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in the past.

My formal contact with

the psychiatric establishment

belongs mostly to my mid

and later teens

and a short period

of my early 20s.

But I soon came

to the opinion

that I could help myself

far better

than those who were

purporting to help me.

But I was aware even then that a

lot of the therapeutic technique

is about leading people

to exactly this conclusion,

if it's done well.

So I'm not going down the line

of criticizing

the medical establishment.

But did you refuse to go

into any sort of treatment?

No, I did have contact.

But then you

discontinued it.

Yes.

Do you still think

that was wise?

Yes.

Are you scared

of getting old?

Yeah, I don't want to live

to be that old.

I think if I can reach

something like 70

or 75 in reasonable health,

that will be quite enough

for me.

When I get married,

I don't want to have

any children,

because they're always doing

naughty things

and making

the whole house untidy.

I always told myself that I

would never have children.

Why?

Because...

Well, because children inherit

something from their parents.

And even if my wife were

the most high-spirited

and ordinary and normal

of people,

the child would still stand

a very fair chance

of being not totally full

of happiness

because of what he or she will

have inherited from me.

Have you ever really had

a romantic emotional

relationship?

Oh, I've had several,

but the fact that I'm living

alone still

obviously betrays the fact that

none of them has endured.

Is there a reason

for that?

Relationships always involve

two people.

But the string of

failures,

does that tell us something?

Well, I'm sure it does.

Any fool can see that.

I'm not saying you're a fool.

What does it tell us?

It tells you what you like.

It tells you that I haven't been

successful in relationships.

It may tell you that I'm

intolerant.

But it more likely tells you

that I don't have

the capacity for making

a relationship work.

But I must stress again

that it does take two.

I have never walked out of any

relationship with anyone.

It sounds like ghostly

colored people.

'Cause you think of

a purple person

with red eyes

and yellow feet.

You can't really think of what

they really look like.

I find it hard to believe

that I was ever like that,

but there's the evidence.

Probably when I was 7, I just

lived in a wonderful world

where everything

was a sensation.

I could be happy and I could be

miserable the next minute.

What makes you happy?

"Happy"

is a difficult word.

How many people are happy?

Perhaps we're most happy

when we're not aware of it

and enjoying a relaxed meal

with some friends.

Just being with friends.

I think the few weekends

in the year

when I'm lucky to be able to

go and stay

with some of my long-term friends,

I'm really happy.

I can think of hardly

anything better

than walking across

the fields

when we just chat about the

things we're both interested in

and our aspirations, and I think

that's the noblest

and in many ways most satisfying

of relationships

you can possibly have.

How it would be if we lived

next-door to each other

I don't know,

it might be very different.

Maybe the joy in some

relationships is that

you see some people only

infrequently.

I don't think you ought to go

to university

if you want to be

an astronaut.

Watch this.

Peter and Neil

were childhood friends

growing up in Liverpool.

Peter went

to a comprehensive school

and went on to get a history

degree from London University.

I would like to think that

democracy is here to stay.

Perhaps we haven't got

full democracy.

In fact, we probably haven't,

but...

It's a pretty good system.

Are you surprised by the

way England's being governed?

I'm not surprised with

the people who govern it

at the moment right now.

I've even stopped being amazed.

Why?

Well, I don't want to get

dragged into party politics,

but basically this is the most

incompetent,

uncaring bloody shower

we've ever had.

After "28 Up,"

Peter decided not to continue

in the film.

Why did you pull out?

I pulled out because of...

the responses

and the reactions

that my participation drew

in the weeks afterwards.

Particularly in

the tabloid press.

They decided they were

going to portray me

as the angry young rad

in Thatcher's England.

Well, it's just the principle,

that's all there is to it.

I think I was articulating

at the time

what a lot of people of my age

and my background were thinking.

And I was an easy target.

They're part of it.

They perpetuate it.

But I was absolutely taken back,

completely, genuinely shocked,

at what I saw as

the level of malice

and ill-will

directed towards me.

Until you've experienced it

yourself,

you can't begin to appreciate

how it feels.

So now you're back.

So why did you come back?

I feel a lot happier

with myself.

Happier in my own skin.

And then secondly,

more specifically,

because I want to promote

the music and the band I'm in.

It was a ghost town

And what are you called?

We're called

the Good Intentions.

But when he hit that bank...

I'd always played

in rock bands.

Some of them

spectacularly bad bands.

What really got me into

this music

was being exposed to

the music of Graham Parsons,

'cause way back in the day,

I was a big Elvis Costello fan.

And I read an interview with him

in which he said, "if you think

I'm a good songwriter,

listen to Graham Parsons. "

It was almost like an epiphany.

It was like I was hearing

the music I'd been waiting to

hear all my life.

Once, Caroline Sheffield said

she loved me.

And I'm going to marry...

many...

marry her when I grow up.

Doesn't appeal to me at all

at the moment,

but I mean, what,

I'm just gone 20.

Haven't even been abroad yet

in my life.

There's no way I'm going to

get settled down.

So, Paul, what do you want

to do?

Do you just want me and Peter to record

what we're doing and you'll work round it?

We were working in an office

together

when we joined

the office band

and that's how we got

to know each other.

So, Gabby, was it

love at first sight?

Well, I had a sneaking suspicion

that Pete liked me

because he was really rude and

sarcastic to me all the time,

so I thought, "I think he's

probably quite keen. "

You know that's not true.

And you've always played

together since then?

Yeah, more or less.

We probably stopped for a while

when the kids were little.

Our boy is 19,

our daughter's 16.

And how

are they doing?

Great. Doing really good.

They're doing remarkably well.

Our son is in his first year

at university.

And our daughter is coming up

to her GCSEs.

Once you have your own kids,

you have this huge realization

of how your own parents

felt about you

and what they did for you.

What's the greatest gift

a parent can give a child?

It's their unstinting love

and support and their time.

Their time because I think

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