Living and Growing
Living and Growing is an ITV and later Channel 4 schools TV series from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, covering sex education for primary and secondary school pupils.
A pioneering sex education series for 10-to-13-year-old pupils, produced originally as a local service for schools in the north of Scotland in the late 1960s and presented by a local doctor. The straightforward but nurturing style of the programmes quickly became well known in the 1970s as an episode won the prestigious Japan Prize for educational television, and the series was repeated across most of the UK.
The series was completely re-made and updated at roughly five-year intervals throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s and continued to be well respected across the country, adapting its content as time went on to recognise less gender-stereotyped roles for boys and girls, and new topics such as masturbation and - by the 1990s - contraception. It also updated its presentation through kindly and avuncular health authority figures, to younger presenters and teenagers 'doing a school project', and eventually a trendy young doctor leading a studio discussion.
1968
1975
1979
1983
1988
1993
1997
1997 again
For more than two decades the schools broadcasts of the series were preceded by late-night preview broadcasts of the programmes with surrounding discussion for parents and teachers, though these were not shown in all of the regions broadcasting the series and by the 1990s only the producing company Grampian Television continued to show them.
Until the 1980s the series was not 'networked' - shown at the same time by every regional ITV broadcaster - but rather it was screened on the days, times and even times of year that each local educational advisory committee felt most useful for their schools, which differed wildly in the early 1970s but became more uniform as time went on. However it was only when schools broadcasts moved from ITV to Channel 4 in 1987 that Living and Growing was shown at exactly the same times across the whole country.
Living and Growing was incorporated into the new parent series Off Limits for secondary schools in 1998, but the series was effectively replaced by a new set of programmes within the primary school series All About Us from 1999, which were also called Living and Growing Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3 . These covered the whole primary school age range, from 5-to-11-years-old across different programmes, and kept the 'Living and Growing' name on national television screens until 2007, almost 40 years after it began in the north of Scotland.
Units
Termly broadcasts
This grid sets out broadcasts in the Grampian Television area where the series originated.
The series was screened in different school terms by other ITV regional broadcasters, as detailed on the pages for each individual unit (May 2025 note: these pages have not been written yet, but will be coming soon!). Indeed by 1979 most of the ITV network had settled into showing the series during the summer term, apart from Grampian Television which continued to screen Living and Growing in the spring term for nearly another decade, as shown here.
| Year | Autumn | Spring | Summer | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967-68 | Series 1 (1968) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1968-69 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1969-70 | Series 1 (1968) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1970-71 | Series 1 (1968) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1971-72 | Series 1 (1968) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Series 1 (1968) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1973-74 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1974-75 | Series 2 (1975) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1975-76 | Series 2 (1975) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1976-77 | Series 2 (1975) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1977-78 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1978-79 | Series 3 (1979) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1979-80 | Series 3 (1979) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1980-81 | Series 3 (1979) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1981-82 | Series 3 (1979) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1982-83 | Series 4 (1983) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1983-84 | Series 4 (1983) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1984-85 | Series 4 (1983) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1985-86 | Series 4 (1983) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1986-87 | Series 4 (1983) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1987-88 | Series 5 (1988) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1988-89 | Series 5 (1988) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1989-90 | Series 5 (1988) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1990-91 | Series 5 (1988) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1991-92 | Series 5 (1988) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1992-93 | Series 6 (1993) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1993-94 | Series 6 (1993) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1994-95 | Series 6 (1993) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1995-96 | Series 6 (1993) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1996-97 | Tell Me About It! | Series 6 (1993) | Tell Me About It! | |||||||||||||||
| 1997-98 | Love Talk | Tell Me About It! | Love Talk | |||||||||||||||
| 1998-99 | Love Talk | Tell Me About It! | ||||||||||||||||
| 1999-2000 | Love Talk | Tell Me About It! | ||||||||||||||||
Episode List
These dates are for the first broadcasts of each episode as a standalone schools programme.
All dates are for the Grampian Television region, apart from series 2 in 1975 which was broadcast in the rest of the country 2 days before the Grampian transmissions - the dates given here are for the rest of the country.
