All language subtitles for 7-63.Up.Collection.08of10.Age.56.Up.2012.720p.Bluray.x265.AAC.MVGroup.Forum

- In 1964 Granada
Television brought together

a group of seven-year-olds

from all over the country
and from all walks of life.

- I'm going to work in Woolworths.

- I read "The Financial Times."

- They talked
about their dreams,

their ambitions, and their
fears for the future.

- Everything throughout the
year, it all landed on my head.

- For nearly half a century,

in a unique, groundbreaking
series of films,

we have followed their
lives every seven years.

They are now 46.

- Sometimes we go out and
play nicely with the boys

and sometimes we go out
and argue with the boys.

- Sue grew up
in the East end of London.

- I don't think I'll

get married too early,

I'd like to have a full life first.

Marriage to me is a different thing to me,

and I've still got my
ideals about marriage.

I don't know what it's all about.

- Sue was 24
when she married Billy,

and they had two children,
William and Catherine.

- I think that to get married young

there must be things that you miss,

you must miss that crucial
stage of being yourself,

because the minute you get married

you're no longer a single being,

you're a partnership and that
should be the idea behind it.

- By the time Sue
was 35, she was divorced.

- I've never sat down and
thought, well what it was?

Was it this, was it that, I
just knew it wasn't working.

I mean there have been relationships

when I could have settled but
they didn't feel quite right,

so I've always come away and pulled away

and just waited until
the right one come along,

if they ever do.

- At 42, when we
filmed Sue in the karaoke bar

she brought Glen along to watch her sing.

♪ Baby, baby, baby, oh baby ♪

We'd just met and things are going well,

but now obviously things are
going very well.

Well we've been engaged now
for about 14 years.

I've not beaten any records,

but it's quite a long time isn't it, yeah.

Come on then.

- Jessie come on.

- We're completely different people,

he's very energetic and tidy minded

and I'm lazy and completely

inactive.
- You're lazy?

- I am completely and absolutely lazy.

- Anything you want me to do?

- And what about the
romance of getting married?

- Yeah, I mean I do admit
it would be a nice party

and I quite relish the idea
of having everyone round

and having a good old
drink and a celebration,

but I can have a party anytime.

Who are you on the phone to?

- Never you mind.

- When I got married the primary reason

was because I wanted to have a child.

The two to me went together.

- Have you and Glenn thought

of having your own child?

- Glenn would have made a great dad

and when we first got together he asked me

if we could have a family and all that,

but I felt like I was past
it really, to be honest.

I mean I had two teenagers and
didn't want to do that again,

but he's loved bringing them up.

- Last time we
talked about a bit of tension

in that area.

- No, I think that was
probably just the age they were

and every family goes through that.

There was nothing in
particular, I don't think,

it was just all part of growing up really.

- It wasn't easy
being a single mother, was it?

- No it wasn't and
I look back on it now

and I'm just amazed how I got through it.

- What was
the toughest part of it?

- Probably a combination
of not having enough money

to do what you want and being alone

and being scared when things happen,

when things go wrong,

which they always do when you've got kids.

You've got no one there to turn to

to talk about things like that.

- And you had to work?

- Yeah I had to work, yeah,

but I was always only part-time

so that I could fit it around school.

- So who was
the biggest help to you

during this whole single parent?

- Well there's no doubt at
all without my mom and dad

I'd have never survived
it, they were brilliant,

they were really really good.

They mean the world to the kids

and they used to look after them,

always be there if something happened

and I had to go somewhere.

- Yeah nice aren't they, it's
the first time we've seen.

- And how are they doing now?

- Yeah they're fine,
dad's 80 now and mom's 78.

I'm so lucky that they're
still reasonably active.

There you go, that's
lovely that one, isn't it?

I've still got Catherine with me

because she hasn't found
anywhere else to go.

I mean I'm sure she
would love to leave me,

but I love it the fact that she's here.

We go shopping and we do girlie things,

do each other's hair and things like that,

so I would miss her but I do,

I know that she needs
to get out and move on.

- I only had to have one filling,

that was about the only thing I had done.

- And what about William?

- Well, he went to Australia for a year

and he never settled back
in being independent.

I think it was too much,

plus his room here was far too small.

I mean his computer was
bigger than the room.

So he's renting.

It's just so hard for them to
be able to afford something,

so in the future your
kids are gonna be with you

for a long, long time.

A lot of my work is
involved in making bookings

and dealing with hotels abroad.

- At 21, Sue
worked for a travel agent.

At 35, part-time for a building society.

- Everything's changed
for me 'cause I'm now

supporting myself a lot more
than I was say a year ago.

- At 42, she went
back to work full-time,

helping to run the courses
in the legal faculty

of Queen Mary College,
University of London.

At 49, she was the main administrator

for their post graduate programme.

So you like the responsibility?

- Yeah I love the responsibility.

I think I was born for the responsibility.

I'm now the coordinator
of the entire programme,

so sort of Marge in charge
really of them.

It's like my baby really,

I've nurtured it from its small beginnings

into what it is now.

Thank you very much, see
you at graduation, yeah.

I really do enjoy it and
I get up in the morning

and I don't ever think, oh god
I can't face going in to work

but I know that happens
to a lot of people,

so I'm lucky really.

Someone's having trouble
downloading this attachment,

so I'll take this down for them.

- So you've got
a lot of responsibility,

is there stress attached to it?

- Sometimes, I mean some parts of the year

are busier than others and
you've got deadlines to meet,

but then in a way that's good

'cause it keeps you on your
toes you know, never get bored.

- Where does the life of my
respectable middle class mother

overlap with a working class slapper

who leaves her illegitimate
child on a church door step?

- She was not...

- You don't know, she was
young and frail and beautiful.

- It started not long
after the last programme,

with Tony my neighbour, and
he belonged to the group.

And I said, oh you know
I've been wishing I could do

drama for years, since I was at school

and he said come along.

♪ That's the time you
must keep on trying ♪

♪ Smile, what's the use of crying ♪

To stand on the stage
and sing and have people

hopefully appreciate it, hopefully,

but there's still that
little nervous thing,

the butterflies in your
stomach when you're waiting

for the curtains to open,
and it's a buzz really.

Realistically this is
the point you really do

have to consider, you can't do two modules

that are taught at the
same time obviously.

When I get on the stage
to speak to 400 students,

now some people would
find that very daunting

but I actually don't
because I think if you know

that they can never ask you something

you don't know the answer to,

then I think that helps
build your confidence

and I'm not exactly shy, am I.

It always takes one you
see, once you get one

then other people tend
to ask, but.

- You never
went to university and now

you're right in the middle
of a huge university machine.

- I suppose I should count my blessings

that I'm actually in a university
having not done it myself.

Yeah.
- Looking at it,

do you wish you had had that opportunity?

- Not really, it's the same as anything.

Why look back and say I wish I'd did this,

I wish I'd done that.

I've had a good career, at
least I'll have my own home,

which is a new thing for my family,

'cause my mom and dad are obviously still

in a council place.

I'll never be a rich pensioner,

I'll never be able to travel
the world once I retire,

I'm afraid, but as long as
I can keep the house warm

and we can feed ourselves
I think that will be fine.

- I don't like big boys hitting us

and a Prefect sending us out for nothing.

- When he was seven,

Paul was in care in a
children's home in London.

Were you happy at the
children's home in England?

- We didn't mind that really,

because we didn't know what was going on

'cause we were a bit young then.

Well as far as I know,
my mother and father,

well they separated originally, I think,

they eventually got divorced,

I went to the boarding school for one year

and then we emigrated to Australia.

- Paul settled with
his father and step-mother

in a suburb of Melbourne.

Would you like to get married, Paul?

Tell me why not?

- I don't like,

say you had a wife,

say you had to eat what they cooked you

and say I don't like greens, well I don't.

I know I'd prefer to be alone, really.

I can't say I don't want to get married,

'cause I think I do,

but I want to be happily married

and therefore I want to make sure I think.

- What was it
that you fell in love with,

what is it about him?

- His helplessness, I suppose,

it was the motherly instinct in me

to pick him up and cuddle him,

he's also very good-looking I think,

but he doesn't agree with me.

In the summer he's got this
cute little bum in shorts.

I mean I can tell quite
a few stories here,

but the one that really
irritates me the most

is when we have an argument he
says, "That's it, leave me."

and I say, "Fine, alright I will one day."

We had our 20th wedding
anniversary this last Christmas,

just before Christmas.
- Which is a life sentence.

- Yeah everyone recons that we
should be out of jail by now.

- To a certain extent we started thinking,

well do we really know each other now,

because you just get in the humdrum

of going to work, coming back home.

- Running kids here and there.

- The kids here and there,
and I don't think you mean to,

but you probably stop thinking
about each other a lot.

- You know, it's still
the last person you want

to see at night before you go to sleep

and the first person you
want to see when you wake up.

- Do you still
like to cuddle and love

and all that sort of stuff?

- Yeah, but not in public.

- No, yes.

- But is the
chemistry still there?

- Yes.

- You don't sound sure.

- Well, we like to keep it private.

- I had to wait for the answer.

I find it hard to express
emotion most of the time,

although I'm getting on
top of that more now.

I mean just the simple
thing to say to Suzanne,

you know, I love you, something like that.

I mean I can tell you that,

but I really haven't been
able to say it really

to Sue, you know.

It's a bit hard to talk about;

I did end up having to get a bit of help.

It wasn't directly due
to our relationship,

it started at work unfortunately,

which brought my self-esteem down

which tended to affect everything else.

I know the lack of confidence is there,

it still applies to me
but I don't dwell on it,

it's there and I have to

put up with it.
- Yeah.

I just think you take on a little bit more

of each others' personality
because whenever I was decisive

and I made a decision and say,
well let's do this because,

Paul, not that he
couldn't make the decision

but he had all these questions
to ask and I used to think,

ah, stop asking questions

and I suppose now I start
to questions myself,

well maybe you should
ask the question so it is

that bit of living with
the other personality.

- I was gonna be a policeman

but I thought how hard
it would be to join in.

I was gonna be a Phys Ed
teacher but one of the teachers

told me that you had to
get up in to university.

- As a young
man, Paul spent many years

in the building trade and then
moved on into factory work.

- Okay the question was Gracie Field

sang in the what of the moonlight.

It's a retirement village
with independent living

and then it's got a sister
living in the hostel

which is mainly where I work.

Which has got six letters,
Gracie Field sang.

They have their own laundry,
it's a complete unit,

they have their own lock up garage.

So there's a couple of parcels there

that probably need delivering.

And that's why Paul's
there, I call him the man

about the house at work because
he changes light globes,

problems with their taps
they go and check it out,

cleans the guttering, fixes
squeaky doors or doors

that have broken 'cause the
village is now 24 years old

so the maintenance is starting to gather.

How are you going up there, Paul?

- When the job came up, I said to Suzanne

that if there was any problem at all

with us working together then I'd leave.

But so far we've found
it really quite good.

Hello, how are ya?

- I'm good, Paul, how are you?

- I've probably always been
a little bit more relaxed

around older people probably.

I always liked older people

as I was growing up, funny enough.

- By the time they were 28,

Paul and Sue had two
children, Katie and Robert.

Katie did well at school
and went on to university,

the first person in her
entire family ever to do so.

Robert trained as a car mechanic.

He met his wife Stacey
when they were teenagers,

and now they have five children.

- So there's Lucas, who is nine,

then there's Ryan who's
about to turn seven

at the end of this month.

Then there's Hayley who's just turned five

and she'll start school in the new year.

Then there's Shane or
better known as Shane-o,

and he is three this week.

He's the joker, I think,
out of the lot of them,

You know if he does
something and you laugh,

he'll laugh with you, and he loves a joke.

