0:00:08 > 0:00:10This is Milton Keynes.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13And so is this.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17And this.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24With one of the fastest-growing economies in the country,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28it's a place you've all heard of, but probably can't quite picture.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41If you don't live in Milton Keynes, you might see it as a bit of a joke.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45A soulless place.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50The home of roundabouts...
0:00:51 > 0:00:53..and concrete cows.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03And that's how I felt about it when I was growing up here.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10At 18, I left to go to university and never moved back.
0:01:11 > 0:01:12Until now.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17It's time for me to rediscover my hometown.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23For the next few weeks, I'll be living with my mum and dad
0:01:23 > 0:01:27while I make a film about the place that created me.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30- Hello.- Hello!
0:01:42 > 0:01:46You see, the thing is both Milton Keynes and I
0:01:46 > 0:01:49have reached an important milestone in life.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53We are about to turn 50.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Enough?
0:02:00 > 0:02:01Very good.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11- ARCHIVE:- Welcome to a city which doesn't exist yet.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16It's surrounded by roads that lead to nowhere.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20In fact, I'm standing right in the heart of England's secret city.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Milton Keynes wasn't just a building project.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31It was a massive experiment in social engineering.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35They're not building a new town here,
0:02:35 > 0:02:40but at a cost of £1,500 million, they're building a new city,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44a city as big as Cardiff, and starting from scratch.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52Conceived in 1967, it was decided to locate it
0:02:52 > 0:02:56exactly halfway between London and Birmingham.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Grid system is based 1km apart...
0:03:00 > 0:03:02A master plan was drawn up,
0:03:02 > 0:03:08which prescribed exactly how this perfect society would be built,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11from each house down to the very last tree.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17From the start, there'll be houses to suit workers, managers,
0:03:17 > 0:03:19vicars and doctors.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22It'll attract young men with bright new ideas.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26They'll work in places like this - AFUs - advanced factory units.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31At last, that's how Fred Roach sees it.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36Well, I suppose we may be a bit biased, but we think that
0:03:36 > 0:03:38Milton Keynes is probably about the most exciting thing
0:03:38 > 0:03:42going on in Europe, and perhaps in the world.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47In a way, the people who came to live there, like me,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50were part of a wild, utopian adventure.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02Two generations on, it now has its own indigenous population,
0:04:02 > 0:04:06and surveys always show people really love living here.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13So why was it never like that for me?
0:04:14 > 0:04:19I used to hate being asked that question, "Where are you from?"
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Because the answer would always elicit a smirk.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26And people would always say the same thing -
0:04:26 > 0:04:28"Oh, I know that place.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30"It's got a lot of roundabouts, hasn't it?"
0:04:32 > 0:04:35So perhaps it's appropriate that I begin my journey
0:04:35 > 0:04:38with the thing that MK is most famous for.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48There's nothing more expressive than the one-way gyratory.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51You can put anything on a roundabout.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53We've seen... What have we seen?
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Windmills, duck ponds, pubs, planes, boats, trains...
0:04:56 > 0:04:59You name it - anything can go on a roundabout.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04We see, like, a roundabout as an oasis on a sea of tarmac.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08They lift our sagging spirits, don't they, on tiresome journeys?
0:05:10 > 0:05:11VOICEOVER: I'm joining
0:05:11 > 0:05:16the Roundabout Appreciation Society of Great Britain on a road trip.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20- So you're all fans of roundabouts, are you?- Yes.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Our committee like to come here probably once a year
0:05:23 > 0:05:26to Milton Keynes, cos the whole beauty of Milton Keynes
0:05:26 > 0:05:30is there's a roundabout virtually on every corner, so it's ideal.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33We see this as the Mecca for roundabout spotting.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35I mean, they're all very nice, look -
0:05:35 > 0:05:38we would call this roundabout a Titchmarsh.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Why do you call it a Titchmarsh?
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Oh, a Titchmarsh is an island in full bloom or there's nice plants
0:05:45 > 0:05:50or trees or a well-kept lawn, but we also call them Monty Dons as well.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55We have the PMT, which is a painted mini traffic island.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57- Tokers?- Tokers!
0:05:57 > 0:06:01A toker is a grass only, er, roundabout.
0:06:01 > 0:06:02THEY LAUGH
0:06:03 > 0:06:06Clive's what we call a bonking 'bouter.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08- A what?- A bonking 'bouter.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11That's a guy who's made love on a roundabout.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13That's another thing altogether.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17We-we disapprove of that - the committee does - by the way.
0:06:22 > 0:06:23Here we are.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Fox Milne Roundabout.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28- I think we should all go over. - Yeah, come on.
0:06:28 > 0:06:29We'll do a bit of pointing.
0:06:31 > 0:06:32Are you sure about this?!
0:06:35 > 0:06:40There are no fewer than 300 roundabouts in Milton Keynes.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Come on!
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Far more than most other cities in the country.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47You've come back over!
0:06:50 > 0:06:54Is the modern Milton Keynes really as dull as outsiders think,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57or is this network of Monty Dons
0:06:57 > 0:07:00actually part of something unique and remarkable?
0:07:02 > 0:07:07They do say roundabouts have a zen-like quality about them.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10They do have a calming effect on you.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Then I suppose there's always the karma aspect.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16What goes around comes around on a roundabout!
0:07:23 > 0:07:27You know, I've calculated that people in MK
0:07:27 > 0:07:32spend 5% of their lives driving around roundabouts.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47- ARCHIVE:- Queen's Buildings, Southwark.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50A tenement block just 1.5 miles from Piccadilly Circus...
0:07:52 > 0:07:55..where the poor are powerless, the needy neglected
0:07:55 > 0:07:58and the future dark for the children born here.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01During the 1950s and '60s,
0:08:01 > 0:08:08Britain was facing a housing crisis in London and other major cities,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12and 2.5 million people lived in appalling slum conditions.
0:08:14 > 0:08:19This room, eight feet by six feet, is the centre of the family's life.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Five children and two adults sleep here, in one cot and three beds.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27Conditions understood all too well by headmistress Madge Taylor.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30They're exhausted sometimes when they come into school.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35We take things like darkness... just for granted, don't we?
