Episode 7 12 Again

Coming up, three celebs become 12 again.

Everybody's, "What are you wearing? You look ridiculous."

I was not what you'd call a "little lady".

It was very kind of... you know, just quiffy.

Plus we catch up with the guys from Lawson

to find out what they were like at 12.

It's when you start getting interested in girls.

-Yeah!

-That first little phase.

-"Look at that girl over there."

Yeah, yeah! So do you want to find out more?

Well,

have you ever wondered what it would have been like being best mates

with your favourite celebs 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 their dream, just like you.

This show lets you look back in time with your favourite celebs

as they become 12 Again.

She's one of CBBC's favourite actresses

who you'll find in Hotel Trubble...

Hello, Hotel Trubble.

..and the almighty Horrible Histories.

But back in 1998, Dominique Moore's history was not quite horrible.

I was very driven, very fearless

and kind of had my own little way of doing things.

Sometimes I'd get into trouble and sometimes it would work in my favour.

# You'll never get this dance tonight! #

He's the super-cool front man the Lostprophets,

who have had such massive hits as Last Train Home...

# But we sing if we're going nowhere... #

..and Rooftops.

# Standing on the rooftops everybody scream your heart out! #

But back in 1989, Ian Watkins was more nerd than rock hero.

I was big into Games Workshop.

Painted models and, yeah, computer games.

I've always been a geek.

I suppose as far as I can remember.

She's the star of Rip-Off Britain

and has been on our TV sets since 1966,

and has even presented Top Gear, but not as you know it.

A lot of cars these days are fitted with anti-theft devices.

You have either a lock-on steering wheel or a buzzer...

But back in 1966, Angela Rippon was learning some valuable life lessons.

I grew up with the kind of family background

which basically said, "Go for it. Do it."

Let's do it then! We all know who they are now,

but what were they like back when they were still in their school uniforms?

Let's go back and meet their 12-year-old selves.

I was...very ambitious.

SHE LAUGHS

All my family agrees that I was the tomboy in the family.

I was not really what you'd call a "little lady". SHE LAUGHS

My hair was, like, a fully '80s quiff.

It was very kind of... yeah, just quiffy.

I always had my hair cut very, very short,

so I could get up in the morning,

get ready for school and just kind of do that and it was fine.

It doesn't do that now!

I used to make my own clothes.

I had these denim flares and I painted down one side,

like, "Soulful", or something, in bright yellow paint.

Clothes like baggy jeans,

like skateboard T-shirts.

I totally wanted to be like a kid growing up in an American suburb,

skateboarding.

Everybody's, "What are you wearing?

"You look ridiculous."

I was, "No, this is style."

"This is fashion."

I thought I was a trend-setter.

Now I realise I just looked really silly.

SHE LAUGHS

So apart from being trend-setters in their own...unique way,

what else was going on in our three celebs' lives back then?

I always loved music. You know, fully loved it.

You know, I used to, like, record the countdown,

the charts, and then pause it.

But I'd also, like, have two tape decks and do mixes together.

I'd record a little bit of a song and put another song next to it.

I was always intrigued by the way things were created,

um... you know, just musically.

Whilst Ian was being a tape deck DJ,

in the 1950s, Britain was recovering from World War Two,

and, in Plymouth, along with many others,

Angela's family had found themselves without a home

and living with relatives.

They'd bombed the whole of the city of Plymouth.

A lot of housing was destroyed, shops, businesses, everything went.

But the population needed to be housed,

and one of the easy ways was this wonderful thing called the prefab,

a prefabricated building.

And estates of these sprang up all over the country

because they were quick, easy and cheap.

Prefabricated houses

were homes that were delivered in large pieces

and put together a bit like a giant jigsaw you could live in.

They were meant to be a temporary solution while more permanent houses were built,

but many people loved them so much, there's still some around today.

I have to tell you, it was wonderful,

because I'd been living with my grandparents up until then.

We had an outside toilet at the bottom of the garden.

There was no bathroom in the house, so we had to go to the public baths once a week for a bath.

And suddenly my parents were offered this prefab on an estate,

which had a fully fitted bathroom.

The kitchen was fully fitted.

It was luxury beyond imagination.

So whilst Angela was enjoying her brand new prefab,

back in London, Dominique was getting the dreaded school report.

I was a bit of a clown at school.

I was always talking in class.

I was always distracting other people in class,

because I got bored really easily.

I went back and found my old school report when I was 12,

and apparently I was very talkative.

Um...

"Needs to maintain a higher level of concentration."

"Dominique started off being one of my top scientists..."

SHE GIGGLES

It's my ballet one.

"She has a difficult body for ballet, but manages to work through it."

"She has her own way of doing things."

"It took me months to convince her

"that I knew what I was talking about." SHE LAUGHS

I'm really sorry to all of the teachers

who've ever had to put up with me and this.

I apologise for my 12-year-old self.

And so you should!

So, if we can get Dominique to stop being naughty for two minutes,

let's see what our celebs were listening to.

When I was 12, the music I was listening to,

strangely, looking back, was a lot of hip hop stuff.

# Whoo! Yeah! #

The first record I ever bought with my own pocket money

was Neneh Cherry.

# DJ! #

Raw Like Sushi.

# No moneyman can win my love

# It's sweetness that I'm thinking of... #

Which then led me on to stuff like Bomb The Bass.

Keep the frequency clear.

It sounds really cool now.

And if it sounds really cool now,

back in the late '80s, it was absolutely groundbreaking.

For a lot of people, this is the first dance music they'd ever heard.

These early records featured loads of samples.

# Get-Get-Get I get-I get down to the funky beat... #

Which would be taken from old songs, radio broadcasts

or...anything, really.

All that early, like, sample tracks intrigued me.

Like, I loved stuff like M/A/R/R/S Pump Up The Volume.

# Pump up the volume Dance! Dance! #

Pump Up The Volume became the first ever dance track

to get to number one in the charts, in 1987.

But there's one song that really makes Ian feel 12 again.

# Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty You're listening to the boy

# From the big bad city This is jam hot... #

# This is jam hot... #

Dub Be Good To Me,

by Beats International,

takes me back...like that.

# Friends...

# Tell me I am crazy... #

As a kid, building, like, Games Workshop,

Battle Terrain,

with papier mache in my bedroom,

sun coming through the windows...

yeah, in my own world.

So let's leave Ian with his Games Workshop

and find out what was happening in Dominique's world of music in 1998.

When I was 12,

I did Annie, in the West End, and Jay-Z came to watch the show

cos he had Hard Knock Life out at the time.

# From standin' on the corners boppin'

# To drivin' some of the hottest cars New York has ever seen... #

Just in case you didn't know,

Hard Knock Life is a song from the musical Annie, that Jay-Z sampled.

And this song was HUGE!

# It's the hard knock life for us... #

But what was a rap megastar

doing watching Dominique perform at a theatre?

He wanted us to go on to Top Of The Pops and perform with him.

That is amazing.

Being handpicked by hip-hop legend Jay-Z

to perform on TV must have been the best thing EVER.

The day before, they said, "We're really sorry, you won't be able to go on Top Of The Pops."

MUSIC WINDS DOWN

Oh.

And we've got a "sorry" letter from Jay-Z, which is pretty cool.

I suppose that's pretty cool,

but to be honest I'd rather be on TV with Jay-Z.

But you've got your letter, don't you, so...

# It's a hard knock life... #

So as Dominique was missing out on a starring role

with hip-hop royalty of the '90s,

Angela was listening to a very new kind of music in the '50s.

Musically, I was much more aware

of classical music than I was of pop music,

as we would think of it today.

Simply because that's what I was hearing all the time when I was at ballet class.

The pianist played ballet music and we were dancing to Tchaikovsky.

But whilst Angela was doing pirouettes to classical music,

a huge musical movement was just beginning,

and about to change and influence music as we know it for ever.

Suddenly, there was rock'n'roll.

# Get your glad rags on... #

The advent of Bill Haley and the Comets

and those American rock'n'roll bands,

I think was really quite important for a lot of people of my age

around the 1956, 1957 era.

You're not kidding, Angela!

There were loads of rock'n'roll stars

like Bill Haley and Eddie Cochrane,

who helped create rock music as we know it today.

# ..Then your sister will Whoo! C'mon, everybody! #"

Kids finally could sit down, clap

and chew gum along to their favourite hits.

Well, everyone apart from that kid there. What's he playing at?

# Lay off of them shoes

# And don't you step on my blue suede shoes... #

But for Angela, it was all about the dancing.

It was suddenly this physical freedom of expression to music,

that was quite wild.

I could actually do the twirls

and the twists and the whole thing.

It was fantastic!

I...loved it.

Still to come,

we catch up super-catchy pop band, Lawson,

and find out what they got up to when they were 12.

-I just cried my eyes out.

-You cried?

-Yeah, I cried, yeah.

And we find out what TV shows had our celebs glues to the telly box.

Thinking about it now, it kills me.

I was like, "See, Mum, it's real!"

Brilliant, brilliant television.

But first let's see what big news stories

had an impact on our celebrities when they were kids.

One of the big news stories when I was 12 was the Strangeways riot.

The headlines this evening: prisoners riot at a Manchester jail.

A hundred protest on the roof.

Others take over the main cell block.

Strangeways Prison was originally built

to house just over 1,000 prisoners,

but in 1990, around 1,600 inmates had been locked up.

Prisoners weren't getting enough exercise,

cells had become overcrowded,

and often had buckets instead of toilets.

To protest, the prisoners started rioting

and then worked their way onto the roof of the prison.

I always remember the images of all the prisoners on the roof

complaining about the conditions

and holding up banners.

Finally, after 25 days, the siege came to an end.

..insurrection at Strangeways jail in Manchester,

by far the longest prison siege on record.

The prison had been damaged so badly,

it cost £55 million to rebuild.

As the riots left two men dead and 194 injured,

a public inquiry was held,

that decided that conditions in the prison had been terrible.

This then led to a major reform of the prison system

and living conditions for prisoners were improved.

I always watched Newsround when I got home from school.

One of the stories I remember from when I was 12

was the Good Friday Agreement,

and that was put in place to resolve all of the tension and disputes

between Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

For over 30 years there had been violent clashes

between Protestant and Catholic communities,

who had different beliefs over whether Northern Ireland

should belong to the UK or the Republic of Ireland.

The process to get all political parties to come together

in agreement was not an easy task and took a long time to happen.

Reports of hope, optimism, then stalemate, even failure,

and then back to breakthrough.

No-one yet knows if it will be deal of deadlock.

I do remember this story because it was a positive one

and it was about bringing an end to all of the terrorism.

Finally, in April 1998,

Northern Ireland seemed to have peace at last.

-TONY BLAIR:

-Doing what we have done today,

we have carried out what I believe to be the will

of the overwhelming majority of people here in Northern Ireland.

The chance to live in peace.

The chance to raise children out of the shadow of fear.

But not everyone was happy that an agreement had been made.

Good evening. As many as 12 people are thought to have been killed

in a serious bomb attack at Omagh in Northern Ireland.

A group called the Real IRA carried out the attack.

They believed Ireland should be one country

and opposed the Good Friday Agreement.

29 people died in the attack.

By the time the rain began falling on Omagh this morning,

the scale of the tragedy was apparent.

Due to the bombing and other political problems, the Good Friday Agreement was put on hold

until 2007,

when the Northern Ireland Assembly began to work together again.

The restoration of political institutions

marks the beginning of a new era of politics on this island.

This is a binding resolution.

Today, all political parties are working together

to make the country a peaceful place for everyone.

The big story was

the huge fight that black people in America were having

for basic human rights and equality.

In some parts of America,

when Angela was a kid, black people were seen as second-class citizens

and suffered terrible discrimination.

They were separated from white people in many areas

and life was made very, very hard for them.

The Ku Klux Klan were out in force.

The white supremacists

were battling against people who believed

in humanity!

The Ku Klux Klan were an organisation in America

who believed only white people should live in the USA.

They wore white robes and masks

and often brutally attacked and terrorised black communities.

But the actions of one woman were about to have a massive effect on an entire nation.

I distinctly remember Rosa Parks,

that incredibly brave American black woman, who decided enough was enough.

It had a huge impression on me.

In Montgomery, Alabama,

Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her seat on a bus

to let a white passenger sit down, which was against the law.

As a result of her arrest,

most of Montgomery's 40,000 black workers

refused to ride the bus to work.

The buses became almost empty.

The protest went on for 381 days

and their actions forced the bus companies to stop segregation on their buses.

There was still segregation elsewhere,

but it was a step towards equality and freedom for African Americans.

As a 12-year-old,

to have been brought up in a family where...

colour and creed didn't matter, whose attitude was,

let people get on with their lives.

