28 Up

I wanna be a jockey when I grow up.

Yeah, I wanna be a jockey when I grow up.

- I'm down for Heathfield and Southall Manor.

- Well, going to Africa, and try and teach people.

- I don't think you want to go to university

if you want to be an astronaut.

- I'd like to find out all about the moon, and all that.

Is it important to fight, yes.

I just wanna be a jockey when I grow up.

Yeah, I wanna be a jockey when I grow up.

Tony was already an apprentice

at Tommy Gosling's Racing Stables in Epsom

when he left school at 14.

- This is a photo finish when I rode at Newbury.

I'm the one with the white cap.

I was beaten a length and a half for third,

and I had a photo finish,

so I took it out of the box and kept it as a souvenir.

What will you do

if you don't make it as a jockey?

I don't know.

If I knew I couldn't be one, I'd get out of the game.

I wouldn't bother.

- And what do you think you would do then?

Learn taxis.

- Tony didn't make it as a jockey.

He had three races, wasn't placed, and gave it up.

At 21 he was doing the Knowledge,

learning to be a London cabbie.

- I will be a cab driver, and I know I will.

And I want to prove every person

who think I can't be a cab driver wrong,

and I'll get that badge,

and I'm gonna put it right in their face,

just to tell 'em how wrong they can be,

and how underestimated I am.

It's surprising who you pick up, you see.

I once met Kojak, I picked him up.

And Warren Mitchell, or Alf Garnett, you know?

And I said, "Oh, hello, Warren, how are you, mate?

"Good to see ya."

So he ends up saying, "I wanna go to Langan's Brasserie."

You know, Stratton Street, Langan's.

So half way there I said, "Listen," I said,

"Warren, it wouldn't,"

I said, "It wouldn't be you

"if you don't sort of come out with Alf, you know?

"I mean, give us a, let us see how he's going, you know?"

So straight away he's brought Alf Garnett to life

in the back of me cab.

So, we're on the way to Langan's, you know.

All I can hear is Alf Garnett, you know.

"It's the Labour government," and, "Your lot up here."

When we get there, I said, like,

"Thanks, Warren, terrific, mate, 1.80."

So, he gave me exactly 1.80.

"Listen," I said, "I know you're Alf Garnett.

"I know you're having trouble."

So I, like, I said,

"But I want you to become Warren Mitchell now."

"Like, my tip's all like 20-odd pence," or whatever.

He said, "Son," as in Alf Garnett still,

"you know Alf's doing bad at the moment, I can't afford it,"

and he walked away, and like, he done me like a kipper.

- What does it take to be a good cabbie?

- I think, meself, happy-go-lucky character,

and to take as much as what any other person

couldn't take in a normal job,

because it's a big world out there,

and everyone's a different character,

all that I pick up.

Their attitudes, some of 'em, like the city gents,

the typical, "Waterloo, driver, please, in five minutes,"

I'll sort of say, "Hold on, mate,

"I'll get me helicopter out of the boot."

I love being a taxi driver,

I like the outdoor life, the independence.

There's no one to govern me, or say, like,

"You've gotta be in at a certain time."

- Sometimes on a Saturday morning I go to the pictures.

Sometimes with my friends, sometimes with him.

You don't!

I do!

She don't

I don't ever see ya!

You go to a different pictures.

Have you got a girlfriend?

No.

- Would you like to have a girlfriend?

No.

Do you understand the four Fs?

Find 'em, feed 'em, and forget 'em, but for the other F,

I'll let you use your own discrimination.

I mean, this one, I tried to do the three Fs,

but I couldn't forget her.

I used to work in a pub,

just on Friday nights, barmaids, barmaiding.

And then from there one night I went to a discotheque.

He was in the pub earlier on,

and then afterwards we went to a discotheque,

and Tony was standing there.

And I just, from there I just, that was it.

I couldn't get rid of him.

Bee around honey, you know?

- And why did you fall in love with him?

I don't know.

I don't know, either.

I don't know how you put up with me for so long.

I don't know, right?

Sometimes I don't know how I stand him.

But what is it that you

love about him? - I like his personality.

It doesn't matter who it is, he don't change for nobody.

- There's only one ambition, really, I want a baby son.

If I see my baby son, that is my ambition fulfilled.

No one knows it, only you now.

We've got two children.

Nicky's 6 1/2, Jodi's 2 1/2, nearly three,

and I'm having another one in March.

- Who looks after them, or do you share it up?

Me, basically, yeah.

He does take 'em out quite a lot, but,

telling offs and smacks is all left to me.

I have to do all of that.

He don't like smacking 'em.

He don't like telling them off,

unless it's really, really...

- Anything serious, then I... - Serious, then he would.

They all got, see that baby one?

- So what advantages do you think you've had

over some of the other people that we've filmed?

Well, academically,

probably they've had more advantages over me.

I don't know, the fact they've had prep schools

at a very early age, you know, they've benefited by it,

which, you know, it tells obviously in this film.

But as far as, you know,

the stability and the backgrounds with their parents,

they've missed out on that.

- Tone, I don't like 'em near me.

- Come on. - Have a piece of bread each.

Here, Jodi.

Jodi, come on.

Being in the prep school,

they're missing the love and the care

what every East Ender always gets, you know,

gives their children each time they come home from work.

And the parents, you know,

sometimes obviously are not gonna be there,

'cause they're away at prep school.

They're missing the love and affection,

you know, what they are craving for.

When my kids are growing up,

I wanna see the change in 'em all the time,

so I have my own memories of when they was a kid,

and how they were, you know, and what they were like.

- Would everybody please sit round now,

get on with their work.

I don't want to see any backs to me.

There shouldn't be anyone turning round.

Tony, do you hear as well?

Get on with your work in front.

Tony!

Don't turn around again.

Education is, it's just a thing to say,

"My son is higher than him," or,

"My son had a better background than him."

I mean, I'm as good or even better than most of them people.

Especially on this programme.

I mean, I'm one of the tail-enders.

You'll think, oh, the East End boy, you know,

and he ain't got a no-good education.

But all of a sudden the East End boy's got a car, motorbike,

and he goes to Spain every year, and whatever.

And have I worked for it?

No, I'm here putting bets on.

And you think, "How does he do it?"

And there's a boy, who was at Eaton, and all, whatever.

He's studying to be a professor, he's making up the things.

And where's the education?

There's no education in this world.

It's just one big rat race,

and you've gotta kill your man next to you

to get in front of him.

Education, when I said, "There's no education,"

yes, there is an education.

I made a grave mistake in saying that.

But I didn't mean to say

there's no education as far as academically.

Yes, there is.

The area, the environment, and education,

makes a person have more opportunities in this world.

You know what I mean, that's obvious.

Let's talk about the kids.

Do you want for them what you had for yourself,

in terms of schooling and everything?

You're talking about my childhood?

Five years old, upwards to seven, eight, nine,

I had no money, my father had no money,

and I had my brother's clothes for 10 years.