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The 20th Century was the century of activism. It was a century in which a series of extraordinarily brave individuals encouraged whole swathes of society to throw off the shackles of oppression and get the rights they deserved......
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00:06in the 20th century the human race took off with remarkable individuals making a
00:13series of breakthroughs that changed every aspect of our lives but whose
00:21contribution was the most significant to find out expert juries from each of the
00:30major fields of human endeavor have drawn up a short list of candidates for you to
00:36choose from the greatest scientist artist entertainer activist
00:54sports star people are starting to say look it's beautiful and leader
01:04these people's stories represent the pinnacles of human achievement
01:09and they show that a single person has the power to change the world
01:23the greatest figures of the 20th century were our political leaders when the world was
01:34overwhelmed by crises the like of which we had never seen before economic crashes world wars
01:43new terrifying weapons and ideologies that threatened to destroy our humanity
01:52it was our leaders that steered us through
01:57in a century when more people than ever were able to elect their leaders the
02:03attributes that we looked for in them changed so radically
02:09many were flawed some were charismatic a few were brilliant
02:16but only a handful of 20th century leaders can truly be described as iconic
02:25in 1939 hitler's armies swept all before them 60 divisions of german troops stormed into poland
02:39then in 1940 the nazis invaded holland belgium and france
02:50in britain many politicians wanted to appease hitler but one famously refused to the case for
02:59churchill begins on the 6th of september 1940 the people of britain were going about their daily lives
03:09unaware that a new kind of terror was heading towards them
03:23the blitz lasted for eight months
03:39thousands of men women and children were killed
03:49but the morale of the people never collapsed
03:54in fact it got stronger
03:57and that's in large part down to the leadership qualities of winston churchill
04:08churchill had to inspire the british people to carry on the fight
04:12his strategy well it was later said of him
04:15he mobilized the english language and sent it into battle
04:19and that battle was fought right here
04:25we shall go on to the end we shall fight in france we shall fight on the seas and oceans
04:33we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air
04:39we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be we shall fight on the beaches
04:45we shall fight on the landing grounds we shall fight in the fields and in the streets we shall
04:52fight in the hills we shall never surrender
04:56it's important to remember just how precarious churchill's and indeed britain's position was
05:07in july 1940 the nazis were in calais
05:1320 miles from the white cliffs of dover
05:18and the french navy was about to fall into the nazis hands
05:32and it's at this moment that we observe the other key ingredient of churchill's greatness
05:40his ability to take the toughest decisions of them all
05:45in this case whether to surrender the french fleet
05:48or sink it potentially killing thousands of our former allies
05:54this was a kind of crisis moment that tests the metal of leaders
05:59it separates the strong from the weak
06:02churchill later described it as the most hateful decision the most unnatural and painful he'd ever faced
06:14some 1300 french sailors were killed but their warships didn't fall into hitler's hands
06:28it was a crucial strategic victory but now a shaken churchill had to justify his decision to parliament
06:37i leave the judgment of our action with confidence to parliament i leave it to the nation i leave it
06:45to the world
06:46and to history
06:50according to one observer all were on their feet shouting cheering and waving papers
07:01in the world
07:02churchill wept
07:06but what was it that made churchill a perfect leader
07:12the answers lie deep in his personality
07:16born into a wealthy aristocratic family
07:20churchill had a sense of invincibility
07:23visible throughout his life
07:30the world
07:30let me take you back to his adventures in south africa at the start of the 20th century
07:42the boer war was raging between the british army and the dutch-speaking boer settlers
07:49this landscape looks so very peaceful in the winter morning light
07:53that is difficult to remember that this is the place where we first became acquainted
07:57with the terms trench warfare guerrilla fighting and concentration camps
08:03it's also the place where the british public first got glimpses of the qualities of winston churchill
08:07for which he later became so renowned
08:11a train was traveling through natal in south africa
08:16it was attacked by boer fighters
08:19the train might have been captured had it not been for one civilian who took command of the situation
08:26issuing orders and protecting the wounded
08:31the 25 year old winston churchill
08:36working as a young war reporter he was later captured by the boers and thrown in jail
08:43but he escaped and a bounty was put on his head
08:47he then enlisted in the army and fought in one of the war's bloodiest battles
08:56there were seven shells exploding every minute on the summit but being churchill he was determined
09:02to be part of the action he was famous for saying to somebody during this war when you hear a
09:08bullet
09:08or a shell don't bother to duck because if it hasn't hit you it never will
09:13and he that is either being courageous or being foolhardy he was foolhardy he had this sense of destiny
