It's happened a lot lately. He's there watching me when I look into the mirror - this old man who's been going around masquerading as me. It's really tough as you get older with one infirmity after another appearing and now this youngster inside of me has to go around disguised as an old man.

For a long time now they've been printing the books too small and they all speak indistinctly on the telly. My joints get so stiff I'm beginning to realise that I'll never be picked for the England football team and don't even stand much of a chance for the cricket squad either. As you get older, so everything becomes worse doesn't it?

Or does it?

We went for a drive last week to look at the autumn colours and I've never seen them so beautiful. Or rather I've been too busy with my life to notice. Yes, when I was young I appreciated the autumn colours, but there is something special as you get older. Perhaps there is a thought lurking somewhere that there may not be many more of these left, so make the most of them while you can.

But there is more to it than that. Wild life films have always been a joy to me and lately there is an unexpected intensity of emotion as I gaze at the beauty on this planet of ours.

It comes partly with old age, so too does worldly wisdom. Wisdom is not a word we hear much about nowadays, it disappeared as Thatcherism came in and the whiz kids took over, but perhaps we ought to parade it a bit more.

So I love Nature and I also love a story with a beginning, a middle and an end and I can still write. So can you if you are on the wrong side of sixty.

That means that our hobby of movie making is ideal for us to express ourselves. Make a film and use it to say something which you feel is worth saying. Go on, dip your toe in, it's easy.

- Colin Jones, 26 Nov 2001

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Page updated on 16 January 2011
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