0:08:35 > 0:08:37We go to bed in a comfortable room, alone,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40we switch off the light, we can sleep.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44This is a luxury in some of the homes that I'm thinking of.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55Milton Keynes was the last of 14 new towns
0:08:55 > 0:08:58created to rehouse people from the slums,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01and it was the largest and most ambitious of them all.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04A development corporation was appointed,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08which would act as parents to this infant town,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11and nurture it into adulthood.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22It was their idealistic beliefs about how a new society
0:09:22 > 0:09:26could and should be that would make Milton Keynes unique.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31The important thing, really, is that Milton Keynes,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34although we're concerned about the beautiful buildings,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38and the design that goes into it, essentially it's about people
0:09:38 > 0:09:42and not about planners or architects or economists or accountants.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47It's about freedom of choice, about leaving options open.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54We don't think that we've got any crystal ball that tells us
0:09:54 > 0:09:59what people's social and economic aspirations are going to be
0:09:59 > 0:10:01during the next 20 years or so.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09The skeleton of the city was a grid system of roads like LA
0:10:09 > 0:10:14or San Francisco, but without traffic lights to slow you down.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19Spread over 90 square kilometres, each one-kilometre square
0:10:19 > 0:10:22was filled in like a giant bingo card,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25with the ingredients for a perfect society.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29A school. A doctor's surgery. A smattering of industry.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33The housing estates would be set in wide, open spaces,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35where, according the master plan,
0:10:35 > 0:10:40no building would be taller than the tallest tree.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47The house itself and the surroundings
0:10:47 > 0:10:48are really marvellous.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51I have every convenience here.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55A lovely bathroom, two toilets, which I never had in Fulham -
0:10:55 > 0:10:59I used to have to go to Fulham Baths to have a bath
0:10:59 > 0:11:01because the bath was so bad in London.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04I do not wish to go back to London at all.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11This was to be nothing short of a utopia
0:11:11 > 0:11:16fit for the modern world and a modern population,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20and it would attract the most daring architects
0:11:20 > 0:11:22who would share in this vision.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Sir Norman Foster created Beanhill.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Four men nicknamed The Pop Group,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34who had come straight out of college, designed Netherfield.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37On one estate, called Tinkers Bridge,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41the architect David Byrne created homes with a decadent slanted roof.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51And I found a couple who are still living there over 40 years later.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58- Hello, Richard.- Hello!
0:11:58 > 0:12:00- Are you coming in?- Thank you.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05- Hello.- Hello.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Yes, we've been here since they've been built. 43 years.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14- What did you like about when you moved here?- It's... It's...
0:12:14 > 0:12:17- We liked...- The open-plan design. - ..the open-plan design.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21Can I...? I'm going to go up here, let me have a look down...
0:12:21 > 0:12:25- You two stay there.- That's squeaky! - Squeaky stairs, yes!
0:12:25 > 0:12:27We haven't touched them.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30THEY LAUGH
0:12:30 > 0:12:34Yeah, you see, it's quite a...quite a perspective, isn't it, really?
0:12:34 > 0:12:38You can see why...what we were saying about the open-space plan.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43It feels so, sort of, refreshingly different, doesn't it? Even today...
0:12:43 > 0:12:46Claustrophobia, is that the word - you don't feel none of that at all.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48Yes, cos it's so open and airy.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51It's got a really nice - what's it called - aspect.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53That's right, yeah. It's so spacious.
0:13:00 > 0:13:01Linda, do you remember,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05what's your recollection of walking in here for the first time?
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Well, I just couldn't believe the actual size.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12You cried, didn't you?
0:13:12 > 0:13:16If you looked at my mother's house where I was staying at the time,
0:13:16 > 0:13:21I could fit my mother's house into this house twice over.
0:13:21 > 0:13:27It was... Everything was just on a much bigger scale.
0:13:27 > 0:13:28Erm...
0:13:28 > 0:13:32First thing she said to me was, "You were right about the windows!"
0:13:33 > 0:13:34Yeah.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45I can see why people like Ron and Linda
0:13:45 > 0:13:50felt they'd found nirvana just 50 miles north of London.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01Our house was part of an estate built in 1978
0:14:01 > 0:14:04in the north of the city in an area called Great Linford.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08- Ooh!- Careful, Mum.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13This says "family photos".
0:14:15 > 0:14:20I can remember standing on this site where the house was going to be.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23It was just a ploughed field,
0:14:23 > 0:14:29and I was lucky enough to be able to go back to the developers
0:14:29 > 0:14:34and say, "Actually, yes, I would like plot number 38."
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Do you think there was a sense that you were joining
0:14:38 > 0:14:39this newly created city?
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Were you aware of that? Or was it just like any other place?
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Um...
0:14:45 > 0:14:47There was an air of excitement,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52but it was still very much a muddy field,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56if you can put it like that, because there was so much building
0:14:56 > 0:15:00going on of the roads and the developments all around.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04I was aware that it grew quite slowly, I think.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Like other immigrants here, my dad grew up in London
0:15:14 > 0:15:16and was drawn to the idea of fresh air
0:15:16 > 0:15:18and a better quality of life.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26I've always yearned, I suppose, basically, for a village life.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29I thought a village life was ideal
0:15:29 > 0:15:33because it has such a community aspect to it.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Which we didn't have in suburban London, really.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Margaret came from a village in Norfolk,
0:15:43 > 0:15:48and that was sort of the ideal situation, I thought,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51for a nice family life, to have a...
0:15:51 > 0:15:53To be brought up in a village.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00So, in a sense, was Mum your passport out of London's slums?
0:16:01 > 0:16:04- I suppose she was, really, yes. Yes. - SHE LAUGHS
0:16:09 > 0:16:12That was perhaps the truly unique feature of this place.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16It felt like a village, but was actually a city.
