Just One Kid (1974) | BFI National Archive

Jewish tailor-turned-actor Alfred Maron, once a resident of London’s East End, reminisces about his childhood in this affecting drama-documentary. We follow young Alfred growing up in poverty in the interwar years, and witness the excitement of a school trip to Kent. For all the hardship, there are moments of happiness, such as his excitement at seeing the sea for the first time. As an adult, Alfred rues the loss of the old Jewish communities, and the film reflects his complex emotions surrounding the East End’s changing cultural mix in the 1970s.

The evocative, unsentimental dramatised sequences from Maron’s youth (featuring children from London's Jewish Free School) have a lot in common with the early films of Terence Davies, which they pre-date. Just One Kid emphasises the need for charity, with Alfred’s trip funded by the Country Holiday Fund and his clothes provided by the Jewish Board of Guardians. The screenplay was written by Jewish dramatist Bernard Kops, who also grew up in the East End.

[dutcie]

Wow I am astounded to see this why? Because I knew Alf Maron. I was just a boy and I lived for the first 7 years of my life in the basement at 34 Hanbury street. My parents rented the two rooms One was the living room the other was the bedroom. I had a make shift bed adjoining my mum and dad's bed and my sister slept in the cot. Did you see the two indents in the pavement outside the house ? yep that was the windows of the living room where i remember watching the legs of persons walking by. It seemed like only yesterday and yet now I am 58 years old. The building is still preserved and I got the pleasure of touring inside about 9 years ago during one of my trips back to the UK. Thank you BFI National for this memory. Dear Alfred Maron may you continue to rest in eternal peace and for setting the path for my parents life in the UK, we have no regrets. I will show this to my mother in the morning. I know she is going to be tearful.

[williamcameron]

Hard to believe that ITV were once capable of producing great stuff like this.

[richardbeatty]

Ironically it’s film like this that’s made You Tube what it is. You can’t see quality like this on TV anymore.

[Agathanagatha]

Omg the children’s country holiday fund I remember going away to Devon with my sister, we went to an old lady who terrified us we told ourselves that she was a witch and we refused to eat anything in case it was poisoned, after two days we were both gathering eggs from the lady next door and by the end of the week we both were in love with our witch and she loved us...when it came to the day to go home all 3 of us cried our hearts out and clinging on to her at the station.I can still see her pulling her lovely white handkerchief from her sleeve and wiping her eyes and her glasses.Thank you so much for bringing her lovely memory back to me after all these years ❤️

[andrewarthurmatthews]

Absolutely valuable piece of British social history and culture.

[mickeycrilly]

This was me when a kid, my mum had five of us on her own, only now she has gone do I realise how much I owe her and miss her terribly, she must of struggled so much I feel ashamed I did not do more for her xxx miss you mam see you when I get there xx

[stellayates]

Towards the end of this film Alfred really sums up the feeling of Londoners revisiting their past streets. He explains the feeling of loss when the community you knew has completely disappeared and been replaced by others. It is nothing to do with prejudice of other nationalities but rather a sadness for what once was in previous decades. I live in a market town now where my friends here are surrounded by people they have known all their lives. That is something I do not have when returning to London and I do wonder what became of everyone from my time there.

[thecrazyenglishman]

I grew up from 1959 till 1970 in the same block as Alfie it was great growing there. We had very little but our parents loved us and kept us happy. It was a great place to grow up. It was a slum but it was our slum and in that slum lived some of the best human beings that I would ever come across.
I will be 66 years old next year 2025 and I feel privileged to have grown up amongst True Eastenders.
Thank you some much for making this documentary available, God bless you.
RIP Alfie

[topspark]

I walked passed that shop for years and always thought what a wonderful name and guessed what line of business was there.My dad’s auntie had a pub on the Bethnal Green road opposite brick lane which is now long gone. I love that part of the east end even though I lived in Willesden. All are gone now💔. “You’d give anything just to see them once again” Aunty Nony from Valance Road, 😢my wonderful nan’s sister too. What a wonderful yet heartbreaking film.

[dermotkelly]

What a wonderful story, I hope it is true, I myself am getting very old, and the older I get The more I am drawn draw back to m childhood I think constantly about my mum and dad who are long gone now, and of all my brothers and the trouble and fun we got up to, sometimes I walk around the streets where we grew on my own like some weird person and I remember everything and everyone, I fill up inside and the tears often tumble down my cheeks, life was so special then as now but we didn’t know it then 👍

[loonylinda]

im not jewish and i dont come from the east end but never the less i found this little gem very poignant..we all reach a time in our lives when we have lost touch, all we knew is gone and out dated and we have lost many people we loved...it comes to us all and it is very sad.

[BarkandRide]

I really connected with this film. My Dad was born in the Jewish East End in Stepney in 1916. I was a toddler in the 1960's and I still recall visiting my grandma in the east end every Sunday back . I remember many Jewish shops still open, baker's, butchers, our family Doctor was in New road and my Dad had a fashion showroom in Commercial Rd.

Now I'm a grandfather and I reminisce about days gone by just as Alfred does in this delightful but haunting film. It really resonated with me.

Circle of life :)

[robertjames]

I know how Alf feels. I go back to the village I grew up in and today I hardly recognize it. The majority of the kids I grew up with are now dead. Aging can be painful at times but joyful at others. Much like life, I guess.

[KRTN]

I was really moved by this movie. The poverty, the health issues of the time and the innocence.

[sandralandsman]

My grandparents lived n Lolsworth buildings and Stafford House close to Toynbee Hall and of course the market. Sundays I would
visit and we. Would buy Bigels, pickles from the barrels and smoked salmon pieces from a barrel. My grandmother would put.
newspaper on the table and what a feast we would have! I so miss those days…they were tough…but joy was found in the
simplest things!!I am 81 and I really believe I have lived in the best of times. Thank you for these wonderful memories.

[skdinterceptor]

This film is so good. I have seen the changes growing up as a boy during the 70s. Its sad to see London changed to something that upsets us now.

[lilireaps]

I'm only 41 and I grew in the late 80s and 90s but I miss how free I was as a child and how life just seemed brighter and calmer than it is now. My daughter is 20 and when she was growing up the world was such a scary place I didn't want her to go anywhere. I'd go back to being that free child tomorrow for free.

[OrganisedPauper]

Great bit of television, thank you for posting this. "It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin that carries you off in". A popular saying in our family.
We didn't live in a city, we were rural poor, but the struggles they had are familiar.

[juliemarshall]

I have that ache in my heart for family that are no longer with us. Where we lived was demolished years ago. It was a completely different life then. As someone said above its a circle of life.

[purplepoppyz]

I loved this wee film. Homesick for the dead. I understand and feel that myself.