56 Up

- 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.

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.

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