- 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.