7 UP: the best longitudinal TV series ever!

The Up series of documentary films followed the lives of 14 Britons since 1964, when they were 7. The first film was titled 7 UP and the series has had 9 episodes, one every 7 years, spanning 56 years. The series has been produced by Granada Television for ITV, when Australian journalist Tim Hew­at organised the World in Action documentaries.  

girls from a working-class East London school, 1964

boys from a wealthy prep school in Kensington London, 1964

The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain back then, with the expect­ation that each ch­ild's social class would determine his-her future. Can­ad­ian direc­t­or Paul Almond wanted to test how pre­det­ermined were the lives of children in postwar UK, studying the Jesuit maxim, Give me a child until he is 7 and I will give you the man.

Cambridge researcher Michael Apted (1941–2021)’s role in the in­it­ial programme incl­uded searching the nation's schools for chil­dren at the extremes. The sub­jects were first seen on a group visit to London Zoo in 1964, including Bruce Balden, Jackie Bass­ett, And­rew Brack­field, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Fur­n­eaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk, Symon Basterfield,  Neil Hugh­es and Tony Walker.

Be­cause the show was never in­tended to become a rep­eating ser­ies, no long-term con­t­racts were sign­ed. Then in 1971 a producer casually mentioned to Apted that it must be 7 years since “they did those kids for 7 Up”. From then on, Director Apted continued the series with new instalments every 7 years, asking "Why did we bring these together? Because we wanted a glimpse of England in the year 2000. The union leader and the busin­ess executive of the year 2000 are now 7 years old." The last instalment, 63 Up, premiered in 2019. 

The 14 participants:
Andrew was one of 3 boys chosen from a prep school in wealthy Kensington, London. The three were introduced in 7 Up! Sing­ing Wal­tz­ing Matilda in Latin. At 7, when asked what news­paper he read, Andrew stated he read The Financial Times! All 3 boys named the prep schools, public schools and universities they planned to attend! Andrew's academic career culminated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a fine sol­icitor, married with 2 suc­cessful sons.

7-year-old John announced that he read The Times and insisted that people should pay for their educ­ation otherwise school would be so nasty and crowded. John’s life path was Cambridge and Trinity Hall. But his life was not totally priv­il­eg­ed. His father had died at  9 and his mother had to work to put him through private school. He went to Oxford Uni on scholarship, became a bar­rister and then a successful QC. John married Claire, daughter of an ambass­ador to Bulgaria. They devoted themselves to Bulgarian charities and as of 56 Up, he was still loving his life.

Charles did not get into Oxford, saying in 21 Up he was glad to have avoided the prep school–Marlborough–Oxbridge conveyor belt by going to Durham University instead. Charles has worked in jour­n­alism over the years, including as a producer for the BBC and in doc­umentary film making. When contacted to appear in 28 Up, he decl­ined; Apted went so berserk, Ch­ar­les refused to participate again. 

a reunion in their early 20s

Suzy came from a wealthy divorced background, a student in an independent Lon­­don day school.  In 14 Up she stated that she was an unwilling participant. She dropped out of school, travelled to Paris and by 21, had neg­ative opinions about marriage and babies. By 28 Up, Suzy was married with sons, and credited her marr­iage with bringing the optimism she’d missed earlier. Husband Rupert was a solic­it­or in Bath where she raised the children and be­came a grief counsellor. 

Jackie was chosen from a primary school in working-class East London. Then she went to comp­reh­ensive school and married at 19. Jackie worked jobs, div­orc­ed, remarried, moved to Scotland, divorced again and raised her 3 sons alone. As of 56 Up, she was rec­eiv­ing medical disability bene­fits. This battler lived in a flat 20km east of Glasgow, near close family. One of her children was tragically killed but thank­fully Jackie has 5 adored grand­children. The women were offend­ed that all the quest­ions con­cern­ed domestic affairs, marriage and ch­ildren, not pol­it­ics; that Apted was pat­ron­ising toward his working-class women.

After being at the same primary school as Jackie & Sue, Lynn went on to a grammar school. She married Ross at 19, had 2 daug­ht­ers and became a very happy children's librarian at 21, remaining there until redundancy. In 56 Up she and Russ were doting grandparents to their grand­children, and she served as Chair of Govern­ors of St Sav­iour's Prim­ary in Poplar London for 25+ years. Lynn sadly died in 2013.

Sue attended the same primary school, then att­end­ed a comprehensive school. Like her East End friends, she assumed her ambitions would be limited by her poor educational options. She married at 24 and divorced at 35, leaving her a single mother of 2. She was happy working as a univ­ersity administrator at Uni of London but she was concerned about what the future held. By 63 Up Sue retirement was appealing.

Tony was in an East End primary school. At 7, he wanted to be a jockey and was in stables by 14. By 21 he had rid­den in 3 races bef­ore giving up the dream, but loved com­peting against the great Lester Pigg­ott. He then gained The Know­led­ge, and made a comfortable life for his family as a Lon­don taxi driv­er. His also dreamed of becoming a TV actor. In 28 Up, wife Debbie said losing their 3rd child placed great stress on their family. Yet by 42 Up, they had moved to Essex, and by 49 Up they owned two homes. 

Paul was at a charity-based boarding school at 7, his parents having divorced. Soon after 7 Up, his father and stepmother moved to Melbourne. Paul was employ­ed as a brick­layer, then set up his own business and and married Susan; they had two children and are proud grandparents. A shy man, he was a reluctant start­er in the series but he knew it gave his family some wonderful opport­unit­ies. In 49 Up he was working as a sign-maker, and was thrill­ed to reunite in Aus­tralia with Symon, boarding school mates. By 56 Up Paul & Susan were working at a local retire­ment vill­age. 

Symon was the only mixed-race participant. Bright and shy, Symon never knew his fath­er and had left the charity home to live with his depressed moth­er by 14 Up; tragically she died early. Symon vowed to be a bet­ter father than his own, married early and soon had 5 children. Not­withstanding the unhappy start to his life and poor educ­at­ion, he was industrious and fulfilled in ware­house work, al­though he knew he could have done better. Symon re­turned for 42 Up and 49 Up, remarried with more children. And by 63 Up his relat­ionship with his first children, and his 10 grandchildren was good.

Nick grew up on a small farm in the Yorkshire Dales. A thoughtful child, he was educated in a tiny rural school, and later at a boarding school. He went to Oxford and then moved to the USA to work as a nuclear physicist. He married Jackie, who part­ic­ipated in 28 Up but was irked by the view­ers. By 49 Up the couple div­or­ced and Nick remarried an academic who taught in Minneapolis. Prof Nick was successfully esconsed in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept, Uni of Wisconsin–Madison since 1982. But by 63 Up, Nick sadly devel­op­ed cancer.

Peter went to the same middle-class Liverpool suburban school as Neil. Peter drifted through uni­versity, and by 28 Up he was an under­paid school teacher. He dropped out after 28 Up, following a tabloid press camp­aign against him aft­er he critic­ised Margaret Thatch­er’s education pol­ic­ies. Comm­ent­ary for 42 Up revealed that he later divorced, stud­ied law, marr­ied Gabrielle, had children and returned to Liverpool. After a 28-year absence, Pet­er returned to the series to prom­ote his band, The Good Intentions.

Liverpudlian Neil was the least predicable. At 7 he was happy and cute, but by 14 Up he was agitated. In 21 Up he was sleep­ing rough in London, struggling with mental health issues. Having drop­p­ed out of Aber­deen Uni, he worked labouring jobs on build­ing sites. By 35 he was living in a Shetland Islands council house, and in 42 Up he was living in Bruce's London flat. Since 21 Up his restlessness pushed him into local council politics in Hackney, church and vol­untary work. He comp­let­ed a BA from the Open Uni­versity, then in 2013 and 2017 he was elected to Eden Lakes Cum­b­ria. Sadly by 63 Up, Neil still viewed his life as a failure. 

In 1964 the children wanted to be astronauts, bus drivers, police, lawyers and jockeys. But Bruce, as a child in a respected boarding school, was con­cerned with poverty and racial discrimin­at­ion, and wanted to be a miss­ionary in Africa. Art­iculate, lonely Bruce studied math­ematics at Oxford Uni, then taught child­ren firstly in London’s East End, then Bangladesh and then in a prestig­ious public school in St Albans Herts. By 42 Up, he was married; he and teacher Penny had two loved sons and great jobs. 

Of the original 14 participants, 11 turned up for the 63 Up reunion in the UK

The original 1964 hypothesis was that class was so strong in the UK that a person's life path would be set at birth. This idea mostly held up, except ? for Tony, over the series. But the series also honoured the complex­ity, humanity and grace of ordinary lives. This longitudinal study was unmatched in tv history, so see the series on SBS On Demand.