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167:, County Durham, who has twice committed arson; firstly at his school, and again at home while his father was asleep upstairs. Mini's father narrowly escaped the blaze by escaping onto the roof. There have also been several instances of theft and truancy, and Mini has frequently run away from home since the age of three. His parents, feeling unable to cope, have sent him to Aycliffe Assessment Centre, a secure facility where he is to be examined by psychiatrists and social workers.
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with providing his younger self a more positive outlet for his behaviour than starting fires, appreciating the rare sense of agency he was given in being its subject; he highlighs that he didn't attempt arson for many years after its production. He became lifelong friends with director Franc Roddam
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church. The conversations explore Mini's own understanding of his actions, the possible causes of his troubled behaviour, and touch on allegations of domestic abuse from his father, whom Mini accuses of beating him and assaulting his mother. The film ends with the decision not to release Mini back
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Roddam was interested in creating a documentary about an assessment centre for troubled children and the methods they employed, as it was a little-known area of social care among the public. He decided on
Aycliffe as he had grown up in the north-east of England. Cooper as a principal subject was
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The film is described as having "provoked strong public reaction" and "shocked millions" when it was first broadcast. Critics praised Cooper as a sympathetic subject while suggesting that he was partly the victim of an uncaring system which was unduly focused on his negative qualities. Viewers
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The documentary shows Mini's conversations with the workers at the centre in
October 1974, as well as discussions between his parents and social workers on the situation and their disciplinary beliefs. It also shows Mini interacting with his fellow patients, his three siblings, parents, social
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Roddam's twelve-part 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary series followed the everyday dealings of the
Wilkins family of Reading and won both healthy viewing figures and the 1974 Critics Award. Roddam won the award again in 1975 for
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suggested by the staff, due to his intelligence and the unusual nature of his misdeeds, and possibly their own confidence in treating him. The documentary was filmed across three weeks in
October 1974.
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into public life, and raises the possibility of Mini being sent to a specialist facility in Essex, hundreds of miles away from the rest of his family, against his father's wishes.
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series. It follows 11-year-old arsonist
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during the filming of the documentary, and ran away from home to see Roddam on a number of occasions afterwards.
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as one of his favourite documentaries, praising its story development and cinematography.
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Cooper was not sent to the specialist facility in Essex, but remained in County Durham.
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workers, and discussing religion with his parents after attending a service at their
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contacted Roddam with concern for Cooper's welfare.
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515:. 25 October 2013. Archived from
509:"Michael 'Mini' Cooper Interview"
578:. Wallflower Press. p. 29.
533:"Watching Brief: Michael Cooper"
501:Louis Theroux: Docs That Made Me
491:. 31 October 1985. BBC. BBC Two.
609:"A Small Boy's Horrific Story"
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631:"No way out for Mini"
599:Independent on Sunday
35:Michael "Mini" Cooper
503:. 18 July 2018. BBC.
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658:Inside Story: Mini
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328:Malone 1975
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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