Episode 2 7 Up New Generation

This programme contains some strong language.

These films follow the lives of a group of children

that we first met at the age of seven.

A new generation of the 7 Up series.

We continued the journey when we filmed them again aged 14.

When I was younger, I wanted to be an archaeologist,

only to find out later on I was scared of corpses.

I want to get to the Olympics in 2012.

You have to always have high hopes.

Even if I don't make it,

but I'll never say that because I know I will make it.

Now, aged 21, we meet them again.

It's really a certain kind of fear of inadequacy

and that I never want to be someone who's looked down on other people.

I just don't have belief in myself or self-confidence.

You know, I just feel like if there's more of me

in the world it would just be a bit happier.

I promise that I will do my best to love my God, to serve the Queen and

the country, to help other people and to keep the Brownie Guide Law.

Well done. Going to pin this badge on to you.

Welcome to the New Mills Brownies.

When we returned to film Stacey aged 14,

she was still living in her birth place of New Mills, Derbyshire.

It's a really nice place. Nearly everybody knows everybody.

I went to Manchester once and didn't like it.

It's just too big.

There's people there that you didn't know, it could be anybody out there.

Absolutely anybody.

It's just you in this huge city, on your own basically.

CAR HORNS HONK

'When I was 14, I was just so, so shy.

'I had no confidence in myself whatsoever.

'And I do think that the last seven years

'and the things I have done, I have changed so much.'

I don't think I would at 14 ever have dreamed that I would've,

you know, moved away, lived away for university

and then move to the other side of the world afterwards.

Good morning, everybody.

-ALL:

-Good morning, Stacey.

-How is everybody? ALL:

-Well.

'I was in my third year of uni and it got to the point where it was...

'Having to start to think about careers and what you wanted to do.'

We're going to start with a game.

'And to be honest, I really didn't have a clue,

'so the university careers programme was putting on some careers talks

'for a programme called TEIC, Teach English In China.'

CHILDREN SHOUT

'I just applied for it, got it.'

So I'm here in Changde Vocational Technical College

in Hunan Province, Southern China.

CHILDREN SHOUT

'I could never have imagined myself standing up

'and teaching in front of a class.

'I was still sort of a little bit reserved at university.'

"French friend from French."

LAUGHTER

'But now, it's just like a second nature.

'I really don't mind at all.'

The school itself is quite small, but really friendly.

It does feel like a sort of close-knit community.

Can be walking around

and literally 20 or more people will say hello to me,

which is a celebrity, I feel like a celebrity.

And where do you think you'd like to live when you're older?

London or Hollywood.

-What would you do in Hollywood?

-Be a star.

Sanchez grew up in Chapeltown, Leeds.

By the age of 14,

his thoughts of stardom had begun to focus on football.

He'd been accepted into the prestigious Leeds United Academy.

The one thing... My life, if you had to order it,

it would be family first cos you have to get your priorities.

But second has to come football.

Get wide, Sanchez. Go away from him. Run him off.

I can imagine myself watching TV, Match of the Day,

watching England, I can see myself in that centre mid position.

I can see it now, so I'm just waiting for that to come true.

CHEERING

September, 2012.

Sanchez makes the bench for Leeds first team.

25,000 people just screaming and shouting.

It was amazing, it was ridiculous.

I honestly wasn't nervous. I felt I was in my element.

I felt, you know, this is me,

this is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life.

By age 15, I was offered my professional contract.

Just did the normal stages of progressing through the ranks.

It was going really well. I was enjoying my football.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, what a goal that is!

-COMMENTATOR:

-Sanchez Payne and that was an absolute bullet.

And then I started to take a bit of a turn for the worst.

When I signed my contract,

I was signed by Gary McAllister who happened to leave within, I think,

of a month and I feel that when the new manager came in,

I felt like my chances were a lot more limited,

which was quite hard to take.

There was people who had opinions about me for whatever reason,

that I wasn't good enough.

So once I heard that, I kind of realised that

I was stuck in a situation that I really had no control over.

Sanchez had to see out the rest of his contract

before being released by Leeds in summer, 2013.

The Leeds contract came to an end, it was very emotional.

There was a few tears shed, by me as well,

cos it was an end of an era.

There was a moment not too long ago and I was very down,

a very low place.

I think the reason is because I don't see football

as my way to stardom or my way to fame,

I see it as a way of supporting my family.

But nobody's going to want me on their team.

-Yeah, you can be on my team.

-You've said it now anyway.

Yeah, but I'm saying obviously if you're on my team

then we're going to win.

Even if I have to carry you.

'The family are literally like my rock.

'Right now I'm in the scenario where, you know,

'I need a bit of support and they're there for me.'

You know, I just can't wait to repay the favour.

My mum is a director of Harrods.

And my dad is a lawyer at Clifford Chance

and he sort of buys and sells companies,

which is a bit boring, I think.

At seven, Oliver was living in West London

and going to Hill House, an independent school in Chelsea.

Well, I think two years after we did the last programme,

I moved to a boarding school in Oxford called The Dragon,

which I... Well, I was there for four years until year eight.

And then last September, last September?

Yeah, last September I went to Eton,

so I've just done my first year there which was really good.

Yale! Yale!

WHISTLE BLOWS

I would say that my five years at Eton, really enjoyed it.

Then towards the end of my penultimate year,

I started thinking about universities,

both British and American unis and ended up at Yale,

over here in the US.

When I first came over, I was excited but also pretty trepidatious,

I'd barely been to the US before.

'I thought I knew the culture.

'I think there is a lot of America that you see

'that is different from the UK.'

Yeah, go for it, thank you.

'Very overtly confident,

'kind of brash nature that Americans can have to us Brits.'

# Yale, Yale, so it's all up in my head now

# Got me thinking that I might get ready to take her with me

# Cos she's ready to read

# But I gotta keep it real now... #

'I'm wary of sounding too kind of elitist and snobby,

'but being around people who are your own age,

'intelligent people who you can, you know, have very engaging

'conversations and interactions with I think really helps.

'So I think it's very non-judgemental and less critical.

'And I think maybe that's sort of an Americanism in itself

'which is something that I've enjoyed.'

I don't even think about being in America any more, like, you know,

I don't think about my friends as being American,

I just think about them as being my friends.

-14-YEAR-OLD SANCHEZ:

-'My family's here, friends are here.

'You can walk down the street and you can see 20 people

'and then like 15 of them you'll know close.'

-21-YEAR-OLD SANCHEZ:

-'My group of friends are like none other.

'We are the tightest group I could ever think of.

'Like literally I would do anything for my boys.

'They all feel the same.'

Even though we chill together, have a laugh,

we all have very good upbringings and good morals.

'As young people coming up, everyone is determined to

'make their own way in life, which I think, you know, is quite rare.

'I think that's what we take pride in.

Some of Sanchez's circle are already tasting success.

Andre Wisdom, his cousin, plays for Liverpool

and has captained England at under-21 level.

His friend Dominic Poleon is a striker for Leeds.

'Literally every one of my friends have had

'an opportunity at a top-level club.

'We could all be at a club right now if things went a bit different.

'Andre, he's an inspiration to everyone, but also me,

'you know, we're the same age

'but we were together at one stage when it veered off.'

He has epitomised what it is to be a strong person through football.

RAP MUSIC PLAYS

MUSIC: "Buggin' Out" by A Tribe Called Quest

Can we pose for the camera, please?

Can we get a little smile, please?

Some of them are for swimming, some of them are for rugby,

some of them are for football.

Some of them are for judo.

And who won them all?

That one's mine, that one's mine, that one's mine,

that one's mine and that one's mine.

Owen is the youngest of a sporting family from Cardiff.

By the age of 14, he was training five times a week before school.

When I was 12 and 13 I was British champion.

When I was 14 when you last shown me,

I was in the British World-Class Potential Squad.

So that year marked younger guys

in terms of possibly making the Olympics 2012.

'From 15, 16, 17,

'I wasn't improving as much as I needed to

'to make the Olympics.'

I had a couple of hard years after I was 14

and then decided to pack it in.

And then towards the end of my swimming career,

it was sort of a relief that I could sort of bow out knowing I'd done well

when I was younger, but it was time to move on.

Owen, go.

Did you watch the Olympic swimming events on television?

'Yeah. I had a couple of friends who I knew in the Olympics.'

Yeah, in terms that it was good for them to be in the Olympics,

but also, in the back of your mind thinking,

"Oh, I could have been there."

Nice shot, great shot.

And how about the rest of your sports?

Cos you were talented across any number of sports, weren't you?

'All my other sports have sort of taken a back seat

'since I've started working.'

I haven't played cricket for about two years

and rugby for about a year and a half.

Do you miss the competitiveness of sport?

'To be honest, with me in anything I do I'm quite competitive.

'I just see it as if you set yourself a goal,

'you have something to strive for, something to achieve

'just makes it easier if you've got that end product to get there'

and to motivate you to get it.

'I work in a bank dealing with PPI complaints.

'I started there about two years ago.

'It's going good.

'They offer you overtime

'so my average hours work today is about 12 hours a day.

'I work from half seven to eight o'clock with half hour lunch'

and a couple of breaks in-between.

But I've got in such a routine of it that it's just so normal to me now.

Jesus. All right, that's enough, over there, off you go.

I think it's got a lot easier since I met my girlfriend in work.

Owen, if I go in, you're coming with me. Just bear that in mind.

'I've known her for nearly 18 months now.

'We work in the same department, exactly the same job.

'We are together quite a lot of the time.'

We used to sit next to each other as well, so it was quite a...

Seeing a lot of each other

but we don't sit next to each other any more.

Am I allowed to ask how you two got together?

I got this one, OK?

-So...

-He'll tell you a story...

-..she joined after me.

-..and I'll tell you the truth.

And then we went on a night out and she just pounced on me.

So that's it basically.

And the truth is he spiked my drink and I was helpless and that was it.

Yeah.

Freestyle. Move...

Chapeltown, Leeds.

When we first filmed Sanchez's father,

he was teaching dance classes.

Sanchez was often there too.

Never mind, pick it up!

-21-YEAR-OLD SANCHEZ:

-'Me and my dad, we're just like brothers,

'everyone thinks we look like brothers.

'We talk about everything.

'My dad, he's been blessed with a very big heart.

'He's got a likeability about him

'which means things that he does say, people take on board.'

Oh, don't let him do that, man. Should have hit him.

'He's a very good person to have.

'I mean luckily enough he's my dad.'

So many boys will kill to get this opportunity, man.

So many boys have come this far and haven't made it.

We're not there yet, you haven't made it yet,

cos the road is still long and far.

Having been released by Leeds,

Sanchez was offered a trial by Doncaster Rovers.

Initially for a two week period,

after eight weeks he still hadn't heard if he'd be kept on.

Throughout the whole trial I was not getting paid, I wasn't signed.

Literally I couldn't really afford to keep going down

without being paid or without expenses, you know.

And some weeks we'd be playing football

and all I want is some communication and that's the hardest part.

What's happening with you anyway?

-Doncaster, heard anything from Archie?

-No. Nothing as yet.

The last e-mail I got was an e-mail

saying that they've been e-mailing people, but...

How many times have I taken you to training with hardly no petrol

-in my car? Tell the truth.

-The car that leans to the left.

-Shut up!

-The car that turns corners by itself.

-Thank you very much.

You'll have to buy me a new one when you get your contract.

You don't deserve it. You are a good footballer, you're a good boy,

not because you're my son, not because I just love you,

it's just sod's law at the moment.

-Are we giving up? Are we giving up?

-No.

-Eh?

We're not giving up, no, are we heck!

October, 2013.

Yale's first eight prepare for a regatta in New Haven, Connecticut.

We've still got tons of time, guys.

'It's a very bizarre role, the cox's role.

'The kind of analogies I would use would be halfway between

'a jockey and a goalkeeper in the sense that the goalkeeper analogy

'I like just because invariably you don't get noticed until you

'fuck up and the best compliment you can get is,

'"Oh, yeah, he did his job."

'The jockey analogy I quite like where you have to very much

'be in tune with like the horse and the race

'and know tactically when to move and know kind of

'when to use the whip and when not to use the whip and that kind of thing.'

It's doing what you've been doing in practice.

Nothing frenetic.

Oliver competes at a high level.

Since school he's trained with coaches and rowers

of world championship and Olympic standard.

Absolutely mentally aware.

Absolutely aware. Three more.

'I despise being beaten in any context.

'I also don't like other people thinking they're better than me,

'especially when I don't think they are.

'Having the desire to not see some other fucker at university winning,

'I don't want to see them having satisfaction'

when I can have that. I don't want them to think that

they're better than me when I don't think that they are.

Would you say you were something of a perfectionist?

Yeah, definitely.

If something's not right I'll tend to bash up and try it again,

so yeah, definitely.

I think I get it from my dad though,

cos he's a complete perfectionist as well.

GUNSHOT

CHEERING

Stroke by stroke. 33.

They can see us coming and they can't do shit about it.

'It's really a kind of fear of inadequacy, in that I never want

'to be someone who is looked down on by other people.

'I'm definitely very overly conscious of other people's opinions.'

Foot down, to the floor. Relentless.

A lot of people I've spoken to about this, kind of family friends,

have said, "Oh, you can't live with the fear of failure,

"that's a really negative way to live and you'll never be happy."

And I see that and I understand that for them it wouldn't work.

For me, it's sometimes uncomfortable

but I feel that it gets the best out of me.

When we first filmed Courtney,

she was living in Kirby, a suburb of Liverpool.

And where have you been then, Courtney, apart from Liverpool?

Nowhere than Liverpool. I've been stuck in England all the time.

I've never gone to a different country.

I've never been to Australia.

I've never been to America.

'I originally wanted to apply to Oxford but I thought the course

'is the same in Liverpool as it is in Oxford, you know.

'I'm going to be paying the same initially,

'I would have had to have got the same grades to get in,'

so why add living expenses on top of that?

Because the cost of living in the South is substantially greater

than what it is in the North.

-14-YEAR-OLD COURTNEY:

-'I like to be different.

'Everyone should have something about them

'that makes people remember them.'

You should be the shepherd and not the sheep.

Not follow stuff just because it's what everyone else is doing.