0:16:21 > 0:16:22When we were kids,
0:16:22 > 0:16:28my older sister Catherine enjoyed making my life unbearable.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32Like me, she left MK and never really came back.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35She lived for many years in the Far East.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40But she recently moved back to England,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43and she's come to meet me at our family home.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51- So, this is our back garden.- Mm.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55- Yeah. It feels small.- Does it?- Yeah.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59It's interesting. I guess it felt big at one time.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02I can remember leaning out of those windows
0:17:02 > 0:17:06and dreaming of different places at various points in my life.
0:17:08 > 0:17:09Do you remember choosing the bedrooms?
0:17:09 > 0:17:11I remember looking at the plans for this house
0:17:11 > 0:17:13and being terribly excited, really excited.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15Yeah, and you got the biggest bedroom.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- I was never happy about that. - No, no, but you wanted your bedroom.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22- Did I?- You chose it first.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26I remember the house...smelling of paint and chipboard
0:17:26 > 0:17:28and just being totally new,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32the smell of the new wooden doors, and the floorboards.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35It felt very clinical somehow.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39It was, I would say, a bit soulless, actually.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44It felt...empty, definitely.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Perhaps that's a kind of collective feeling that we had
0:17:50 > 0:17:53together, almost, that I picked up on,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56is this feeling of no belonging, because everyone was a migrant,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59everyone was coming into the city from somewhere else.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02And if you've got a lot of people who've just moved,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07and everyone had really just moved, there is no community,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10there is no sense of deep roots.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17If we imagine, for a minute,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21that Milton Keynes was an experiment in a laboratory,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25the scientists who devised it were hoping to see signs of culture
0:18:25 > 0:18:27growing on their Petri dish.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35As this documentary from the early '80s shows,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39an instant culture needs to be seeded.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42When we started to plan a new city for 250,000 people,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45we started here at Milton Keynes with green fields.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49We didn't have the 1,000 years of tradition that London has,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52we didn't have its sculpture, we didn't have its pictures.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54So we've got to plan right from the start to get art
0:18:54 > 0:18:56and architecture combined.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02You can't build a city just of houses and factories and shops.
0:19:09 > 0:19:10The Development Corporation
0:19:10 > 0:19:14invested in works of public art by famous artists.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18Octo is by Wendy Taylor.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24The Horse by Elisabeth Frink.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31These gave the town an instant sense of being culturally rich.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42I don't think it was about trying to create an impression
0:19:42 > 0:19:44that it was cultured,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47I think it was actually about trying to build a culture.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54They had to invent a new place, and art was certainly
0:19:54 > 0:19:59seen as an important tool in developing communities.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Remarkably, that original artistic vision has remained intact.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10I've come to the city's art gallery to meet its director, Anthony Spira.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13He's just commissioned the town's biggest-ever piece of art
0:20:13 > 0:20:16to commemorate its 50th birthday.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18It's going to be installed
0:20:18 > 0:20:21on one of the city's best examples of a Titchmarsh.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26So this is a model for the sculpture that Richard Deacon proposes,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30and to have one of the most successful artists of his generation
0:20:30 > 0:20:34in Milton Keynes was very interesting for us.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36So we were really keen to work with him.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39And where will this structure go?
0:20:39 > 0:20:42This structure will go on one of the main roundabouts
0:20:42 > 0:20:44as you come off the M1,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47it's called the Fox Milne Roundabout.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50It will be about 25 metres tall.
0:20:50 > 0:20:56We're hoping it will announce people's arrival in Milton Keynes.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04In the early days, art was not just seen as something
0:21:04 > 0:21:07the public could passively enjoy.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09It was something they could get involved in creating.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15- ARCHIVE:- In Milton Keynes, the town artist employed by the new town's Development Corporation
0:21:15 > 0:21:18is encouraging ordinary people to do art themselves.
0:21:28 > 0:21:34The community on the Netherfield estate built a gigantic giraffe
0:21:34 > 0:21:36out of spoil from the building site.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39Beanhill residents created a tin man.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42I've either got to take some off of here or some off the neck.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44I don't know which way to angle it.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46The Social Development Department set out from the start
0:21:46 > 0:21:49to encourage artists to move into the area.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51Elizabeth Leyh, an American sculptor,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53has been here for two years.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57People often say to me, "When do you get time for your own work?"
0:21:57 > 0:22:00And I can't understand what they mean,
0:22:00 > 0:22:02because I don't understand what my own work is.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06I mean, I am a sculptor. And I work with the community.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10So I guess I'm a community artist.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12Liz Leyh worked here for five years
0:22:12 > 0:22:15and some of the art she helped create
0:22:15 > 0:22:18has become part of the fabric of the place.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20I've lived on this farm for a year-and-a-half now
0:22:20 > 0:22:23and all of a sudden, a few months ago, I thought,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25"Well, I'd really like to see it stay a farm."
0:22:25 > 0:22:27And so I want to make some cows,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30some life-size, realistic cows down on the field.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38The concrete cows are now icons.
0:22:38 > 0:22:39And who would have predicted
0:22:39 > 0:22:43they would become the most recognisable symbol of this city?
0:22:47 > 0:22:49Docile, bovine ambassadors, if you will.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58But as a teenager, they only reinforced doubts
0:22:58 > 0:23:00that my hometown was a place
0:23:00 > 0:23:02the rest of the country was laughing at.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12After 30 years of separation,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15I'm taking Liz back to see the originals,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19lovingly put out to pasture in the grounds of the town's museum.
0:23:23 > 0:23:24Oh, my goodness.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27There they are.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33Are you a bit speechless? SHE LAUGHS
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Yes, I am. Don't know what to say.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41They've changed their shapes quite a bit.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52People were coming from everywhere.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55People moved here and didn't know each other,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58and Milton Keynes was being built around us.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02That's one of the things I really loved about coming to
0:24:02 > 0:24:04Milton Keynes, that...
0:24:05 > 0:24:08..you're working in a place that's being built
0:24:08 > 0:24:11and people living there can actually participate in the building
0:24:11 > 0:24:15of the city by contributing to public spaces.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23I'm a fan of the cows,
0:24:23 > 0:24:27but I suppose they are an ironic cultural artefact,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31reinforcing the idea that the city is lacking in real culture.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38It makes me rather sad for the audacious architects team
0:24:38 > 0:24:39at the Development Corporation,
0:24:39 > 0:24:45because culture was as key to them as roads and houses.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49In fact, they devised a kind of downtown district...
