It's addictive. It's toxic. It's addictive. It's toxic. Tonight on Sunday ` sugar-based fizzy drinks. Are we drowning in them? You can just, like a flip-top, open your head and pour them in. Fizzy drinks making us fat. Tap water is boring. I mean, sugar is evil. Is it the new poison? Tonight ` one man who might save a generation. They love the water man. He's the head of the smugglers ` the head of the snake. The refugee who trades in human life. Dealing in human misery from inside Australia. I don't know what you are talking about. # Get back to where you once belonged. # And Paul... SCREAMING ...Sir Paul. # Oh, I believe in yesterday. # When you write songs, some of them pop out really easily. Some of them are easy births. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012 Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. They're taxing them in France; banning the supersized in New York. We're talking soft drinks. Even the name suggests they're harmless. But there's mounting scientific evidence to suggest otherwise. The hidden sugar in soft drinks is being implicated in a global childhood obesity epidemic and all the lethal health conditions that go with it ` diabetes, stroke, heart disease. But in NZ, a maverick millionaire may have stumbled on a simple solution to one of our most pressing health issues ` weaning the next generation off sugar. Here's Phil Vine. GENTLE MUSIC I don't think we realise how much damage we're doing our future generations by soaking the present one in this environment. Go! Go, go, go! By the time these young lives are run, the finish line might be closer than expected. There is evidence that our children are going to live less long than ourselves, and that's really quite scary, isn't it? This might be the first generation of NZers to die younger than their parents. In an average group of 20 7-year-olds, five of them are already obese or overweight. By the time they're 10, that number's seven. And 12 out of 20 of them as adults will have health risks from being too heavy. We have a horrible future. We have got a major problem, and it's just a` it's this big tidal wave that's coming. I mean it is a pandemic. UPBEAT MUSIC They love the water man. But this man, this maverick millionaire,... You guys are always on time. Beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah, and we always love you guys' water. ...may have part of the cure, by replacing kids' sugary soft drinks with water. I mean, sugar is` it is evil. It's a` Do you really believe it's evil? Yeah. It` It's addictive, it's a poison, it's toxic. Tony Falkenstein made his first million importing these classic '80s shades. Le Tough. < How much are you worth? I wouldn't know. I'm not on the rich list. They'd probably say, 'He's worth about the 20 million mark.' Tony's famous for pioneering business and construction courses in high schools. Now the CEO of Just Water, he's on a crusade against soft drinks. PEOPLE CHEER That's him in the bishop's outfit ` he and his staff not holding back. DRAMATIC MUSIC There's more and more scientific evidence that we've got an addiction. NZers scoff 500 million litres of soft drinks every year. We like sugar. We're programmed right from when we have our first meal from our mother to like that sweet taste of mother's milk. So what's different about sugar in this liquid form? You can just like a flip top open up your head and pour them in, and we don't know when we're full. Elaine Rush from AUT says sugared water does something strange to our appetites. So our satiety centre in our brain does not detect you've had enough for quite a long time. In some people, that's one of the factors that can lead to obesity. And we know obesity leads to diabetes and heart disease. And Melilosa, who we're about to meet, is a case in point. Hi. How are you feeling today? I'm not too bad. I'm not too bad. < Yeah? 'Losa's just had a triple bypass. 'Following a heart attack, her kidneys are failing, she's on dialysis and her eyesight's going.' If only I had listened. If only I had listened. You don't want to end up like me. Drink water. Do you think, Losa, that fizzy drinks are part of the reason why you're here like this now? Yes, I think so. Yeah, a lot of fizzy and bad eating ` not eating the right food. How many bottles would you drink a day? How many bottles would you drink a day? Oh, probably about 3 litres. 3 litres of fizzy? > 3 litres of fizzy? > Yeah, fizzy. Every drink that came on the shelf, I wanted to try it. I wanted to be the first one to try it. 'Losa got her diabetes at 19.' Her mum died of it aged 48. EMOTIONALLY: Not enough time to remember. And her daughter Kylie has got diabetes too. I don't really want any more in the family to get it. It's a real killer on you. Losa was admitted to hospital 39 times in the last nine years. Hospital staff estimate she's clocked up a million dollars worth of medical bills. There's not enough money now to provide the treatment for these diseases. We've got to get the biggest bang for our taxpayers' buck. We have to do something to try and fix it. 10 teaspoons of sugar in this one can of Coke. And they are trying. At this inner Hamilton primary, a nutritionist teaches about the sugar in soft drinks. No one would ever think about putting 10 teaspoons of sugar on their Weet-Bix, cos it would taste yuck. But that's how much is in there. Milly's trying to show them young about healthy alternatives ` low-fat milk and tap water. It's a hard sell. < You say to the kids, 'Drink tap water,' but they're just not doing it. Why is that? Tap water's boring. People can know what they need to do, but do they do it? No. It's really really hard to change those ingrained behaviours. But Tony Falkenstein, the water man, had an idea. He remembered how his daughter and her mates had reacted when he brought a water cooler home from work. They'll drink out of the water cooler in preference to Coke. Everything has to be easy, and their friends like doing it, and they love pressing the button and having a glass of water. Coming up... Something special has happened here. And what's big fizzy got to say? Why are you still selling this stuff to children? UPBEAT MUSIC Every weekday morning, early, Tony's water trucks head out to South Auckland. You drinking lots of water? You drinking lots of water? Yes, I am. Once a month the boss tags along. Two years ago, alarmed at the obesity rates,... Hi. How are you? Hi. How are you? Good, thanks. ...Tony started advertising rent-free coolers. No points for sensitivity. We ran some ads in local papers which were, um` which were probably, uh, not that PC, which were, 'Hey, fatty.' But they worked. 5000 homes in some of Auckland's poorest areas are using his free coolers, and word's spreading. They talk about the water man. 'The water man's here.' And we're probably like the old milkman when we appeared on the street. Now, this is just filtered tap water. And Tony Falkenstein's charging for it, $1 a litre, but the difference is the water coolers come free. It did cost us, uh, well, well over $2 million in just getting this whole thing together that made it` before it started making, you know, a profit. There's still a marginal profit. You could see this as a moral smokescreen, Tony. You're selling something that's free ` water. Yeah, you definitely could, and` and I suppose that unfortunately is a criticism I get. And you're selling it to poor people? That's right, but, in fact, uh, at the moment they're, you know` they're the biggest, uh, consumers of colas, and, uh` and so it's a lot cheaper than what they're drinking now and at least it's good for them. Thank you very much. This is my nephew Hunter; Steven, another nephew... Heather's family ` one of first to take up Tony's offer. ...and my daughter Naomi, who's 10. And do you have anyone with diabetes in your family? My grandmother, my father. Heather recognises she was part of the soft-drink generation. Walking home from school, and it's cheap enough to get a pie and fizzy. Nowadays, after school here there's a regular stampede ` not the fridge, but Tony's free cooler. Nearly finished. I love just seeing those kids just, you know, loving the` loving the water. I would say the whole novelty of the water cooler, you know, with them getting their cups, and pouring their own or, well, using the cooler, at their level where they can go and get it ` it seems to be water. There's nothing else. No cordial, no nothing, no soft drinks in our` No juice in the fridge any more. It's milk and water. I believe that it is a change for the better. According to the last nutrition survey, this is the amount of sugar the average male like myself would consume in a year ` 20kg ` just over the healthy limit. The trouble is that half of us are consuming more than this. Some of us much more. How much sugar do we actually need in a day? Only about 50g for the average person. Big people need more, and little people need less. What percentage of NZers are having more than that? What percentage of NZers are having more than that? Uh, well, more than 50%. So we've got to cut back. Tony's just audited his cooler scheme, and the results are impressive. His South Auckland families are drastically cutting their intake of sugary pop. And what we've found is that` is that people` the consumption of fizzy drinks drops by 61%, uh, when they have a water cooler in there. That's quite a lot. That's an awful lot, actually, Tony. That's enormous. Even if it only dropped 50%, it would be 24 kilos of sugar a year. That's this much per family. If Mr Falkenstein can make a difference, a positive difference, in some small way, then good on him, and, yes, we would applaud that. Kerry's speaking on behalf of the industry. The two biggest soft-drink players, Frucor and Coca-Cola, make $120 million a year. It's not about money. It's about a nation's health. It's not about money. It's about a nation's health. Is it really? Are you saying that Coca-Cola and Frucor are most concerned about this country's health? I'm saying to you that these are companies that have a social responsibility, they're taking the research seriously, they're working their way through the issues, they're happy to engage with anybody who has something positive to add, and they will assist in finding solutions to this issue. If you as an industry do have a social conscience, why are you still selling this stuff to children? We are selling it into the market. It's being sold into the market. The fact that children purchase it or adults purchase it on their behalf is not something that the producers can control, nor would they necessarily want to. It is still a matter of free choice that somebody can go and purchase these products, drink it responsibly on occasion as a treat and not suffer any health effects. But hold on. The effects of sugar and sugary drinks may be far worse than we'd ever imagine. There's controversial research coming out of California. To be clear, you're saying sugar is a toxin, it's poisonous? What exactly`? Could you summarise? Sure. The question is ` is sugar empty calories, or is it more than that? Dr Lustig claims sugar doesn't just make us fat, it messes with our metabolism. Obesity is you eat too much, you exercise too little, right? Wrong. I don't think that has anything to do with it. Obesity is a marker for metabolic dysfunction, and the question is what caused that metabolic dysfunction? Sugar, he says. I've read Lustig's research, and if he is right, then it would be an alarming possibility. What does that mean for an industry that sells sugared water? It's going to have an impact on all` It would have an impact, if he is correct, on all food and drink producers. This would be like a tobacco moment, wouldn't it? Well, I think the first thing we have to do is find out whether he is correct. In other countries they're not waiting to find out ` soft-drink regulations on the way. So, the crisis demands action of some kind? So, the crisis demands action of some kind? Yes, and who is going to do this? In New York, the mayor is threatening to ban the sales of large-sized sugary sodas ` anything over 473ml. In France, they've introduced a tax on sugary drinks. Tony wants to see the same thing here. Now, that would give consumers the time to get rid of the addiction and manufacturers time to take down the level of sugar in their products. Well, I don't see that that's going to solve anything either. What` A higher price would make them less appealing. Let's firstly find out what is really causing the high intake of sugar. Let's find out whether there are certain groups that are` have a greater propensity to be harmed by this. But Professor Rush counsels action now to reduce children's sugar intake. So that there can be treats, but a treat should be a treat, not an everyday food, so that's where the distinction has to be drawn. Come on, life is hard. You want us to take the sugar out of it. You want us to take the fun out of it. At least you'll have a life and not be dead. I mean, diabetes, in particular, is a decimating disease. Going blind, needing a kidney transplant, having limbs, uh, amputated ` is that fun? And is it fun for the rest of the family that they have to see this suffering going on? I mean, look at me. Look what I've just been through. It's hard. Do you feel any duty of care towards those people who do become obese from sugary`? Absolutely, we do. Would you like to elaborate? Well, I mean, there is no producer of sugar-sweetened drinks in this country that is oblivious to the research that points to overconsumption of sweetened drinks, and they're taking it very` they take that research very responsibly and very very seriously. A couple of weeks back, Tony got an award for new thinking. I really will covet this award. When I was 8, I won the Beginner's Doubles Trophy at Waiata Tennis Club. LAUGHTER But his new thinking on soft drinks has made him few friends in food and beverage circles. Well, I mean, he's entitled to his opinion. He's saying that what Coca-Cola and the other soft-drink manufacturers are doing is morally wrong. Well, he can take that moral stance. It's not necessarily a stance that we would agree with. Well, I suppose, I mean, like a lot of things, I` I have an inner confidence, and so I think, 'Hey, they're the guys that have got it wrong, not me.' CHILDREN CHATTER Love his work. And Losa ` very brave for sharing your story. And don't forget, of course, it's only 50g that we need in a day. Just 50g. Everything else ` probably not needed. All right, next ` it's a deadly trade, and it's just across the ditch. The investigation revealing a shocking enterprise in Australia. Excuse me, Captain Emad? I am Sarah Ferguson from the Four Corners television programme. I want to talk to you about people smuggling. How long have you been a people smuggler in Australia? I don't know what you are talking about. He's clever; he's ruthless; and he's got blood on his hands. Captain Emad ` he's a refugee and a people smuggler. And his lucrative trade has caused huge embarrassment in high places in Australia this week. The shocking truth ` this is a man who smuggled himself into Australia. So, why was he given refugee status and able to continue smuggling immigrants into the country right under the noses of federal police? ABC's Four Corners programme exposed him, and this is how the story unfolded. Excuse me. Excuse me. Captain Emad? I'm Sarah Ferguson from the Four Corners television programme. I want to talk to you about people smuggling. I don't know what you're talking about. He's a people smuggler who somehow got Australian residency. Stay out of my way, please. It's a revelation that shocked Australians and embarrassed the government. An investigation that reveals a network of agents running a people-smuggling ring from inside Australia's borders. There is many many smugglers... or agents. They enter Australia. And now they live in Australia. Their deadly trade in human cargo starts here ` a crowded port in North Jakarta ` the departure point for thousands of asylum seekers heading for Australia. Desperate people buying hope and confronting death on the high seas. November, 2010, and another fishing boat waits for its passengers. 97 people would board the vessel that night ` men, women and young children ` all doomed to disappear on the empty ocean. He rang me, and he said, 'See you soon. 'And I will come to you soon.' Among the passengers was Iranian Mohammad Reszaie, trying to get to his fiancee, Anita, in Melbourne. I said, 'Good luck. Make sure you just eat something before you go'. (SPEAKS ARABIC) Yahia Al Kazami was also in Melbourne, waiting for his brother Ayad, Ayad's wife and their two daughters - Hiba and Huda. (SPEAKS ARABIC) On a trip back to Iran, Al Kazami filmed his brother Ayad and his family saying goodbye before they left on their fatal journey to Australia. Reconstructing the journey of this lost boat has uncovered evidence of how the people-smuggling networks in Indonesia have spread to Australia. Abu Ali Al Kuwaiti has become known for his smuggling activities. Here, he is being filmed with a hidden camera at a restaurant in Jakarta. He was recruiting passengers and organising false passports to bring others who were waiting in Malaysia. The secret filming was done by an Iraqi refugee, Hussain Nasir. He so hated people smugglers, who had twice cheated him, that he volunteered to pose as a passenger to meet Abu Ali Al Kuwaiti. The smugglers, they are of course not Taliban or Al Qaeda. They are just a few rats or criminals, and it's very easy to catch them. Heading 1-1-0. 1-1-0, roger. Abu Ali Al Kuwaiti had gone to Australia by boat himself in 1999. Two years later, he was convicted of people smuggling for his role in sending that boat. At some point, Abu Ali returned to Indonesia, and by 2010 he was back in business in Jakarta, head of one of Indonesia's most powerful smuggling syndicates. In the restaurant in Jakarta with Abu Ali were other people smugglers, including one involved in sending the boat that crashed on Christmas Island in December 2010. 50 men, women and children died in terror in the huge waves; their wooden boat smashed to pieces on the treacherous rocks around Christmas Island. It's now known that two boats were sent to the bottom of the ocean in the last months of 2010. On board the unnamed fishing boat that left in November, some of the 97 passengers were allowed to make brief calls to their relatives I said, 'Bye bye, Arabic. (SPEAKS ARABIC) That mean... God... bless you. Three days after the boat left Indonesia, the smugglers' agents rang the relatives in Australia to tell them the boat had arrived and to collect their final payments. They said, 'Yes, the boat arrive. But he's on the sea now, 'so maybe after four or six hours they bring, the Navy` Australian Navy bring it to Christmas Island.' I was so happy that day. I walked a lot. I didn't know how` like what to do. It was so exciting. Anita believed she would soon see her fiance, Mohammad. He said, 'Congratulation, your passenger arrived in Australia. He's in Christmas Island.' And that's it. Just, 'Send me money'. When the boats arrive at Christmas Island, the passengers are given access to telephones and the internet to contact their relatives. Weeks passed, and none of the 97 people on the boat made contact. Among the missing were the Iranian family ` Ayad and his wife and children. Ayad's brother, Yahia Al Kazami, was so desperate for information he decided to go and see the smuggler in person in Indonesia. But on his arrival he discovered Abu Ali Al Kuwaiti had been picked up by the Indonesians and put in immigration detention. Being in detention had little impact on Abu Ali's smuggling business. Abu Ali had made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the trip. He told Al Kazami there was no reason to refund the money because the passengers were still alive. After the break ` how did the gang make themselves legal in Australia? And tracking down the kingpin smuggler who settled in suburban Canberra, leading a double life. Emad, he's the head of the smugglers ` the head of the snake. In a moment, Captain Emad ` the navy-trained ship captain turned people smuggler. And Anita ` young, in love and desperate for news about her fiance. Every day I just go to Facebook, go to his home page, put in a comment. 