What did you make of 70up doc?

[WhatTheCatHeard]

Made he feel like the class system is still a huge thing in the uk, it's just alot more covert now
It's rampant in the top unis in the UK, say the top 10/20
That's where you see it

The interviewer was really dreadful, and I'm not sure if I feel sorry for some of them fur feing exposed and picked over they way people are on this

I enjoyed it, and found it sad in parts, but also uplifting. Some of the questions were a little personal but I think without them, what would it have shown? To me it was all about the different personalities, their choices, opportunities taken (or not) life experiences good and bad, and how they overcame difficulty. Things we don't know will have had an impact on them. Their parents, siblings, friends and colleagues. It was a snapshot of their lives.

Yes I do agree it showed well, that alot if how you feel your life has turned out is often just you're perception and how you respond ir react to what life throws at you

Even nick who was a scientist which would be considered a good job, in comparison, he seems like a great bloke but his life's work didn't really go anywhere did it

Actaully make me think of the lyrics in the sunscreen song, inthe end the race is long and it's only against yourself

How do you know his work didn't go anywhere?
I had the impression that he did a lot of good, and probably progressed thinking on nuclear fusion. He seemed to me a very enthusiastic and driven character. Sadly illness got in the way.

I thought he pretty much said that himself ?
Not slagging him off at all just trying to say that even if you do something most consider good it can still come to nothing.

I thought it was quite poetic how he reflected back that thus doc was kinda like watching a flower bloom and then decay

I think he perhaps kept going for so long was because te was determined to finish thus, that also shows the power of human spirit

What did you make of John's comments about London/East end not being what it used to be, then being accused of being racist?

I don't think it's right to say Nick's work came to nothing- his research was important as was his teaching. But the overwhelming majority of us are not Newton or Einstein, we're not going to change the world in some dramatic way and that seems like the wrong measure for whether a life has been well lived- "the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts".

I don't think we are going to see the nuclear fusion solution in my lifetime, it has been ongoing for years. Perhaps that goal is very ambitious for anyone.
Think Nick was well loved and successful as a professor and he wrote books. Also, seemed quite self deprecating.

Would I be able to enjoy it without knowing the previous installments? It sounds really interesting but do I have to start at the beginning?

Oh Nick achieved so much :
From there he went to Merton College, Oxford, to study physics, gaining his DPhil at the age of 23. He was about to make a major change, as he moved to the US in 1982 with his first wife, Jacqui Bush, to continue his work on nuclear fusion at the University
He remained at the university’s Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering for four decades, becoming a full professor in 1994 and department chair from 1999 to 2002. He was the author of more than 100 articles and three books in his specialist field.

I thought that John was typecast as the posh boy early on. He was a product of his upbringing (as are we all) and he realised that and rightly thought it unfair. I liked him a lot, you could see that he was a highly intelligent boy with a very strong sense of justice. As he revealed last night, he worked some high profile legal cases, and instrumental in getting the Maxwell pensions sorted for all those newspaper workers. One of the good guys.

Do you mean Tony?
he wasn’t wrong the East End is not full of cockneys anymore.
i think at the time that was filmed any white person who spoke out against mass immigration was accused of being racist.
i would have been very angry if I was Tony being accused of that.

@deplorabelle all of the series are available on itv+. They do quite a lot of "re-capping" so you could probably watch 63 up first and still enjoy it. The first one 7up is only about 45 minutes long, so you should watch that. They are all so lovely at 7. I'm tempted to re watch the lot.

I would take issue with that. Ok his dream of a huge new discovery or whatever didn't happen but he taught and inspired lots of future scientists. That's a legacy.

I felt so sorry for Neil. Such an angelic looking and sensitive young boy. A depressed and aimless adult. Heartbreaking.

I think the programme is very much a snapshot in time. For example Neil seemed abit down on how his life had gone, whereas other times he's seemed quite positive despite his struggles with mental health. And if the programme had visited him in a years time he could be in a totally different place mentally. But because this is likely to be the last programme we are left with the impression that he thinks his life went badly.

I don't know really. I found it a bit uncomfortable in places and I also found it lacked any real depth. It was just very quick snapshots of people. I'll be 70 soon myself so I did find it interesting to see them in the 60's wearing the sort of clothes I did, and playing on the perilous "adventure playground". That all brought back memories for me.

I was disappointed with the 70Up episodes. Far too many clips of previous episodes, which I've already seen many times (as those episodes repeat numerous clips as well), and not enough on how their lives currently are or what they've learned over time.

Though saying that, the reflections which were included were touching. I loved what one participant said about how rare it is to see lives shown longitudinally, the big picture way, instead of just day-to-day as we do with everyone else around us (I think it was Nick who said that - I always found him the most insightful).

I also liked the emphasis on how it was family at the end of the day which was the most meaningful to the participants, not material success, although I don't think this was explored as much as it could have been. I got the feeling that the responses were either heavily clipped or that the participants didn't really want to go into much depth about their personal lives and those of their family members.

It was poignant when Neil said he thought anyone who said they were happy were deluding themselves. I feel sorry he has struggled with his mental health so much.

Yes sorry you are correct it was tony

Actually, I think it pretty much proved the point: the wealthy kids stayed wealthy. The others mostly made good lives for themselves but none of them achieved financial equality.