And then there's little
Troy that's 12 weeks old.

I look back at my grandmother,

and I've taken some
wonderful lessons from her.

Grandma made us all feel that
we were her special number one

but I really think that that's the secret

to being a grandparent is
to make every child feel

that they have someone
that they can relax with,

be themselves with.

Grandparents now have a
really huge part to play

in their parents' lives
because the pressure's on them

to work so much and
grandparents fill that hole

of Mum not being home every day.

So, Cynd, I've already
made the frog in the ponds,

so there they are for the kiddies.

- Great, your
Rich likes fairy bread.

- Get some spiders and snakes in there.

♪ Happy birthday to Shane-o ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- Ready, set, go!

- It's a real struggle
for them financially,

but at the same time, you
know, like all young kids

there's areas that we look at and go,

"Well, we didn't have that."

I've got 23 new pieces

and I don't know how many
halfpenny pieces I've got now.

- Look there's a whole
stack of duckies over there.

None of our kids have got credit cards.

They don't live a credit life.
- Yet.

- Yet, I mean they try and pay as they go,

which is what we've always thought,

and that's kept our
head above water, just.

We always thought if we were
unemployed or out of work,

if you own your house,
you've got a huge buffer,

and Robert's of the same belief.

- In their 20s,
Paul and Sue sold up,

bought an old van and
travelled across Australia.

- I think it brought
us closer together,

because we really got to know each other

and we relied on each other so much.

- One of the most
important things we ever did

with our children was spend time with 'em,

and particularly when you've got holidays.

You know, go camping with 'em.

- [ ]sue] Well we went over to visit Katie

'cause she's was working up in the top end

of Yorkshire on a community farm.

- We were missing her, we just
don't wanna tell her that.

- Well they
miss you when you're away.

Do you miss them when you're away?

- I didn't miss 'em. like oh
God, I want to be around them

but I thought about them a lot

and appreciated them a lot
which is probably good.

- So are the three
of you getting on well?

- Yeah most of the time.

- As long as we're not
in the car getting lost.

- They're atrocious in the car.

- But other than that we're good.

- No, it is good.

Well when we were in London
we went to Greenwich.

It was built as a Maritime
Retirement Village almost.

For the sailors from the Napoleonic War.

So that was all really interesting

because we work in retirement villages.

And these buildings here

were built before Australia
was even discovered.

So that's pretty amazing.

Katie was in awe of it.

Because in her degree she did art history.

So she just loved it.

- What does university mean?

- Are you going to try and point

your grandchildren in to
education do you think?

- You want them to have a good education

no matter what they do.

- Better than you had maybe?

- But that's my fault really.

I mean I just didn't
work hard enough I guess.

You hope the school systems have changed

to encourage kids to go on

because one thing you
can't take away from people

is an education.

I mean the one thing
my daughter's taught me

is it doesn't matter what you
do there's room for all of us.

And even to the point where

if you don't work you're
still teaching us something,

you know your teaching
other people to care.

- How are you
dealing with getting old?

- I don't think
you really notice it.

I mean you still think you're the same.

Its maybe when you try to do

something physically too
quickly and pull a muscle

that just reminds you
that your getting older.

- Are you fearful of the future?

Of disability or unable to do things?

- You hope that
you're going to be one of the

fortunate ones and not get ill in any way.

- Hey Ken.

- Hi Paul, how are you?

- Maybe where I work, I may
have helped that recently

because people just tend
to get on with their lives

no matter what.

- And then that's the one with the palace.

- You've got a
nice shot of a bin there.

- That one's good you're getting better,

you are getting better.

- Do you
measure your life in terms

of success and failure in any sense?

- No not really.

I mean I suppose the success
is that we're sitting here

together and we haven't
had tragedy happen to us.

- It's just about getting on with life

and enjoying our
grandchildren, our children,

and our friends.

- Yeah, our goals of life have never...

- And then work just gets in the way.

- Well we pretend we've got swords

and we make the noise
of the swords fighting

and when somebody stabs us we go ahh.

- Neil grew up
in a Liverpool suburb.

And had dreams of going to
Oxford, but didn't get in.

Instead he went to Aberdeen University

but dropped out after the first term.

At 21, Neil was working on a building site

and living in a squat.

- I would like to be somebody
in a position of importance

and I've always thought this.

But I don't think I'm
the right sort of person

to carry the responsibility
for whatever it is.

I always thought well I'd love,

to be possibly even love to be in politics

or something like this.

- At 28 we found Neil homeless

wandering around the
west coast of Scotland.

- If the money runs out

well then for a few days
there's nowhere to go to.

That's all you go do.

I simply have to find the
warmest shed I can find.

- At 35, he was
living in a council estate

on the most northerly part of
Britain, the Shetland Islands.

What would you like to
be doing say in 7 years?

- I can think
of all kinds of things

that I'd like to be doing.

The real question is what
am I likely to be doing.

- What are
you likely to be doing?

- That's a horrible question.

I tend to think the most
likely answer is that

I will be wandering homeless
around the streets of London.

Can I just point out some of
the considerable disadvantages?

First of all they are geographically...

- At 42, Neil
had moved to London

and was a Liberal Democrat
on Hackney Council.

- While I was in
Shetland I felt very strongly

that I should become involved in politics

simply because I felt I was not achieving

anything in the ways I really wanted to.

- By 49, Neil had left London,

moved to Cumbria in the
North West of England,

and was a Liberal Democrat member

of his local district Council.

- Fairly simple.

It was a committee decision,
a majority decision,

his own group on the
establishment committee

agreed with the decision.

- Counsellor Hughes.

- Well for Council Nines information,

Counsellor Cook has
reconsidered his opinion

that he entered at that meeting.

Here we are in the centre of the ward

I represent on the Council,

these are our public toilets.

I can assure you that
no more fierce battle

has ever been fought either
on the playing fields

or indeed on the battlefields of England

to save what might appear
to be a comparatively

insignificant local amenity.

- It sounds vaguely comic

but presumably it's not to you?

- When you live in a small community

you become very proud rightly
of the facilities here.

And people are willing to play a part

in helping to keep them going

but they don't want to be ignored,

they don't want to be marginalised.

My strength is being able
to keep going really.

And my weakness is not being able

to take any positive course of action.

No formal education can
prepare anybody for life.

Only life can prepare you for what comes.

And sooner or later you're going to

have to cross certain barriers.

There are a few things
I would like to say.

And the first thing to say is

there's been tremendous
goodwill towards the series.

But I'm also aware that I'm
not the only participant

who wants to set the record
straight in a number of ways.

For so many millions of people,

I'm here wearing my heart on my sleeve

and they think they know
absolutely everything about me.

There were countless people writing to me

saying I know exactly how you feel.

And actually from those letters
I would say none of them,

not a single one of them, knew
exactly how I was feeling.

- I've got a great deal of
respect for the Liberal Democrats

but I think that I won't
vote for them this time...

- Here in Cumbria I'm really
glad to be doing what I do,

to be representing people
at a local political level,

but in one sense I'm doing that

because it's the only way I've
been able to make any money.

I get a derisory amount of
money for being a Counsellor.

I do enjoy the work but I've
been completely unsuccessful

in trying to find a
paid career of any kind.

I have always wanted to write as a career

and indeed have written huge amounts

and ironically despite
appearing in this programme,

so frequently nobody has ever
shown any serious interest

in any of the work I do and believe me

it's a great deal more important to me

than anything I can say
on a television screen.

Even if somebody sent it back to me

and said well I've read it
and its rubbish actually,

that would be very demoralising

but at least some interaction
would have taken place.

There's hardly a day goes
by when I don't write.

- It's a great gift isn't it?

- It is but it shouldn't
be a sort of masturbation

about which nobody else knows anything.

- Neil Hughes is
the Liberal Democrat candidate.

- I and the Liberal Democrats

want to see a just and fair
society in which everyone...

- In 2006, I was invited
to go to Australia

to give a talk and the
chap who introduced me said

Neil is clearly such a
profoundly motivated politician

that we can all expect to
see him as Prime Minister

of the United Kingdom in the future.

Now this wasn't a joke I assure you

he said this with absolute seriousness.

Now it was ludicrous but
this is how wildly skewed

the perceptions have become.

I mean do you think I would really

have been invited to
Australia if they were aware

that I was someone who lives
on a few quid a week benefit

and has as much chance
of changing the future

of the United Kingdom as

I don't know someone who's
serving a lifetime jail sentence.

Yes I'd say I believed in God.

- Are you religious?

- Well I go to church with
my parents on Sundays.

I don't know even now whether
I do believe in God or not.

I've thought an awful
lot about it actually

and I still don't know.

- And how has
he been treating you?

- Well I said to somebody last week

that I preferred the Old
Testament to the New Testament

because in the Old Testament
God is very unpredictable

and that's I think how
I've seen him in my life.

And Doreen as well and also...

I was first a Lay Reader in London

after completing a little more training

I was relicensed by
the Bishop of Carlisle.

Well good morning, welcome
to our service today.

Just a couple of notices first.

If you haven't already been
told the proposed pet show

is unfortunately cancelled due...

I'm a Lay Minister.

I'm licenced to carry out
quite a number of functions

which includes leading
services, preaching,

taking part in the readings,

helping to distribute
the Communion and so on.

In fact I can do more or less
everything a Priest can do.

To what extent am I a
good model for others?

I don't know.

On the other hand I am
angry that so many doors

have been closed not just for
me but for so many people.

I do feel nobody's listening out there,

you know there seem to be few currents

that are encouraging people
to stand up for their rights,

not just their strict legal rights

but their rights to be human.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

I'm not unappreciative
of the honour its been

to be able to serve the church,

to be able to serve my community,

and I want to make that absolutely clear

and it's true that I think
it was Abercam who said

life is what happens while
you're waiting for something else

but it's not the sort of place

where someone who wants to
change society is best employed.

I would have thought
that was pretty obvious.

In the winter if you live
in the country it would just

be all wet and there wouldn't
be anything for miles around.

We're a very quiet village.

There's always room for more activity

and for more people being involved

but I think we do fairly well
as a diversity of groups.

They're still trying to
persuade me to go in.

Actually apparently Alan has
cried off at the last minute

so there's just the two of them.

I think it was Pascal,

the great Philosopher and Mathematician,

who said that if a man can live happily

in his own living room
for most of his life

then he's achieved the upmost
philosophical breakthrough

and philosophically speaking
that's true but I can't.

You only stick me in my living
room for one hour on my own

and I want to be out doing something,

I want to be out changing things.

I have always had a nervous complaint.

I've had it since I was 16.

It was responsible for
my leaving university

and for some of my difficulties with work.

- Do you
worry about your sanity?

- Other people sometimes worry about it.

- Like who?

- As I've said I sometimes
can be found behaving

in an erratic fashion,
sometimes I get very frustrated,

very angry for no apparent reason,

for a reason which won't be apparent

to other people around me.

I don't see any way out.

I've thought of everything
I possibly could,

it seemed to me for a long time
that getting a reliable job

and a nice place to live
would be the solution.

Well I haven't succeeded.

I can't see any immediate future at all.

Although there have been times in my life

when I've been suicidal,
that wasn't one of them.

- So there have
been worse than what we saw?

- Yes, but it's not for
this programme to expose my

private feelings and yet many
people feel it has ultimately.

Although this time round,
I've been far more candid

than I perhaps ever have in the past.

My formal contact with the
psychiatric establishment

belongs mostly to my need in later teens

and a short period in my early twenties.

But I soon came to the opinion that

I could help myself far better than

those who were purporting to help me.

But I was aware even then

that a lot of the therapeutic
technique is about

leading people to exactly
this conclusion if its unwell,

so I'm not going down
the line of criticising

the medical establishment.