What we're going to do today is to look at what skills

will you actually need to get into a career in law.

'When I did my first set of A levels I did law, politics

'and then I did history.

'I also did GCSE Latin as well.

'I tried Russian.'

Seems I had a knack for it and then the year after

when I did my first set of AS's I did a GCSE in Mandarin.

You know what, all that blue stuff there, that is the Atlantic Ocean.

And...

And you know what?

White men from England,

they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean all the way around there,

travelled all over America and killed the Indians.

That was a long time ago, about 50 years ago.

-Hiya.

-Hiya!

'I think it's my parents largely,

'they've encouraged me from a very early age that education is the way

'that you get from where you are to where you want to be.'

So you can, you know, really achieve your potential

and experience all that life has to offer.

Aha!

That's what I've always been looking for, Los Angeles.

That's in America. Just found it.

All the butterflies were here when I moved in,

I thought it was a nice little touch.

I've got my lovely, little cupboard in there.

I'd rather you didn't film too much of the bathroom

cos I don't think me mum would be very pleased about that.

And...

someone has carved "Matthew" into my desk

which sort of lets me know who's had this room before me.

I notice you've got cleaning materials which I think

is probably rare for a student.

Yeah, my mother always stresses the importance of keeping

everything in good order, clean, so it's just old habit really.

It's warm in here like most of the time except at night

for some bizarre reason.

There's a slight lip when you close the window,

so quite often I have to use a towel as a draft excluder,

but oh, well, that's all part of the student experience.

So what do you reckon now? Shall we just pop in there now to see

if the place is ready for the surveyor to come and have a look?

Just check the water's working and...

'I left school when I was 18, just finished my A levels,

'then with my grades, they're not too bad but they're not amazing,'

so I thought there's no point going to uni, doing a course which is OK.

Well, that's the space for the cooker.

'I thought, "Oh, I'll give it a crack of just going out and working."

'My dad came out of school without any real grades.

'He came out with a Welsh O level I think

'and then just through hard work and motivation got us what we have now.'

So you don't have any regrets about not going to university?

Er, no.

It's probably one of the best decisions I made not to go to uni.

Hokey cokey!

Your left arm.

In. Out.

'When I actually found out I'd got into university,

'my mum had gone out to get the clearing papers just in case.

'Came back and told her and we were both in floods of tears,

'really happy.

'You know that was the sort of realisation

'that I can actually do this, you know,

'I've got confidence in my ability for once.'

That's what it's all about.

I'm the first one in the family to have gone.

So ready, go.

'I've never sort of been naturally clever,

'I've always had to work really, really hard

'to get the results I wanted.'

And I had a few setbacks at uni, like, I failed my first year.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you too.

'And eventually through sheer hard work I just scraped a 2.1

and graduation day... Oh, I think it is one of the best,

the day I will remember for the rest of my life.

My name is Uncle Chris. What's my name? Uncle...?

-CHILDREN: Chris.

-Uncle Fish? He said Uncle Fish, that's not right.

Gemma grew up in Bolton.

At 18 months old, she contracted a rare virus

that restricted mobility in her arms and legs.

-What's your name, Gemma?

-Gemma.

-Gemma, that's a lovely name.

Three, two, one, go!

I can do what I want with my friends and everything.

It's made me more confident being friends with all them lot

because they just don't really care what other people think.

So I just thought if they're like that

then I should be like that as well.

You got your party sorted?

Um, sort of it. It's nearly all there.

'I'm studying criminology at Liverpool Hope

'and it's going really well.

'Just my dissertation year this year

'so it's quite daunting knowing you've got to do all this work

'and your own research, but I'm quite looking forward to it.'

When you're 14, you think you're really cocky and big

and stuff and then when I got to year ten I started realising,

I was like, "Actually I should probably do some work

"rather than being, you know, like with the wrong sort of people."

So you might adopt a certain way of dress

just to pee people off in authority.

We've all done that, haven't we? I think I'm still doing it.

So people are losing value in...

'I don't think I've changed personally.

'Maybe a little bit more hardworking or a bit more responsible

'rather than being just carefree.'

It's just made me be able to grow up which is good.

Bye!

Have you got a picture or anything?

No. I was hoping to just have it like...

-Right, OK.

-Not just all scraped back.

-Right, so do you want a bit a quiff here at the front?

-Yeah.

'Me and Charlie have been together for like three years

'or something now.

'We met at college but it was college through a friend and yeah,

'it just blossomed from there.'

-Is it big enough?

-Yeah.

I didn't even know him really.

It was just an occasional like, "Hi. Hello."

And then we started like talking loads over the summer.

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday to you... #

'He had a girlfriend at the time and I had a boyfriend

'so we were both just friends

'and then we both ended up splitting with our other partners

'and then we just both got together and now we've lasted ages.'

-Hip-hip!

-ALL:

-Hooray!

