Documentary Series Hailed as ‘Greatest Ever’ To End After 62 Years

62 years after the British documentary series Up first hit TV screens, the critically acclaimed project will come to an end.

First airing in 1964, Seven Up! followed the lives of ten boys and four girls aged seven, from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. The premise, taken from the Jesuit mantra "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man," aimed to catch up with the children every seven years to analyse and document how their lives have changed since the previous installment, and their aspirations and predictions from the future first made during their documented childhood.

Seven Up! was directed by Canadian director Michael Almond, but every subsequent episode of the series, from 7 Plus Seven in 1970, 21 Up in 1977, and beyond, was directed by British filmmaker Michael Apted, who died in 2021. The final edition, 70 Up, will be directed by Asif Kapadia, best known for the Oscar-winning Amy Winehouse documentary Amy (2015). 70 Up is set for release later this year, and with Kapadia wrapping up Apted's decades of work on the project.

According to a press statement by ITV, the original broadcaster of the series, the final chapter of the documentary will focus on nine of the original cast members, who have been part of the project since 1964. Sadly, not all participants from the initial episode will be there for the final episode. Charles Furneaux left the documentary series after 21 Up, declining to participate any further. Lynn Johnson and Nick Hitchon will also be absent, having died in 2013 and 2023, respectively.

The Up series has been hailed as a groundbreaking development in the history of television and is often named as the most influential series of all time, setting the standard for longitudinal television projects and in-depth documentaries that are now a staple of modern TV. The late film critic Roger Ebert named Up on his top 10 list of greatest films of all time, and was awarded the title of most influential British TV series by the Broadcasting Press Guild.

Up has also been cited as an influence on Richard Linklater's Oscar-winning film Boyhood (2014), as well as the 1998 hit film The Truman Show. The series was even parodied on a 2007 episode of The Simpsons, as a prime example of long-term documentaries that capture the changes throughout the journey of human life.