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Can this really be the end of the Up series, for which every glowing endorsement, from “groundbreaking” to “event television”, rings true? When it came out in 1964, following the lives of 14 seven-year-olds, it was the first programme to interview just children and in 2024, it was voted the “programme that changed television the most” over the past 50 years by the Broadcasting Press Guild.

Seven Up! – with its Jesuit premise: “Give me a boy until he is seven and I will show you the man” – was conceived as a class experiment by Australian Tim Hewat, who worked for Granada’s current affairs programme World in Action and was appalled by the inequities in English society.

Following its subjects every seven years, Seven Up! was originally directed by Paul Almond before Michael Apted, a researcher for the first series, took over for 14 Up in 1970 and remained in post until his death, in 2021, after completing 63 Up. This final series has been made by the Bafta-winning director, Asif Kapadia.

Over the years, Seven Up! has evolved into more than just a social experiment, it’s about life itself. It’s like holding a mirror to ourselves; it moves us because we’re all in there somewhere (although there should have been more women; an imbalance that Apted always regretted).

Love is a golden seam that runs through it all, perfectly reflected in the story of Neil, that charming little boy who captivated our hearts with his dreams of becoming an astronaut, but after “a nervous complaint” and dropping out of university, ended up homeless. He then went on to amaze us all by becoming a Liberal Democrat councillor (helped and befriended by fellow-Upper Bruce), then a lay preacher, whose home is now in France.

For those of us who are also approaching 70 this year, there is a sense in which the end of this precious thing is a presentiment of other endings, too, especially since the death of Lynn (in 2013) and more recently in 2023 of Nick – the son of a Yorkshire farmer who became a nuclear physicist in America.

Now, it feels like saying goodbye to dear old friends. Philip Larkin’s famous conclusion from An Arundel Tomb comes to mind as we bid a farewell to Sue and Jackie, Tony, Suzy, Bruce, Peter, Paul, Symon, Andrew, John and Neil: “What will survive of us is love.”

SUE has always loved singing and theatre and worked as a university administrator. She was picked for the original programme with her two working-class best friends, Jackie and Lynn, who died in 2013.

“In every stage of the programme, something has resonated with someone – having children, a break-up of a marriage, being a single parent, caring for elderly parents, losing them, getting married (twice!) – all of that. It’s just life.

“The saddest moment was the first time Jackie and I were interviewed after we lost Lynn; although we’ve always done our individual bits, we’ve always done us three girls together. And it felt, like... the empty chair.

“It’s easier for me to think of the series I hated than the ones I loved! Everyone would probably agree that 14 Up was atrocious... all of us hiding behind our hair. But I’ve never thought ‘Oh, I don’t want it to happen’ because I enjoy doing it. You can see in the series that love is the thing that keeps us all going.

“Sometimes it amazes me that people watch it because it’s just me being me – I’m not anything special, I’ve not done anything special. This is what’s made me special, if anything! The fact that I’ve taken part in this wonderful series is what I’m very proud of.”

JACKIE gave Apted a hard time for not choosing more women and asking sexist and class-centric questions of Sue, Lynn and herself. She was adamant that she would not marry and have children, but did both.

“When I heard that Michael had died, I burst into tears. We saw him at 63 and he said to me, ‘I really thought I had another film in me but I’m beginning to think I haven’t.’ To admit that was him understanding that things weren’t right, but it was a big shock.

“There were occasions when I clashed with Michael, but he opened up a world that I would never have been in otherwise. Once he’d got over the fact that we were working class, he always treated us well and he was a man of integrity. He invited us all to his premieres and he had a few in London, so we went to those.

“I didn’t watch me [giving Michael hell, at 49] because I don’t watch my own pieces. Dame Judi Dench put it best – she thinks she’s a tall, willowy blonde on the TV and then she looks at it and sees a small, dumpy girl.

“I do get recognised in public occasionally. In fact, my sister and I were on holiday and this woman walked straight up to me in the middle of Corfu and said, ‘You’re Jackie’ and I went, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are…’ and she went ‘Up series? I’ve watched it all. I love it!’

“It’s wonderful that it’s ending – but also terrible. I don’t want to be walking around on a Zimmer frame or have the nurses come in to change my nappy, so I think this should be the last one. I did cry because it’s the end of an era.”

TONY was selected as a boy from the East End. Apted believed that, because of his background, he could become a criminal. In fact he was an apprentice jockey and film extra before training as a London black cab driver.