-ALL:

-21 today!

Ladies love men and men love ladies.

And then they get married.

-And they get married.

-And...

And then as soon as...

As soon as they get married they're not allowed to split up then.

They have to stay with them for their whole life.

Yeah.

MUSIC: "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge

'My mum and dad split up, I was about 18.

'My mum has just recently got remarried to Trevor

'who is really, really nice.

'He works as like the manager of traffic control at Heathrow,

'so it seemed to make more sense for my mum to go to London

'rather than to stay here,

'which is fine anyway because I was moving out.'

Luckily, me and my sister were at an age where we could understand

why it happened rather than being younger and not knowing.

# Under the apple tree

# My boyfriend said to me

# Hug me, kiss me, tell me that you love me

# A, B, C. #

'I think the biggest thing that's changed in my life

'was my parents split up and divorced when I was 16.

'I didn't really expect it to happen,

'but I think since it's happened, it's been good for the three of us.'

'Me and my mum and my brother.'

I don't actually have a lot to do with my dad any more.

I've not seen him in nearly two years.

Right, come on, we'll do it note by note, play me bottom G

and the bottom C.

-I can't, I need it.

-No, play me a C.

'She'd been with him for half of her life

'and then all of a sudden had stopped

'and I know she really struggled for the first sort of year,

'18 months and she's since told me that I was her rock.'

So we were close, but since then we were even closer.

MUSIC: "Is This The Way To Amarillo"

Who would you turn to to talk to if there was something

that was worrying you?

My mum.

Definitely.

If there's something going wrong or I'm not happy I'll tell her.

I won't keep it from her.

Rather she knew the truth.

Do you hear from your father?

'Even if he knows that I'm here, he's still not been in touch with me

'to sort of say anything about being here so I don't think he cares,'

but then we don't really have a relationship any more I don't feel,

so I don't want to let it get to me too much because the people

that do care about me know that I'm here and miss me and stuff, so yeah.

MUSIC: "Seaside" by The Kooks

You were always, you know, a close family when we'd seen you before.

Give me an update on how the family life is.

COURTNEY: Um, it's fine.

I still speak to my mother most of the time.

In fact she always makes a big point of texting me just before she

goes to bed, you know, a good night, love you, all that sort of thing.

My dad too and I still go and see them sometimes, you know,

throughout the week cos it's only,

well, it's not really that far away, so.

You know what?

Actually there's a little town in Australia called Springfield.

That's where The Simpsons come from.

And that's where Brad Pitt comes from.

Me mum likes him.

I've got the... I've got the hands free on and the phone's on the desk.

That way I'd have three nice formal dresses.

I've got the black, like, you know,

the velvety one with the silvery lace at the top.

I've got that nice cream one with the black lace overlay,

you know what I wore to Tina's wedding?

I'm thinking, I'm thinking have you got one of those big staple guns?

You know what you used to staple things down,

like tarpaulin and stuff?

Cos it's... I could use that on the ironing board

to sort of hold those things in place cos the...

VOICE ON PHONE

-Do you want one?

-Nah.

-I've got loads.

-I'm all right, thanks.

I saw them in ALDI and they looked like this in the box...

'I don't know, I often joke I'm sort of like a 50-year-old

'stuck in a 20 year old's body because I always seem to be

'the responsible one that looks after everybody when they're a bit drunk.

'I mean I'll have the occasional Malibu and Coke

'at like a family gathering or something

'but generally no, I'm not much of a drinker.

'I'm still a young person who does like to have a good time,

'so in those respects I am sort of typical.'

You still have those moments where you haven't realised

your own unimportance and you think the world revolves around you

and your own stupid problems.

Apparently that doesn't seem to dampen down until you're around 25,

but, yeah.

Courtney, it's a lot quieter in here this morning than it was yesterday.

Yeah, that's probably cos everyone's still in bed.

They all went out last night so I'm the only one up.

Did you hear them come in?

Around five-ish.

And how did you spend your evening?

Trying and failing to fix an ironing board.

St Austell, Cornwall.

When we filmed Talan aged seven, he required constant supervision

from a designated classroom assistant.

Tell me how you get on at school?

School is really good, it's cool. Yeah, man, wahoo!

Sit up.

And underneath it's got one that Adam brought up yesterday,

the semicircle.

-Stand up.

-No.

-Talan.

-Stand up.

Sorry.

And I'm not having you in class acting like that.

You know how to behave in the classroom,

you were just showing off.

-21-YEAR-OLD TALAN:

-As anyone who's seen the previous programmes knows

I was a slightly quirky child

and being acutely aware of that or certainly being made acutely aware

of that and being then self-aware of it most of the time thereafter.

'You know noticing that my social interaction

'was different from other people.

'OK, there's times where this is a bit too much and there's times

'where it's take your foot off the gas pedal a little bit.'

