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00:01None of us know what surprises life has in store for us.
00:06But all around are everyday heroes.
00:08Ordinary people showing amazing bravery, courage and determination.
00:12I was holding him by the wrist so that he couldn't blow up the bomb.
00:15When I opened my eyes, I was on the hospital bed, all handcuffed.
00:19I competed in eight Ironman triathlons.
00:23And I'm here to give them the recognition they deserve.
00:26I've assembled a crack team of artists, painters and sculptors
00:29to immortalize these unsung heroes with a unique series of portraits.
00:34This is the hardest bit for you, isn't it, Eddie?
00:36Sitting still.
00:37We were just looking at you.
00:39Can you look at me with your eyes?
00:42It's not going to be easy.
00:43I've been in my own personal hell.
00:45The reveals are not that far away now.
00:48If this second cast fails, I'm done.
00:50There's a big sense of responsibility to capture their story.
00:54But the results are going to be amazing.
00:57I've put my heart and soul into this.
00:58Three, two, one.
01:02Fantastic.
01:03Quite blown away, to be honest.
01:05I wasn't thinking you were going to make me cry.
01:07Sorry, I'm getting a bit emotional.
01:10Creating a legacy for generations to come.
01:12I want to remember them like that.
01:15I'm struggling to find right words because there's no words.
01:18To have us captured in that moment, in that spot that means so much is an absolute privilege.
01:25Welcome to Extraordinary Portraits.
01:38Our sitter today found himself in a terrifying situation.
01:42One which we would naturally feel you would want to get away from.
01:46But instead, he stepped forward, risking his own life to help others.
01:56In an act of incredible courage, Darren helped to restrain the man behind the London Bridge attack,
02:03by using a narwhal tusk to fend him off.
02:06It's an image that remains etched in people's minds.
02:10Hi Darren.
02:12Hi Bo, pleasure to meet you.
02:13How's it going? Good to meet you.
02:14Very well, thank you.
02:15Welcome.
02:17Come into my artist's retreat.
02:23Yours is quite an extraordinary story.
02:27I wonder if you wouldn't mind just telling me a bit about how you came to be at the Fishmongers
02:33Hall that day.
02:33Well, I was working for the Ministry of Justice.
02:37I was one of the national comms managers writing up an article about the event.
02:41This event was a celebration of an incredible programme of students from Cambridge University studying alongside serving prisoners.
02:50Sadly, one of the attendees decided to plan and execute an attack at that event.
02:58Could you talk me through a little bit about how it unfolded?
03:02We heard some screams and commotion from downstairs.
03:05Myself and a prisoner, Steve Gallant, stood up at the same time and I ran down the stairs.
03:10And I'm presented with the sight of a man and he's got these two eight-inch knives and they're glistening
03:17in the light.
03:18And straight away everything like slowed down for me.
03:22And that's when he looked down, he opened his jacket and he said,
03:25And I've got a bomb.
03:26I mean, what was going through your mind at this point?
03:28So I was making decisions on what to do.
03:30So I went to go and find something to fend this person off.
03:34And as I turned that way, I looked down this dimly lit hallway and I saw two long narwhal tusks.
03:40I suppose they were appropriate in terms of its fishmongers hall and these are the tusks of these narwhals.
03:47They're nearly two metres long and they must have been a couple hundred years old.
03:51Is this all happening in just in minutes, like seconds going past and all of this is going through your
03:57mind?
03:57Time slows down.
03:59You're at full stretch in terms of, you know, like your physical, mental concentration.
04:05I had tunnel vision in this moment and I could see that gone out the front door and I ran
04:11out chasing him at a full pelt.
04:13He turned around and came towards us and he lifted both knives when he saw me running at him with
04:20this jousting pole effectively.
04:22But at that moment, a former prisoner had an extinguisher, fire extinguisher.
04:26He let it off and the wind carried it perfectly and I jump onto his back and hold his hands
04:34above his head.
04:35What an extraordinary situation to find yourself in.
04:38The police arrived quite quickly after that.