0:24:51 > 0:24:54..that would have made Las Vegas blush.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00City Club, as it was called,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03was rather like a space-age Disneyland
0:25:03 > 0:25:05for adults as well as for kids.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11Not just consisting of theatres and cinemas and bars,
0:25:11 > 0:25:16but also a souk and a wave pool and even a rodeo.
0:25:21 > 0:25:27I think these drawings reveal Milton Keynes at its most utopian,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31idealistic, aspirational and even hedonistic.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37But it was never built,
0:25:37 > 0:25:42deemed too ambitious by the Development Corporation board.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45This says, "The original concept for the City Club and stadium
0:25:45 > 0:25:47"was to incorporate on one site a wide range
0:25:47 > 0:25:50"of recreational, entertainment, leisure and social facilities..."
0:25:50 > 0:25:52"..to encourage participation at a local level
0:25:52 > 0:25:54"by positive pricing policies...
0:25:56 > 0:25:59"..to avoid regimented institutional control."
0:25:59 > 0:26:00HE CHUCKLES
0:26:00 > 0:26:03It's interesting, the vision of City Club,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07bold and imaginative as it was, wasn't very practical, surely.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Is that a criticism or...?
0:26:11 > 0:26:13THEY LAUGH
0:26:13 > 0:26:17I think what was so exciting was that this was a group of
0:26:17 > 0:26:22some of the most innovative, dynamic, well-connected architects
0:26:22 > 0:26:26and designers of their day who were given a blank sheet of paper
0:26:26 > 0:26:28to dream their dreams.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31And it's amazing that any of it was built at all.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37City Club may never have become a reality,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40but the utopian ideals of Milton Keynes live on
0:26:40 > 0:26:44in another institution which arrived in the city in 1969.
0:26:52 > 0:26:53What I'm going to do now is to try
0:26:53 > 0:26:56and shoot a pellet into the tube thing on top of the glider,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58which is there only to catch the pellet,
0:26:58 > 0:27:00so it doesn't go flying round the studio,
0:27:00 > 0:27:02slaughtering everybody and sundry.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09The Open University gave the opportunity for
0:27:09 > 0:27:11advanced learning to everyone at a time
0:27:11 > 0:27:15when it was really just a preserve of the middle classes.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Just when I thought I could do it, along came the second unit,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and that was on relativity, and that really floored me.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27The Open University's philosophy of inclusivity
0:27:27 > 0:27:29chimed with that of the town's planners.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36But despite the Development Corporation's best endeavours,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38by the early '80s,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42the city had a growing reputation for being soulless and concrete.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46And not enough people were moving there.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54So a marketing campaign was launched to persuade people
0:27:54 > 0:27:55to relocate to Milton Keynes.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03A now-iconic TV advert of a boy with a red balloon hit our screens.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11You can see my house in the commercial,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15where the boy stops to skim some stones across a pond.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23This TV advert portrays Milton Keynes
0:28:23 > 0:28:27as a green, safe and even exciting place to live.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30- CHILDREN:- ..three, two, one!
0:28:30 > 0:28:33THEY CHEER
0:28:33 > 0:28:37But the reality was it was also quite ordinary.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41In our house, we had macaroni cheese every Tuesday
0:28:41 > 0:28:43and my dad played bridge every Wednesday.
0:28:45 > 0:28:46Wouldn't it be nice if all cities
0:28:46 > 0:28:48were like Milton Keynes?
0:28:51 > 0:28:55My father would come in every evening from the London train,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58take his suit off and get stuck into
0:28:58 > 0:29:00some epic creative project of his own.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05Laying the patio.
0:29:07 > 0:29:08It took months.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18Sunbathing on my father's new patio,
0:29:18 > 0:29:22we didn't feel like guinea pigs in a huge social experiment.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25It didn't feel like we were part of a perfect society.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32Evidently, lots of people were experiencing a sense of dislocation.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39The press even created a name for it - "the new town blues".
0:29:48 > 0:29:52At the Development Corporation, a team of workers provided
0:29:52 > 0:29:55practical and emotional support to the newcomers.
0:29:57 > 0:29:58Even shoulders to cry on.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Did you feel that you were at the start of something amazing?
0:30:04 > 0:30:11Oh, I had no idea at the time how vast...
0:30:11 > 0:30:15interesting, exciting,
0:30:15 > 0:30:16depressing it would be,
0:30:16 > 0:30:18and I loved every minute of it.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25- ARCHIVE:- Mal Booth is one of the 13 arrivals workers
0:30:25 > 0:30:28employed by the Development Corporation.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Her job is to visit people when they've just arrived
0:30:31 > 0:30:35and to go back a few months later to see how they're settling in.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39I think it's a very unusual family who can move from an environment
0:30:39 > 0:30:42that perhaps they're been in all their lives and come to somewhere
0:30:42 > 0:30:47like Milton Keynes, which is so different for them, and settle.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50I think it hits a lot of the families
0:30:50 > 0:30:54where the husband's out to work, the mother has young children,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59and she now finds herself in a situation where this is all foreign.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07I heard a stat that there was a lot of single women
0:31:07 > 0:31:09who came to Milton Keynes during the early days.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11Is that something you were aware of?
0:31:12 > 0:31:14Um...
0:31:14 > 0:31:18I don't know about a lot of single mothers coming to Milton Keynes.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22I do know that a lot of women became single parents
0:31:22 > 0:31:25once they'd moved here.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27You know, their marriages were...
0:31:27 > 0:31:31What they thought perhaps were strong, weren't -
0:31:31 > 0:31:34they had a lot of problems to deal with.
0:31:34 > 0:31:35When you're young,
0:31:35 > 0:31:41moving to a new area highlights the cracks in a relationship.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Do you think those times would have caused any tensions
0:31:51 > 0:31:52between the two of you?
0:31:54 > 0:31:56Oh, I'm sure they probably did, yes.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Yes, because I was working.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02It was tough.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04I didn't have any support network, ever.
