Speech-making is the art of persuasion. Well-honed rhetoric appeals not just to the mind, but to the heart and, deeper down, in the guts. Examining the speeches that provoked radical change, surprised pundits or shocked listeners, poet Simon Armitage dissects what makes a perfect speech. Simon gets the inside story behind some of the famous speeches of the modern age, talking to Tony Blair's speechwriter, to Earl Spencer on his controversial address at his sister's funeral and the woman who challenged the rioters in Hackney. We hear how Peter Tatchell confronted the BNP, Paul Boateng on how Enoch Powell's divisive speech personally affected him as a child, and Colonel Tim Collins, whose charge was to motivate his troops on the eve of the Iraq war. Simon discusses the nuts and bolts of speech writing with Vincent Franklin, aka the blue-sky thinking guru Stuart Pearson from The Thick of It, and gets tips on powerful delivery from actor Charles Dance.
Credits
Speeches That Shook the World Cast
| Name |
Character |
|
Charles Dance
He was 67, now 78 years old
|
as Self |
|
George W. Bush
He was 67, now 78 years old
|
as Himself (archive footage) |
|
John F. Kennedy
He was 96, 46 years old when he died
|
as Himself (archive footage) |
|
Barack Obama
He was 52, now 63 years old
|
as Himself (archive footage) |
|
Tony Blair
He was 60, now 71 years old
|
as Himself (archive footage) |
|
Simon Armitage
He was 50, now 61 years old
|
as Narrator/Presenter |
|
Winston Churchill
He was 138, 90 years old when he died
|
as Himself (archive footage) |
|
Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was 84, 39 years old when he died
|
as Himself (archive footage) |
Speeches That Shook the World Crew
