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Australian.Story.S31E07
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00:15Hello. The Leyland Brothers were household names in Australia in the 1980s. Their folksy
00:22TV shows explored the country with their families in tow. Brothers Mike and Mel were as close
00:29as two people can be until a sad falling out at the height of their fame, one from which
00:35they never fully recovered. We first brought you Mel Leyland's story in 2015. 11 years on
00:42he's facing daunting challenges but with his adventurous spirit undimmed.
00:55Dad and I have always been very close. Dad's always been my hero.
01:07I am an only child so it's just me that has the responsibility of taking care of Dad now.
01:14How are you feeling today?
01:16Oh well it's a good day because I woke up and I'm still alive. That's a pretty good day when
01:20you get to this age, every day counts. The hardest thing has been watching this
01:26man that I idolised my whole life slowly disappear in front of my eyes. I could still have a
01:34conversation with him every single day but he doesn't remember it half an hour later.
01:40So it looks like you've got your bag and your hat out ready to go. You're going somewhere today?
01:44Oh I'm always ready to go. Always. Having dementia is interesting because
01:50it depends a little bit on what it affects. If you've got a good memory of the good things in
01:58life,
01:59the good things are far more important.
02:05Urgently need Land Rover Clutch Plate Series 2. Require water also if possible. And the
02:15signature Lowland Brothers. That's Lima Echo Yankee, Lima Alpha, November Delta Brothers.
02:22Travel all over the countryside. Ask the Lowlands, ask the Lowlands.
02:26Their travel documentaries over the past 30 years made the Lowland Brothers household names.
02:32Hundreds of hours of television, tens of thousands of kilometres over the countryside.
02:43A lot of people, when they're going to go on a road trip around Australia these days,
02:46say, I'm going to go and do a Leyland Brothers. And off they go on their trip. So they go
02:51exploring.
02:53Hey Dad, Frankie's ready. Oh, that's good. That was a good package. Yeah, me too.
03:00He's still aware that he is Mal Leyland from the Leyland Brothers. Yes, definitely.
03:06We've got the Wheels Across the World and a 60th anniversary trip, which we'll be doing this year.
03:12The main reason for what we wanted to do is to honour what my dad did,
03:18and for people to remember what he did and celebrate what he did.
03:32All right. Two, four, six, eight.
03:37The first it was just subtle things that made us believe that perhaps there might be something going on.
03:45He would be telling stories about things, um, from the past,
03:49and all of a sudden the stories weren't exactly right.
03:53He was getting them muddled up.
03:54Or I'll walk into his bedroom and he's just staring at the ceiling.
03:58Do you remember that John and I weren't here last week?
04:01Mm-hmm.
04:03You did notice that we were gone?
04:04Mm-hmm.
04:05Do you know where we went?
04:06No.
04:06So a few times he would get lost and I always thought it'd be ironic
04:10that Mel Leyland, this person who explored a lot of Australia,
04:14you know, police are searching for Mel Leyland,
04:16who's lost in bushland,
04:17would probably not be very good headlines.
04:21I found a lot more stuff, Mel,
04:24for you to go through and have a look at and sort out.
04:27All right, huh?
04:28Yeah.
04:29Well, there's a lot of it.
04:30By the time we actually finally got into the specialist,
04:32I wasn't surprised to hear that he had the dementia.
04:35That's out in Central Australia,
04:38and it's at Uluru, I think they call it.
04:41And I suggested to Carmen that, you know,
04:44maybe it was time that he came to live with us.
04:46We didn't think he was ready to go into a retirement village.
04:50All the memories, eh?
04:52At the moment, I'd say it's classified as moderate dementia.
04:57So many different parts of the country.
04:59Accepting that Dad is going to get worse is hard.
05:03We're definitely dreading the day when it gets to the point
05:05where we realise that we can't take care of him anymore.
05:08I don't feel as though it's getting worse,
05:11but luckily I've got a lot of photographs,
05:13so I've got things to remind me of stuff that I've seen and done.
05:17I can always look them up.
05:22A lot of people think of us as being a pair of Aussie blokes
05:26who just grew up in the suburbs of Australia,
05:28but in fact we started out in England.
05:31So we're the original 10-pound POM family.