Every single episode up to and including spring 1995, was first broadcast within a late night preview and discussion programme for parents and teachers in the week prior to the first schools broadcasts listed here. These preview transmissions are covered on the separate pages for each unit, as are Out of School preview broadcasts.
| # | # | Title | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series 1 (1968) | |||
| 1. | (1) | He's About 100 - A Very Old Man | 18 Jan 1968 |
| 2. | (2) | Granny Has Brown Eyes - So Have I | 25 Jan 1968 |
| 3. | (3) | Is It a Boy or a Girl? | 1 Feb 1968 |
| 4. | (4) | Growing Up Is… | 8 Feb 1968 |
| 5. | (5) | Where New Life Begins… | 15 Feb 1968 |
| 6. | (6) | Ten Fingers and Ten Toes | 22 Feb 1968 |
| 7. | (7) | Can I Ask a Question...? | 29 Feb 1968 |
| 8. | (8) | So Life Goes On… | 7 Mar 1968 |
| Series 2 (1975) | |||
| 9. | (1) | Social Development | 13 Jan 1975 |
| 10. | (2) | Sex Differences | 20 Jan 1975 |
| 11. | (3) | Functions of Sex Organs | 27 Jan 1975 |
| 12. | (4) | Conception | 3 Feb 1975 |
| 13. | (5) | Birth (1975) | 10 Feb 1975 |
| 14. | (6) | The Baby | 17 Feb 1975 |
| 15. | (7) | Genetics | 24 Feb 1975 |
| 16. | (8) | Summary | 3 Mar 1975 |
| Series 3 (1979) | |||
| 17. | (1) | Family and Friends | 15 Jan 1979 |
| 18. | (2) | The Same Yet Different (1979) | 22 Jan 1979 |
| 19. | (3) | Differences in Detail (1979) | 29 Jan 1979 |
| 20. | (4) | Loving and Caring | 5 Feb 1979 |
| 21. | (5) | Preparing for a Baby | 12 Feb 1979 |
| 22. | (6) | Birth of a Baby | 26 Feb 1979 |
| 23. | (7) | A Close Look at Baby | 5 Mar 1979 |
| 24. | (8) | It's Your Life | 12 Mar 1979 |
| Series 4 (1983) | |||
| 25. | (1) | Growing Up | 11 Jan 1983 |
| 26. | (2) | The Same Yet Different (1983) | 18 Jan 1983 |
| 27. | (3) | Differences in Detail (1983) | 25 Jan 1983 |
| 28. | (4) | Decisions for Life | 1 Feb 1983 |
| 29. | (5) | Ante-Natal Care | 8 Feb 1983 |
| 30. | (6) | Birth (1983) | 15 Feb 1983 |
| 31. | (7) | Going Home | 1 Mar 1983 |
| 32. | (8) | The First Year | 8 Mar 1983 |
| Series 5 (1988) | |||
| 33. | (1) | About Us | 27 Apr 1988 |
| 34. | (2) | Changes | 4 May 1988 |
| 35. | (3) | Growing Up (1988) | 11 May 1988 |
| 36. | (4) | Starting a Baby | 18 May 1988 |
| 37. | (5) | Birth of a Baby (1988) | 25 May 1988 |
| 38. | (6) | New Member of the Family | 8 Jun 1988 |
| 39. | (7) | Relationships | 15 Jun 1988 |
| 40. | (8) | Decisions (1988) | 22 Jun 1988 |
| 41. | (9) | Decisions (1991) | 13 Jun 1991 |
| 42. | (10) | Consequences (1991) | 20 Jun 1991 |
| Series 6 (1993) | |||
| Changing Bodies | |||
| 43. | (1) | The Same But Different | 28 Apr 1993 |
| 44. | (2) | Boy to Man, Girl to Woman | 5 May 1993 |
| 45. | (3) | It's Perfectly Normal | 12 May 1993 |
| 46. | (4) | Making Love | 19 May 1993 |
| 47. | (5) | Forty Weeks | 26 May 1993 |
| 48. | (6) | Being Born | 2 Jun 1993 |
| Sexual Challenges and Choices | |||
| 49. | (7) | Decisions (1994) | 15 Mar 1994 |
| 50. | (8) | Consequences (1994) | 22 Mar 1994 |
| 51. | (9) | Hopes and Fears | 15 Mar 1995 |
| 52. | (10) | It Won't Happen to Us | 22 Mar 1995 |
| 53. | (11) | Healthy Options | 29 Mar 1995 |
| Tell Me About It! | |||
| 54. | (1) | Number One Fan | 6 Jan 1997 |
| 55. | (2) | What Do You Look Like! | 13 Jan 1997 |
| 56. | (3) | Heavenly Bodies | 20 Jan 1997 |
| 57. | (4) | It's All My Fault! | 27 Jan 1997 |
| 58. | (5) | Too Much Too Young? | 3 Feb 1997 |
| Love Talk | |||
| 59. | (1) | What Are You Looking For? | 22 Sep 1997 |
| 60. | (2) | Do Girls Want Love and Boys Want Sex? | 29 Sep 1997 |
| 61. | (3) | How Girls Get Pregnant and How They Don't | 6 Oct 1997 |
| 62. | (4) | How to Have Fun and Keep Healthy | 13 Oct 1997 |
| 63. | (5) | Boys Bite Back | 20 Oct 1997 |
Broadcasts
This grid covers broadcasts in the Grampian Television area, where the series originated. Other ITV regions broadcast the series at different days, times and even terms especially in the 1960s and 70s, as explained in the Units overview above, and covered in detail on individual unit pages.
