Mandela:
The Living Legend
Mandela:
The Living Legend is the story of one of the great icons of our
time. This two-part special documentary for 91Èȱ¬ ONE (to be broadcast
on Wednesdays 5 and 12 March 2003 at 9.00pm) tells the story of
Nelson Mandela, as seen through his own eyes and through the recollections
of both famous and ordinary people who have played a part in his
life.
Over
six months, the team of film makers from 91Èȱ¬ Current Affairs have
had unprecedented access to the former South African President's
busy daily life filming him at home with family and friends, and
abroad - as he conducts the important business of the Nelson Mandela
Foundation - to reveal new insight into the man.
As
Nelson himself tells the programme: "I have retired but the
one thing that would kill me … if I woke up in the morning
and didn't know what to do."
In
a series of exclusive interviews with David Dimbleby, he tells the
story of his life: about his early years as a country boy in the
Transkei and the day he ran away from home to avoid an arranged
marriage; about boxing and dancing and girls; his involvement with
the ANC and struggle against Apartheid.
Once
labelled a terrorist, he was convicted of treason and jailed for
27 years. On Robben Island, interviewed for the first time from
his prison cell, he looks back at the good and bad times, and about
how prison changed him. And he talks about the knife-edge negotiations
that took him to the presidency, the challenges of office, retirement
and the issues he's determined not to ignore.
During
the recent Earth Resources Summit in Johannesburg world leaders
queued to meet and be photographed at his side.
"I've
got friends. I am friendly to Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhardt
Schroder. I'm friendly, I speak to them and I speak also to other
world leaders, but now that I've lost power, they don't regard me
as a threat and they easily respond to requests that I make."
Speaking
on the programme, friend and fellow AIDS campaigner Bill Clinton
says: "I admire him, after what they did to him for 27 years
… Don't always agree with him … If anyone's earned the
right to say what they think, Mandela has. Whenever he rings me
up and says 'My President' I know that whatever he asks me to do,
I'll end up doing it, whether I want to or not!"
Elsewhere,
Mandela talks frankly about his involvement with the ANC and the
decision to use violence, if necessary. The ANC was inspired by
a revolutionary leader who had triumphed on the other side of the
world: Fidel Castro. And in his first interview with the 91Èȱ¬ for
more than 20 years, Castro talks of the special relationship their
two countries shared:
"We
struggled together, Africa and Cuba. Together we followed the same
path towards freedom. Steeped in revolutionary doctrine and with
a spirited fight for freedom, we felt passionately sympathetic for
the African struggle."
On
a personal note, Mandela talks openly to David Dimbleby about his
marriage to Winnie and the influence his father had on his relationships
with women:
"My
father was a polygamist, he had four wives and I regarded them all
as my mothers and their children as my own siblings. In fact, I
can go so far as to say, in my younger days I didn't think it was
a mistake to have a number of women, you know, because I was copying
from my father."
Family
friend Amina Cachalia shares her recollections of a younger Mandela:
"You know we think of him now and the world thinks of him now
as a great statesman, as an icon practically, and yet he was a young
man once, and I knew him when he was young, vibrant, warm and friendly
and naughty.
"When
he met Winnie it was the end of the other girlfriends in a sense.
He adored her. He loved her tremendously. He forgot about all the
other girls because Winnie was the main attraction of his life."
Mandela
is now a celebrity in his own right, often surrounded by stars and
welcome at a host of glitzy occasions. The programme films Mandela
at the Tribecca film festival and elsewhere hears from Naomi Campbell,
who says of Mandela: "He makes you feel like he's the only
one in the room."
Lenny
Henry recalls his first meeting with him: "I remember shaking
hands with him and looking at his face, and his face was this, beautiful,
and then when you looked closer, there were a thousand, very tiny
wrinkles and I just thought, they have stolen such a precious amount
of time from you."
Notes
to Editors
Mandela:
The Living Legend can be seen on 91Èȱ¬ ONE at 9.00pm on Wednesday
5 and Wednesday 12 March 2003.
If
any of this material is used, the programme must be credited.
All the
91Èȱ¬'s digital services are now available on ,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable.
Freeview
offers the 91Èȱ¬'s eight television channels as well as 11 91Èȱ¬ radio
networks.
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