Seven Up! 1964 – Transcript: 00:00 – 05:46

World in Action enters the struggling, changing world of the seven-year-old.

[Child] 'Look at those claws!' [01:00]

This is no ordinary outing at the zoo. It's a very special occasion. We've brought these twenty children together for the very first time.

They're like any other children, except that they come from startlingly different backgrounds.

[Child] 'Stop being rough!' [01:31]

[Child] 'I know there's no feeding but it doesn't really matter.' [01:33]

We brought these children together because we wanted a glimpse of England in the year 2000.

The shop steward and the executive of the year 2000 are now seven years old.

'Give me the 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 a 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 girlfriend calls him a monkey. He goes to one of the older schools in the East End of London.

[Teacher] 'Would everybody please sit round now and get on with their work. I don't want to see any backs to me. Shouldn't be anybody turning round. Tony, do you hear as well?

Next to Tony there is his girlfriend, Michelle.

[Teacher] 'Tony! Don't turn round again.'

[Children singing Waltzing Matilda in Latin]

In this classroom, Waltzing Matilda is being rendered in Latin. This is an exclusive pre-prep school in Kensington. '[child] 'I think the Beatles are mad because they make too much noise. And their hairstyle is so bad. If they composed softer music, I wouldn't mind so much.

[child] 'I just loathe their haircut.'

That was John

'If you loathe their haircut, you wouldn't have liked Henry the Fifth's haircut.'

This is Charles. And that is Andrew.

This dormitory is in a children's home, supported by charity.

This is Paul…and Simon.

[Simon] 'I had one dream when all the world was on top..top of me. And everything was on…I just about got out and everything flew up in the air. It all landed on my head.'

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Vocabulary (Ctrl+click to open dictionary links) claws council estate [council house] dormitory district joining the City of London to the east. A slum in the 19th century and still a East End of London poor, working-class area in the 1960s. exclusive glimpse Henry the Fifth Henry V of England. King of England 1413-22. Kensington wealthy west London suburb. loathe [pre-]prep school shop steward startling[ly] suburb Waltzing Matilda popular Australian folk song – the 'unofficial national anthem of Australia' hilly, rural area in the north of England, well-known for its natural beauty and Yorkshire Dales today popular with tourists.