Montage of bull fighting shots

Music/Cheering

02:00

Interior of bar in Madrid/photos of Manolete

Lockyer: This journey into the world of bullfighting begins at a bar in Madrid -- a bar dedicated to one of the greats of the sport, Manuel Rodriguez Manolete.

02:34

His contemporaries, matadors from the '40s and '50s, gather here each week to share memories of their time at the top, and of Manolete, who paid the ultimate price for the Spanish obsession with bullfighting.

Pepe Martin

Pepe Martin: Manolete came along and he got closer than anyone had ever got to the bull. He had what the others didn't have -- he was different, serious, very honest… steady, with tremendous courage.

03:00

Photo of Manolete

Lockyer: So revered was Manolete that an adoring public wouldn't let him retire and he was eventually gored to death in a provincial bullring.

03:21

Statue

A nation mourned, elevated him to hero status and then flocked in even greater numbers to watch Manolete's successors attempt to emulate his skills.

03:31

Photos of bullfight

To foreigners it may seem like a bizarre, if not appalling pursuit, but it has certainly influenced our everyday language -- just think of all the cliches bullfighting has provided -- charge like a wounded bull, red rag to a bull, take the bull by the horns, and many others.

03:45

Empty stadium

Music

04:02

Views of Jaen

Lockyer: Nowhere is bullfighting more passionately followed than here, the southern city of Jaen, in the heart of Andalucia. This is where the sport had its beginnings.

04:18

Spectators arrive at bullring

Music

04:28

Lockyer: Eager patrons claim their seats hours before the event. Just outside the stadium, horses are trussed in thick protective matting, as if for medieval battle.

04:33

Preparing house

Music

04:44

Various sharp dressed members

Lockyer: Enter the cast, the sharp dressed members of the bullfighting fraternity, their porters trailing along behind.

04:53

Spectator shaking hands with a Enrique Ponce

Today top billing goes to 30 year old Enrique Ponce, whose style and grace in the bullring have won over crowds across Spain and Latin America, where he has just been on tour.

05:02

Enrique waves and enters building

The presence of one of the country's two leading matadors has heightened the anticipation of the gathering crowd.

05:19

Enrique

Enrique Ponce: This is much more than just killing a bull, or a fight between a human being and a beast. It's more… it's a feeling… something of beauty… we create art with a fierce, courageous and strong animal.

05:26

Houses entering ring

Lockyer: Bullfighting hasn't enjoyed the same support elsewhere in Spain -- devotees claim the nineties brought a big revival as a new generation of followers embraced it, including journalist and bullfighting writer Charo Perez.

05:47

Perez in empty stadium

Perez: When the stadium is packed full of colour, it's a rainbow of colour… it's a ritual… it's a liturgy… it's something you have inside you. It's something that is innate to Spaniards – even though some of them may not like it, it's still innate… it's beautiful… Seeing the toreador with the bull it becomes like seeing a wonderful dance.

06:02

Spectators in stadium

Lockyer: Bullfighting crowds are notoriously fickle, but the people of Jaen were given plenty to cheer about on this afternoon.

06:29

Enrique fights bull

Enrique Ponce would provide a display that would enhance his reputation, daringly playing the bull in close, luring him into pass after pass.

The performances of the supporting cast, on foot, and on horseback, were also generously acknowledged. But the matadors didn't get it all their own way.

06:53

Bull fighting

FX: Cheering

Perez: It is at once an art and a struggle between an animal and a human being. The bull has two incredible horns - they're like knives… the bullfighter has a cape and a sword and it's true that the bull will end up dying unless he is spared. But the bullfighter can also die.

07:15

Student matadors training

Lockyer: Despite the dangers, or perhaps because of the thrill of it, there's no shortage of would be matadors.

07:40

This may seem like little more than playground antics, but coaches at Madrid's prestigious bullfighting school use such exercises to grade new recruits. They pride themselves on quickly identifying the naturals. Head coach is former matador Joaquin Bernado.

07:49

Bernado

Bernado: I'm convinced that a bullfighter is born, but the school builds him - and if not the school then the daily struggle, and the guidance that used to be provided in the past by the bandilleros.

08:08

Infante practicing with horns

Lockyer: In this most macho of pursuits few women have made it to the top and stayed there. Nineteen year old Anna Infante has already dispatched 16 small bulls in training and is confident she can create history.

08:19

Infante

Infante: I want to succeed, because it's my dream - It will fulfil me as a person, and let’s say I don't think of the obstacles that I will come up against. More than anything, I like it because at the time you're doing it, it makes you unique for that moment and thousand of people are getting enjoyment from what you do.

08:37

piano

Music

08:59

Picture of bull in bar

Lockyer: But the veterans at Manolete's bar are appalled.

09:02

Jesus Rodriguez

Jesus Rodriguez: You need balls -- women don't have them.

09:06

Pepe Martin

Pepe Martin: It's a very manly thing. It's very dangerous.

09:08

Infante practicing

Lockyer: Such views simply stiffen Anna Infante's resolve.

09:13

Lockyer: What is your ultimate dream?

09:21

Infante

Infante: To become a grandmother and to be able to sit down and open a book and read my name in the history of bullfighting.

09:24

Infante practicing

Lockyer: In the class of two thousand and two Anna Infante is considered one of the stand-outs.

09:34

Bernado

Bernado: It's always tough for a woman. It's a complicated world - but I hope Anna who has so much talent will overcome this. She’s is very gifted, and I think she can overcome this handicap.

09:41

Lockyer: Luis Bolivar has travelled all the way from Colombia to hone his skills in Madrid, with the hope of a glittering future in Spain.

10:03

Bolivar

Bolivar: My dream is to be rich thanks to the bull, to bring my family over here to live, to buy a yacht, a Mercedes… and also to study in Spain.

10:12

Statue outside stadium

Music

10:25

Man on tractor

Lockyer: Bullfighting, like soccer, is still seen as a pathway from poverty to fortune.

10:28

Inside stadium

Music

10:34

Lockyer: The aura of mystique and tradition that surrounds the sport is so powerful that awe struck followers have a special word to describe it - Toreria.

10:39

Charo Perez

Charo Perez: but Toreria is like a model parading on the catwalk - wearing a suit that they must carry elegantly. The gait of a bullfighter is… if I see someone walking down the street I can tell by looking at him - that man is a bullfighter.

10:51

Matador with flowers

Lockyer: Matadors are strutting superstars -- dressed to kill.

11:12

Man in blue shirt in a back street

Music

11:17

Tailors

Lockyer: Tucked away in a back street of old Madrid is the tailor to the stars. Generations of bullfighters have come here to be outfitted.

11:21

Girl sewing garment

Music

11:29

Lockyer: Creating the intricate designs that adorn the reinforced jacket and knee length britches is exacting and painstaking work. A full matador's costume, including cape and sword, costs about 15 thousand dollars.

11:35

Lopez

Lopez: It's very repetitive and the hours of a craftsman don't fit into a seven hour day. A craftsman's working day doesn't end until he finishes the garment.

11:51

Fitting garment

Lockyer: Working around the clock it takes a team of six one month to complete a matador's suit. Under Ernest Hemingway's gaze, Antonio Lopez carries on a family tradition -- ensuring quality control is stringently maintained in the production of the matador's suit of lights.

12:10

Lopez with jacket

Lopez: This is the jacket of the bullfighting costume - or ‘suit of lights’ as it's known, because it shines in the sun. It's called a costume rather than a suit because it was upper class women – dressmakers - who first made them. So it was the upper class who used to dress the bullfighters.

12:28

The symbolism is simply and briefly to create an outfit which makes the bullfighter a god of the people.

Enrique fighting bull

Lockyer: Enrique Ponce and the other bullfighters dress down for their performance at Jaen, for this was a charity event – a fundraiser for a cancer hospital. The bulls would at least be dispatched for a good cause.

13:13

First the animals are worked over by the picador, astride a horse that's blindfolded to prevent it from bolting. A pike is plunged into the bull's strong shoulder muscles to weaken the animal for the contest to come with the matador. Despite the protective padding, the horse often becomes a casualty as the enraged bull, specially produced for the ring, relentlessly attacks.

13:29

Enrique: This is not just a bull that you see anywhere - or another type of bull, like a bull raised for meat. No, this is a bull that is born and bred with great care who lives four years in the country raised with lots of love by cattle breeders, for this purpose.

13:58

View of fields with bulls grazing

Music

14:22

Bull grazing

Lockyer: Bullfighting supports a lucrative breeding industry in Spain. Felipe Garcia runs 150 bulls on his farm near Madrid. The four and five year old animals will find their way to the bullring this year.

14:27

Garcia

Garcia: They are the true kings of the country where they are born until they die in the plaza. We give them the bast care, feeding them well and giving them the best medical attention. And then when the time comes to take them to the plaza and for them to be killed -- you don't feel sad at all. You only feel sad if they don't charge -- if they are tame -- which sometimes happens.

14:43

Bulls running through open wood

Lockyer: The bulls are descendants of a native breed in Spain. They're frightening enough in a herd -- terrifying if separated out.

15:20

Lone bulls who've found their way into villages have gone on rampages that've left death and enormous destruction in their wake.

Bull fighting

Music

15:37

Lockyer: And they'll last just 20 minutes in the ring. To prepare the bull for the final act, banderilleros sink their harpoons into the bulls neck, further weakening and enraging the animal. This is the part many people find hard to stomach -- the dance of death as they call it. Is it glory or merely a national appetite for extreme cruelty?

15:41

FX: Cheering/Applause

16:05

Lockyer: The closer Enrique Ponce came to the wounded bull, enticing him into pass after pass, the louder the crowd roared -- and not just for the matador. The people believed the bull had put on such a brave display that he should be spared. But it was out of Ponce's hands. The president controlling the bullfight offered no pardon, sealing the animal's fate.

16:15

FX: Cheering/Applause

16:42

Lockyer: The coup de grace shifted all attention back to the matador who basked in the adulation. But the dead bull was glorified by a lap of honour as his carcass was dragged out of the bullring.

17:06

Ponce

Ponce: Very happy… very happy, because I felt comfortable with the bull. I think he was a brave bull – a bull that charged - that came back - a bull that showed his lineage and who was noble. I liked how I fought. I felt very comfortable.

17:24

Ponce showing ears of bull to crowd

Lockyer: To mark his exceptional performance, Enrique Ponce was presented with both ears of the bull -- the ultimate accolade is to be awarded the ears plus the tail.

17:51

Ponce does lap of honour

Ponce: I don't see it as cruel, but I do think it's dangerous and for that reason I think that to be a bullfighter is the most difficult profession in the world.

18:05

Infante

Infante: Every animal that I fight is my friend because he will give me glory - and will give me everything. Therefore I could never see him as my enemy.

18:18

Lockyer

Lockyer: What would go through your mind if you were able to walk into the main bullfighting stadium in Madrid?

18:26

Infante

Infante: The greatest satisfaction in the world - and peace of mind, because my dream, will have come true. After that, life can dish out whatever it wants - but once the dream comes true, I don't care what comes after.

18:32

Bull with spears in back

Music

18:47

Lockyer: Whatever the rest of the world may think , a new generation of matadors is determined to ensure that bullfighting retains its place at the heart of Spanish culture.

18:51

Credits:

BULLFIGHTING

Reporter: Paul Lockyer

Camera: Ron Foley

Sound: Kate Graham

Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen

Producer: Vivien Altman

19:20