56UP is coming back on the 13th May (7UP series)

[margerykemp]

I am so excited.

I hope most of them are participating.

Crikey - I watched the original plus one after (they were 14?) in sociology classes at college many moons ago. How exciting - I shall be watching.

Trying to remember the kids. V small (premature?) girl with v blond hair and no siblings, naughty boy from w/class background, lots of fun. Seriously, my memory is shot to bits - remind me??

Tiddley - are you thinking of Child of our time with Dr Robert Winston by any chance? Think the premature girl was in that you see.

Excellent, thank you, I shall look forward to this.

Oh of course wintera - you are right, that's where I recall the young girl (what a sweetie).

7up is a bit of a blurred memory, though I so remember being very absorbed in class. I shall certainly look out for it (thanks for bringing to my attention) and I hope am sure it'll all come flooding back...

My daughter loves watching the original 7 up prog, it really makes her laugh. When you first see little Neil skipping to school my daughter always says 'he looks like a happy little fella' which always touches me, because obviously Neil's story changes a great deal after that first episode.

Really looking forward to this.

Trying to recall all the characters.

The ones that stick in my head are Neil and the kid that wanted to be a jockey and ended up driving a cab...

The back progs are all on youtube - I spent hours watching them again

I've even got the book that accompanied the series

The book!

May now lose hours watching the old ones. I remember so clearly watching this at school Neil just breaks my heart but reading the above link it seems quite good news for him.

Yes, ICTC, it was a lost weekend in my case, but DS joined me for the 7 and 14ups!

And Neil's story was heartbreaking, though the 49up was much more positive. I just keep on wondering what happened in his childhood that resulted in such a huge turnaround, or was it a pre-existing mental health issue that came out in puberty?

was she not the one who became twice divorced and was quite critical of the series/producer? Of the girls' stories hers seems the most interesting.

One thing Michael Apsted says in the book is that he regreats not doing more girls, as the position of women changed so much over the period but he only had a very small sample (the one very posh girl and the 3 working class friends).

I think the more modern ones havehad a more gender balance. I remember the Russian one being good. Is there a younger version in the UK?

It's good this is still going, it's a shame 'child of our time' seems to have been ditched. I think about thise kids sometimes and hope they are all doing well.

Has it been ditched, Margery?
I know at least one of the children needed to drop out.

Yes I noticed how few girls there were - just shows how unimportant/of less interest women must have beenperceived to be, back in 1964.

The chain smoking cynical girl was actually the one known as the 'posh girl' of the series - Susie. She was in a bad way because of the breakdown of her parents marriage I think. She was very different at 28 after meeting her husband etc. Although she did say in 49 up that she might not be back for 56 up. The lady who had a row with Michael Apted last time was Jackie, one of the three girls from a 'working class' background. But even though they rowed, she didn't say anything about not being on the show again.