offered some protection. Outside there was no escape.
The Grand Hotel, probably Dubrovnik's finest, ablaze.
But this was just a foretaste of the destruction that was to follow as the federal forces closed in.
Tuesday morning and the attack everyone had feared, but most secretly believed could never happen.
A deliberate and sustained assault on the old city. This was not a case of shells going astray,
it was a calculated decision to irreparably damage a city that is in its entirety a protected monument.
Some shells appeared to bounce off the 100 foot high walls, but others crashed into the city.
The federal army was now using Soviet made wire guided missiles against walls first built to keep out arrows and spears.
Missiles landing in the old port set boats and buildings ablaze.
From the terrace of the Hotel Argentina, the European Community observers also watched the destruction, powerless to intervene.
They're shooting for the...
Yes?
They just messed with us.
But they were forced to run for shelter when mortars fell around their hotel.
The observers spent hours pinned down by mortars exploding outside.
Plans to evacuate their team by sea had to be postponed because of the raging battle.
In the hotel bar scenes reminiscent of London's East End during the Blitz.
The locals singing traditional songs to drown the noise of the guns.
Britain's consul joining in this attempt to keep up spirits in spite of everything.
But a few hundred yards away, the destruction continued hour after hour.
Wednesday and Thursday, the fires still burnt, but at least a respite from the fighting.
Only now there was another agony.
A ceasefire brokered by the EC observers allowed the evacuation of women, children and the wounded.
But only 1600 could go.
On the dockside, they queued, waiting to discover who would be allowed to board the ferry and who had to stay.
Families separated.
No way of knowing when they would see their homes again or how many of the husbands and sons left behind would survive.
The city they called the pearl of the Adriatic.
Its history and its beauty attracted tourists from around the world.
Now its ancient structures lit up by flames as its citizens await the next onslaught.
It's a pearl that certainly a lot of people have been after over the centuries.
That report from Paul Davies, who may or may not still be there.
I imagine he wouldn't want to hang around too much.
Well, there you are. It just shows the hopelessness, doesn't it? And the pointlessness of the whole thing.
What is the point of shooting up the city? What's it going to achieve?
Well, after the break, something a little lighter and something closer to the heart, perhaps in a different way.
Jose Carreras.
Jose Carreras is one of the great tenors of recent years.
Typically he's a man who's obsessed with being the best.
I know the voice. Today I met the man.
Mr Carreras, I read reviews on the records I buy.
In fact, that's often how I buy records.
And they said pianist so and so Alfred Bendell played a few wrong notes in the concert, but it was a great performance.
And he said, leave it on the record.
But whenever they assess someone like you, they say, if in fact a singer sings off note, you never live it down.
You're never allowed to not hit the note.
So I wonder how you feel this burden to be perfect all the time.
How do you live with that?
Well, this is one of the...it's part of the game in the recordings.
You have the possibility to repeat certain things, to certain takes of the same phrase of the same aria or the same passage.
And you try to be as perfect as you can, but sometimes, of course, you do not succeed for so many reasons.
But on the stage, though...
Well, on stage is a different approach. It's a different situation.
You know, of course, you try to do your best and you try to do the thing as good as you can.
This is obvious.
But there is not...on stage is not a document like in the recording.
But you're very...at least I am very tense and very nervous what I have to do recordings because I know that this is going to stay forever.
And people are going to listen once and again and again and again to the same mistakes or the same bad things I did.
It's unfair, isn't it?
In a way, in a way.
So how do you get yourself ready for a performance, whether it be a recording or on the stage?
What do you need to do? Do people have to tread very carefully around you?
No, not really. I think I'm a normal, equilibrate person.
But of course, I have my bedside stools.
No, the thing is, I believe that every day, every performance is a different thing.
You cannot use the same routine before every recording session or before every performance.
It depends very much how you feel. In the morning when you wake up, you're like this, you're humming a little bit and you feel the voice is there the whole day.
