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Michael Apted’s subsequent chapters of this famed documentary series, first created for

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, February 5, 2013

From ITV Studios 56UP Monday May 14th on ITV 1Archive Picture Shows: Taxi Driver Tony at 49 yrs in 2006 The latest instalment of ITV’s landmark documentary series returns to the channel this year to visit the group of people whose lives have been documented since they were seven, to see where they are now, in 56 Up.The original 7 Up was broadcast in 1964 as a one-off World in Action Special featuring children who were selected from different backgrounds and social spheres to talk about their hopes and dreams for the future.As members of the generation who would be running the country by the year 2000, what did they think they would become?Inspired by then World in Action editor Tim Hewat’s passionate interest in both the Jesuit saying: “Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man,” and the rigid class system of 1960s Britain, 7 Up set out to discover whether or not the children’s lives were pre-determined by their background.The result was ground-breaking television - the very first example of a programme recording real people living real lives – and the follow-up films have won an array of awards.Director Michael Apted, has returned every seven years to chart the children’s progress through life.Over the past five decades, the series has documented the group as they have become adults and entered middle-age, dealing with everything life has thrown at them in between. c ITV For further information please contact Peter Gray 0207 157 3046 peter.gray@itv.com This photograph is (C) ITV Plc and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned above, or ITV. Once made available by ITV Plc Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the TX date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other publication
From ITV Studios 56UP Monday May 14th on ITV 1Archive Picture Shows: Taxi Driver Tony at 49 yrs in 2006 The latest instalment of ITV’s landmark documentary series returns to the channel this year to visit the group of people whose lives have been documented since they were seven, to see where they are now, in 56 Up.The original 7 Up was broadcast in 1964 as a one-off World in Action Special featuring children who were selected from different backgrounds and social spheres to talk about their hopes and dreams for the future.As members of the generation who would be running the country by the year 2000, what did they think they would become?Inspired by then World in Action editor Tim Hewat’s passionate interest in both the Jesuit saying: “Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man,” and the rigid class system of 1960s Britain, 7 Up set out to discover whether or not the children’s lives were pre-determined by their background.The result was ground-breaking television - the very first example of a programme recording real people living real lives – and the follow-up films have won an array of awards.Director Michael Apted, has returned every seven years to chart the children’s progress through life.Over the past five decades, the series has documented the group as they have become adults and entered middle-age, dealing with everything life has thrown at them in between. c ITV For further information please contact Peter Gray 0207 157 3046 peter.gray@itv.com This photograph is (C) ITV Plc and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned above, or ITV. Once made available by ITV Plc Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the TX date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other publication

Michael Apted’s subsequent chapters of this famed documentary series, first created for British television in 1964, have ranged far beyond his original brief. That mission was to see after Seven Up!—directed by Paul Almond—how class determined subsequent social advancement in a nation still feeling the effects of war and the loss of empire. “This has been a glimpse of Britain’s future,” declared the cheerful narrator (a device thankfully abandoned), only the future of 56 Up is far different than anything envisioned in ’64. Would the privileged maintain their privilege? Would the Labor Party help the poor—then mostly white and native-born—climb the socioeconomic ladder? After the Beatles, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair, 56 Up’s subjects seem rather pessimistic, if not quite bitter, about the UK’s enduring inequalities.”There is still a class system,” says well-off barrister Andrew, “but it’s based on financial success. It’s been ever thus, and I don’t think it’s ever going to change.” Echoing him is Lynn, a working-class East Ender who cycled through various social-work positions before being made redundant. The Labor Party has failed, she says, and others from her circle share that view, criticizing Thatcher and David Cameron for weakening the welfare state.Apted, a Granada TV researcher in ’64, has in his seven follow-up films been a sympathetic off-camera presence. He lobs questions in 56 Up (“Do you measure your life in terms of success or failure?”), yet resists any overview or analysis. When Tony, the charismatic jockey-turned-cabbie, predicted a real-estate bubble in 49 Up, Apted now reminds him, did he know how prescient he was? Tony has dabbled in Spanish real estate and watched that market collapse, and it is those market forces—which we shorthand as globalization—that go undiscussed. Andrew and John, another prosperous university grad and attorney, seem to do well despite the recession. Poor Neil, previously homeless and mentally ill, will never do well; the best he can hope for is state support and the scant dignity of a town councilman’s job. Yet he endures, and his story is not so terrible as we might’ve predicted after 28 Up. “How many people are happy?” Neil asks rhetorically. Apted doesn’t put that question to Andrew and John, but they have wives, weekend homes, and ski vacations, so perhaps he needn’t.Though I very much admire it, the problem with this acclaimed series—beyond its lack of outside context—is that each new installment must recycle so much old footage. We need to be reintroduced to the subjects again and again, every seven years. Some go on hiatus and return, like leftist ex-teacher Peter, who uses the film to promote his new music career. So why does Apted indulge him? Each individual story subsumes the issue of class. Apted is more interested in coping than social advancement: the ways his subjects—rich and poor—adapt to their circumstances. That means divorce, unemployment, health issues, and grandkids (apparently none of the 14 original Seven Up! kids have died). Physicist Nick, now on his second marriage in the U.S., wants to see “a real study” about class and social outcome, but Apted has no data to offer—only anecdotes. His sample size is too small and self-selecting; he and his subjects are all on a friendly first-name basis by now.In a real sense, they’re our friends, too (and also minor celebrities in England, thanks to a wide TV audience). And what do we do when reuniting with old friends—fill out questionnaires and filter the results through a computer? No, we trade stories. 56 Up isn’t science, but it satisfies with the slow, steady turning of life’s ordinary pages. film@seattleweekly.com

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