04:40The officer looked down and looked at his chest and the officer's voice broke.
04:44He says, he's got a bomb!
04:46And then I hear three bangs and that's when my mind blacked out.
04:49And then I come to and I'm all of a sudden second floor upstairs in Fishmongers Hall.
04:54I mean, has that caused you, you know, any kind of problems since then?
05:00I would say for the first two months, I was a complete zombie.
05:05People would be talking to me like this, but I would just be seeing everything in my mind.
05:10So quite often I was awake for days.
05:13And how are you today?
05:15Yeah, well, I've filled my world with positive things.
05:20Using that incident as a vehicle for doing good in this world as much as I possibly can.
05:27I still have hope for rehabilitation because since that day, Steve Gallant and I set up a small social enterprise
05:33called Own Merit.
05:34And we now house and accommodate prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless.
05:39And we're seeing incredible results.
05:41We better talk about this portrait then.
05:44It's nothing I've ever had done before, no.
05:47And it's not something I would have gone looking for.
05:50If you sit tight there for a minute, I'm going to go and get the artist.
05:55My hands have got sweaty.
05:57I thought the topic would have made me nervous, but the portrait seems to be making me more so.
06:01See you in a bit.
06:09Are you going to get loads and loads of paint on the floor?
06:17Hello, artists.
06:18Hi.
06:19So, I've just spoken to today's sitter.
06:22There was a terror attack on London Bridge.
06:26Our sitter today, he fended off the attacker with a narwhal tusk.
06:31I don't know if you remember that.
06:31That's right, yeah.
06:32With that in mind, I thought of you, Nick.
06:35Wow.
06:36For this particular project.
06:38Only because I think that it's something that would lend itself to a sculpture.
06:44Yeah.
06:45Freezing that moment in time.
06:47Yeah.
06:47Well, we'll go and meet our sitter and I'll fill you in on the way.
06:50So, thanks guys.
06:51See you soon.
06:52Good luck.
06:52Good luck, Nick.
07:01Darren, this is Nick.
07:02Hi, Nick.
07:02How are you doing?
07:03Absolute pleasure to meet you.
07:04Lovely to meet you too.
07:05Right.
07:06So, Nick here is a fantastic sculptor.
07:09That's quite exciting because I think I'm more comfortable with that than the portrait.
07:13I mean, you've got a fantastic face for it as well.
07:16I mean...
07:17That's a first.
07:17I've never heard that.
07:18Oh, man.
07:19Do you have any initial thoughts?
07:21I mean, for me, I mean, obviously the Narwhal Tusk.
07:23I mean, that's...
07:24And I mean, it's a beautiful object as well as what it sort of represents as well.
07:29It's got this mystical, you know, sort of concept behind it.
07:32Is there anything that you would want me to incorporate?
07:35People see kindness as weakness.
07:37I don't know how you'd ever get that kindness as strength and balancing act out in a sculpture, but...
07:42That's...
07:43Listen.
07:43If anyone's capable of that, it's Nick.
07:45I'm telling you that right now.
07:47I'm gonna let you guys go.
07:48Carry on.
07:49Good luck.
07:50I'll see you soon.
07:50I really appreciate it.
07:51Cheers.
07:52Okay, guys.
08:00I mean, that was a very powerful account of what must have been a terrifying experience.
08:08What I get a sense of from Darren is a tremendous kindness, compassion for others.
08:14And I think that Nick is the perfect person to capture this in sculpture because Nick's work is monumental and
08:23it's...
08:24But it's also deeply personal, very emotive.
08:28He manages to get to the heart of the person he's sculpting.
08:38I've got so many ideas, like, buzzing around in my head at the moment.
08:43And I think really to sort of hone it in, I need to go down and meet the people that
08:48love him.
08:52He's keen to meet Darren's dad, who was there to help him in the aftermath of the attack, and is
08:56still the person he opens up to about how he's coping.
09:00Dad.
09:00Your father's...
09:02Nick.
09:02How you doing, bud?
09:03How you doing?
09:03Nick who's going to be the sculptor.
09:05Nice to meet you, Jeff.
09:05Jeff, my dad.
09:06How you doing?
09:07I've got a big responsibility here.
09:09So, um, what did it feel like when you first heard about what happened?
09:13He just talked and talked and talked and talked for about the next hour and a half.
09:18That's what he needed to do.
09:19And I just had to listen and get to grips with what had gone down.
09:24And the bottom line is I could have lost my son.
09:27So I've got a few photos of him if you would like to see him.
09:29Yeah.
09:30And what, when he was younger?
09:31That's when he just started work in London.
09:34Do you see a different person from when he was younger?
09:36And since the attack?
09:38Yeah, a bit forgetful.
09:39Yeah.
09:41Yeah.
09:41So that's the sort of PTSD effect, isn't it?
09:43Those first two years, I can't tell you what happened.
09:47It was really, really chaotic.
09:50Like, absolute chaos in my brain.
09:51I literally couldn't remember anything that happened to me.
09:55I couldn't tell you.
09:56Um, so those years are just gone for me.
09:59It is improving.
10:00Yeah.
10:01Well, you got the time right today.
10:02So that's an improvement.
10:03Yeah.
10:04Do you feel like he did something heroic?
10:06He's a hero.
10:07Oh yeah, absolutely.
10:09Yeah.
10:09He, um, he put other people before himself.
10:12Very proud of him.
10:13Very, very proud.
10:21After the horrific events on London Bridge, Darren has found the gym to be a vital lifeline
10:26for his mental health.
10:27I know it sounds a bit weird, and it's weird to do it in here, but I wouldn't mind just
10:30doing some filming and photograph you as you're doing it, just to get an idea.
10:33To see the strained face.
10:34Yeah, when you're stressed and you're strained.
10:40It's the perfect place to observe, snap and sketch Darren.
10:54Were you into the gym before the incident?
10:57Yeah, I think I was in a very dark place after the incident.
11:01And I couldn't do anything.
11:02I think it was just I was a bit of a zombie.
11:04I didn't know what I was doing.
11:05So I became a bit of a hermit, turned to alcohol and to try and cope.
11:09The only time I felt I could feel was when I was drunk, which was a terrible way to go.
11:15I felt very lost.
11:16I was in the wilderness.
11:17I was very lost for a long while.
11:28So yeah, the reason why I want to photograph and sort of sketch Darren in action is because
11:33what it really does is it stops him being self-aware so I can actually find his character.
11:42And I just really want to try and capture any strain, any pressures, and then I can use that creatively.
11:55So with this, you know, the Own Merit project.
11:58Our name, it's a little nod to Jack Merit and Saskia Jones.
12:04Jack was killed and Saskia was killed.
12:06Oh.
12:06So Own Merit.
12:07And the whole ethos is we give them prison leavers who would have been homeless.
12:12We give them a home, opportunity and support, and they succeed by their own merit.
12:16Brilliant.
12:17I'll be honest with you.
12:18You know, I've struggled in my life with anger problems, eating disorders, which, you know,
12:23which was a way of controlling my mental health, you know.
12:26You know, and it's close to my heart.
12:28Well, thank you for sharing that because that's a lot.
12:31The truth that you understand, people are human.
12:37I've told him personally about my struggles.
12:39I think that's also helped him feel like he can open up to me.
12:48You know, I really want to exaggerate emotions.
12:51When people have got loads of wrinkles, happy wrinkles or frowny wrinkles,
12:54you can use them and exaggerate them.
12:56But he is extremely good looking, so he does look like a hero, doesn't he?
13:00He looks like Superman.
13:01Right.
13:02So what I've actually done is I've measured him up at every point.
13:08And I only really need a few points of measurement.
13:12And then I'll just use my eye to get it right.
13:14So I'm going to throw the clay on and just measure, measure, measure and throw the clay on.
13:41Well, I've just got the train here to North Wales to catch up with Nick.
13:45Now, by all accounts, he's making good progress, but I wanted to come here to catch up properly.