I've got a sworn enemy called Mark.

I know his name. Shane. Shane, Chris.

And why are they your enemies?

I'm not sure really. They aggravate me and I react.

I can't help it.

Are you happier here than at your old house?

Definitely, yes.

Yes, it's a big improvement to the old situation.

Whereas it used to be like the Battle of the Somme,

now it's like Christmas Day on the Western Front.

So what we're going to use is a semi-automatic shotgun, OK?

Which I'm just going to put together.

-Do they trust you with that?

-Eh?

They trust you with that?

More than they would you.

'It's something that I'm intentionally trying to structure.'

Pull.

'Just all those social interactions that other people learn naturally.

'Perhaps I didn't learn them quite so naturally so I've had to try

'and implement them deliberately.'

-Oh, for goodness' sake.

-And all of those was hesitation.

-Not that good.

-No. I'm not happy with it.

You're only as good as your last shot, remember.

'Whether or not I've improved on that I wouldn't hazard a guess.'

'I guess at yes, but I always say that's still work in progress.'

Ease off the gas a little bit.

Just want to be a little bit lighter with that right foot.

I thought it slowed down cos I was taking my foot off the gas.

You're not letting me get a good feel for it. You're confusing me.

We were a little bit quick towards the corner

so I had to intervene slightly.

Yes, Mum.

You're in a hurry to get home today.

'Well, I've finished college, so I've recently finished a job

'I was working on and I'm obviously currently hunting for another one.

'Cornwall's not exactly overflowing with jobs

'but at the same time, there aren't none at all.'

I was kitchen porter for a few months, a few years back

and then recently I was a commie chef,

which is nothing to do with my political orientation.

It's simply somebody who does most of the veg prep, so.

Talan still lives at the same family home.

When he left college, he had offers from five different universities,

but is yet to commit.

At the minute I'm simply exploring my areas of interest

and areas of possibility

and eventually I'll probably settle on one particular route.

And there's certain routes I've got lined up,

I'm going to test each one of them to see how feasible they are

and how doable.

And obviously I've got multiple different possible plans.

Plans of action.

'Occasionally things may just come to me.

'Watching a Korean film,

'I decided to search for Korean courses at universities.

'Thought I'd do something a little different

'and cos I'm most definitely interested in languages.'

Whether or not I'd have an aptitude for learning Korean

would be anyone's guess.

I won't say I'm a loner, but I do like my own company.

I can deal with it.

There are times when I do think it would be nice to sort of have

another foreign person working at the school,

cos I am literally surrounded by Chinese people 24/7.

You don't realise in England just how different it is going to be out here.

Even just the little things of walking down the street on my own,

people stop and stare at me.

You just can't put it into words how surreal it all is.

Oh, but you like mushroom, you add some mushroom in it.

Ah, I can't get it.

'I have a family here that picked me up

'when we arrived in Changde

'and they adopted me as their English daughter and said,

'"We will cook for you, we will look after you."

'They want to make sure I'm happy,

'they want to make sure that I'm not homesick.'

This is me, it's terrible.

You don't realise in England just how different

it is going to be out here.

You know that it's going to be a different culture

and a different way of doing things,

but I think I underestimated just how different.

Right. Number.

-One.

-Two.

-Three.

-Four...

Talan, a cadet when we filmed him at 14,

is pursuing a possible career in the military.

He's been held up by a report from his childhood

that indicated he might have Asperger's.

I was in the process of applying and then I found out that...

I was reading through the guidance notes and there was a medical issue

that I wasn't 100% sure about, so I had to speak with them about it

and then my doctor and so on and get that sorted.

And there's a little bit, there's a little bit of a waiting list

to find out what the result of that will be.

It wasn't something I was really concerned with

cos it never had any effect on me.

It's only when you find out that

it's in the way of something that it suddenly becomes a problem.

The Asperger's and the dyspraxia and all that lot

and there was lots of speculation over whether I'm this, that

or the other and most of which I didn't

but you know one or two they thought I might've, but in the end

I just ignored half of it because it didn't really mean anything to me.

'I'm not just going to take the word of some psychologist

'that assessed me ten years ago

'when it could have just been a personality quirk.

'So I'm going to make absolutely sure of that before I give up.

'I don't think you can really call it an ambition

'if you're not willing to do everything you can to achieve it.'

What things do you think are important?

Things like being happy and...

..having, loving someone.

Knowing that someone loves you and things like that.

21-YEAR-OLD OLIVER: 'Being an only child of only children

'living in the city, having a nanny all the time and that kind of thing,

'I think moving out of that environment was a bit of a

'kick up the backside in terms of learning how to deal

'with other people, I didn't deal with it very well to start with,

especially the first couple of years at boarding school.

That really engrained into my mindset.

'There were definitely positives that came out of it.

'Being able to spend time on your own and be kind of self-reliant

'and being able to have your own set of motivations is very valuable.

