Peter Randall-Page Meets Evelyn Glennie / Catherine Yass Meets Charles Archer and Lily French

Peter Randall-Page talking about some of his carved stones in the Devon countryside.
Evelyn Glennie playing the xylophone; and talking about how (because of her deafness) she relies on what she sees to bring sounds to her mind. Randall-Page working with hammer and chisel; his VO explains his liking for rhythm and percussion, and his interest in the relationship between the shape of an instrument and the sound it makes. Randall-Page arrives at Glennie’s house where she shows him some of her instruments. Randall-Page and assistants working on a piece and producing rhythmic sounds with their hammers. Randall-Page shows Glennie a small basalt carving and says he’s like to make something that produces a good noise. Glennie playing a xylophone. She talks about what impressions Randall-Page may get of her; he talks about her passion and energy. Sketches for a stone bell; Randall-Page explains his ideas. He says that he’ll need a stone lathe to produce what he wants which will require him to go to Italy. Pietra Santa, Tuscany. Randall-Page testing blocks of marble. Drilling out the centre of the block once it’s been cut. Randall-Page’s workshop in Devon; smoothing and polishing the almost completed bell and stem. Taking the bell to Glennie’s house, and assembling it in her garden. Glennie examines the finished piece, and starts to play it. They play together. Randall-Page’s VO talking about his wish to make more sound-producing pieces. Glennie’s VO saying that she’ll find the bell compulsive.
Some of Catherine Yass’s photographs. She explains how she gets her effects by superimposing a positive image on a blue negative of the same subject. She often works with the elderly. Charles Archer and Lily French, both about to move into a Hackney tower block, especially refurbished for the over-55s. Yass explains that she wants to make an image of something she can barely imagine, in this case being twice her real age. French and Archer speculating on the photograph she will take. Yass goes to French’s house and Archer’s flat, and photographs them and their surroundings. He talks about his wartime experiences, and about being mugged in the lift of his block of flats. Yass goes to the new block and looks over the building work and the empty flats. She talks about both the building and French and Archer being in a stage of waiting, between something old and something new. She shows the photographs she’s taken so far and talks about her thoughts on the developing project. She takes more photographs including one of Archer sitting in a lift. Yass with her photographs, and explaining that her ideas of growing old have been changed by her interaction with Archer. Archer and French visit one of the new flats to see the finished photograph. French decides that Yass should take their wedding photographs. Credits.

Commentary Tim Marlow;
Title Music Aphex Twin.
With thanks to Public Art Development Trust,
Hackney Council,
Bovis.
Photography John Goodyer,
John Beck,
Mike Coles,
Colin Butler;
Sound Tony Wornum,
Ron Brown,
John Quinn;
Dubbing Mixers Richard West,
Dave McGrath;
On-Line Editor Phil Southby;
Unit Manager Erica Banks;
Production Assistants Emma Shakespeare,
Linda Dalling;
Graphic Design Christine Büttner;
Film Editor Stephen Parkinson;
Research Emily Kennedy;
Executive Producer Arts Council of England
Rodney Wilson;
Director (Peter Randall-Page) Tim Robinson;
Director (Catherine Yass) Flavia Rittner;
Series Editor Keith Alexander.
A BBC/Arts Council of England Co-Production.
© BBC MCMXCVII.