13:51I've done this very sort of straightforward, proportionately right sculpture.
13:56So it's already as a canvas to work from.
13:59And I have purposely not worked on his eyes until he comes down.
14:01That sort of element of it, trying to kind of get the personality out.
14:05Yeah.
14:05That's the thing you want to try and sort of achieve.
14:08Absolutely.
14:09While I'm here.
14:15Oh, my God.
14:18Organised mess.
14:19I'm entering your head a little bit here, Nick.
14:23So this is basically the canvas for me to be able to start sculpting him.
14:26The windows of the sole are the eyes, and there are no eyes on this at the moment.
14:31Real life sittings are important for a sculptor to capture details that photos miss.
14:36Nick will need a few sessions with Darren, and it can be an intense experience.
14:41Hey.
14:42Hello, hello.
14:43Darren.
14:44How are you?
14:44Very good.
14:45How are you doing, buddy?
14:46How are you doing?
14:47We were just looking at you.
14:50That looks so accurate already.
14:52That's crazy.
14:53That's good news.
14:54This is now the canvas, a very simplistic canvas to then work from.
14:58But you want to work on the eyes today.
15:00That's the key, in a way.
15:01Yeah.
15:01I'll see a moment in your face, and then I just sort of memorise it, and subconsciously
15:07then start to put it into the work.
15:09This part of the process is about capturing Darren's expressions and creating a mood for
15:14the sculpture.
15:15Yeah, you asked me to bring something that would be personal so you can see some of the
15:18emotions.
15:19One night, when I couldn't sleep, I wrote on my phone a little poem about what happened,
15:24and it kind of helped me deal with the trauma.
15:29Deep breath.
15:31Mind reeling.
15:32Two blades.
15:33One bomb.
15:34No chance.
15:35But you try, or more people die.
15:40Blood is shed, and a big explosion inside my head.
15:45God.
15:48It's very powerful stuff.
15:49Yeah.
15:49And even now, I can tell it affects you.
16:00Morning.
16:01Hello.
16:01How you doing, man?
16:02How you doing?
16:03Yeah, good.
16:04You all right?
16:04Good, good.
16:04What's the plan today?
16:06So the plan is, we're going to be making a metal skeleton of Darren's hands.
16:10Before the model is cast, Nick has to carefully sculpt Darren's features and hands, and I'll
16:15be helping.
16:17Identical.
16:17Yeah.
16:18And then he just, what we'll just get a layer of clay on.
16:22I know these skies will bleed, but both of our hearts speak.
16:31And the hands are very similar to the eyes.
16:33They're the ends of the sole expression.
16:36You know, people use their hands to express themselves.
16:38All of these stars will guide us on.
16:49In that moment, when you were in this almost like an embrace, you held him very, very tightly.
16:55I was holding him by the wrists so that he couldn't reach for the trigger to blow up the bomb.
16:59Oh.
17:00Gives you sort of slight goosebumps.
17:02Yeah, it does.
17:02When you describe it like that.
17:27The next stage can be tricky.
17:29Once Nick finishes sculpting Darren in clay, the work is covered with silicone to make a mould.
17:47I've had a real nightmare over the last week and a half.
17:51The mould obviously came out perfectly, but the first cast I did failed.
17:56When I opened it up, it hadn't gone off properly in some areas and basically all the resin and the
18:02glass just fell out.
18:04It takes days and days to get the cast done.
18:06It's soul destroying and it just means I've got to do another cast.
18:08I've done 500 hours over sculpting this piece.
18:12And if this second cast fails, I'm done.
18:15I won't be able to be showing this on the day.
18:17I needed three weeks to be casting this piece.
18:22I've got eight days.
18:23I feel physically sick.
18:25Last night I've hardly slept because I'm coming in today to see if this next cast has worked.
18:49All right, I'm going to open this up now.
18:58Argh!
19:10Do you know what?
19:15Oh mate, I think it's okay.
19:17Yeah, so this has come out.
19:18I've got, this will take four days to fix and clean up and patinate.
19:23But we have something.
19:26Oh, thank God for that.
