Chapter 19: The End Of The Beginning

March 1971, age 16

My O-Level exams were scheduled to begin the second week of May and stretch into the middle of June. O-Levels (and the equivalent CSEs taken by the less academically able) were the qualification you got at the end of twelve years of education, age 16. It was the milestone where many left school. If you wanted to enter the next phase of education, namely two years of A-Levels and potentially university after that, it was absolutely critical you pass your O-Levels.

The pressure was phenomenal, and in my case, exacerbated by all the distractions in my life. I tried to minimise those distractions by stopping Air Cadets, stopping dating (which proved counter-productive to keeping my tension released!), and keeping semi-detached from company and family issues. But there was so much else I couldn’t control.

For a start, my ‘comrade’ sent me a gift to follow up his earlier less-than-welcome birthday card. A kid in the year below me at school came up to me in the corridor one day and handed me a small parcel. When I asked what it was, he shrugged and said some guy outside school had given him a quid to deliver it. I stuffed it in my satchel and didn’t open it until I got home. It turned out to be a Barcelona snow globe — highly inappropriate given Barcelona’s warm climate. There was also a note instructing me to put it in my bedroom. I suspected it was a bug of some sort, or perhaps it was just intended to freak me out on a daily basis.

My next distraction was the dual horror of my careers interview and sixth-form application. The interview went something like this:

Advisor: So what do you want to do when you’re older?

Me: Probably work for my family’s company, Miss.

Advisor: Oh really? What does the company do?

Me: A few different things. [Like I’m really going to explain it all to you!] Hotels, retail...

Advisor: So leisure and hospitality. You might find A-Level Geography useful then. That covers several areas of tourism.

Me: No thanks, Miss. I do History, not Geography.

Advisor: Oh. Well, maybe a Business or Economics A-Level would be useful to learn about companies.

Me: Does economics need Maths?

Advisor: Yes.

Me: I’m failing Maths.

Advisor: Oh.

And it didn’t get much better from there. I understand the theory of 15/16-year-olds being ‘advised’ on picking A-Level subjects that lead down the right path for their future career. But those decisions will shape or limit future options, which is daunting in itself, and the process does rather rely on having careers advisors that are useful, not a total bloody waste of time.

For me, choosing my A-Level subjects was a matter of elimination. I was currently taking nine O-Levels: English Language, English Literature, Maths, Double Science, History, French, Art and Drama. I certainly wasn’t doing A-Levels related to Maths. Or French. English held my interest at the moment, but I didn’t see that as a future option. Equally, I liked Drama but wasn’t going to take it any further. That left History (a definite possibility), Art (useful for design-related stuff), and maybe one of the Sciences. Physics might be useful to gain some understanding of the company’s engineering stuff, but I worried about the amount of Maths involved. So in the end, I whittled my sixth-form application down to just two A-Levels: History and Art & Design.

One other distraction that stayed in the back of my mind was the Ruth and Charlie situation. Murph was still free and pending trial in Sheffield, so Ruth and Charlie were still with us in London. That had actually worked out very nicely, with Ruth helping Mrs O’Keef as our unofficial assistant housekeeper. Charlie was being home-schooled and had unglued himself from my side to spread his brand of cheer to Caity, Harry and everyone else around the estate. The biggest surprise to me was that Charlie had completely won Uncle Will’s heart. My uncle and Harry’s mum were an (un-labelled) item, but I noticed he was now balancing his time better between her house and ours. The affection between him and Charlie was evident and quite heartwarming. The whole place had an altogether warmer atmosphere, so I tasked Dan with finding a way to make them a permanent fixture, for the good of us all.

My biggest distraction during the lead up to my exams was Childline. I had pitched the idea back in January and left Dan’s team to run with it. They had dealt with the NSPCC whose counsellors would operate the helpline, and the General Post Office (the UK’s telecoms monopoly) who would provide the technical infrastructure. Volunteer counsellors had been trained and publicity materials for schools, newspapers and television were ready for distribution. In April 1971, shortly after the Easter holiday, it was ready for launch.

And that was where I came in.

The launch needed to be distinctive, and the consensus was that there was no better way than using the novelty of my youthfulness. It had been my idea, after all. So I was to spend a day touring the studios alongside someone from the NSPCC. The BBC was very helpful with airtime, perhaps not surprising given the egg it still had on its face from the Jimmy Savile scandal. My school wasn’t quite as cooperative in releasing me for the day, but after some explanations, they too saw the merits of what we were trying to achieve.

The launch day was quite the experience. It started very early in the morning, as our first destination was BBC Broadcasting House for a live radio interview on the Today programme. Then we would record an interview on camera for the later TV news bulletins, followed by a trip to ITN to repeat the process. At lunchtime, we’d be back at the BBC for another live radio interview, and finish the day at Television Centre to do Blue Peter.

The best part? There was food wherever we went! When we arrived at 7am, I was very glad of that, and I seemed to keep eating all day.

The Today programme is one of Britain’s flagship current affairs shows, and going on it was apparently a big deal. Personally, I didn’t listen to Radio 4, so I went in relaxed and excited rather than overawed. The chair of the NSPCC was with me, and the interviewer started with him before having a nice chat with me. The NSPCC guy was the designated grown up, giving concise information. I was the personal interest as both founder and a kid. The final question was about my rise from mining village to billionaire via an orphanage. I wasn’t a billionaire, but that wasn’t the time to get into it, so I just downplayed it with my rehearsed ‘I’ve been incredibly lucky’ line.

The various television interviews were all a rehash of what I’d already said, though I’d been told to try and make my answers sound different each time.

The lunchtime World at One interview felt harder hitting than the rest. Instead of the NSPCC guy, there was a government minister beside me, and I didn’t get the impression he was happy to be there. They tried to get me to elaborate about the person I knew who had been abused, whom I’d mentioned as my inspiration for setting up Childline. I talked about Harry’s situation without naming him and repeated the NSPCC line that most abuse is perpetrated by people known to the child. The government minister was given a much harder time of it, being asked why it was left to a charity and a private company to defend the nation’s children. Poor guy.

Blue Peter was the fun part of the day! Blue Peter was Britain’s most popular children’s television show, and to meet the presenting trio of Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves was a thrill. I met the pets too! The show would go out live just after 5pm, so we had plenty of time to do some rehearsal. The topic had to be handled incredibly delicately because of the audience’s age, so we practised several questions and answers with wording simple enough for younger kids to understand. The only bit we didn’t rehearse was when they presented me with a coveted Blue Peter badge live on air. My life is complete!

When I eventually got home that night, I was greeted by Caity and Charlie, both of whom had watched the show and told me I’d looked funny on TV. Thanks.

My practical exams went well, except for the one-to-one French speaking exam, which was excruciating. I’d long since mastered my lines for our Drama performance exam, so I felt very comfortable in that one. The Science lab practical was also pretty straightforward: simply a matter of following instructions with the utmost precision, applying a bit of foreknowledge, and writing up the experiment in the exact way we’d been taught. And my Art practical, done over several days, I was really excited about. I did a series of drawings titled ‘the evolution of the car’. Nothing fancy mind you; just nice sketches with pencils or pastels. The series began with drawings of classic sports cars from the 1920s through to the present day and onward to futuristic concepts. Yes, I’d seen pictures in the future history books, but how would they ever know I was cheating?!