Revisiting Mill Street Youth Club: Television Club – ‘What Kind of Life?’ (BBC 1971) : Part 1

by Gillian A.M. Mitchell Introduction: ‘What Kind of Life?’ (BBC Television for Schools and Colleges, 1971) Brian Latham (Charles Bolton), a senior member of the Mill Street Youth Club in the northern industrial town of Cambury, is persuaded by his friends to sing a couple of songs with The Gift, the rock band which is providing live music for the club’s Friday night dance. His performance, enthusiastically received by fellow club-goers, impresses the band members, and they offer Brian the chance to join them as vocalist. While Brian’s friends resoundingly encourage him to embrace this opportunity, Brian himself is less certain. He is part-way through an apprenticeship at a local factory, and understands the risks of abandoning the security of his current path. After visiting the band in their rather run-down digs the following morning, Brian feels more torn still. The band members are thoroughly honest about the circumstances in which they live. Theirs is a highly precarious,…