19:33Darren is now in the van, ready to go.
19:36I'm physically shaking.
19:39But anyway, off we go.
19:46After over 500 hours of work, Nick's sculpture will finally be unveiled to Darren, his family and friends.
19:54Always ambitious, Nick has poured everything into this piece.
19:58And as always, no one knows what to expect.
20:04Aha!
20:05Phil!
20:05I thought I heard a van pull up.
20:07Hello, Nick.
20:08How's it going?
20:08Oh God.
20:09This is it, the big day?
20:10I'm nervous.
20:12You're a bit nervous, yeah?
20:14Yeah.
20:14Well I've got, I'll help bring this in, but I'm probably going to get a few more people if possible
20:20to bring the rest in.
20:21This looks quite restrained for you.
20:23Yeah, well you haven't seen the rest yet.
20:25Alright, I'll go ahead and rustle up some muscle.
20:28Yeah, cheers man, cheers, thank you.
20:32For the reveal, Darren has brought along his dad and closest friends.
20:47Thank you very much for coming through.
20:48I can't wait for this.
20:50There's probably everything you hate having attention on you.
20:55Wow.
20:56Just by the size of this, I'm guessing there's quite a big sculpture behind here.
21:02I went a bit mad as usual.
21:03Can you give me any clues?
21:05I know very strongly that he didn't want me to portray him as this larger than life hero.
21:10Yeah.
21:11And what I've tried to do is really sort of portray him as a human being.
21:14This is why I'm a little bit worried, because obviously, you know, he has been affected by it.
21:18And I've tried to be honest about the whole thing.
21:20And I've put all that in here, and I'm hoping that it's sensitive, but also tells the story.
21:25Yeah.
21:25I've solidly put my heart and soul into this.
21:28I'm sure.
21:28Oh.
21:28So, you know.
21:29All right.
21:30We're just about there.
21:33Come on.
21:34You'll be all right.
21:35I'll get the family.
21:36Okay.
21:37Corner, okay.
21:38Fingers crossed.
21:39Yeah, fingers crossed.
21:40It'll be fine.
21:41Yeah.
21:41So, yeah.
21:42Excited, but apprehensive as well.
21:44Hello, everyone.
21:46If you'd like to see a sculpture, come this way.
21:50Hey, Darren.
21:51Hi.
21:57The big day, the big reveal.
21:59Nick has been working, as you can imagine, round the clock.
22:03Darren, how are you feeling today?
22:05A bit of a mix of emotions, to be honest.
22:07I don't know what to expect, but I have no idea.
22:11You guys have done so well at keeping this hidden.
22:13Nick, any finer thoughts?
22:15It's an honor to be able to sculpt the good in humanity.
22:19We've developed a close relationship,
22:20and it's really helped me to connect with this piece,
22:23and I'm hoping...
22:24I hope you connect with it as well.
22:27So, I think now is the moment of truth.
22:29Nick?
22:30Yep.
22:30You ready?
22:31Yeah, go on.
22:32I'm ready.
22:33You guys ready?
22:34Okay.
22:34Yeah, you ready.
22:35All right.
22:36Take a breath.
22:38And, uh, we'll reveal the sculpture.
23:12That is incredible.
23:14I know.
23:14I'm speechless.
23:17It's really, uh, quite hard-hitting.
23:20It's quite emotional to see, like, a full narwhal tusk again.
23:28I think, for me, it brings through a lot of the stuff that I'm feeling,
23:32as in, like, confusion, confliction,
23:34and, like, so proud of what I did with this crazy object,
23:39but also so sad of the circumstances.
23:44If it was some kind of a heroic statue, I would...
23:47Sorry, I'd have hated it.
23:49And this is poignant.
23:51It's emotive.
23:51It does make people feel a bit sad,
23:53but it was the saddest day of my life.
23:57So...
23:58The fact that he's got the weight of the world on his shoulder at that time,
24:02he did.
24:03And he still lives that day quite regularly.
24:06It has affected him a heck of a lot.
24:09He's really changed his whole life.