- But did you refuse to

go in to any sort of treatment?

- No, I did have contact.

- But then you discontinued it?

- Yes.

- Do you still
think that was wise?

- Yes.

- Are you scared of getting old?

- Yeah I don't want to
live to be that old.

I think if I can reach
something like 70 or 75

in reasonable health, that
will be quite enough for me.

When I get married I don't
want to have any children

because they are always
doing naughty things

and making the whole house untidy.

I always told myself that I
would never have children.

- Why?

- Well because children inherit
something from their parents

and even if my wife were
the most high spirited,

and ordinary, and normal of people

the child would still
stand a very fair chance

of being not totally full of happiness

because of what he or she
will have inherited from me.

- Have you ever really had

a romantic, emotional relationship?

- Well I've had several

but the fact that I'm living alone still

obviously portrays the fact
that none of them has endured.

- Is there a reason for that?

- Relationships always involve two people.

- But the string of failures

does that tell us something?

- Well I'm sure it does.

Any fool can see that, I'm
not saying you're a fool.

- And what does it tell us?

- It tells you what you like,

it tells you that I haven't been

successful in relationships.

It may tell you that I'm intolerant

but more likely it tells you
that I don't have the capacity

for making a relationship work.

But I must stress again
that it does take two.

I have never walked out of
any relationship with anybody.

It sounds like ghostly coloured people.

You think of a purple person
with red eyes and yellow feet,

it can't really think of
what they really look like.

I find it hard to believe
that I was ever like that

but there's the evidence.

And probably when I was 7 I
just lived in a wonderful world

where everything was sensational on,

I could be happy and I could
be miserable the next minute.

- What makes you happy?

- Happy is a difficult word,
how many people are happy?

Perhaps we're most happy
when we're not aware of it

and enjoying a relaxed
meal with some friends,

just being with friends.

I think the few weekends in the year

when I'm lucky to be able to go and stay

with some of my long term
friends I'm really happy.

I can think of hardly anything better than

walking across the
fields when we just chat

about the things we're both interested in

and our aspirations and I
think that's the noblest

and in many ways most
satisfying of relationships

you could possibly have.

How it would be if we live
next door to each other?

I don't know it might be very different

but maybe the joy in some relationships

is that you see some
people only infrequently.

- I don't think you
want to go to university

if you want to be an astronaut.

Watch this.

- Peter and Neil
were childhood friends

growing up in Liverpool.

Peter went to a comprehensive school

and went on to get a history
degree from London University.

- I would like to think that
democracy is here to stay,

perhaps we haven't got full democracy.

In fact we probably haven't,
it's a pretty good system.

- Are you surprised

by the way England's been governed?

- I'm not surprised with the people

that govern it at the moment, no.

I've even stopped being amazed.

- Why?

- Why?

Well I don't want to get
dragged in to party politics

you know basically this
is the most incompetent,

uncaring bloody shower we've ever had.

- After 28UP,

Peter decided not to continue in the film.

- Why did you pull out?

- I pulled out because of

the responses and the reactions that

my participation drew
in the weeks afterwards.

Particularly in the tabloid press.

They decided they were going to portray me

as the angry young Red
in Thatcher's England.

Well it's just the principle that's all.

I think it was articulating at the time

what a lot of people my
age and my background

were thinking and I was an easy target.

But I was absolutely taken aback,

completely genuinely shocked at

what I saw as the level
of malice and ill will

directed towards me.

Until you have experienced it yourself

you can't begin to
appreciate how it feels.

- So now your
back, why did you come back?

- I feel a lot happier with myself,

happier in my own skin, and
then secondly more specifically

because I want to promote the
music and the band I'm in.

♪ It was a goers town ♪

- And what are you called?

- We're called The Good Intensions.

♪ But when he hit that bang ♪

I'd always played in rock bands,

some of the spectacularly bad bands.

What really got me into this music was

being exposed to the
music of Grant Parsons.

Because way back in the day I
was a big Elvis Costello fan

and I read an interview
with him in which he said

well if you think I'm a good song writer

listen to this guy Grant Parsons.

It was almost like an epiphany.

It was like I was hearing the music

I'd been waiting to hear all my life.

Once Kellen Zeffer said she loved me

and I'm going to marry her when I grow up.

It doesn't appeal to me
at all at the moment.

I'm just gone 20.

I haven't even been abroad yet in my life.

So no way am I going to settled down.

- So what do you want to do?

Do you want to sort of record me and Pete,

to record what we are doing
and you'll work round it?

- I think that's good.

- We were working
in an office together

when we joined the office band

and that's how we got to know each other.

- So Gabby, was
it love at first sight?

- Well I had a sneaking
suspicion that Pete liked me

'cause he was really rude and
sarcastic to me all the time

so I thought oh, I think
he's probably quite keen.

- No, that's not true.

- You've always
played together since then?

- Yeah more or less.

We probably stopped for a while
when the kids were little.

- Our boy's 19, our daughter is 16.

- And how are they doing?

- They're great, they're really good.

- They're remarkably well.

Our son is in his first year at university

and our daughter is
coming up to her GCSE's.

Once you have your own kids
you have this huge realisation

of how your own parents felt about you

and what they did for you.

- What's the greatest gift

that a parent can give a child?

- It's that unstinting love
and support and their time.

The time I think children
value that more than anything.

You giving unconditionally,
you giving them your time.

Well if I can't be an astronaut

I'd like to be a Bridewell
Sergeant in the police force

like my dad is.

- So are you
under pressure to get a job?

- Yeah I suspect I am from the parents,

they keep dropping hints.

Teachers are under valued and under rated

and the whole the system
is beginning to crumble.

People outside of it don't realise that

but it is and it's very disillusioning.

I left teaching not long
after that programme.

It was actually nothing
to do with the programme.

That was a misunderstanding at the time

I think which took hold in the press.

I'd been planning to leave teaching anyway

and I just didn't see the long
term future in it for myself

and I just thought I had to be
honest with myself about that

and honest to the kids I
was teaching at the time

and move on to something else.

- It might be better to start
off at the end of the line.

- After
teaching Peter studied law

and joined the Civil Service.

Gabby also works there.

- The Civil Service despite
changes currently taking place

is still a comparatively
a pretty decent employer.

So shall we do one of the new ones?

- What area of the
Civil Service are you in?

- Department
for Work and Pensions.

- So you've changed the key in that one?

- I've changed the key to an
F sharp, sorry about that.

- Oh, marvellous.

- You've got MP3, I assume.

- When Pete writes he
often wants to share that,

and at a fairly early stage,
talk about what he's writing

and if it's no good I have to tell him.

And that's quite difficult isn't it?

- I'm sure it is, yeah.

♪ She was running down
roads I didn't know ♪

- So when we started work
on the album we're doing now

Pete said to me I've got 120
song ideas I want to go through

and I said but of those 120

really we need to get it down to about 10

so I am going to have to tell
you that 110 are no good.

- How do you take criticism?

- Well I think I take it
better than I used to.

- That's not setting the
bar very high though is it?

- No.

- What have been
for you the best times?

- Tommy Smith scoring
the second goal in Rome.

Definitely one of the all times.

- Which game was that?

Which game was that?

That European Cup Final 1977.

That's still up there by the way.

- But along with what?

- But well getting married
for the second time,

and having two children

have been hugely significant
moments in my life.

- What do you want out of life?

- The satisfaction of knowing

that I've left some sort of imprint

rather than just lived out my life.

♪ You've been gone for
so long eventually ♪

♪ No one's looking for you anymore ♪

I hesitate to say to think
I have made my mark now

because that sounds horrendously vain

but I've created a body of work
of which I feel very proud.

I feel I've achieved
something of lasting value.

And in the last two or three years

we have began to become
reasonably successful

in terms of critical responses.

We were voted the UK's
Americana Act of the Year

at the British Country Music Awards.

From time to time like anybody else,

I'll look back and think
I wish I hadn't done that

or I wish I'd done that differently

but I don't think really life
is there to be regretted.

Life is there to be lived.

And I think the most important thing

is to feel that by enlarge you
haven't compromised too much

and that you've moved your life on where

you want your life to go.

- And what
about the other children?

Where are they now?

What are they doing?

- I would like to get
married when I grow up.

I mean I know its not possible
to be happy all the time

but as much of the time that was possible.

- When I grow up I'd like to

find out all about the moon and all that.

It would seem really ridiculous

to any of my friends who watched this

if I said Christ aren't I
a great success look at me.

- When I get married I'd
like to have two children.

I don't like babies.

- I feel like bundling when
there's already a fight.

I think I admire people
with great determination.

Like people who have just
come up from nothing.

- In 1964 Granada
television brought together

a group of seven-year-olds
from all over the country

and from all walks of life.

- I'm going to work in Woolworths.

- I read the Financial Times.

- They talked about
their dreams, their ambitions

and their fears for the future.

- Everything throughout the
year it all landed on my head.

- For nearly half a century,

in a unique ground-breaking
series of films,

we have followed their
lives every seven years.

They are now 46.

Lynn, Sue and Jackie grew up

in London's East End and
were friends at school.

- With this school we do metalwork

and woodwork and the boys do cookery.

All you girls want to do
is walk out, get married,

have babies, and push
a pram down the street

with a fag hanging out
the side of your mouth.

- I think that we all
could have gone in any way

that we wanted to at the
time within our capabilities.

- But we only had a limited choice anyway,

I mean truth be told
we didn't have a choice

of private education because they

couldn't have afforded it anyway.

- Our lives are changing
far too much all of us.

- Well to be honest when you
look at the seven-year-old us

it's difficult to believe it is us.

- I've got to say it girls I
wanted to work in Woolworths.

- I'm glad you said that 'cause
everyone thinks it was me.

- I would like to get
married when I grow up.

Well I don't know what sort of boy

but I think one that's
not got a lot of money

but has got some money, not a lot.

- Have you got any boyfriends?

- That's personal isn't it?

- By the time she was 21 Jackie

had married Mick and moved
to the outskirts of London.

She and Mick had decided early on

that they didn't want to have children.

- Basically
I would have said it's

because I'm far too selfish.

- By 35, she was divorced.

- We decided ourselves, I mean
just between the two of us,

we knew it wasn't going any further.

We both knew I think that
at the end of the day

we would be happier leading our own lives.

And this one on, here you go, oh yeah.

I had a brief but very sweet relationship,

the result of which was Charlie.

I don't really want Charlie to be an only.

I'd love him to have brothers and sisters

but not necessarily loads of
them, one would do actually!

Right Charlie there's yours.

And please eat it all up.

And James.

- Thanks mum.

- Good boy, and last but not least.

Are you going to eat that one for me?

- After her relationship

with Charlie's father ended,
she met Ian and they moved

to Scotland and had two sons

- James.

- By 42, they had split up.

- Lee.

- At 49, despite the split,

the family were living in
the same area of Scotland.

Seven years later, they are still there.

So tell me who lives where?

- Lee will be here until October.

James is here until he
moves in with his girlfriend

which I'm hoping won't be too long.

Charlie has actually
already moved out because

of his dad, or their dad I should say,

because Ian's been diagnosed with cancer

and its stage four so it's quite advanced.

Oh yeah, he likes a thrill.

You know what he's like.

- The strange
part about this is his

mother's also got cancer as well.

- Your grandmother?

- Their grandmother.

Hey come on swans!

She's brilliant.

If I could have chosen a mother-in-law

she was the one that I would have chosen.

She's great for me, she's
absolutely brilliant

with the children and she's just always

there when I need her to be.

She's terminal.

- How long's she got?

- Don't know.

Not too bad.

They don't know how long.

I think they're talking
months rather than years

and to have mother and son suffering

the same sort of thing is very difficult.

