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career, but I do feel fulfilled.

I've done quite

a lot of different things

over the last seven years.

You know, we all make mistakes,

in everything, from parenting

to decisions in life.

You make mistakes,

and that's how you become the person you are.

You can talk to me outside,

but I'll just meet you by

the garage, okay?

All right, bye.

Nick's son Adam was 10

when his parents divorced.

When he was first told,

he was terribly, terribly upset.

And then he just

pulled himself together

and didn't want to talk

about it anymore.

Take it easy, Adam.

Main thing is not to crash.

Really? You don't want me

to crash right now?

How does he

deal with it now?

He doesn't talk to me

about it very much at all.

He's a private person.

He's getting more mature, and he

has to be very patient with me.

Can you imagine having me

for a dad?

Do you think it would be

a low-pressure existence?

This is my little school.

I'm nuts, and I would drive

a kid nuts with all my nagging.

Do you think you've pushed

him too far,

which is why he's now

backing away?

Anything I push him to do,

he's going to do the opposite.

So there's a real...

You know.

They'd like to come out for

a holiday in the country

when I'd like to have

a holiday in the town.

It's a fixed reference point,

in a sense,

that sort of earthy

life-and-death cycle you get

living on a farm.

If something dies, it rots

and feeds back into the earth.

He has a density

to him.

One of the first things

he said to me is,

"My feet are in the mud. "

The whole idea of being

deep in the mud

and very attached to a foundation

makes good sense to me.

Nick has two younger brothers,

Andrew and Christopher.

I come up most weekends.

Then Chris gets up usually

in midweek,

so he helps with shopping

and stuff like that.

We don't get over

to England very often,

and so you can count

on one hand

how many times you're gonna see

your family

before somebody dies.

And that's getting more and more

pressing every time we come.

You know, so, yeah,

this is tricky.

How are they doing?

Not well.

They're very old.

Yeah, I don't really want

to elaborate on that.

'Cause it's full

of emotion, I guess.

It's all the stuff that we

repress as hard as we can,

isn't it, but...

Yeah, it really is.

I'm looking at these names,

who they all are...

This, of course,

is Granny Hitchon

and Grandpa Hitchon.

When I was a little guy,

I got up at the crack of dawn

and scooted nextdoor to spend

the morning with her.

So, yes.

She died when I was 5 or 6,

I think.

So I think I was devastated.

Yeah.

And you still

remember her?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I know you should

let these things out.

And I don't.

I store them up.

But that's the character

with me now,

and I can't change it.

Thank you very much.

Nick is truly English.

I mean, my father is English

and I was probably in my late

20s, maybe early 30s,

before I uttered the words

"I love you"

to either one of my parents.

There is a difference,

a distinct difference between

the type of English person

he is

and the type of American people

I've been with.

You may know the difference,

too, Michael,

because you've been

in both settings.

If I said that I love you

What do you think about

making this program?

I think it's just ridiculous.

I don't see any point

in doing it.

Why is it that we are so

annoyed about this program?

I think the problem

I have is that you don't get

a very rounded picture.

You get the odd comment that

comes out on a particular topic.

But because of the time

restraint

that this program

obviously has,

otherwise we'd be on for a couple of months

if you were trying to get

everybody's real thoughts

on things.

It's just that the limitations

of such things

as what the audience require

and the time don't allow it

to be a real study.

I think I'd like to say this

and I'd like to say that.

And then they film me doing

all this daft stuff.

And it goes on seven days

out of every seven years,

it's sort of biblical

something or other,

and it's all

this excitement

and so on, and then they present

this tiny snippet of your life

and it's like,

"That's all there is to me?"

When I go home,

I go and see my mother.

Then I have tea

and watch TV.

And then I, um...

do my homework, and then

I go and see my father.

Were they, in the '60s,

trying to say

that the fact that I supposedly

had a more

privileged upbringing,

that I should have been the one

who'd become the high flyer?

Absolutely.

You having come... I just think

that's so wrong,

but is that what they were

trying to get at?

The idea of looking

at a bunch of people over time

and how they evolve, that was

a really nifty idea.

It isn't a picture really

of the essence of Nick

or Suzy, it's a picture

of Everyman.

It's how a person, any person,

how they change.

You know, just seeing me

this age and the next age

with more wrinkles

and more... oh!

I think we have all got

a few of those.

- Oops!

- Oops!

Just, it's not an absolute

accurate picture of me,

but it's a picture of somebody,

and that's the value of it.

But then we're putting ourselves

out to be that person.

Well, I didn't want to do it

when I was 14.

I know I was very difficult

because I was very

anti doing it.

I was pressurized into doing it

by my parents.

Um...

And I hated it.

And I vowed I'd never do it now.

But here I am.

I mean, who knows in seven years

whether it will be done again.

But this is me saying

hopefully I'll reach

my half-century next year

and I shall bow out.

I don't know what happened.

I was quite adamant

I wasn't going to do it.

And then...

I don't know.

I suppose I have this ridiculous

sense of loyalty to it,

even though I hate it.

And that's just such

a contradiction, isn't it?

But...

And also I think...

It's like reading a bad book.

I'll still read it,

I'll still see it through.

And I guess I'll put this down to being

a bad book, but I'll see it through.

Symon was brought up

in a children's home,

the only child

of a single parent.

They say,

"Where's your father, then?

You know, when your mum's

out at work,

you stay with

your father?"

And I just tell 'em

I ain't got one.

See, I can get on well

with my mother sometimes.

We talk very well

with each other,

but it's sometimes

not quite as mother-and-son,

sort of more like friends.

When he was 35,

Symon's mother died of cancer.

There was so many things

I never actually said to my mum

that... just things that,

you know, you think about after,

but it's too late

because they're

not there anymore.

What sort of things?

Dunno, just "I love you,"

every day.

Uh, when I was born,

an illegitimate child,

that's something that

somebody whispered about.

People, you know, feel strongly

about in those days.

But nowadays, you...

It's...

It's not a serious matter.

The serious point is whether

you stay with somebody

or you leave them.

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