49 Up Page #8

'cause he's struggling

a little bit.

Robert has trained

as a car mechanic.

He's got reading and writing

difficulties, and he's coping with that.

We'd like to see him be

a little bit more proactive

at doing literacy course

now he's a bit older.

But just day-to-day troubles

of making ends meet with money -

That's always hard.

He went nuts at me

for using the phone,

"No more f***ing... You constantly

f***in' do this all the time."

What's Robert got

that you gave him?

Moodiness. I think Robert's

even a little bit more moody

than what I've ever been.

He's not your average

relaxed 21-year-old.

Whatcha doin'?

We only had two children,

because we thought

that we couldn't love any more

children as much as we loved our two.

Now we've got our two grandchildren.

We just love them -

You love them as much, really.

As much, yeah.

Yay!

With Rob and Stacey,

we don't really know how

long they're gonna last.

I keep my fingers crossed

they will last.

We can only hope that they

work at it like we do.

That's better.

Thank you.

In their 20's,

Paul and Sue sold up,

bought an old van

and travelled across Australia.

I think it brought us

closer together,

because we really

got to know each other

and relied on each other so much.

One of the most important things

we ever did with our children

was spend time with them.

And particularly

when you've got holidays,

to actually - which a lot

of parents do, you know -

Go camping with them.

We've been camping

there now for 19 years,

'cause Robert was two

when we first went there.

So does this beat the old van?

This is the Hilton

compared to that old van.

Any plans for any big trips

now the children have gone?

I think we'd like

to do something again,

but you need to have the finances

to support yourself

for a few months.

The monitors opened the

washroom, sendin' us out.

"Well, there's no talking,"

and I wasn't talking today.

I'm more at peace around

the horses and the animals.

I can be upset, I can be on edge,

come down to the horses.

Within three or four minutes of being

here, and I've forgotten everything,

so it does calm you down.

(Michael) So last time I

came you had the horses.

What's happened to the horses?

Well, we gave Poykin

away to some people

because it was a

little bit expensive

and also the fun went

out of it, basically.

How do you get that peace now?

Well, I think I got it

through running.

Well, most Sunday mornings,

we go training.

When Paul is doing marathons,

when he's gotta run great distances,

I follow along with the bike

as a bit of support

and I take drinks for him

so he doesn't get dehydrated.

Something we can do together,

so we do that.

We're not doing any

great distances, we're just -

I've got an injured knee.

Just trying to build it up so

it gets used to running again.

The host city marathon was my

first marathon I did up in Sydney.

I trialled the Olympic course,

and it was open to anyone.

So I figured if you were

gonna do a marathon,

that'd be the one to do.

Nearly died, but I enjoyed it.

Happiness to me is a love for

life and a love for people.

When you look back on the

marriage and the family,

Any regrets?

No, we wish we'd had more

children, but who knows?

If we'd had them, might

have gone, "No, too many."

We might be both

in the nuthouse.

But without a family,

what have you got? Nothing.

Well, that's the way I feel.

More than work,

more than achieving...?

Yeah. Like, what you've got,

you've got nothing unless you've

got family and your health anyway.

You'd be awfully lonely

without family, I think.

(man) Tell me, do you have

any boyfriends, Suzy?

Um, yes.

Tell me about him.

He lives up in Scotland,

and I think he's 13.

(Michael) Have you got

any boyfriends, Susan?

What is your attitude

towards marriage for yourself?

Well, I don't know.

I mean, I haven't given

it a lot of thought,

'cause I am very,

very cynical about it.

But then, you know, you get a certain

amount of faith restored in it.

I mean, I've got friends, and

their parents are happily married,

and so it does put

faith back into you,

but me myself, I'm

very cynical about it.

When I last saw you at 21,

you were nervous,

you were chain-smoking,

you were uptight,

and now you seem happy.

What's happened to you

over these last seven years?

I suppose Rupert.

I'll give you some credit.

I'm now chain-smoking.

No, I think you can't

just walk through a marriage

and think it's, you know,

once you get married

it's all going to be roses

and everything forever.

You know, you have -

Everybody has their rows,

but we've never yet had a row

that we haven't managed to sort out.

It's very hard to

actually say what it is

that goes on between a couple,

it's either there or it's not.

We've been married 27 years now.

Any marriage has

its ups and downs,

but somehow, whether it's

through luck or determination,

we've worked through

the difficult times.

He's just always

been there for me,

and I know I can rely on him.

And, you know, he's my punch bag

in the same way as I'm

probably his, but it works.

When I get married, I'd

like to have two children.

I'm not very children-minded

at the moment.

I don't know if

I ever will be.

What do you think about them?

Oh, I don't like babies.

At 28, Suzy had two sons -

Thomas and Oliver.

By the time she was 35,

Suzy had a daughter Laura.

(boy) Mummy?

(Suzy) Yeah?

(Michael) So what are

the children up to?

They are - Tom is living

in London, having graduated,

and now working

and living in London,

Ollie is working

and living at home

and Laura is doing her as levels.

It was difficult when they

first started to move away -

All those memories

of the children growing up.

It's like a closed chapter now,

'cause you can't bring those -

bring those days back.

I think what I admire about the

young today is their confidence,

and that's what I wished I'd had.

They just seem to take

life and deal with it.

(Michael) What sort

of things do you do?

Ride, swim, play tennis, ping-pong.

And I might play croquet,

anything like that.

( piano)

(Suzy) I did have

a privileged childhood,

but you have to take responsibility

for your life somewhere along the line,

and some people take responsibility

earlier than others.

I was just a bit later taking it.

Maybe now is the first time

that I actually feel happy

within my own skin.

It's taken me a

long time to do it,

but I actually feel

that I can accept decisions,

wrong decisions, possibly,

that I've made in the past,

I am comfortable with it now.

I can live with it.

So what's it been like for you

being in these films?

Very difficult, very painful.

Not an experience

I've enjoyed in any way.

Every seven years,

it throws up issues

that I guess we all learn

to put into compartments

between the seven years,

and then it all gets opened up

again, and it's difficult.

(all talking)

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes