The John Freeman Interview

Freeman:
...but these are what you'd like to pillary if you could?
Hancock:
Yes. As I say, both in yourself and in, in...in everything that you see.
Freeman:
Pomposity's the first one...anything else? Bad temper? Greed?
Hancock:
All those things yes, I think.
Freeman:
And in the world...apart from people in the world outside, what would you most like to reform about the world if you had the chance?
Hancock:
Erm...I'm not capable of doing that.
Freeman:
Well, don't you have dreams about it?
Hancock:
Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no. You just observe and...and, and practice, erm...within the limitations of your own talent what you see around you.
Freeman:
You've never dreamed of playing "Hamlet"?
Hancock:
No, no, no, no, no. I'd hardly...I don't think that's for me really.
Freeman:
Erm...you must have, and indeed I believe you have in fact got, quite a lot of personal opinions all the same. Let's take some; have you got any religious views?
Hancock:
Er, no...I have no religion, no.
Freeman:
That means that you're not interested? Or...
Hancock:
...I'm deeply interested and er...shall we say, I'm trying to find faith but...erm...I've had to er, throw away the intial faith that I was brought up in and therefore am...am, erm...now starting again from scratch.
Freeman:
Well now, what were you brought up in?
Hancock:
Er, Church of England.
Freeman:

I see, and you've thrown that away? Does that mean you don't believe in God any longer or might you er, er...er...adopt some other Christian religion?
Hancock:
I am completely, as I say, erm...this has been eliminated now. Erm...this...I no longer believe in so, therefore, I have to have an open mind and look for something else.
Freeman:
Can you recall any moment in your life that your religion failed you?
Hancock:
I think...no, not...it was a thing, I think, that you bega...I began to see perhaps when I was 15 or 16. I think I was fairly, deeply Christian before that and, erm...it just failed. Didn't...was no longer believable.
Freeman:
Do you find yourself answerable in your moral judgements to anybody except yourself?
Hancock:
No. I think actually it's just as strong...it's, it, it...erm...you are more moral. Because, it is true to say of morals that surely it, it is without reward. I must be purely and simply moral and for no reason.
Freeman:
Yes, but now...you must have some standards of judgement. Do you, do you, do you judge by anything except your own b...built-in conscience?
Hancock:
No I...your own built-in, your own experience I suppose.
Freeman:
Yes. What about politics? Any political beliefs?
Hancock:
Er...then again, unformed I would say at the moment. Erm...no, not really. Not, not, not to a sort of a...any sort of particular affiliation.

 

Interview transcription - Page 4 Page 4 of 12 - This way >>>

 

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