09:20he said to his mother once i can't believe that i would have such a prosaic ending as a poor
09:25bullet
09:26so he he didn't believe that anything was going to happen to him it was a measure of his greatness
09:32that he was able to take such risks churchill was following in this very long tradition that if
09:36you want to do something greater in life that you begin with a war for churchill the greatest human
09:42virtue was courage and he saw war service as a gateway to distinction
09:52he would go on to serve his country in many capacities as he rose up through the ranks
10:01the secretary of state for the colonies home secretary lord of the admiralty in the first world war he was
10:13in the trenches and then became secretary of state for war and then the moment came when his nation
10:21needed him most
10:35so who was he really
10:39the city of steel is working with herculean vigor in the common task of hitting hitler good and proper
10:45well i'm with a churchill historian who spent significant time with him because she is his
10:52granddaughter he really was genuinely interested in everything and everyone what was he like to be
11:01with he was well very loving very relaxed oh i mean my memories are all sort of love affection and
11:10humor really if it was something humorous to find in something he would one day i received a parcel
11:17and there was a card attached to it which said please look after him your loving grandpapa
11:22and inside i found a life-size toy bulldog i asked my mother why have i got a present it's
11:27not my birthday
11:29so she said well someone sent him to grandpapa and he thought you might like him
11:33so then she explained that he'd been known as the great british bulldog
11:37he was rather proud to be seen as the british bulldog it was sort of gave his growl as it
11:43were
11:44the main of the tank court announce his arrival and in an unmistakable manner tell you how welcome he is
11:51he didn't only want to meet the generals he wanted to meet the men he knew the reality of what
11:57war was
11:58he'd been a soldier himself absolutely yes and i think the fact that he'd been there helped his
12:03relationship with the troops people respected him for that he had a conviction that he was doing the
12:09right thing he believed in himself that that is the core of what a great leader should have it is
12:17of
12:18course yes that way he was able to make other people believe in him too and therefore believe that
12:24we were going to win almost lost in the midst of his admirers churchill's heroism during world war ii
12:30is undisputed but his reputation and legacy are now being fiercely debated he expressed views which
12:38if uttered today would undoubtedly be considered racist
12:46and some now believe that churchill's actions across the british empire during his time as prime minister
12:53were directly responsible for humanitarian crises not least the bengal famine of 1943
13:02nevertheless his achievement in defeating fascism makes him one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century
13:14of the 20th century of war it's obvious why your grandfather was so important during the war to
13:21people in britain why is he still today i think that we have no leaders now wherever i go people
13:28say i
13:29wish we had your grandfather again and i mean i think this is this is the thing people are crying
13:33out for
13:41for inspiration but while churchill was defending democracy around the world other countries had fallen
13:48into the hands of dictators not just hitler in germany but mussolini in italy
13:59starling in russia but in the united states hi ronald reagan my next icon took a very different approach
14:09leading with a compassion which our expert panel believed made him stand out from the crowd
14:16let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself
14:26franklin d roosevelt a man whose greatest achievements like churchill's were forged in crisis
14:39the wall street crash of 1929 marked the beginning of the great depression
14:48nearly half of u.s banks had collapsed
14:51a quarter of americans were unemployed and two million homeless
15:00there were bread lines in every major city
15:05america was starving
15:11the case for fdr begins in 1932 when he stepped into this crisis and offered something extraordinary
15:20hope
15:28he promised to make america prosperous again and he won by a landslide
15:38roosevelt was a democrat and once president immediately launched what he called the new deal
15:50fdr piled federal money into thousands of public works projects which employed millions of men
15:58he introduced america's first system of social security for the elderly the poor and the sick
16:05and he plowed investment into farming as well as bringing roads prosperity and light
16:12to rural america this project has provided employment for hundreds of local workers
16:19not only did fdr rescue his nation from the worst economic crisis of modern times
16:26he also embarked on a radical building program
16:33today his legacy is stamped across the american landscape
16:39how did roosevelt get away with the introduction of so much big government which
16:44in a way went against the grain of what america is all about how did he push that through
16:49i think we have to remember the state of the united states when roosevelt was elected when he took
16:54over as president there was a real fear that capitalism had had it and that the united states
17:01might either move in a communist or a fascist direction or that there'd be civil disturbances
17:06roosevelt understood that the problems facing the united states were so big that they needed big
17:10solutions and the only organization big enough to do it in the united states was the government the