The actions of Rosa Parks

turned her into a hero of the civil rights movement

and she became an icon and an inspiration for thousands of people.

Yeah, those stories stayed with me for the rest of my life.

Still to come, we ask that all-important question -

what would our celebs do if they were 12 again?

Stop talking so much!

Who I was at 12 has helped to shape me as the person that I am now.

Looking back, 12 was amazing.

But first we got two minutes to catch up

with the super-cool boy band Lawson

to find out they were like when they were kids.

# Oooh...

# Taking over me... #

Lawson are not just a boy band,

they play guitars and everything!

But what did Andy, Ryan, Adam, and Joel get up to when they were 12?

When I was 12 years old, I was...

a little loner guy

that used to hang around in the music room every dinner time and break time,

and that's pretty much my life in school from start to finish.

# My heart is racing

# She puts her hands in mine #

I'd just started to get braces and stuff,

so I'd got this horrific brace that had, like, four big blocks like,

so every time I talked I had a lisp

-Joel has got a great smile, to be fair.

-Smile, Joe?

THEY LAUGH

Oh, great smile... But what was school like?

There were elements I enjoyed, which were break times and dinner times,

and there were elements I hated, which were lessons.

# Taking over me #

I got sent out of history.

I got sent out of most classes cos I was a loudmouth.

I was standing outside the class and our headmaster, when he shouted,

had that white bit that stuck to his lip and it stuck.

-And coffee breath.

-And he came up to me and just shouted

about an inch away from my face. I was like... I just cried my eyes out. It was horrible.

-You cried?

-I cried, yeah.

-Oooh!

-I was only 12.

We've all cried, brother, we've all cried.

But what kind of music did you like?

-Avril Lavigne, Complicated, or something.

-I was going to say Avril Lavigne.

# Tell me why'd you have to go make things so complicated?

When I was 12, that was the time I bought my first ever album.

And I bought a Limp Biscuit album.

# Keep rollin' rollin' rollin... #

# Rollin' rollin' rollin... #

That literally reminds me of being 12

playing air guitar on my sofa.

Going, "I want to play that riff one day." And now I can.

# Rollin' rollin' rollin'... #

# When she was mine

# Everything was easy #

So for Lawson what was the most important thing about being 12?

I'll give you a clue - it's girls.

When you're 12 is when you kind of start secondary school,

-so...

-It's when you start getting interested in girls.

-I was going to say that!

200 girls to meet.

But you still don't want to talk to them, you know what I mean?

You've not got your confidence yet.

I've still not! It's a nightmare.

Obviously confidence with girls is not a problem for me. I'm, er super-smooth.

Just got to send a text my girlfriend. "You're dumped. LOL."

Send...

Right, moving on. Time to get back to our three celebs

and find out what Dominique, Ian and Angela were watching when they were 12.

I loved cartoons. I still do.

Like Dogtanian.

Belle and Sebastian.

Voltron.

The Weird Warriors.

Battle of the Planets.

Dungeons and Dragons, the cartoon.

He-Man was another one. It's all coming back.

OK, we get it - you like cartoons!

Oh, there's more!

Ulysses.

Was it Ulysses 2032?

Actually it was Ulysses 31, but never mind. Any more?

HE HUMS

# Wishing we could find the cities of gold #

Yeah, that's quite enough of that.

Ian's obsession with watching TV didn't stop with cartoons.

Along with his best mate and lead guitarist from the Lostprophets,

they were glued to Saturday morning TV

as one comedy duo entertained the nation.

Lee and I were obsessed with Trevor and Simon.

Obsessed. We watched them religiously.

Trevor and Simon started out on Going Live.

Hello!

And became comedy legends for thousands of kids across the country.

Blimey, that's good!

And the fact that they cracked up Sarah Greene and Philip Schofield

all the time.

We found out that, um...

They came up with different characters every week.

Mostly it was the Swing Your Pants one.

-Join in, swing your pants.

-Join in!

# Too many broken hearts in the world

# There are too many la la la la la la #

Lee called me up on a Saturday morning saying,

"You need to watch Going Live right now."

"They've got new characters.

Mick McMax, the man with the mix.

And Moon Monkey.

Make some noise, kids!

KIDS YELL

I turned it on and it was Mick McMax, the man with the mix,

who was a DJ, and Moon Monkey was his dancer.

