing to do with the reality
14:53of what was on there on the ground.
14:55What were they saying was happening?
14:57Oh, that the Nigerian army
14:58had swept through the rebel territory,
15:00defeating the Biafran army at every step.
15:03In fact, it hadn't happened.
15:05Because the British government
15:07was supporting the Nigerian dictatorship.
15:10So, if the British government said,
15:12this isn't happening,
15:13the BBC would say, it isn't happening.
15:15But I reported what I found.
15:18We're a newsgathering organisation.
15:20Or we're nothing.
15:22This is the town of Ore in western Nigeria,
15:24the town that the federal armies
15:26said they thought couldn't be taken.
15:28Well, it's been taken by the Biafrans.
15:30They moved in this morning,
15:31consolidated their position,
15:32and moved even further west.
15:35And that's what the BBC didn't want to hear.
15:37They wanted to hear that Nigeria
15:38was winning hands down.
15:40And that was all they wanted to hear.
15:42The Foreign Office accused me of bias.
15:46Well, I was summoned into London by the BBC.
15:51I said, I think I'd like to go back.
15:54Well, he said, we have a policy
15:56of no covering that story.
15:58I said, oh.
16:00Well, unfortunately, I don't.
16:04So I'm off.
16:06So I resigned.
16:09Very shortly afterwards,
16:10I was sitting at a cafe in Camden.
16:14A man walked in and looked around
16:16and looked at me and then walked over
16:18and then took a chair, the chair opposite me
16:21and sat down.
16:25He said, I'm so-and-so.
16:28And we really need a man,
16:30or an agent anyway,
16:32right in the very heart of Biafrans.
16:34They wanted to hear what is going on.
16:38Are they likely to continue resisting?
16:41Are they collapsing?
16:43You've been a little bit opaque
16:45about this gentleman.
16:46Oh, yes, I'm talking about MI6.
16:51So I went back.
16:52As a freelance Foreign Correspondent,
16:55I got myself attached to the Biafran Army.
16:59Do what I told you.
17:01Cover with it, as I said.
17:03Covering the story from the Biafran side.
17:15But also as an agent for MI6.
17:20Getting real information
17:23out of this now completely surrounded enclave.
17:30The Nigerian Army put a circle round Biafran.
17:35They stopped all food supplies.
17:45I remember I was sitting in my hut
17:47in Enugu, the capital of Biafran.
17:52I looked out the window, and there she was on the lawn.
17:58And she had her little brother by one hand.
18:03And she raised her other hand with a gesture.
18:06She was hungry to give me food.
18:09Tapped her mouth.
18:12I tried to explain.
18:14I didn't give you a word of her language,
18:16the Igbo language.
18:17I hadn't got any food.
18:20And she just nodded as much as to say,
18:22yes, I understand.
18:26And turned away and led her little three-year-old brother
18:31off into the bush, the jungle,
18:34where I knew they would die.
18:36And I just went back to my chair,
18:41and I sat down,
18:42and I leaned my head forward,
18:44and my forearms had just burst into tears.
18:47It was one of the very few times
18:48that I'd ever wept
18:51as an adult.
18:54To be so helpless, it made me angry.
19:08Angry with officials supporting it as a policy,
19:11who could have stopped it if they'd wanted to,
19:14and they insisted that the denial of food continue.
19:19One has to ask,
19:27how the hell do they sleep at night?
19:35Back in London,
19:36they had no flat,
19:37no car,
19:38no money,
19:39no savings,
19:40nothing.
19:41With a huge question mark,
19:43I go,
19:43what the hell are you going to do now?
19:46And I didn't know.
19:49And then I hit on this weird idea.
19:53I'll write a novel.
19:56I had an idea in my head,
19:57and I'd had it in my head for seven years,
20:00since Paris,
20:02when I'd covered those repeated attempts
20:04to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.
20:08And I thought at the time,
20:10if the extreme right-wing really wants to kill him,
20:13they might succeed, thought I,
20:15if they'd brought in the professional assassin
20:18and paid him to do what they can't do.
20:25I was crashing on the sofa of a friend in Chelsea.