17:14federal government and and you know there's much debate about how effective his measures were but
17:18they helped to get things going again what was really important is roosevelt gave the americans
17:23confidence again he said it's going to be all right and they needed to hear that
17:28fdr often appealed directly to the public today's presidents can use the internet social media and
17:35twitter roosevelt relied on the most exciting communication technology of his time the wireless
17:45i want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the united states about banking some of our
17:51bankers have shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds
17:58and so it became the government's job to straighten out this situation
18:03listening to that voice from the wireless set it's immediately clear that fdr's tone is much more
18:10intimate than winston churchill churchill spoke in that grand oratorical style as though he were
18:16addressing a crowd for fdr he was speaking to just one person at a time
18:24before the 20th century leaders were rarely portrayed at home fdr was telling the public he was one of them
18:34but the case for roosevelt goes deeper his entire presidency was a comeback one which took place against the odds
18:46in 1921 aged 39 fdr was diagnosed with polio
18:53he was paralyzed but after years of physiotherapy he learned to compensate for the total loss of feeling
19:04in his legs
19:05how did he manage his condition day to day being president of the united states well he needed a
19:12lot of help sturdy secret servicemen and others who he lent on literally he had calipers big iron
19:20constructions on both legs quite a lot of the time he used a wheelchair pretty much like this one
19:27only at home and at the office obviously this is a different era privacy was more important
19:33there are very few photographs of him in the wheelchair and that's led people to think that
19:37there was a cover-up but i think that he didn't want to be shown falling transferring from wheelchair
19:44to car to platform it happened and to show him on his ass the president of the united states flattened
19:51his
19:51back big man you know needing help would not have been good for him for the party for the country
19:58and the dignity of the office but roosevelt didn't just cope with his illness he tried to find a cure
20:05the people of america were each asked to donate 10 cents in order to fund research he sets up the
20:12march
20:12of dimes this huge fundraising effort to beat polio they raise a lot of money which pays for a lot
20:18of
20:19science and that leads to the polio vaccine and that is you know step change transformational and in
20:26fact polio is defeated in almost all the countries of the world now and that's due to the work that
20:32roosevelt started with the march of dimes did he also find some use in the image of a disabled man
20:41did
20:42he use that to his advantage unquestioningly his pitch if you like was look at me i've experienced
20:50this firsthand and i overcame it and that shows that i am a man with drive but also almost that
20:57this was the country as you know in the grips of the great depression and he was saying what i
21:02did
21:02for me put myself on my feet we can do for ourselves he was the proof that with the right
21:08attitude you
21:09could achieve miracles it was later said that he lifted himself from a wheelchair to lift the nation
21:19from its knees fear is vanishing and confidence is growing on every side on december 7 1941 the japanese
21:34bombed pearl harbor naval base hawaii nearly two and a half thousand americans died
21:49fdr unleashed the might of the u.s military on japan and germany
22:02having rescued his own nation from ruin roosevelt would now play a decisive role in ending the war
22:11the second world war was the beginning of the emergence of the united states as a superpower
22:16by the end of 1945 europe had exhausted itself through occupation fighting britain was nearly
22:22bankrupt britain becomes very much the junior partner what roosevelt was very anxious about was
22:29that institutions should be set up that would carry the post-war world after 1945 so that you wouldn't
22:35have another great depression or the rise of dictators and he also was very determined that the united
22:40states would be involved this time and he tried and some would say mistakenly but i think he was right
22:45to try to get on with the soviet union he tried to build a partnership that would manage the world
22:50so that all the powers would be engaged fdr is one of the most loved presidents in american history
22:59he not only transformed his own country but as one of the principal architects of the united nations
23:05he helped to shape the post-war world his death in 1945 just days before the end of the war
23:13meant
23:14it was a world he would never see in that long rank of american presidents he is quite a superlative
23:22figure yeah there are three best american presidents i would say uh washington lincoln and roosevelt
23:28and of those three i think he's head and shoulders above and he was i think the most powerful disabled
23:35person the world has ever known
23:38how would you judge roosevelt's legacy he is someone who is truly a statesman who had the
23:45capacity to bring the united states together not to play on its divisions and i think this was very
23:49important i mean he spoke to all americans and he spoke for a better sort of america and a better
23:55sort
23:55of world i always wonder how much individuals matter in history but i think they do i think if someone
24:02else had been elected president in 1932 or in 1940 we might have seen a very different world