05:35I think the reason Mike and I ended up as close as we were
05:39was because Dad got into real estate
05:41and moved around from one suburb to the next.
05:44As a result, we changed schools so much
05:46that we didn't really get enough time to make good friends,
05:50so we became each other's best mate.
05:57And his very first film we ever shot was at the Olympic Games,
06:00and that's how we got into shooting films.
06:03And we ended up filming little home movies
06:07of things that we did, you know, holiday trips and stuff like that.
06:14So I bought an old Land Rover
06:15and set off on a trip to Heirs Rock.
06:19These days some people might think it offensive
06:21that we climbed the rock,
06:22but in 1961 not many people made the trip
06:25and everyone did it.
06:26We had fallen in love with the desert
06:28and become completely charmed by Heirs Rock.
06:31We'd made a movie too, an amateur movie,
06:35The Lure of the Centre.
06:37Mike showed Lure of the Centre to the news editor
06:39and landed the job of Channel 3's first news cameraman.
06:44For a while, Mike and I were rivals.
06:47Using this camera, I started work as a cadet photographer
06:50with the afternoon daily paper here,
06:52The Newcastle Sun.
06:54But the rivalry didn't last long.
06:56With only one year's professional experience,
06:58we joined forces to make our first commercial film.
07:02And all the books that I'd read said the secret to selling a documentary
07:05was to actually do something for the first time.
07:09So I picked up a map of Australia and thought,
07:11well, what can we do that's not going to be too expensive and too far away,
07:14and looked at New South Wales
07:15and there was this wriggly line going through it
07:18and it was the Darling River.
07:20And no one had done it.
07:21It was 1,400 miles.
07:26We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for.
07:30And so inexperienced were we,
07:31we never even had a pair of oars with us.
07:33We had an outboard motor only.
07:36And it gave us trouble.
07:38It kept breaking the propellers.
07:40Then we thought, well, if we get some baked bean tins
07:42and tip the baked beans out,
07:43we could flatten the tin out
07:44and cut it to some sort of shape resembling a propeller.
07:48We managed to sell our Down the Darling film to the Nine network
07:52and the film became so popular,
07:54it was repeated within two weeks
07:56and got huge audiences.
08:00There isn't any doubt that the success of Down the Darling
08:03prompted us to believe that we could make a living out of doing it.
08:07Adventurers who are actually going out
08:08and paying for their adventure
08:10by selling the film to a television station,
08:12it was just unique in those days.
08:15And they told me they used Super 8 film,
08:17they were doing it almost home movie style,
08:19which everyone loved.
08:20There was a charm to it
08:21and it meant they could make really good money out of it.
08:24Five young Australians set out on an expedition never made before.
08:28A journey across a waterless continent.
08:32But we had to come up with something better,
08:34something that no-one had done before.
08:36And that's when we decided
08:38we'll go right across Australia from one side to the other
08:41and on the way we had to cross the Simpson Desert.
08:43Ahead lies 300 miles of hard slogging over Simpson Sandhills
08:48with no water holes at all.
08:51I think the most spectacular,
08:53most impressive thing we saw was airdrop in the rain.
08:57We were there,
08:59we arrived on one day
08:59and it was bright and sunny
09:01and then the next day at port
09:03we had six inches of rain
09:04and this broke the eight-year drought.
09:10One tourist in a hundred thousand
09:12has seen such water spilling from Ayers Rock
09:14and no cine cameraman has ever filmed it until now.
09:19Nobody had ever filmed an event like this before.
09:22Those pictures became the most famous ones I ever took.
09:26We decided we would roadshow the film.
09:29We'd take it around the country
09:31and hire town halls, cinemas if we could
09:35and advertise it ourselves and see how we went.
09:38I wanted to start with,
09:39everybody said I was mad, you know,
09:40I was throwing the money down the drain
09:41advertising it and putting it on
09:42and in Newcastle the theatre manager said,
09:44you know, two days we'll finish it.
09:46And at the end of two-week season
09:49we'd recovered $15,000,
09:52enough money to buy three houses at the time.
09:54We've just come back from the Kimberleys
09:56shooting a new series put off the beaten track.
09:59And that's when we started calling ourselves
10:00the Leland Brothers.
10:02We had a bit of a rough time, didn't we?