0:32:04 > 0:32:11Because my family and Dad's family were further away.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16His family was in London and my family was in Norfolk.
0:32:16 > 0:32:22So I never had a mother to call on to come and help me out
0:32:22 > 0:32:24or anything like that.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27- No.- And...- You just had to...
0:32:27 > 0:32:29do the best you could.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33But of course, having to go out to work,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35for a woman with two children,
0:32:35 > 0:32:37it does put some sort of pressure on them.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39I suppose there was stress,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41but she copes with stress quite well.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43I cover up my stress.
0:32:46 > 0:32:47Hmm.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58We probably all experienced difficulties
0:32:58 > 0:33:00in different ways at that time -
0:33:00 > 0:33:04but what I'm only understanding now is that this adversity
0:33:04 > 0:33:07created relationships between strangers
0:33:07 > 0:33:09of real strength and intimacy.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11We talked about everything.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15I mean, I got to know a family on this estate.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21Unfortunately, the mum of the two young girls became very ill,
0:33:21 > 0:33:27and was diagnosed with cancer,
0:33:27 > 0:33:31and I had been told that she was dying,
0:33:31 > 0:33:33and it was very emotional,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36one day when she asked me,
0:33:36 > 0:33:38"Am I dying, have I got cancer?"
0:33:38 > 0:33:43and I sat with her and talked her through it
0:33:43 > 0:33:49and was able to let her come to terms with the fact
0:33:49 > 0:33:52that, yes, she didn't have long -
0:33:52 > 0:33:58and it was nice, helping her to write letters to her two girls
0:33:58 > 0:34:04and to be able to talk to them before she eventually died.
0:34:04 > 0:34:11That was a very moving experience, but one that taught me a lot.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14So, yeah.
0:34:20 > 0:34:21Oh...
0:34:22 > 0:34:26- Are you all right? - I remember her well, yeah.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28How funny is that?
0:34:28 > 0:34:29Oh.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Hidden among trees and spread thinly over a wide area,
0:34:40 > 0:34:45Milton Keynes doesn't look like anywhere else in the country.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49In fact, from ground level at least,
0:34:49 > 0:34:51you can't really get a good perspective on it.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58The city has more than 22 million trees.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04Every new family was given one to plant in their garden.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08Ours was a cherry.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10I remember I nearly killed it one year
0:35:10 > 0:35:13after an accident involving a tin of creosote.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21Today, the city within a forest - as the master plan describes it -
0:35:21 > 0:35:25is home to a greater variety of birds than when it was farmland.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31Quite an achievement for the architects of this utopian vision...
0:35:34 > 0:35:38..but not everything has been quite so successful.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Some of those bold, modernist housing estates
0:35:41 > 0:35:45have experienced problems as a result of their avant-garde designs.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51Many have needed modifications and repairs,
0:35:51 > 0:35:54and some are even facing redevelopment...
0:36:01 > 0:36:04..but I'm meeting a woman who thinks they're things of beauty,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08which represent the original, utopian vision for the city...
0:36:09 > 0:36:11..and therefore must be preserved.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15What have you seen?
0:36:15 > 0:36:18Nice light on trees and terrace,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22stepped up the hill with a nice bit of slope,
0:36:22 > 0:36:24fencing and hedge at the top,
0:36:24 > 0:36:27and another terrace coming in -
0:36:27 > 0:36:31and then, just the three trees providing a little balance.
0:36:31 > 0:36:37I think the whole composition is very thoughtful.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47Elaine Harwood is from Historic England,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51an organisation that protects our most precious buildings.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54I just need a couple more pictures.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57This is Eaglestone, by Ralph Erskine.
0:36:57 > 0:36:58Perfect.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Elaine's taking photographs for a book she's written
0:37:01 > 0:37:03about modern towns.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07I wonder if I can move that dustbin a minute?
0:37:09 > 0:37:12- ARCHIVE:- It sounds like the Industrial Revolution
0:37:12 > 0:37:15all over again, but in the 19th century
0:37:15 > 0:37:18they built houses in long, straight, terraced rows.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21They became the slums of the 20th century.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23This is the Netherfield estate,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27and I wonder if, in 50 or 100 years' time, a television reporter
0:37:27 > 0:37:31will be standing here saying, "We must have better housing."
0:37:32 > 0:37:35I like the rigour of it.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39The repetition of the spaces and the way...
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Ooh, that's...
0:37:41 > 0:37:48It really is the most simple form of housing, landscape,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51in really straight rows,
0:37:51 > 0:37:52that's just...
0:37:54 > 0:37:55..taking...
0:37:58 > 0:38:01..the traditional terrace down to its absolute essence.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11It wasn't just the housing estates
0:38:11 > 0:38:14that had grand architectural aspirations.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18The shopping centre was equally ambitious in scale and look.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Thanks to a successful campaign by Elaine and Historic England,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28it's now the only shopping centre in the country
0:38:28 > 0:38:31which is a listed building.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33BELL RINGS
0:38:33 > 0:38:37- PA:- Would Natasha, the sister of Daniel,
0:38:37 > 0:38:39please come to the shopping information,
0:38:39 > 0:38:42opposite the open market.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45I've always loved the shopping centre.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48It just feels so warm and bright and welcoming.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52Like a giant greenhouse.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59In the early '80s, I got a Saturday job in a menswear store
0:38:59 > 0:39:02called Lord John, which is where Next is now.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07I seem to remember it sold a lot of viscose trousers.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13Unlike shopping centres today,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17this one was funded entirely by government money.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20THEY GIGGLE
0:39:21 > 0:39:22What is it?
0:39:22 > 0:39:24Steel.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30The architects who created the shopping centre
0:39:30 > 0:39:33were in their 20s when they arrived in Milton Keynes.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38They didn't just want to create another shopping mall,
0:39:38 > 0:39:41they were determined to build something amazing.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47That late sun on the steelwork, Richard, can you see it?
0:39:47 > 0:39:49That's beautiful.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52What we're seeing here is the reflection
0:39:52 > 0:39:54of the real bit of the building,
0:39:54 > 0:39:56reflected in this glazed wall.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59You get a ghost of the building outside.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01It becomes rather...
