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but at the age of...

11, 12, 13, are you really

aware of that?

Now, that's

a very telling question.

In my world, you betcha.

When I grow up,

I'd like to find out

all about the moon and all that.

And I said I was interested

in physics and chemistry,

I'm not going

to do that here.

At 14, Nick was away

at boarding school.

At 21, reading physics

at Oxford.

His road to Oxford started

in a one-room village school.

My father was here.

A long time ago, he must be

somewhere in these pictures.

I remember distinctly

coming here one day

and I'd missed a day

for some reason

and they'd been talking about

something to do with aeroplanes.

And the teacher said,

"We missed you

because you would have known

about aeroplanes. "

I knew nothing about aeroplanes,

but I thought,

"Oh, I know about aeroplanes,

do I?"

So then I went off

and read about aeroplanes.

That could easily have been

the start of,

"I want to go

to the moon. "

I think she planted

that idea in me.

Do you have

a girlfriend?

I don't want to answer that.

I don't want to answer

those kind of questions.

I thought that one would

come up,

because when I was doing

the other one, somebody said,

"What do you think about girls?"

And I said, "I don't answer

questions like that. "

Is that the reason

you're asking it?

The best answer would be to say

that I don't answer questions

like that.

You know, it was what I said

when I was 7,

and it's still

the most sensible,

but what about them?

If you'd been somebody who

had had fixed ideas

of a woman's role in marriage

that meant

dinner on the table

at 6:
00 every evening...

Didn't I tell you

about that?

By 28, Nick had married Jackie,

a fellow student from Oxford.

They had a son, Adam.

By 42, they were divorced.

What I've concluded, and

I've talked to other people

about this

who've gone through it...

I'm not sure if they feel it as strongly

as I did, but it was like a death.

Anything could happen.

We could easily drift apart.

There are so many pressures...

If your spouse died,

you could look back and think,

"well, it was wonderful

while it lasted. "

But in a divorce,

you can't look back and say,

"these are all happy memories. "

Hey!

Cryss is my new wife.

I don't mean to be superficial,

but I think

she's the most beautiful woman

I've ever seen.

Is he sexy?

Oh, man.

Absolutely.

Didn't you have fun

with that one?

I always need to learn

patience and...

What do I need to learn?

Shall I get out my list?

Yeah, we need the list.

Go on.

Um...

Tell me, do you have

any boyfriends, Suzy?

Um...

Yes.

Tell me about him.

But he lives off in Scotland

and I think he's 13.

Have you got

any boyfriends, Suzy?

What is your attitude

towards marriage for yourself?

I haven't given it

a lot of thought,

because I'm very, 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.

I think you can't just walk

through a marriage

and think once you get married,

it's all going to be

roses and everything forever.

It's very hard to actually say

what it is

that goes on

between a couple.

It's either there

or it's not.

Any marriage

has its ups and downs.

But somehow,

whether it's through luck

or determination, we've

worked through

the difficult times.

One of my favorite

places in Oxford,

Merton Chapel.

Here's this lovely top part

of the cross.

And there was going to be

the main part of the cross.

This is one of the places

in England

that just is tremendously

important to me.

After I left the Dales,

this was where I spent

the next six years,

and then I went to America.

Look, isn't this beautiful?

This is Mob Quad.

I believe that it's

a historical fact

that quite a lot students were

massacred in the middle ages.

When I came here, I thought I'd

died and gone to heaven.

But I was under an awful lot

of stress

all the time I was here

trying to succeed in this place

as well.

So this was my staircase

in my first year

and also in my third year.

There was this fellow

who lived in the room nextdoor to me

and he came in one day

to tell me some story.

And on his way out, he said, "Do you know,

I don't associate intelligence

with your accent. "

It would seem really ridiculous

to any of my friends

who watch this if I said,

"Christ, aren't I

a great success?

Look at me!"

You know, what success?

By the time he was 28,

Nick had emigrated to America.

He was doing research

into nuclear fusion

at the University

of Wisconsin.

If you'd been offered

a similar type of job

over here...

In a heartbeat.

You would have stayed.

In a heartbeat.

I mean, I dreamed of getting

a university job over here.

Maggie Thatcher was squeezing

the universities

like crazy at that very moment

in time.

And it was the worst time to be

working in a university

in generations.

England doesn't seem

to concern itself

with training people like me

and wanting them around.

There doesn't seem to be

a sense of urgency

or a strong will to have people

developing technology

to help keep the country going.

The fusion reaction

gives off energy and produces

the power that would

be turned into electrical...

I was on a mission, you know,

to get extremely cheap, clean,

plentiful electricity.

So nuclear fusion looked like

it was going to do that.

But even then, they were saying

"it's 20 years away. "

I would say absolutely not

in my lifetime.

It was kind of heartbreaking.

So I had to find

something else to do.

So the area that I'm looking at

is this times this.

When I go into a classroom

full of undergraduates,

I try and explain to them

why they might want

to try and do it.

That's my attempt to open

a little door for them.

Nick is a professor

of electrical engineering.

My ambition as a scientist

is to be

more famous for doing science

than for being in this film.

Unfortunately, Michael,

it's not going to happen.

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?

Well, I don't like babies.

At 28, Suzy had two sons...

Thomas and Oliver.

Come catch it.

By the time she was 35, she

also had a daughter, Laura.

Mummy? Laura wants you.

We were lucky.

We had a very good family unit

with them growing up.

And that meant an awful lot

to me,

that I was able to do that

for them,

'cause I never had it

for myself.

And you've done it, you've been

tremendously successful at it.

Well, see, that's my problem.

I don't think of myself

as being...

I just do my best and do

what I can for them.

Did all your children

go to university

or your daughter did?

Yes, and my son did,

the eldest one.

Hello.

I haven't had a successful

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