It's a perfection, there is no problem.
But sometimes, of course, the voice is not there or at least it's not there in the way you would like.
I'm just a layman. I'm someone who observes and listens to what you do, right?
And I, of course, to my perfection, like any consumer.
We always feel as listeners that the high notes are the ones you're going to have trouble with.
Is that true? Are you singer? Not just you, but singers?
Well, of course, because particularly tenors, we are...
This is somehow the border of our possibility, the top notes.
The high C for the tenor, talking about 99% of tenors.
When you arrive to the high C, of course, this is almost the border of your possibilities.
You're anxious, don't you?
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
Is there a certain...
That depends very much on your facility. Certain people, as you know, they are born with a certain facility.
And certain people, they are born with another abilities or the talents, but not this facility for the high notes.
Are you getting better at what you do? I mean, looking back, say, ten years ago,
can you hear a recording and say, I do it better? Not differently, but better now?
Well, in certain aspects, this is tricky.
In certain aspects, for certain roles, your voice change.
So it develops, and you as an artist, you develop too.
I'll throw a few names at you, and you tell me what you know of these people.
I asked you a question there about Luciano Pavarotti.
Would you prefer he was a plumber or a carpenter or something else?
Luciano Pavarotti, I mean, they compare you all the time.
Would you somehow prefer he was not singing?
Oh, not at all. No, no.
You know what I mean there?
No, sure. No, no. He, thank God we have Luciano Pavarotti nowadays,
because he's an incredible talent, he's an incredible voice, an incredible artist, and a very charismatic personality.
So I think the world should be happy to have Luciano Pavarotti.
On the great recording of the three of you last year, wasn't it?
Yes.
Which awakened so many people to you, the three of you, people who'd never heard of opera before.
What was it like on stage?
Well, we had a lot of fun.
I mean, we wanted to sing better than ever for obvious reasons.
This kind of stimulation that we had of trying to be very good at night in a sane way.
And then I think something very important that night was that we have been able to transmit to the general public, to the audience,
that there is a lot of affection and admiration and solidarity between the three of us,
not a rivalry or whatever, like some people...
There's a bit.
Well, but this is absolutely necessary, this is absolutely important to get stimulated.
After your illness, which we heard about, and how are you now?
Fine, thank you.
Well, good, good.
Absolutely.
The reaction from the world, the people that love you, was enormous. It must have just made you feel wonderful.
Yes, I think, and it allowed me to say that I think this reaction of affection and love,
I felt from all over the world that it was somehow fundamental for my recovery.
Interesting, isn't it?
Yes.
It makes you wonder about all the people who went through what you did and didn't have that love.
It's almost a sad comment, isn't it?
Absolutely.
You're very fortunate there.
Final question, because time is running away, which is such a shame,
is how will you know when you should stop singing?
Good question, good question.
For two different reasons.
The day my singing would become routine for me,
or because one or two people in the world I really trust would say to me,
Jose, now it's time.
And here's the CD, one of the CDs that are available now,
the essential Jose Carreras, that's a souvenir one for his trip around Australia,
and if you'd like to go and hear the man himself, he'll be in concert with Deborah Riddle
and the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra,
conducted by the Italian conductor Elio Boncompagni.
The Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Tuesday, November the 19th, which is next Tuesday.
Melbourne Tennis Centre, really?
A tennis centre?
What, in the actual little court area?
Goodness.
Saturday, November the 23rd.
Sydney Entertainment Centre, Tuesday, November the 26th.
And Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Saturday, November the 30th.
Someone rang up during that and said the 7.30 report,
which was the lovely 8 cents a day thing,
will be having their exclusive interview with Jose next week,
and I heard ABC FM this morning saying they're having him exclusively on the weekend.
Oh, come on, we never use the word exclusive and who cares?
Exclusive means excluding all others, so I'm sorry to upset both of you.
Don't be silly.