20:29When they left for work about 9 o'clock,
20:32I would settle down at the kitchen table.
20:35And I just tapped and tapped and tapped and tapped.
20:40I gave set myself a ration of 10 pages per day,
20:43and I did that for 35 days.
20:48It's a hundred to one chance
20:49that it could ever be published.
20:52But the fifth publisher I approached,
20:55Harold Harris of Hutchinson,
20:57said,
20:57it's a bit too interesting.
20:59I prepared to take a risk
21:01and publish it.
21:03And he said,
21:05I'll offer you a three-novel contract.
21:07Wow.
21:08It's like paradise.
21:10Three-novel contract.
21:11So I thought,
21:12wow.
21:13This is a writer
21:14who hadn't got tuppence to rub together.
21:16But there was a problem.
21:19I had not a shred of an idea
21:22to what novel two or three would ever be about.
21:24I just didn't know.
21:26I'd only ever planned one.
21:28What I'm writing tends to be quasi-factual.
21:32And I thought,
21:33well, I know about that in post-war Germany
21:35because they've been there.
21:37And I know about in Africa
21:39they've been there.
21:41So I wrote a synopsis on each.
21:43The Odessa File
21:45and The Dogs of War.
21:48The Odessa File
21:50is about the uncovering
21:52of a Nazi mass murderer in Germany
21:55by an investigative reporter.
21:58And The Dogs of War
22:00was about a mega-rich mining magnate
22:04engaging the services
22:05of half a dozen mercenaries
22:06to top a West African dictator.
22:09There were six mercenaries
22:11in Biafra
22:12and I got to know them all.
22:14Harold Harris
22:19said,
22:20I want Nazis by next year
22:21and Dogs of War
22:23the year after.
22:24Well, that was
22:25that was a pretty tight schedule.
22:27They should tight schedule.
22:30So I said,
22:31fine, I'll get stuck in immediately.
22:33And he gave me an advance
22:36which I could then use
22:38to fund the research
22:40into Odessa File.
22:42I love accuracy.
22:43And so I go through
22:44a lot of time and trouble
22:46traveling and traveling
22:47and traveling
22:48in the preparation of my novels.
22:50And if you're going to describe something
22:52get it right.
22:57And I went down to Vienna
23:00and got in touch
23:01with Simon Wiesenthal
23:02the great Nazi hunter.
23:04O-D-E-S-S-A
23:09The Organization of Former Members
23:13of the SS
23:14And I said,
23:17I'm writing a fictional
23:18Nazi concentration camp commander
23:21who vanished in 1945
23:24and has never been seen since.
23:25And I remember Simon saying,
23:28well, why invent one?
23:29I invent one.
23:30I've got real ones.
23:33Which one would suit you?
23:35And eventually
23:36I arrived at
23:38Rushman.
23:43Edward Rushman
23:44the butcher of Riga.
23:47There was an extreme
23:48right-wing movement
23:49in Germany
23:50and the Odessa
23:51had penetrated
23:51the establishment.
23:53It had members
23:55high in the police force
23:56and in the Ministry of Justice
23:58and the civil service
24:00and many of them
24:01had been involved
24:01in mass murder.
24:05So I went undercover
24:06in Germany
24:07to pretend
24:08to be a young
24:09Nazi fanatic.
24:11And
24:12I went to secret
24:13meetings.
24:17That's a kind of
24:18a dangerous
24:19place to put yourself.
24:20Yes.
24:25Did you enjoy it?
24:26It's challenging
24:27to pretend to be
24:28what you're not
24:29or not to be
24:29what you are.
24:33But while I was
24:34researching and writing
24:35the Odessa file
24:37they launched
24:38the Day of the Jackal
24:39with a print of 5,000 copies.
24:41And it just exploded.
24:48It just went completely
24:50crazy.
24:51The reorders
24:52came in
24:53in buckets.
24:59We got to a point
25:00where they had a backlog
25:01of orders
25:02they couldn't fulfill
25:03because the printing
25:04machines wouldn't work
25:04any faster.
25:05And then the Americans
25:07came in
25:08and the Japanese
25:09came in
25:10with huge novels.
25:22So how did you feel
25:23about that?