24:11churchill and fdr were both born into the ruling elite but as the century progressed and old social
24:19hierarchies began to break down leaders from different backgrounds began to emerge
24:28fidel castro brought communism to cuba jomo kenyatta became the first prime minister of kenyan
24:38the second half of the century saw superpowers take us to the brink of nuclear holocaust
24:45and once again democracy came under fire
24:51we have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed but while in america titans fell
25:05in britain a new political heavyweight would emerge one who would shake up the system as never before
25:13one who still divides opinion to this day she may prove to be the most contentious figure of the
25:21world leaders we're looking at idolized by some margaret thatcher was hated by others
25:27still the word icon applies to her like it does few other british prime ministers of the 20th century
25:37her achievements are all the more remarkable given that she was not part of the old boys network
25:43that had dominated british politics for centuries her father was a grocer
25:51but for any woman holding a political role of any kind at this time was an achievement in itself
25:59in the post-war years the role of women both economically and socially was forever changed
26:07women were no longer restricted to domesticity they were working in business and at the heart of the
26:15establishment but only a few had made it to parliament by the early 1970s margaret thatcher had become
26:24education secretary but no one expected she would ever take the top job there were a lot of people
26:31who thought it wasn't really a suitable job for a woman yes i think it was all right having a
26:34few women
26:35in the cabinet one or two but you're kind of running serious things even more enlightened people
26:41probably thought one day we'd have a woman prime minister but like margaret herself probably didn't
26:48expect that we'd live to see it but in 1975 thatcher took a bold step challenging former prime minister
26:59ted heath in a conservative leadership contest margaret took the view well if nobody else would stand
27:06somebody could stand i'm going to how in the first place did she manage to get more votes it was
27:13an
27:13anti-heath vote half the mps who voted for her on the first round probably wouldn't have done so
27:23if they thought she was going to win like most conservative leaders of my political career she became
27:29leader by accident the case for thatcher begins here when she achieved something no other woman had achieved
27:37before becoming not just the first female leader of the conservative party but of any british parliamentary
27:44party most of her fellow mps did not welcome this sign of progress when margaret thatcher spoke here the
27:521970s 97 of the mps surrounding her were men 97 some opposition members tried to drown out her words
28:02and in a highly unusual departure from parliamentary decorum some labor backbenchers picked up the chant
28:09ditch the bitch despite the sexist abuse margaret thatcher was determined to show that a woman could make
28:17a great leader where churchill and fdr had relied on cinema and radio thatcher was a leader for the
28:25television age she sought advice on her image and extensively rehearsed her performances
28:34the media training was criticized at the time but it became standard practice by the end of the
28:41century and it worked the first general election she fought she won becoming the first woman to
28:52control a major european economy until she became prime minister the most radical thing about margaret
28:58thatcher was the fact that she was a woman and a woman from a modest background but once in power
29:05her
29:05politics turned out to be the most radical thing about her and she went on to become one of the
29:11most
29:11ideologically crusading prime ministers britain has ever known less tax less regulation thatcher's policies
29:22were revolutionary she cut income taxes which ranged between 33 percent and 83 percent she privatized key
29:37industries and she deregulated the british stock exchange turning the city of london into a global
29:45financial powerhouse but where inflation fell from over 20 to less than five unemployment rose to over
29:55three million she gave us the courage of our convictions we embarked on really drastic reforms
30:04that most people more senior than me and me would have said well of course that'd be desirable but that's
30:10could never that's not politically possible margaret she'll never be able to carry that and and she
30:15was utterly unwavering she did provide leadership having interviewed margaret thatcher several times i
30:23can tell you that she didn't dither there was no question of on the one hand there was this and
30:28on the
30:28other hand there was the other she left you in no doubt about what she actually believed britain is not
30:35prepared to be pushed around two things thatcher believed in wholeheartedly were that unprofitable
30:44industry should modernize or close and that british unions had too much power
30:52but for those caught to the wrong end of thatcher's campaign to make britain profitable again
30:59the price was often the loss of their entire way of life hated by many for radically changing the fabric
31:08of british society thatcher was constantly in the firing line as a consequence very few people got to
31:16know the real woman one of them was the last of her private secretaries caroline slowcock what did you
31:25think of margaret thatcher before you went to work for her well um i was a civil servant and so
31:32i didn't
31:32have to have her politics and the fact was that i was quite left-wing you know i was a
31:37feminist and i'd
