An edition of this Tyne Tees Television series investigating topics affecting life in the North East. In this episode presenter Ian Payne visits the Scotswood area of Newcastle and asks the question; why were people happier in 1967 than they are today? Standing under a tree in the Scotswood area of Newcastle, presenter Ian Payne looks back on what life was like back in 1967 featuring black and white archive footage of ‘hippies’ and the ‘Summer of Love’. He asks the question why is it that...

An edition of this Tyne Tees Television series investigating topics affecting life in the North East. In this episode presenter Ian Payne visits the Scotswood area of Newcastle and asks the question; why were people happier in 1967 than they are today? Standing under a tree in the Scotswood area of Newcastle, presenter Ian Payne looks back on what life was like back in 1967 featuring black and white archive footage of ‘hippies’ and the ‘Summer of Love’. He asks the question why is it that while we are healthier and wealthier, we aren’t any happier 40 years on. Title: Northern Eye. The Road to Happiness Clips taken from the Tyne Tees production ‘The Road to Blaydon’ about life on the Scotswood Road in 1967 is intercut with comments made by several participations in this programme. Clifford Anderson talks about his father John Clifford Anderson who ran the newsagent shop featured in ‘The Road to Blaydon’. Clifford is also seen in the programme aged three sitting with his father on the steps of their shop while his mother Joyce swept the steps. Clifford and John Anderson’s sister Norma Rawshaw talk about the couple working together as a team and about the neighbourliness of the areas. As they talk colour photographs of both John and Joyce plus an additional clips from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ of children buying toffee cakes from the shop. Clifford talks about his mother making them. People didn’t have much so they had less to worry about, less pressure. Ian comes around the corner of a derelict street in Scotswood, an area with a ‘rough tough reputation’, On stage a comedian makes a joke about visiting the area, the audience laughs. Ian asks why is it the people of Scotswood were happier then than now? Another clip from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ of men heading to work and a group of older people in a pub enjoying a drink. Wondering around Cruddas Park in the West End on Newcastle is Meg Colpitt, a resident of the area for more than 45 years. She takes photographs of the surrounding residential tower blocks for posterity. She explains to Ian that in the old days everybody was the same, everybody was equal. However, today everything in materialistic which she thinks is sad. Sitting on a wall, Ian explains that when it comes to happiness money doesn’t seem to have much of an affect. Printer Bill Flannigan in his workshop with a colleague printing ‘John Deere’ logos. He has written a book about growing up in Scotswood where being poor was almost irrelevant. He says that he didn’t know it was tough, being tough was using an outside toilet or walking along the street in bare feet. Psychology Lecturer Daniel Nettle walks through a college, he has also written a book on happiness. In a library he explains that communities with low but similar incomes were less likely to be unhappy. He also links this through to a stable class system and family structure where it was difficult for people to be envious of each other. As he speaks additional clips from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ In his office psychologist and author Oliver James takes a book from a shelf returning to his office chair. He explains that things changed in the 1970s with the development of ‘selfish capitalism’ which saw a massive increase between the rich and poor and the conviction that the market can meet needs which it can’t. This was when rates in mental illness began to rocket. A graphic highlighting inequality figures with the richest 10% of society owning half of all the personal property and liquid assets in the country, the poorest 50% own just 6%. Oliver James continues by saying that the level of inequality was much less in 1967, since the 1970s the pay of, for example, a chief executive has outstripped average pay. Daniel Nettle becomes part of the discussion by commenting on society going through phases of alternating greed and disillusion with it, as he speaks people walking along a street. The material things just don’t deliver. Contemporary news footage featuring King Wangchuck of Bhutan and his people, it is the only kingdom in the world that measures its success by its gross-national-happiness. Tory party leader David Cameron makes a speech commenting on what makes people happy. Back in Scotswood Alma Wheeler walks up to one of two flats purchased by her father in the 1930s on Robert Street. Like the other properties in the street, it is boarded up and derelict. Back at home she speaks with Ian about being born in that flat and how all her extended family lived locally. As she speaks black and white photographs of family occasions. Another clip from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ showing houses in Scotswood being demolished changes to Ian standing beside another demolition site where more houses in the Scotswood area are being demolished. In another clip from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ a high-rice apartment block under construction. An architectural drawing showing a proposed new Scotswood changes to two women going into the London office of the architectural firm that designed it in the shadow of the Post Office Tower. Inside Kelvin Campbell the Design Director looks over drawing on a computer with a colleague. He speaks with Ian about the concept of a ‘renaissance neighbourhood’, going back to a romantic utopian idea of living in a community. He believes he can learn lessons from the past to create a community village where people can recognise who their neighbour is. A graphic highlighting house