Video Diaries — Season 4

Aired 24 July 1993

Finding herself pregnant at 14, Natalie never even thought about having an abortion. Instead she set out to live up to her responsibility with the support of her boyfriend and family. But things aren't going as smoothly as she hoped as she fights to keep her young family together, and living in one crowded room of a council flat doesn't make life any easier.

Aired 31 July 1993

David Antunes "Cheaptalk", 13, and Valter Antunes "Blinker-Blinker", 15, are part of a family of musicians who play the clubs and cafes of the thriving Portuguese community in London's Brixton and Vauxhall areas. Despite the frustration of having to go to school, the boys still manage to have a hectic time with their video camera.

Aired 7 August 1993

At 13, Polly is a bright and articulate girl who leads a normal teenage life but develops an extreme terror of school. Confused, she searches for a sympathetic environment in which she can learn. Her diary offers an insight into the life of a teenager impatient with adolescence and is a sensitive record of her desperate attempts to adjust.

Aired 14 August 1993

Anyha is 12. She lives in Bristol with her single-parent mum, is mad on sport and dreams of Olympic stardom. She also wants to go on holiday with her mother but that's not easy on income support. Once the idea has grown it becomes imperative that they should have a holiday and somehow the money has to be found. Her diary offers an insight into the mind of a young girl, a child on the verge of adolescence. It is the philosophy of life according to Anyha: Clearasil, The jungle Book, sport, death, Jesus and Baywatch.

Aired 21 August 1993

Gabriel Davies dreams of surfing in Hawaii but has to make do with the polluted waves off England's north-east coast. But now he has an unexpected invitation to compete in South Africa. His video diary captures the struggle to balance his sporting passion with the need to get his A-levels as insurance for the future.

Aired 28 August 1993

Josephine Okelo lives in Nairobi, Kenya, with her wealthy family. At 17, feeling the need to establish her own identity, she leapt at the chance of a place at Marlborough College in England. Her film records the experience of her first year. She was amazed by the freedom she found there, but was dismayed by how little anyone knew about Africa and how much prejudice she had to overcome. This made her question some of her own attitudes, especially to the hundreds of thousands of Somalian refugees living in camps in Kenya. During her Easter holidays she set out to meet some of these refugees.

Aired 4 September 1993

Miner's wife Brenda Nixon uncovers the effects, both dramatic and more intimate, of the recent pit closures on herself, her marriage and her children. Her routine life as a housewife and mother is thrown into turmoil when she decides to fight for her family's future. Her passion and commitment defy apathy, violence, police arrest and exhaustion as she struggles through the cynicism of politics. Her diary is a moving tribute to a woman who fights from the heart.

Aired 11 September 1993

A mother records with uncompromising honesty the end of the life of her 4-year-old son. Aged 10 months, Tom was diagnosed as suffering from Tay Sachs disease and given only a few years to live under constant care. Christine decided to make her diary because she wanted as many people as possible to know her son in his short life. As her family grieves, Christine is released from caring for Tom, but the new sense of freedom is overtaken by a longing to have her son back again. Her diary is a personal, powerful and deeply moving record of a family struggling to come to terms with a child's life and death.

Aired 18 September 1993

When two writers were told that their sitcom Grope was a touch too bawdy for broadcasting, they decided to turn it into a play and produce it themselves - a tough task when you're on the dole. This personal video diary records the laughs and frustrations which follow Jane Eller and Michele Howarth 's attempts to make their dream come true.

Aired 25 September 1993

Photo-journalist Chris Steel-Perkins 's video record of the effect of media attention on Somalia's famine.

Aired 2 October 1993

Jane married Steve at the age of 19. Three years later she found herself in New York with two young daughters and a husband addicted to crack cocaine. She escaped back to England to rebuild her life and now returns to New York to seek a divorce. In the process, she reveals the realities of life on the streets of a city devastated by drugs.

Aired 9 October 1993

Four evenings a week Robbie Brookside, a top professional wrestler, plays the town halls of Britain. But while the characters of the American scene are TV superstars, Brookside earns little.

Aired 16 October 1993

At the age of 20 Bob was fighting in the Spanish Civil War. He is now 77, and wants a memorial established in recognition of the dead. He travels to Spain to lobby the Spanish authorities, and visits a concentration camp in which he was imprisoned.

Aired 23 October 1993

Thom Campbell was convicted in 1984 for six murders during the so-called "ice-cream wars' in Glasgow. Consistently protesting his innocence, he campaigned for a re-trial, going on hunger strike five times. After beatings by prison officers while he was in solitary confinement, he successfully took the authorities to the European Court. Finally, he was moved to Barlinnie Prison Special Unit. He and wife Liz have made this diary offering insights into life in the unit and their struggle for family unity.