An edition of the Tyne Tees Television programme investigating topics affecting life in the North East. In this edition the story of the Tyneside's Red Spot Babies as they hit 60 and how this health programme has led to lives being saved and social conditions improved, and looks at what lies ahead for the surviving 'Red Spots'. Title: Northern Eye. The Red Spot Babies Black and white archive from post-war Britain featuring children playing in the streets. In a medical...

An edition of the Tyne Tees Television programme investigating topics affecting life in the North East. In this edition the story of the Tyneside's Red Spot Babies as they hit 60 and how this health programme has led to lives being saved and social conditions improved, and looks at what lies ahead for the surviving 'Red Spots'. Title: Northern Eye. The Red Spot Babies Black and white archive from post-war Britain featuring children playing in the streets. In a medical records room Dr Mark Pearce, Head of the Red Spot Study, explains the reasons behind the Red Spot Study which became the most ambitious health investigation the world had ever seen. Every baby born in Newcastle between May and June 1947 would be monitored to find out why the city had such a high infant morality rate. The cover a book published on the study ‘A Thousand Families’ by James Spence, W.S. Walton, F.J.W. Miller. Red Spot baby Jean Taylor remembers health visitors coming around and collecting more information than a visitor could or would be able to today. Many past judgements of women describing some as ‘feckless mothers’ who would take the blame by researcher for the mortality rates. As she speaks archive footage of a man visiting a slum property and children playing in the street. A copy of ‘Research into Acute Infection in Infancy 1947-48’ and a pile of blank child medical record cards, those cards stamped with a red spot would become the Red Spot Babies. A card with a red spot on it wishing a child a happy 2nd birthday from The Children’s Department Royal Victoria Infirmary. Sitting in a bench Paul Brown and his mother Lilly remembers being part a Red Spot study and being made to feel very special and given special treatment. Jean Taylor says you just accepted all the tests, they became part of growing up. Another Red Spot Baby Geoffrey Darling says everyone looked forward to getting birthday and other cards, it made you feel quite important. Examples of the cards attached to a board. In an office Professor Nigel Unwin from the Red Sport Study Group provides details on the kind of information gathered by the health visitor and the richness of the data used to help ask the question why some people develop diseases and others don’t. As Professor Unwin talks a pair of hands looking through a medical card and archive of children playing. Sitting on a sofa Rosemary Johnson looks at a photograph of her sister Joyce. She explains the circumstances around her sister’s death aged five from diphtheria. Archive of a large family sitting around a table for dinner with the mother saying that two of her fifteen children had died. Rosemary again who remembers families growing up who had lost children to disease. Dr Hugh Jackson, one of the original medical experts drafted in for study, sits in a chair flicking through a copy of the book he helped write ‘The School Years in Newcastle Upon Tyne’. He explains the reasons behind why health visitors would visit every six-to-eight-weeks; to check on the participants memory. Archive of a man walking along a street, knocking on a door, and speaking with the woman who answers it. The information gathered were described as ‘every intimate detail’ which today would be consider intrusive. A copy of ‘Research into Acute Infection in Infancy 1947-48’, with boys playing cricket superimposed over it. In voiceover actors reads from the report relating to several mothers and children with more archive of children playing superimposed over pages from the report. In a gallery a man looks over a series of framed photographs of the Red Spot Babies on a wall above a timeline of the study. In voiceover the narrator explains the study was a fascinating story of medical success, social failure, changing attitudes and false assumptions. One of the false assumptions was that it was the mothers who were to blame for the problems. Dr Hugh Jackson tells a story a health visitor who visited one family where the mother had apparently given away her youngest child to a members of her extended family. Another Red Spot Baby Frank Scott tells the story of a family a few door down from where he lived whose mother would go out all the time and leave the kids to live on tins on Nestles milk. From the Tyne Tees Television programme ‘The Road to Blaydon’ John Clifford Anderson sits on the steps of his newsagents in Newcastle’s Scotswood area while wife Joyce swept the steps. A copy ‘A Thousand Families’ where researchers identified three types of problem families. An actor reading from the book providing harsh details for each of the three types; the ‘friendly type’, the ‘sullen type’ and worst of all the ‘vicious type’. Their stark conclusion states that families represent ‘the lowest levels of family life.’ Going into the break more archive from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ and the question, were ‘feckless mothers’ really to blame and why the study into the Red Spot Babies was extended beyond the original plan. Title: The Red Spot Babies. End of Part One Title: The Red Spot Babies. Part Two Black and white archive footage from post-war Britain featuring children playing in a back-alley behind rows of terraced housing changes to the cover a book published on the study ‘A Thousand Families’. Archive of a phantom car ride along a terraced street with two boys sitting on a doorstep. Dr Mark Pearce who along with his team have re-analysed the data from the study and concluded that it wasn’t poor mothering skill that were to blame for high child mortality rates, rather the slum housing there were living in at the time. Archive of a man living in a derelict room with a hole in the wall, Red Spot Babies Norman Hall, Geoffrey Darling and Paul Brown remember growing up and living in poor conditions along with many other families. As they talk more archive of that period showing slum housing. Paul remembers one family being practically destitute while Rosemary Johnson talks about how people survived under these difficult conditions. More archive of a woman showing the camera around her derelict flats and Dr Mark Pearce talking about a housing survey conducted by Newcastle City Council which found a third of those surveyed were living in housing unfit for human habitation. Jean Taylor explains the survey acted as a lever for the start of a big slum clearance in areas such as Byker and Scotswood. To The Animals ‘We Gotta Get out of Here’ archive of a group of boys watching a bulldozer demolish slum houses changing to children playing in a playground build around tenement blocks. Another clip from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ featuring an older woman walking with a suitcase through a new housing estate at Westerhope talking about the people she misses who lived with her as part of the Byker community. Paul Brown and his mother Lilly remember moving into a new house and buying a record player. Geoffrey Darling remembers moving to a new home as being a step up from what they had before. Archive footage of children playing games in a street; the boys play football and cricket while the girls play hopscotch. Norman Hall has happy memories of living in the old Byker where everyone knew each other and helped each other, something that has been lost today. Rosemary Johnson and Geoffrey Darling concurs with Norman’s opinion relating stories of their own. In the archive film a policeman turns onto the street where the children were playing, they all run away with Geoffrey saying you always had response for the law. Rosemary Johnson remembers the worst think kids did in those days was steal a few apples from a tree. To ‘(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley and the Comets archive of young people taking part in a dance competition. Geoffrey Darling remembers attending local youth clubs while his older brother went to Co-Op dances. With the narrator commenting on the extension of he surveys beyond its original year, archive of a man walking along a street of modern housing pushing a pram and making balloons for children. Dr Mark Pearce explains that the extension has shown that those early years affected the health and longevity of the Red Spot Babies. The key message today looking at the group over 50 is that it is important to lead a healthy lifestyle throughout your life and not just at certain times in it. A Northumberland piper performing for Red Spot Babies and their guests at a special 60th birthday celebration taking place at Newcastle Civic Centre. Around the room the Red Spot Babies, many of whom are still taking part in the study, stand or sit around chatting over drinks. As Professor Nigel Unwin talks about what the study hopes to learn from those now in the sixties, the Lord Mayor of Newcastle cuts a special cake with a ceremonial sword. Rosemary Johnson explains why she is still part of the study. Red Spot Babies put their names on sticky-labels before adding a ‘red spot’. Two women wearing these labels stand chatting. Credit: Narrator Tony Cartledge Camera John White Research Ed Cartledge Archive Researcher Gillian Robinson Graphic Design Morgan Stephenson Sound Post Production The Edge Editing Facilities HT Media Editor David Hindmarsh Series Producer Mary Wimpress Executive Producer Graeme Thompson © ITV Tyne Tees 2007 End credit: A Tony Cartledge production for ITV