0:40:01 > 0:40:03I would say, poetic.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10This is Roman travertine, and I'm sitting on it as well.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15It's from the same quarries that the classical Romans used at..
0:40:15 > 0:40:17- Tivoli.- ..Tivoli.- Yep.
0:40:17 > 0:40:18Most people think this is marble
0:40:18 > 0:40:22and that it's terribly expensive, and the public aren't worthy of it.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24It's certainly not extravagant.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26It's not as cheap as concrete, but we knew that.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29It's a beautiful material,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and I don't know anything else in England
0:40:32 > 0:40:34that looks like that.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37The pavements of Rome are paved in exactly this material.
0:40:41 > 0:40:42What does it make you feel?
0:40:42 > 0:40:45What's your overriding feeling about the work you've done?
0:40:47 > 0:40:48So, there.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52- What?- That's what I feel about it. So, there!- It's here.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54- What does that mean, exactly? - Well...
0:40:54 > 0:40:57- There you are.- Tant pis, that's it.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00You've got it, that's what I feel -
0:41:00 > 0:41:03it is here, it's here, look at this.
0:41:03 > 0:41:04So, there.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28It's January 2017,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32just a couple of weeks before Milton Keynes turns 50.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37Look at this road. This is... This is a city street
0:41:37 > 0:41:40where the principles of the grid road have been abandoned.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45The council has allowed the developer to build things like this
0:41:45 > 0:41:48right on top of the street, with no landscaping.
0:41:48 > 0:41:49Most people probably think,
0:41:49 > 0:41:53"Oh, Milton Keynes has always looked like this." No, it hasn't!
0:41:53 > 0:41:57Milton Keynes has looked fantastic in the past.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01It makes you weep to see what's been done.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09Rediscovering my hometown, I find an adolescent city
0:42:09 > 0:42:13that has been cut free from its parents' apron strings.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18In the early '90s, the Development Corporation was wound up,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21and since then, the city's growth has been dictated
0:42:21 > 0:42:23more by the private sector...
0:42:29 > 0:42:33..but there are those who want to protect its childhood identity,
0:42:33 > 0:42:37like Linda Inoki, who runs a residents' campaign group.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40In a way, it's a delicate flower.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43If you don't stop and think about it,
0:42:43 > 0:42:49you can take all this connectivity and ease of access for granted -
0:42:49 > 0:42:52and that's when things get lost.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Because people don't necessarily recognise
0:42:54 > 0:42:56that they're worth fighting for.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59They will assume that they'll always be there.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02After all, it's only 50 years on - it's nothing.
0:43:02 > 0:43:0550 years is nothing, nothing, in the life of a great city -
0:43:05 > 0:43:09and yet the tragedy is that it's already being pulled apart.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17A few years ago, a second shopping centre was built,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21which appeared to disregard the city's founding principles.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26We're driving up Midsummer Boulevard,
0:43:26 > 0:43:31our grand, central boulevard, which was broken in two in 1996,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34when the council of the day gave permission
0:43:34 > 0:43:38for a new shopping centre to be built -
0:43:38 > 0:43:40and it still drives people nuts,
0:43:40 > 0:43:44the fact that our boulevard was broken in two for no good reason.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49Originally, we were able to drive straight through the boulevard,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52right to the end of the city centre.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54Suddenly, the boulevard was blocked off,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56and you couldn't go through here any more.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02I could not believe my eyes - I thought, "What have they done?"
0:44:03 > 0:44:05I mean...and this is what happens,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08this is what happens when you mess with the master plan.
0:44:17 > 0:44:19That's THE monstrosity, yes.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25It just makes me feel angry -
0:44:25 > 0:44:28they did not have to break our boulevard in two
0:44:28 > 0:44:31to build this bloomin' shopping centre.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43When I look back at my teenage self, I can see how I failed to notice
0:44:43 > 0:44:46what a unique place was being created here.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50- ARCHIVE:- The morning after, it seemed I had been wrong
0:44:50 > 0:44:53to be so gloomy about the future.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55for I came to a place so far removed in concept
0:44:55 > 0:44:57from the rest of England
0:44:57 > 0:45:01that it was as if I had arrived on another planet.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05A vast and shining spaceship beneath the sky.
0:45:05 > 0:45:06Surely, I thought,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10this must be a place devoted to religion or to the arts,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13and we were all waiting for some concert to begin,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15or some guru to arrive.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22Mind how you go, Richard. You're walking backwards.
0:45:28 > 0:45:29Do you like being filmed?
0:45:29 > 0:45:31Oh, yes. Very much so.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34- Do you really?- Oh, yes. Yes.- Why?
0:45:34 > 0:45:36Well,
0:45:36 > 0:45:40I like to expose myself to the general public, as it were.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42RICHARD LAUGHS You must...
0:45:42 > 0:45:44I think you phrased that really unfor...
0:45:44 > 0:45:49Not expose myself in the way that's come to your mind immediately.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51In a different way, in a more subtle way.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54DRUMMING AND CHANTING
0:45:54 > 0:45:58When the writer Beryl Bainbridge visited Milton Keynes
0:45:58 > 0:46:02in the early 1980s, she found a place far from lacking in soul,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05and actually quite spiritual.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14At the time, I would have laughed at Beryl, but now,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18as I visit the first Buddhist peace pagoda in the Western world
0:46:18 > 0:46:20with my dad,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23I can see what she found so beguiling about the city.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25Quite imposing, isn't it?
0:46:29 > 0:46:32It's right that the Japanese should build a temple here...
0:46:34 > 0:46:36..and when you think about it,
0:46:36 > 0:46:41a new city without memorials or monuments to the past
0:46:41 > 0:46:44is a fitting place for an eastern ideology
0:46:44 > 0:46:48which believes in the eventual perfection of man.
0:46:57 > 0:47:03Always puzzles me. I never can quite fathom out Japanese culture.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05It seems very complicated.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12Have you got any words of wisdom for me
0:47:12 > 0:47:13while I'm making the documentary?
