summerisle

Thursday 15th on ITV1 sees the next installment of Michael Apted's 7 yearly foray into the lifes of the 7 year old children he first filmed back in 1963.

It doesnt feel like 7 years since the last one so I must be getting older at a faster rate these days...............

samkydd

It's quite possibly the scariest programme ever made! I met up with an ex school colleague recently for the first time since the late 70s, who is now in his 40s, and I thought it was his dad! Only the rich and famous appear to look better as they get older!

One kid on this show was going through hard times, I saw him last on the series when he was 35, and he was homeless and totally lost. I think he wanted to be an astronaut originally, and then a coach driver!

I think that the ambitions you had as a kid should always stay with you, no matter how bizarre. If you stop dreaming you've nothing to look forward to and people often settle for the same "chintzy chintzy cheeriness" of a life their parents had.

So don't waste your precious Bank Holidays and valuable weekends queuing in B&Q, or filling the house with more unnecessary pretentious lifestyle crap from IKEA! Take a long country walk and try and remember what you dreamed of when you were 7 or 14 and then ask yourself "Where did it all go wrong?" NB. Not advisable to ask this question when walking near Beachy Head. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Aenima

This prog. can be heart breaking. The kid you are talking about S. was such a bright little boy with a real spark. But, as you said, he just got lost in life. I think the last time I saw it he was starting to get his life back on track a bit.
Cheers,
A

I'll 'av 'arf

Freddy

If hands could free you, heart
Philip Larkin


If hands could free you, heart,
Where would you fly?
Far, beyond every part
Of earth this running sky
Makes desolate? Would you cross
City and hill and sea,
If hands could set you free?

I would not lift the latch;
For I could run
Through fields, pit-valleys, catch
All beauty under the sun--
Still end in loss:
I should find no bent arm, no bed
To rest my head.


Freddy

The world wags on.

summerisle

i think it is neil you are referring to. in the last one it showed that he had actually became a lib dem councillor in hackney(?) i suppose he's still a bit lost then [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]

ollie

My Fave larkin, now residing on my loo wall,

this be the verse,

they fuck you up,your mom and dad,
they may not mean too,but they do,
they fill you with the faults they had,and add some extra just for you,
but they were fucked up in their turn by fools in old style hat and coats,
who half the time were soppy- stern and half at one anothers throats,
man hands on misery to man it deepens like a coastal shelf,
get out as early as you can,
and DONT! have any kids yourself.

cheers Ollie.

"Bullseye !!"

samkydd

"It's life lad,it might make you laugh at your age but one day it'll make you bloody cry"

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

samkydd

Poor sod! He started life wanting to go to the moon in a space rocket and ended up going to hell in a handcart!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Gibbie

Write up on Neil:

Then there’s the dark soul, Neil. At 7, he’s a chatty, animated child who wants to be either an astronaut or a bus driver. By 14, a pessimism has taken root, he’s taciturn, and a deep sadness is visible in Neil’s eyes. At 28, he’s a homeless wanderer, at 35, he’s on the dole in the remote Shetland Islands.

But “42 Up� captures Neil on an upswing, back in London as a political activist who’s been elected to his local city council. Neil delivers a Bible reading at the wedding of Bruce, another of the “Seven Up� kids with whom he’s become friends, and his eyes and voice have regained much of the spirit of his 7-year-old self.


Walking neary Beachy Head, sounds like Jimmy in Quadro.

"Where did it all go wrong" is a good question to ask!

Gibbie

I think his is one of the best narratives. He is trying to have a meaningful life in a substanceless era.

David Brent

When I was in Junior School in Smethwick, Birmingham back in the early sixties I had a hand in producing a school newspaper.
At that time I did a small survey amongst the classes of kids in which I asked what they all wanted to be when they grew up.
Amongst the boys the top answer's were, in order, - Footballer, Train Driver, Draftsman, Bus Driver and Newspaper Reporter.
The vast majority of the girls all wanted to be Nurses, with the few remaining saying they'd like to be Secretary's.

Time's have certainly changed. Life seemed a whole lot simpler back then.

Dave.

Gibbie

Certainly was, Dave!

I was in nappies and on the bottle, the one with milko! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]

samkydd

One of my favourites about how men fair in the scheme of things, and it's a song rather than a poem:

When a ship is sinking and they lower the lifeboats
And hand out the life jackets, the men keep on their coats
The women and the children are the ones who must go first
And the men who try to save their skins are cowards and are cursed

Every man's a captain, men know how to drown
Man the lifeboats if there's room, otherwise go down

And it's the same when there's a war on: it's the men who go to fight
Women and children are civilians, when they're killed it's not right
Men kill men in uniform, its the way war goes
When they run they're cowards, when they stay they are heroes

Every man's a general, men go off to war
The battlefield's a man's world, cannon fodder's what they're for

It's the men who have the power, it's the men who have the might
And the world's a place of horror because each man thinks he's right
A man's home is his castle so the family let him in
But what's important in that kingdom is the women and the children

A husband and a father, every man's a king
But he's really just a drone, gathers no honey, has no sting
Have pity on the general, the king, and the captain
They know they're expendable, after all they're men

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

samkydd

It was written by the wonderful Loudon Wainwright III, father of Rufus Wainwright, and a song writing hero of mine since I was 11.

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"