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70 Up, reportedly the final instalment of the Seven Up! documentary series, reunites 13 surviving participants at age 70. It premieres 8.30pm Wednesday, October 7 on SBS and SBS On Demand.
70 Up brings to a close one of the most fascinating and arguably the longest-running shows in the annals of TV history. The documentary premieres 8.30pm Wednesday, October 7 on SBS and SBS On Demand.
It started in 1964 with a group of 14 children from a cross-section of English society in the documentary Seven Up! It was there we met Cockney lad Tony, who at age seven planned to be a jockey. Headstrong Jackie said she would marry a boy with money. Symon, the only non-white participant, was raised in a boy's home.
Michael Apted Chronicles Participant Lives
Asked about his future education, he replied, What's a university? Every seven years since, director and behind-the-camera interviewer Michael Apted returned to see how these playful children became feisty teenagers, then parents and eventually grandparents. He charted how marriages were made and unmade, and how hopes soared and were sometimes extinguished. Apted died in 2021.
John, Bruce, Symon, Andrew, Suzy, Jackie, Tony, Sue, Peter, Paul and Neil all return for 70 Up, reportedly the final instalment of this famous documentary series. In it, we see where the 13 surviving people have ended up. Lynn, the librarian, died in 2013. The original concept was to test the Jesuit adage, Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.
It offered a window into how class and socioeconomic circumstances determine the chances and opportunities that shape their and our own lives. But what it is mostly remembered for today is the front-row seat it offered to the daily dramas of life and how each participant was forged into the person they became. Now, here they are as 70-year-olds looking back, but also forwards, in what is touted to be the last instalment of the show.
Participants Reflect On Legacy And Fulfillment
For the most part, they are fulfilled, contented and self-aware, which may be surprising given the challenges some have faced. They are also deeply contemplative and ruminative, not only about how their lives have unfolded but how they have been depicted in the films. 70 Up is very much about legacy. At stake is not only the personal legacies of the participants, but the legacy of the series itself.
Several talk about how the show has turned them into celebrities, and we are poignantly reminded that as seven-year-olds they never really consented to be part of a program that has come to define them. They all return, however, for this last hurrah, even some who opted not to participate in earlier instalments. Their humility and, ultimately, gratitude are truly heartrending. 70 Up raises many valid questions about Apted's agendas and preconceived ideas.
These include the sexist questions he put to the female participants, as well as setting up the posh schoolboys to look like undeserving twits. Sneering and supercilious is how one of the participants remembers him. Hearing some of Apted's loaded and insulting questions from earlier chapters is cringe-making. There are two things 70 Up wants to correct.
Series Addresses Portrayal And Class Issues
One concerns how participants have been portrayed. The other is that the series' focus on outdated notions of class and society meant it was not always asking the right questions. It is here that 70 Up offers new perspective. One participant now talks with admirable candour about his lifelong mental health battles.
Symon still rues having never met his father, and has gone on to foster more than 100 children. What we take away is not the fairness of the cards they were dealt but how they faced the unpredictable twists and turns that life put in their paths. It is impossible not to be moved by this remarkable endeavour.
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theage:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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