0:47:15 > 0:47:16I don't really know.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Words of wisdom? Er...
0:47:21 > 0:47:22Oh...
0:47:24 > 0:47:25Well, of course...
0:47:27 > 0:47:29..talking about marriage,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31Dr Johnson did say that...
0:47:32 > 0:47:34..marriage...
0:47:35 > 0:47:38..has some pains...
0:47:38 > 0:47:41but celibacy has few pleasures.
0:47:52 > 0:47:54After three, I want you all to shout,
0:47:54 > 0:47:56"Happy birthday, Milton Keynes!"
0:47:56 > 0:47:58One, two, three!
0:47:58 > 0:48:02ALL: Happy birthday, Milton Keynes!
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Bletchley Park, the home of the codebreakers,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15is the most famous Milton Keynes tourist attraction
0:48:15 > 0:48:18and is the venue for the town's 50th birthday party.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24People here are celebrating one of Britain's greatest feats
0:48:24 > 0:48:26of social engineering.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30This is not the end,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32we're not going to pack up and go home -
0:48:32 > 0:48:34we've now got another 50 years to make Milton Keynes
0:48:34 > 0:48:36an even better place,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39and move on to the hundredth anniversary of Milton Keynes.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41So, thank you very much indeed for turning up today.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43APPLAUSE
0:48:46 > 0:48:52The population of MK now exceeds the planners' wildest predictions.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55When I drive around the city today as an adult,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58I find a thriving commercial centre...
0:49:00 > 0:49:04..but also a place I'd quite like to bring my kids up in.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08It does feel green, safe, and inclusive...
0:49:10 > 0:49:13..but what's it like to be a young person here?
0:49:13 > 0:49:15What does the future hold for THEM and their city?
0:49:17 > 0:49:22I'm going back to my old school, to meet the new indigenous generation.
0:49:26 > 0:49:27SCHOOL ORCHESTRA PLAYS
0:49:30 > 0:49:34Stantonbury Campus was a school very much in keeping
0:49:34 > 0:49:37with the utopian ideals of the city.
0:49:37 > 0:49:38There was no uniform.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41The classrooms were carpeted.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43You called the teachers by their first name,
0:49:43 > 0:49:45and there was no such thing as detention.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53- ARCHIVE:- There's a liberal, club-like atmosphere here,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55the floors are carpeted,
0:49:55 > 0:49:57and there's every conceivable piece
0:49:57 > 0:49:59of electronic educational gadgetry...
0:50:02 > 0:50:04..and that includes what is perhaps the most advanced
0:50:04 > 0:50:07language laboratory in the world.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09- 'Schnitzel.'- Schnitzel.
0:50:09 > 0:50:10'Schnitzel? Prima.'
0:50:10 > 0:50:12Schnitzel? Prima.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Once a month, a whole day was given over to a single activity,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21like trampolining or golf.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24LAUGHTER
0:50:24 > 0:50:27And that, after four weeks, I think, is a good swing.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29How you swing in those shoes I don't know.
0:50:33 > 0:50:34- CHILDREN:- # Poke him in the eye
0:50:34 > 0:50:37# Stick him on the bonfire and there let him die
0:50:37 > 0:50:38# Guy, Guy, Guy
0:50:38 > 0:50:40# Poke him in the eye... #
0:50:40 > 0:50:43Of course, all that has changed now.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48You know about this thing that we had to call day ten?
0:50:48 > 0:50:51Day ten was a sort of interesting thing where they used to send out
0:50:51 > 0:50:53these little pamphlets with loads of different activities
0:50:53 > 0:50:55which you'd do for a whole day,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58and it could be... doing things like maths -
0:50:58 > 0:51:00maths for a whole day, who'd do that?
0:51:00 > 0:51:04- I would.- Who would?- I would.
0:51:04 > 0:51:05LAUGHTER
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Yeah, I... Maths is definitely one of my favourite subjects
0:51:10 > 0:51:11and I just had a complete interest in it.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14But you know, on day ten, you could have chosen
0:51:14 > 0:51:16a day of roller-skating instead of maths.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Oh, don't make me pick.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20LAUGHTER
0:51:21 > 0:51:26And how do you find living in Milton Keynes, you know...today?
0:51:26 > 0:51:29It's quiet. I feel like there's not much to do.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31Really? You find it quiet?
0:51:31 > 0:51:33I don't think there's much to do.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35Compared to, like, big cities and stuff.
0:51:35 > 0:51:36It depends really on your interests.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39Because here, you can always do something that's engaging
0:51:39 > 0:51:40for everybody's interests here.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42You don't have to look a certain way.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45You don't have to be a certain person
0:51:45 > 0:51:48or be a certain religion or anything like that to fit in with others.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51You don't have to be a certain sexuality to do so.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53Everybody has their right to be their own person
0:51:53 > 0:51:55and that's what makes everything so diverse.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58I was actually going to talk about this at some point.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00I was going to say how diverse Milton Keynes is.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03I just think it's nice how comfortable people are now
0:52:03 > 0:52:05just walking down the street and being OK with who they are
0:52:05 > 0:52:07and not getting discriminated and whatnot.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10It's just nice to see someone from a different country, maybe,
0:52:10 > 0:52:12come to Milton Keynes and live on the same street,
0:52:12 > 0:52:13or go to the same school as you.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17You're, like... We may not have the same culture,
0:52:17 > 0:52:19but we can be friends... or something.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21And do you think Milton Keynes is particularly tolerant?
0:52:21 > 0:52:23Yeah, yeah.
0:52:23 > 0:52:24More so than, perhaps, other places?
0:52:24 > 0:52:26Yeah, I would say so, because...
0:52:26 > 0:52:28I don't know, I think we kind of embrace,
0:52:28 > 0:52:30kind of, the diversity we have here.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34- Yeah.- And that makes it unique from other places?
0:52:34 > 0:52:36Yeah, because some places will never change.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41Some places can't change, cos it's such a big environment or area,
0:52:41 > 0:52:43but with Milton Keynes, they...