'I miss you. Where are you? 'Please, if you are alive, if you are somewhere, just let me know as soon as possible.' At the beginning of 2010, Abu Ali Al-Kuwaiti and a cabal of other Iraqi people smugglers met in Jakarta. The agenda ` to expand their business right into Australia. It was a clever plan ` to send their agents and a smuggler all on one boat, posing as genuine asylum seekers. The man they chose to lead the trip was known as Captain Emad. An asylum seeker on that journey confirmed his identity. Captain Emad was a navy-trained ship captain who had spent years commanding container ships in the Middle East and Asia. He was more than capable of navigating the boat to Australia. As they approached Christmas Island, Captain Emad stopped the boat. His next move was to summon the Australian Navy. According to Australian Border Protection, Captain Emad's boat was intercepted at 2:24am on 13 January, 2010 ` suspected illegal entry vessel number 96. The boat was listed as having 43 passengers and no crew. The captain hid among the passengers. Once on Christmas Island, Captain Emad's plan to become an Australian resident continued without a hitch. He had brought his daughter-in-law and her young child with him on the boat, so they were moved to the family compound to await interviews with the Department of Immigration. Only three months later, the Department of Immigration gave the smuggler Captain Emad a protection visa and Australian residence. He was one of the first passengers on the boat to be released from detention. Iraqi refugee Hussain Nasir was determined to help track down and expose Captain Emad and his associates. In this few years there is many, many smugglers or agents. They enter Australia, and now they live in Australia. In a cafe at Sydney's Central Station, with the help of another man, Hussain set up a meeting with agent Mahdi Afsoon. Hussain posed as a relative of family members wanting to come to Australia by boat. Mahdi Afsoon, he's a smuggler, but he was agent for one biggest smuggler in Indonesia. Around two years he worked with him, and his name Mohammad Al Basrawi. Basrawi was Captain Emad's partner. They sent Afsoon to Australia by boat in 2010. Iranian Afsoon was accepted as a refugee later that year. He told Hussain how many passengers he had brought to Australia since then. Medhi Afsoon, he told me exactly. He bring around 300 passengers to Australia, including his family. And he told me that the last boat he organized two week or three weeks ago arrived to Australia, and the boat was carrying 57 passengers ` Iraqi and Kurdish ` and three crew. He told Hussain the cost of the trip for his relatives would be $11,300 each. Afsoon rang the smuggler based in Australia about the best way to handle the money. The smuggler he rang was Captain Emad. He called him, and he let me hear his voice, and he open a speaker, and he discussed with him about the trip and the passenger and transfer the money. He told him, we have box - meaning passengers. This in smuggler's language. And Captain Emad, he ask him about the package, how much. Hussain gets another step closer to Captain Emad at a meeting with one of his associates in the town of Queanbeyan. Abdullah, he was ready, because he have all the details and including the account number of the smuggler agent who responsible to transfer the money from here to Indonesia. No money changed hands, but that meeting a few kilometres from Canberra led almost to Emad's door. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me, Captain Emad? I'm Sarah Ferguson from the Four Corners television program. I want to talk to you about people smuggling. How long have you been a people smuggler in Australia? No, I'm busy. I don't know what you're talking about. I spoke to some of your passengers who came with you on Wal 96. They told me how you captained the boat. Much better if you can hear me. Much better if you can hear me. No, no, please. I have work to do. Don't disturb me. So do I. So do I, Captain Emad. So do I. So do I, Captain Emad. I have work to do. < Perhaps I could come to your house later? REFLECTIVE MUSIC In Kabul and Tehran and Basra; in Brisbane and Melbourne and Sydney, the relatives of the 97 passengers who disappeared in 2010 are still waiting for the smugglers to tell them what really happened. A few weeks ago, some of the relatives in Melbourne went back to the smugglers' agent to ask him for news. They recorded the meeting. Anita keeps looking for a sign her fiance is alive. Every day, I went out, just go to Facebook, go to his home page, put in comment, 'I miss you. Where are you? 'Please, if you are alive, if you are somewhere, just let me know as soon as possible. 'If you can talk, just come to the Facebook. Just even just put a dot, that I can contact.' Everyone defended boats, asylum seekers, smugglers. Some of them make them heroes. But no one defended about the women and the children who lost their life in the sea. So, get this. Within 24 hours of that ABC Four Corners story going to air this week, Captain Emad had skipped the country. Federal police say the people-smuggling kingpin had been the focus of a long-running investigation, but there was no lawful basis to detain him. When we come back ` Sir Paul McCartney on life, love and music. # She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. # Another girl's fainted. Sir Paul, you have nothing to prove. Why don't you retire, put your slippers on and leave it all to Justin Bieber? # And hope that my dreams will come true. # They were The Beatles. They started everything ` the haircuts, the clothes and the tunes. Beatlemania is still going strong 50 years later. Tonight, in a special interview, Paul ` that's Sir Paul McCartney ` as you've never heard him before. He talks frankly about his music, his latest album, his highs and lows, his wives... and, of course, The Beatles. THE BEATLES' 'COME TOGETHER' ARCHIVE: The city's never witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool. There's been nothing like it in the world of entertainment, and I don't think there ever will be again. # Here come old flat top. # He come groovin' up slowly... # JOHN LENNON: One, two, three. One, two, three. # Get back, get back. # Get back to where you once belonged. # Get back, Jo Jo. # You know, what happens when you write songs ` some of them pop out really easily. Some of them are easy births. # Oh, I believe in yesterday. Yesterday, Paul McCartney was in the world's biggest and most popular band. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles! Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles! SCREAMING # She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. # Another girl's fainted. # We're Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. # we hope you have enjoyed the show... # Sir Paul, you've got nothing to prove. You've done it all. You've got a lovely family and beautiful wife. Why don't you just retire, put your slippers on and leave it all to Justin Bieber? Cos if I retired, I'd be writing songs the very next day, and I'd be ringing a promoter up and saying, 'Can you get me a gig?' I love it too much. It's in your blood. In truth, I-I'm actually doing as well, or better, than ever... now. I'm enjoying it... as much or more. # I'll pretend that I'm kissing the lips I am missing # and hope that my dreams will come true. # Is it correct that it was your mum's tragic death that prompted` that urged you more into music? That you used music as a retreat? That you used music as a retreat? You know, I think now that probably had a lot to do with it. Um, at the time, I didn't think of it like that. It was just a tragedy. She died when I was about 14. Um, but I think when you start to put the pieces together, music became a very important escape ` somewhere where I could find hope. # Any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain. # Don't carry the world upon your shoulders. And then when I met John, um, he'd lost his mum. So we had that as a bond. And so I think it helped to get us both out of these tragic circumstances. # Come on, come on. # ARCHIVE: This has been brought to you exclusively by Channel Seven cameras. And we have never seen anything like this in the history of this country. This is absolutely fantastic. They are 80, 90, 100, 200 thick in places. SCREAMING Another girl's fainted. Do you remember the Beatles' tour ` the first Beatles tour of Australia? Do you remember the Beatles' tour ` the first Beatles tour of Australia? Oh, yeah. The crowd's broken the barriers. My God, it's hysteria! And the fans are going really mad. Here they go! You know, you look at us on the balcony and all these people. Here come The Beatles! It's great memories, for me. What have you liked most of all, here? Um, I dunno, really. You know, the people were marvellous. The girls ` fantastic. Love those girls. Safe trip home. Safe trip home. Thanks very much, and get your hand off my knee. (LAUGHS) # ...the things she shows me. By the end of the '60s, The Beatles, while still growing musically, were growing apart. # You know I believe and how. # For Paul, the breaking point came when John's wife, Yoko, introduced an American business manager. A lot of very cruel things were said on both sides when The Beatles split up. But you did reconcile with John, didn't you? But you did reconcile with John, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah. How important was that for you? How important was that for you? It was very important, yeah. Um, The Beatles breakup was basically a business thing. We'd earned all this money, all this fortune. You imagine it in a big jar, and someone was just going to come along and nick it, basically. That's what was about to happen. So I had to fight. I had to fight to save this. Now all the guys involved and their wives all say, 'Thank you. 