Modern British life is lonely, isn’t it? From its digital echo chambers and its headphones-on-the-tube, to its feedback loops of rage, anxiety and conspiracy, we’ve never been quite so stimulated but so siloed. So it’s depressingly fitting that Britain’s most humane, compassionate documentary series – one that’s spent more than 60 years celebrating our shared commonality amid our material differences – is coming to an end just when we need it most.
7 Up, which has followed a dozen or so Brits every seven years since 1964, was not going to last forever. That was part of its majesty. Its subjects fell in and out of love, had dreams that were dashed, took pathways few expected. We knew we’d see them age, wilt and retire, likely die. A handful already have. As well as the filmmaker Michael Apted, who directed all but the first run in the series, and who died in 2021. But the announcement of a final visit, to be broadcast on ITV this year and under the direction of Asif Kapadia, offered no indication of why the decision was made to end it at this particular time, with its participants now in their seventies (but hardly ancient). Nor was there a hint of a modern follow-up with new children, either, despite how fascinating and significant it would be to start this experiment over again. Instead the news is just sad, and a reminder of how obsolete this kind of television has become.
