[5] Made two years before its earliest public showing, Cole though soon regretted a traditionalist description of gender roles in the film's opening commentary.
[11] In a contemporary review David McGillivray wrote in The Monthly Film Bulletin: "At the time of going to press, the fate of Growing Up remains in the balance.
Technically, it is little more than a scrappy and deplorably impersonal series of lantern slides and feeble attempts at dramatisation, all constantly punctuated by static shots of crowds around the Regent Street area: Dr. Cole's interesting attitude towards women can be gauged from the shot of lady traffic wardens given as an example of women's struggle against inferiority; and the onset of puberty is questionably illustrated by two fully-grown adults masturbating.
Having concentrated on the processes of growing up it actually covers relatively few aspects of sexuality an only has time for a brief snatch of advice towards the end about using contraceptives as soon as possible in order to avoid unwanted babies.
"[12] It is available as part of The Joy of Sex Education DVD[13] and was described by one critic as "the most famous and controversial inclusion",[14] and by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian as the "undoubted masterpiece of this double-DVD set".