Exclusive?
We blew that, didn't we?
Golly, are we just awful on Fridays?
So now it's time for our weekly segment about all that's old in motoring and my car.
MUSIC
This is the time of the week when we look at classic cars,
not just the boring wedge-shaped things that we all have to drive.
Geoffrey Watson assures me that this will be the last British sports car,
fitted for a while, but that's what he said last time.
Geoffrey, this week the wooden, wearing, strange wonder, the Morgan.
MUSIC
If you like living in the past, then the Morgan is the ultimate nostalgia trip.
Mind you, a drive down memory lane can be noisy, bumpy and cold.
There, a pretty little car, the sort of thing that Noddy might have driven,
but you have to be a real enthusiast to own one.
What makes this car so attractive is the fact that it's so old-fashioned.
Well, here we are, eight years away from the 21st century,
and I guess this car is something of an anachronism.
I'm driving a car which is partly made out of wood, built on an ash frame.
The Morgan, though, has got all the traditional sports car values.
The ride is terrible.
The gear shift is quite agricultural, but if you point it,
it certainly goes where you point it.
Very, very positive steering, indeed.
The only problem I have with it is that every time I reach down a change of gear,
I run the risk of skinning my knuckles under the dash.
But that's what you're paying for.
This is a car made by the oldest privately owned motor car company in the world.
They only make about three or four a week.
If you want to buy one, the waiting list is four years.
This is the man who started it all, Mr. Harry Morgan, known as HFS.
His first cars were three-wheelers built around a two-cylinder motorbike engine.
By the 1930s, the three-wheelers were enormously popular,
and the Morgan three-wheeler club is still one of the most successful vintage car clubs in the world.
The original Morgans were made at this tiny garage at Malvern in England.
Even today, the cars are handmade on a wooden frame.
The wooden sub-frames are made out of ash, and the metal panels attach to them.
The body is held together with a few screws, and tin tacks are used to nail it to the wooden frame.
Unlike a modern car, there are hardly any welds.
The cars even have a damp course like a house to stop wet rot getting into the wood.
Some parts are even glued together with old-fashioned wood glues boiled in a pot.
The louvers in the bonnet are optional. They are cut into the metal using a hand press.
Roslyn Barlow, the entertainer and singer, has owned her Morgan for ten years.
What does the Morgan say to you when you look at it?
I always think a Morris Minor looks very cheerful and rather cute, but what does this say?
Excitement. It's an exciting car.
I don't want this to appear like a chauvinist question, but isn't this really a man's car?
Oh, I think it's only a woman's car.
What makes you say that?
Well, you get a lot of attention in it, so I suppose guys would like that.
You get a lot of attention, and it's a very easy car to maintain,
so I think in that aspect it's a great woman's car because nothing really ever goes wrong with it.
So what's it like to drive? Is it fun to drive?
They're a hard car to drive.
In what way?
They're very direct steering, and you've got to be on your toes all the time with it.
It's not the sort of car that you can simply drive and let it drive itself.
This thing, you've got to drive it.
Roslyn's car is a Morgan 4 Plus 4 made in 1976. She paid $11,000 for it. It's now worth about $50,000.
In that time, the engine's been completely rebuilt and slightly modified.
Okay, Ros, let's have a look at the works.
Sure.
The classic center hinge bonnet, of course, and what have we got? What's the engine?
It's a 1600 Quartina engine, and it's been reworked, and it's to load of specs. So it's a little mover now.
When you say a little mover, just how fast is it, the car?
I've only done about 105 miles an hour in it. I wasn't going to go any further because I didn't want to get booked.
I just wanted to check it out.
A great many Morgan components and fittings are supplied by other manufacturers. Morgan have never made their own engines.
Early Morgans used engines from the standard Vanguard. Today, they come with either the 1.6 Quartina engine or the Rover V8.
The Morgan was one of the first cars in the world to have independent front suspension.