'You saved it,' you know. But it was very painful, and we had to go through all of that stuff. But, um,... it worked out, you know. The last bachelor Beatle was no longer a bachelor. Paul McCartney married New Yorker Linda Eastman. He'd gone and been and done it at Marylebone register office. Paul's successes after The Beatles as a solo artist, and with his wife, Linda, in the band Wings,... Mr McCartney. And Mrs McCartney, how do you do? Mr McCartney. I was standing next to him. (CHUCKLES) ...were often overshadowed by tragedy. # And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me. John Lennon was murdered in New York in 1980. In 1998, Linda died of breast cancer. # Let it be. Let it be. # Then three years later, fellow Beatle George Harrison also died of cancer. They often say, to be a good artist you have to suffer. They often say, to be a good artist you have to suffer. Yeah, I know people say that. Um,... I'm not sure. I think` You know, if you could choose, you'd want a life without those tragedies, cos nobody wants that. But seeing as you can't choose, I think what happens is it makes you stronger. You have to get over that, or go under. Uh, that may then mean that when you translate that into your music, then` then that's stronger too. # And she was right. # This love of mine. # My valentine. 'My Valentine' ` talking about family and talking about people that you love ` it's an ode to the new woman in your life. Um, how did she react when you sang it to her for the first time? She loved it. She loved it. She likes her music. Um, and, yeah, no, she loved it, you know. It was our first dance at our wedding and stuff. So... And it's quite emotional. Obviously it's an emotional song for both of us. Um, but she's` She's cool, you know. She just` She` She loves it, quietly. His marriage last year to American heiress Nancy Shevell (51) seems to have made Sir Paul happy for the first time in a long time. I'm feeling married. Is she a similar person to Linda? Are they both strong women? Yeah, there are` They have quite a few little things in common, actually. They're both from New York. Um, they're both strong women. Uh, both very independent. And there are all sorts of other little links, too. So she is a bit similar. She won't want me talking about her, though. < No, that's fine. < No, that's fine. She wants to keep private. I hope you don't mind me mentioning this, < but Nancy's had breast cancer as well, hasn't she? And your mum, and Linda. I mean, you've had three women in your life who've suffered breast cancer. It's quite an extraordinary coincidence. It's quite an extraordinary coincidence. Tell me about it. Yeah, I know. Um... Yeah. Well, that's true. What can I say? We're very happy, and we'll get married sometime next year. Could another song on his new album be a dig at second wife Heather Mills? Their divorce was bitter, famously bitter. # Use me for a tool. # Go get yourself another fool. # Another one of the songs is 'Get Yourself Another Fool'. And the conspiracy theorists, you know what they're going to say. They're going to analyse that and suggest that it's a reference to your breakup with Heather. Is it? No. I actually just liked the song. I was trying to do a couple of songs on the album that had a bluesy feel. Now, obviously all bluesy things are gonna be like that ` 'Get yourself another fool. 'You done me wrong, woman.' That's the essence of the blues. But I must admit, since, I thought, people are gonna think that's why I did it. I didn't do it for that reason, I must say. The new album includes songs with Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton. There are McCartney originals as well as fresh takes on timeless classics. # Don't mess with Mr In-Between. # Sir Paul getting as much joy making music now as he did yesterday. Well, Sir Paul, a lot of men will be watching you right now, thinking they hope they look like you when they're about to turn 70, because I think this is the big 7-0 this year for you, isn't it? Congratulations on the new album. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Cheers. Yes! And if you're wondering why it said 'kisses' on the bottom behind him right through that story, as I was for a short while, then obviously, yes, it is the name of his new album. Not sure it's the best name. OK, that's our show for tonight. Do check us out on Facebook. Thanks for your company this evening. We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Nga mihi nui, hei kona.