Vince Paul Lawrence & Richard 1971

From the Man Alive strand.
Directed by Ivor Dunkerton
Presented by Denis Tuohy
4 teenage boys growing up in the shadow of closing docklands in east London
Remastered from original 16mm broadcast print
Original broadcast--21/04/1971
Repeated 29/03/1972
Bafta Award 1971
See here for how it was uncovered during a residency project:
www.frieze.com...

[@diabolicalartificer]

"Delinquents" were a lot more articulate it seems in 71. Thanks for uploading, an excellent documentary.

[@boum62]

Exactly what I thought ! Excellent point

[@MrTeescott]

Took me right back.. My streets.. My generation... Great vid.. Thanks.

[@mickydroyboy1542]

Fantastic snapshot of 70s Britain ,utterly brilliant

[@finnmanproductions9240]

Qualifications, apprenticeship or vocational training and hard work are your ticket to a better life - then and now.

[@boilerroombob]

I did this as a youth .....a yts boy made good.... good life today....but I always give back that is help others anonymously financially and young men and women find jobs etc

[@emmaseager1006]

Wonder what happened to those kids I went to a residential school because I kept playing truant ( 1980s) I was bright and intelligent but I could read properly was called dim at school. So I bunked went to residential school they found out I had dyslexia it was progressive was the best thing that happened to me did my OLevels College accountancy

[@annother3350]

Love the old docklands. Went there as a kid in the early 80s and it was like a ghost town with all the old Victorian warehouses empty

[@lesleyscott938]

Wouldn't it be great to see what path these boys actually went on after filming in 71, would be in their 70s now ❤

[@pslpom]

Would be interesting to see how their lives turned out. Patsy, Richard's sister was very stoic and matter of fact about her mother walking out. I hope they got a better life

[@anavarix5425]

Richard is well, Duncan remained "radical"

[@jjr1728]

@@anavarix5425 Wrong. Duncan moved to the States and became an SEC Compliance Officer for Hewlett Packard.

[@TeddyGolf]

I would love to see a tv company go through lots of these type of documentaries and track down the people to do an update

[@y.p.735]

People keep getting told "money is not important, it does not bring happiness". One of the biggest lies in this world.

[@zeddeka]

And yet studies of lottery winners show most have quite serious problems with depression shortly thereafter. Many very rich people are quite seriously depressed because their lives no longer have any basis and they drift further and further from reality because they no longer have to engage. I think it's indisputable that poverty brings misery. But money in itself does not bring happiness at all.

[@Dylan-co2cl]

And the biggest lie of all is that capitalism is the best economic system.

[@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts]

What you mean is that lots of money doesn't bring lots of happiness. Of course not. Begging letters,threats of kidnap, being surrounded by people only interested in you for your money, enough to make anyone depressed. But having enough to be comfortable, to not have to lay awake at night worrying about how to keep the car on the road,or feeling guilty for losing your temper with your child for losing their coat which you can't afford to replace and it's November. People always bring out the lottery example, but that's an extreme situation, most of us would just be really happy with a decent home,a holiday once a year and enough to live on with a few treats along the way.

[@adrianm296]

@@Dylan-co2clI’d argue it’s the best we’ve got. The alternative has been shown to fail time and time again.

[@46metube]

fabulous! fabulous!

[@crosseyedone7960]

The 70's was hell - for some. No future, no hope. Now some of us look back and start to reminisce about all the "good times," then doc's like this remind us of the reality.

[@RustyApper]

So many moments in this...the bearded guy going 'id like to catch one of the girls', the kid telling the guy 'this isnt safe' which is a red flag when even the 70s kids are more health and safety-savvy than the adults LOL and the kid saying 'It's not worth your wild' ahaha. Brilliant, what a time. I wish I could have been there.

[@JB-pk4ck]

Would love to know how these boys lives panned out, If still alive they will be in their mid sixties now.

[@anavarix5425]

Richard turned out okay!

[@JB-pk4ck]

@@anavarix5425 are you richard ir a relative ?

[@spidyman8853]

@@anavarix5425 Glad to hear that

[@ZeldaFitz]

Them boys will be 66/67 now

[@whentokoloshsays1142]

Nothing much has changed with regards to children in the east end. I love the theme tune.

[@aaarrrggghhhh]

Patsy took on a lot of responsibility, she was emotionally intelligent and caring. Richard was lucky to have her.

[@avalondreaming1433]

I think Patsy might actually be his mother.

[@Signaman-z9d]

Totally agree she was special.To put that burden on a child made to be the mother after being abandoned by her mother a really special person old and wise before her time. If she had had a chance herself in life she would have done well for herself but the responsibility she had for those kids overshadowed her potential to go anywhere. I also taught she was very pretty. I wonder how it all turned out for the family. I enjoyed that ,I'm Dublin Irish ✊☘️

[@TS-1267]

... Obviously an "On The Buses" Fan MMmmm... Especially A Fan Of 'Our Olive'... Excellent 👍 3:35

[@paulmessis1985]

brilliant, thanks for sharing.

[@Signaman-z9d]

I have some insight into a lot of what was in this film. It's strange how something can trigger a memory and it all comes flooding back.o In Dublin there was lots of poverty violence and slum tennements like this in GB. Ireland was a microcomism of GB then. London Liverpool ,Dublin and Cork had the same violence from the cradel to the grave. My memories from the 60s 70s and even the 80s horrible times wherever you were from. ✊

[@MsLilpeach]

Does anyone know any updates on these kids featured in this episode? I'd love to know what became of these lads.

[@raypitcher9767]

It was always so typical to blame the kids back then. People didn't want to be brought up in these social conditions, it was thrust upon them. The Government always kept them down and made people live like this. Money was scarce and opportunity Nil, it was so easy to give up and become part of the problem. Society is to blame and the system clearly doesn't work. It's always the judgmental that cast the first stone isn't it ?

[@TobcioccLeyton]

I really hope life improved for these kids

[@williamthomas2830]

I remember being chased by the “watchie’ when I was a kid.

[@davidsnuggs7623]

I’d love to know how Vincent fared

[@phillgreenland2390]

Wow. Lots of heavy challenges for a kid. They'd be almost seventy years old by now. Certainly makes you wonder how things turned out. Or if they're even still alive.

[@CBfreeD-dp1kj]

Imagine growing up then. Did you see Richard's sister had a tv in their house. I wonder what was on tonwatch back then. No mobile phones back then either, lol. I was born in 1981, those days with no phones and computers, we just played outside.

[@davesmith2413]

I really hope these kids made something of their lives, wonder what happened to them ?

[@petercleary1000]

Love les family's no dad's in there life,

[@modrevival168]

Youth worker letting them hide on the cliff edge & swing across the trees 😂 no health and safety

[@Signaman-z9d]

It wasn't that there were no health and safety it was no one cared if these kind of kids got hurt.🤔

[@annother3350]

Duncan was woke!!

[@anavarix5425]

Yes he was!

[@puppets.and.muppets]

i aint done nofink.

[@JB-pk4ck]

out of interest this area where this was filmed, is this area what became canary whorf ? i dont know London that well, id be surprised if most of area wastn demolished

[@phillgreenland2390]

It was pretty much leveled and redeveloped starting in the 80s. It's now a rather fancy area full of skyscrapers, apartments, parks, etc. It's referred to as "the docklands." Even has its own rail line.

[@JB-pk4ck]

@@phillgreenland2390 Hi thanks for the reply. Ive heard of the docklands recedevloppment in the 80s and Canary Wharf. Interesting to know that tthis was part of that area. Its a bit like with the film Gett Carter. I get to see parts of newcastle that were under demolition when the film was made in 1970.

[@spidyman8853]

@JB-pk4ck Yea, pretty much.

[@jonbell3020]

Gammons all misty eyed about how London used to be…. Reality check 😂😂😂

[@numberstation]

Nobody mentioned anyone’s colour until you did. That says a lot about you.

[@unclejoe7958]

It was certainly a better place for obvious reasons.

[@GypsyGeorge1969]

Is Gammons a nickname for blacks

[@mickosullivan3827]

Kids being Kids not allowed now with this P.C. nonsense.

[@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts]

It's not so much that as some people think. It's overprotective mothers. The amount of youngsters I've known who weren't allowed to get a short bus ride into town at 17, mummy drove them the mile down the road.. because modern teenagers don't have legs! Then at 18 they're driven to university and left to get on with it! Children don't 'play' anymore, unless someone is organising it, they never play out. Too much traffic.

[@bookaufman9643]

I'm just at the beginning of this documentary but I'm hesitant to call it a documentary because the first shot is so completely fake. I cannot stand that in a documentary. The angles of the old guy running at the kids and then from a different angle as they pull the board out to leave him behind is so completely phony that it's already put me off. I'm hoping it gets more realistic from here

[@richardkrispell7904]

I’m in total agreement some of these old documentaries are so staged, that start was embarrassing manipulating kids to act up, and obviously stage managing a scene.

[@Signaman-z9d]

You don't have to be critical the film is about children having to navigate a system that was stacked against them. They punished them because it was the culture of violence that built into this society. This is how they built their empire, thieving and violence. This was then incorporated into a system that was already doing this , might is right and they had laws to back this up. Most kids from that background liked the wee girl said don't come out good. We had nine in our family which was small they usually had 12 ,15, my nan had 17 and three or four didn't make it. A super super gran.☘️✊

[@r.a.krispell4254]

@@Signaman-z9d I’m from a deprived background children’s homes, foster parents, homelessness, so have sympathy for underprivileged. However the point I was making was this documentary and others in a similar vain stage manage fake scenes for entertainment, this is not ethical or helpful.

[@williamwallace4924]

They look foreign.

[@diabolicalartificer]

Elucidate, who looks "foreign"?

[@williamwallace4924]

@@diabolicalartificer It is like a Chinese person or an african person or an indian pakistani bangladeshi person or a native american person etc say that i look foreign. We do look different or do you think we all look the same?.

[@diabolicalartificer]

@@williamwallace4924 Are you talking about the lads in the film or people in general in the film? What relevance does ethnic origin have regarding the subject of the film: IE what to do about young kids who are breaking the law? Could you clarify your point please?

[@spidyman8853]

@@diabolicalartificer You are asking him an intelligent question that requires thinking and analysing. That's too much for him. He is obviously pre-occupied with peoples skin colour 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts]

As it's East London and around the docks it would be extremely odd if they didn't all have a bit of something else in them🤷 Any Londoner knows they're a Heinz 57! It's been successive waves of sailors and immigrants since it was founded. Hugenots, Jews, Irish then Bengalis are the better known recent ones. Anyone and everyone has arrived at the docks.