0:52:43 > 0:52:46When I mean "they", we all are trying
0:52:46 > 0:52:49to put something in to Milton Keynes.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52I think it's more the public that make Milton Keynes what it is
0:52:52 > 0:52:53than the actual places.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55That's my opinion, anyway.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06It's unbelievable to look back at this commercial
0:53:06 > 0:53:10and realise there are almost no non-white people in it...
0:53:12 > 0:53:14..because today's generation
0:53:14 > 0:53:16of Milton Keynes' primary school children
0:53:16 > 0:53:18are 42% non-white.
0:53:22 > 0:53:23Wouldn't be nice if all cities
0:53:23 > 0:53:25were like Milton Keynes?
0:53:31 > 0:53:32I know you've had a sandwich, Richard,
0:53:32 > 0:53:34but would you like something else?
0:53:34 > 0:53:35No, I'm all right, thanks.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40I think my problem with Milton Keynes
0:53:40 > 0:53:44was, as a teenager, it defined me in a way I didn't like.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49I didn't want to be uniform and mainstream.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55But in my haste to turn my back on the place
0:53:55 > 0:53:56and find a new identity,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59I also turned my back on the people here.
0:53:59 > 0:54:04David Sutton has lived nearly all his life in Milton Keynes
0:54:04 > 0:54:06and was my closest friend for a decade.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Oh, got to have a nose down here, cos we were right down the bottom.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18It was right down the bottom, on the left.
0:54:18 > 0:54:20Yeah.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23But we lost contact when I went to university.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27I've asked him to meet me at our old school.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29THEY LAUGH
0:54:29 > 0:54:32You were a very talented sportsman, weren't you, David?
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Uh...I wouldn't know that I was necessarily...
0:54:34 > 0:54:36Well... All right, then.
0:54:36 > 0:54:37HE LAUGHS
0:54:37 > 0:54:39I think I used to, sort of, look up to you so much
0:54:39 > 0:54:41for your sporting prowess
0:54:41 > 0:54:43that I used to think that, hanging out with you, somehow,
0:54:43 > 0:54:46some of it would rub off on me. DAVID CHUCKLES
0:54:46 > 0:54:47Yeah...
0:54:47 > 0:54:49It never did, obviously.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52You know me really well, don't you?
0:54:52 > 0:54:54Even though you don't know me, you've not known me for years...
0:54:54 > 0:54:57- Yeah.- ..I get the sense that you still know me really well.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00Yeah, yeah, yeah. Without a shadow. I mean, it's like I said to you,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03for me, it's...you know, camera or no camera,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05it's one of the big regrets in my life
0:55:05 > 0:55:08and I just cannot believe
0:55:08 > 0:55:12when I look back at how a unique friendship and special friendship
0:55:12 > 0:55:13had been lost.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16- Um...- I started liking stuff like Janis Joplin and...
0:55:16 > 0:55:17- Yes, yes.- ..Led Zeppelin -
0:55:17 > 0:55:20I think you just didn't approve of all that sort of stuff.
0:55:20 > 0:55:21DAVID LAUGHS
0:55:21 > 0:55:25It wasn't a question of approving. I didn't know it, really.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27That's what I'm saying.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29It took you into a different world.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33For you to, sort of, be anything other than, like I was,
0:55:33 > 0:55:37a mad Queen advocate, was very painful,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41cos at that time, I was the only mad Queen advocate that I knew,
0:55:41 > 0:55:43apart from you.
0:55:43 > 0:55:48But it just felt, to me, I think - and it was me, my fault -
0:55:48 > 0:55:51it just felt like you were sort of ditching everything that...
0:55:52 > 0:55:55..that we had, sort of, forged together, as it were,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59and suddenly, that had all gone out the window and...
0:55:59 > 0:56:00that included me.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17My parents have come to feel very at home in Milton Keynes
0:56:17 > 0:56:19in a way that I never did.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25Perhaps part of the problem is that me and the city
0:56:25 > 0:56:27are just too different.
0:56:28 > 0:56:29Or are we?
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Before I catch my train, there's a little test I want to do
0:56:33 > 0:56:38with Mum and Dad, based on a survey by Milton Keynes Council.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42They've spoken to a cross-section of the community of Milton Keynes,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46and asked them to describe Milton Keynes as if it was a person.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48- Right! Yes.- As what?
0:56:48 > 0:56:51- As if it was a person. - As if it was a person.- Oh...
0:56:51 > 0:56:55- So, these are the findings. I'll read them to you, shall I?- Yes.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58"Milton Keynes is a unique and free-spirited place...
0:57:01 > 0:57:05"..with a charm all of its own that makes it stand out from the crowd."
0:57:05 > 0:57:06Hm. It's true.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11Well, it is, because it was built out of nothing.
0:57:11 > 0:57:13It was just farmland.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17"Milton Keynes is guided by principles,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20"sometimes at the expense of logic."
0:57:20 > 0:57:21Yes.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25"It has a high regard for a sense of aesthetics and beauty.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28"It is a highly idealistic place to live.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33"Yet it also has a colder, rational side."
0:57:33 > 0:57:36Uh...no, I don't know. Haven't noticed it.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39- "A colder, rational side"? Oh, my goodness me.- No.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43"Yet this can make it appear a bit unemotional to people
0:57:43 > 0:57:45"that do not know the place."
0:57:45 > 0:57:48- Mm, yes. - And a bit aloof and uncaring and...
0:57:48 > 0:57:50Yes, yes. Mm.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52Yes, I can see that.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56What's the time, please?
0:57:56 > 0:58:00- Oh, yes...- 11:40. 12:40.- 12:40.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02What time have you got to go?
0:58:02 > 0:58:04Uh... At one.
0:58:04 > 0:58:05Oh, at one?
0:58:06 > 0:58:09May I quote Dr Johnson again?
0:58:09 > 0:58:15"Anyone who is fed up with Milton Keynes is fed up with life."
0:58:15 > 0:58:17Oh.
0:58:17 > 0:58:18Quote, end quote.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28Explore more about the history of Milton Keynes
0:58:28 > 0:58:29and how things have changed.
0:58:29 > 0:58:31Go to...
0:58:34 > 0:58:38..and follow the links to the Open University.