prices, nationally £139,000 but in Scotswood only £47,000. Another graph on those who are permanently sick or disabled, nationally the statistic was 5.5%, in Scotswood nearly double at 12.7%. A third graphic on those with no academic qualifications, nationally the figure was 29%, in the most deprived part of Scotswood the figure is 62%. Black and white archive of children playing in a playground changes to Alma Wheeler walking along a street of derelict houses in Scotswood. She comments that you can’t go back to what it was like in 1967, but just maybe there can be something new with an old kind of community spirit that will give the ‘wow’ factor to Scotswood. Title: Northern Eye. The Road to Happiness The second part of the programme begins with Ian Payne walking along a street in Scotswood, the Scotswood Bridge in the background. Another clip from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ featuring Irene Wilson, then a young mother doing her shopping at Turnbull’s General Dealers. In her home she watches herself on a laptop remembers that time and living in that community. She says she was happier because there weren’t so many pressures as there are now. Daniel Nettle says that having money hasn’t solved many of life’s problems, the dilemmas facing people today are the same be they rich or poor. Jacqueline Hollis walks along Armstrong Road in Scotswood and looks over a grassy plot where once the home she grew up in stood. She says that while there were worries growing up, there much worse now. Over photographs of her family growing up she says she never remembers the kind of troubles you get today, there was a lot less money and home comforts. A graphic highlighting figures that show that in 2005 95% of home have central heating, 88% have a video recorder 78% a mobile phone, and 62% a home computer. Another graphic states that in 1967 only 44% of people thought it was ‘essential to be well off’ compared to 75% by 1998. Psychologist Oliver James states that the problem of modern life is that our needs and wants have been confused by advertisers. Outside on his patio Oliver sits reading a book, he gets p and walks across his garden to look out at the countryside beyond. He goes onto explain that human needs are very simple; to feel secure, to feel part of a community. Black and white photographs of people in the past enjoying a day on the beach ending on an image of Alma Wheeler’s father who, each year, would take a train full of locals from Scotswood on a day trip to South Shields. Sitting at table Alma looks through a collection of old photographs with her talking about these ‘fantastic days’. When we look back, we look at photographs, but we don’t have any photographs when we’re having miserable times. In the Tyne Tees Television studio Ian stands beside a camera and explains that to many it is the growth of television in the past 40 years that has led to a lot of unhappiness. As he speaks, he appears to tap on the camera lens. Daniel Nettle explains that television gives people a constant opportunity to compare themselves with people in a different league to us, inevitably this leads to dissatisfaction. Oliver James concurs with many of Daniel’s comments by saying that television is a major cause of all our problems and compares it to a virus in spreading different kids of values. Archive footage of a mother and daughter watching television in the 1970s. Clifford Anderson remembers a television being in his father’s shop and watching children’s programmes as a child. A graphic highlighting the current influence of television showing that 16% of teenagers believe they will become famous, while the actual odds being 30,000,000 to 1. Oliver James explains that it would never occur to anyone from the1950s that saw people celebrities or those in high society in newsreels that they could become like them. A newsreel from the 1950s of a film premiere in London with crowds of onlookers watching on. Irene Wilson comments that when she was younger you didn’t have the kind of influences that you have today with regards how you should look or dress. Oliver James talks about how we are made to feel inadequate if we don’t confirm to these new ideals. In slow-motion and out of focus people walking along a street, the gulf between reality and expectations are rising leading to levels of depression with 3% of the population now on anti-depressants. Daniel Nettle believes that there has been a general increase in the levels of distress within the population linked to the decline in community type activities. Sitting on the grass under a tree Ian says that it would appear that we are less contented, but what can we do to raise the odds of being happy? Daniel Nettle says question your desires. Standing in front of a tower-block Ian uses the building as a scale for our levels of happiness. 40 years ago, 52% said they were really happy, in 2006 only 36% says the same. Ian asks the question; in forty years’ time will happiness levels fall further? Bill Flannigan believes being happy is not a difficult thing to do; if you don’t like what’s happening make something else happen. Meg Colpitt says don’t think about money, think about what you need. She continues to take photographs around Cruddas Park. Another clip from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ over The Beatle’s tune ‘All You Need is Love’ and Irene Wilson saying children today don’t laugh like she used to, it is missing now. Jacqueline Hollis looks out across the River Tyne following a clip from The Road to Blaydon’ showing the same scene. She would rather go back than forward, people generally were much better off, it was a different world. Credit: Presenter Ian Payne Cameras Dave Dixon, John White, Simon Foggin, Pat Kingston , Ian Williams Sound Robbie Carruthers, Chris Corner, Ian Windsor Sound Dubbing The Edge Graphics Jon King, Dave Richardson Editor: John Louvre Production Manager Christine Stewart-Tilling Executive Producer Jane Bolesworth Producer Derek Proud © ITV Tyne Tees 2006 Closing Credit: Production for ITV