Episode 2 12 Again

Coming up, three celebs become 12 Again.

I would say, "Wake up!"

I used to be really embarrassed.

Getting detention for burning a bogey is not the greatest thing.

We catch up with the hot new band from Barbados, Cover Drive.

I was still in the "scared of girls" phase.

I had lots of crushes.

Want to know what they're all talking about?

Have you ever wondered what it would've been like

to be mates with your favourite celeb when they were your age?

What did they get up to, what were their favourite songs,

and what TV shows did they watch?

Because, despite the glamorous lifestyles they now lead,

once they were a kid with a dream, just like you.

This show lets you look back with your favourite celebs

as they become 12 Again.

# You can't stop looking at me

# Staring at me, be what I be. #

As a number one-selling pop princess,

Cher may have the swagger jagger now,

but in 2005, she didn't display her X-Factor.

When I was 12,

I was a bit of a shy one.

But I was easily provoked, a bit naughty at times.

He's a TV tough guy

who puts wannabe police officers through their paces.

This is nothing compared to

the physical work we put them through during Cop School training.

But, in 1989, Rav was more Clark Kent than Superman.

I wouldn't say I was the coolest kid at school

and I wasn't the nerdiest,

but I was a geeky-looking kid.

Bit of a cheeky smile.

Of all the Strictly judges, he's the wicked witch.

A complete dance disaster.

That's now. But back in 1977,

it wasn't his broomstick that he was attached to.

When I was 12, I was a fat little porky child

that was into woodwind and brass instruments.

-BRASS PARP

-Excuse YOU, Craig!

These three are massive celebrities today,

but we're not interested in now,

so let's go back to when they were 12,

and find out what they did when they were kids.

I remember looking absolutely dreadful when I was 12.

My hair was awful.

I had it slicked back, in a ponytail.

I had long hair down to my shoulder.

I had a very round, chubby face.

I was small, a bit geeky.

I had curtain hair, big teeth.

I had very big teeth for quite a small head.

I wore Hawaiian shirts, polyester.

They would be tight over my body. It was hilarious.

I went through a phase of wearing luminous colours.

Bright yellow tights.

I'd wear the whole tutu thing.

If I wore them now, the fashion police would be onto me.

Fashion disasters aside,

what did Craig, Cher and Rav get up to in school?

I remember in a science class, we made our own experiment

to see how flammable bogies were.

I don't think you have to be Einstein

to work out the results of Rav's experiment.

But let's find out, anyway.

Always remember, safety first. Put on your goggles.

Next, get a lovely fresh bogey, and give it a blast in the Bunsen.

I wonder what will happen next(?)

It made a horrendous smell, but they're not flammable.

Yes, Rav. Burning bogeys is stupid and smelly.

No surprise what happens if you're caught!

Try explaining to your parents why you're late home -

cos you got detention for burning a bogey.

For Craig, in Australia,

having fun in school wasn't about bogeys.

Disco was enormous.

It was about boogie.

You were cool if you could disco dance,

because Saturday Night Fever had just come out.

Saturday Night Fever was a box office smash when Craig was 12.

It made disco the dance craze of the decade, but only if you could dance!

I couldn't do a step. Everyone crowded round those that could do it.

I started learning small things with my feet and shoulders,

my head, and then my hands.

When we'd go to any school function,

I could show off my cool moves.

MUSIC: "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps

I wasn't cool. I was terrible,

but it inspired me to want to learn to dance.

In Britain, the BBC were giving the coolest disco dancing lessons

on TV...kind of.

The exhilarating thing about disco dancing is the use of the hands.

It's right hand forward, left hand forward.

That step...and that step.

You're getting the hang of it.

It was just amazing.

With days filled disco dancing and bogey burning,

Craig and Rav didn't seem to do much real work at school.

Let's hope Cher was a better pupil.

I didn't really fit in at school.

I just did as I pleased, really.

If I wanted to stay in school at lunchtime, I'd stay,

but sometimes, because I lived just over the road from school,

I used to just go home and have a sing on the karaoke.

I never liked to get my friends listen to me sing.

I used to be really embarrassed.

Cher got over her embarrassment

and was soon entering local talent competitions.

SHE SINGS

While Cher's passion at 12 was music,

Rav's talents were on the sports field.

I was a sporty kid.

There was only one rugby team in the town.

I played for them since I was seven.

I did athletics in the summer, after school.

I used to do anything.

Life on the sports field may have been fun.

But life in Kent was proving difficult

for Rav and his family.

My dad's black, my mum's white.

He was one of the first people of colour to move into the town,

which was very hard, because we did get some trouble and abuse.

I remember at that age I tried to take a shortcut through a park

and some much older kids - 18, 19 - set their dogs on me.

