AC = Adrian Chiles CB = Christine Bleakley CBu = Cerrie Burnell

KB = Kate Brindley CSM = Councillor Spud Murphy

W 1 = Woman 1 M 1 = Man 1 M 2 = Man 2

W 2 = Woman 2 W 3 = Woman 3 M 3 = Man 3

M 4 = Man 4

AC: Depending on who you ask, graffiti is either vandalism pure and simple or, ah, as valid an art form as any other.

CB: As Cerrie Burnell's discovered, nowhere does the debate rage harder than in Bristol, where the work of the most famous graffiti artist of them all has gone on show.

CBu: One of the pioneers of modern graffiti art is the mysterious artist known only as Banksy. His work started on street corners and sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

And with a brand new Banksy exhibition just opened here in his native Bristol, has graffiti art officially gone mainstream?

KB: Oh it's been really popular. We've been astounded by the numbers of people coming through the door and queuing down the street. Five and a half thousand, six thousand a day and it's attracting everyone. Lots of different people from lots of different communities, but also from all over the country - people that don't necessarily come to museums are coming to see the show.

CBu: Do you ever worry that you might be encouraging vandalism by having this kind of show at your gallery?

KB: I don't see us as encouraging vandalism - the spray-painting work is on to canvas and so it's actually addressing his work in a different way.

CBu: But what about all those defaced trains and bus stops? Bristol is also home to a very busy anti-graffiti task force.

CSM: Graffiti is vandalism; art is art.

Well it, it spoils lots of people's lives. I mean … people that try to look after their property and paint their houses and walls and things like that … somebody that comes along in the middle of the night and paints on there all kinds of rubbish - and you can't have the laws for one and not for the other; you can't say that Banksy's OK to do it because he paints a nice picture, but a kiddy that does a stupid thing on the side of a thing, he can't do it because it's stupid.

That wall that they're just doing now will be clean when they leave, but I bet you by the end of the week somebody will have painted something on it. People coming in from all over the world see this and think, `What a dump!' And it's a beautiful place, Bristol.

CBu: So, has graffiti really become a credible and accepted art form, or is it seen by most as just vandalism? Let's find out what the people of Bristol really think.

W 1: I think art.

M 1: It just makes a mess of everywhere.

M 2: I definitely think it's art.

W 2: I think it's quite exciting sometimes.

CBu: And how do you feel when you see it on the streets?

W 3: Horrified.

M 3: Sometimes it can be a bit messy.

M 4: If it's a … a nice picture … some kind of mural on the side of a tube train that could be considered to be art, I don't find that particularly offensive.

M 1: I think it's untidy … and defacing public buildings, I just think it's so wrong.

M 3: Very, very artistic, very pleasing to the eye and sometimes it has a good message too: a very positive message maybe about peace or love or about the environment or whatever the case may be.

Upper Intermediate Unit 10 DVD Script

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