25:25Bewildered.
25:27Bewildered, yeah.
25:29But by then
25:30I was so deeply involved
25:31in the subsequent novels
25:33researching and writing
25:34The Odessa File
25:35and The Dogs of War.
25:38Frederick Forsyth
25:39developed in The Jackal
25:40the magic formula
25:41of mixing fact
25:42with fantasy.
25:43The Odessa File
25:44and the hunt
25:45for Nazi war crimes.
25:46The Odessa File
25:47is Frederick Forsyth's
25:48immensely successful
25:49follow-up
25:50to The Day of the Jackal.
25:54Very shortly after
25:55they made a film
25:56of The Jackal
25:57the director
26:00stuck to the story
26:02absolutely
26:03completely
26:04like glue.
26:08They retained the title
26:09and
26:10since then
26:11it's become embedded
26:12in the lingo
26:13as an assassin.
26:17Oh, yes.
26:18The watermelon.
26:20then
26:27the checks began
26:29rolling in.
26:31Rumour has it
26:31that you've made
26:32your first million.
26:33Is that true?
26:36It's rather large
26:37amount of money.
26:39It's not afraid.
26:40It's a large amount of money.
26:41I'd never need
26:45to work again
26:46if I didn't want to.
26:48But I was still
26:49writing
26:50all the time
26:51to finish
26:52Dogs of War.
26:56I bought a farm
26:57in Spain
26:58and then
27:01I married
27:02Carrie.
27:07She was 27
27:09came from
27:10Northern Ireland.
27:14The precise hour
27:15in a way
27:15just the sort of couple
27:16that Freddie
27:17might have invented.
27:18Good-looking,
27:19bronzed,
27:20all the war correspondents.
27:21Good God.
27:21Married to a very
27:22attractive model
27:23and both ideally happy.
27:28And then
27:29my wife being Irish
27:31she said
27:32why don't we go
27:32and sell in Ireland?
27:35So I bought a house
27:36at Enniskiri
27:37in County Wicklow.
27:41Both my sons
27:41were born there.
27:44And Carrie and I
27:45lived there for five years.
27:48There aren't
27:50lots of
27:51female characters
27:52in your books.
27:54No.
27:55That's true.
27:56It's a diversion.
27:58If it was
27:59absolutely necessary
28:00for the development
28:01of the plot
28:02that X and Y and Z
28:03happened then
28:04I would say
28:05this and that
28:06happened.
28:07But where the
28:08hero or villain
28:09is simply taking
28:10an afternoon off
28:11I mean I feel
28:12I can go on to
28:13when he takes up
28:14his real activity
28:15which is probably
28:16killing somebody
28:17with the women
28:18characters they've
28:18quite rightly
28:19been described
28:19as cardboard
28:20cutout figures
28:21and this is
28:22true also
28:23I can't describe
28:23women.
28:24I see.
28:25Why is that?
28:26I don't understand.
28:27Do you know who you
28:37were actually writing
28:37for?
28:38I possibly do.
28:40He's probably a
28:41middle-aged man.
28:42I'm not being sexist
28:45I just think that if
28:48if there's someone
28:49out there saying
28:50that's what I want
28:51to hear about.
28:52Tell me about this.
28:53It'd probably be a
28:54forty-seven, forty-eight
28:55year old business
28:58executive who's
29:00getting home tired
29:02at night and
29:03wants all his feet
29:04up and a nice cup of
29:05tea and read a story
29:08that will interest him
29:11because it's reasonably
29:12factual and hopefully
29:15accurate.
29:16Now Miles Copeland
29:17you helped to set up
29:18the CIA and how close
29:20did Frederick
29:21Forsyth come to the
29:22literal truth?
29:23Well first let me say
29:24that I think it's
29:25first-rate novel.
29:26I couldn't put it
29:27down.
29:28A little short on
29:28sex there Freddie
29:29but we can have
29:30everything.
29:31He does some research
29:32of this which I just
29:33don't believe because
29:34I don't understand.
29:35In fact I think I'm
29:36going to take this up
29:36when I go home.
29:37Some of my old
29:38colleagues must have
29:38told him things
29:39they had no business
29:39telling him.
