In 1964 a clutch of seven-year-olds were filmed as they visited a zoo, had a party and mused about their future lives. But after a few years the film-makers decided to check in on 14 of the children, and they kept coming back. The plan was to make a single programme called “Seven Up! That could have been that.
So the “Up” series was born—an epic about ordinary lives that is, in a sense, the weighty ancestor of modern reality TV.
Two episodes broadcast on ITV on September 15th and 22nd will be the last. The long series has illuminated Britain wonderfully, although not in the way the film-makers expected. The working-class participants rejected the insinuation that their horizons were limited. They reacted in different ways. One took the opportunity to promote his band. Others, who disliked the exposure, complained that they had been pushed into participating. If the series delivers any clear message, it is about the importance of personal relationships. The subjects are saved by other people, often romantic partners but not always. In an unexpected way, he got his wish.
Now the children are roughly 70 years old, and “Up” is ending. “I’ve had the opportunities in life that I’ve wanted,” argued Jackie Bassett at 21. “I’m as good or even better than most of them people, especially on this programme,” said Tony Walker, who became a taxi driver. Because there had never been a series like “Up”, the subjects were unprepared for the fame it brought. In the final episode, one says he was “set up” as an upper-class bogeyman. Mr Hughes was brought back to society by another participant, Bruce Balden, who had said as a seven-year-old that he wanted to become a missionary and make people “good”.
