Buckingham Palace

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Clark:  Hats of course say a lot about people. They can be symbols of glories past, or a declaration of identity. A fashion statement perhaps. And in the case of the beret, well, how French can you get.

Beret wearers

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Pyrenees

Clark:   The beret's natural habitat is the foothills of the Pyrenees, in southern France, where it's almost part of life itself.

Beret wearer

Beret wearer:  I've worn it since I was small.  It keeps the sun and the rain off - mothers worry about that.  But we also used it to hold things we pinched from the neighbours - like plums.  Of course, when you're older  you have a bigger beret to punish people who steal plums.

FX:  Cow

Clark:  The shepherds of this region are usually credited as the original beret wearers, a tradition that goes back nearly a thousand years. And lives on still at the end of this millennium.

Up here, they say you can tell a lot about someone from their beret.

Shepherd

Shepherd:  The way you wear it shows your mood.  If someone thinks you're angry, you wear it like this.  You can't get angry with a beret on like this.

Beret wearer walking down street

Clark:  Indeed, in these parts, the beret can be the very mark of a man.

Beret wearer

Beret wearer:  There are lots of ways to wear it...  Completely flat - like this... those with an eye for the girls pull down on the side - others make a point with the front so they can aim at the horizon - as if they're curious.  Some always wear it on the right - others on the left.  The happy ones wear it pushed back - with the forehead bare - and an enormous gut.

Men not wearing berets

Clark:  Alas, for decades now, the French have been voting with their heads, not their hearts. And the ranks of the beret wearers are thinning.

Clark

Super:

CHRIS CLARK

Clark:   As expressive a piece of headgear as the beret is undoubtedly is, there are - let's be frank-some faces which just don't fit, left or right.

The problem is that nobody in France under 40 wears berets any more. And so the bereted Frenchman who's been a national symbol for centuries is now more like an endangered species.

Marcelin

Marcelin:  I'm worried of course, because they young people who wear berets these days are interested in tradition.  They want to rediscover a connection with the past... and rediscover something in which they can become an actor rather than just watching television.

Beret museum

Music

Clark:   You know something's in trouble when they build a museum in its honour. And that's what they've done for the beret in the town of Nay.

Something that's been gracing and turning heads from Dietrich to Madonna is now going the way of the bowler hat. There are only two factories left in all of France. And when it comes to berets, it's no longer a case of like father, like son.

Father and son

Young man:  People who aren't stressed and don't run about all day can wear a beret - but it's an anachronism - it's not possible.  You have to live at a relaxed pace to wear one.

Young man's father:  They have so many distractions - so many different fashions to choose from.  Perhaps they're just not old enough to realise what the beret represents - the past... tradition... a whole philosophy of life.

Man in beret walking down street

Clark:  It's all very well to blame it on the young, but up here they do take their berets seriously.

Beret Fancier

Beret Fancier:    There was a good man... who was lying on his deathbed still wearing his beret on his head.  His wife called to him - "Jean... Jean... the priest is here for the Last Rites." So he summoned all his strength,  lifted his arm up and uncovered his head.  A few moments later he died.  That shows the sort of man you get around here.

Clark:   They're a proud bunch, but they know they might be beaten. Each year the hair of the beret wearers grows a little greyer.

Marcelin

Marcelin:  In everyday life it'll be hard to keep on wearing the beret.  It'll only be worn at celebrations or specific occasions  when we recall what life was like for our grandparents - celebrations which remind you why you love France.  You wear the beret out of respect.  It's the only way to preserve that heritage.

Man in beret

Clark:  France might never again be a nation of beret wearers, but all is not lost, yet.

Father and son

Young man:  When you're young you follow fashion but in fifty years time I don't think you'll see me with a cap or some other piece of headgear.  I'll be wearing a beret - and so will everyone else my age around here.

Man in beret

Clark:   Well I hope so, because France without the beret will seem - well not quite France.

Beret man singing

Beret man singing:  Each country has its own style.  The Moroccan has his amusing fez... the Mexican shelters under his great sombrero.  The good old bourgeois - and we don't blame him - puts on a bowler hat and does as he pleases.  As for me, I put my hat in my pocket - I'm from Gascony and I wear a beret.