70 Up hailed ‘one of the greatest TV films of all time’ as finale airs after 62 years

The television institution Seven Up! aired the first part of its final chapter this week, six decades on from the first.

The programme first aired in 1964 as a one-off special from Granada Television, focusing on a group of seven-year-olds from vastly different backgrounds, offering a snapshot of the British class system.

The first series was directed by Paul Almond, with a young Michael Apted on board as a researcher and part of the casting team, who selected the children featured. 

It went on to become a groundbreaking series, checking in with the same group every seven years to see how they and the country around them had changed. 

This week we return to the group, who are now in their seventies, for the final time. The ITV two-part documentary, titled 70 Up, features the twelve surviving cast members of the original 14. 

After Apted – who directed every episode from 1970 to 2019 – died in 2021, renowned documentary-maker Asif Kapadia came on board to produce the final instalment.

It had been thought the series would end with 63 Up, but when participant Nick Hitchon was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he called the broadcaster to request a final interview. 

Those scenes are movingly included in the latest 70 Up instalment, after he died in 2023, 10 years after fellow Up cast member Lynn Johnson’s death. 

The television experiment’s swansong aired its first episode on Wednesday, with many online labelling it ‘the end of an era’. 

Reacting to the episode on social media, Conor Holt tweeted: ‘This incredible, decades-in-the-making project is one of the great cinematic achievements.’

There was agreement from Roger Mosey, who described it as ‘one of the all-time great series of TV films’, adding: ‘Michael Apted asked some tough questions, but they’re so illuminating about the lives of a generation.’

Ahead of the first episode, Lee Wellings wrote: ‘The greatest television programme of all time is about to end. It’s going to be emotional.’

As for whether there could be more of the Up series to come, Jackie Bassett has thrown cold water on the suggestion. 

She told the BBC: ‘I’m not sure any of us will have the energy for it, to be honest. I think this is the right time to stop, I really do.

‘70 has got a symmetry to it. We started at seven, we finished at 70 – and that’s it.’

70 Up is available to watch on ITVX, with part two airing Tuesday at 9pm on ITV1.