29:40Some of the things
29:41that he had to say
29:42about how these things
29:43are run are absolutely
29:45100% authentic.
29:49I want to talk a bit
29:50more about your
29:51relationship with MI6.
29:52Yeah.
29:53I imagine it worked
29:55both ways?
29:56Uh, yes.
30:00How often did you
30:03carry out these kind
30:04of errands for MI6?
30:07Can't say.
30:08Sorry, can't say.
30:10Really, I can't say.
30:20We were in Ireland
30:21for five years
30:22and then returned
30:23to London.
30:24But I couldn't work
30:27at home.
30:28I'd be constantly
30:29disturbed,
30:30interrupted.
30:31If I'm trying to
30:32write something,
30:33I mean,
30:34that involves
30:35a lot of,
30:36of,
30:37um,
30:38inner,
30:39inner thoughts.
30:40Um,
30:41and sometimes
30:42just,
30:43just sitting,
30:44staring at the,
30:45at the paper
30:46or the typewriter.
30:47Uh,
30:48getting those thoughts.
30:49And then someone
30:50comes bursting in,
30:51thinking,
30:52oh,
30:53shut up.
30:54Gone now.
30:55It's gone.
30:58Is being a writer
30:59compatible
31:00with family life,
31:01Freddie?
31:02Writers have a part
31:06of themselves
31:07that is shut away
31:08and not available.
31:09Locked in this thing,
31:11this bone dome
31:13called the cranium.
31:17And, uh,
31:18even in company,
31:19there's part of you
31:20that's still detached.
31:22Not easy,
31:24uh,
31:25to cope with
31:26someone like that.
31:29And, uh,
31:30Carrie and I
31:31grew apart.
31:34And she eventually
31:35said,
31:36this isn't working.
31:37Would you,
31:38would you leave?
31:39Your first wife,
31:40uh,
31:41parted with you partly
31:42because of your,
31:43your writing?
31:44Well,
31:45I don't know
31:46whether it was that.
31:47It wasn't, um,
31:48it, I mean,
31:49I never tried
31:50to be obsessive
31:51about writing
31:52and, and I think really
31:53I didn't probably
31:54put in more than
31:55nine to five.
31:56But anyway,
31:57no,
31:58there were,
31:59one grew apart.
32:00So what,
32:01what do you think
32:02you've been like
32:03to live with
32:04down the years?
32:05I don't know.
32:06It's a judgement
32:07only other people
32:08could make.
32:09a certain requisite
32:11detachment
32:12that writers have.
32:13Yeah.
32:14Yeah.
32:15I think you have it
32:16if you, if you want
32:17to be a writer,
32:18you must have it.
32:19One might,
32:20someone might say
32:21that's a very cold
32:22sort of attitude to life.
32:23I think it,
32:24for a writer,
32:25I don't think
32:26it's,
32:27it's an option.
32:32So I move
32:33from London
32:34to the country
32:35in,
32:36in one fell swoop.
32:38But,
32:39alas,
32:40wife number one
32:41didn't like the country
32:42at all.
32:43So,
32:44it,
32:45it didn't work.
32:50And the boys
32:51would come out
32:52to visit me weekends.
32:53and,
32:54uh,
32:55I mean,
32:56it,
32:57it must be very,
32:58very dramatic
32:59for children
33:00to see their parents part.
33:01I'd been apart
33:12with my first wife
33:13for a year
33:14when I met
33:15the lady
33:16who became
33:17my second wife.
33:18And her name was Sandy.
33:20and within,
33:21I sort of thought
33:22by it,
33:23she'd come out
33:24to share my life
33:25at the farm.
33:27So she moved in
33:28and we'd married
33:29four years later.
33:30who are these?
33:40These?
33:41Yeah.
33:42I've sucked little tablets.
33:43They remind me not
33:45to shove a cigarette in there.
33:47My wife, Sandy,
33:50disliked it.
33:51She said,
33:52you gotta stop,
33:53you gotta stop.
33:54Were you a big smoker?
33:56Yeah,
33:57about 30 a day.
33:59Yes, exactly.
