Episodes
| First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 20211214 | Following on from 'Packing Up The Family Home' in which Geoff Bird and his siblings cleared and sold their parents' house, he now sets out to chart the emotional rupture that comes when your own children grow up and leave.
When Geoff and his wife Sarah's eldest daughter left, they were in part unprepared for the extent of the impact it would have, blind-sided by the excitement of her heading off to fulfil her potential and begin her new life.
Now their next daughter Tilly is on her way too, Geoff speaks with friends and family about their own experience of flying the nest to try and unpick this complicated and profound rite of passage. He argues that the reason it is given relatively little attention speaks to the way we continue to undervalue the domestic space, and hears from Frank Cottrell Boyce and his mum as they share recollections of the time Frank left for Oxford University - "You'll hear songs about heartbreak but there's nothing about when your kids go. You have these massive aspirations for them - and what is aspiration but pushing someone away, beyond you, and that feeling they won't come back."
Produced by Geoff Bird
Geoff Bird charts the sadness and excitement of children growing up and flying the nest. | |
| 20211214 | 20211219 (R4) | Following on from 'Packing Up The Family Home' in which Geoff Bird and his siblings cleared and sold their parents' house, he now sets out to chart the emotional rupture that comes when your own children grow up and leave.
When Geoff and his wife Sarah's eldest daughter left, they were in part unprepared for the extent of the impact it would have, blind-sided by the excitement of her heading off to fulfil her potential and begin her new life.
Now their next daughter Tilly is on her way too, Geoff speaks with friends and family about their own experience of flying the nest to try and unpick this complicated and profound rite of passage. He argues that the reason it is given relatively little attention speaks to the way we continue to undervalue the domestic space, and hears from Frank Cottrell Boyce and his mum as they share recollections of the time Frank left for Oxford University - "You'll hear songs about heartbreak but there's nothing about when your kids go. You have these massive aspirations for them - and what is aspiration but pushing someone away, beyond you, and that feeling they won't come back."
Produced by Geoff Bird
Geoff Bird charts the sadness and excitement of children growing up and flying the nest. |