“When I look back over the years, I see things that you don’t [see at the time]. My mum and my dad and how proud they were of me appearing on the series. Seeing my dreams as a jockey evaporating. Achieving my goal to be a London cabbie. Working as an extra – meeting Steven Spielberg. I ain’t done bad and I’ve done it all off my own bat.

“My mum was especially proud of this, and would go to the butchers and say, ‘Hello Ted, did you see my son on the telly?’ When we started there was only three channels and the nation took us to their hearts.

“When Michael asked me whether I was a racist [in 56 Up, 2012], I felt aghast. I did really love Michael as a friend and most of all as an iconic film director, but I found it insulting.

“I feel very sad about this coming to an end – I want to carry on, not because I’m conceited or flamboyant in any way, shape or form – but it is my life and I’ve lived this programme.”

SUZY was seen in the first series as an upper-middle-class girl from landed gentry. At 22, she married Rupert and they are still together after 48 years. Suzy worked as a bereavement counsellor.

“I wouldn’t have come back into this if it hadn’t been for my loyalty to Michael and Nick, who wanted to close the book on it – if he could do it when he was so ill, I thought, ‘Right, I’ve just got to grip this and do it too.’ Nick was the only one, really, that I kept in touch with through all the years. Both of us found it very difficult to do this programme. I dipped out at 63, for personal reasons.

“What I always found difficult was that I was the only woman on my own and that I was being slightly got at. It’s quite hard when your life is being looked over, with a million people scrutinising you.

“We’ve all had tricky times in our lives and this process opens it all up every seven years. I have to compartmentalise my life because it does churn up difficult memories. But, you know, everybody has had difficult times and there is an extraordinary bond between us all.

“At 70, I’m lucky I’m still here. I’ve learnt things along the road and at this stage of my life, I’m happy within my own skin, I’ve come to terms with an awful lot and I can package it up now and just look back on it. I think we’ll all need a stiff drink at the end!”

BRUCE was sent to boarding school from the age of six and aged seven, wanted to be a missionary. He became a teacher at an inner-city comprehensive and worked in India before finishing his career at a private school. He volunteers for the RNLI.

“The programme has been a major part of my life, but family, marriage, fatherhood, a career in education, even playing with my cricket team since 1980 have been bigger things.

“Neil lived with me for a little while by accident. For 28-Up there was a dinner; Neil appeared at the last minute, not having said that he would be there and there was nowhere for him to stay. So, he stayed on my spare bed. I said that if he was ever down this way again, I’d rather he slept on my spare bed than underneath the arches of Waterloo Bridge.

“When he moved back to London, he stayed with me while we sorted out a room. He was a local councillor in Hackney and we went to the same church. He was at my wedding and is godfather to our oldest son.

“He’s moved to France, so now we’re out of touch. But we’re always pleased to see each other and we’ll have a good chat and catch up. I do feel proud of the series and it’s been a great thing to be a part of – it’s bittersweet that it’s coming to an end.”

"They've been in my life for 40 years, they're family"

It wasn’t until I sat through the first cut of one of the first programmes in the new series that it hit me and I literally wept buckets. I wept and wept. The director, Asif Kapadia, came over and held my hand and asked, “Is it all right?” And I said, “It’s more than all right, it’s 42 years of my life.”

It has a resonance with the audience that nothing else has because all the people in the show are you and me. Part of the success of the series was down to [long-running director] Michael Apted being able to ask tough questions, and because everyone had known him since they were seven, it wasn’t like a stranger walking into their house.

Michael and I knew each other incredibly well, having worked together for 40 years and having been real friends and soulmates. As the series went on and he realised how close some of the families were to each other, it made him more aware of where he felt his deficiencies were as a father.

For a lot of men from his background and education, it was all about career and all about being a success. It didn’t really matter that he never saw his kids and didn’t do the cooking and washing up - none of that was important. And that was a reflection of the period he was part of in 1964, and that’s why there were only four girls in the programme and 10 boys.

I think it’s absolutely right to finish now. It’s a perfect ending and has a beautiful symmetry - 7 to 70. We all felt we didn’t want to show people dropping dead - suddenly there were two, suddenly there was one. No one wanted that, so we felt that this had to be the last series. Suzy said that when I talked to her four years ago, “I think we should close the book.”

I’m not sad because it’s beautiful and I think it does credit to all the people who have been involved in it. I will never lose touch with them, they’ve been in my life for 40 years. They’re my family.

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70 Up: The Final Chapter is on Tuesday 15 September at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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