They said I was the wrong colour to walk through their park.

That did two things.

It scared the pants off me -

and proved how fast I could run!

Cos they never caught me!

Racism at any age is something no-one should have to face,

but at 12, Rav found that the sports field

was a place where everyone is accepted.

When you do a sport, they don't care what colour you are.

I had people on my team

who were mixed race, like I was,

who were tall, who were fat, who were small.

Rugby has a position for everyone.

It was the thing where I felt most accepted at that age.

That's what Cher, Craig and Rav were like when they were 12,

but what were they listening to?

In '77, I loved the music of Queen.

# You're a shooting star leaping through the sky like a tiger

# Defying the laws of gravity. #

Now, people think of Queen as, # We will, we will rock you. #

But, actually, it was hardcore.

Queen were huge, back in 1970s

and have gone on to be one of the most influential bands of all time.

My favourite thing was the way Freddie Mercury strutted about.

# Don't stop me now. #

He was so weird looking, and had funny teeth and big lips

and all this hair.

# Don't want to stop at all. #

We studied Bohemian Rhapsody for my music course.

MUSIC: "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen

Bohemian Rhapsody is one of THE biggest-selling songs ever

and its ground-breaking video is said to have kick-started the trend

for bands to create music videos.

I just loved the lyrics,

I loved the music, everything.

# I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

# He's just a poor boy from a poor family

# Spare him his life from this monstrosity. #

I absolutely loved it.

It taught me so much about music,

because it goes through opera...

# Let him go! Bismillah! We will not let you go. #

It goes through classical themes,

it goes through heavy rock.

How cool is studying that?

It may have been all about Rhapsody for Craig in 1977,

but for Rav, 1990 was all about rap.

When I was 12, the massive one was MC Hammer, You Can't Touch This.

That was huge. I remember hearing that everywhere.

MC Hammer sent rap mainstream in the 1990s.

His album sold ten million copies,

despite the dodgy trousers.

He had these huge Hammer Pants -

the baggiest, hugest

jogging bottoms ever.

MUSIC: "Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer

I've only seen one other person wear those.

That was my big sister, when she was pregnant.

They were so stretchy, they went over her massive tummy.

For nine months, she was dressed like MC Hammer, so I told her.

# Stop - Hammer time! #

MC Hammer wasn't the only rapper Rav was listening to in 1990.

Vanilla Ice, "Ice Ice Baby".

I thought he was Mr Cool.

In 1990, everyone thought Vanilla Ice was cool.

Well, everyone except Rav's headmaster.

The rule was, if you turn up like that, you'll get suspended.

I didn't want to get suspended for looking like Vanilla Ice.

Despite being hated by teachers,

"Ice Ice Baby" is a song loved by many.

So much so, Jedward teamed up with Mr Ice to update it.

MUSIC: "Under Pressure" by Jedward

When Rav was a kid, everyone was releasing rap songs.

Even well-known cartoon characters were rapping.

There was a song from The Simpsons, Do The Bartman.

MUSIC: "Do The Bartman" by Bart Simpson

It's still a guilty pleasure of mine.

Yes, this really is Bart Simpson,

and he really did get to number one in the UK charts

with this song.

Bart didn't write his own rhymes, though, because he's not real.

He had help from Michael Jackson...

MUSIC: "Bad" by Michael Jackson

..who was a massive fan of The Simpsons.

# Who's bad? #

# If you can do the Bart You're bad, like Michael Jackson. #

While Rav was loving his rap in 1990,

what was Cher listening to at 12?

Pop, hip-hop, R&B?

The one thing people don't know about me

is that, when I was 12, I actually loved singing country songs.

Unbelievable!

# I'm just a fool who's willing. #

I used to sing country songs,

like Patsy Cline...

# MUSIC; "Crazy" by Patsy Cline

Dolly Parton...

MUSIC: "Jolene" by Dolly Parton

My family really love country music,

and that's why, from hearing it all the time

and learning the lyrics,

I really love singing it.

# I'm begging of you Please don't take my man. #

There's lots of elements within country songs

that are used nowadays in R&B music and hip hop.

I think it's widened my ability and brought me to the way I am today.

When Cher was 12, country really wasn't that popular.

It had been over a decade since classics like this charted...

MUSIC: "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus

Yes, if you ignore the horrendous haircut,

you'll notice that is Billy Ray Cyrus,

Miley Cyrus' dad, way before he played the part

of...Miley's dad in Hannah Montana.

My most-hated song, when I was 12 was "Is This The Way To Amarillo?"

It drove me insane.

MUSIC: "Is This The Way To Amarillo?" by Peter Kay

Peter Kay released this song to raise money for Comic Relief.

He mimed along to the voice of Tony Christie,

who originally sang the words in 1971.