31:39been unemployed for a year and i partly blamed her you know in the recession uh that she'd created did
31:46your
31:46attitude to her change when you started working for her she was very different from my own idea of her
31:53you know the way it was described in the media was that she was aggressive and hectoring but what i
31:58think seeing it at close quarters was she felt uh that they were attacking her and that she was giving
32:03as good as she got her whole career had been like that you know she was different she was challenging
32:09the status quo what was she like to work with she worked incredibly hard her kind of determination to
32:17do a good job you know it gave her power over the civil servants and the ministers who often didn't
32:20do their homework in the way that she did but i think underneath it all was a sort of insecurity
32:26remembering that she'd broken through an enormous glass ceiling and also a kind of class ceiling
32:31i think she felt that everything she had to do had to be perfect i think it was a very
32:36feminine quality but also reflected the times where women did have to be twice as good as the men
32:41and was to get on thatcher's dedication and determination would lead to her becoming one of
32:53the longest serving prime ministers in history she was the only british leader to decisively win three
33:00general elections in the 20th century but eventually her inability to listen to her critics and even her own
33:09cabinet would lead to her downfall in 1990 her ministers met to tell her she had to go
33:20i was the only other woman in the cabinet room so this was one woman against you know a room
33:24full of
33:25men and she said uh you know i'm going to read out my resignation statement and as she started to
33:29read
33:30it out uh she started to break down in tears you know her voice failed her and uh you know
33:36she every
33:36fifth word or so she had to stop and ministers were starting to cry and i have to confess that
33:42i
33:42started crying because it was such a torture to see this woman who'd been so commanding in this state
33:48and then when she finished she said well you won't have heard that properly so i think i'll read it
33:52again wow and i think that in a way it was a kind of punishment for them for them to
33:58have to sit
33:58through and see what they had done to her looking back at her life and her career how significant
34:05was was margaret thatcher in our politics i never voted for her so this is not a political judgment
34:11but i do think that she um does deserve status as an icon and i think she's a powerful figure
34:17i think
34:17she's framed how we see the world like it or loath it she's left a very important legacy
34:24margaret thatcher's achievements are undeniably impressive she showed a generation of women that
34:30they too could become leaders and her economic legacy changed britain forever for the last three
34:39decades every government has followed her fundamental approach to the free market even her opponents
34:48many of the things she said even though it pains people like me on the left a lot of the
34:53time you
34:54you have to say have had a certain credibility and lasting impact throughout her tenure thatcher
35:04was never afraid to use forceful rhetoric to bring about seismic political change you must go out
35:12calmly quietly quietly to succeed
35:20something my next icon also achieved not just through the power of his voice but through his silence
35:35this is a city i first visited as a reporter in the 1980s
35:42south africa was under apartheid rule the doctrine that white people were somehow superior to black people
35:52the white police force sometimes tortured and killed the regime's black opponents
35:59soweto's most famous son nelson mandela was still a prisoner
36:06and the street he lived on now attracts many thousands of visitors every year it is not entirely
36:13surprising that this place has become something of a tourist trap but this is also a place of
36:19pilgrimage now mandela had always said he never wanted to be a saint but what he managed to do was
36:26to effect political transformation in a bitterly divided society and that he did by his leadership
36:34of course uh yeah
36:38yet like all our icons the case for mandela is complex
36:43while today he's a man universally associated with peace
36:47his path to greatness began with conflict and controversy
36:53in the 1940s mandela became a leader of the african national congress the main group arguing that all
37:01All races should have equal rights, and crucially, the vote.
37:06The ANC favoured peaceful protests, but the state showed no such restraint.
37:16Mandela set up a military wing of the ANC, the spear of the nation.
37:22It is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence against a government
37:29whose reply is only savage attacks on unarmed and defenceless people.
37:37A bombing campaign began.
37:42Mandela targeted infrastructure to avoid human casualties, but the organisation he helped
37:49to found would later go on to kill hundreds of people.
37:54His arrest made international headlines.
37:57He felt the apartheid system left him no choice, and that he was a freedom fighter.
38:03To many others, he was a terrorist.
38:07In 1963, his trial began, and Mandela the icon was born.
38:18Underneath the Pretoria Palace of Justice, Mandela waited in his holding cell for the trial to
38:24begin.
38:28His freedom wasn't the only thing at stake.
38:32Mandela doesn't come here every day to protest his innocence.
38:36He knows he'd be found guilty.
38:38He says he comes here to put the state on trial.
38:45Mandela turned the trial into a platform to argue the ANC's cause, not just to the judge,
38:52but to a gallery full of reporters who would take his message to the world.
38:56Mandela's legal team was George Bezos, who 55 years later still remembers the impact Mandela
39:04had on those looking on.
39:07He stepped in as accused number one.
39:12The court was packed.
39:16This was an apartheid state.
39:19Black people, they were separated.
39:22Did he, even in the dark, have the look of a natural leader?
39:30Absolutely.
39:31The way in which Mandela and his colleagues gave their evidence showed to the world at large
39:39that apartheid is not for human beings.
39:44Mandela's posture in the court was not to protest his innocence, but to say,
39:51that he was acting as he did.
39:54This is what I had to do as a human being.
39:58Because of my own dignity?
39:59Absolutely.
40:01How did they think the trial would end?
40:03With what verdict?
40:06Imprisonment or, very likely, death.
40:16Facing possible execution for his crimes, Mandela, representing himself,
40:21read out his closing statement.
40:26I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.
40:34I have cherished the ideal of a free society in which all persons will live together in harm.
40:43It is an ideal which I hope to live for.
40:48But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
40:59It was really a great speech.
41:03He was an extraordinary man whose policies, when he became president, proved that that was actually so.
41:11He always said that.
41:12He believed that.
41:13He believed that.
41:14He believed that.
41:27The state drew back from the death penalty.
41:31Instead, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
41:36For 27 years, he would be hidden from public view, and forbidden from speaking to the outside world.
41:47As three decades of major social and political change passed by, his status as an icon grew.
41:59As IRA bombs shattered Northern Ireland, I interviewed Colonel Gaddafi, who was accused of financing their terror.
42:08I questioned Saddam Hussein about his country's invasion of Kuwait.
42:14And I witnessed one of the most joyful moments of the 20th century.
42:19Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
42:28The fall of the Berlin Wall sparked a mood of global optimism, not seen since the end of the Second
42:36World War.
42:39Inspired by Mandela's unwavering moral stand, people took up his cause.
42:46In 1990, it was announced that Mandela would finally be released.
42:51He was 71 years old.
42:55People crowded these streets in an explosion of joy and singing and dancing as you've never seen before.
43:03It was impossible not to be caught up in this moment.
43:07There was so much hope, so much expectation, and it was all pinned on one man.
43:15When Nelson Mandela finally walked out of prison, he returned initially to the tiny family home in Soweto,
43:22he hadn't seen for almost 30 years, where I was waiting to meet him.
43:28How are you, Nelson? Very nice to meet you.
43:31I had the privilege to be the first journalist to interview him after his release.
43:36Mandela came out of this door, and it was the first time I was going to meet him. I was
43:42nervous.
43:42Can the ANC ever settle for anything less than one man, one vote?
43:48We are ready for honorable compromises without surrendering our principles.
43:56He insisted, if you're prepared to talk seriously, everything is possible.
44:02I thought that was an extraordinary statement of statesmanship.
44:06How much time do you think you have before people cry for results?
44:13Well, I am no prophet, but I am certainly an optimist.
44:20I tried to get him to talk about how badly he'd been treated in prison.
44:24I never succeeded. That's all in the past, he said. It's time to move on.
44:29I approach every problem with optimism.
44:36I knew that if I had been put away for 27 years,
44:40I would not have been able to show the great forgiving spirit that he did.
44:45In every way, Mandela, the statesman, was an enormous surprise.
45:05He began negotiations with his former oppressors.
45:10And in April 1994, only four years after his release, he finally achieved his greatest ambition.
45:18To bring democracy to South Africa for all its people.
45:24In the first free election ever held, Mandela took almost 65% of the vote and became the country's first
45:32black leader.
45:34On the last day of the 20th century, he returned to his former prison cell on Robben Island to light
45:40what he called the flame of freedom.
45:45It's one of the strange rhymes of history that 100 years earlier, Churchill had just escaped his own South African
45:53prison cell.
45:57The difference between those two prisoners tells us one of the 20th century's more hopeful stories.
46:04In 1900, most black Africans were under the colonial yoke of white Europeans.
46:11By the century's end, a black African became a symbol of reconciliation for the whole world.
46:21The four icons I've looked at were in many ways very different.
46:28What they all had in common, I suppose, was their ability to go against the tenor of their time and
46:33yet, paradoxically, to persuade millions to follow them.
46:37Sometimes even to convert an entire world to their cause.
46:42Hm.
47:04When it came to bright and gets his fame, it's going to take a minute and many years.
47:29Transcription by CastingWords
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