'But at the same time socially I think there was a level of comfort'

that I would maybe would have derived having a sibling that

I didn't get that's... I've sort of had to build up more artificially.

And she spent 15 minutes talking about organisms,

like micro-organisms.

'For me, I think one of the things with boarding school

'that really played into that level of kind of social discomfort

'that I've tried to cope with that, but I think one element of that

'that really didn't work that well with learning

'how to interact with girls on a kind of meaningful level.'

And I was like, "No, I'm too tired. I'm going to bed."

It's always a good decision.

'I've had one longish relationship of six months'

and one kind of shorter one of about six, seven weeks

and I've not necessarily felt...

I've learned a lot, especially from the longer one.

I learned a lot about myself.

CHEERING

'I started to open up a lot towards the end.

'I think that I didn't handle it in a particularly good way.'

I really made myself I think quite vulnerable by doing that

and it wasn't something that came through particularly well, so.

-14-YEAR-OLD SANCHEZ:

-'I like girls that I've liked a lot

'and we've had to break up

'because I might be liking them too much and when I'm going to football

'maybe it gets to that point you have to think about yourself first.'

Cos girls are girls.

There's so many girls in the world can mess up your head,

especially for a young boy, so it's hard, man, it's hard.

That's why my dad's just keeping me on the right track

just to make sure that girls... You can have your girls

but once it gets too serious, know when to stop.

# Ain't no telling what he'll do for the paper

# Souffle, I'm straight, I scrape my plate

# I'm a smooth operator... #

'It wasn't a girl's vibe tonight, like, we enjoy our own company.'

You have to have different banter when females are around.

Having a man den night tonight.

When it's the man den, you can, you know, you know what I mean?

You can be Chief Keith and all the gangster rock all night

rather than all the playing into their hands, so.

No slow jams until we get to the club and then we start mixing.

MUSIC: "Jenny From The Block" by Jennifer Lopez

Have you had any meaningful relationships?

'Each relationship that I did have, it was a growing up stage

'for different reasons, good and bad.

'I'm still very cool with the people now.

'It's just experiences that you take on, you know.

'It's like everything was new, you know,

'this is a person that you commit to.'

I don't think I'd ever let anything, whether it's girls, drink,

anything get in the way of my career.

And how do you think other people see you?

I get the idea that most of them don't really like me much

but that doesn't bother me, so.

It's for the most part I'm quite a loner sort of thing.

I'll go off on me own sort of thing and come back.

I'm not necessarily one of those people

who likes to be in a group all the time.

In Lostwithiel near Talan's home,

the Young Farmers meet to discuss plans for a cabaret evening.

'I'm certainly more sociable than I used to be.

'Sometimes you want a bit of peace and quiet, but I don't think anyone

'would disagree with that, but now generally I'm perfectly sociable.'

Do a Dad's Army routine, just sort of hop out the tractor

with your shotguns.

We've got to come up with something...

'Meeting someone new, I don't trust them immediately.

'I don't think that's any different for anyone else, you know, you can't

'trust anyone until you get to know them, you know, you don't know them.'

Do you worry about the judgment of other people?

'Certainly I do.'

But I wouldn't say nearly so much as when I was younger.

You know I'd like to be more comfortable in my own skin.

It's just adverts everywhere.

-Is that washing still in my room?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-Would you like me to sort it out for you?

-Yes.

OK.

If it's dry.

'Charlie lives like between here, his mum's and university.'

Would you do us a favour and grab us the mirror out the bathroom?

'When he's not at home,

'if we've not seen each other then we'll talk to each other on Skype.'

Is there any chance that you could grab my lipstick out my bag, please?

'As we're both doing work,

'we can both just have Skype in the background.

'It's the best you can do for a long distance thing.'

When he's here, he's like a housewife,

well, house goddess sort of thing.

He's so good, he cleans, he helps me do everything here

and he always makes well nice food as well.

You need anything else in your bag?

-Me? I need some catheters and stuff, please.

-You've got loads.

I haven't, I've only got about three.

When you know him, he is absolutely hilarious.

He just throws little witty comments in everywhere and it's just great.

Most of my friends' boyfriends are quite jealous and he's not,

he's just like, "Oh, if you want to go somewhere, just go."

We just work so well together, it's just, it's just great.

Do you think you'd like to be rich when you grow up?

No, not really.

Why do you say that?

Well, I just don't feel like being stared at

through a fancy car window.

And having lifts in our house.

Because one girl in our class, I've been to her party once

and it was dreadful, but anyway she has this house

and it's got lifts instead of stairs and things.

-A whaling town in New England, yeah.

-Well, I like whale.

'Right now I'm going to try and move forward with rowing

'and academic stuff

'and I'm applying to Oxford for two years post graduation,

'so that will give me a bit more time to get my head in the right place.

'I enjoy writing, so I've considered journalism or writing in some sense.

'What I don't want to do is go to Wall Street or go to Clifford Chance.

'That's really not something that turns me on.'

I want to be able to do something more individual

and more unique than that because I don't want to work in a workplace

where I feel like other people can do the same thing that I do.

'Money motivates everyone and you want to have a comfortable life

'and you want to be able to buy the things that you want to buy.

'For me that is too superficial.

'Again going back to rowing, I suppose the satisfaction that

'I derive from that knowing that I put work in and I get

'positive returns out of it is very fulfilling

'so I'd want to have something that gives me that sense of,

'is it spiritual fulfilment? I'm by no means a religious person,

'in fact I'm very anti-religion'

but something hopefully more than the kind of material gains.

-And the slope, slope roof.

-Hm.

'I may decide that I will go back and in the future go into teaching

'in England, but at the moment, I'm enjoying myself too much out here.'

ALL: Cheers!

'I'm pretty certain at the moment that I will stay for another year,

'so I'll do two here.'

Which one do you like best?

'I want to learn Mandarin and I feel really attached to my students.

'They're just brilliant, so I want to sort of see them through

'until they graduate.'

THEY SING IN MANDARIN

'New Mills will always be home

'but I think as well home is where you make it.

'I feel now that my home is in China because I am here

'and I've made it my home.'

Some children's parents are divorced

and my parents aren't.

And other children's families...

are poor and mine aren't.

So that's why my family are lucky.

'To be honest I just want to make a good living for myself.

'Obviously everyone wants to be rich and have the nice things in life.'

Eventually have a family and just to be able to buy your family

whatever you want.

No, I don't think Owen's really changed too much, has he?

Got a lot hairier.

That's one problem with the shower, I'm telling you.

-I thought my hair would be a problem.

-That ain't me.

Your chest hair is clogging it.

-It's not me.

-It's not my chest hair.

Probably Geoff's moustache.

'As kids growing up, we had literally everything we wanted

'and that's just through my parents' hard work.

'In terms of how they brought us up

'and careers they've had and what we have now.'

To model my life off what theirs is wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Do you think boys are different from girls?

Yeah, cos boys think they're better than girls and they're not.

I know about boys cos boys don't get to have babies and girls do.

That's why I think boys are a lot different.

Do you think it's difficult to have babies?

Yeah, cos you have, cos you have to go...

-SHE PANTS

-..and push very hard

and it hurts you that much that you start screaming.

'I do like children, I just don't think I'm cut from the cloth

'to actually be a parent myself.

'I think I could be a good aunt though.'

So my mother will just have to look to my brother

if she wants grandchildren.

Friends are good because they help you keep going,

but sometimes relationships and stuff can be a bit of distraction.

Really they can only be short-term sometimes,

whereas your studies are going to affect your future.

"Meh-sher-ho." Easy enough.

'What I've learnt from my past is that the small steps

'are the most important, because every journey

'starts for the first few goals, obtaining them goals.

'You know it's like right now my next step is keeping fit.

'From then it's finding the team and then it's, you know,

'getting in the team, staying in the team

'and from then on slowly things will start to set into place

'rather than, you know, I'm going to play in the premiership.

'That is my dream and my end goal

'but I've learnt now to take things step by step.'

-OLIVER:

-'I've had a very fortunate life

'and I haven't had a lot of big problems,

'but it's definitely been a comfort knowing that that support network,

'albeit small, has always been there, so.

'I'm definitely afraid of being a failure, whatever that means.

'Failing to take advantage of what I have,

'failing to really be able to capitalise on the situation

'and I don't want to be in a position in 50 years' time

'when looking back and going,

'"Oh, I really dropped the ball on that one."

'So I sort of feel an obligation now that I've got this far

'to really take advantage'

and be successful or at least be fulfilled.

So I suppose the fear of not achieving that is something that,

that scares me.

Aw, look!

14-YEAR-OLD GEMMA: 'I love the idea of being married.'

Just in a wedding dress and everything,

it'll just be your day and everything, be well good.

What do you think you would need or look for in a husband?

Somebody who's kind and who will help me.

I do love him, but...

Yeah, I love him.

I don't know what else to say.

Wow.

Wow, look at this tree.

What you looking at?

This tree up here.

Beautiful.

It's the best tree I've ever seen.

My mum and my dad...

..that's the only people that love me.

And my nan and everybody in my family loves me but...

..they don't always like what I do.

I'm tired.

'I don't bother trying to think about who I am,

'I just simply try to get along like everyone else and, you know,

'and if that seems to be fine for everyone else, then fine.

'Or if not then, never mind.

'And you're never going to please everyone so

'I don't suppose that's radically different from anyone.

'I was who I was.

'There's no point particularly looking back on it

'with a feeling of dislike.'

And nothing one can do about the past.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the future.