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PRESS INFORMATION
CHILD OF OUR TIME RETURNS
FOR 7TH SERIES on 19 Aug 2007.
Child of Our Time - a BBC /Open
University co-production - is the unique
and groundbreaking television project
which follows 25 children from their birth
in the year 1999/2000 as they journey to
adulthood.
‘The ‘journey of a lifetime’ continues on
BBC1 at 7pm for 3 weeks from Sunday
19th August. The children have reached
their 7th year and much has changed. In the forthcoming series, Child of Our Time will
continue to explore issues that concern us all. How much of our futures seem to be
already mapped out by the time we are seven? How important is it to fit in or stand out
from the crowd? How does creativity develop and grow?
In this unique documentary series, presented by leading fertility scientist Professor
Robert Winston (pictured above), the children and their families participate, through
observational filming and scientific tests, to investigate what influences and shapes our
identities - with some intriguing and surprising results.
Started in 1999, when 22 couples agreed to be filmed as they prepared for the birth of
their ‘millennium babies’, Child of Our Time is committed to following the lives of these
families until the children are 20 years old – making it the longest-running project in the
BBC’s history. Since 2002 it has been co-produced with The Open University and
regularly attracts viewing figures of between 5 million and more.
The series website, http://www.open2.net/childofourtime/2007/index.html, has a new
interactive in which you can try out some of the tests that the Child of Our Time families
have completed. You can look at your results and compare them with other people’s.
There’s also a new area on the website, developed in partnership with the British
Psychological Society, which has videos, radio programmes and essays on child
development and how it is studied.
There’s also a new set of the very popular activity cards for fun things to do with your
children, based on ideas that are explored in the TV series. You can order the free card
set from the website.
Long Synopses – In order of transmission
Programme 1 - ‘The Will to Win’. BBC1, 8pm.
Everyone’s heard of the saying “Give me a child until
they are seven and I will show you the man”, but is there
any truth in this statement? Can a bad start in life scupper your chances of success or
does having an inner drive and determination help to see you through? In the first of
three new programmes, The Will to Win explores the psychology of success and
follows the lives of five of the families who are all striving - in very different
circumstances - to give their children a good start in life. Through the Child of Our
Time children, we see that there is no doubt that the environment we grow up in and
the messages we get from our parents play an enormous role in shaping us into the
adults we’ll become – but there are also inner qualities that can help to see us through.
And even if we have all the opportunities in the world and an inner drive to succeed, life
has a horrible way of throwing obstacles in our path to success.
The programme explores whether setbacks work against us or whether they can build
our resilience against future hardships and actually increase our chances of living a
successful life. To find out how motivated the Child of Our Time children are, they are
given a choice of three puzzles – one that they’re told is easy, one less easy and one
much harder. From what we know about each child’s background is it possible to
predict how far they’re willing to challenge themselves? The children are also asked to
learn how to juggle.
After the initial lesson, the programme follows their progress at home to find out just
how motivated they really are. And even more revealingly, how much encouragement
they get from their parents.
The Children featured in this programme are:
Megan Davies (pictured above) is growing up on a thriving farm in Wales. Her parents
have a strong work ethic and Megan’s dad has incredible drive – which he puts down
to an upbringing where we was rarely praised. He’s adopted the same tactic with
Megan and it seems to be paying off - but at what cost?
James Cachia is growing up with his mum Carol and sister Bernie on an estate in
South London where three quarters of people are on benefits and crime and drug use
is rife. Perhaps not surprisingly, at the moment James’s own vision for the future
seems to be bleak. When he was asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he
replied, “a robber”.
William Roberts seems to have everything on a plate – a secure and privileged
upbringing and a private education. His mother is a self-confessed ‘pushy mother’ who
harbours dreams of William winning Wimbledon and seemingly she will do anything to
help ensure his future success.
Charlie Plaster’s mother, Toni, was just sixteen when Charlie was born. But rather
than let this hold her back in life, Toni was determined to better herself and now has
two more children, a husband and a successful career in care work, for which she’s
been nominated for an award. But Charlie’s teacher has noticed that she’s lacking in
confidence – so has Toni’s drive not rubbed off on Charlie?
Eve Scarborough’s father is donating a kidney to his seriously ill brother and she is
feeling the strain during this stressful time for the family. The programme explores
whether setbacks such as these can work against us – or whether they can build our
resilience against future hardships and actually increase our chances of living a
successful life.
Programme 2 – ‘Fitting In and Standing Out’
We like to think we are individuals but how much do we really
want to stand out from the crowd? Fitting in can be a very
useful strategy at times – but what are the dangers of too
much conformity? The children are now seven and are at an
age where they are discovering how they fit into the groups
around them. Through the Child of Our Time children, we see
that standing alone can make some people feel more
vulnerable that others, and will the Lloyd-Young twins Alex and Ivo (as part of a ready
made group) see fitting in and standing out differently from the others or indeed each
other?
To see how conformist the Child of Our Time children have become they take part in
the classic Asch conformity experiment. Stooges try and influence them into giving
answers that are clearly wrong. Which of the children have the confidence of their own
convictions?
