The Prince Charles Generation
About the programme
When he was born in 1948 the future for Charles seemed certain: one day he would be King. But none of the other men born that day could possibly have known what lay in store for them – lives as writers, dockers, millionaires or labourers. When news of his arrival reached the outside world, Prince Charles was showered with gifts from around the world. Conscious of the hardships facing ordinary people in post-war Britain at a time when rationing was still in force, Buckingham Palace sent hampers to all the other children born that day, containing desirable staples such as powdered eggs, margarine, sugar, flour, powdered milk, raisins, apricots, soap and blankets.
Like many of his generation, with parents who had lived through the hard times of war, Sandy remembers his mother being able to make a little go a long way; with housekeeping of just £5 a week to feed a family of five. For these young men, the first experience they would truly share with the Prince of Wales was that of attending school. Charles was the first heir to the British throne not to have been educated by private tutors, though the exclusive Cheam, and later Gordonstoun, was hardly run-of-the-mill, taking only young men from Britain's most distinguished families.
The future of most of his peers was dictated by the result of their 11plus – success meant entry to the local grammar school. But there was an element of luck involved. For some from working class backgrounds, like John, it 'lifted lads like me into good careers', but for others it was a block on aspiration: at Philip's school, boys 'like him' were not even put forward for the exam.
Whatever their educational achievements, however, the men of this generation shared a work ethic that would see them all seek jobs at a very young age. Michael got his first job in an accounts office at the tender age of 9, whilst John recalls queuing outside the local bakery from the age of 14 to earn £4 a night filling doughnuts with jam. "If I wanted a life that was worth living, that provided the material things, then I had to work for it," he says. "Nobody was going to hand it to me."
The babies of 1948 reached their teenage years in the 1960s – a revolutionary decade when young people found their own music, their own voice, fashion and politics. For Michael it was a period that opened up new opportunities: "The 60s for me was a time that I started becoming something other than what I'd been born to which was being a kid in a small side street in Cheshunt."
But despite the pill, and the sexual revolution taking place around them, and unlike the Prince himself, the men of Charles's generation tended to marry young, often to their first girlfriends. By the time he was 21, Stephen had married his childhood sweetheart and had three children. Sandy met his first girlfriend over a filing cabinet at work. Continuing the relationship from a distance, he was surprised when he one day received a call from her father saying that she had given birth to a baby girl called Caroline. Neither he, nor his girlfriend, or her parents had realised she was pregnant. Shortly afterwards, he married her: "We did everything in the traditional manner we just did them in a different order to everyone else."
Prince Charles waited a little longer before choosing a bride and at 24 he started work at his first job – in the Royal Navy – where he was given a boat. Philip, who had joined the Merchant Navy, felt a kind of kinship, "He's got a bit more money than me, that's all".
In 1981 however Charles caught up with the rest of his generation and finally got married. His struggle with the meaning of love aroused the sympathy of some of his contemporaries: "At that stage I probably didn't know what love was either. I could see he was probably sleepwalking into the sort of situation that so many of us had already slept-walked into," said John.
As William and Harry were born and the Prince enjoyed the early years of fatherhood, the other men of his generation were experiencing the economic rollercoaster of the eighties. Stephen had been a docker for most of his adult life but, like many others he was made redundant in the eighties. Caught up in the entrepreneurial spirit of the times, Stephen decided to cash in on the property boom, only to be caught in the housing crash of the early 1990s. Sandy, who had thrived at his job at a well known insurance company, eventually found that the pressure of work led to a period of depression that plagued him for many years.
Finally the Millennium saw these men enter the autumn of their years. Whilst Charles is still waiting to fulfil his destiny, others of his generation have shunned the traditional retirement path and have effectively started new lives.
Grammar-school boy John, with dogged determination, worked his way out of a council estate and built up his own multi-million pound engineering consultancy business. He divorced his first wife and married his secretary and now has two young children, "I don't feel sixty at all", he says "no, no, no…, I'm still 40, in fact I'm not 40 yet!"
After working as a speech writer for Margaret Thatcher, Michael became deputy chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi before becoming a very successful writer. His first marriage ended in divorce and he has since remarried. He has no professional regrets and still feels there are a number of ambitions he has yet to fulfil.
Philip, who felt for many years that his life had mirrored Prince Charles', has decided to leave the UK and spend his retirement years living abroad in the sun. "I wouldn't swap places with Charles for all the tea in china," he says.