7-Up (The Michael Apted documentary series)

sorry. i'm making it up. you're not.

"offensively awesome", I hope it's not the "cast of 49-Up orgy".

It makes me wonder about the working to 65 agenda of this government, and the theory that we're going to live so much longer after retirement.

In the search for perfection lies the root of neurosis...

Also people seems to age rapidly between 42 and 49. Some of them looked quite old indeed...
-- Bob Six (bobbysixe...) (webmail), Yesterday 10:42 PM. (later) (link)

uh oh.

- you enter your 40s looking young and leave them looking old

- you move away from career ambitions and think about contentment, concerning yourself with home/family/garden/holiday home/singing in the choir/village cricket

- if you didn't choose a job/career you liked, then this is the period where life gets hard (same applies for choice of partner as well)

- if you develop a serious health problem (rheumatoid arthritis etc), life goes really seriously downhill and hello poverty

- there's an aura of sadness around most 49ers

I'm 44, I looked young at 40, don't know if I still do, so who knows.

- you move away from career ambitions and think about contentment, concerning yourself with home/family/garden/holiday home/singing in the choir/village cricket

Kinda there already, but still no cricket/choir.

- if you didn't choose a job/career you liked, then this is the period where life gets hard (same applies for choice of partner as well)

Just about OK

- if you develop a serious health problem (rheumatoid arthritis etc), life goes really seriously downhill and hello poverty

Hah, been there, had that, got better.

- there's an aura of sadness around most 49ers

I'm still alive and that's something.

The woman who now lives in Scotland (I've already forgotten all of their names) seemed such a fantastic person; when she was talking back to Apted I was practically cheering.

Surprised to see that so many interviewees have grandchildren now, before the age of 50. Also a bit surprised that John agreed to take part, since he didn't appear in 28 or 42, and his appearance in 35 seemed more like an effort to polish his image as an upper-crust snob and advertise his charity work than anything else.

When Nick announced that he and his first wife had gotten divorced, I found myself saying "Yes!" out loud. I mean, I never thought they seemed like a good match, but I suppose frivolous judgments such as mine is exactly why the interviewees dislike being put on display like this.

Over the past few weeks I watched the entire series through Netflix. I just finished the latest installment about an hour ago.

I realize the next one won't be out for another 5 years, but I feel compelled to offer quick thoughts on some of the participants.

I liked Tony a lot until the weird "I'm like everyone else - I prefer to be with people from my own culture" comments in 49 up. He's inspiring because he makes me think that I, or anyone else, really, could manage to become a semi-successful professional actor. In 28 up, he's absolutely awful in his acting lessons, but there he is in the successive installments, as an extra, or in that commercial with the naked people running around. Tony - the sort of likeable racist!

Jackie, Lynn and Sue are really, really boring, except when Sue sang karaoke in 42 up. That was awesome.

Everyone mentions the supposed big turnaround in Suzy's life, comparing her at 21 and then afterward. She still seems to have an underlying sorrow in her eyes, but maybe that's just me. Then again, most of the participants in this series seem to have a mournful quality.

I want to like Andrew, but he's so tight-lipped that watching his progress through the years is much less revealing than most of the other participants. In 49 up, Andrew says he and the other two rich kids (Charles and John) have been very guarded on camera, starting with the 21 film. Apted asks him what he's guarding, and Andrew pauses, says he's "Guarded about being guarded...", and then smiles smugly. Moving on...

John refused to participate in 28, and then reappeared for 35, supposedly to publicize his Oxfam charity work in Bulgaria, before disappearing again in 42. He's back in 49, and although his asshole persona seems to be slightly fading, it's still grimly evident in every word he says.

With every next disc, I was disappointed that Charles had again refused to be filmed, which is ironic because he's a documentarian himself, working on Touching the Void. In fact, on Wikipedia it says "Michael Apted revealed that Charles had attempted to sue him when he refused to remove his appearances from the archive sequences in 49 Up." Damn!

Paul has been working at sign making company for ten years, and he STILL hasn't asked for or received a raise??

Symon seems very personable, so it's kind of strange to me that 2 of his 5 kids still won't speak to him.

It was sad watching Nick throw his intellectual weight into nuclear fission research in the 1980s, because we all know how that turned out.

Peter dropped out of the series after 28 up, apparently after criticism in the press over his political beliefs. On Wikipedia it says he "became a lawyer and eventually a musician and singer-songwriter", in a band called The Good Intentions.

I've always liked Bruce a lot, even though my girlfriend quite correctly points out that he is boring.

Then there's Neil, of course. The transformation in his personality from 7 to 28 are some of the most heartbreaking moments in the entire series. Now he's involved in local politics. I wonder if his presence in the Up! series has helped or hindered his political career.

Yeah Neil is the real focal point of the series, because his life has been the strangest of them all. The others all had lives that panned out relatively normally, really. I found 49up SO DEPRESSING, for reasons others stated above. Regrets and resignation and rapid aging. It really makes me down about my own mortality.

havent read the thread but this gets kindof brutal to watch multiple "episodes" or whatever in a row (most are on netflix watch it now btw). constantly seeing the flashbacks to everyone at 7 is like being shown home movies of someone elses kids over and over again

I did this a few months ago. I think it's worth it, although because there are so many flashbacks in each one, it gets sort of repetitive after a while: by 42-Up I was able to recite particular interview answers verbatim.

-- jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, September 14, 2005 7:13 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9206960/Seven-Up-Now-we-are-56.html

back next month (apologies for the Torygraph link). i hope Neil's alright.

seems like almost the entire thing is on You Tube atm in episode-by-episode feature length chunks.

BOM BOM BOMMMMM. tonight. so psyched for this!
apparently thirteen of the original fourteen participants are involved; i am thinking this includes the kid of the kind of private-school-three who stopped participating and then went on to become a documentarian for channel four.

I have bad news for you

anyway yes, excellent news

I missed out quite a few updates, and the kids are quite interested in the concept.

i watched the whole thing in a couple of weeks a year or so ago. so amazing. as valuable a document on thatcherism as there is, too.

the poor people did come rushing in iirc

All are still alive, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApamMLKaCVo&feature=player_detailpage#t=3087s

What does everyone think of John's comments here?

That's an hour-long show!

Oops, that didn't work quite the way I thought it would. I mean, what does everyone think of John's comments starting at 51:29 of the above video?

Let's be charitable:

John was shackled to a portrait of himself at 7 that was "all poor peopple are smelly and should be (etc)" from the first episode. I can believe he had a life of priv and fast-track, and felt for more than one reason he had to make good for his previous 'entitleness' attitude. (to be fair, during the first ep they had a party for all 14 participants and he was all "actually, they were all jolly good fun and nice" etc)

So, don't know what 'comments' you are referring to, but he has latterly been very "this programme is the cross I have to bear" ...

I mean these comments in particular:
"I suspect that why this program is compelling and interesting for viewers, and I quite see why it is, is because really it's like 'Big Brother' or 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here', it is actually real-life TV and with the added bonus that you can see people grow old, lose their hair, get fat. Fascinating, I'm sure, but does it have any value? That's a different question."

He phrased it in a rather blunt fashion. The program certainly has more value than 'Big Brother', for instance. But there could be an element of truth in what he says. The show started out with more of a sociological aim and ended up being more about human interest. On the other hand, human interest isn't necessarily a bad reason to watch a show.

So, there you go.

Just thought it was an interesting statement that got me thinking. The series itself and its aims, much like the people featured on it, has changed at lot over the years. I don't think that's a bad thing. There must be something of value in it for me since I've sat down and watched every episode so far. I'm nervously looking forward to tonight's episode, in the sense that I feel it will probably be very interesting but also contain some depressing truths about life's difficulties.

It's rare that you're able to witness the progression of a person's life outside of real time. Even if you're not seeing the whole picture (e.g. six-year chunks of missing time, the inevitable subjectivity of editing choices, etc.), the contracted nature of that presentation gives one a bit more perspective on the effects that class and environment and expectation have on how a person's life unfolds. I think it's an extremely worthwhile endeavor for that fact alone, but it's also just really engaging to see where these folks are after some time has elapsed.

Just got back from 56 Up. I watched the 7 through 49 all in the span of about two weeks seven years ago, so this was the first one where I really felt time pass along with all of the participants. Man, it made me really emotional. The series is about not just the main interviewees but also their spouses, their parents, their children, their neighborhoods, their workplaces and friends.

I've been holding off on this until I catch up with 49 Up. Saw 28/35/42 when they came out; I wrote about buying a box set I can't play (because of formatting) on another thread. The theatre that's been playing 56 ran the whole series a couple of months ago, but I couldn't get out that weekend. I really don't want to skip from 42 to 56.

there's enough recapping in every edition that you can probably cope ok

Yes. It's not the gap that bothers me as much as, will I even take the time to see 49 Up if I skip ahead to 56? I know that parts of 49 will be incorporated into 56.

LOL at the guy who rejoins the series only to plug his band.

(watching 56 Up right now)

A cash prize for the last one standing

I do totally get that it would be hard to continue, but I also disagree with those who say the study has run its course. There's a huge difference between being 63 and, say, 84 and how people deal with old age would be of great interest.

Seconded, Alba, but like you say I don't know how they could.

We watched all the series a few years back in one burst, when they were on one of the streaming apps, and it was wonderful. My partner and I still say "I wanna be a jockey when I grow up", or recite that speech by one of the little kids about getting a girlfriend, along the forlorn lines of "but what if she wants to go out and you don't want to go out and...", seemingly inventing Madness's My Girl a decade or so early.

After Apted died, his longtime producer Claire Lewis suggested that she could continue the series, but was noncommittal.

Very glad 70-Up is happening, but probably for the best it will be last one. Though I'm very interested in seeing post-70 life stages, I think the whole thing would start to get too bogged down in death and 'last person standing' thoughts if it went on.

And Asif Kapadia to direct!

Oh, that's great news. We watched the whole lot a decade or so ago, when it was all on US Netflix and we had a VPN, and it was some of the best television I've ever watched. There are moments from it we still talk about today ("I want to be a jockey when I grow up, a jockey when I grow up" "but what if she wants to go out and you don;t want to out?"). I also love how you sort of see the art of documentary evolve along with the kids themselves.

Two of the cast have died now, is that right? And there's one guy who still refuses to reappear in the show?

Yep, Lyn in 2013 and Nick in 2023. All the episodes are available now in the UK for free on ITV player. I rewatched Seven Up last night. I have a seven-year-old son so was especially interesting.

Lynn, sorry.

Oh wow, that's great news re: iPlayer. I think our 11yo was a baby when we powercycled the show, so it all carried a certain parent-focused heaviosity then.

sorry, ITV Player

itvx, call it by its name.

We were shown Seven Up in school assembly in the mid-1970s. It was the talk of the school for the next couple of days.

The guy who refuses to appear is Charles, who ironically is a documentary film-maker himself. The pre-publicity for this show notes that we will "hear from him", whatever that means.

"I would have done it better"

Always suspected that Charles refuses to contribute because he wants to hide his overpriviledged background, not at all untypical for posh media types.

I just bought the DVD set of this for my dad, for father’s day. 63 up hasn’t come out on DVD in the states tho

There was also Peter, who refused to appear for a long strech of time until he came back to get angry at Corbyn and plug his alt country band (Peter's, not Corbyn's).

lol stevie read yr four-posts-apart posts here

John also drifted away and came back to plug his Bulgaria charity I think

John seems to be the best of the three posh lads

I think I preferred Andrew even if he was a bit wet.

not keen on any of the posh ones tbh

suzy was perhaps the most interesting of them all in 21 up but she quickly reverted to type as a boring posh solicitor's wife

Suzy dropped out of the last one, as I recall.

lol stevie read yr four-posts-apart posts here

hahaha! we absolutely do keep saying these quotes to each other, too!

I'm guessing it's clear now that I use bookmarks and do not read the older posts if a thread is updated

I think the point of conflict with his hypothetical wife was that she wanted him to eat greens ("and say I don't like greens … which I don't") rather than go out, Suggs-style. Would be a good rewrite of My Girl though.

I didn't want to eat my greens tonight.

no, there's definitely a bit where he's panicking she'll want to go out and he doesn't want to go out. 30% of my interaction with my partner is based around it!!