- She doesn't want us to
sit around and feel sorry

and be sad she wants us to
get on and live our lives

and it's not stopped her
from trying to live her life.

- It seems to have been

one thing after another really.

My step mum died, my brother-in-law died,

my sister's died, she wasn't 40.

She'd actually gone downstairs
and made herself a cup of tea

and collapsed on the way
back up to her bedroom

and that was a major brain haemorrhage.

- So boys, how is
your mother handling all this?

- In her stride.

- Nothing seems to be
getting to her, it's just...

- She's always been a strong woman.

She will be upset but
she won't let us see it.

She always puts on a
brave face in front of us

but when she's alone or with her friends

that's when she gets the sadness out.

- This is a period

when the four of you feel close?

- We've got to be there for
each other in things like this.

- Actually, I would say
in the last six months

they've all suddenly seemed
to have gotten a new maturity.

My mum cause she's got five girls,

she had seven years bad luck,

that's why she's got five girls.

- Two club sandwiches on brown bread,

one Hilton burger with cheese.

- Charlie is a sous-chef

in a nearby hotel, and
James works part time

as a security guard in
a local super market

- Check two aisles up from
your current location.

I'm expecting a baby in December,
I'm still young obviously

so it was a bit of a shock
but I am excited about it.

- How old are you now?

- 19 coming on 20

- Okay and can I ask are you
excited to becoming a gran?

- I don't know about that.

- She doesn't
like being called granny!

- No, I will be gran, not granny.

Thank you!

Not nappy fill now please
madam, oh look at the face.

Well since you were here
recently we've had a new addition

to the family her name is Mya.

Mya was born on the 21st of November

and unfortunately on the
18th November her granddad,

Ian,the boys dad, was severely injured

in a road traffic accident.

He subsequent died of those injuries.

Unfortunately, he never
regained consciousness

so he never even met
her but he took a photo

of her in his coffin and I
dare say he's looking down

and saying "ha I got away with it.

I've not got all those nights."

- I'm due to go in the
army on the 17th of October

where I'll learn to become a medic.

- I mean I can't stop him now he's 18.

He can do what he likes.

He can sign on without my approval.

But it's a chance he
takes and he knows that

there's a possibility
that he won't come home.

- At the end of the day you're a soldier

and going out to war is
part of being a soldier

and that's what you got to do.

- I want you to do it but
it's not gonna stop me

worrying you know that, you know that.

I took a year off when I had Charlie

and the state kept me for that year

but I went back to work
and although to be honest

by the time I pay everything out

I'm not actually that better
off but I feel better.

James, you watch your catching up to him.

Go on Lee.

I was working up here until very recently

but they've discovered that
I've got rheumatoid arthritis

so at the moment that's put work on hold.

Missy, come on then!

For every one good day I
have I can have two bad,

which means I can't get
out of bed very well.

It takes me two, three hours to get ready.

The poor, if you don't help them

they'll sort of die soon wouldn't they?

- Jackie has been living

on disability benefits for over 14 years.

- I don't cope financially,
without my mother-in-law

stepping in to fill the
gap I wouldn't be coping.

It's really hard to explain to anyone

who's not had to do it, you
get to a point where either

that bill doesn't get
paid or your children

don't eat, so obviously your children eat.

You can go to the charity
shop and get them.

I'll never notice...

- So looking at the world

of cut backs how is this affecting you?

- I along with probably
millions of other people

in this country have
had my benefits reviewed

and they sent me for a
medical and have come back

and told me I'm fit to work
which is a bit of a shock,

what job can I do, I can't use my hands,

I can't sit for long, I can't stand

for long, I can't walk very far.

I don't know how they
expect anybody to employ me

because I couldn't guarantee
being there five days a week.

I mean I'm lucky in as
much as I've got three sons

all working, whilst James here's got Mya

and a family of his own,
Charlie and Lee don't

so they help me out and they have to.

By all means cut the benefits
but you've got people

out there that are healthy
and are milking the system

and they're not touching them,
they're getting away with it.

If David Cameron can find me
a job then I'll go to work,

if he can find an employer, you tell him

to come and get me a job and I'll do it.

Well I know he is hers and he loves her.

- I don't I love him.

- I'd like to have a happy family',

I mean I know that it's
not possible to be happy

all the time but as much of
the time that it was possible.

- Well what about your own life,

what about relationships for you?

- I would like a relationship.

I mean I've been trying
for the last five years

to build up a social life of my own

because I knew that this time would come.

I've been using the internet

which is interesting to say the least.

- Is it scary?

- I mean you know some people have

obviously had bad experiences with it.

Yes.

- But there was
a chap that we filmed when

we were looking at you and
Liz, what happened to him?

- He decided he needed space.

So I gave him that space.

So that was a bit of a disaster.

But that's the way of relationships

sometimes they work sometimes they don't.

- What are you
looking for in a fellow?

- A pulse would be nice!

♪ If I say that I love you ♪

♪ And you know it's true ♪

- You look
great, you seem optimistic.

- Yeah, no I am.

My glass is always half
full never half empty

and that's the way it will
continue to be I hope.

Life's too short and you just
have to try and go on the best

you can and I think my
life's gonna be good.

- What sort of things do you do?

- Ride, swim, play tennis, ping pong.

I might play croquet, something like that.

- I don't think my father
wants me to be a farmer.

My youngest brother, the
deaf one, if he can't

do anything else he can
probably run a farm.

I thought that you and
I were both in the film

as being rural in the
sense that your family had

some big connections to
rural Scotland I thought.

- Yeah and I think
also when we were 21 I seem

to remember having to go to some reunion

or something somewhere and I
remember you just stuck out

as being the one person that I had more

in common with and spoke to the most.

Well I've played for the same four girls

for the last 25, 26 years.

- We've been emailing each other

since forty something...

- I think yes.

It was one night it was just,
I think it was quite late

and I just threw a line at Nick.

So I said I'm going to
bed now I said perhaps you

and I ought to do a double act

on the sofa and I went to bed...

- I'm not sure...

I mean...

- And you wrote back some funny message

that I picked up the next morning.

- Well no wonder
I would wouldn't I?

- When I leave this school
I'm down for Heathfield

and Southhill Manor and
then maybe I may want to go

to a university but I
don't know which one yet.

My home life wasn't very easy then.

I'd been sent off to boarding
school when I was quite young.

My parents marriage was breaking up

and like a lot of
children I think you feel

that you take the blame
for why they've broken up.

That's just the way it was
and I hated the two years

I was away at this first boarding school

and I think that was
probably what changed me.

- Well I hated boarding
school too with a passion.

I was forced to grow, I didn't choose it;

I definitely got some messages
that said you're gonna

be in trouble if you
don't do well and so on.

- But you don't regret it...

- No, no, no.

- And you wouldn't you wouldn't
have the life you have now.

- Hey I'm grateful for it but
it was very uncomfortable.

- I was never one
to push myself forward.

- And nobody else was pushing.

- And no one else pushed me.

I left school when I
was 16, went to Paris,

went to secretarial college and got a job.

- What made you decide

to leave school and go to Paris?

- Well I just wanted interested in school

and just wanted to get away.

- If you have had no
choice but to get out there

and support yourself the
chances would have been greater

that you would have
forced yourself to do it.

- Yeah that's
possibly true but at the age

of 11, 12, 13 are you
really aware of that?

- Now that's a very telling question,

in my world you betcha.

When I grow I'd like to find out all

about the moon and all that.

And I said that I was
interested in physics

and chemistry, well I'm
not going to do that here.

- At 14 Nick was
away at boarding school,

at 21 reading physics at Oxford.

His road to Oxford started
in a one room village school.

- My father was here a long time ago

He must be somewhere in these pictures.

I remember distinctly coming here one day

and I'd missed a day for some reason

and they'd been talking about something

to do with aeroplanes and
the teacher said we missed you

because you would have
known about aeroplanes.

I knew nothing about aeroplanes

but I thought oh I know
about aeroplanes do I?

So then I went off and
read about aeroplanes,

so that could easily have
been the start of I want to go

to the moon and I think she
planted that idea in me.

- Do you have a girlfriend?

- I don't want to answer that.

I don't want to answer
those kind of questions.

I thought that one would come
up because when I was doing

the other one somebody
said what do you think

about girls and I said I don't
answer questions like that,

is that the reason your asking it?

The best answer would be to say

that I don't answer questions like that

but I mean it was what
I said when I was seven

and it's still the most
sensible but what about them?

- I mean if you'd been somebody
who had had fixed ideas

of a woman's role in
marriage that meant dinner

on the table at six every evening...

- Didn't I tell you about that?

- By 28 Nick had married Jackie,

a fellow student from Oxford.

They had a son Adam.

By 42 they were divorced.

- What I concluded and
I've talked to other people

about this who've gone through it,

I'm not sure if they feel it as strongly

as I did but it was like a death.

- Anything could happen, we
could easily drift apart;

there are so many pressures on people.

- If your spouse died you could look back

and think well it was
wonderful while it lasted,

but in a divorce you can't look back

and say these are all happy memories.

- Hey Chris.

- Chris is my new wife.

I don't mean to be superficial but I think

she's the most beautiful
woman I've ever seen.

- Is he sexy?

- Oh man.

Absolutely.

Didn't you have fun with that one?

- Well I always need to learn patience

and, what do I need to learn?

- Shall I get out my list?

- Yeah I think we need the list.

- Go on.

- No.

- Tell me do you
have any boyfriends Suzy?

- Yes

- Tell me about them?

- He lives up in Scotland
and I think he's 13.

- Have you
got any boyfriends Suzy?

What is your attitude towards
marriage for yourself?

- Well I don't know.

I haven't given it a lot of thought

'cause I'm very very cynical about it.

- When I last saw
you at 21 you were nervous,

you were chain smoking, you
were uptight and now you seem

happy, what's happened to you
over these last seven years?

- I suppose Rupert.

I'll give you some credit.

- I'm not chain smoking.

- No I think you can't just
walk through a marriage

and think once you get
married it's all gonna

be roses and everything forever.

It's very hard to actually
say what it is that goes on

between a couple, it's
either there or it's not.

Any marriage has its ups
and downs but somehow

whether it's through luck or determination

we've worked through the difficult times.

- One of my favourite places
in Oxford, Merton Chapel.

Here's this lovely top part of the cross

and there was going to be
the main part of the cross.

This is one of the places in England

that just is tremendously important to me.

After I left the Dales
this was where I spent

the next six years and
then I went to America.

- Look at this isn't this beautiful?

This is Mob Quad.

I believe that it's
historical fact that there

were quite a lot of
students who were massacred

in the Middle Ages and for.

When I came here I thought
I'd died and gone to heaven.

But I was under an awful
lot of stress all the time

I was here trying to succeed
in this place as well.

- Okay, yeah so this was my staircase

in my first year and
also on my third year.

There was this fella who lived
in the room next door to me

and he came in one day
to tell me some story

and on his way out he said "you know

I don't associate intelligence
with your accent."

It would seem really
ridiculous to any of my friends

who watch this if I said "Christ aren't I

a great success look at me, what success?

- By the time he was 28

Nick had emigrated to America.

He was doing research into nuclear fusion

at the University of Wisconsin.

- Tell me about the current drive.

- If you'd have
been offered a similar

type of job over here...

- In a heartbeat.

- You would have stayed?

- In a heartbeat.

I mean I had dreamed of getting
a university job over here.

Maggie Thatcher was squeezing
the universities like crazy

at that very moment in time
and it was the worst time

to be working in a
university in generations.

England doesn't seem to concern itself

with training people like
me and wanting them around.

There doesn't seem to
be a sense of urgency

or a strong will to have
people developing technology

to help keep the country going.

The fusion reaction gives
off energy and produces

the power that would be
turned into electrical energy.

I was on a mission you know to get

extremely cheap, clean
plentiful electricity,

so nuclear fusion looked
like it was going to do that

but even then they were
saying it's twenty years away.

I would say absolutely not in my lifetime.

I mean it was kind of heartbreaking.

So I had to find something else to do.

So the area that I'm looking
at is this times this.

When I go in to a classroom
full of undergraduates I try

and explain to them why they
might want to try and do it.

That's my little attempt to
open a little door for them.

See, there's a method in my madness.

- Nick is a Professor
of Electrical Engineering.

- That's really
impressive, he was the guy.

And my ambition as a
scientist is to be more famous

for doing science than
for being in this film

but unfortunately Michael
it's not going to happen.

- When I get married I'd
like to have two children.

I'm not very children-minded
at the moment,

I don't know if I ever will be.

- What do you think about them?

- Well I don't like babies.

- At 28 Suzy had
two sons Thomas and Oliver.

- Don't touch it.

- By the time she was 34

she also had a daughter Laura.

- Mummy?

- Yeah

- Laura wants you.

- We were lucky we had
a very good family unit

with them growing up and
that meant an awful lot

to me that I was able to do that

for them 'cause I never had it for myself.

- And you've done it.

You've been tremendously successful at it.

- Well you see that's my problem.

I don't think as myself as being,

I just do my best and
do what I can for them.

- Did all your
children go to university?

Your daughter did?

- Yes and my son, the eldest one.

Hello.

I haven't had a successful career no,

but I do feel fulfilled
and I mean I've done quite

a lot of different things
over the last seven years.

You know we all make
mistakes in everything

from parenting to decisions in life,

you make mistakes and that's how

you become the person you are.

- You can talk to me by myself outside

but I'll just meet your
by the garage okay?

All right bye.

- Nick's son Adam

was 10 when his parents divorced.

- When he was first
told he was terribly,

terribly upset and then he
just pulled himself together

and didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Take it easy Adam the main
thing is not to crash.

- Really you don't want
me to crash right now?

- How's he deal with it now?

- He doesn't talk to me
about it very much at all.

He's a private person.

He's getting more mature and he has

to be very patient with me really.

Can you imagine having me for a dad?

Do you think it would be
a low-pressure existence?

Wow this is my little school.

I'm nuts and I would drive a kid nuts

with all my nagging, I mean I drive...

- Do you think you've pushed him

too far which is why
he's now backing away?

- Anything I push him to do he's going

to do the opposite so
there's a real you know.

They'd like to come out for
a holiday in the country

when I like to have a holiday in the town.

It's a fixed reference point in a sense,

the sort of earthy life and death cycle

that you get living on a farm.

And so when something dies it rots

and feeds back in to the earth.

- He has a density to him.

One of the first things he said

to me is my feet on in the mud.

The whole idea of being deep
in the mud and very attached

to a foundation makes good sense to me.

- Nick has two younger brothers,

Andrew and Christopher.

- Well I come up most weekends
and then Chris gets up

usually in mid week so
he helps with shopping

and stuff like that and does
things around the house.

- We don't get over the England very often

and so you can count on
one hand how many times

you're gonna see your
family before somebody dies.

And that's getting more and
more pressing every time

we come; you know, so yeah this is tricky.

- How are they doing?

- Not well, they're very old.

Yeah I don't really want to
elaborate on that and you know.

- But it's
full of emotion all this?

- It's all the stuff
that we repress as hard

as we can isn't it, but yeah it really is.

I'm looking at these
names and who they all are

but this of course is Granny
Hitchon and Grandpa Hitchon.

When I was a little guy I
got up at the crack of dawn

and scooted next door to
spend the morning with her.

So yes when she died when
I was five or six I think,

so I think I was devastated yeah.

- And you still remember her?

- Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

- I know you should let these things out

and I don't I store them up but that's

the character of me now
and I can't change it.

- Thank you very much.

- Oh yes, thank you yes.

Nick is truly English.

I mean my father is
English and I was probably

in my late twenties maybe early thirties

before I uttered the words I love you

to either one of my parents.

There is a difference, a
distinct difference between

the type of English
person he is and the type

of American people I've been with.

So I don't, you may
know the difference too

Michael because you've
been in both settings.

♪ If I say that I love you ♪

- What do you think
about making this programme?

- I just think
it's just ridiculous.

I don't see any point in doing it.

- Why is it that we are

so annoyed about this programme?

- I think the problem I have is

that you don't get a very rounded picture.

You get the odd comment that
comes out on a particular topic

but because of the time
restraint that this programme

obviously has otherwise we'd be on

for a couple of months if you were trying

to get everybody's real
thoughts on things.

- It's just that the
limitations of such things

as what the audience require and the time

don't allow it to be a real study.

I think I'd like to say this
and I'd like to say that

and then they film me sort
of doing all this daft stuff

and it goes on seven days
out of every seven years.

It's sort of biblical something or other

and it's all this excitement and so on

and then they present
this tiny little snippet

of your life and it's like
that's all there is to me?

- When I go home I go and see my mother

and I have tea and watch TV.

And then I do my homework
and I go and see my father.

Were they in the sixties
trying to say that the fact

that I'd supposedly had a
more privileged upbringing

that I should have been the one

who'd become the high flyer and that you...

- Absolutely.

- You having come, I mean I
just think that's so wrong

but is that what they
were trying to get at?

- The idea of looking at a
bunch of people over time

and how they evolve that
was a really nifty idea.

It isn't a picture really of
the essence of Nick or Suzy.

It's a picture of everyman.

It's how a person any
person, how they change.

You know just seeing me this age

and the next age with
more wrinkles and more oh.

- I think we all have got a few of those.

- Oops.

- Oops

- It's not an absolute
accurate picture of me

but it's a picture of somebody
and that's the value of it.

- But then we're putting
ourselves out to be that person.

I didn't want to do it when I was 14.

I know I was very difficult
because I was very anti

doing it; I was pressurised in to doing it

by my parents and I hated it and I vowed

I'd never do it now but here I am.

I mean who knows in seven years

whether it will be done again

but this is me saying hopefully I'll reach

my half century next
year and I shall bow out.

I don't know what happened.

I was quite adamant I
wasn't going to do it

and then, I don't know I suppose I have

this ridiculous sense of loyalty
to it even though I hate it

and that's just such a
contradiction isn't it?

But, and also I think it's
like reading a bad book.

I'll still read it.

I'll still see it through and
I guess I'll put this down

to being a bad book but
I'll see it through.

- Symon was brought
up in a children's home,

the only child of a single parent.

- They say where's your father then?

You know, when your mum's out at work?

They say where's your father?

And I just tell them I ain't got one.

See, I can get on well
with my mother sometimes.

We talk very well with each other

but it's sometimes not quite as mother

and son, sort of more like friends.

- When he was 34
Symon's mother died of cancer.

- There was so many things I
never actually said to my mum

that, just things you
think about afterwards

it's too late because
they're not there anymore.

- What sort of things?

- I don't know, just I love you every day.

When I was born, an illegitimate child,

that's something that's
only whispered about.

People feel strongly
about it in those days

but nowadays it's not a serious matter.

The serious point is whether you

stay with somebody or you leave them.

Since 21 I've got married,
had a couple of kids.

- By 28 he had married

Yvonne and they had five children.

- They've got everything; they've
even got what I never had.

- Which is what?

- A father isn't it?

So I mean they've had everything.

- By 35 they were divorced.

- At one stage they all
stopped seeing me at all

but now a bit older, a bit
wiser and I'm a bit older

and wiser and now three of them see me.

- At 42 he'd married Vienetta.

- We used to go out when we were younger.

We met in the launderette.

- Once a week.

- Once a week in the launderette.

- Vienetta
already had a daughter,

Miriam, and she and
Symon had a son Daniel.

Is there anything of you in him?

His dashing good looks yeah, that's me

and his love of sport as well.

Well today is Daniel's big, big day.

He's now 18 and he's a young
man, he says, and he's done

very, very well with his
schooling and everything.

- At the beginning of the
week I received an email

saying that I got on to my apprenticeship

with Proctor and Gamble,
which I'm very happy

and excited about and I start that

in the next couple of weeks.

- What I want to say is that
I have had the proudest week

of my life with my son passing his exams.

He's passed his test and if when

and he runs through it he might get a car.

♪ Happy Birthday to you ♪

- But here people are undecided about you.

They can be your friend
one day and not the next.

- Obviously when children come in

to foster care family and friends

are involved as well and we have

to ensure the children
are kept safe and secure.

- By 49 Symon and Vienetta

had decided to train as foster parents.

- I went to boarding
school when I was young

and I always felt that
that was regimental.

It didn't allow for
personal care, for loving

from the adult carers so I wanted to do

something like that for
myself in my own home.

- And we always say to foster
carers please do not cut

the children's hair without
the permission of the parents.

- So what's the toughest

thing about being a foster parent?

- You're taking a chance when you do it

because you really don't
know what you're getting.

It's something that all
children want is to be loved,

is to be wanted so if you can give

that to them then
everything else is second.

- You know why Uncle Symon looks younger?

'Cause he's so laid back.

Some of them come back, they ring you up

and say hello Auntie, hello
Uncle and how are you?

They come and have Sunday dinner.

They come and visit us which is good.

- I once tried to count

and I got up to 64 and I stopped.

- Because if you know that you're

going to get 50 people
that Auntie kinda called.

She's like a mother to me.

She's always been there.

There was a time where I
felt like I want to give up

in everything and she kept saying to me

"you have to keep on going,
you have to keep on trying."

I'm getting emotional, sorry.

- When I came through
the airport my family

wasn't at the airport
to collect me and that

so I just had to stay
somewhere for a temporary base.

I was here for I think
about five to six years.

I couldn't have asked for
anything better to be honest.

Yeah they were really, yeah really nice.

- Were you
looked after at some point?

- My real mother died at
birth and my dad remarried

and my mother who made
me the person I am today

'cause she was always
helping other young people

and she used to always say to
us, "don't be jealous 'cause

you've got my love but they've
got no one to love them."

You know?

- As well as fostering Vienetta

also works for an organisation that takes

homeless young people off the streets.

- And what happens
to the fostering children

when you're here four days?

- Symon and I balance
them together, we juggle.

Symon sometimes works
late and then I rush home.

He'll do the school run in the morning.

I'll do the school run in the afternoon.

My job's very flexible.

- So you have
incredibly busy life don't you?

- Very busy.

- Well we started to feel
that we were getting tense

and tight and that normally
means you need a holiday

'cause we found ourselves doing too much

so at some stage you gotta chill out.

- Symon took
the family to Portugal.

- Oh look at this.

- So that's nice.

- That's quite, what do you think?

- It's blingy.

- That's really nice.

- So Jess is
by your first marriage

and Mini's your child...

- Yes

- By your marriage.

And the relationship's strong?

- They know each
other from being young.

They did things together,
went out together.

So they're not like strangers.

- Before I'm old enough to get a job

I just walk around and
see what I can find.

I was going to be a film
star but now I'm going

to be an electrical engineer
which is more to reality.

- By 21 Symon was
working in the freezer room

of Wall's Sausages in London.

- I know I can't stay at Wall's forever.

I mean it's just not me.

I couldn't stay there for that
long, my mind will go dead.

- Do you never
feel that you should be doing

better jobs than these, aren't
you worth more than this?

- No, I haven't really, I suppose

I just like hard work I don't know.

- The factory closed down.

Since then he has worked near

Heathrow Airport handling freight.

- If I'd pushed myself at school

probably I could have done a lot better.

- Does that give
you pause for thought?

- No that means I was a
lazy sod when I was younger.

- If we had got together when
we should have got together

there's no way he'd have
been a forklift driver

not where I am with no way,
not with all that brains.

I've got common sense
and he's got the brains.

- I am the proof that you need
to push yourself and go on.

If you want to get on if
you want things in life

you have to push yourself to keep going.

I should have been an accountant,

but I went in this office,

I looked at this grey, grubby office

and the people there looked
gray-suited and miserable

and I thought this isn't for me.

I want to stay out in the
fresh air, I don't want this.

Years later I realised that
not every office is like that.

Some offices are vibrant and moving

but it was too late
then I'd already sort of

stagnated myself driving forklifts

and working in a warehouse.

- You could have made

a lot of money being an accountant.

- Yes he could have.

- She looks after me.

She doesn't just push
me she looks after me.

She would never let
anything be wrong for me.

- Baked beans, I'll go and get the water.

- At one stage we went
to a marriage guidance

'cause the pressures of being together

were getting to us because we are

two completely different people.

I'm very laid-back, as she always says

if I go any further back I'll fall over.

- Is the chemistry
still there between you?

- Yeah.

- Yeah I think so.

- Yeah I hope so, is it?

- Yes darling.

- Yeah the chemistry's still there.

- Yeah, we've been saying
that, what nearly twenty years?

- Is that all it is?

- Yeah.

Oh come on Symon hurry up, catch up.

- Come on Jess and Daniel.

- Do you think you could

ever retire and ever just chill out?

- There's people who
I have noticed they stop work

and they have no other
interests, they suddenly get old.

- Yeah so you're
old. you've got a few bulges

a few wrinkles but life
still goes on, enjoy life.

- So who won?

I came here first: I think that was me.

- How was it then?

- Beautiful, did I win and just allow you

to come in front of me?

- No, no.

- Dad you was like the person

that comes round on the tractor.

- I think I admire people
with great determination,

like people who have just
come up from nothing.

They build up their life
from absolutely nothing.

- Well do you see
some parts of life as success

and some parts are failure or
do you not think like that?

- No you don't stop life

because you've made a mistake, you know.

- Though it may
go down the wrong road

it doesn't mean that's the
end of the road for you.

There's another chance you have

to turn round and come back
and start again isn't there?

- Do a U-turn and to be honest

what do you think about our life?

- I think there's
been more ups than downs

and hopefully there's
a lot more ups to come.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And what
about the other children?

Where are they now?

What are they doing?

- I'm going to work in Woolworths.

In my life I've been able to do more

or less what I wanted to do.

- My heart's desire is
for me to see my daddy.

It all springs from I think
God and Christ I suppose.

- I read the Financial Times

- It's very irresponsible because we all

want more money as much
money as we can get.

- I want to be a jockey when I grow up.

Yeah I wanna be a jockey when I grow up.

- I'm as good or even better than most

of them people especially,
on this programme.

- In 1964
Granada Television brought

together a group of seven year olds,

from all over the country
and from all walks of life.

- If I could I would have
two girls and two boys.

- I read the Financial Times.

- They talked
about their dreams,

their ambitions and their
fears for the future.

- Everything throughout the
years, it all landed on my head.

- For nearly half a century,

in a unique ground-breaking
series of films,

we have followed their
lives every seven years.

They are now 46.

- Well my girlfriend is in Africa

and I don't think I'll have another chance

of seeing her again.

- Have you got a girlfriend?

- No, no not yet.

I'm sure it will come, but not yet.

I mean I do think a lot of
people think too much about it.

I think I would very much
like to become involved

in my own family for a start.

That's a need that I
feel I ought to fulfil

and would like to fulfil
and would do it well.

Yes I haven't got married
or whatever and I suppose

that would have been something
which I hoped had happened.

- [Michael Well, you're getting on a bit.

Are you getting worried?

- Well not particularly I
mean, I'm always optimistic,

I mean who knows who
I might meet tomorrow.

- And in the middle of
a conversation about

something completely different
he just asked if I'd like

to marry him, and if I hadn't
been listening carefully

I would have missed it completely.

- To love and to cherish.

- 'Til death us do part.

We don't argue very much.

- Not really, I mean we haven't
really had a full blown row.

- No, our arguments
tend to be two sentences

and I go off and sulk for 24 hours.

- So is Bruce getting any better

at expressing his feelings to you?

- Erm, mm, mm...

- Not really

by the sound of that.

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

- And we may have children I don't know,

I mean if in seven years
time or so we're living

in a slightly bigger
house with a young family

that would be nice.

I mean I don't want to
pin all my hopes on it

and nothing happens.

We are quite old, I can see
bringing up say teenage children

when you're in your fifties
might be a bit strange.

Come on then Henry get on.

- Bruce and Penny
had two sons, Henry and George.

On daddy's head.

- I mean, seven
years ago you were taking a bit

of a pasting from them.

- Well yes exactly and that's, you know,

if they sat on me now I wouldn't
be able to get up again.

And in the second year I was in rooms

at the top of that staircase there.

- Bruce and
Penny took the boys away

for a weekend to Oxford
to see Bruce's old college

and to watch their father play cricket.

- It's just nice drifting along the river

without making too much noise.

You know, if you can
see the odd the wildlife

and so on you come up on
it unawares kind of thing.

- Muddy water and a spider, ta.

- One of you link up one, and one of you...

I think it's more of a
father son thing to go along

and watch and support.

And we always have lunch then tea

and then a barbecue afterwards.

- We're not very good at this are we?

- Ever since Cornwall it
was to be no more camping.

- My heart's desire is to see my daddy

who's six thousand miles away.

- What happened
between you and your dad?

- I suppose the separation
and the distance.

When I was 14 I went out to Zimbabwe,

and then later when he
retired to England we felt

that there was a lot of distance

between us and ground to make up.

Okay.

I think it's going to take quite a while.

The boys are still young
enough for us all three

to fit in to a small tent.

I suppose it's a bit of
dad's and lads and getting

to know each other and forming
a relationship and so on.

- Under your weight.
- Oh lord,

that's not gonna go in.

Okay, boys, what's that then?

They always come first.

I mean we've got our work and so on,

so we'll do a variety of things with them.

I'll do it later, dear.

I'm off to play cricket.

- It's all right George.
- Is the forecast

to rain tonight?

- We're riding and we turn

to go sideways, commence.

- When he was seven
Bruce was at boarding school.

- Tallyho!

- He went on to Oxford

where he got a maths degree.

- You can show that this is irreducible

then you do a transformation
on this polynomial,

x equal to t plus two.

- After Oxford he
worked in the city for a year,

then decided to teach.

He taught in a state school.

- Yes sir!

- General education is
better for society I think.

There is a class society,

and I think public schools
may help it's continuance.

- At 35 Bruce took a sabbatical

and taught in Bangladesh.

- The straight
line, yes keep going,

keep going, keep going...
- At 42 he was back

in the East End as head
of the maths department

at a girls comprehensive school.

♪ Hallelujah ♪

- At 49 we found him teaching

at St Albans, an independent school.

♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪

- In the early days the school was

in the Abbey going back to 948.

- 948?
- Yes so the head

quite likes to say we're in
our third millennium, you know.

- So the schools
over a thousand years old?

- Yes in one form or another.

You have to make x a
subject of this equation.

You've got to get x on it's own

so what's the first thing we do?

- I multiplied both sides by...

- Has it been
a kind of compromise

of political principals for you this?

- Well I would say have
a million angels in front

of every teacher who's
prepared to slog away

at an inner city
comprehensive, make way make,

way this is somebody who is prepared

to turn up each day and do that job.

- Do your old
friends give you a hard time

about what you've done?

- They certainly do, they absolutely do.

They say have we joined the Tory party,

the golf club, the Masons, you know.

I'm quite happy just being
an ordinary maths teacher

for the not many years that
I've got left actually.

So I'm quite happy, I'm not ambitious now.

- Yep.
- Chase it up.

- So do you
enjoy watching cricket?

- I can watch it for short periods.

It's a sort of a sport tax on Bruce.

He plays cricket, I go and shop.

Oh, yeah yeah yeah.

- So is he playing
as much, Bruce, as he used to?

- No, no and when he
does he usually manages

to pull a muscle so.

- But they lost by about 70 runs

and our team lost by about 70 runs.

At the end of the game
somebody is nominated

to where that ridiculous garment

and I think bringing you lot along

for the weekend had a lot to do

with me winning the jacket this time.

- So the jacket is
not an enviable thing to win.

- No no.

Well going to Africa
and try and teach people

who are not civilised
to be more or less good.

It all springs from that in
God and Christ I suppose.

- Some people often will say

that the bully is upset about something

in their own lives and so when
they're bullying they're...

- I suppose I'm taking them to Quakers

so that they learn the Christian stories

and a lot of what's
embedded in our culture.

They are good moral tales that which

when they reflect upon
they may give them a sense

of right and wrong and so on.

- One way or another, we'll
get sort of drawn in...

- We like the ethos of
tolerance and understanding.

- The boys also
go to a local Quaker school

where Penny teaches.

- Everybody in the school from
the youngest 2 1/2 year old

in the nursery to the headmaster is known

by their first names,
and there is no uniform,

and very few formal rules.

- Hello, watch out, 'cause
I'll take Milly if...

- She's worse than ever father.

- Are you ambitious for them?

- Yeah, I mean, some
people work ferociously hard

and while that's rewarding
and they enjoy that

and they enjoy the success and so on,

you just hope they get a
nice balance to their lives.

- What are your fears

for the future with the boys?

- That they don't
fulfil their potential,

that they're lead astray in
some way, drugs or something.

They end up unhappy with
regrets about not having done

as well as they could.

When you boys fight, what a
night we're gonna have here.

- Right, if I wake up to find

anybody clutching my genitals.
- George!

They're very good company
but they will grow apart,

you know, eventually leave
home and we won't see them

so often and in a way
I'll miss them dreadfully

but that's the natural order of things.

And just think how uncomfortable mummy is

in her bed and breakfast.

But just remember when we're in a tent,

the Baldwin family are
a non-farting family.

- Thank you father for that.
- Dad shut up.

- I'm going to work in Woolworths.

♪ If you said that you'd leave me ♪

- Lynn grew up
in the East End of London

- Why am I using
a wooden spoon please

to stir this saucepan?
- Yeah, that's right.

- Well in a grammar school
I don't think you find

many girls that really want
to do metalwork or woodwork.

- No.

- At 21 she began a career

as a children's librarian starting off

in a mobile library in East London.

- Have I stamped yours?
- Yes.

- Yes, I've not stamped
yours, "Sleeping Beauty."

Teaching children the beauty
of books is just fantastic.

To work with children of that
age you've got to love them

and I love children.

- Because of the
cuts in the education budget,

the mobile library was shut down.

At 42 Lynne was working at Bethnal Green.

- You can draw better than I can.

Good morning.

- When we went back
at 49, she was still there.

- Good morning, what
about you, good morning.

For the last 30 years I've banged my head

against a brick wall to
maintain children's services,

but this time round no one's listening.

They say that the work that
I do that anybody can do it.

There would be no specialist running it.

One.
- One.

- I may not have a job.

At that library review I got a job.

Two years later another review.

And cutting departments again.

That time I didn't get the job.

- Has it been worth it all?

- Yeah very much.

All these things that I've
said over the years are flying

through my mind at the moment,

but yes it has been worth it.

- Hmm.
- And you better cut it

'cause otherwise I'm going to cry.

Fortunately I was over 50
and I could draw my pension.

We decided we can downsize.

We'll move out, smaller property,

there's only the two of us at home now,

and we'd be great.

Then the crash came.

And then Riley was born,

and what I thought was stress was nothing.

- Riley is one
of Lynn's three grandsons.

How much did he weigh when he was born?

- Two pounds and a quarter ounce.

As soon as he was born
they took him straight

through to the neonatal
intensive care unit.

Three, how many have you got?

- Yeah yah.
- Yeah.

He was put on oxygen,
monitors on, tubes coming out

of everywhere and he's
absolutely fine thanks

to the NICU Unit at William
Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

- I've
got to go to work darling,

give me a kiss.
- Mummy's going to work.

Say bye bye mummy.
- Right, see you later.

- Riley has an
older brother, Connor.

- Erm, for the last eighteen months

or so I've actually had Riley full time.

If I could I'd have
two girls and two boys.

I've been married a year
and a couple of months.

You do think, Christ what have I done.

- When she
was 19 she married Russ.

They had 2 daughters, Sarah and Emma.

- I'm very much
geared to the family unit.

I mean us all we do things
together all the time.

- At 42 the
girls were both doing

very well at school.

- Alright darling?
- Yeah.

- Neither of the
girls went to university?

- No, no.

- Was that disappointing to you?

- No, their choice, we discussed it,

it's what they wanted to do.

They felt that the academic
side wasn't for them.

Sorry.

- So was the arrival
of Connor a shock to you?

- No, well yeah but,
she was 19, she's old enough.

Oh look he's coming after you.

Look, he's coming over here to see.

- And how's old Connor doing?

- He's doing great.

He's off to his new secondary school,

keeps telling me he's nearly as tall as me

but I keep saying no you've
got a while to go yet.

- How does he deal with Riley?

- He loves Riley to bits but
Riley is just a two year old.

Sarah and Adam have got
married since we last saw you.

They've got a little boy called Harry.

He's getting on fine.

Sarah having just had Harry was put

in the same boat as I was.

The day before she was
due to go back to work

after maternity leave, made redundant.

- Yes, there used
to be a lot more sub species

but with various breeding
they've gone extinct.

- And she's now
trained as a child minder.

She's doing absolutely brilliantly.

- The other one comes as well.

- Wow.

- And is Emma
still in the same job?

- Yeah.
- Is that going okay?

- I mean with the
recession work dropped

off an awful lot but it seems
to be picking up again now.

- You can't go over though.

- So Russ took
early retirement too

so what's happened with him?

- Because of the
crash he picked up a job.

Instead of the two part time
jobs he got a full time job.

- So we are looking
at a much longer working life

than perhaps we thought?

- Yeah for everyone.

The goalposts keep highering.

People that thought when they started work

that they were going to retire at 60,

draw their state pension as
well, it's totally changed.

- They come round and mop
the floor and then a couple

of minutes later another
waitress come over.

- I'm not politically
minded but I still believe

that they haven't got a
clue what they're doing.

Some people are never ever
going to recover from it.

It's unfortunately going to
be quite devastating for them.

We've no left wing Labour Party anymore.

Tony Blair saw to that.

They all via to the right.

- I didn't know I was getting
in to this.

- Are you alright?
- Yeah I think so.

- This is unbelievable.
- You step up to that mate.

- No, look out!
- Russ is still

such a great support for me,
and he is still my soul mate.

You take care I love you.

After all this time, we flourish together.

I had an all white wedding, all white.

We were both in white and
my bridesmaid was in white.

37 years, gone extremely quickly,
we've just grown together.

We learnt to be friends
before we had children',

we established a solid foundation
from which to work from.

- Think of how fit it's going to make you.

- Put that in your script.

- So for you that's...

- I'm happy with the way my life has gone.

I just don't...
- Grandad brave?

- I'm still a Governor, I'm still Chair

of Governors at St Saviours.

Just been appointed for another
four year term of office

from the London Diocese
and Boarder Schools.

I must be doing something right.

- I read the Financial Times.

- I read the Observer and The Times.

- What do you like about it?

- Well I like, I usually
look at the headlines

and then read about them, about it.

When I leave this school
I'm going to Colet Court,

and then I will be going to
Westminster Boarding School

if I pass the exam.

And then we think I'm going
to Cambridge and Trinity Hall.

- John went to Westminster.

Then on to read law at
Christchurch Oxford.

- I'm thinking of following a legal career

with a view to ending in Parliament.

- Might be at the bar.

- Doing what?
- Perhaps chancery practise.

I now have a career, I'm a barrister.

Other than that life chugs
along in varying degrees.

Well in a sense not very much has changed

in my career over the last 14 years,

I'm still a barrister I
still wear a curly white wig.

The only visible difference I
suppose is a wear a silk gown

because I'm now a QC.

So week after next is ideal...

- Yeah, the week after next.

- Except for Monday, I'm going out...

I do largely litigation.

I enjoy the work which is
intellectually stimulating

and always interesting.

I'm blessed with an
exceptionally nice group

of people in these Chambers
who I really get on with.

I've been ushers at many
members of chambers weddings.

I've been god father to least
three chambers children.

It's a really nice close
set of friends here

and I think I'm very blessed
in my work environment.

- I'm going to Charter
House and after that

to Trinity Hall Cambridge.

- Andrew went to Charter House

and Cambridge where he read law.

- I'd like to be a solicitor
and also fairly successful.

- At 28 Andrew was a Solicitor.

By 35 he'd become a partner.

Later, he joined the legal department

of a large British industrial company.

A few years after they we
taken over by a German firm.

- There was a bit of uncertainty

when you get two large
organisations coming together,

you know who was gonna have
a job at the end of it,

who was gonna be made redundant.

I was fortunate enough
that I still had a job

at the end of it, and
it's worked very well.

When boys go round with girls
they don't pay attention

to what they're doing.

For instance, my
grandmother had an accident

because a boyfriend was
kissing his girlfriend

in the street.

- By 35 John had married Claire,

the daughter of a former
Ambassador to Bulgaria.

- It is coincidental that
we met but it's obvious

that the Balkan connection
was a strong mutual interest.

- My great great grandfather
was the first Prime Minister

of Bulgaria when the country was liberated

from the Turks in 1879.

Well I think everyone
needs to have a feeling

that they belong somewhere.

There's a plot of land or somewhere

where they hail from
where they're roots are.

People who go on about the
government butchering the

National Health Service
I think should come over

to Bulgaria to see what's been kept short

of necessary supplies and
funds really does mean.

We're at the centre for the rehabilitation

for disabled children
at Dalbert Dol near Tran

in the Balkan mountains which our charity

in London has helped quite a bit.

We feel we can help in
all sorts of smaller ways

particularly with art classes

or pottery classes or dancing classes.

You can revolutionise the life

of a child without actually having

to raise huge sums of money.

- What do you about
girlfriends at your age?

- I've got one but I
don't think much of her.

They're no longer just bores,

who won't play this or something.

- They're over half of the
community and they're there.

- You can begin to talk to them.

- I don't think I financially
come from the same background.

Andrew didn't go for a hoity Deb.

He went for a good Yorkshire lass.

- Does money concern you a lot?

- No I think as long as one
has enough to be comfortable

that's really what one could aim for.

- What's the
most difficult thing

about keeping the marriage together?

- I don't think it is
particularly difficult actually.

We seem to manage all right would you say?

- I think so we talk don't we?

- Well so, how is married life?

- Well I still love him if
that's what you're asking.

- And like wise.

I think the most important
thing to us apart

from our marriage is our children.

So we look at them and
we see that they seem

to be happy and getting on well.

We're pleased to be sitting here after

however many years it is, 28
years, still happily together.

- Andrew and Jane have two sons,

Alexander and Timothy.

- And you can never be sure
of leaving your children

any worldly goods but
at least you can be sure

that once you've given
them a good education

that's something that
no one can take away.

Alexander's now working in Canary Wharf

in the City of London.

And Timothy's just left St
Andrews, graduated this year

and he's going on to do
a Post Graduate Degree

at Durham University.

- I'd quite like to go in to politics

but that's easier said than done.

Who knows I haven't written myself off

as a potential politician,
even though I'm already 49.

Well I've always wanted
to go in to politics

but whether I'll ever
do anything about it,

I'm afraid I'm too old now,
that's the truth, I mean.

But it's depressing my two
eldest friends are both ministers

at the moment and one
I've known since four,

one I've known since five and I mean

obviously one can't
helping feeling was a bit

of a failure by comparison.

I think it's more fair if they're elected.

- Yes so do I but I think
it's better to be appointed.

- Yes because you don't...
- Not after a long time.

- It doesn't appointed.

- I'm pleased that we have a
coalition because I've always

at heart believed in consensus politics.

One thing that really does
worry me is their attempts

to solve the economic
stagnation at the moment

in this country by building
all over the green belt

and other areas of countryside.

I've no doubt that whether
it's five years or ten years

this recession is going to be over one day

but if the countryside is
ruined it's ruined forever

and for our children and our
children's children and so on.

- Andrew and Jane live in London

but they have a second
home in the country.

- Well we bought it
about, just when we got married

and it was a two hundred year old barn

that we bought at an auction,

completely derelict, nothing
in it at all except for manure.

We've been here now 28
years, it's time's gone by

but things have obviously got
more mature over the years.

- So is it done?

- It's never done.

There is always the problem of weeds.

- As a couple are you concerned

by the destruction of the
environment is that something...

- I'm very interested about it

and I think what worries me is
that we have the opportunity

now to save animals, flora
and fauna that will be lost

and we don't know what
benefit they will be to us.

- I think a lot of people say
well global warming is bad

but are they actually prepared
to do anything about it.

The company I work for is
developing hydrogen powered

fuel cells for cars in the future.

It's still some way off but I think

that's the way that cars will go.

- There must
be times when you look

and think I did well with this

or I should have done that differently?

- I think there are events
in your life like when

for example Timothy graduated recently

and we thought well that's quite nice.

Here he is at the next stage of his life,

you know he's done quite well to get there

and he seems well balanced,
and it's those sorts

of things that make you reflect.

- Well when Alexandra got his

first job was very exciting.
- Yes, absolutely.

- He got the phone call and he
screamed down the staircase,

"I got the job," and
a tear came to my eye.

It still does now, it was
such a lovely feeling really.

I've been very fortunate that
Andrew has provided very well

for us without me having to go to work,

and I've been able to nurture the boys,

but I'm not sure whether
looking at the next generation

you feel a lot of women have
to work and I admire them

for doing it, but in some
ways I think maybe it would be

good to work, not necessarily full time,

maybe take time off until
your children are at school,

but then you get to my
stage and you think,

well it would be nice
to have something to do.

- I mean are you
grateful she made that decision?

- Yes I am but I can see
that now maybe she enjoy

more having some sort
of career at this stage.

- Is that doable?

- No I don't think so.

- I would say it probably
is, it's a matter

of self confidence but,
obviously in the mid fifties,

it's a bit more difficult.

- I'm not in the mid fifties yet remember.

- True, you will be.
- Does she lack

self confidence do you think?

- To a certain extent, I
think she doesn't realise

how capable she is really.

- I think it's not a bad
idea to pay for schools

because if we didn't schools
would be so nasty and crowded.

I think that the premise in
which the programme was based,

namely that England was still in the grips

of a Dickensian class system
was outmoded even in 1964.

It didn't reflect realities in '64.

The hounds are over there I think.

In so far as the programme touches me,

I feel it's a complete fraud.

It all appeared part of some
indestructible birthright.

What viewers were never
told is that my father died

when I was aged nine leaving my mother

in very uncomfortable
financial circumstances.

She had to go out to work in
order to see us through school

and I then got a scholarship to Oxford.

- The rich children always make fun

of poor children I think.

- Yes.
- And Yes.

They say look at that lovely...

I think the premise of
the original film was

that there was a very strong
class system at that time

and I think that's absolutely true.

There is still a class
system but I think it's based

more on financial success.

- Well,
there's now an underclass

where people can't work.

