Amazingly enough, during this 21 years there have been no divorces, no deaths, no serious accidents among this little band. But there is Neil, bright and caring, who now lives as a vagabond, his hair looking rat-chewed, his body rocking as he speaks in articulate rushes to Apted. Damaged somewhere, somehow, between 14 and 21, Neil takes our hearts. Optimists in the audience will hold out for his recovery; realists may suspect that it is Neil himself who may block the way.
Then there's Simon, proud father of five, who has given his children what he lacked, "a father," but will not--or cannot--admit before the camera that his job at a refrigeration warehouse is a dead end; a consequence of his being a black man in London.
