For an hour or two this week, I’ve been in the company of people whose lives I’ve seen unfold, almost from the beginning, almost to the end. They are people whom, with one exception, I’ve never met. And yet I’ve shared in their triumphs and disappointments for decades.
They are the group who, in 1964, when they were seven years old, were the subjects of what was initially a single, 40-minute ITV documentary, but which flowered into a work that is quite magical. Returning to those same boys and girls every seven years, watching as they turned first into shy and awkward teenagers, then into husbands and wives, then into parents and grandparents, the 7 Up series has become a document of our times – but also something larger and far more revealing. This week the broadcaster aired what it says will be the final chapter: the seven-year-olds are now 70.
