Child of Our Time: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Child of Our Time is a documentary commissioned by the BBC, co-produced with the Open University and presented by Robert Winston. It follows the lives of 25 children, born at the beginning of the 21st century, as they grow from infancy, through childhood, and on to becoming young adults.

The aim of the series is to build up a coherent and scientifically accurate picture of how the genes and the environment of growing children interact to make a fully formed adult. A large portion of the series is made up of experiments designed to examine these questions. The main topic under consideration is: "Are we born or are we made?". The nature of the family in contemporary Britain is also addressed.

The project is planned to run for 20 years, following its subjects from birth until the age of 20. During the first half of its run a set of about three or four episodes was produced annually. After 2008 new episodes became less frequent, and in 2011 there was some doubt about the future of the programme, including from Winston himself. In February 2013 it was announced that the series would resume, with two new episodes presented by Winston. Rather than the psychological experiments of previous series, these episodes focused on the first interviews with the participating children themselves and their families.

Series details

• Title: Child of Our Time
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 2000-01-10
• Final broadcast date listed: 2020-03-11
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: BBC Two
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 44 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 6475
• IMDb ID: tt0290348
• TVDB ID: 81416

Cast and credited roles

• Robert Winston — Robert Winston

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2000-01-10; final listed air date 2000-01-10; episode order: 2.
• Season 2: premiered 2001-01-03; final listed air date 2001-01-17; episode order: 3.
• Season 3: premiered 2002-08-03; final listed air date 2002-08-17; episode order: 3.
• Season 4: premiered 2004-01-06; final listed air date 2004-01-20; episode order: 3.
• Season 5: premiered 2005-01-04; final listed air date 2007-04-25; episode order: 4.
• Season 6: premiered 2006-01-15; final listed air date 2006-02-05; episode order: 4.
• Season 7: premiered 2007-08-19; final listed air date 2007-09-02; episode order: 3.
• Season 8: premiered 2008-05-07; final listed air date 2008-05-28; episode order: 4.
• Season 9: premiered 2010-05-30; final listed air date 2010-05-31; episode order: 2.
• Season 10: premiered 2013-02-27; final listed air date 2013-02-28; episode order: 2.
• Season 11: premiered 2017-04-03; final listed air date 2017-04-04; episode order: 2.
• Season 12: premiered 2020-03-11; final listed air date 2020-03-11.

Source and licence

Adapted from Child of Our Time on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.