1960s British Youth : An Alternative Representation

Let's go back in time to 1961, just 3 years before the media in Britain represented its youth as being violence driven hooligans who were a threat to the very fabric of society.

1961 saw the release of the film 'The Young Ones' starring, amongst others, Cliff Richard.

The story is about the youth club member and aspiring singer Nicky (Cliff Richard)  and his friends, who try to save their club in western London from the unscrupulous millionaire property developer Hamilton Black, who plans to tear it down to make room for a large office block. 

The members decide to put on a show to raise the money needed to buy a lease renewal. The twist in the story is that Nicky in reality is Hamilton Black's son, something he keeps keeps secret from his friends until some of them try to kidnap Black senior to prevent him from stopping the show. 

Although he is fighting his father over the future of the youth club, Nicky can't allow them to harm him, so he attacks the attackers and frees his father. In the meantime, Black senior has realised that his son is the mystery singer that all of London is talking about, after the youth club members have done some pirate broadcasts to promote their show. 

So, although he's just bought the theatre where the show is to take place, in order to be able to stop it, the proud father decides that the show must go one. At the end, he joins the youth club members on stage, dancing and singing, after having promised to build them a new youth club.

TASK

Here is the trailer for the film.

How is the representation of British Youth different here to what you have previously seen? 

In the 1961 before the British youth were represented as the wild ones, the youth ones were seen different, were they were only focused n music and romanticism, as it shows in this film called 'The Young Ones'. For example in this film you can see that is more like a musical film, showing that young ones weren't dangerous for the society like in the 1964 but that they only were thinking about love, fashion and the they only wanted to have fun, like dancing, as yit can be see through out the trailer of this film.
While in the 1964 they British youth were seen as violent people in the society. This was because of the clashes between the mods and the rockers, specially because of how the media text were referring to the the young one was the 'wild ones'.