| ‘Generations’ | ||
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A Tribute to the Life and Work of Neville Butler
This video is currently being streamed free of charge as a tribute to Neville. Those who have attended our previous conferences will have enjoyed hearing Neville Butler describe his work with the cohort studies. He even made the trip to Jamaica for our conference 2004 where we were able to arrange for him to meet up with his former colleague Jose Gutierrez Muniz, the former Cuban Minister of Health. Our charity has worked with Neville for many years and the young people in his 1970 Cohort are contemporaries of our Youth Support Schoolgirl Pregnancy survey. A ‘documentary’ about Neville has been long overdue and we have been filming pieces with him for the past four years. However it has been hard to finish such a piece of work with a man who just never stops, with such wide experiences and a contact list that would fill a new ‘who’s who’. The main problem with the film was the editing. Our interview subjects were so knowledgeable and articulate that it was painful to have to pare their contributions down to a few minutes each. Despite the ‘heavy pruning’ I think you will find that the final product gives us a true flavour of the man who has been instrumental in furthering our knowledge of the ‘lifecycle’ - as he calls it - and of children’s growth and development into adulthood. In order to understand the magnitude of Neville Butler’s work we need to get some perspective on the cohorts these 50 thousand individuals whose lives have been surveyed and dissected over 60 years or more. So what were the challenges faced by women giving birth in 1946? What was life like for a child born in 1958? How have the 1970 cohort progressed? What hurdles will the Millennium children face? Our enactments give something of the flavour of what life was like for the various cohort members and their parents at the time of their births. We were very lucky to have the help of actors who gave of their time to perform in these pieces (Leila Birch, Patric Kearns, Lucy Morgans, Jane Shakespeare) and, aptly for a film about a paediatrician, we had some excellent child actors too! (Sophia Birch, Catie Shakespeare-Kearns) and some original music by Sean Birch who wrote the theme music ‘Generations’ and Diana Birch ‘Neville’s Song - Watching Over Me’. I know it sounds like a ‘family’ production and last but not least Laura Birch plays the grandmother! But this is precisely what the work is all about. As John Bynner remarks - ‘You get a sense that they are relations .. All these people .. And in Neville’s case he has known them since they were born’ .. So yes a family affair and a family of 50,000! I know what that feels like and I have my 200 young parents which I have followed for 25 years now - they do feel like family and this was a sentiment also echoed by Michael Apted who has developed a closeness with the cast of ‘7 UP!’ as he traces their lives through to 49 UP and onwards. So many thanks to all the artists and companies who have helped us by letting us use their material in clips including:- Michael Apted, Jeff Christie; Cliff Richards; Sanctuary Records, Sony Records, Boosey & Hawkes, The BBC and Granada Television without whom this production would not have been possible. I refer to Neville as a paediatrician, a mentor and a friend and someone with limitless passion and energy to improve the lives of children everywhere. In 1520 a writer Robert Whittinton wrote of Thomas More that he was "a man of an angel's wit and singular learning. …where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons." The description fits Neville Butler who I would describe as - Truly a man for ALL our seasons.
This video is currently being streamed free of charge as a tribute to Neville. |
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