In 1963, a television crew documented the lives of 14 children. Michael Apted, then a young researcher, saw Seven Up! as an opportunity to expose the British class system, juxtaposing public schoolboys with counterparts from children’s homes and council estates. Seven years later, Apted returned to direct an update – then went back again, and again. For the most part, his subjects followed the socioeconomic paths one might have predicted. But what emerged over the decades was much more piercing and poignant than initially envisaged. It turned out – as its participants have noted – that the programme was as much about life itself as class.
The final instalment, 70 Up, currently being shown in two parts on ITV, is extraordinarily moving. We know that the children we see in the original footage will struggle with divorce, bereavement, depression, homelessness, redundancy and ill-health. Two of the original participants, and Apted himself, have died; Nick Hitchon, the boy from a Yorkshire farm who became an expert in nuclear fusion, gave a final interview days before his death. Yet these closing episodes, directed by Asif Kapadia, also capture deep joys such as parenthood, and the satisfaction of the self-knowledge they have earned. There are no simple arcs of redemption or tragedy, but something more muddled and nuanced.
