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Just look at my TV family NOW
As Lord Winston’s ambitious project following the progress of 25 Millennium babies returns, he tells of some of the difficult life trials they’ve had to overcome
His role in these ch i ld r en’s lives has been quite hard to define – not parent, not kindly uncle, but not exactly teacher either, given he’s known them since they were babies. But it’s inevitable Lord Robert Winston has developed a special bond with the 25 children he first met 17 years ago when he embarked on the Child Of Our Time project.
The experiment, one of the most ambitious ever on British TV, involved introducing viewers to a group of babies from all backgrounds and revisiting their lives as they grew up. The only thing that linked them was that they were Millennium babies, all born in late 1999 or early 2000. Firmly steeped in science (at the time Professor Winston was perhaps the highestprofile fertility expert in the country), the show set out to look at the changes happening to the children’s bodies and minds, offering scientific explanations for their behaviour. At its heart was the ‘nature v nurture’ question. Would genetics always trump parental influence?
It was thought the series would run ‘for a year, possibly two’ according to Labour peer Lord Winston, but it’s
still going strong. This week, when it returns, we’ll see the children as 16year- olds on the cusp of adulthood. While everyone involved – parents, viewers, Lord Winston himself – might feel shell-shocked at the sight of this bunch of once- cuties getting ready for a night on the town, or frankly discussing their sexuality, there’s an unashamed affection from Lord Winston. He’s proud not only of the show, but of the kids themselves.
‘I feel very, very close to them,’ he admits. ‘I’ve seen them grow up and the only other children I’ve seen grow up that closely are my own three. There’s an emotional connec- tion there, a commitment to what is a kind of extended family. I feel deeply moved when I watch them.’
Unsurprisingly perhaps, several of those involved have sought his advice on careers and education. ‘A number of them have asked me what they should do with their futures. Last month I showed one around my laboratories.’
For the viewer though, this pro- gramme packs quite an emotional punch. Even if you haven’t followed the series, the recap footage of all of these children learning to walk and talk and negotiating their first days
at school shows how far they’ve come. And my goodness what challenges today’s 16-year-olds face.
Eve, who grew up in a very strict Christian community, talks candidly about discovering she’s gay – and describes the dilemma of how to tell her dad. Eve lost her mum when she was eight, and we learn that her dad’s remarried and Eve has a new stepfamily.
Then there’s Rhianna, who seems to have poured a lot of her heartache into her music. As she sings with her guitar we learn that her parents, who always had a volatile relationship, have split up and her mother has a restraining order against her father.
We catch up with identical twins Alex and Ivo, who have always been inseparable. Both incredibly bright, they showed a clear academic bent from childhood. Now, though, they’re facing being separated for the first time because Ivo is applying to study... in Canada.
And what happened to Matt, who as a toddler clung to his father and seemed afraid of his own shadow? Well, he’s now a thrill-seeker who loves parachuting out of planes. How did that happen? The scientists do their best to explain by sending the lad for brain scans but ultimately the message here is ‘because life’s like that: unpredictable’.
So too are the issues the programmemakers have found themselves addressing. When these children were babies, no one was worrying about how their sleep patterns would one day be affected by mobile phone use, for instance. Some of the teenagers are sending up to 400 messages a day and most reach for their phones as soon as they wake up and can still be found with them when they should have long been asleep.
‘Nobody could have realised how important things like social media would become,’ says Lord Winston. ‘Nobody realised to what extent very young children would be quite conversant with pornography. It’s common for quite well-brought-up nineyear-olds to be looking at pornography. I’ve seen that with my own grandchildren’s friends so I know it’s an issue.’
For the programme-makers, the challenges are immense. What a can of worms you open when you try to document teenagers’ lives. One mother talks candidly about her diabetic son getting in with a ‘ bad crowd’ who were involved in heavy drinking and drugs. The association nearly cost him his life when he drank himself into a diabetic coma.
Is it right to show this sort of thing on television, even if it is dressed up as ‘science’ rather than ‘entertainment’? Lord Winston is all too aware of the ethics, and always has been. ‘It was always the driving force,’ he says. ‘Sometimes in the past we’ve had situations where there’ve been legal issues that we couldn’t broadcast. We had to be very sensitive when a child might be in trouble... or a mother.’
What astounds him is that all the children are still on board with the project. Similar TV projects – notably the Up series – have been plagued with problems when children decided they simply didn’t want to be filmed any more. Lord Winston said he half-expected this to happen as ‘his’ children hit puberty. ‘But amazingly there haven’t been obvious drop outs.’ When there have been wobbles with the programme though, they’ve come from the BBC. At one point it was being shown three times a year, offering viewers a real connection to these children. But in more recent times there have been years between shows. ‘I feel that’s unfortunate,’ says Lord Winston. Reading between the lines, it sounds like it’s been a battle to keep this project afloat, and a lonely battle too. ‘The production team that started the project with me all those years ago have gradually all gone, so I’m really the only person left.’ By chance it was a pilot show for the series that gave his own young-
est son, Ben, now one of the most significant figures in the TV industry, a very early glimpse into the business. ‘We were doing a segment that was quite dry and complex, so I suggested bringing a child into the studio and having me explain things to him for clarity. Ben, who was 16 at the time, agreed so he ended up on the couch, on camera, with me talking to him. I like to take the credit for his future in television as I gave him his big break.’
Ben is the man behind The Late Late Show in the US with James Corden and the one responsible for the Carpool Karaoke phenomenon which has included everyone from Madonna and Adele to Michelle Obama singing along with James Corden in his car. He started out as a lowly assistant on Channel 4 series Teachers where he met Corden, then the pair set up a production company. One of their first jobs was to produce a film for One Direction – leading to a lasting friendship with the band. There’s something surreal about hearing Lord Winston talk about having Harry Styles hang out in his house ‘eating my wife’s chicken stew’. Could he have predicted his son’s success? ‘Well, I do remember him as a three-year- old putting on rather good puppet shows,’ he says. He got the opportunity to watch Ben at work in The Late Late Show’s LA studios recently and was blown away by how his son handled the demands of live TV. ‘It was edge- of-the-seat stuff,’ recalls Lord Winston, ‘but the thing about Ben is he just stays calm. I take my hat off to what these guys do.’ Lord Winston’s own experience of fatherhood illustrates why Child Of Our Time has had staying power. He’s the first to admit the programme isn’t, at its heart, about science. It’s about people, and how we make them. ‘At the time it tapped into the obsession we all have when we become parents about whether we’re doing it right. I don’t think that’s changed.’
How long can the show run for now that the 25 children are stepping into adulthood? ‘Let’s see,’ he says.
‘Eve, brought up a Christian, talks about discovering she’s gay’
Child Of Our Time is on Monday and Tuesday at 9pm on BBC1.