7-Up (The Michael Apted documentary series)

This is back on ITV, isn't it?

Afraid that, in common with 95% of the viewing public, I'm only really interested in what's happened to Neil.

I did this a few months ago. I think it's worth it, although because there are so many flashbacks in each one, it gets sort of repetitive after a while: by 42-Up I was able to recite particular interview answers verbatim.

sorry. i'm making it up. you're not.

"offensively awesome", I hope it's not the "cast of 49-Up orgy".

It makes me wonder about the working to 65 agenda of this government, and the theory that we're going to live so much longer after retirement.

In the search for perfection lies the root of neurosis...

Also people seems to age rapidly between 42 and 49. Some of them looked quite old indeed...
-- Bob Six (bobbysixe...) (webmail), Yesterday 10:42 PM. (later) (link)

uh oh.

- you enter your 40s looking young and leave them looking old

- you move away from career ambitions and think about contentment, concerning yourself with home/family/garden/holiday home/singing in the choir/village cricket

- if you didn't choose a job/career you liked, then this is the period where life gets hard (same applies for choice of partner as well)

- if you develop a serious health problem (rheumatoid arthritis etc), life goes really seriously downhill and hello poverty

- there's an aura of sadness around most 49ers

I'm 44, I looked young at 40, don't know if I still do, so who knows.

- you move away from career ambitions and think about contentment, concerning yourself with home/family/garden/holiday home/singing in the choir/village cricket

Kinda there already, but still no cricket/choir.

- if you didn't choose a job/career you liked, then this is the period where life gets hard (same applies for choice of partner as well)

Just about OK

- if you develop a serious health problem (rheumatoid arthritis etc), life goes really seriously downhill and hello poverty

Hah, been there, had that, got better.

- there's an aura of sadness around most 49ers

I'm still alive and that's something.

The woman who now lives in Scotland (I've already forgotten all of their names) seemed such a fantastic person; when she was talking back to Apted I was practically cheering.

Surprised to see that so many interviewees have grandchildren now, before the age of 50. Also a bit surprised that John agreed to take part, since he didn't appear in 28 or 42, and his appearance in 35 seemed more like an effort to polish his image as an upper-crust snob and advertise his charity work than anything else.

When Nick announced that he and his first wife had gotten divorced, I found myself saying "Yes!" out loud. I mean, I never thought they seemed like a good match, but I suppose frivolous judgments such as mine is exactly why the interviewees dislike being put on display like this.

Over the past few weeks I watched the entire series through Netflix. I just finished the latest installment about an hour ago.

I realize the next one won't be out for another 5 years, but I feel compelled to offer quick thoughts on some of the participants.

I liked Tony a lot until the weird "I'm like everyone else - I prefer to be with people from my own culture" comments in 49 up. He's inspiring because he makes me think that I, or anyone else, really, could manage to become a semi-successful professional actor. In 28 up, he's absolutely awful in his acting lessons, but there he is in the successive installments, as an extra, or in that commercial with the naked people running around. Tony - the sort of likeable racist!

Jackie, Lynn and Sue are really, really boring, except when Sue sang karaoke in 42 up. That was awesome.

Everyone mentions the supposed big turnaround in Suzy's life, comparing her at 21 and then afterward. She still seems to have an underlying sorrow in her eyes, but maybe that's just me. Then again, most of the participants in this series seem to have a mournful quality.

I want to like Andrew, but he's so tight-lipped that watching his progress through the years is much less revealing than most of the other participants. In 49 up, Andrew says he and the other two rich kids (Charles and John) have been very guarded on camera, starting with the 21 film. Apted asks him what he's guarding, and Andrew pauses, says he's "Guarded about being guarded...", and then smiles smugly. Moving on...

John refused to participate in 28, and then reappeared for 35, supposedly to publicize his Oxfam charity work in Bulgaria, before disappearing again in 42. He's back in 49, and although his asshole persona seems to be slightly fading, it's still grimly evident in every word he says.

