@@myriaddsystems this is a reenactment , it’s neither news nor educational. It’s a beautiful little time piece though, a little film of hope , experimental and very naive by todays standards.
I think that we didn't see anything very 'gritty' but they don't try to sugar coat the heroin use. However 'decent' you are class A drugs can destroy you.
No they weren't all decent. I was there in 1971 when I was sixteen. In fact, people were quite hard and never enquired about one's welfare. My view is that Brits are much kinder these days.
Middle class young people have become very dumbned down in thought and speech since the 60s but some working class kids could be just as hard and yobish as now.Or not as the case may be.
His Parents are the ‘salt of the earth’. So glad he appreciated that when he was able to. Their story and emotions of bringing up their adopted son would be equally interesting.
What are fascinating documentary from the early 70s..it’s amazing how the men in those days of the early 70s had those had big hairstyles 😊 I hope this gentleman is doing well 🙏👍 poor man, he took such huge risks travelling by himself, asking lifts from strangers and looking very vulnerable and overwhelmed, had no fixed plan, little money, no proper accommodation or food, no friends, family or support mechanisms and also been very brave in being filmed throughout 😮 God bless him 🙏🙏
Thanks so much for this upload! It's so interesting on so many levels. I'd really REALLY love to know what happened next and where Lucky is now, and how he is. So if you're out there Lucky, please let us know! Leave a comment to tell us how you are - I'm sure lots of viewers would be fascinated to hear the rest of your story! 🙏☺
It was possible to travel anywhere in the UK hitching in those days. People were happy to help. Things changed though and people became suspicious and judgemental. I miss the camaraderie in the country, it was the only reason I survived.
Fascinating film. Watching this in January 2025 (a New Year). Gotta say London village/ Piccadilly circus is the same as seen here in 1970! ....which shows the lack of progress in the capital . Yes - there's new building's etc.. *but* it just seems *so dark and grey* (like the images shown here *from fifty years ago* )! Go to Dubai - and see their January New Year (full of colour and Bright lights) Ah well Happy New Year 2025 everyone
@sparagmos4748 Transport - still grimy/ dirty old transport... Shopping centers are... Empty/ delappated.... Weather - *grey and miserable* Changes - anything decent? (I live in Islington area).... Let me know what your area is like Cheers
@@peckerdecker This film is right at the end of the "Swinging London" period. I know the neon lights look similar and are still the main feature, but I believe if you were wondering around there at that time, you would have experienced a very different vibe. If you go up there now, it is heaving with tourists, all shopping and eating and that is about it. Starting at about this period and well into the 1980s and probably after, it you would have found drug dealers and addicts, prostitution and men preying on young people. Thankfully, you would see nothing like that there in 2025. Its not even similar. It's 100% tourist friendly and has none of the seediness. I also live in London.
I used to go to those arcades in the mid late 70s as an innocent kid. We never got approached so the predators really knew what kind of kids they were looking out for🫤
London wasn't a shit hole in 1971. The population was one third less so it was less crowded and there were far fewer cars. One could rent a room for about £5 a week - depending on the area. But you had to have the money obviously. AND I WAS NEVER UNEMPLOYED.
That must have been a hefty camera they were filming with, I wonder how many were part of the crew and how they found a lad to film travelling… wonder if they advertised in national papers.. who wrote the scripts ?
Land in kings cross. Hotel overnight, Islington dole in the morning. Emergency payment, casual job, better job, flatshare. Thats the ild rough guide to London. I did it a couple of times. Never the drugs though These days even a flatshare is expensive unless your miles out of london, say near Heathrow. Used to be you could go to London and make a killing in a short time. Now its just live to work, work to live. Unless you really love the place, whichis expensive for everything including a social life London is a trap. The drugs are the enchantment for the disenchanted and theres a lot of disenchanted people there, hence lots of drugs is the hole people fall into. I saw london chew people up, usually people with no family connections or some sort of emotional pain they could have dealt with before attempting a new life in London.
@@catherinecurran7898 Catherine, considering the video has only been on a few days, perhaps in the coming weeks someone will recognise him if they stumble across it. It would be nice if ITV made a series of follow up documentaries, revisiting people it featured in World in action. They could still have old details of people's real names on file perhaps.
@@salvadormarley i'd love that. I've watched so many of the old World in Actions on UA-cam now and tried looking up names, some people I've found on Facebook etc and some people I can't find.
*SPOLIER ALERT* Watch video first. Scariest thing about the whole programme is his parents just shaking his hand at the end when they finally visit him....😢 Speaks volumes.
When i see documentaries like this i often wonder how genuine these stories are. I've some experience with journalism and film making, and it 'can be' easier and cheaper to just make a story up.
@@gilliangrant8764 I suppose it does mention at the start that he was 'recreating' scenes from his own story, as it were. Some stories, and parts of, may well be true, but film makers obviously want something to show the viewers. ( when i started photography in the 1980's i came across a French photographer in books and magazines, who did pictures of people 'unaware' of him, capturing them doing something interesting called 'the decisive moment'. Many budding photographers, including myself, would try to do the same. Years later it was revealed that he paid models to be in his pictures, so no wonder he got such good shots !)
union rules meant a camera crew, lighting crew, sound crew, tea van, director, P.A. etc. Expensive & obviously carefully planned...but what else could they do? the story itself is realistic & needed to be told so in my view it's valid. I'm happy that now one man with a mobile phone can tell the same story & so many more stories are told but these days we need to question motive & accuracy much more than back then
Maybe his best bet would have been to get involved in the squatting scene at that time. Now illegal of course, but there are now so many empty buildings in London just bought for investment and not used.
No internet in those days. Disinformation was more prevailent and who controlled the media could say what they liked and nobody could prove them wrong so quickly.
He was prepared to swap a reasonably comfortable life for this one so he can't have been very entitled. Teen boys tend to have a contentious relationship with their dads at this age, and I expect his job prospects were extremely limited so he did what so many did.
@@matthewthomasjames It's certainly presented differently, but I think that people still got pretty upset about it. I saw another documentary where they show the body of a young man and it's pretty disrespectful, but apparently that was very controversial at the time - the documentary makers knew that it would really shock people, that's what they wanted.
@ in many old episodes of forensic files, the dead bodies are fully shown, no blurring. And same with many old newspaper articles, not even that long ago. Maybe it’s something that’s primarily done in recent times on UA-cam, though. It’s entirely possible.
Has anyone ever started using smack by injecting ? I thought that was last resort. Surely chasing the dragon was the way people got dragged into this life
I don't think you can comprehend how bleak some kids lives are. The Beatles wrote 'She's leaving Home' as a comment on how a home wasn't where a child wanted to be when it was emotionally empty and dreary. Also he was adopted. A lot of adopted kids don't bond well.
@@sparagmos4748 No, perhaps I was VERY fortunate in that I came from a loving home. I guess it is always difficult when you are not in someone else's shoes to fully understand. As for the Beatles song, it is a thought provoking song, but heck, how depressing too. Thank you for commenting.
Its funny how mocked nuclear family life has become.Beats 'desolation row' anyday of the week.And I've been in both so I know.But the 'man' will create and collapse order as it suits.🤔
@@matthewthomasjames I don't think that it's necessarily become less safe. I'd still be happy to do it if I could, but I have a big 'scary' dog and nowhere to go anymore😅
If you watched at the start, it states, ' re-enacted'. This was his story and the same for many more young people who went to London to escape whatever problems they had at home.
This is when we had proper news and quality television
Off 3 channels.
What appened ?!????
'Proper news' 😆
@@myriaddsystems this is a reenactment , it’s neither news nor educational. It’s a beautiful little time piece though, a little film of hope , experimental and very naive by todays standards.
I left from the North to live in London. Been here 54 years …came in 1971 aged 19
What a great era to be young.
Did you run into any of the early Hells Angels back then? Peace.
People were really decent in those days. What a kind voice the young man had, with love and respect.
I think that we didn't see anything very 'gritty' but they don't try to sugar coat the heroin use. However 'decent' you are class A drugs can destroy you.
No, they were just the same as today's society minus social media.
No they weren't all decent. I was there in 1971 when I was sixteen. In fact, people were quite hard and never enquired about one's welfare. My view is that Brits are much kinder these days.
Middle class young people have become very dumbned down in thought and speech since the 60s but some working class kids could be just as hard and yobish as now.Or not as the case may be.
@@evangelosperry it was just amateur acting… very sweet
This was television worth watching and certainly enjoying.
What a fascinating documentary. I continue to be surprised by the gems you keep uploading for people (like me) to discover and enjoy.
Thankyou.
What a relaxing narrating voice he has!
Wow…real life….im born 71… absolutely great film….good message for then .now and the future..❤️
He will be 72 ish now if he is still alive.
Mind boggling as ever this life.
His Parents are the ‘salt of the earth’. So glad he appreciated that when he was able to. Their story and emotions of bringing up their adopted son would be equally interesting.
Good man. 👍 Got himself sorted in the end. Thank you for sharing. ❤
Wonderful footage. We definitely spoke with more vocabulary and nuaunce in the past
Incredible film. Thanks.
History of Africa by Laurel Aitken at 19:47.
Absolutely fascinating to see a London that has gone now forever and his journey...Rather moving actually.
@@CARLIN4737is was a pretty grim depiction lol. What exactly did you see that you miss?
@@moominmayTo be fair they didn't say they miss it😅
This was in the days when London was full of opportunity s, cracking film, miss those days
Brings back memories.
We got through it!!!
What are fascinating documentary from the early 70s..it’s amazing how the men in those days of the early 70s had those had big hairstyles 😊 I hope this gentleman is doing well 🙏👍 poor man, he took such huge risks travelling by himself, asking lifts from strangers and looking very vulnerable and overwhelmed, had no fixed plan, little money, no proper accommodation or food, no friends, family or support mechanisms and also been very brave in being filmed throughout 😮 God bless him 🙏🙏
He must have had a big films crew with him..filming wasn’t hand held back then
@@sonnysingh2617 plus it was a re enactment and not a documentary at all
I did a lot of hitchhiking in 1971, across america before going into the army. Those were the days.
That air of friendship and warmth was called Heroin? Good Luck to the fella be fascinating to see or hear how things turned out in later life.
Aye
Such an interesting documentary, people were so much more caring back then, the little old lady running to call an ambulance will stay with me.
Apart from the gangster landlord in the sunglasses, lol
Wish we knew what happened to him now days, seemed such a kind young man trying to find his way.
Fantastic film 🔥 love your channel & content, keep up the great work xx
Look at that empty road.
Thanks so much for this upload! It's so interesting on so many levels.
I'd really REALLY love to know what happened next and where Lucky is now, and how he is. So if you're out there Lucky, please let us know! Leave a comment to tell us how you are - I'm sure lots of viewers would be fascinated to hear the rest of your story! 🙏☺
Wow World In Action...never forget the usual proper theme tune ,
Digging this channel keep pushing forward. Really enjoyed what i have seen so far.
Subscribed. What a wonderful channel this is!
That was really incredible.
It was possible to travel anywhere in the UK hitching in those days. People were happy to help. Things changed though and people became suspicious and judgemental. I miss the camaraderie in the country, it was the only reason I survived.
The sharing of cigarettes is a interesting concept to look back on….
much cheaper then of course & a natural way to connect with strangers
They were probably about 10 p a box back then
A brilliant documentary
Brilliant 👍
That ambulance was there in a flash unlike today
Assuming most of that was re-enacted, it was very well done 👌
Seriously, wow, still thinking about this and how You nailed the late 70’s, 80’s
Read the show notes.
The landlord coming to the door in dark glasses has turned this serious look at life in a city into a comedy. Why ?
