Living and Growing: Series 5 (1983)
Series 5 (1983) of the ITV Schools series Living and Growing from the 1980s, covering Sex Education for primary, secondary school pupils.
Like the Living and Growing series which had come before it in the 1960s and 70s, these programmes are based around the idea of a nuclear family and move from children's own experience of growing up in the first few programmes to "courtship" leading to the birth of a baby.
The second half of the series follows the Gailey family of Aberdeenshire as they prepare for the birth of their second daughter. Hannah Gailey's birth is seen in episode 6, followed by her post-natal care. This unit then takes the childcare element much further than Living and Growing had gone before as the final episode shows developments across the entire first year of the baby's life leading up to her first birthday in February 1983.
This unit also sought to cover menstruation, during the 3rd episode, in more depth than the series had done previously.
Previews
Grampian television produced a late night preview series billed as Living and Growing for Adults, which included a screening of each episode surrounded by a studio discussion presented by Gerry Davis with Stanley Mitchell alongside teachers, parents and experts to discuss the topics and use of the series. The guest in the first preview programme was Elizabeth Garrett, producer of the original Living and Growing series from 1968.
The preview series was shown by Grampian late on the Monday night preceeding each schools transmission, starting on 10th January 1983.
Scottish Television also carried the preview series in spring 1983, in the early hours of Friday mornings although the first newspaper listing I can find is for 14th January, following the schools broadcast of episode 1.
In the summer term when this series reached schools TV screens outside Scotland the preview series was also carried by Anglia Television and Ulster Television.
Titles & Theme Music
The camera moves across several collages of photographs showing family life and children growing up. The same photos are used as the studio backdrop behind Stanley Mitchell
The theme music is the beginning of a track called Mozaic by James Asher, from the Bruton Music library.
Episode List
| # | Title | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Growing Up | 11 Jan 1983 |
| 2. | The Same Yet Different (1983) | 18 Jan 1983[tx 1] |
| 3. | Differences in Detail (1983) | 25 Jan 1983 |
| 4. | Decisions for Life | 1 Feb 1983 |
| 5. | Ante-Natal Care | 8 Feb 1983 |
| 6. | Birth (1983) | 15 Feb 1983 |
| 7. | Going Home | 1 Mar 1983 |
| 8. | The First Year | 8 Mar 1983 |
* - Programme 2 was first shown as an Out of School preview for parents and teachers at 10:45am on Thursday 6th January 1983, across both the regions due to show the series in the spring term and those showing it in the summer.
The titles The Same But Different and Differences in Detail had also been used for the previous series of Living and Growing, and the title Birth had been used for the series before that, so both are annotated with the year in this list to distinguish them.
The episodes were also sometimes billed using a different set of more descriptive titles:
- Social education
- Secondary sexual characteristics
- Physiology, including menstruation
- Courtship, intercourse
- Ante-natal care
- Birth
- Post-natal care, going home
- The first year
Interestingly the episode shown by Grampian as a half term repeat (that is, broadcast two weeks in a row so that it could still be watched in different schools observing different half term holiday weeks) in 1983 and 1986, and therefore the most likely episode to be seen by children watching unaccompanied at home because they were on holiday from school, was the episode featuring childbirth. The same situation had arisen in 1976, but typically the flow of the year meant that it was the episode before or after that one which got repeated during the half term holidays. There was no half term repeat week in the summer term broadcast schedules, so the regions taking the series in the summer (see below) did not have this issue.
Broadcasts
Grampian Television
Grampian Television, the producing company, continued to prefer the spring term to broadcast the series to their local schools.
In 1983 Grampian, as well as its neighbour Scottish Television and possibly also Border Television, presented Living and Growing in the spring term while the rest of the ITV network took it in the summer term (see below).
In 1985 the series was effectively networked, as Grampian presented it in the summer term that year alongside the rest of the country.
In 1986 Grampian alone returned to their spring term broadcasts while the other Scottish companies followed the summer term broadcasts of the rest of the country, and in 1987 Grampian used the spring term and also followed the network broadcasts in the summer term.
After this, for broadcasts of the sixth series onwards from 1988, the series would be shown at the same time across the country on its new home of Channel 4.
| Year | Term | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982-83 | Spring 1983 | Tuesday, 9:45am | Thursday, 10:36am | Grampian | from 11 Jan | |||
| 1983-84 | Spring 1984 | Tuesday, 9:30am | Thursday, 10:26am | Grampian | from 17 Jan | |||
| 1984-85 | Summer 1985 | Wednesday, 10:04am | Thursday, 10:43am | Grampian | from 24 Apr, as network | |||
| 1985-86 | Spring 1986 | Wednesday, 11:20am | Friday, 9:30am | Grampian | from 8 Jan | |||
| 1986-87 | Spring 1987 | Friday, 9:30am | Grampian | from 23 Jan | ||||
| Summer 1987 | Monday, 11:24am | Grampian | from 27 Apr, as network |
Other ITV regions
Outside of Scotland this series was consistently shown in the summer term each year, and as far as I know all of the other ITV broadcasters followed the same broadcast pattern.
| Year | Term | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982-83 | Summer 1983 | Thursday, 10:21am | Friday, 10:58am | ITV | from 28 Apr | |||
| 1983-84 | Summer 1984 | Wednesday, 10:50am | Friday, 11:40am | ITV | from 2 May | |||
| 1984-85 | Summer 1985 | Wednesday, 10:04am | Thursday, 10:43am | ITV | from 24 Apr | |||
| 1985-86 | Summer 1986 | Monday, 9:59am | Thursday, 10:45am | ITV | from 21 Apr | |||
| 1986-87 | Summer 1987 | Monday, 11:24am | ITV | from 27 Apr |
Credits
| Presenter | Stanley Mitchell |
| Graphics | Morna Whyte Ray Moore Animation Ltd |
| Designer | Sandy Massie |
| Educational Adviser | Sheena Young |
| Writer | Stanley Mitchell |
| Director | Graham McLeish |
Resources
Teacher's Notes
A booklet of notes, available for 65p in 1982, rising to £1 by 1986.
Related programmes
- Sex Education (1984)A parallel series for slightly younger children from the BBC.
Sources & References
- Barry, Maggie (1983) 'Hannah makes a perfect debut' in Evening Express 10 January 1983. p.8
- 'Births' in The Kilmarnock Standard 26 February 1982. p.58
- Drummond, Mary Jane (1983) 'How not to get steamed up' in Times Educational Supplement 22 April 1983. p.31
- ITV Schools Annual Programme Guides.
- TV Times listings.
- Young, Sheena (1982) 'Keeping up with changes in society's attitudes' in Times Educational Supplement 4 June 1982. pp.iv
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