When Cher was 12, it was huge.

Annoyingly, everyone was singing it,

and doing those stupid dance moves.

That's the one, Peter.

It's a good thing Cher was into country,

as 2005 was a particularly bad year for music.

Let me take you through my bottom three worst tracks from that year.

At three, Akon with "Lonely".

Sadly, Akon wasn't all that lonely.

He's joined by what can only be described as a singing chipmunk.

Pipe down, Alvin!

At 2, it's Chico.

He was the comedy X-Factor singer,

who released a song all about himself, Chico Time.

Surely, the only thing worse than this

is a singing frog riding an invisible motorbike...

..which, sadly, is exactly what's on at number one.

This little fellow is called The Crazy Frog,

who started life as a mobile phone ringtone.

As you can hear, it's pretty terrible.

OK, that's enough of that!

What's wrong with the people in 2005?

Still to come, Cover Drive

talk about romance at school.

He didn't ask to be my Valentine. He gave me a chocolate heart

and he said, "This is for you".

Rav Wilding confesses to his secret crush.

I fancied her. I thought she was hot.

And Craig gets frustrated with his comedy hero.

Adorable, and likeable,

but you want to strangle him

for getting it wrong all the time.

First, let's see what news stories had an impact

on our celebrities when they were 12.

When I was 12, there was a huge story that happened in Europe.

There was two different countries,

East and West Germany.

They were very different, had different sports teams.

They were split by the Berlin Wall.

1989 will always be remembered for what happened here.

The year when the barriers between East and West Europe

finally started opening up.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961,

becoming a symbol of separation between East and West Europe.

The wall physically cut Berlin in two.

People who lived there were not allowed to mix.

Lots of people wanted to leave East Germany.

Some were killed when caught crossing the Wall.

I remember hearing if you tried to cross the wall, you could get shot.

I didn't understand the politics. I was only 12.

It was a scary thing.

In 1989, after weeks of unrest, the people of East Berlin

were able to cross the wall that had separated them

for nearly three decades.

It united these two countries.

It was massive news all round the world.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was a huge moment for the world

-and led to Germany becoming one country again.

-Hello!

What better way to unite Germany,

than with an American superstar in an electric-powered jacket?

There was a huge party.

The Hoff, David Hasselhoff,

was standing there, singing...

# I've been looking for freedom. #

..cos he's a massive pop star in Germany, bizarrely.

While the Hoff got the party started in 1989,

when Cher was 12, there was no cause for celebration.

A massive hurricane has hit the southern states of America,

killing more than 50 people and leaving thousands homeless.

When I was 12, the big news story

was about Hurricane Katrina.

It was one of the most destructive hurricanes in American history.

Mass flooding broke river defences,

and left much of New Orleans under water.

Everyone knew Hurricane Katrina was on her way.

Not everyone could leave cities like New Orleans in time.

I remember watching the news, with my mum and dad,

and seeing horrible pictures

of people standing on top of buildings.

1,800 people died

and thousands of homes were destroyed.

Everything's gone. It's real bad. It's a mess, man.

It is estimated that Katrina caused over 100 billion of damage.

Even today. many people are still being affected

by the aftermath of the disaster.

While the big news for Cher happened in America,

when Craig was 12, something huge

was about to happen right on his doorstep.

Dawn of a new day.

The body count now stands at 37.

But there at least two more compartments down there.

The toll could edge closer to 80, possibly 100.

The biggest stand out thing that happened to me in 1977

was the Granville train disaster.

On 18th January, 1977,

in a suburb of Sydney,

a crowded commuter train derailed, and crashed into a road bridge

which fell onto the carriages.

83 people died,

and over 200 were injured.

This was really personal.

Two weeks after that, I was starting school,

at Granville Boys' High.

I was going to be getting on that train.

I was just terrified.

It was the most horrific thing to ever really happen.

That was, for me,

world news.

Like the Twin Towers coming down.

It was that graphic in my head.

The whole experience gave me a sense of community,

I learned there are other people in the world other than our family.

The whole community came together

and made me appreciate my life,

for the first time.

I think those big events,

when you're 12, do shape you as a person.

Still to come, we ask the question,

what would our celebs do if they were 12 again?

I would not tolerate the bullying.

I would definitely learn to dance,

and especially disco.

Get my head down at school,

do really well,

and not misbehave.

First, we're taking a break,

spending two minutes with Cover Drive.

# Boy, I'm loving this twilight. #

Taking time out backstage, singer Amanda, and drummer T-Ray

talk about life and love at 12 in Barbados.

I was still in the "scared of girls" phase.

-I had lots of crushes.

-Everyone had, at 12.

I had a crush on this boy. I wanted a Valentine.