This reminded me of Gale Is Dead, the Man Alive episode about a young lass who ended up on drugs in the Picadilly Circus area.
That was a very hard hitting. And still haunts me!
@@stephenhill9448 Yes a lovely lass Gale Parsons , but she never stood a chance bless her heart.
GALE SO SAD SHE WAS SUCH A BEATIFUL LOOKING GIRL SUCH A WASTE
That was such a tragic watch. Poor Gale.
@@PatJenningsGlovesshe was so let down by her own family and by the care system.
I'm sure I remember seeing this in the late 70s when I was 8/9 😊
Fascinating film.
Watching this in January 2025 (a New Year).
Gotta say
London village/ Piccadilly circus is the same as seen here in 1970! ....which shows the lack of progress in the capital .
Yes - there's new building's etc.. *but* it just seems *so dark and grey* (like the images shown here *from fifty years ago* )!
Go to Dubai - and see their January New Year (full of colour and Bright lights)
Ah well
Happy New Year 2025 everyone
There's been so much change in London I don't know where you get that impression!
Piccadilly Circus is now nothing like it was in this film.
@sparagmos4748 Transport - still grimy/ dirty old transport...
Shopping centers are... Empty/ delappated....
Weather - *grey and miserable*
Changes - anything decent?
(I live in Islington area).... Let me know what your area is like
Cheers
@@peckerdecker
This film is right at the end of the "Swinging London" period. I know the neon lights look similar and are still the main feature, but I believe if you were wondering around there at that time, you would have experienced a very different vibe.
If you go up there now, it is heaving with tourists, all shopping and eating and that is about it.
Starting at about this period and well into the 1980s and probably after, it you would have found drug dealers and addicts, prostitution and men preying on young people. Thankfully, you would see nothing like that there in 2025.
Its not even similar. It's 100% tourist friendly and has none of the seediness.
I also live in London.
Welcome to khan's London
WORLD IN ACTION
"Lucky"
Series 7;Episode 23
February 22,1971
"Lucky"- anything but. Poor children😢
Lads “lucky” Hissing Sid didn’t get his hooks in at that arcade.
I used to go to those arcades in the mid late 70s as an innocent kid. We never got approached so the predators really knew what kind of kids they were looking out for🫤
The channel owner is doing amazing work. I'm loving all these old British documentaries.
Does anyone know where Lucky or his friends are now?
He was only called lucky for short, his full name was unlucky...
The two Ambulance drivers were Morcambe and Wise!
“Sort of” was used as “like” is now.
London was a shit hole then as it is today,it chews and spits out so many lost souls😒
I know. I was one of them back in 1970.
London wasn't a shit hole in 1971. The population was one third less so it was less crowded and there were far fewer cars. One could rent a room for about £5 a week - depending on the area. But you had to have the money obviously. AND I WAS NEVER UNEMPLOYED.
@annmear3573 You obviously didn't live in Stepney or off the Portobello Rd.Those places were slums.
Can’t believe nothings changed in 50 year
He was a great lad. And the kids were alright. But they had nothing that was their own and didnt even know it.
That’s the way just tell him he isn’t addicted and move on, great advice.
That must have been a hefty camera they were filming with, I wonder how many were part of the crew and how they found a lad to film travelling… wonder if they advertised in national papers.. who wrote the scripts ?
16:04 "People don't want to stop and buy sex magazines in the street". Yeah, I can see a flaw in your business model there Chief.😂
They didn't though. Change is engineered
Awesome
There was a Series on BBC 2 in 1996 called the Syetem about the state - you dont have this do you. would love to see it again.
Sadly, I don't have this series, but there's one episode on UA-cam ua-cam.com/video/lvkEOrF3xBk/v-deo.html
17:03 there it is, morphine or diamophine amps. Just wow. The “old British system” which would have saved me and my friends.
I was born August 1971it looked a better world then 😢
It was much better in many ways.
I was 18 then. It wasn't better, it sucked.
