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Archive on 4: The First Generation X

The First Generation X

01/03/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, The First Generation X

Meet Generation X - the teenagers from the shocking, bestselling 1964 book, 50 years on.

Meet the original teenagers from the bestselling 1964 book Generation X. Alan Dein hunts them down. Plus, the first teenagers on air: amazing radio archive from the 1940s.

"They sleep together before they are married, don't believe in God as much, dislike the Queen, and don't respect parents."

Meet the original Generation X - teenagers who in 1964 seemed to embody a new sense of rebellion, but also uncertainty and anxiety about their changing world. X stood for mystery - the unknowable future.

50 years on, oral historian Alan Dein tracks down some of the original Generation X'ers, to confront them with their teenage selves.

Interviewed by the editor of Woman's Own magazine, a diverse group of young people answered a range of questions about their lives. Sex, drink, music and religion all featured - but so did bird-watching in rural Cumbria. The subsequent book was a landmark - a platform for teenagers to give their views, to the consternation of some of their elders.

"Most nights I sit in coffee bars with my friends talking about cars and girls.."
"Why are people in authority so stupid?"
"You'd hate an adult to understand you..."
"I'd marry anyone to spite my parents."
"Security is a killer, corrodes your mind but I wish I had it."

So what happened to those teenagers, wonders Alan Dein, joined by teen experts Jon Savage and Melanie Tebbutt, and how did their hopes and dreams turn out? He tracks down some of the original speakers to find out.

He also uncovers a wealth of atmospheric BBC archive from the 1930s onwards, exploring the changing perception of the teenager, such as "To Start You Talking" from 1943, which dramatised the fate of "Good Time Annie", to make up for the lack of guidance amongst young people - as fathers were away fighting, mothers at work, and VD on the rise.

Producer: Sara Jane Hall.

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