Their vision may be a bit blurred and their dance movements a tad rusty, but Britain's pensioners are still on the lookout for sex, drink and rock 'n' roll, according to a survey of different generations' wishlists.

Far from being stuffy critics of the young, most over-65s want a gap year, "fun" spending and, if they could live their lives again, the chance to change employers regularly, rather than a job for life.

The survey of more than 1,500 pensioners reveals a desire for a more carefree and rebellious lifestyle if they were allowed to time-travel back to their 20s and start again. Typical comments include "I wish I'd stood up to bullying bosses" and "More sex - why did we let them tell us it was wrong?"

The research, carried out to mark next week's tribute week on UKTV Gold to the fictional time-traveller Doctor Who, shows a wistful feeling that postwar children were victims of entrenched social attitudes. Rather than regretting a vanished golden age, pensioners praise their children and grandchildren for seizing changes which they were too timid to embrace.

Regret over missed romantic opportunities tops the list, with 70% wishing that they had had more sex. A fifth buttressed this by confessing that they should have married someone else, if necessary via the taboo (when they were young) of divorce. The second most popular dream was of more foreign visits.

The researchers' companion survey of 1,500 twentysomethings, however, suggests the social wheel may turn - with the carefree generation wanting a less hectic, more staid life. More than three-quarters were concerned that they had clambered on to the property ladder too late, while more than half regretted wasting money on wine, women (or men) and song.

Almost a quarter wished they had not been promiscuous and 32% would have preferred not to lose their virginity when they did. Threateningly for New Labour, more than 40% wished they had voted differently in last year's general election, and resolved to mend their ways.