10:04We had a few breakdowns
10:05and Land Rovers rolling over and things like this.
10:09But we've come here to sort of accept these
10:11as part of the business, really.
10:12That's what makes our films interesting, I think.
10:13Mike and Mal as brothers
10:16had the most strong relationship
10:20that I've ever seen between two people ever.
10:23We then moved on to make a new television series
10:26called Ask the Leland Brothers.
10:27That was a programme where viewers wrote in
10:29and asked us to film anything,
10:31anywhere in Australia,
10:32and we travelled there to film it.
10:34And we're going out to Rat's Nest Island
10:36in answer to this request.
10:44We travel with our wives now in two vehicles
10:47and we all work together as a team.
10:49Just Mike does all the camera work,
10:50I do the sound.
10:51Another good item is a well-equipped picnic set.
10:53Both of the wives were attractive girls
10:56and both Mike and Mal were a bit sexist
11:00and so they used their wives as a drawcard.
11:05Before we look at packing,
11:06consider saving weight in the food department.
11:09Dehydrated food is good,
11:10but only in areas where you can get lots of water.
11:13I got pushed in front of the camera, you know.
11:15Talk to these people.
11:17What about?
11:18But I learnt to start asking questions and that.
11:21And these days,
11:22portable gas can be acquired almost everywhere.
11:25It was just part of what the viewers started to like.
11:28But what I think was the secret to it
11:30was actually the fact that it was a family,
11:32an average family.
11:33We didn't do things that the ordinary bloke couldn't do.
11:40Of course, you do have to inflate the airbed each evening,
11:43but don't try blowing it up with your mouth.
11:45It's far better to save your lungs
11:47for breathing in the clean country air
11:49you've travelled so far to enjoy.
11:52When we went to sign up with Nine
11:54for the Isolated Brothers series,
11:55they said to make sure that we didn't make it too slick
11:58because they want it to look like the boys next door,
12:01sort of an amateur home movie look.
12:06The old saying about hard work not hurting anybody
12:09seems to be true.
12:10We discovered this when we were down here in Tasmania.
12:12The ratings were phenomenal.
12:14About 40% of the number of people
12:16that are watching TV on any one night watching our show.
12:19That amounts to about 3.5 to 4 million people.
12:23If there's anything you want to know
12:25about this great continent of ours,
12:27then ask the Leyland Brothers.
12:30Where do you reckon we are, Mike?
12:33Buckety wine over it.
12:35Two guys have disposed of their Kodak wrappers
12:37properly all over Australia.
12:39I don't think Mike and Mal ever complained
12:42about the parodies and the put-downs.
12:45They were always put down as these amateurs and so forth,
12:47and it just gave them more and more publicity.
12:49Look at that, the Leyland Brothers
12:51putting a smile across Australia.
12:52That's the kind of guys you are, eh?
12:55The biggest advantage was that they had a positive image,
12:59a very positive image.
13:00No-one ever said no.
13:03Thank you very much, Scott.
13:04As soon as you mentioned Leyland Brothers,
13:06it was, oh, oh, yeah,
13:09because they were almost seen as family and friends.
13:14In 1983, we decided to make a new direction for our career.
13:18Instead of just continuing with television,
13:19we wanted to get into tourism.
13:25Mike and I had looked at the idea
13:26of building a big tourist park for quite a few years,
13:29and then one day Mike confronted me with the idea
13:32that he thought that what we really needed
13:33was some really big thing to attract people.
13:36So instead of building our little timber building,
13:39we eventually decided to build a replica of Ayers Rock.
13:45And we ended up having to borrow a lot of money to do it.
13:51The next thing you know,
13:52the interest rates had gone up to 26%,
13:54and what we'd borrowed had just doubled,
13:56and then it started to get like a big snowball.
14:01And it was a nightmare.
14:03It started out as a dream,
14:04and it turned into a nightmare.
14:08Just before we opened Leyland Brothers World,
14:10we had about 26,000, I suppose, in cheques
14:15that hadn't been yet presented to the bank.
14:19And they fronted up and said
14:21that they weren't going to honour these cheques
14:22unless we provided additional security.
14:26Well, we didn't have any additional security.
14:28And then they said, oh, what about your houses?
14:29We said, well, no,
14:31those are always going to be protected.
14:33They're in the girls' names.
14:34And I said, it's my house.
14:36And they said, well, you can't open
14:39if you don't sign your house over.
14:42And I ended up doing the one thing I really regret.
14:46I talked her into it.
14:49So in the end, after much persuasion,
14:52I signed the house over,
14:53and I said, well, that's my house gone.
14:55And it was.
14:57They took it.
15:00And we opened.
15:01We were making a lot of profit.
15:02It was going like a rocket.
15:04But things were getting a bit tense with Mike as well.
15:07Mistrust had crept into our relationship
15:11and it had never been there before.
15:13And inside, it's just like an outback town.
15:15Lorraine and I had done a trip to Central Australia,
15:17which was a private trip.
15:19And then later, he accused me
15:20of putting all those expenses for that through the company.
15:23And I couldn't believe that he didn't trust me.
15:25Of all people, of all things, what we'd been through.
15:27And then he turned around and accused me of ripping him off.
15:33The partnership that Mike and I had for 29 years
15:36was crumbling before my eyes.
15:39And I knew it would never be the same again.
15:42Our relationship was damaged permanently after that.
15:46And it never really recovered.
15:52So the bank walked in, sent the receivers in,
15:54put new locks on,
15:56give us 20 minutes to get off the place.
15:57And it was the most devastating day, I reckon,
16:00I've ever gone through.
16:02We were absolutely broke
16:05to the point where I had to go bankrupt.
16:09That's the day my life collapsed.
16:12Everything we'd worked for,
16:13all our lives,
16:14everything was tied up in that one project.
16:17And on that day,
16:18the receivers walked in
16:19and took possession of the whole lot.
16:27I felt like shit,
16:28to be perfectly honest.
16:32In hindsight,
16:34Lone and Brothers World was a huge mistake.
16:36Biggest mistake we ever made.
16:40We walked away with $5,000.
16:43That's all we had.
16:45It was a lifetime's work
16:46and our personal estate was worth $6.5 million
16:49before we built the park.
16:51And I didn't really mind losing the money.
16:56I objected to being treated like a criminal
16:58because I lost the money.
17:00And that's what really hurt.
17:02The receivers, though,
17:04claim the Leylands are far from being down and out.
17:07They say that, though totally legal,
17:10Mike and Mal transferred
17:11more than a million dollars of assets
17:13into their wives' names
17:15over an 18-month period.
17:17It was during that period
17:18that the media started chasing us.
17:22Who's come off worse, Leylands
17:23that still live in their big houses
17:25or the people...
17:26The bank.
17:27The local people that have lost their jobs.
17:28It's a big joke, it is.
17:30Our main house was in her name,
17:32but the bank took that anyhow.
17:34Apart from that,
17:35we had another terrace house in Newcastle
17:39which had a debt on it,
17:40but that was sold.
17:41We all had this impression of people
17:44who go bad in an industry
17:46that they've got it all away somewhere
17:49in their wife's name
17:49and they haven't really lost anything.
17:52Well, they did.
17:54You know, it wasn't that they walked away
17:57and were still wealthy people.
17:59They had absolutely nothing.
18:01They'd lost it all.
18:07Mike and I had our differences prior to that
18:12and since there was now nothing left
18:14that we jointly owned,
18:16there was no need for us
18:17to stay together in partnership.
18:18So for the first time,
18:19we went our separate ways.
18:21This is Mike and Malweyden.
18:23Two young Australians
18:25who've become legends
18:26in their own country.
18:28For a while,
18:29we didn't communicate with each other at all.
18:32I said, look, forget the what ifs.
18:34That's all finished.
18:35Look ahead.
18:36That's the only way you can go.
18:37And then I realised
18:38that times were very difficult
18:41when Mike wrote a book
18:42and Mal told me
18:43he wasn't going to read it.
18:45And I realised then
18:46that there'd obviously been
18:47a complete split up
18:48which was very, very sad.
18:51Yeah, well, Mike came out of it
18:52financially better than me
18:53in several ways.
18:55He went into a couple
18:56of different business ventures
18:57all of which were very successful.