Kids, smell your cheese!

Make some noise!

In a head-to-toe, skin-tight, like, leotard.

The only thing exposed was his face.

Everything else was just green.

Thinking about it now, it just kills me.

It was just brilliant.

YELLING AND GIBBERING

Right let's fast forward to the mid '90s,

and just before Dominique was 12

there was one show that had a huge effect on her.

I used to love the show called The Biz.

The theme tune was, # If we want it bad enough there's nothing we won't do #

-# The sky's the limit

-We know it's tough

# But it all depends on you #

It was basically all these children who went to a theatre school.

So for me, wanted to be an actress, I was glued.

I've got an audition and I don't know what to say. I don't even know what to wear.

"See, Mum, it's real! You can go to a school and study performing."

-The show was full of over-the-top acting...

-Rrrrraaahhhh!

..and drama queens.

I've got a big budget drama going on in there!

But it did launch the career of Holby City star Paul Nichols

and his ever so dreamy hair. Just make sure you don't touch it!

I'm sorry...

It's not your fault, he just doesn't like it ruffled.

TV has a big influence on you when you're young, cos you think it's real.

And Dominique was about to make it real, by auditioning for a real-life drama school.

Dominique?

-Hello.

-Hiya, Dominique.

And she had to do it in front of the entire nation

on a TV documentary called Paddington Green.

Didn't faze me. I had a film crew following me.

I was just determined to do my best and get into the school.

# There's a hero

# If you look inside your heart #

Did she get into drama school?

YESSSS!

I'll take that as a yes.

Let's go back to the 1950s,

where one TV show managed to thrill the entire nation.

The Panorama film on spaghetti farming was just so funny.

First of all you had the voice of Dimbleby.

It isn't only in Britain

that spring this year has taken everyone by surprise.

The world trusted Dimbleby. If he said it, it was true.

And they set it up so beautifully.

The crops and the early spring,

and then you see the spaghetti hanging off the trees.

The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer.

There's always the chance of a late frost which,

while not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavour.

But I do remember sitting there thinking,

"You don't grow spaghetti! I don't think that's quite right."

SHE CHUCKLES

Of course it's not. It was in fact an April Fool's joke that

super-serious BBC news programme Panorama played on Britain.

'In the 1950s, spaghetti'

was a very exotic, foreign dish.

I don't think I'D eaten spaghetti.

'So it was easy to pull the wool over your eyes

'and pretend that it was grown on trees.'

You wouldn't get away with that now.

'Another reason why this may be a bumper year

'lies in the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil,

'the tiny creature

'whose depredations have caused much concern in the past.'

This is one of the most notorious TV hoaxes ever.

It was so convincing that hundreds of people called the BBC,

asking where you could buy your own spaghetti tree.

'And now, the harvest is marked by a traditional meal.

'Toasts to the new crop are drunk in these boccalinos.'

'Brilliant.'

Brilliant, brilliant television.

'For those who love this dish,

'there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.'

So those are the TV memories of our three celebs.

But what do they remember most about being 12?

Looking back, 12 was amazing.

Yeah.

I don't really remember having any, or many bad times as a kid.

When I think back, it's with fond memories, definitely.

At 12, I was beginning to get the feeling

as a human being, of what it is to be an individual,

and take a responsibility for who you are and what you are in life.

Best thing about being 12...

that naivete,

just living for the moment, you know.

Before the weight of the world is really on your shoulders,

before you understand the gravity of everything around.

The best thing about being 12 was 110% getting into theatre school.

Cos that's probably the one thing in my whole life

that will affect what I do with the rest of my life,

so it's the best thing that's EVER happened to me.

SHE CHUCKLES

If I could be 12 again,

I don't know if there's anything I'd do differently, you know.

Everything happens for a reason.

Who I was at 12 is what's helped to shape me

as the person that I am now

in my 60s.

If I could go back and speak to Dominique aged 12,

I'd say, "I like that you're ambitious

"and I like that you're driven and I like that you're very confident.

"But stop talking so much!"

So, what have we learned then?

Funnily enough, drama set in drama schools can feature

some very bad drama.

Rarr!

I'm sorry!

I've got a big-budget drama going on in there!

When listening to rock'n'roll, chew gum.

And spaghetti definitely doesn't grow on trees.

'There's nothing like real home-grown spaghetti.'

I think.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd