1

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,114

(Auto Mall USA jingle)

2
00:00:03,114 --> 00:00:05,640
(dramatic music)

3
00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:07,860
- [Harry] You're watching
"Biography of the Millennium"

4
00:00:07,860 --> 00:00:09,210
on A and E.

5
00:00:09,210 --> 00:00:11,640
Here's where we stand in our countdown

6
00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,778
of the most influential people
of the last 1,000 years.

7
00:00:15,778 --> 00:00:18,528
(dramatic music)

8
00:00:19,924 --> 00:00:22,750
- That this too, too
solid flesh would melt,

9
00:00:24,020 --> 00:00:26,997
thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,

10
00:00:28,630 --> 00:00:31,510
or that the Everlasting
had not fixed his cannon

11
00:00:31,510 --> 00:00:35,810
against self-slaughter, oh God.

12
00:00:35,810 --> 00:00:37,980
- I would put Shakespeare
very high on the list

13
00:00:37,980 --> 00:00:40,180
because the soul of mankind matters

14
00:00:40,180 --> 00:00:44,060
as much as the science of
the universe, and Shakespeare

15
00:00:44,060 --> 00:00:46,343
held the soul of mankind in his hands.

16
00:00:47,570 --> 00:00:49,840
- [Harry] He is the
world's most famous writer,

17
00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:52,530
and yet we know very little about him.

18
00:00:52,530 --> 00:00:54,600
William Shakespeare, number five,

19
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,050
would have appreciated that irony.

20
00:00:57,050 --> 00:01:00,620
Few artists had such a subtle
grasp of the human heart,

21
00:01:00,620 --> 00:01:04,630
and such a rich command
of the tales he wove.

22
00:01:04,630 --> 00:01:06,140
- One is tempted to say that Shakespeare

23
00:01:06,140 --> 00:01:08,510
was the greatest write who
ever lived or ever could live,

24
00:01:08,510 --> 00:01:10,170
because it's almost unimaginable

25
00:01:10,170 --> 00:01:13,810
that the wits or the genius
could ever be matched again.

26
00:01:13,810 --> 00:01:16,130
He's an extraordinary
constructor of plots,

27
00:01:16,130 --> 00:01:19,910
extraordinary psychologist,
a great myth maker,

28
00:01:19,910 --> 00:01:21,990
but the language, above all, I suppose

29
00:01:21,990 --> 00:01:23,740
is what establishes him as

30
00:01:23,740 --> 00:01:26,093
just the leading writer
of the world to me.

31
00:01:27,290 --> 00:01:30,020
- [Harry] He came to London
from the English countryside,

32
00:01:30,020 --> 00:01:33,770
and by 1592 he was crafting
a successful career

33
00:01:33,770 --> 00:01:36,960
as an actor, author, and poet.

34
00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:38,340
His performances took him

35
00:01:38,340 --> 00:01:40,330
from the stage of the Globe Theater

36
00:01:40,330 --> 00:01:42,470
to the court of Queen Elizabeth.

37
00:01:42,470 --> 00:01:45,450
He captivated audiences,
although at the time

38
00:01:45,450 --> 00:01:48,280
he was considered an untutored genius,

39
00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,790
a little rough around the edges.

40
00:01:50,790 --> 00:01:53,650
A century later, the full
measure of his achievement
41
00:01:53,650 --> 00:01:58,650
would be acknowledged, for in
some 154 sonnets and 38 plays,

42
00:01:59,620 --> 00:02:02,680
through Othello and Lear and Richard III,

43
00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,910
Shakespeare created a
timeless dramatic mirror

44
00:02:05,910 --> 00:02:07,393
of the way we live.

45
00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:13,120
- When we see a young man
incapable of making a decision,

46
00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,590
an important decision, we think Hamlet.

47
00:02:15,590 --> 00:02:18,620
When we see an old man who is
turned upon by his children

48
00:02:18,620 --> 00:02:21,150
and feels that his life
has been worthless,

49
00:02:21,150 --> 00:02:22,450
we think of Lear.

50
00:02:22,450 --> 00:02:24,900
When we think of lovers, we
think of Romeo and Juliet,

51
00:02:24,900 --> 00:02:26,900
and so on and so on and so on.

52
00:02:26,900 --> 00:02:29,940
You cannot name another writer
who has created the models

53
00:02:29,940 --> 00:02:32,930
for the way we think as Shakespeare.
54
00:02:32,930 --> 00:02:35,320
- [Harry] Today, the works
of Shakespeare are performed

55
00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:37,110
more than any other playwright.

56
00:02:37,110 --> 00:02:39,710
His plays are transformed into musicals,

57
00:02:39,710 --> 00:02:43,170
operas, ballets, and of course movies,

58
00:02:43,170 --> 00:02:47,830
for they are the inspiration
we return to again and again.

59
00:02:47,830 --> 00:02:50,240
- I suppose if someone
could name me a film

60
00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:55,620
that didn't draw directly
from Shakespeare,

61
00:02:55,620 --> 00:02:56,700
I would think that that person

62
00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:58,770
was the next William Shakespeare,

63
00:02:58,770 --> 00:03:00,350
because I think every plot,

64
00:03:00,350 --> 00:03:02,930
every story that anyone tells

65
00:03:02,930 --> 00:03:05,180
pretty much falls in step with the plot

66
00:03:05,180 --> 00:03:06,960
that Shakespeare invented.

67
00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,840
All of us, you know, have
William Shakespeare to thank.

68
00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,910
- [Harry] Shakespeare's
works invite imitation.

69
00:03:13,910 --> 00:03:15,517
They almost beg for it.

70
00:03:15,517 --> 00:03:17,480
- "Two Gentlemen of Malibu,"

71
00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:19,530
have you ever heard that one?

72
00:03:19,530 --> 00:03:21,360
Oh yet this simple wave will break slowly

73
00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:22,410
yet not knowing why,

74
00:03:22,410 --> 00:03:23,870
oh boogie on, boogie on, this

75
00:03:23,870 --> 00:03:26,100
not knowing this thing,
I do call thee friend,

76
00:03:26,100 --> 00:03:29,050
wax my board and not know who thee are.

77
00:03:29,050 --> 00:03:32,610
Oh, gentle Richard, would
that I had not known why,

78
00:03:32,610 --> 00:03:33,443
I don't care.

79
00:03:33,443 --> 00:03:34,880
It'd be great to think
if Shakespeare could

80
00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:36,380
write Richard IV, you know,
81
00:03:36,380 --> 00:03:38,970
I'm not willing, trapped before my time,

82
00:03:38,970 --> 00:03:41,730
sent unbinded, not knowing.

83
00:03:41,730 --> 00:03:43,530
You'll laugh, and they
do laugh at my shadow.

84
00:03:43,530 --> 00:03:46,420
I am not a crook, yet knowing this

85
00:03:46,420 --> 00:03:48,460
I will splice until dawn

86
00:03:48,460 --> 00:03:50,913
and walk towards the copter alone.

87
00:03:52,190 --> 00:03:54,820
- [Harry] The richness of
Shakespeare's inspiration,

88
00:03:54,820 --> 00:03:58,380
the complexity of his works,
has led some people to ask

89
00:03:58,380 --> 00:04:00,410
how could the son of a glove maker

90
00:04:00,410 --> 00:04:02,670
who never traveled beyond England

91
00:04:02,670 --> 00:04:05,563
be the author of such exquisite words?

92
00:04:06,790 --> 00:04:08,960
Some claim that Shakespeare was a front

93
00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:12,520
for a man of more noble birth
who wished to be anonymous.

94
00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:17,200
One of the suspects is our
number 38, Sir Francis Bacon.

95
00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:18,910
- They also think it's
not just Francis Bacon,

96
00:04:18,910 --> 00:04:20,840
it's oh, the Earl of Oxford, you know.

97
00:04:20,840 --> 00:04:24,090
There's a huge debate about that.

98
00:04:24,090 --> 00:04:25,370
I mean, here's the deal.

99
00:04:25,370 --> 00:04:28,040
You basically think of, at
that time, look in the plays.

100
00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:30,810
There's incredible
references in Latin, Greek,

101
00:04:30,810 --> 00:04:33,800
travel, I mean the scope is global.

102
00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:37,170
And yeah, you know, if
you think if it's Will,

103
00:04:37,170 --> 00:04:39,730
just wandering 'round
knocking on doors in Stratford

104
00:04:39,730 --> 00:04:43,400
going ticky tick, is
this to be or not to be?

105
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:45,910
- [Harry] But in the end,
perhaps it really doesn't matter

106
00:04:45,910 --> 00:04:47,970
who wrote Shakespeare's words,

107
00:04:47,970 --> 00:04:51,870
for they are powerful and they endure.

108
00:04:51,870 --> 00:04:54,600
- Those plays, what are
they 500 years old now?

109
00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:56,570
(laughs)
Continue to work,

110
00:04:56,570 --> 00:04:58,540
and they continue to work visually,

111
00:04:58,540 --> 00:05:01,090
theatrically, and personally.

112
00:05:01,090 --> 00:05:03,890
Hamlet, we know exactly
who that is, and Lear,

113
00:05:03,890 --> 00:05:06,850
and also that range of
what it is to be young

114
00:05:06,850 --> 00:05:08,700
and narcissistic and self-indulgent,

115
00:05:08,700 --> 00:05:11,520
and what it is to be old
and knowing it's over,

116
00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:15,460
and to be able to touch
the heart that deeply.

117
00:05:15,460 --> 00:05:16,760
- Will Shakespeare live on forever?

118
00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:20,060
Yeah, Shakespeare will
certainly live beyond,

119
00:05:20,060 --> 00:05:22,110
I think, most of the people on this list.

120
00:05:24,506 --> 00:05:27,536
(dramatic music)

121
00:05:27,536 --> 00:05:28,450
(bright music)

122
00:05:28,450 --> 00:05:29,990
- [Harry] He trained to be a doctor,

123
00:05:29,990 --> 00:05:32,240
but couldn't stand watching surgery.

124
00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:33,980
He studied to be a clergyman,

125
00:05:33,980 --> 00:05:36,010
but that didn't work out either.

126
00:05:36,010 --> 00:05:39,690
Instead, he ended up shocking
the world with an idea,

127
00:05:39,690 --> 00:05:42,740
an hypothesis of where we all come from.

128
00:05:42,740 --> 00:05:46,180
Charles Darwin and his
theory of evolution.

129
00:05:46,180 --> 00:05:48,700
- In spite of my formal
training in physics

130
00:05:48,700 --> 00:05:51,550
and my love of Galileo and Copernicus,

131
00:05:51,550 --> 00:05:54,040
I might just put Charles Darwin

132
00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:55,380
a notch above each of them

133
00:05:56,250 --> 00:06:01,000
because the Darwinian
evolution affects human beings

134
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:02,450
and the knowledge of where we came from

135
00:06:02,450 --> 00:06:04,400
much more directly than Galileo

136
00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:06,113
or even Copernicus or Einstein.

137
00:06:07,060 --> 00:06:10,080
- [Harry] It was a discovery
that almost didn't happen.

138
00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:13,540
When the British Royal Navy
planned a scientific expedition,

139
00:06:13,540 --> 00:06:16,980
Darwin was offered a
position as naturalist.

140
00:06:16,980 --> 00:06:19,040
His father didn't want him to go.

141
00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,590
The captain wasn't eager
to have him along, either.

142
00:06:21,590 --> 00:06:24,470
But at the last minute,
Darwin went aboard.

143
00:06:24,470 --> 00:06:28,410
As the HMS Beagle traveled down
the coast of South America,

144
00:06:28,410 --> 00:06:31,080
the young man marveled
at the incredible variety

145
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:33,710
of plants and animals he saw.

146
00:06:33,710 --> 00:06:36,320
- Here was an individual who fundamentally

147
00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:38,690
looked at the world.

148
00:06:38,690 --> 00:06:41,140
He didn't have elaborate instrumentation,

149
00:06:41,140 --> 00:06:42,880
he wasn't looking out at the stars,

150
00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,340
he wasn't looking with a
microscope into the cell,

151
00:06:45,340 --> 00:06:47,003
he was just looking.

152
00:06:48,270 --> 00:06:49,990
- [Harry] It was while observing the birds

153
00:06:49,990 --> 00:06:52,350
of the Galapagos Islands that Darwin made

154
00:06:52,350 --> 00:06:54,430
his most famous discovery.

155
00:06:54,430 --> 00:06:58,730
He counted 13 different types
of finch on separate islands,

156
00:06:58,730 --> 00:07:01,480
some with long beaks,
some with short ones,

157
00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,590
all sorts of variations.

158
00:07:03,590 --> 00:07:06,470
He wondered if nature
hadn't, over generations,

159
00:07:06,470 --> 00:07:09,080
adjusted the finches in varying ways

160
00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:10,903
to cope with their surroundings.
161
00:07:12,940 --> 00:07:16,640
- He began to come up with
the idea of natural selection,

162
00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,040
that species tend to perish

163
00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:21,420
if they're not well-adapted
to their environment,

164
00:07:21,420 --> 00:07:24,143
and they tend to thrive
and reproduce if they are.

165
00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:27,560
- [Harry] It was, Darwin reasoned,

166
00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,500
the survival of the
fittest or the swiftest,

167
00:07:30,500 --> 00:07:34,040
the one with the longest
neck or sharpest beak.

168
00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,510
Over thousands and thousands of years,

169
00:07:36,510 --> 00:07:39,650
that was the way species evolved.

170
00:07:39,650 --> 00:07:42,570
Darwin kept researching until he was 50.

171
00:07:42,570 --> 00:07:47,100
In 1859, he finally
published "Origin of Species"

172
00:07:47,100 --> 00:07:49,970
which laid out his theory of evolution.

173
00:07:49,970 --> 00:07:54,193
The book sold out in a day,
and the controversy began.
174
00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,520
In 19th century Victorian England,

175
00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,010
the book of Genesis was
gospel and the gospel said

176
00:08:03,010 --> 00:08:05,600
that God created Earth's creatures.

177
00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:08,783
Evolution seemed to fly right
in the face of the Bible.

178
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:11,910
The commotion would only grow louder

179
00:08:11,910 --> 00:08:14,610
when Darwin announced
that the human species

180
00:08:14,610 --> 00:08:17,650
was a product of the
evolutionary process, too.

181
00:08:17,650 --> 00:08:20,550
That man was descended
from apes and monkeys

182
00:08:20,550 --> 00:08:24,053
was an almost unthinkable
notion in Darwin's day.

183
00:08:25,070 --> 00:08:27,640
- The concept or the thought of evolving

184
00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:29,500
from some substandard creature

185
00:08:29,500 --> 00:08:31,430
or what you think to be substandard

186
00:08:31,430 --> 00:08:33,560
is almost an insult to
people, and you know,
187
00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:35,750
a lot of people don't
want to hear that, and

188
00:08:35,750 --> 00:08:37,823
sorry, but that's the way it is.

189
00:08:38,730 --> 00:08:41,450
- [Harry] Today, Darwin's
ideas are widely accepted

190
00:08:41,450 --> 00:08:43,503
and yet they remain controversial,

191
00:08:44,580 --> 00:08:47,250
for they permanently dethroned man

192
00:08:47,250 --> 00:08:50,563
from his central place in
the history of the Earth.

193
00:08:50,563 --> 00:08:53,313
(dramatic music)

194
00:09:01,758 --> 00:09:03,790
- I have to go now, because
I've realized essentially

195
00:09:03,790 --> 00:09:06,510
look, Darwin was wrong.

196
00:09:06,510 --> 00:09:08,712
I've got to get these
gloves back to a gorilla.

197
00:09:08,712 --> 00:09:10,170
(dramatic music)