Movies - Seven Up!

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	Movies - Seven Up!

Seven Up! is a popular documentary film series that follows the lives of fourteen British people from the age of seven to adulthood. The fourteen people chosen are of different races, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds. Every seven years, the documentarians reconnect with the subjects and catch up on their lives.

Creation

The series was originally commissioned by Granada Television as a programme for the World in Action series screened on the ITV network, broadcast in 1964. It was directed at first by Paul Almond and subsequently taken over by Michael Apted, who had been a researcher on the first series and chose the original children with Gordon McDougall. The premise of the film was taken from the Jesuit motto "Give me the child at the age of seven and I will give you the man", which is based on a quote by Francis Xavier. The 1998 programme was commissioned by BBC One, although still produced for them by Granada.

Michael Apted was 22 at the time of Seven Up!, and has plans to create a 56 Up.

Participants

The fourteen subjects are Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Simon 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. At the time the show was not intended to become a repeating series, and no contract was signed with the participants. All interviews since have been voluntary, the participants are paid, and only their first names are used in the programme. They have the option to withdraw their footage if they don't like the manner in which they are presented. The interviews are unrehearsed and occur in strict seven-year intervals. In the instances where the participants are interviewed as a group, they are positioned in the same arrangement each time. Especially in the later films, the interviews are spanned over two days. Apted tries to get as much material as the participants will allow, and admits the interviews are very long.

It should be noted that in the original programme the narrator mentions 21 children taking part and that that many can be counted at both the zoo and the party that they take part in. The only one named other than the fourteen acknowledged participants is a girl named Michelle who is from the same East End school as Tony and is interviewed as his girlfriend. The other six may have been interviews that were not used or brothers or sisters of the main group.

John, Charles and Andrew

The original group includes three quite stereotypical upper class boys. At the age of seven, they claim to have shares, and know which prep schools and even universities they will attend. John, who was vocal on politics by 14, became a lawyer. John chose not to appear on the show after "Twenty-One", feeling that the questions he was being asked were mocking his upper class life. He did return for 35 Up however, with intentions to publicize his Oxfam relief efforts for Bulgaria, and again for 49 Up. He would only appear in 35 Up under the conditions that another member of the Up Series crew would interview him instead of Apted.

Andrew also went to prestigious schools, got married, became wealthy and raised a family.

Charles did not make it into the prestigious university, and later described it as a "conveyer belt". He chose not to continue his participation in the series after Twenty-One and during an on-stage interview at London's National Film Theatre in December 2005, Michael Apted (the director) revealed that Charles had attempted to sue Apted when he refused to remove Charles's likeness from the archive sequences in 49 Up. Charles has worked in journalism in varying capacities over the years, including as a producer for the BBC, and the making of documentary films, including Touching the Void (2003).

Suzy

Upper class Suzy at age seven expects to become a homemaker and, after a rough adolescence that is only alluded to, she appears tense and belligerent in Twenty-One. In a surprising twist, by 28, she finds satisfaction and happiness in family life, which continues through the ensuing 21 years at least.

Jackie, Lynn and Sue

The three working class girls Jackie, Lynn and Sue, who aged seven expect a life as housewives, end up securing differing careers and family lives from what they expected. Lynn gets married at 19 and becomes a children's librarian. Jackie and Sue each go through different jobs, get divorced, and raise children as single parents. Jackie, Lynn and Sue prefer to be interviewed individually, but Apted insists on getting them together for a group interview for at least a short time.

Tony

Tony the Cockney 'Cheeky Kid' first hopes to become a jockey, then a racing tout and, finally, secures a comfortable life as a taxi driver. His later dream of becoming an actor meets with slight success as he gained cameos on Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years and EastEnders. He has been one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the project and he and his wife, Deb, have been very honest about both the hardship and success in their lives.

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