49 Up Page #10

"I guess that's her,"

And I sort of looked and did

this, and she did the same.

She did a mirror image

of that gesture,

and I thought, "I can't

explain what that was,"

But I just felt

very strongly drawn to her

by that little gesture.

And there was no way

I would say no

to being married to this man.

I wanted to be with him.

Has he changed my life?

Dramatically.

Have I changed as a person?

I hope so.

You'll give them a push?

I don't mean

to be superficial,

but I think she's the most

beautiful woman I've ever seen.

(Michael) Is he sexy?

Oh, man... (laughs)

Absolutely.

Didn't you have fun

with that one?

Graham was very good about

the ducks. The ducks were...

I only have one child, Courtney,

and he only has one child.

There's a symmetry with that.

(Michael) Would you ever have wanted

a child of your own, the two of you?

Well, absolutely,

but it's not exactly practical,

so we're just...

No. Of course, Graham has added

an element that's just joy,

And I know Nick likes little guys.

He just likes little kids.

They'd like to come out

for a holiday in the country

when we like - when I like

to have a holiday in the town.

It is very difficult

being in a place

where you're a long way away

from all your background,

and you don't have

any sort of support network.

(chatter)

My parents are alive.

They both had very significant

health issues.

My father keeps pointing out

that old age isn't for sissies.

You need a secretary.

Nick has two younger brothers

back in England -

Andrew and Christopher.

Christopher, the deaf one,

got divorced,

and he reported to my mother that

if Nicky can do it, then so can I,

so that changed.

(Michael) Are you

missing England?

I always miss England.

I was really not

the sort of person

who should ever

have moved very far.

When he was 42,

we took Nick back to where

he had grown up in the Dales.

What did you learn here, do you

think, that you carried with you?

I sort of feel as if you could

look deep somewhere inside me,

I feel like there's some

of this in there somewhere.

I think of it as being magnificent

but rather grim, really.

It's very uncompromising,

and sometimes it's rather tragic,

but, you know, it makes

other places you go

seem rather trivial as well.

We call it one of our Dales rooms.

We have things that reflect

the Dales in the room,

we have cards that we framed,

and some of the china

from Nick's family

is displayed up here.

Well, we're driving

from Madison to Minneapolis,

'cause Chris lives in Minneapolis,

and I live in Madison,

so we go up and down

alternate weekends.

(Michael) Does it put a stress

on the relationship,

these separations

and reuniting?

I would say, you know, absence

makes the heart grow fonder, really.

Chris lives in Minneapolis,

a five-hour drive from Madison,

where she is an associate professor

in the department of education.

Hey, you want to see something?

(Michael) Work is a big part

of both your lives, isn't it?

It is.

Yeah, so we're both

kind of workaholics.

Is there anything that you

would like to change?

Oh, that would be really risky

business, wouldn't it?

Well, I thought you had

changed a few of them, no?

You know, you don't mess

with mother nature

in terms of little things,

like how somebody does

their toothpaste,

those silly nonsense things.

He would not just say yes,

he immediately attended to it.

I had never been

with anybody who did,

so you have to be really careful

with what you ask him to do.

Oh, go easy on the butter,

please, all right?

OK.

I mean, I could see it being

a slippery slope, you know.

I didn't want to go that way

in terms of my ordering his life...

I didn't want him to be

a different person.

If I can change in the world,

I'd change it into a diamond.

I think this film

is extremely important.

It's important to me, but it seems

to be important to other people as well.

That doesn't make it

an easy thing.

It's an incredibly

hard thing to be in,

and I can't even begin to describe how

emotionally draining and wrenching it is

just to make the film

and to do the interviews,

and that's even

when I am pretending

that nobody else

is watching it.

(barks)

I think it's a heavy reminder

that he's missing his roots.

I mean, there are an awful lot

of emotions attached

to having a scrapbook

that's as vivid as this.

I'm going to work

in Woolworth's.

(TV playing)

Lynn is the third

of our east end girls.

She went to primary school

with Jackie and Sue,

but chose to go on

to a grammar school.

At 21, she set out on a career

as a children's librarian in a

mobile library in east London.

Have I stamped yours?

Yes.

I've not stamped yours.

Sleeping beauty.

Teaching children

the beauty of books

and watching their faces

as books unfold to them

is just fantastic.

To work with children of that age,

you've got to love them,

and I love children.

Because of cuts

in the education budget,

the mobile library was shut down.

At 42, Lynn was working

at Bethnal green library.

You can draw, better than I can.

Good morning.

At 49, she's still there.

Good morning.

(boy) What about you?

Good morning.

(woman) Are you going to say hello?

Good morning.

(Michael) How much of your work

is with people like this?

Probably 5%. It's a very,

very small part of it,

But probably, currently,

the most challenging part of it.

Elephant.

He's an elephant.

Where's the elephant?

We still get six other schools

regularly send classes in here.

It's busy most days.

Well, I know he loves her,

and he loves her.

I don't.

I love him.

I've been married a year

in a couple of months.

You do think, "Christ,

what have I done?"

When she was 19,

she married Russ.

We married young,

but because we wanted to go out

and have fun together.

30 years,

and we're still together.

He's my soul mate,

he's my partner.

We respect each other,

hence he's not here, and you

will not see him on this film,

because he has always, always felt

that the intrusion into our

private life that this causes

is too much.

I wanted white wedding,

all trimmings,

and Russ would've been

satisfied with very little.

(Michael) Are you in love?

Very, very much.

He knows how much I love him,

and in my heart of hearts,

I know how much he loves me.

I put him on the spot sometimes.

If I could, I would have

two girls and two boys.

(Jackie)

Yeah, so would I.

Lynn and Russ have two

daughters - Sarah and Emma.

Emma's installation coordinator

for a window company.

Sarah is an accessories buyer.

It's a family-run business.

At 42, the girls

were both doing

very well at school.

Neither of the girls

went to university?

No, no.

Was that disappointing to you?

No. Their choice.

We discussed it.

It's what they wanted to do.

They felt that the academic side

wasn't for them.

You have to accept

that it's their lives,

and you can only guide

and be there for them.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes