Up (film series)

The Up series of documentary films follows the lives of ten boys and four girls in England, beginning in 1964, when they were seven years old. The first film was titled Seven Up!, with later films adjusting the number in the title to match the age of the subjects at the time of filming. The documentary has had nine episodes—one every seven years—with a tenth and final instalment due in 2026, spanning a total of 63 years. The series has been produced by Granada Television for ITV, which has broadcast all of them except 42 Up (1998), which was broadcast on BBC One. Individual films and the series as a whole have received numerous accolades.

History

The first film in the series, Seven Up! (1964), was directed by Paul Almond, and was commissioned by Granada Television as a programme in the World in Action series. The 1998 edition, 42 Up, was broadcast on BBC One but was still produced by Granada Television.

The children were selected for the original programme to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, on the assumption that each child's social class would determine their future. The first instalment was made as a one-off edition of Granada Television's series, World in Action, directed by Canadian Paul Almond, with involvement by "a fresh-faced young researcher, a middle-class Cambridge graduate", Michael Apted, whose role in the initial programme included "trawling the nation's schools for 14 suitable subjects". About the first programme, Apted has said:<blockquote>It was Paul's film ... but he was more interested in making a beautiful film about being seven, whereas I wanted to make a nasty piece of work about these kids who have it all, and these other kids who have nothing. A special episode featuring celebrity fans of the series, 7 Up & Me, also aired on ITV in 2019. Apted is reported to have said, "I hope to do 84 Up when I'll be 99"; however, he died in 2021.

List of films and premiere dates

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"

! No.

! Title

! Director

! Original air date

! Channel

! Length

|Seven Up!

|Paul Almond

|5 May 1964

|rowspan="5" | ITV (Granada Television)

| 40 minutes

|7 Plus Seven

|rowspan="8" |Michael Apted

|15 December 1970

| 53 minutes

|21 Up

|9 May 1977

| 100 minutes

|28 Up

|20, 21 November 1984

| 136 minutes

|35 Up

|22 May 1991

| 116 minutes

|42 Up

|21, 22 July 1998

| BBC One

| 133 minutes

|49 Up

|15, 22 September 2005

| rowspan="4" | ITV

| 134 minutes

|56 Up

|14, 21, 28 May 2012

| 144 minutes

|63 Up

|4, 5, 6 June 2019

| 150 minutes

|10

|70 Up

|Asif Kapadia

|2026

|2 x 90 minutes

Participants

The subjects are first seen on a group visit to London Zoo in 1964, where the narrator announces "We brought these 20 children together for the very first time." The series then follows fourteen of the children: Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Furneaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Neil Hughes, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk and Tony Walker.

The participants were chosen in an attempt to represent different social classes in Britain in the 1960s. Apted states in the 42 commentary track that he was asked to find children at the extremes. Because the show was not originally intended to become a repeating series, no long-term contract was signed with the participants. According to Apted, participants in the subsequent programmes since Seven Up! have been paid a sum for their appearance in each instalment, as well as equal parts of any prize the film may win. Each subject is filmed in about two days and the interview itself takes more than six hours.

Apted has said that it was a poor decision to include only four female participants.

Andrew

Andrew Brackfield was one of three boys chosen from the same pre-preparatory school in the wealthy London district of Kensington (the other two being Charles and John). The three are introduced in Seven Up! singing "Waltzing Matilda" in Latin. At the age of seven, when asked which newspaper he reads, if any, Andrew stated that he reads The Financial Times (although he later revealed he was just repeating what his father had told him when asked the same question). All three could say which prep schools, public schools and universities they planned to attend (Oxford or Cambridge in all cases); two named the specific Oxbridge college they intended to join.

Andrew's academic career culminated in his studying at Trinity College, Cambridge. Andrew subsequently became a solicitor, married and raised a family. He is the only one of the three Kensington boys to have appeared in all the Up films. Both Andrew and his wife, Jane, are most satisfied with how their children have turned out, followed by their relationship.

Charles

Charles Furneaux did not get into Oxford, saying in 21 he was glad to have avoided the "prep school–Marlborough–Oxbridge conveyor belt" by going to Durham University instead; however, he later attended Oxford as a post-graduate student. Charles has worked in journalism in varying capacities over the years, including as a producer for the BBC, and in the making of documentary films, including Touching the Void. When contacted to appear in 28, Charles declined; a subsequent phone conversation during which Apted, by his own admission, "went berserk", destroyed the relationship to the degree that Charles has refused to participate in all subsequent films, and even attempted to force Granada to remove archive images of him from the films in which he did not appear.

During an on-stage interview at London's National Film Theatre in December 2005, Apted alleged that Charles had attempted to sue him when he refused to remove Charles from the archive sequences in 49. Apted also commented on the irony that as a documentary maker himself, Charles was the only one who refused to continue.

By the time of 63, all references to Charles have been removed save for fleeting glimpses of joint shots with Andrew and John, however he has been reported to have contributed to 70.

John

John Brisby KC, who was vocal on politics by 14, attended Oxford and became a barrister. He married Claire, the daughter of Sir Donald Logan, a former ambassador to Bulgaria. Brisby devotes himself to charities related to Bulgaria, and hopes to reclaim family land there that had been nationalised. He is a great-great-grandson of the first Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Todor Burmov.

Brisby said in 35 that he only does the films to give more publicity to his chosen charities. In 56, he criticised Apted's decision to originally portray him as part of the "privileged upper class". He disclosed that his father had died when he was 9 and his mother worked to put him through elite private schools; he had attended Oxford on a scholarship. In 56, he remains a litigator who feels very blessed in almost all aspects of his life. In 63, he refers to the series as a "poison pill" but also says he sees that it has value.

Suzy

Suzanne (Suzy) Lusk comes from a wealthy background and was first filmed at an independent London day school. Her parents divorced around the time of 7 Plus Seven. She then dropped out of school at the age of 16, deciding to travel to Paris. By 21, she had formed a strong negative opinion about marriage and being a parent, though this soon changed dramatically. By 28, she was married with two sons, and credited her marriage with bringing her the optimism and happiness that was not evident in the earlier films. Her husband, Rupert Dewey, is a solicitor in Bath and they have three children, two boys and a girl. She became a bereavement counsellor. In 7 Plus Seven, she stated that she thought Apted's project was pointless and silly, a point that she restated in 21. At 49, she believed that she would not participate again, but in 56, she admitted that she felt an obligation to the project regardless of how she feels about it. Suzy did not appear in 63 aside from footage from previous films.

Jackie

Jackie Bassett was one of three girls (the others being Lynn and Sue) who were chosen from the same primary school, in a working-class neighbourhood of east London. She eventually went to a comprehensive school and married at age 19. Jackie went through several different jobs, divorced, remarried and moved to Scotland, divorced again and raised her three sons as a single parent. As of 56, she had been receiving disability benefit for 14 years, due to rheumatoid arthritis. Her family remains close and lives near each other in Scotland.

Lynn

Lynn Johnson, after attending the same primary school as Jackie and Sue, went on to attend a grammar school. She married at 19, had two daughters, and became a children's librarian at 21. She later became a school librarian and remained in that position until being made redundant due to budget cuts. At 56, she continued to believe her career as a librarian was of great value and it helped define her life. She was a doting grandmother with three grandchildren, and still married to her husband Russ, whom she considered her soulmate. In May 2013, after a short illness, Lynn became the first participant to die. She served as Chair of Governors of St Saviour's primary school in Poplar, London, for over 25 years; after her death, a section of the school library was renamed in her memory.

In 63, after much of the earlier footage, particularly from 56, Russ and her daughters recall her death and discuss its effect on them. By 63, he had developed a cancerous mass in his throat and had lost his father, leading him to contemplate mortality.

Peter

Peter Davies went to the same middle-class Liverpool suburban school as Neil, who, like Peter, wanted to be an astronaut. Peter drifted through university, and by age 28, he was an underpaid and seemingly uninspired school teacher. Peter dropped out of the series after 28, following a tabloid press campaign against him after he criticised the government of Margaret Thatcher in his interview. The director's commentary for 42 revealed that he later divorced, took up study of the law, became a lawyer, remarried, had children and moved back to Liverpool. He returned in 56 to promote his band, the Liverpool-based country-influenced The Good Intentions; the group was still together, although one member had died, in 63.

Neil

Neil Hughes, from a Liverpool suburb, turned out to be perhaps the most unpredictable of the group. At seven he was a happy child, funny and full of life and hope, but by 7 Plus Seven, he was nervous and stressed. By 21, he was living in a squat in London, having dropped out of Aberdeen University after one term, and was finding work as he could on building sites. During the interview, he was in an agitated state. At 28, he was still homeless, although now in Scotland; by 35, he was living in a council house in the Shetland Islands, writing and appearing in the local pantomime. By 42, he was living in Bruce's apartment in London and Bruce had become a source of emotional support.

By 49, he was a district councillor in the Eden district of Cumbria. He was first elected for Shap on Eden District in 2003. He was a candidate for Eden Lakes on Cumbria County Council in 2005 and 2009, coming second to the Conservative candidate on both occasions. In 2013, following new division boundaries, Neil was elected to Eden Lakes, and did not stand again for Shap. He was re-elected to Eden Lakes in 2017.

He stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Stockton North in the 2005 general election and for Carlisle in the 2010 general election, finishing third on both occasions. Neil stood for Penrith and the Border—which covers the same area he represents as a councillor—at the 2015 and 2017 general elections. In 2015, he came fourth, whilst in 2017, he came third. At the 2019 general election, Hughes contested the Labour–Conservative marginal seat of Workington in Cumbria. Finishing fourth, he increased the party's vote share, but lost his deposit.

By 63, Neil has married; however, he and his wife have separated due to unspecified difficulties. He is a lay reader in the Anglican Church, a district councillor and also has a home in France. In addition, questions often take a personal tone, with Apted noting that viewers often respond to his questioning of Neil's sanity or his perception of Tony's success in life as being too personal, but that he has been able to do this because of the friendship he has developed with the subjects over the course of their lives.

Critical response and accolades

The series has received high praise over the years. Roger Ebert said that it is "an inspired, even noble, use of the film medium", that the films "penetrate to the central mystery of life", and that the series is among his top ten films of all time. Apted has acknowledged this fact, pointing out that in 21 Up he believed Tony would soon be in prison, so he filmed him around dangerous areas for use in later films. Apted also portrayed the troubled marriage of Nick earlier in the film, although his time frame for anticipating their divorce was premature. Apted has stated in interviews that his "tendency to play God" with the interviews was "foolishness and wrong". A New Yorker article by Rebecca Mead noted "[Apted] can be unbearably patronizing toward his subjects, particularly the working-class women, while he sets his more affluent participants up to look ludicrous". However, she did note that "To his credit, Apted has shown participants arguing back against the show's premise and against his own prejudices. One of the most exhilarating moments in the series occurs in 49 Up, when Jackie [...] rounds on Apted, castigating him for his decades of underestimating her. Apted's implied humility is ultimately, if belatedly, Jackie's vindication".

In 1984, the then-latest instalment, 28 Up, was chosen for Roger Ebert's list of the ten greatest films of all time.

Apted won an Institutional Peabody Award in 2012 for his work on the Up series. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, 28 Up placed 26th. In 2024, Up was voted number 1 in a list of the most influential shows from the previous 50 years, chosen by leading British TV writers and compiled by the Broadcasting Press Guild.

Influence

On participants

Over the course of the project the programme has in varying degrees had a direct effect on the lives of its participants. The series participants often speak of the series having become sufficiently popular that they were recognised in public. For instance, in 56 Up, Tony related an anecdote about giving a ride to Buzz Aldrin, and being surprised when a passerby asks him, not Aldrin, for an autograph.

The participants' opinions regarding being involved in the series are often mentioned, and have varied greatly among the participants. John refers to the programme as a poison pill that he is subjected to every seven years, while Paul's wife credits the series for keeping their marriage together. Apted commented that one of the big surprises between filming 42 Up and 49 Up was the impact of reality television—meaning that the subjects wanted to talk about their contribution to the series in the light of this genre.

There have also been instances of the interactions of participants being engineered by the programme's producers. Paul and Nick were flown back to England at Granada's expense for the filming of 35 Up and 42 Up respectively. Paul was flown back again for 49 Up and visited Symon; while Symon and his wife were in turn flown to Australia to visit Paul in 63 Up. In addition, Bruce was affected by Neil's plight and offered him temporary shelter in his home shortly before 42 Up, allowing Neil time to get settled in London; despite Neil's eccentricities during his two-month stay, they clearly remained friends, with Neil later giving a reading at Bruce's wedding. In 56 Up, Suzy and Nick are interviewed together, having become friends owing to their shared rural upbringing.

Cultural and broader influences

The original hypothesis of Seven Up! was that class structure is so strong in the UK that a person's life path would be set at birth. The producer of the original programme had at one point thought to line the children up on the street, have three of them step forward and narrate "of these twenty children, only three will be successful" (an idea which was not used). The idea of class immobility held up in most, but not all, cases as the series has progressed. The children from the working classes have by and large remained in those circles, though Tony seems to have become more middle class. Apted has said that one of his regrets is that they did not take feminism into account, and consequently had fewer girls in their study and did not select them on the basis of any possible careers they might choose.

Although it began as a political documentary, the series has become a film of human nature and existentialism. In the director's commentary for 42 Up, Apted comments that he did not realise the series had changed tone from political to personal until 21 Up, when he showed the film to American friends who encouraged him to submit it (successfully) to American film festivals. Apted also comments that this realisation was a relief to him and allowed the films to breathe a little more.

References

External links

P.O.V. 49 Up - PBS's site dedicated to the film
63 Up website