The Up Series

World in Action...

enters the struggling,

changing world...

of the seven year old.

They're teddy bears, they're not real.

A Polar, look at those claws.

This is no ordinary outing to the zoo.

It's a very special ocassion.

We brought these twenty children together for the very first time.

They are like any other children...

except that they come from startlingly different backgrounds.

No! No feeding, it says.

Stop it at once.

I know there's no feeding but it doesn't really matter.

We brought these children together...

because we wanted a glimpse of...

England in the year 2000.

The shop stewards and the executives of the year 2000 are now seven years old.

Give me a child until he is seven...

and I will give you the man.

Let's get to know these children.

Taking her little sister to school on the London Council Estate,

Jackie.

From the Yorkshire Dales,

Nicholas.

He goes to a one room village school...

four miles away from his home.

From this Liverpool suburb...

We chose...

Neil.

And this is Tony.

His girl friend calls him a monkey.

He goes to one of the oldest schools...

in the East End of London.

Would everybody, please sit round now?

Get on with their work, I don't want to see any backs to me.

Shouldn't be anybody turning around...

Tony, do you hear as well?

Next to Tony there is his girl friend,

Michelle.

Tony!

Don't turn around again!

In this class room, Waltzing Matilda...

is being rendered in Latin.

This is an exclusive pre-prep school...

in Kensington.

I think the Beatles are mad...

because they make too much noise...

and their hair-style's so bad.

If they composed

softer music...

I wouldn't mind so much.

I just loathe their hair-cuts.

That was John.

If you loathe their hair-cut...

you wouldn't have liked Henry the Fifths hair-cut.

This is Charles.

And that is Andrew.

This dormetary is in a children's home...

supported by charity.

This is Paul...

and Simon.

I had a dream when all the world was on top of me...

and everything was on me, and I just about got out

and everything flew up in the air...

and that all landed on my head.

Go on Potter.

If you don't now, don't go.

Now shoot! - We're going to!

My heart's desire is to see my daddy who is six thousand miles away.

Bruce doesn't live with his parents either...

but for a different reason.

He goes to a private boarding school in Surrey.

Bruce wants to be a missionary.

I think the most important thing in the world is everyone should know about god.

I think we should give all... some...

most of our money to the poor people.

In the head mistress' study...

of a fashionable school for girls...

we met Suzie.

We spoke to her "deep in the chintz" of the staff room.

Tell us, do you have any boyfriend Suzie?

Ummm...

yes! - Tell me about him.

He's up in Scotland and I think he's thirteen.

And I'm rather lonely up there because he usually goes to school.

But we usually play till about...

half past six when he comes home from school.

Then we go in and then...

he goes home to do his homework.

The world of the seven year old...

can be primitive... even violent.

What do the children themselves think about fighting?

Is it important to fight? Yes!

Well I feel like joining in when there's already a fight.

I always feel like that.

I always feel like joining in when there's already one.

Neil from the Liverpool suburb.

We don't do much fighting in school because we think it's horrible and.

It hurts.

Sometimes we play nice with the boys and sometimes we argue with the boys.

- Susan, Jackie's friend. - Do you ever fight with them? - No, just argue.

Most of the time we are all right. But. One day when

I remember we were all coming to school and

at break time they started hitting us and so we started to fight!

So we said we're never gonna play with you again.

But we always do.

If they fight me I think someone if someone comes up and starts fighting...

then I think it serves them right.

We play with Richard the Lion Heart and William Tell.

Well... we pretend we got swords...

and then we make the noises of the sword-fighting...

and when somebody stabs us we'll go ...'aaaaaahh'!

Nicholas from Yorkshire...

seven this year.

I have quite a lot of fun when I fight...

I always like to wait till someone... you better watch out for me...

because as soon as you're not looking...

I like to dash up and put my hands in front and hit them against your back.

And on the grass...

we... we play international wrestling.

Yeah that's only in the summer time though.

Yes summer we can go on the grass.

I just like fighting somehow. - Yes, tell me about it.

I just want to. He was in the washroom and threw soap at me.

I chased him in the class and I hit him.

When I was down in the place at Kent...

there was this little boy who I think was younger than me... and...

my Nanny was having a game with him...

and he was a naughty boy because he slapped me in the tummy.

Some boys can be nice and others can be horrible.

And then he slapped Nanny...

and I didn't like that kind of boys.

Jacqueline, what do you think about boys fighting?

Well... its really silly to fight because...

if you fight and Miss comes in the class-room then you only get told off.

I think discipline is fair enough.

Farmer is the sergeant and he is quite a good one, last term he wasn't...

He had a cold

and he didn't want to wear his voice out from shouting.

And that's Farmer. He gives me nightmares.

The vast majority of the seven years olds know little of discipline.

But a few, from the moment they are born...

are trained to accept it.

Squad steady

squad left foot in one place

squad breathe in.

Well I don't like

the big boys hitting us.

The prefects sending us out for nothing. And they

the staff in washroom sends the nurse out

where there is no talking, no I wasn't talking today...

and Brown set me up for nothing.

I think the system of having House Captains...

is rather good because when somebody's naughty

the House Captain asks him and... and... and has a talk to him.

Once I had a talk to Gravel he was in my house...

and... and I asked Sir he could put him out of my house because...

he was always getting minuses.

What did the sir say? - Yes.

The sir said that he was...

he... we would see about it this term.

Well... I think it's a very good system.

And you had to speak to anyone?

Just because you are one, I suppose.

No, no, I haven't.

You're not are you?

But I am. Straull Meckanace. Got three minuses in a day.

He is a pest.

You think, House Captain should be elected or appointed by sir?

Appointed.

Appointed

I think its more fair to have elected.

Yes. So do I but I think it is best to be appointed. - Because you didn't...

It saves lot of time. - It doesn't!

Appointed!

It is much easier because all that you have to do is...

count up the pluses and here you are. - Yes!

At Suzie's school...

the exercise is classical ballet.

For Neil and his classmates...

its free movement to music.

Michelle and her friends are left to amuse themselves.

This distinction between freedom and discipline is the key to their whole future.

What about after school?

What do they do in their spare time?

When I've gone home, I have tea.

Then I practice my piano.

And then I practice my recorder.

Then I start watching television.

What time do you go to bed?

When I have my bath at six o'clock...

and then go to bed at seven and read till half past seven.

I usually go to bed at ten o'clock or eleven o'clock.

When I go home...

I go and see my mother...

and I have tea and watch t.v...

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

And then what time do you go to bed?

Last night I didn't go to bed until seven.