The Up series of documentary films follows the lives of ten boys and four girls in the United Kingdom, beginning in 1964, when they were seven years old. The first film was titled Seven Up!, with later films adjusting the number in the title to match the age of the subjects at the time of filming. The documentary has had nine episodes—one every seven years—with a tenth and final instalment due in 2026, spanning a total of 63 years. The series has been produced by Granada Television for ITV, which has broadcast all of them except 42 Up (1998), which was broadcast on BBC One. Individual films and the series as a whole have received numerous accolades.
History The first film in the series, Seven Up! (1964), was directed by Paul Almond, and was commissioned by Granada Television as a programme in the World in Action series. From 7 Plus Seven until 63 Up the films were directed by Michael Apted, who had been a researcher on Seven Up! and was involved in finding the original children, with Gordon McDougall. The premise of the film was taken from the Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man". The 1998 edition, 42 Up, was broadcast on BBC One but was still produced by Granada Television. The children were selected for the original programme to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, on the assumption that each child's social class would determine their future. The first instalment was made as a one-off edition of Granada Television's series, World in Action, directed by Canadian Paul Almond, with involvement by "a fresh-faced young researcher, a middle-class Cambridge graduate", Michael Apted, whose role in the initial programme included "trawling the nation's schools for 14 suitable subjects". About the first programme, Apted said:
It was Paul's film ... but he was more interested in making a beautiful film about being seven, whereas I wanted to make a nasty piece of work about these kids who have it all, and these other kids who have nothing. After Almond's direction of the original programme, director Apted continued the series with new instalments every seven years, filming material from those of the fourteen who chose to participate. The aim of the continuing series is stated at the beginning of 7 Up as: "We brought these children together because we wanted a glimpse of England in the year 2000. The shop's steward and the executive of the year 2000 are now seven years old". The ninth instalment, titled 63 Up, premiered in the UK on ITV in 2019. A special episode featuring celebrity fans of the series, 7 Up & Me, also aired on ITV in 2019. Apted is reported to have said, "I hope to do 84 Up when I'll be 99"; however, he died in 2021. The series will conclude from 15 September 2026 with 70 Up, directed by Asif Kapadia with all surviving participants contributing to the final film, as well as a recorded interview with participant Nick Hitchon, who died in 2023.
List of films and premiere dates
Participants The subjects are first seen on a group visit to London Zoo in 1964, where the narrator announces "We brought these 20 children together for the very first time." The series then follows fourteen of the children: Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Furneaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Neil Hughes, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk and Tony Walker. The participants were chosen in an attempt to represent different social classes in Britain in the 1960s. Apted states in the 42 commentary track that he was asked to find children at the extremes. Because the show was not originally intended to become a repeating series, no long-term contract was signed with the participants. According to Apted, participants in the subsequent programmes since Seven Up! have been paid a sum for their appearance in each instalment, as well as equal parts of any prize the film may win. Each subject is filmed in about two days and the interview itself takes more than six hours. Apted later said that it was a poor decision to include only four female participants.
Andrew Andrew Brackfield was one of three boys chosen from the same pre-preparatory school in the wealthy London district of Kensington (the other two being Charles and John). The three are introduced in Seven Up! singing "Waltzing Matilda" in Latin. At the age of seven, when asked which newspaper he reads, if any, Andrew stated that he reads The Financial Times (although he later revealed he was just repeating what his father had told him when asked the same question). All three could say which prep schools, public schools and universities they planned to attend (Oxford or Cambridge in all cases); two named the specific Oxbridge college they intended to join. Andrew's academic career culminated in his studying at Trinity College, Cambridge. Andrew subsequently became a solicitor, married and raised a family. He is the only one of the three Kensington boys to have appeared in all the Up films. Both Andrew and his wife, Jane, are most satisfied with how their children have turned out, followed by their relationship.
Charles Charles Furneaux did not get into Oxford, saying in 21 he was glad to have avoided the "prep school–Marlborough–Oxbridge conveyor belt" by going to Durham University instead; however, he later attended Oxford as a post-graduate student. Charles has worked in journalism in varying capacities over the years, including as a producer for the BBC, and in the making of documentary films, including Touching the Void. When contacted to appear in 28, Charles declined; a subsequent phone conversation during which Apted, by his own admission, "went berserk", destroyed the relationship to the degree that Charles has refused to participate in all subsequent films, and even attempted to force Granada to remove archive images of him from the films in which he did not appear. During an on-stage interview at London's National Film Theatre in December 2005, Apted alleged that Charles had attempted to sue him when he refused to remove Charles from the archive sequences in 49. Apted also commented on the irony that as a documentary maker himself, Charles was the only one who refused to continue. By the time of 63, all references to Charles have been removed save for fleeting glimpses of joint shots with Andrew and John, however he has been reported to have contributed to 70.
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