Land in kings cross. Hotel overnight, Islington dole in the morning. Emergency payment, casual job, better job, flatshare.
Thats the ild rough guide to London. I did it a couple of times. Never the drugs though
These days even a flatshare is expensive unless your miles out of london, say near Heathrow.
Used to be you could go to London and make a killing in a short time. Now its just live to work, work to live.
Unless you really love the place, whichis expensive for everything including a social life London is a trap. The drugs are the enchantment for the disenchanted and theres a lot of disenchanted people there, hence lots of drugs is the hole people fall into.
I saw london chew people up, usually people with no family connections or some sort of emotional pain they could have dealt with before attempting a new life in London.
Wonder what happened to lucky? He probably be retired now, hope the years have been good for him
I wonder where he is now 🤔
On the packet, down the dog and duck.😂
Amesbury Transport and the 303- my manor
Wow! I wonder what happened to them all..
Does anybody know what happened to him? He could easily still be alive in his seventies now.
I am really interested in knowing too.
Guessing Lucky was a pseudonym, so i can't trace him in records.
Anyone know his real name?
@@catherinecurran7898 Catherine, considering the video has only been on a few days, perhaps in the coming weeks someone will recognise him if they stumble across it. It would be nice if ITV made a series of follow up documentaries, revisiting people it featured in World in action. They could still have old details of people's real names on file perhaps.
@@salvadormarley i'd love that. I've watched so many of the old World in Actions on UA-cam now and tried looking up names, some people I've found on Facebook etc and some people I can't find.
@@catherinecurran7898 you found some - amazing. Did you ever contact them?
*SPOLIER ALERT*
Watch video first.
Scariest thing about the whole programme is his parents just shaking his hand at the end when they finally visit him....😢
Speaks volumes.
Do you have a documentary about balsall heath prostution , from back in the day
Plzzzzz 😊
@dinagreaves6686 yes I forgot to say please
wierd hearing the announcer saying the 22; 52 to weymouth will be leaving from platform 10 ,do that journey quite often...
Will you be uploading any more disability videos or kids with getting treatment for their autism
didn,t have to wait 60 hours for an ambulance!!1
Same year when Alex and his droogs were roaming in London...
A year or so later.But I know what you mean.The boot boy 70s could be anything but friendly if you were in the wrong place
Same year that Joe Hawkins and his skinhead mob were roaming around London.. 😂
Year i was born in London....My god it looked grim back in the day.
Still does
@@PatJenningsGloves It depends where you are. As you may be aware London is HUGE and lots of people here have lots of money.
@@sparagmos4748 Fair point mate.
When i see documentaries like this i often wonder how genuine these stories are. I've some experience with journalism and film making, and it 'can be' easier and cheaper to just make a story up.
It does have something of the 'Look At Life' about it. Staged.
That was my first thought as soon as there was a camera inside the truck that stopped to give him a lift!
@@gilliangrant8764 I suppose it does mention at the start that he was 'recreating' scenes from his own story, as it were. Some stories, and parts of, may well be true, but film makers obviously want something to show the viewers. ( when i started photography in the 1980's i came across a French photographer in books and magazines, who did pictures of people 'unaware' of him, capturing them doing something interesting called 'the decisive moment'. Many budding photographers, including myself, would try to do the same. Years later it was revealed that he paid models to be in his pictures, so no wonder he got such good shots !)
union rules meant a camera crew, lighting crew, sound crew, tea van, director, P.A. etc. Expensive & obviously carefully planned...but what else could they do? the story itself is realistic & needed to be told so in my view it's valid.
I'm happy that now one man with a mobile phone can tell the same story & so many more stories are told but these days we need to question motive & accuracy much more than back then
Lucky not to have run into Fred West !
Maybe his best bet would have been to get involved in the squatting scene at that time. Now illegal of course, but there are now so many empty buildings in London just bought for investment and not used.
So true
Subbed 💪
Anyone know his real name? Lucky was probably a pseudonym.
No internet in those days. Disinformation was more prevailent and who controlled the media could say what they liked and nobody could prove them wrong so quickly.
It all went wrong when that couple came and sat next to him at Waterloo.
Compare it to the London of these days. A Different world altogether.
Entitled little fella. Basically no reason to leave home so young.
Entitled? He was adopted and argued a lot with that family and wanted to leave, Did you and your 7 idiots actually watch this.
He didn't seem entitled
He was prepared to swap a reasonably comfortable life for this one so he can't have been very entitled.
Teen boys tend to have a contentious relationship with their dads at this age, and I expect his job prospects were extremely limited so he did what so many did.
@@CARLIN4737🤣
Stay home letting mummy and daddy look after you? That's today's way
If this was in 2025 lucky would be ashes now sadly😢
The Big Smoke.
How did he get money to spend on drugs ? surly any money you have or earn would be spent to buy food /accommodation Maybe im missing something.
I think his mate gave it to him after they sold the magazines.
Bumming
Dubai! 😂 Lovely
When a lad could carry a penknife without being arrested.
This isnt real surely??? Just a dramatisation of what could happen and maybe was happening at the time.
It says it's a re-enactment.
Who knows how accurate it is. Telly was quite restricted on what it could show.
@@sparagmos4748in some ways they showed more. Less sexual content but drugs and violence were far less censored from what I’ve seen.
@@matthewthomasjames It's certainly presented differently, but I think that people still got pretty upset about it. I saw another documentary where they show the body of a young man and it's pretty disrespectful, but apparently that was very controversial at the time - the documentary makers knew that it would really shock people, that's what they wanted.
@ in many old episodes of forensic files, the dead bodies are fully shown, no blurring. And same with many old newspaper articles, not even that long ago. Maybe it’s something that’s primarily done in recent times on UA-cam, though. It’s entirely possible.
Curious Magazine: a sex education magazine for men and women. Wonderful documentary, letting the subject be the narrator.
What's 35 bob in money today? £1.75?
I don't know why he had to do drugs! He was ill didn't seem like he liked the feeling? Don't understand it?
Peer pressure, perhaps
Same as today, they can always afford ciggies despite being skint
Cheap back then
Has anyone ever started using smack by injecting ? I thought that was last resort. Surely chasing the dragon was the way people got dragged into this life
Lucky always went big
'there for the taking' - but it wasn't. The people were there for the taking.
And there was this guy's problem 'never satisfied with what I had, I always wanted something else', a self entitled kid.
I don't think you can comprehend how bleak some kids lives are. The Beatles wrote 'She's leaving Home' as a comment on how a home wasn't where a child wanted to be when it was emotionally empty and dreary. Also he was adopted. A lot of adopted kids don't bond well.
@@sparagmos4748 No, perhaps I was VERY fortunate in that I came from a loving home. I guess it is always difficult when you are not in someone else's shoes to fully understand. As for the Beatles song, it is a thought provoking song, but heck, how depressing too. Thank you for commenting.
A 'bob' was 5 pence.
23:47 lucky attended a drug clinic "they told him he wasn't addicted to drug's"... Oh okay. Funny way of treating a heroin addiction 😂
😅😅😅
Just because you've taken heroin a few times doesn't make you an addict.
Its funny how mocked nuclear family life has become.Beats 'desolation row' anyday of the week.And I've been in both so I know.But the 'man' will create and collapse order as it suits.🤔
Before diversity
Why is he hitchhiking when he had a paying job to pay for a fare? Immediate bs.
Its cheaper
I hitch hiked a lot when I was young. It can actually be quite enjoyable ☺️
wonderful short film. thank you. the old black and white photography is lovely.
People hitched for a free ride. It was adventurous and far safer than nowadays.
@@matthewthomasjames I don't think that it's necessarily become less safe. I'd still be happy to do it if I could, but I have a big 'scary' dog and nowhere to go anymore😅
This is all made up 😂
If you watched at the start, it states, ' re-enacted'. This was his story and the same for many more young people who went to London to escape whatever problems they had at home.