1955: Meet the TEDDY BOYS | Special Enquiry | Voice of the People | BBC Archive
120,662
Published 2022-09-29
This extract focuses on Mike and Pat, a couple of young London teddy boys whose pastimes include wearing Edwardian clothes, doing their hair and spending time with their mates and their 'steadies'. What are their likes, dislikes and ambitions? How do they feel about their parents and the older generations, and what do their parents think about them?
Originally broadcast, 1 November, 1955.
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All Comments (21)
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My old man was a ted/rocker..died couple of weeks ago..Rip dad
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These guys would be called model citizens today. Working at a job, having steady girlfriends, trying to be respectful of people outside their district ...
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Imagine being worried your son is dressing up.
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Plato’s theories and all that caper.
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As I was growing up I used to love seeing the Teddy Boys. Always found them to be respectful and very sartorial.
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look at how nice and well groomed and well kept and handsome they all were
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We are the Teds, and always will be, been living the Ted lifestyle for over 45 yrs now, and still going strong..
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"Don't believe all the press talk you read about, it's a build up for the papers" Some things never change...
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"What's wrong with them that they won't settle into an endless grey routine of grinding monotony?!"
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"They call men who wear conventional clothes peasants" Some things never change
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" I don't like how those thugs dress, they have suits on! SUITS!"
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My late uncle was a Teddy boy and he was smartly dressed I thought and he got me liking Elvis he was a Ted from a young age right up till he died we sadly lost him to covid in the early days of the pandemic and he was buried in his Teddy boy clothes and the hair he had left was still styled my uncle was a great guy always good fun and he was a good kid and went out his way to hep people and he kinda adopted his next door neighbour as his kid brother as he used to hang out with him and he protected him too as the boy was picked on for having Down’s syndrome and my uncle always kept a look out for him but he was a great guy and so sadly missed
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Kept waiting for Harry Enfield to pop up!!! Mr Chomley-Warner
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Sounds like the Cockneys had similar social cues as Scousers, my love told me that in those days visiting guys knew never to stare at the girls, his father was an early teddy boy, they're both gone now, thanks for this little gem from history, I hope the guys lived happy lives.
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A lot of kids their age would've had an absent father growing up due to world war 2 and possibly had fathers killed
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There is a follow up called Ten Years After: Pat and Mike, 1964. They had become window cleaners.I found it in the bbc archive, but cannot find it on you tube.
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1:24 that cute dog must be over 65yrs old today!
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My dad was a Teddy Boy. He had to hide his jacket from his parents! I was a Teddy Girl in the 80s. We have the best music.
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Being a Teddy Boy was probably no better or worse than being a Mod, Rocker, Punk, New Romantic or anything else that came later and involved young people wearing the same sort of clothes, listening to the same music etc. I felt sorry for Mike. He should have followed his dream and gone to Africa. Maybe he did eventually, who knows.
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They were the first youth cult and as such anyone who was a mod, rocker, hippie, punk, skinhead or even Goth owes them a lot.