34:00I was lucky to escape
34:01with no,
34:02no shadows on lungs,
34:04no,
34:05uh,
34:06cancer.
34:12In 1991,
34:14Dad was,
34:17he was ailing.
34:20But my mother had died.
34:23So he'd been alone
34:24for two years.
34:27And very, very much
34:28feeling alone.
34:30Because they were very deeply
34:31devoted.
34:33For, so,
34:3445,
34:3550 years.
34:36I had,
34:41I had planned to go on
34:44with my then,
34:45very young wife,
34:47Sandy,
34:49to the Caribbean
34:51for a holiday.
34:52And he said,
34:53you will absolutely
34:54not counsel.
34:59Anyway, we went.
35:00And I think the third
35:02or fourth day there,
35:03a voice came on the phone,
35:06and it was,
35:07um,
35:08his living carer
35:09to say that he'd just died.
35:16It was not unexpected.
35:21But,
35:22it was a,
35:23a wrench.
35:24And I wouldn't have gone
35:25if he hadn't begged me to go.
35:37I hope I was a good son
35:38because he was serving me
35:39a bloody good father.
35:43But I think,
35:44I think he,
35:45I think he,
35:46I think he was,
35:47that I was.
35:48And certainly,
35:49uh,
35:51we both, uh,
35:52have a very,
35:53very good relationship.
35:55Um,
35:56very close.
35:59So,
36:00anyway,
36:01all families have losses.
36:03Um,
36:12what am I going to see?
36:13a man who pleaded guilty
36:17for forgingly misleading
36:18financial regulators
36:20before his company
36:21collapsed.
36:22That was him.
36:2334 million pounds
36:24has walked free
36:25from court.
36:26Roger Levitt was ordered
36:27to do 180 hours
36:28community service
36:29and banned
36:30from being a company
36:31director for seven years.
36:32Among his clients,
36:33the author,
36:34Frederick Forsyth,
36:35disgraced investment advisor
36:37Roger Levitt
36:38left court
36:39after admitting lying
36:40in a vain attempt
36:41to keep his company
36:42from collapsing
36:43with debts of
36:4434 million pounds.
36:45He said he was
36:46He was an investment
36:47broker.
36:48He informed me
36:49that I now had
36:50a,
36:51a big holding here,
36:52with here and there,
36:53with that company,
36:54that company.
36:55It was all fiction.
36:56He'd forged all
36:57the documents.
36:58As a bankrupt,
37:00I am unable
37:01to repay anybody
37:02at this time.
37:04But it is in my mind
37:06to morally see
37:07if I am able
37:08to assist any
37:10of these lost
37:11Lying shite.
37:12Three years ago
37:13the flamboyant salesman
37:14was listed
37:15among Britain's
37:16wealthiest people.
37:17They were never
37:18the slightest intent
37:19on his part
37:20to reimburse anybody.
37:22So how much
37:23did you lose, Freddie?
37:24Everything I had.
37:25About four and a half mil.
37:27Which was,
37:29which was about
37:30everything I had.
37:31So hindsight's a wonderful thing,
37:35but he does look
37:36a bit dodgy,
37:37doesn't he?
37:39Oh, yes.
37:40Yes.
37:41But I,
37:42I don't,
37:43you know, I just,
37:44I trusted him.
37:45I thought he was a friend.
37:47There's an irony there,
37:48isn't there?
37:49Yes.
37:50I mean,
37:51for someone who's,
37:52who's been involved
37:53in a few deceptions,
37:55albeit hopefully
37:56always of bad guys,
37:58I am,
38:00have been in my life
38:01much too trusting.
38:04Silly.
38:05Not very clever.
38:07Thought crossed my mind
38:09to use my dubious contacts
38:11to get him punished.
38:12But then I thought,
38:13no, it's not my,
38:14I'm not that,
38:15that tight.
38:18At 50,
38:19I was bankrupt again.
38:21Everything I'd done
38:23was gone.
38:25And I had to start
38:26all over again.
38:27Travelling,
38:29travelling,
38:30travelling,
38:31researching
38:32and writing novels.
38:33I've visited
38:34an extraordinary number of places,
38:35until the last time,
38:36which was a buggered issue.
38:37I've visited
38:38an extraordinary number of places,
38:39until the last time,
38:40which was a buggered issue.
38:41After that,
38:43Sandeater,
38:44said,
38:45enough,
38:46Siddharth.
38:47you're 75,
38:48you should not be visiting
38:49any more of these
38:50insane places.
38:51where you could get your head blown off.
38:52So,
38:53kindly stay at home.
38:54Kindly stay at home.
38:55So have you given up writing now?
38:56Have you retired?
38:57So have you given up writing now?
38:58Have you retired?
38:59I have retired.
39:00I have retired,
39:01yes.
39:02But you have said you've retired many times before.
39:03So have you given up writing now?
39:04Have you retired?
39:05And the last question was
39:07?
39:08And the last question was
39:09after that,
39:10Sandeater said,
39:11enough's enough.
39:12Well,
39:13you're 75,
39:14you should not be visiting
39:15any more of these
39:16insane places,
39:17where you could get your head blown off.
39:19So,
39:20kindly stay at home.
39:22So have you given up writing now?
39:25have you retired?
39:26I have retired.
39:29Yes.
39:30But, you have said
39:31you've retired many times before.
39:32No,
39:33I haven't actually.
39:35Are you going to retire from writing, as you could well do?
39:37No, I'm not a work on another one.
39:39No?
39:39No. I said I've no intention of writing any more than three.
39:42I was contracted to write three, and I've written three,
39:44and that was all I ever wanted to do.
39:47You have said to me before that the next novel will be the last one.
39:50I said it to my publisher, they still don't believe me.
39:52How firm a resolve is that?
39:53It's absolutely firm.
39:55The prospect of the next 40 years bottled up in a small whitewash room
39:58tapping away two forefingers of the typewriter appalls me.
40:01But I'm sure what most people watching will want to know,
40:04are you going to write another book, another thriller?
40:07Ah, well, that's a different board game.
40:08I don't think so.
40:09As far as I'm concerned, it's been ten.
40:12Ten's a nice round number.
40:13Ten's, I think, when the curtain comes down, as far as I'm concerned.
40:17Frederick Forsyth, thank you for the good books.
40:21I've said I'm thinking of it many times, mulling it over,
40:26but I think the last novel, seven years ago,
40:30I hadn't thought to write that.
40:34But I could stay in this country to research and write it.
40:39But now I have retired.
40:43I can't stress that enough.
40:45I'm retired.
40:47Socializing is pretty restrained.
40:50I do occasionally go out, but there's got to be a good reason now.
41:05Unfortunately, I just lost my wife after 36 years of marriage.
41:12In recent times, she'd been unwell, I think.
41:21Yes.
41:22She's became very dependent on medication.
41:27And she's simply suffered a health collapse.
41:29And the downward spiral just refused to reverse itself.
41:42And she finally passed away.
41:44I can get emotional about those things.
42:00But I take them from my privacy if I'm going to be emotional.
42:06Shut myself away.
42:08They're not going to go and blub on Nye Street.
42:18Sandy wanted a very quiet cremation.
42:23Very short and dignified, and it was.
42:28She wanted ashes scattered where her babies were scattered.
42:32The only babies she ever had were Jack Russells.
42:38She had no children, didn't want children.
42:43It was here, underneath this tree.
42:50Sandy was, he's here.
42:58How does it feel to be on your own again?
43:02Lonely.
43:03But I have lots of friends.
43:05And people have written and emailed and telephoned
43:11and sent their commiserations.
43:15And so I'm not alone in the world.
43:17It's just that, well, I live alone, obviously.
43:21And I shall not, how shall I put it,
43:25change that now until the day I die.
43:28Perhaps you could write again.
43:29I might, I might, I need peace and quiet,
43:33which I get too little of.
43:36I'm going to have to sit down soon.
43:40Can you give me a hand back?
43:42I'll go.
43:43Can you give me a hand back?
43:46Whoa.
43:51The year, 2025, yawns before us.
44:05I've got the story in my head.
44:07and it's you're going to get out
44:12and unfortunately
44:20the only way to do that
44:24is to write
44:37you're going to get out
45:07you're going to get out
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