The Children featured in this programme are:
Helena Young (pictured above) has always been her own person. She was born
extremely prematurely and due to her weak immune system hardly mixed with other
children until she went to nursery at three. How does she cope with the social rules of
the playground? Will Helena’s individuality mean that she struggles to fit in?
Parys Lapper’s mother Alison was born disabled, with no arms and very short legs.
She had no choice but to stand out. Parys is starting to be aware of how different his
mum is and he changes his behaviour towards her when his school friends are around.
To what extent is this natural and how worried should we be when our children start to
follow what their friends are doing?
Alex and Ivo Lloyd-Young stand out for being the same - they are identical twins. At
three they wanted to be the same – have the same toys and wear the same clothes.
They couldn’t even identify who was who from a photo. Now they are six, things are
changing – they want to stand apart as individuals. Jamie thinks it is better to be the
same as other people, and not different. His mum notices how good he is at slotting in
and adapting. But since he was four he has stood out from the class. He suffers from
diabetes and has to regularly check his blood sugar and administer insulin injections.
How successful is he at minimising his differences?
Het Shah is growing up in an extended family in Wembley. Her parents understand
what it’s like to be different – they come from India and have only been in the UK since
the 1990’s Het is having to come to terms with the birth of her baby brother. Can she
cope with her jealous feelings and the move from centre stage?
Programme 3 – ‘Killing Creativity’.
All of us are born with creative potential – but often by
adulthood it has become suppressed or it has
disappeared.
Why is this and does it matter?
Creativity is far more than art or performance. Major
companies complain that there aren’t enough creative
people in society to fill all the vacancies they have.
Creativity, it would seem, is an essential skill to have
in every sector of the workforce.
The Child of Our Time tests find out just how imaginative the children are. Even by the
age of seven, they demonstrated little originality, although some showed more flair than
others. The programme also explores parental concerns about creativity within the
school curriculum and how conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) throw up questions about imagined fears and reality.
Being able to ‘think outside the box’ and beyond obvious boundaries are essential to
creativity. The children and their parents are asked to free a balloon dog trapped in a
perspex tube with a set of completely inappropriate tools. Who would be able to get
past their fixed functional thinking and use the tools in a different way from their
intended use to solve the puzzle? The families were also asked to come up with as
many different uses as they could for a cardboard tube – a test based on a well-known
classic task from the 1960’s and widely used in ‘brainstorm’ sessions designed to free
up people’s minds in many offices of today.
The children featured in this programme are:
Matthew Singleton (pictured above) is growing up in a creative household in leafy
Surrey, but despite his parent’s encouragement Matthew appears to be more
interested in practical pursuits such as football and building lego Is Matthew just not
creative, or is something holding him back?
Calvin Pearson-Thurling lives in Norwich with his mother Helen, step-father Andy and
sister Lauren. Calvin loves nothing more than conducting weird experiments to find out
about the world he lives in. But Calvin’s happy home is under threat as Helen and
Andrew are splitting up and Calvin is devastated. Will this affect his creative
development and could this be the reason for his new imaginary friend Gutsley?
Nathan Price is growing up in Scotland. His father has been a working artist for 16
years and Nathan is showing signs that he might follow in his father’s footsteps. So
what is his school doing to develop creativity? His parents have deep concerns.
In rural Yorkshire, only child Rhianna Lees seems to have a rich and vivid imagination
but her mum thinks her daughter’s school actively encourages creativity at the expense
of reading, an area she believes Rhianna is falling behind on. She wants this readdressed, but will this damage her creative potential?
Ethan Kerr lives in Northern Ireland. Last year he was diagnosed with ADHD – a
condition that affects about one child in thirty – mostly boys. For the past year he has
been taking medicine to help him focus. Although his school work has improved is it
putting a cap on his creativity? Is Ethan not able to distinguish between imagined fears
and reality? And is his powerful medication making this worse, or better?
____________________________________________________________________________
Editor’s Notes
Child of our Time is a co-production between The Open University and the BBC.
The series producer of Child of out Time is Rachel Coughlan. The Executive Producer for the
BBC is Tessa Livingston and the Executive Producer for The Open University is Emma De’Ath.
OU Director is Josh Good. Academics are John Oates and David Messer.
The Open University and BBC have been in partnership for over 30 years providing educational
programming to a mass audience. In recent times this partnership has evolved from late night
programming for delivering courses to peak time programmes with a broad appeal to encourage
wider participation in learning.All broadcast information is correct at time of issue.
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Websites:
www.open.ac.uk/courses
www.open2,net/childofourtime2007/index.html
www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/tv_and_radio/child_of_our_time
Resources
Associated Open University Courses:E123 Working with Children in the early years
E124 Supporting Children's learning in the early years
E131 Introduction into working with young people
E115 Personal Professional Development (Early Years Settings)
DD100 Introduction to Social Science
K100 Understanding Health and Social Care
Y156 Understanding Children (Openings Course)
Y158 Understanding Health (Openings Course)
_____________________________________________________________________
Media contacts:
Greg Day
info@gregdaypr.co.uk
+(44) 208 3682904
BBC press desk
+(44) 208 5769900
Stills:
Thane Brookland
pictures@bbc.co.uk
DVDs:
Previews Unit
+ (44) 208 2258463
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