- 6 hours ago
Episode 01: I Tackled a Terrorist with a Narwhal Tusk
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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 wrists so that he couldn't blow up the bong.
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 feel in my own personal health.
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.
01:14I'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, and 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, so I went to go and find something to fend this
03:33person 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, a fire extinguisher.
04:27Yeah.
04:27He let it off and the wind carried it perfectly and I'd 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?
05:00Um, I 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.
05:09So quite often I was awake for days.
05:13And how are you today?
05:15Yeah.
05:15Well, I've filled my world with positive things using that incident as a vehicle for doing good in this world
05:25as much as I possibly can.
05:26Hmm.
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 and 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.
05:43Yeah.
05:44It's nothing I've ever had done before.
05:46No.
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.
06:09And you're going to get loads and loads of paint on the floor.
06:11Yeah.
06:17Hello, artists.
06:18Hi.
06:19So I've just spoken to today's sitter.
06:22There was a terror attack on London Bridge.
06:25Our 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, for this particular project, only because I think that it's something
06:41that 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 another way.
06:50So thanks, guys.
06:51See you soon.
06:52Good luck.
06:52Good luck, Nick.
07:00Darren, this is Nick.
07:02Hi, Nick.
07:02How are you doing?
07:03An absolute pleasure to meet you.
07:04Nice 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 the first.
07:17I've never heard that.
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,
07:42but...
07:42Listen, if anyone's capable of that, it's Nick.
07:45I'm telling you that right now.
07:47I'm going to let you guys go.
07:49Carry on.
07:49Good luck, and I'll see you soon.
07:50Thank you so much.
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,
08:19because Nick's work is monumental, but 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 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,
08:56and is still the person he opens up to about how he's coping.
09:00Dad.
09:01Your father's...
09:02How you doing, bud?
09:03How you doing?
09:03How you doing?
09:04I'm Jeff.
09:04Nice to meet you, Jeff.
09:05Jeff, my dad.
09:06How you doing?
09:07I've got a big responsibility here.
09:09So, 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.
09:18Wow.
09:18That's what he needed to do.
09:19And I just had to listen and get to grips with what had gone down.
09:24Yeah.
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?
09:30When he was younger?
09:32That'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.
09:48It was really, really chaotic.
09:50Like, absolute chaos in my brain.
09:52I literally couldn't remember anything that happened to me.
09:55I couldn't tell you.
09:57So, those years are just gone for me.
09:59It is improving.
10:00Yeah, well, you got the time right today, so 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.
10:10He put other people before himself.
10:12Yeah.
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 for his mental
10:26health.
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 strange 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, and 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, so I became a bit of a hermit, turned to alcohol and to
11:09try 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 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 what it
11:34really 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.
11:58Yeah.
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.
12:08And 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, which was a way of
12:23controlling 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.
12:31It's heard 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, you can use them and exaggerate them.
12:56But he is extremely good looking.
12:58So 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.
13:14I'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.
13:44Now, by all accounts, he's making good progress.
13:47But I wanted to come here to catch up properly.
13:51So I've done this very sort of straightforward, proportionately right sculpture up.
13:56So it's all ready 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 word.
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 soul 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.
14:43How are you?
14:44Very good.
14:45How are you doing, buddy?
14:46How are you doing, Nick?
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.
15:01I'll see a moment in your face and then I just sort of memorise it and subconsciously then start to
15:08put it into the work.
15:09This part of the process is about capturing Darren's expressions and creating a mood for the sculpture.
15:15Yeah, you asked me to bring something that would be personal so you can see some of the emotions.
15:19One night when I couldn't sleep, I wrote on my phone a little poem about what happened and it kind
15:25of helped me deal with the trauma.
15:29Deep breath, mind reeling, two blades, one bomb, no chance.
15:35But you try or more people die.
15:39Blood is shed and a big explosion inside my head.
15:45God.
15:48It's very powerful stuff.
15:49Yeah.
15:50And 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?
16:05So 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.
16:15And I'll be helping.
16:17Identical?
16:17Yeah.
16:18And then he just, what we'll just get a layer of clay on.
16:31And the hands are very similar to the eyes.
16:34They're the ends of the soul 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.
17:00Gives you sort of slight goose bumps when you describe it like that.
17:08I can see the stars.
17:27The next stage can be tricky.
17:30Once Nick finishes sculpting Darren in clay, the work is covered with silicon 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.
18:03It takes days and days to get the cast done.
18:06It's soul destroying.
18:07And it just means I've got to do another cast.
18:09I'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.
18:50I'm going to open this up now.
18:58Ahhhh!
19:02Ahhhh!
19:04Ah, do you know what?
19:15Ah mate, I think it's okay.
19:16Yeah, so this has come out.
19:18I've got, this will take four days to fix and clean up and patinate.
19:23But, um, we have something.
19:26Oh, thank God for that.
19:33Darren is now in the van, ready to go.
19:37I'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!
20:05Bill!
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 just looks quite restrained for you.
20:23Yeah, well, you haven't seen the rest yet.
20:26Alright, 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.
20:49I can't wait for this.
20:50There's probably everything you hate have an attention on you.
20:55Wow.
20:55Just by the size of this, I'm guessing there's quite a big sculpture behind here.
21:02I went a bit mad, as usual.
21:04Can 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, and I've
21:18tried to be honest about the whole thing, and I've put all that in it, and I'm hoping that it's
21:22sensitive, 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.
21:30All 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.
21:50Hi.
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 you guys have done so well at keeping this
22:13hidden.
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, and it's really helped me to connect with this piece,
22:23and I'm hoping, I 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?
22:34Yeah, you ready.
22:35All right.
22:36Take a breath, and we'll reveal the sculpture.
23:12That is incredible.
23:14I know.
23:14I'm speechless.
23:16It's really 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, as in like confusion,
23:33confliction, and like so proud of what I did with this crazy object, but also so sad of the circumstances.
23:44If it was some kind of heroic statue, I would, sorry, I've hated it.
23:49And this is poignant.
23:51It's emotive.
23:51It does make people feel a bit sad, but it was the saddest day of my life.
23:56So.
23:58The fact that he's got the weight of the world on his shoulder at that time, he 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, sorry, I'm getting a bit emotional.
24:16I've changed since that moment, because I try and hide it from everyone.
24:20Because I don't want them to see the darkness, which this kind of portrays really well.
24:25Because there was a lot of darkness.
24:28And there's a lot of pain.
24:30And I probably still am not through all of that.
24:32It'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, but it had to be honest.
24:55This, to me, it was a shield.
24:58It was protection.
24:59And he's actually, you know, afterwards putting it back together
25:02and 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 into a miracle.
25:09Today, this is basically, you can detach from it.
25:12So it's for you to take your empowerment over that
25:15and to lift your own burden.
25:19That'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 honor.
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.
25:53He 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 struggled with my memory like no end, and I try and hide that.
26:16I try and carry on with the work and stuff, but I forget things.
26:20I drop things.
26:20I 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, to have it reflected back,
26:32because it's really difficult to look at, but it's honest.
26:36And I don't think that's the face I show my friends normally,
26:39which is probably... No, you don't.
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.
27:20What was it, mate?
27:22What was that?
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...
27:56It'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.
28:25The南瓜.
28:36Details of organisations offering help and support with mental health are 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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