It’s the end of an era: 7 Up, the experimental documentary series that charted the lives of people from childhood to adulthood, is ending after 62 years.
In 1964, just 10 years after television sets became a living-room staple, ITV released what would become a groundbreaking project documenting the lives of a set of ordinary children who would return in a new film every seven years.
Viewers have seen the subjects grow up to become adults who experience marriage, divorce and bereavement, and the resulting series have been regularly named the greatest, most influential documentaries ever made.
But the next instalment, following the subjects as 70-year-old pensioners and retirees, will be the end of the journey.
70 Up will see them reflect on their triumphs, their trials and tribulations – and what happened to their hopes and dreams.
The final series will feature long-time subjects Sue Davis, Bruce Balden, Tony Walker and Neil Hughes, whose journey is considered the most unpredictable of the lot. He was introduced in the first instalment as an outgoing child with aspirations of going to Oxford University and becoming an astronaut.
However, when viewers caught up with him seven years later, he was shown to be anxious due to being bullied. In the following films, he was revealed to be homeless before moving into local politics and eventually becoming a preacher.
Original star Lynn Johnson died in 2013, while Nick Hitchon died in the time since the last series, 63 Up, aired in 2019.
It’s the first series to be made without director Michael Apted, who died in 2021, and Asif Kapadia will take over. Kapadia is known for his documentaries on racing driver Ayrton Senna and singer Amy Winehouse.
The documentary films – considered the first examples of the reality TV genre – followed the lives of 10 boys and four girls living in England and provided a snapshot of how life has changed in the country over the decades.
Each child was initially picked to represent a different socio-economic background, based on the belief that their social class would dictate their future. In a fitting twist, only seven of the original 14 subjects have appeared in every film to date.
Kapadia said of his appointment as director: “In 2014, I named the Up Series as my favourite documentary of all time. Who knew that two decades later I would have the incredible honour and privilege to be asked to direct 70 Up, the legendary documentary series. I love the show! I have watched it all my life, first as a child with my parents and siblings, growing up in east London and then as an adult.”
He said 70 Up has been a dream project, calling it “the ultimate portrait of human life”.
“With my amazing editors Andrew Hulme and Patrick Saxer, we had the challenge of cutting hours of archive material shot over decades, while also looking at the nature of documentary filmmaking itself. I hope the audience feel my team and I have done the epic series justice with the closing chapter.”
Jo Clinton-Davis, controller of factual at ITV, hailed the 7 Up story as “much more than a TV documentary”.
“It’s a document of our times. A truly distinctive landmark piece of filmmaking that has become part of our cultural fabric,” she said.
“In the evolving stories of our cast, we see the universal themes of life play out. It is the series that made me want to get into television. It is the series that I am beyond proud of having been involved in since 56 Up.
She called the final series a tribute to Apted.
In 2024, the documentary films were named the most influential shows from the last 50 years in a poll compiled by the Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG).
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