Documentary about the life and career of the 1940s and 1950s boxer Randy Turpin. | dG1fZ3RtZk52Vnp2MlE
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 Here we are.
00:07 And that's it, number 19.
00:09 In this small council house, the formidable widow Turpin,
00:13 Beat short for Beatrice, daughter of an old bare-knuckle fighter
00:16 called Tommy Whitehouse, struggled to bring up her family
00:19 of two daughters and three boxer sons.
00:23 Jackie, Midland Area featherweight champion.
00:28 Dick, British and Empire middleweight champion,
00:32 first black boxer allowed to fight for a British title.
00:35 Baby Randolph, middleweight champion of the world,
00:38 childhood nickname Licker.
00:41 This fearsome trio were christened the Dark Threats to British White Hopes.
00:47 Randolph's father, Lionel Fitzherbert Turpin,
00:49 was the first black man in the Leamington Warwick area.
00:52 He came all the way from British Guiana to fight in the First World War,
00:56 just in time to be gassed on the Somme.
00:59 He died when Randolph was only a few months old.
01:03 This is the birthplace of the champion, eh?
01:05 Well, not the birthplace. He came here when he was four years old.
01:09 This is the place where I first sparred with Randolph in this area.
01:19 There used to be a Dutchman stood there.
01:21 The rain drained behind you.
01:24 I remember the first time I put the gloves on and took one charge at Randolph,
01:28 knocked him over the Dutchman.
01:29 He got up the next minute, I was sat in the rain drain.
01:33 And that was our first attempt at anything together.
01:38 This used to be our board.
01:41 I used to stand here while he threw knives round me.
01:44 I'd stand on here with the door and he would throw knives round me.
01:49 We had a bayonet and I sharpened it to a point.
01:53 One day, my head must have been laid here,
01:56 and he threw the bayonet as it was coming towards my head.
02:00 I ducked and it landed right where my forehead had been.
02:04 Because when I put my head back up, I hit the bayonet with my head,
02:07 so I knew it would have been the end of that.
02:09 What did Randolph say? Sorry?
02:12 Just laugh, going to stand there again. I said, "Not bloody like me."
02:15 He'd been building his body up, you know,
02:21 and he used to bully a lot of the kids then.
02:24 He was always determined to be the boss.
02:26 And from then on, he was, like I said, the king of the castle.
02:31 Always. Nothing ever got on top of him.
02:35 He would kill himself rather than be beat.