19:04Well, Lorraine and I ended up
19:05with very little money
19:06but we had enough
19:06to buy a little bit of land
19:08and we moved on
19:09to 25 acres
19:10of pretty rugged,
19:12poor-quality bushland
19:13just out from Glen Innes.
19:15We had nothing.
19:16We had to start
19:16from the ground up.
19:19Lorraine and I were living
19:19in a couple of shipping containers.
19:23Look, I was shocked
19:23when I went up
19:25to see Mal and Lorraine.
19:26It was absolutely clear to me
19:28that they were in
19:29a terribly desperate
19:30financial situation.
19:31And I'd gone from being
19:33very, very wealthy,
19:34being multi-millionaires
19:36in a period of about 15 years
19:38to being close to destitute.
19:41And then a week later
19:43I went to the mailbox
19:44out on the road
19:45and there was a letter from Dick.
19:48I opened it up
19:49and inside was a cheque
19:50for $10,000.
19:52I thought it won the lottery.
19:54I couldn't believe it.
19:55And he just said on it
19:57to help with your project.
20:04The place Mal
20:05built at Glen Innes
20:06was absolutely indicative
20:08of his attitude to life.
20:10He just got out
20:11and went back to basics
20:13and with whatever
20:14little money he had
20:15they started to build the place
20:17literally with his own hands.
20:19He bought a mill,
20:20he cut the trees
20:22down on the property,
20:23he milled the timber,
20:24he built the building.
20:26He did it all.
20:28It's a big, big effort.
20:31And I'm not 100% fit
20:33so I have to time myself
20:35and pace myself very slowly.
20:38Well, not long after
20:39the collapse of Leyland Brothers World
20:41I discovered I had cancer
20:46in the bladder.
20:47I had a huge tumour
20:50which required surgery
20:51to be removed.
20:53I've had some success
20:54with potatoes already
20:56and that's encouraged us
20:58to think the soil here
20:59is probably pretty good for us.
21:01I think growing our own food
21:03and living off
21:05what we grew ourselves,
21:07getting rid of all the chemicals
21:08out of our lives
21:09made a huge difference
21:10to my health
21:11and I defied the odds.
21:20I wanted to get together
21:22with Mike
21:23and bury the hatchet a bit.
21:26I hadn't seen Mike
21:27for a few years,
21:29probably four years or so.
21:31Yeah, no, there's Mike.
21:32One time we were home
21:33I was out in the kitchen
21:34and I heard this
21:35hello, hello
21:37and I thought
21:37who's that?
21:38And I heard a car
21:40pull up
21:41and there was
21:43Margie got out of the car
21:45and started walking
21:46towards us
21:47and then there was
21:48this old man behind him
21:50who I didn't recognise
21:52and I got a shock
21:53when he got closer
21:55and I realised it was Mike.
21:56He was all stooped over
21:58he looked ill
22:00and one side of his face
22:02was sort of drooping
22:04and that's when
22:05we found out
22:05he had Parkinson's disease
22:08and he knew
22:08he didn't have long to go
22:11and he wanted to come
22:12and see me
22:12before he did.
22:14He wasn't aware
22:15of people much.
22:17You know,
22:17it's terrible
22:18to see him like that.
22:23Sometime later
22:23I got a call
22:24to say
22:25we should come down
22:26and see him
22:27because he wouldn't
22:27have long to go.
22:30He was sitting
22:31in his chair
22:31and I said
22:32how would you like
22:32to do one more
22:33trip
22:34and this little
22:35glint
22:35come in his eye
22:36and one side
22:37of his face
22:37moved
22:39and he mouthed
22:40the only two words
22:40he said
22:41while I was there
22:41he said
22:42one more.
22:45I tell you
22:47that really
22:47that really
22:49really hit me
22:51and I just
22:52turned around
22:52and I said
22:53I've got to go
22:55and I did
22:56this thumbs up
22:57thing like that
22:58that we used to do
22:58to the camera
22:59together
22:59you know
22:59I just did that
23:01and he tried
23:02to raise his arm
23:03to do it
23:05and I knew
23:06it was the last
23:06time I'd see him
23:07so I just
23:08said I've got to
23:09go now mate
23:10I can't stay
23:10any longer
23:11and it was the last
23:12time I saw him
23:13alive.
23:15and then I got
23:16a phone call
23:17a few months
23:18later
23:18saying he'd
23:19died
23:22Mal just
23:23about collapsed
23:27and unfortunately
23:28it meant
23:28that I couldn't
23:29have the
23:29discussion
23:30with Mike
23:31that I wanted
23:31to have
23:33I wanted Mike
23:34to know
23:34that I had
23:35never been
23:36that dishonest
23:37person he thought
23:38I was
23:38I want him
23:39to understand
23:40that that wasn't
23:41what had happened
23:42I wanted to bury
23:43the hatchet
23:44on that
23:44I wanted that
23:45to be gone
23:46and dealt
23:48with
23:50it was something
23:51I never got
23:51the chance
23:52to do
23:55G'day I'm Mel
23:56Leyland
23:56my wife Lorraine
23:57our daughter Carmen
23:58have already
23:58completed one
23:59full circuit
24:00of Australia
24:01on a caravan
24:02and camping
24:02odyssey
24:03that most people
24:03only dream of
24:04I often get
24:05asked the question
24:06of what's it like
24:07growing up
24:08with you know
24:09the Leyland brothers
24:10or one of them
24:10as your father
24:11a great feature
24:12of the Tokyo Mall
24:13area is that
24:14they not only
24:14have beautiful
24:15strawberries
24:16but you also
24:17get the chance
24:17to pick your own
24:18for me
24:19I grew up
24:20with a camera
24:20in my face
24:21I grew up
24:22travelling
24:23and apparently
24:25I would run around
24:25as a two year old
24:26and go
24:26shh
24:27we're filming
24:32it was 2018
24:33when mum
24:34passed away
24:37dad really
24:38really struggled
24:38to move on
24:39with his life
24:40he felt very
24:41lost
24:41my mum
24:41was the centre
24:42of his life
24:45he had many
24:46ideas of getting
24:47back and filming
24:48and doing what
24:49he loves
24:50but one way
24:51or another
24:52it just didn't
24:52come to fruition
24:54over here
24:55we've got
24:56copies of Mel's
24:57books
24:59and a lot
24:59of his old
25:00bits and pieces
25:01that he used
25:02for all the
25:02filming
25:03he definitely
25:04remembers the
25:05past
25:05he has talked
25:07a lot
25:07about one
25:08particular trip
25:08wheels across
25:09a wilderness
25:10which is when
25:11they went
25:12from Steak Point
25:13the most
25:13westerly point
25:14of Australia
25:15all the way
25:15across to
25:16Cape Byron
25:17it seems
25:18incredible
25:18but these
25:19five people
25:20have succeeded
25:21in crossing
25:21for the first
25:22time
25:22the Australian
25:23continent
25:24at its widest
25:25point
25:25so it was
25:26only recently
25:27that my husband
25:27and I realised
25:28that the
25:2860th anniversary
25:30of that
25:30wheels across
25:31the wilderness
25:32journey
25:32is coming
25:33up soon
25:33and we
25:34went wow
25:35what an
25:37opportunity
25:37to recreate
25:38that trip
25:3960 years
25:40on
25:41so we've
25:41got
25:41Where Dead Men
25:42Lie
25:42which is
25:43your original
25:44book
25:44and of course
25:46you've got
25:46in here
25:47the map
25:47that you
25:48originally
25:49followed
25:49roughly
25:50we're planning
25:51to follow
25:52the original
25:52route
25:53as closely
25:54as possible
25:54going to
25:55all the places
25:56that they
25:56stopped at
25:57up through
25:58here
25:59up to
26:00the border
26:00and then
26:01you cross
26:01over
26:02and you
26:03end up
26:03at Birdsville
26:05a big town
26:07we thought
26:07it was a big
26:08town
26:08because
26:09it had a
26:10pub
26:11still does
26:12so we're
26:13hoping to go
26:13in the middle
26:14of the year
26:14around the
26:15same time
26:16that dad
26:16did the
26:17original trip
26:17back in
26:1866
26:18the trip
26:19like this
26:19is a real
26:20eye-opener
26:21to anyone
26:21who's never
26:22done it
26:22you realise
26:23what a great
26:23country we
26:24live in