It was in use not long after Queen Victoria died, and it's still in use today.
But the ride's very hard by today's standards, and there's no fingertip steering.
But despite its antiquity, the Morgan is fun to drive.
This model has a top speed of 190 kilometers an hour, and there are disc brakes on the front which pull the car up well enough.
But they are expensive for what you get. There are cheaper sports cars. Even an E-type at the moment could be bought more cheaply.
I guess I've always had a soft spot for the Morgan because I used to work on the local paper in a place called Malvern in Worcestershire, England, where they make them.
The only other claim to fame that Malvern has is that there's a famous girls' school there. That's where Elgar wrote Land of Hope and Glory.
And when I first saw the factory where the Morgans came from, I couldn't believe it because it looked like a glorified shed.
Nor could I believe, and I find it difficult to believe even to this day, that Morgans are built on a wooden frame.
And that's the wood. That is a piece of Belgian ash, and that small bit of freebitzoo is worth about $50.
Isn't it reassuring in these recessionary times that the Morgan company can still get the wood?
Well, at the end of the week, always, Harold, it's a bit of joy and a bit of relaxing on the weekend, unless you work for the government,
in which case you probably have a second job on the weekend to create a balance between what you did during the week or didn't and what you will do on the weekend to create this balance.
But for us workers, it's time for the small screen.
And David Lowe.
Now this week I have two things. One of course is the most important, which is 35 years of television.
You've done a lot of work for that, David.
Yes, I have. And a lot of other people have.
Yes, and you've alienated everyone in the editing suites here, the audio suites, everyone but the management.
If you think that's bad, wait till you see the program go to air. Then I've alienated everyone in the industry.
You won't alienate me, David. It's too late.
No, that's true. Yes, you're pre-alienated.
Yes, that's right.
Yes, that's true.
I like that.
The 35 years of television is a must for people who are watching this late at night.
Obviously they have the right time frame. And if they want to see things, the 35 years of television will provide them with fun.
And a lot of, oh dear, what happened? Oh, remember him.
Oh, oh God, I hated him.
Yes, and oh, remember that and all that.
Yes, a lot of that. Oh God, is he still alive? A lot of that.
Does television survive the 35 years? At the end of it? And you sat through how many hours would you have sat through?
I sat through the distillation of probably 500 hours of stuff that other people had said, well here is, you know, we've looked at four episodes of blankety blanks.
Here is what we think are the three best moments. Or I've looked at eight episodes of Neighbours. And here's the moment.
Were you getting your Neighbours at when they were at seven?
Well, I got better than that. I got young Jason and young Kylie when they were ten and nine respectively.
And so there they are as little children. You think, look at those little rugrats. Will they ever grow up to be anything?
And they will. And lo and behold they have.
And they will. So All Channels cooperated?
All Channels.
That's the biggest coup, isn't it, really?
And not my coup. David Leckie, your friend, has been responsible for that. That he was able to convince our general manager, I might add.
Well the pity isn't around to enjoy the fruits of his work.
Well he is. He's watching at this moment.
No, he's on the third floor.
That's well worth it.
At the managerial meeting.
That's right.
I understand.
And he was the one responsible for getting a lot of the cooperation of seven and ten. And that's what's opened it up. It's not just Channel Nine, it's a whole lot of things.
Great.
And in fact I've got a wee clip here. Wee. Yes.
Alright, a clip here, which shows some of the moments, because I bill it as being not the history, but some highlights and some lowlights.
And I would have to say these are some of the lowlights from game shows. Game shows when things didn't go exactly as they were supposed to.
The picture ran in.
Boom.
Three cups right in the balls.
If your husband suddenly grew to be the size of the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk, what part of him would you say would remain small? Hillary.
No.
What are you saying Hillary? How are you long?
You know that thing.
I don't know Hillary.
No.
I don't know Hillary.
Must have a definite answer Hillary.
He's f***ed.