- It's true. There are
extremes that either end,

there are very success people
who are extremely rich,

and there are people

who have very poor prospects, it's true.

But it's been ever thus, I don't think

I don't think that's
gonna change in the future

and it's always been like that.

- The last time I
appeared in the programme,

a very generous film director based

in San Francisco saw the
programme and sent us

a large check running to
many thousands of pounds

which we were able to do
a great deal of good with

in Bulgaria at the time so
that was a wonderful byproduct

of the programme and perhaps it's

slightly softened my objections.

- It's not something I look forward to

every seven years appearing
in this programme.

I'm always surprised
that you appear for five

or 10 minutes and everyone
remembers your face

but apparently they do.

♪ I'll let you back if you let me ♪

- Well I suppose the only
thing for me is that I've seen

what my husband looked
like at seven and 14 and 21

before I knew him, and then when I had my

own children I could see
which of them looked like

their father at those stages of life

and a lot of women just don't have that.

- I think what's undesirable
is people who have had options

don't take best advantage
of them but I can't see

there's anything wrong as
long as people don't abuse

the opportunities and
privileges they've had.

- It's a very nonchalant little theme,

you know, butter wouldn't
melt in it's mouth,

so take it very quietly and
let it just present itself.

- Well if one discounts
want to be a train driver

or a major opera singer,
or a concert pianist

would have been nice but
I was never good enough.

I enjoy my professional
career very much indeed

but, you know, doing something for

other people gives you a satisfaction

that even winning a fantastic case on

some ludicrous archaic point
of law won't quite deliver.

I think the thing where
I would regard myself

most successful is that I'm
blessed with wonderful friends.

I'm happily married.

I think I'm incredibly lucky person

in all sorts of respects.

- It is important to fight, yes.

- Tony was brought
up in the East End of London.

- I want to be a jockey when I grow up.

Yeah I want to be a jockey when I grow up.

- At 14 he was
already an apprentice

at Tommy Goslings Racing Stable at Epsom.

At 15 he'd left school.

- This is a photo finish
of when I rode at Newbury.

I'm the one with the white cap.

I was beaten a length and a half for third

and I had a photo finish.

- Do you regret not making it?

- Well I would have given my right arm

at the time to become a jockey.

But now, well, I wasn't good enough.

My greatest fulfilment in
life when I rode at Kempton

in the same race as Lester Piggott.

The proudest day of my life.

- And you let it go?
- I let it go.

- What will you do

if you don't make it as a jockey?

- I don't know.

If I know I couldn't be one
I'd get out of the game.

I wouldn't bother.

- And what do
you think you will do then?

- Go on taxis.

- At 21 he was on the Knowledge

and by 28 he owned his own cab.

- It's surprising who you pick up you see.

I once met Kojak, I picked him up.

I'll give you a story which happened.

The doorman called me up and
it was Buzz Aldrin the Spaceman

and we drove out of the
forecourt of the hotel

and a cab pulled up and
the taxi driver said,

"Can you get his autograph?"

So I heard it and say,
"Mr Aldrin," I said,

"Can I have your autograph please?"

And the cabbie said, "No I
don't want his autograph,

"I want your autograph."

And I couldn't believe it, I
said, "your joking ain't ya?"

And to this day I thought
to myself, you know,

I'm more famous than Buzz Aldrin,

he was the second man to land on the moon.

- Have you got a girlfriend?

- No.

- Would you
like to have a girlfriend?

- No.

Do you understand the four Fs?

Find 'em, feed 'em and forget 'em.

For the other F I'll let you
know your own discriminations.

I mean this one I tried to do the three Fs

but I couldn't forget her.

- I went to a discotheque.

He was in the pub earlier on,

and afterwards we went to a discotheque

and Tony would standing there.

And I just, from there
I just, that was it.

- By 42 Tony and
Debbie had left the East End

and moved to Woodford in Essex.

At 49 they'd taken out a second
mortgage on the London house

and put the money into
a holiday home in Spain.

- From here there's about
two hundred yards along,

there's going to be all
commercial units here.

My intensions would be to
turn one of these units

into a sports bar.

We're putting all tellies
round in a sport sort of way,

football shirts and all that memorabilia.

Aldi have come along and built

a brand new supermarket there.

So all my aspirations and
dreams went out of the window.

Well, Michael, that used to be my bank

and that's been closed now
for about eighteen months.

As you probably understand
there is a world recession

and they were affected
like everybody else.

My character seems to
have sort of slowed down

while I'm out here and
the pace is different

and everything's done tomorrow here.

You know, I could just go to the beach,

everyone sort of mingles
in and it's lovely.

Our jobs can make it accessible
where we can come four hours

from door to door from
Spain back to England.

We can work three weeks, a
commitment of getting out money,

and still having a life out here.

- It's a bit quite
though for you two isn't it?

- Yeah but then you've got
your bingo there haven't you.

- It's not quiet when we get here.

- No it isn't.

There's only one ambition
really, I want a baby son

and if I see my baby son that
will be my ambition fulfilled.

No one knows that, only you now.

- Debbie and
Tony have three children:

Nicky, Jodie and Perry.

- Nicky as you know
he was a French polisher

which is a dying trade in England.

So we funded him me and
Debbie on the Knowledge.

Cheers everyone.
- Cheers.

- We got him the bike,
we got him the runs,

we paid his tutoring and
I couldn't ask for more,

to be more proud for
when he got his badge.

It was a gift from god for what happened.

- I'm very
proud of Perry as well.

She got in the Post Office
and that's what she's doing.

Postman Pel, that's our Postman Pel.

- She's got a lovely boyfriend

and he's certainly got my blessing.

Big lad very nice guy, loves his football,

you know, typical East End kid.

- You're not lazy, far from it,
but I just think it's easier

to iron it as it's drying.

I used to do that.
- No you never.

You paid to get your ironing done

like you still do today,
you always have paid.

- So how is it all
of you in the house together?

- Yeah, it's all right.

- She's only here because she's pregnant

and she doesn't carry too well.

- Sometimes she gets on my nerves.

Sometimes they all get on my nerves.

Sometimes I get on their nerves.

It's just what happens.

- Well done Pel.
- The ironing board give way.

- Well done.

- Jodie at this
present time she's just relies

on us a great deal, and
she's been very scarred

with a relationship that she was in.

Her relationship with
her first love of her

own life is very turbulent but
he's the father of her kid.

- Jodie has a daughter, Toni.

- Toni as you appreciate
she's living with us,

and my daughter Jodie
she's at this present time

having emotional problems
and various other problems,

and most of all I've got to
make sure my Toni grows up

with a safe environment.

Once her mother does get better
I will certainly bond them

back and hopefully which
we pray they become mother

and daughter and everything
will be fine after that.

She's growing up at an alarming rate.

When she's with any one of
her friends I'll go to her

and say, "Toni, no no no no."

And, "Stop it granddad, see
you're embarrassing me,"

and I have to pull the reins in for me.

- How's the cabbing going?

- We had an influx of
Arabs come for Ramadan.

Without them and the injection of wealth,

I think the cab trade will have sunk.

It's been so bad out there.
- It's very hard.

- The ratio before was about
ten cabs to seven jobs.

When the Arabs come it was
about ten cabs to nine jobs.

When they go away and
now the recession came

it's ten cabs to two jobs.

I feel that the economy
will bust within five years

because people like
myself have been giving

and giving all the time.

We're paying, and someone's
getting it at our expense.

- How did you prophesy
what was going to happen

in this last programme, you seemed to know

that the economy was going to go bust?

- I feel the Labour government
has got a lot to answer for.

Draining the system dry, giving
out aid to all the countries

around the world, haemorrhaging money

through the war effort, you
know giving money to the banks

and no regulation on the banks.

You could see the drip drip drip situation

at the end of the tap, and by the time

there's no water left
in the tank they want us

to put it all back in.

Sometimes on a Saturday
morning I go to the pictures.

- Sometimes with my friends
and sometimes with him.

- You don't.
- I do.

- She don't.

- And why did
you fall in love with him?

- Dunno, dunno
- I don't know how

you've put up with me for so long.

- I don't know, sometimes I
don't know how I stand him.

Who's to say in another ten years me

and him might have split up.

- Quite possible
- You know, you don't know.

- I'm not proud at all to
say this but situations arise

that I have had regretful
behaviour various times

but through...
- You got caught

and that was it.

- You must appreciate 32 years
is a long time to be married

and most of all I mean I've
got an open characteristic way

about me and sometimes it
has got me in to trouble

which has been well documented before.

I owe Debbie everything
because good or bad,

high or low, rain or
shine she's stuck by me.

At the end of it I still love her so

and that's the reason why and

that will always be the reason why.

- Were the kids angry with you?

- Yeah, yes they were angry with me

and the situation was it
was a hard pill to swallow

because the kids are my life.

Nicky, Jodie, Perry, the
grandchildren, I draw a circle,

they're all mine and I'm lucky,

I'm very very lucky, Michael.

Michael, up there is my old
flat what I used to live in.

I lived up there for 28 years.

Now for me it's so small round here now,

I mean I come back and
the memories I've got

in here is unbelievable.

- Right, would
everybody please sit round now

and get on with their work.

I don't want to see any backs to me.

There shouldn't be anybody turning round,

Tony do you hear as well?

Get on with your work in front.

Tony, don't turn round again.

- As you can see, Michael,
the Bethnal Green I knew

as a kid growing up and how
it's changed quite dramatically.

Not one East Ender,
Cockney person like myself

or anyone in the East End ever
had a say in the immigration.

No one had a say of the
population as far as,

was there too many, was there too less?

- Listening to you
sometimes you sound racist.

- Racist?
- Asian, well now,

you talk about Asians,
you talk about Japanese

and yet here in Spain
you seem to really work

to integrate in to the community.

- Well look, Michael, with respect to you

that word racist it covers leaps

and bounds of characteristics.

I've never been racist in a million years,

in a million years.

I love people, I'm a people
lover you know and no way.

I think that's with respect
to you over the top.

Right, Michael, this is
the fruit and veg shop

where I was 7 years
old I had my first wage

in there, 10 bob a week.

This here was a pub.

This is where all the dry
horses used to deliver the beer.

I used to run in and get in my apples

and I used to feed them,

and where I was so small
they were a mammoth

and that's where I got
my love for horses from.

- Four to one, Cool Alone.
- Great, time and now.

- 4 1/250s, 4 1/250s, 4 1/2.

If your father gambles
you're always looked upon

how he gambles.

I try my luck and see what he does.

And I took it from there
it's sort of in you.

This is the pub and the area
where my dad used to meet.

And what they used to
do is get an orange box

with three cards on it,
a queen and two fours,

and what they'd do it's
called find the lady

like the three card trick,

and consequently they just
sort of take their money

off all the general public.

He used to go in the nick
once a week at least,

and the firm used to take their money out,

pay the fine and he was
back out on the street

to do his sort of erm, devilry ways.

I've come back here again

and it's really a travesty
what's happened here.

I mean, it makes me feel like crying.

For me it's quite sad,
you know, but I mean,

if that's what they call
progress well so be it.

- Where are we now Tony?

- I'm back at the old dog track.

We're at the Olympic Stadium, Michael.

And this is where the
old dog track used to be

on this site and I'm here today

and I cannot believe the transformation.

It's a dream, it's just spectacular.

And the torch from this
games shall be now passed

to the East End for a new
generation to come through.

Wee Wee!

- At the end of their
very special day in London,

after their trip to the zoo and the party,

we took our children to
an adventure playground

where they could do just what they liked.

Those from the children's home
set about building a house.

There's Nicholas.

And Tony.

Andrew.

John.

And Bruce.

Suzy.

Jackie and her friends.

Give me a child until he is seven

and I will give you the man.

This has been a glimpse
of Britain's future.