24:13Hearing my dad talk about...
24:14Sorry, I'm getting a bit emotional.
24:16I've changed since that moment,
24:18because I try and hide it from everyone,
24:20because I don't want them to see the darkness,
24:23which this kind of portrays really well,
24:25because there was a lot of darkness,
24:28and there was a lot of pain,
24:30and I probably still am not through all of it.
24:33It's okay to just be yourself, especially with us.
24:36It's okay to just be vulnerable sometimes.
24:39Yeah.
24:40It's so horrible to hear you say that.
24:43Well, there were dark days where I didn't want to live,
24:45and this kind of shows it.
24:46You can see that face is sad,
24:48and I think that's a fair reflection, so...
24:52I know it was a difficult time,
24:54but it had to be honest.
24:55This, to me, it was a shield.
24:58It was protection.
24:59And he's actually, you know,
25:01afterwards putting it back together and fixing it.
25:03And this is representing what you're doing now in your life,
25:05and, you know, you're turning something that was a tragedy
25:07into a miracle today.
25:10This is basically...
25:11You can detach from it.
25:13So it's for you to take your empowerment over that,
25:15and to lift your own burden.
25:18No, no, that's an incredible gesture.
25:21Yeah.
25:21I want this for you to be able to let go.
25:25That is so thoughtful.
25:28It's an honour.
25:34It's overwhelming because it's bringing up the past,
25:39but trying to paint it in a new light, that there is hope.
25:43You just want to go back to that day and just, you know,
25:46give the guy a hug and say,
25:48you've done something extraordinary here.
25:51Yeah.
25:53He doesn't ever see himself as the hero that he is,
25:55and he doesn't like to portray himself like that.
25:57He was the one who chose to take action.
26:00I hope this will give him a bit of closure,
26:02but his heart is absolutely in the right place.
26:06He's trying to do for other people what they can't do for themselves.
26:10I've struggled with my memory like no end,
26:13and I try and hide that.
26:16I try and carry on with the work and stuff,
26:18but I forget things, I drop things, I lose things.
26:21But you guys don't know how much it does help having others around
26:26and knowing that they're there for you.
26:28It's very emotive for me to see that,
26:30to have it reflected back because it's really difficult to look at,
26:34but it's honest.
26:36And I don't think that's the face I show my friends normally,
26:39which is probably...
26:40I was honest, and this portrays that so well.
26:44And it shows the part of me that I always try and hide.
26:47So I wasn't expecting for you to see so deep into me
26:51and bring that out.
26:55Darren, just the final thoughts from you.
26:58It has stirred up a lot of emotions from the day.
27:01I'm just very proud of Nick as well, and I hope you are.
27:04Yeah, thank you.
27:05I think what we're going to do now is...
27:08Nick and I are just going to step out for a few minutes
27:11and invite you all to come forward and have a closer look.
27:16OK. Cheers, guys.
27:31Nick! Nick!
27:33How was it, mate?
27:35I've just... I just feel that intense crash.
27:38I'm absolutely exhausted.
27:39And the silence, you just don't know.
27:41I was physically shaking.
27:43But...
27:44Did they get quite emotional?
27:46I mean, his father completely got the piece.
27:48Darren suddenly heard his dad saying what he could see and feel.
27:52Darren just went into tears.
27:54Just floods of tears.
27:55And I'm like...
27:55It's all over.
28:04What Nick has created is a very powerful piece of work.
28:08He got Darren to open up a bit.
28:10He wanted it to convey something of that trauma that he went through on the day.
28:16Darren had put his trust in Nick.
28:19He was honest with him.
28:21He opened up to him.
28:22And the result is an extraordinary piece of work.
28:25He went out to him.
28:30Sometimes he can hear it.
28:34Thanks, my friends.
28:35Many thanks.
28:35I don't want to watch.
28:35I'm really getting serious.
28:35As you can see the details of organisations offering help and support with mental health...
28:41are available on the BBC Action Line website
28:43or you can call for free at any time to hear recorded information on 08000 155 998.
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