With every next disc, I was disappointed that Charles had again refused to be filmed, which is ironic because he's a documentarian himself, working on Touching the Void. In fact, on Wikipedia it says "Michael Apted revealed that Charles had attempted to sue him when he refused to remove his appearances from the archive sequences in 49 Up." Damn!

Paul has been working at sign making company for ten years, and he STILL hasn't asked for or received a raise??

Symon seems very personable, so it's kind of strange to me that 2 of his 5 kids still won't speak to him.

It was sad watching Nick throw his intellectual weight into nuclear fission research in the 1980s, because we all know how that turned out.

Peter dropped out of the series after 28 up, apparently after criticism in the press over his political beliefs. On Wikipedia it says he "became a lawyer and eventually a musician and singer-songwriter", in a band called The Good Intentions.

I've always liked Bruce a lot, even though my girlfriend quite correctly points out that he is boring.

Then there's Neil, of course. The transformation in his personality from 7 to 28 are some of the most heartbreaking moments in the entire series. Now he's involved in local politics. I wonder if his presence in the Up! series has helped or hindered his political career.

Yeah Neil is the real focal point of the series, because his life has been the strangest of them all. The others all had lives that panned out relatively normally, really. I found 49up SO DEPRESSING, for reasons others stated above. Regrets and resignation and rapid aging. It really makes me down about my own mortality.

havent read the thread but this gets kindof brutal to watch multiple "episodes" or whatever in a row (most are on netflix watch it now btw). constantly seeing the flashbacks to everyone at 7 is like being shown home movies of someone elses kids over and over again

I did this a few months ago. I think it's worth it, although because there are so many flashbacks in each one, it gets sort of repetitive after a while: by 42-Up I was able to recite particular interview answers verbatim.

-- jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, September 14, 2005 7:13 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9206960/Seven-Up-Now-we-are-56.html

back next month (apologies for the Torygraph link). i hope Neil's alright.

seems like almost the entire thing is on You Tube atm in episode-by-episode feature length chunks.

Oh, that's great news. We watched the whole lot a decade or so ago, when it was all on US Netflix and we had a VPN, and it was some of the best television I've ever watched. There are moments from it we still talk about today ("I want to be a jockey when I grow up, a jockey when I grow up" "but what if she wants to go out and you don;t want to out?"). I also love how you sort of see the art of documentary evolve along with the kids themselves.

Two of the cast have died now, is that right? And there's one guy who still refuses to reappear in the show?

Yep, Lyn in 2013 and Nick in 2023. All the episodes are available now in the UK for free on ITV player. I rewatched Seven Up last night. I have a seven-year-old son so was especially interesting.

Lynn, sorry.

Oh wow, that's great news re: iPlayer. I think our 11yo was a baby when we powercycled the show, so it all carried a certain parent-focused heaviosity then.

sorry, ITV Player

itvx, call it by its name.

We were shown Seven Up in school assembly in the mid-1970s. It was the talk of the school for the next couple of days.

The guy who refuses to appear is Charles, who ironically is a documentary film-maker himself. The pre-publicity for this show notes that we will "hear from him", whatever that means.

"I would have done it better"

Always suspected that Charles refuses to contribute because he wants to hide his overpriviledged background, not at all untypical for posh media types.

I just bought the DVD set of this for my dad, for father’s day. 63 up hasn’t come out on DVD in the states tho

There was also Peter, who refused to appear for a long strech of time until he came back to get angry at Corbyn and plug his alt country band (Peter's, not Corbyn's).

lol stevie read yr four-posts-apart posts here

John also drifted away and came back to plug his Bulgaria charity I think

John seems to be the best of the three posh lads

I think I preferred Andrew even if he was a bit wet.

not keen on any of the posh ones tbh

suzy was perhaps the most interesting of them all in 21 up but she quickly reverted to type as a boring posh solicitor's wife

Suzy dropped out of the last one, as I recall.

lol stevie read yr four-posts-apart posts here

hahaha! we absolutely do keep saying these quotes to each other, too!

I'm guessing it's clear now that I use bookmarks and do not read the older posts if a thread is updated

I think the point of conflict with his hypothetical wife was that she wanted him to eat greens ("and say I don't like greens … which I don't") rather than go out, Suggs-style. Would be a good rewrite of My Girl though.

I didn't want to eat my greens tonight.

no, there's definitely a bit where he's panicking she'll want to go out and he doesn't want to go out. 30% of my interaction with my partner is based around it!!

70-up 15 sep itv1

how many are left?

Until everyone's dead, I think?

They are saying this is the final one, though they have said this before.

It'll be the first one since the very first that Apted (RIP) didn't direct.

Asif Kapadia directs! Hooray!

I want this to go on until there’s only one left and they get a sash and a massive party.

tonight

always surprises me when you wait 10 years and then the thing is only two shows

Seven years!

It's available to stream already I see. I'm going in.

I’m waiting for J to come over, we’re watching.

I’m so glad Asif Kapadia was chosen to finish the series (by Michael Apted himself, apparently).

7 years, sorry

and even then a large part of those 3 hours is recap of the last 63 years.

always surprises me when you wait 10 years and then the thing is only two shows

Preferable to multipart documentary series imo.

Yeah I feel like one show wouldn't be enough but a whole series each time would be too much.

He hoped to do a set individually focused on each participant too

Hopes, not hoped

absolutely would watch

halfway through part 1 and it seems like there's been 5 minutes of new material for each person, tops.

the homeless person was an mp then a vicar, now retired, lived in shetland and london and now france. seems a pity to have only 3 minutes of him.

the shell suits in 1991...

There was a lot of recap last night but I'm hoping the next episode will be much heavier on new stuff as boring Peter and surprise guest Charles are the only two not covered at all yet.

Lucy Mandan, in her somewhat critical review, says this of the second episode:

There is, especially in the second instalment of this final film, something of a meta-narrative too, as the participants give their thoughts about the series and about Apted. We also hear archive footage of Apted reflecting on what he learned over the years.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/15/70-up-review-itv1-itvx

that adventure playground looked like a death trap

^ I know right. I think part of me casually imagines they were simply let loose in post-WWII rubble, until I remember all over again when 7-Up was actually made.

Just watched the last episode. Was particularly keen to hear how Nick and Neil were doing. Ooooof! Actually, I could have done with a little more Neil (I feel like I've been worrying about him my entire life) and Bruce, for that matter. My eyes did not remain entirely dry.

The feedback on Apted's methods were fascinating, not least from Jackie (again) and John and the BBC chap. I'm guessing it's decades since anyone thought it even a vague approximation of a rigorous longitudinal study capable of demonstrating anything in particular but it still adds up to one the most interesting uses of motion picture cameras I can even think of.

the bit that got me blubbering was Tony describing times he's picked up the other participants in his cab over the years, particularly spotting Neil by his walk: "three steps, shuffle, three steps, shuffle." dunno if that bit was new or if it had been in a previous episode but it really zapped me.

I think part of me casually imagines they were simply let loose in post-WWII rubble

I've interviewed a number of people of this generation and that's generally how they describe the London of their childhood - a landscape of bomb sites and semi-demolished buildings that were there for them to play in. They all seemed to love it!

Werner Herzog has said the same about his childhood

I found this satisfying in a way the others weren't since the first one I saw, 35. It was striking to see how many folks were comfortable in their skins at 70 and had made their peace with the effect the doc had on their lives. And they do feel like friends from an earlier time in life. Particularly loved Jackie's frankness and insight, Symon's genius for living and huge foster family, and Sue's affection for the whole thing. And Nick, what can I say, probably the kid I most resonated with, what a thoughtful and interesting guy (and an incredible coda).
I also appreciated Kapadia's generosity in leaving Apted at the core of things, and very much acknowledging the constructions and contrivances of the series while allowing Apted to defend his own growth and change. Brought it all home gracefully.

Yeah, Nick was fab. And perhaps the most reliably amusing. "I don't answer those kind of questions" and "my ambition as a scientist is to be more famous for doing science than for being in this film, but unfortunately, Michael, that's not going to happen" are forever lodged in my brain. I hadn't encountered any spoilers whatsoever and his segment is seriously haunting me 12 hours later.