He didn't ask me to be his Valentine, but he gave me

a chocolate heart.

He said, "This is for you".

I didn't get that was him asking me to be his Valentine,

because I was young.

-I said, "I don't want it".

-SHE LAUGHS

When Amanda and T-Ray were 12, music was their first love.

I loved pop music.

I was big into Britney Spears and all that stuff. I loved it.

Oh, Sean Paul! Oh, my goodness, how could I forget Sean Paul?!

# I don't really care what people say. #

I still watch his videos for the dancing.

I still don't understand what he says when he sings!

Though they lived in an island paradise,

T-Ray and Amanda had the same issues growing up

as all 12-year-olds.

I remember waiting for my boobs to come in.

I was like, "When do I get them?"

They'll want them big, not too big.

I was waiting for awkward hair and facial hair.

If they were 12 again,

what would they change?

# You don't know me You can't run away

I would have played my instruments earlier.

And tried talking to a girl.

"Hey, how you doing?" Run away!

I would have taken the chocolate heart.

If you had, it might have affected the whole universe

and you might not be here now.

OK, never mind. I give back the chocolate!

Lesson learned. If you want to date a future pop star, just ask.

Let's get back to business

and find out what Craig, Cher and Rav were watching when they were 12.

When I was 12, the show everyone was watching was Maid Marian.

# Marian

# Why don't you carry on? #

It had a really catchy theme tune,

which I remember really well.

Maid Marian and Her Merry Men was the most popular kids' TV show

of its day.

The show was a musical comedy retelling of Robin Hood.

In this show, though, Robin Hood wasn't the hero,

-He was totally useless.

-My arrow's disappeared!

And the plucky Maid Marian was the leader of the merry men.

-What's the matter?

-We'll be killed, that's all!

No, we'll be heroes!

Yes. Dead heroes.

I had a bit of a crush on Marian.

I thought she was hot.

Oh, great(!)

More than just feisty heroine,

Marian loved a good sing-along with her merry men.

# Colin

# We're calling out your name

# Without your happy clucking,

# Our lives won't be the same. #

This is the worst band I've ever heard!

You've never heard the Crazy Frog!

Time to find out what Cher Lloyd was watching in 2005.

When I was 12, I used to fight over the remote,

cos I wanted to watch Tracy Beaker.

I'm still a big fan of Tracy Beaker.

I think it's because she's so naughty.

If it wasn't gluing people to chairs, Tracy was up to mischief,

but what was Cher's most memorable moment?

I loved it when Tracy put flour

in the cupboard.

I see what's happening here. Stay way from the door, Mike!

Hilarious. Best moment ever.

All right. Who did this?

I would never have had the guts to do half what she did.

I can honestly say, hand on heart,

it had absolutely nothing to do with me.

What?

While Tracy may have got herself into trouble,

back in 1977, Craig was watching a one-man disaster area.

The one, the only, Mr Frank Spencer!

I loved Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

I thought that was hilarious.

You could have had my eye out there!

Our family watched it religiously.

It made my sisters and I laugh like drains. It was fantastic.

The series followed accident-prone Frank Spencer,

and saw the well-meaning, but clueless, character

getting into situations that usually

spiralled ridiculously out of control.

He was just a funny, funny character.

Adorable and likeable,

but you'd just want to strangle him

for getting it wrong all the time.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

There was one scene, where Michael Crawford

is roller-skating,

and he gets flung off,

goes through doors...

..down stairs,

on buses.

We used to kill ourselves laughing at that.

It was absolutely brilliant.

Time to drag our celebs away from the TV,

and find out why they'd like to be 12 again.

The best thing was you'd just started to look forward

to your adult life,

thinking which direction to go, and what to be.

If I could back to 12,

knowing everything I know now,

I would probably

get my head down at school,

do really well, and not misbehave.

The class joker might be funny at the time,

but in the long run,

people are laughing at you, not with you.

I would say, "Wake up!"

Do what you love

and don't care what other people think.

If I was 12 again, I'd not tolerate the bullying.

I'd tell someone.

But I don't know what else I'd change.

I had good friends, good music.

I kind of enjoyed it.

I was very worried that I wouldn't fit in.

That I wouldn't look like any of the other girls.

It was really difficult

to work out the type of person I wanted to be

and the things I wanted to do.

If I was 12 again, I'd definitely learn to dance,

especially disco, secretly,

so I could go into the playground, and say, "Look at that!"

I would love it!

So what have we learned?

If you dream of dance stardom,

dodgy TV shows aren't the best way to learn your moves.

Never give another frog a recording contract!

It's taken years to get this out of my head. Ding, ding!

Oh, not again! And if there is another major historical event

that needs celebrating, call in the Hoff.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd