160: Justin Pugh

Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Justin Pugh with whom I went to school in the 1980s. Justin recalls those days of playing cricket at lunchtimes and the two of us reflect on our years at the Bishop of Llandaff Church-in-Wales High School in Cardiff.
Justin talks about how Cardiff has changed since the 1970s when it had a much lower profile, and how since the 1990s Cardiff suddenly became cool, and Justin refers to how the city flows through his veins. We reflect on the devolution campaign of 1997 and how Justin speaks Welsh as a second language.
Justin has been fascinated by the cause of the Liberal Party since he was young and we learn why David Lloyd George and Harold Wilson are among his political heroes, and why he thinks David Steel was misrepresented on Spitting Image, as well as how some politicians can grow on us when they are out of office.
Justin has always liked classical music and ska and he talks about what he thinks is the golden age of cinema and how Julie Christie was a teenage heartthrob of his.
Justin studied Economics at university but wishes he had done something different, and he discusses how it is better to do something one is interested in as that motivations you to hit the top grades.
Justin nearly did a Masters in Psychology and is doing an NVQ in Counselling. He has a particular interest in Wellbeing, and we talk about how there was more of a stigma around mental health a few decades ago when people who were perceived as different were derided. We talk about experiences of bullying in school and the need to know why people behaved in the way that they did. The negative things that happened in the past do impact on our present, and Justin reflects on how it isn’t acceptable to say ‘just move on’.
Justin talks about what student life was like for him living at home, how it was a largely yuppie culture which he was watching from the outside in, and how the world is a lot less innocent now than it was a few decades ago.
Justin has been collecting toys and other mementos from the 1970s and the effort one might go to in order to find them, and how it can deepen existing friendships – as he recently discovered through watching an old Tom Baker set of Doctor Who episodes with a friend which took him back to his childhood.
Then, at the end of the interview, we discover why Justin ringfences positive memories and why he believes everything happens for a purpose which can make us a better person for it. We learn what his younger self wanted to be, why it is good to have role models to aspire to, how it is important not to get too isolated, and we discover whether Justin is a looking back or a looking forward type of person.