Revisiting Mill Street Youth Club: Television Club – ‘What Kind of Life?’ (BBC 1971) : Part 2

by Gillian A. M. Mitchell Dramatic Realism in ‘Mill Street Youth Club’ ‘What Kind of Life?’ was the tenth and final episode of a set of short dramas focused on the activities and members of the Mill Street Youth Club, and first transmitted from January to March 1971 as part of the long-running BBC educational television series Television Club. It is also the only episode of the ‘Mill Street’ series held by the BBC Archive and known to survive today; all others are considered ‘missing, believed wiped.’[1] This three-part blog post explores a set of dramatised programmes which proved engaging and successful with school audiences during its original transmissions. The programmes constituted a significant change of style and direction for the established Television Club strand, via their focus on social issues and their efforts to portray the lives of contemporary teenagers, and the diverse challenges which they faced, in a realistic and relatable manner. Regrettably, however, and in…