That's a definite answer Neil. What are you doing on your car?
I'm going to stay on your car.
It's interesting also how we laugh.
Yes it is. It's terrible that we laugh at those things going wrong.
It's unconscious. There's no intellect involved there.
No.
Very funny. I've seen it around bleeped somewhere. It might have been on different tapes.
I think she said dick.
I think she did.
Oh God I've given it away. We can say that later tonight.
Yes she has been on bleeped somewhere but I couldn't find it. That's the great thing.
People say, oh by the way make sure you get hold of X, Y and Z and you go and you go and you look through all of 1984 and they say, oh no I think it might have been 1978.
There's one thing I forgot to tell you. I have a beta cam tape of two well known people having a punch up in the studio.
In the studio?
Yes.
I've seen two well known people having a punch up in the street.
No this is in the studio and you know them very well and I do and you've worked with both of them.
Really? Is any one of them a Willisie?
No Australian I've not.
That's good. That lures out a whole bunch of people.
Darren?
Are you on low do you?
Yes.
Oh later. I'm not that great.
Perhaps we'll be able to cut it in quickly.
Yes. Just drop it in.
Between now and Sunday.
Great.
No but in fact that was a free plug I've got to admit but what I'm here to spook about tonight are the John Le Carre trilogy if you like.
These are three wonderful BBC very long dramas made from his book Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People and A Perfect Spy.
The first two involving Alec Guinness as Smiley, George Smiley. Yes who is owl like. He's always just quite rubbing his glasses and never expecting to hear what he quite hears.
But then when he hears it he knew it all along. He's just sort of checking to see whether the person is telling the truth.
He's great.
It's if someone I don't know how to say this if you didn't like it you probably won't but if you do like it.
You will.
You'll love it and in fact I would suggest that this is a wonderful way to say let's get these if it's raining and just have this for the weekend because they both all three of them in fact run about two and a half hours each.
So it's a lot of a lot of watching. In fact they run a bit longer than.
They run almost three and a half hours each.
I'm going to show you a clip now from Smiley's People where Smiley goes to the country to talk to an old worker Connie who used to be the absolute brains behind the Russia section.
He's in the British Secret Service for people who don't know and he's the sort of old duffer and he's trying to figure out a few facts and figures about who did what inside Russia and only Connie who's passed her prime knows.
She's now living with a woman who's sort of looking after her and who doesn't approve of Smiley's badgering of her.
But you see Smiley going about it in his very distinctive way.
And what became of the doctor?
No George.
Yes George.
He walked into a bullet the day after his debriefing.
One of those nice soft ones that don't hurt.
Bill Hayton must have sent Connie's address.
Thank you Con.
You filled in the gaps for me.
Hillary?
Hillary you heard all that didn't you?
Do you remember when you had your nervous breakdown and we had to send you away from the circus?
You signed a piece of paper saying you'd never talk to people about your work there.
All the things you overheard by chance.
Whoever may come here, whoever it is...
Oh leave her alone!
What did you come here for if you know it all anyway?
I was sleepwalking.
I've woken up.
Oh go home George Smiley.
I've got to say of all the English actors I've admired I've got to say he's on top of the list.
He's fantastic.
What a pretentious puppy is adopting that name when in fact it wasn't his at all.
I think it was David Watson or Wilson.
What sort of pretentious person adopts a name like that and makes sure you get it correct?
What sort of person is he like that word you used before?
Why is he?
Dick.
Yes why is he?
I think it's because he worked for the secret service.
Why are we all talking like that?
He worked for the secret service originally.
So I think that he felt it was a very good idea if he had a strange and new name.
Well Mr Lyall I'd like to ask you to ask him to see me in my office on Monday morning and we'll discuss it further.
We'll have a wondrous weekend. Oh you've got to give you a gradients on this.
Yes it's a distinctive thing if you're going to like beautiful British drama where not a lot happens.
There's no bullets. Oh there's one bullet but in fact the camera's off.
A small one. Very small.
Very small and in fact I would suggest it's a wonderful weekends worth if you're the type of person who just wants to see brilliant, lovely, soft and gentle BBC drama.
Alec Guinness doing very little but at the same time doing a lot.
Someone once described it as looking at a swan gliding across the water and you can't see any movement but underneath there are feet going hell for leather.
Isn't that the category of Monsignor Cajote? That sort of stuff?
Yes yes because he's wonderful and that is a Graham Greene.
So what about the other two? What are you giving them?
Well they're both Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is again and you should if you're going to be a glutton for punishment see them in this order.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy smileys people both with Alec Guinness in and then finally a perfect spy without Alec Guinness but a story of deception, intrigue and nothing as it should be.
I mean that is the wonderful British enigma that everything appears to be fixed and in order but it's never quite right.
Well have a fine weekend and we'll watch you on Sunday night won't we?
Thank you.
We'll have more of this small screen next week but don't forget Sunday night the efforts of Mr Lyle and he's worked very hard and they're actually going to pay him which is a nice touch.
I'll be back after this.
I should mention by the way he said pointing point point that lady Rosalind Barlow who had the Morgan which shows the woman has a great sense of humor will be without her Morgan should be Morganless.
She's a singer appearing at Pacino's at Granville tomorrow night and Maroubra RSL Sunday.
We'll throw that in. Go up and tell her what a silly car she's got from me.
He's done a lot of work on that show you know. Does he get any thanks from the management? Yes he does. Do I get any? No. Not a word.
That's been alleged in London. This is getting so tiring. The contrary to reports an autopsy report into the death of media tycoon.
What a cliche. Robert Maxwell didn't conclude that he died of natural causes before falling into the sea.
Remember the coroner in situ there said that he was dead before he hit the sea.
He said dead of natural causes. His doctor said no he didn't have a heart attack.
Now the daily national newspaper and if a journalist investigated must be true.
Says its investigation has also established that the doctors who carried out the post mortem examination discovered a minute perforation of the skin below one ear.
And that his body did not show the usual signs of having spent a lengthy period in the sea.
So there you are.
I'll just leave you with this last bit. The Guardian also says Spanish authorities have no evidence other than the word of his family.
That the body pulled from the sea was that of Maxwell. And that attempts to confirm the identity of the corpse by means of gentle records and fingerprints filed.
I can see a mini series in this.
It sells papers which is the ultimate irony. It sells papers.
I don't know what you're doing tomorrow but I'd like to know what the weather will be like and here is the information.
That vision which I neglected to mention is the new eruption of Mount Kilauea on the island of Hawaii in the Hawaiian Islands.
Where is Lyle going? Or is he going to Honolulu?
Whatever. I always get confused. He starts with a H doesn't it?
He cut it right.
Next week's car, Mr Watson informs me he rang in from his country estate.
From Germany is the 1939 BMW 328. So we'll have that next week.
He does it marvellously. There was no one like Watson in the business. There was no one quite like Watson.
He's exclusive to this program and the 7.30 report on ABC FM.
Should we go now do you think? I think we've done our dash. I think so. I'd like to go home and fiddle with my computer.
And generally just relax for the weekend.
I think two of the women can go home tonight. Just a little weary. They say, oh Mr Robertson. I said look it's a real world. I know.
That's it. Next week will be another week. What will happen? I don't know. In fact I don't want to know. It's bliss for me for two days.
Have a pleasant weekend. If you drive, don't drive like the loonies I've been around this week.
If you're going to change lanes, use your indicator. Right? And use your rear vision and vision. Whatever that thing is.
You know the silver thing that you look at. And if you're going to go to the left hand lane you have to turn around and look.
You don't, because there's a blind spot there. What else? If you're senile, don't drive.
Well that's cleared the roads around my suburb. I'll see you Monday night. Good night.