| Year | Term | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967-68 | Spring 1968 | Thursday, 1:58pm | Grampian | |||||
| 1968-69 | - | |||||||
| 1969-70 | Spring 1970 | Tuesday, 2:35pm | Thursday, 11:40am | Grampian | ||||
| 1970-71 | Spring 1971 | Tuesday, 11:19am | Thursday, 2:00pm | Grampian | ||||
| 1971-72 | Spring 1972 | Wed | Friday, 2:35pm | Grampian | ||||
| 1972-73 | Spring 1973 | Monday, 11:38am | Tuesday, 2:17pm | Grampian | ||||
| 1973-74 | - | |||||||
| 1974-75 | Spring 1975 | Wednesday, 11:18am | Friday, 10:30am | Grampian | ||||
| 1975-76 | Spring 1976 | Wednesday, 11:20am | Friday, 10:30am | Grampian | ||||
| 1976-77 | Spring 1977 | Tuesday, 10:09am | Friday, 11:43am | Grampian | ||||
| 1977-78 | - | |||||||
| 1978-79 | Spring 1979 | Monday, 10:10am | Wednesday, 10:31am | Grampian | ||||
| 1979-80 | Spring 1980 | Thursday, 10:48am | Friday, 10:09am | Grampian | ||||
| 1980-81 | Spring 1981 | Tuesday, 10:48am | Thursday, 9:52am | Grampian | ||||
| 1981-82 | Spring 1982 | Unknown days & times | Grampian | |||||
| 1982-83 | Spring 1983 | Tuesday, 9:45am | Thursday, 10:36am | Grampian | ||||
| 1983-84 | Spring 1984 | Tuesday, 9:30am | Thursday, 10:26am | Grampian | ||||
| 1984-85 | Summer 1985 | Wednesday, 10:04am | Thursday, 10:43am | Grampian | ||||
| 1985-86 | Spring 1986 | Wednesday, 11:20am | Friday, 9:30am | Grampian | ||||
| Summer 1987 | probably Mon 9:59am & Thu 10:45am | Grampian | ||||||
| 1986-87 | Spring 1987 | Friday, 9:30am | Grampian | |||||
| Summer 1987 | Monday, 11:24am | Grampian | ||||||
| 1987-88 | Summer 1988 | Wednesday, 10:48am | Thursday, 10:23am | Channel 4 | ||||
| 1988-89 | Summer 1989 | Thursday, 10:23am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1989-90 | Summer 1990 | Thursday, 10:23am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1990-91 | Summer 1991 | Thursday, 10:23am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1991-92 | Summer 1992 | Wednesday, 10:48am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1992-93 | Summer 1993 | Wednesday, 10:48am | Thursday, 11:44am | Channel 4 | ||||
| 1993-94 | Spring 1994 | Tuesday, 10:44am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1994-95 | Spring 1995 | Wednesday, 9:30am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1995-96 | Spring 1996 | Wednesday, 9:30am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1996-97 | Spring 1997 | Monday, 11:45am | Channel 4 | |||||
| Summer 1997 | Monday, 11:45am | Channel 4 | ||||||
| 1997-98 | Autumn 1997 | Monday, 11:00am | Channel 4 | |||||
| Summer 1998 | Tuesday, 5:15am | Channel 4 | ||||||
| 1998-99 | Autumn 1998 | Monday, 10:15am | Channel 4 | |||||
| 1999-2000 | Spring 2000 | Tuesday, 4:00am | Channel 4 | |||||
Credits
| Presenters | Dr K. John Dennis (1968-74) Stanley Mitchell (1975-87) |
Related programmes
- Your HealthAnother health education series from Grampian Television presnted by Stanley Mitchell
Links
- Scotland On-Air: Living and GrowingA detailed guide to the first series.
- TV Cream: Living and Growing (archived 2024)Lovely and affectionate - though not particularly factually accurate - overview of the series in the 70s and 80s
- British Film Institute Collections for Living and Growing
Topics
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