26:24yeah
26:25definitely
26:26so we
26:27have
26:27managed
26:28to get
26:2810 vehicles
26:29that are
26:30prepared to
26:30come along
26:31with us
26:31and they
26:32have paid
26:32to tag
26:33along
26:35the money
26:36that we
26:37raise from
26:38that trip
26:38is going
26:39towards
26:39creating
26:40a photographic
26:41museum
26:42and gallery
26:43in Cairns
26:43so this is
26:44the space
26:45that you
26:45were looking
26:46at
26:46I think
26:47it'll be
26:47perfect
26:47to do
26:48what you
26:49are looking
26:49for
26:49we're
26:50currently
26:50looking
26:51for
26:51possible
26:51venues
26:52so it
26:53will have
26:53a
26:54museum
26:55element
26:55to it
26:56where
26:56people
26:57can
26:57hear
26:58the story
26:58of both
26:59my dad
27:00and my mum
27:01we're going
27:02to have a cafe
27:02in the back
27:03of it called
27:03Lyra's Cafe
27:04because my mum
27:05was a passionate
27:06cook and always
27:06wanted a little
27:07cafe
27:08you could put
27:08the cafe
27:09along the back
27:10wall bay
27:11and gallery
27:12it all fit
27:13out here
27:13it was always
27:15my dad's dream
27:15to open up
27:16a gallery
27:17and showcase
27:18his work
27:20because he's
27:20actually a
27:21still photographer
27:22by trade
27:22but everyone
27:23knows him
27:23as a documentary
27:24filmmaker
27:26I would hate
27:26to think
27:27how many
27:27photos
27:27there are
27:29I think
27:30it's great
27:30I mean
27:31it's got
27:31plenty of room
27:34and it'd be
27:35very nice
27:35to see a lot
27:36of the old
27:36stuff on display
27:37and people
27:38coming in
27:39and appreciating
27:40it
27:41looks like
27:42ginger
27:47we're really
27:48hoping that
27:48dad will be
27:49well enough
27:49to come on
27:49the trip
27:50we are
27:51involving him
27:52as much
27:52as we can
27:52in the
27:53planning
27:55I mean
27:55as far as
27:56his physical
27:56health is
27:57concerned
27:57100%
27:58he's ready
27:59to go
27:59it's just
28:00we'll see
28:00where he's
28:01at with
28:02his dementia
28:02at the time
28:03but hopefully
28:03he doesn't
28:04decline
28:05any further
28:08well
28:09it's better
28:10in there
28:10than it does
28:10then
28:13although
28:13he won't
28:14necessarily
28:14remember
28:15the trip
28:15at the end
28:15he will
28:16enjoy the
28:17trip
28:17in that
28:18moment
28:18and that's
28:19what's
28:19important
28:20to us
28:21I like
28:22this one
28:22here
28:22because
28:23it's
28:25sticking out
28:26of it
28:26maybe it'll
28:27be my last
28:28trip
28:28I don't
28:28know
28:29but
28:29I think
28:31one day
28:31there will
28:32be a last
28:32trip
28:33I suppose
28:33because one
28:34day I'm
28:35going to
28:35fall off
28:35my perch
28:39I think
28:40I've had
28:40a pretty
28:40good run
28:41I think
28:41my life
28:42has been
28:42full of
28:43ups and
28:44downs
28:44a bit
28:44but
28:45I think
28:46I'd like
28:46to be
28:46remembered
28:47as a
28:47person
28:47who
28:48was a
28:48traveller
28:50photographer
28:52and
28:54lover
28:54of life
28:57yeah
28:58one more
28:58trip
28:58would be
28:59pretty
28:59good
29:11I remember
29:12the wonderful
29:12time I had
29:13with Lorraine
29:14my wife
29:14the best thing
29:15that ever
29:15happened to
29:15me
29:16was meeting
29:17her and
29:17marrying her
29:18and living
29:19with her
29:19it was
29:20wonderful
29:21I sometimes
29:21have dreams
29:22with her
29:23in it
29:23and I feel
29:24like she's
29:24basically there
29:26you know
29:26and you wake
29:26up and you
29:27realise of
29:27course it's
29:28a dream
29:28meeting her
29:29was the
29:30highlight of
29:31my life
29:32she was the
29:33highlight of
29:34my life
29:34and in my
29:35memory she
29:35still is
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