70 Up - ITV teaser for "later this year"

[Rostio]

This looks fabulous!

My favourites Neil, Symon and Bruce are mentioned, Suzy and Charles return to the programme and tributes to the lovely Nick, Lynn and of course Michael Apted.

Placemark here for sharing the latest news?

Why is it shocking to be told you are going to the best schools and the best universities then moving into one of the best paid jobs. I would think it was quite reassuring. They aren’t being told they were following father to the coal mine

I think you’d have ended up with a half mauled (leg or back broken etc ) rabbit which you’d then have to take off somewhere to despatch - better the dog did it quickly

They were all so awkward at 14 ,avoiding looking at the camera - I think today’s 14s might be a bit more confident

I think it just goes to show that documentary-making, even "real life" footage, once it's edited, gets given whatever the narrative the director wants to make of it.

That's definitely true and yet all the participants seemed to love Michael Apted and most kept returning. So they clearly can't have been too upset about his editing. They do seem to have quite robust conversations with him, particularly the women.

If you advance search on 49up in 2005, you can see the chats about it then. That's interesting itself as so much talk about "forgetting to tape it"😂

Because the children appeared to have been given no choice in the matter. Telling a seven year old that their whole life is mapped out, including their future career by their parents is shocking in this day and age. I'm sure it was common in those circles , and still is. However it's pretty unpalatable to watch.

Someone mentioned up thread that there were interviews with the participants in the Sunday Times last week. Has anyone got a share token?

Well maybe in this day age it is but this was 196?

@Fondmemories

The Seven Up! kids are 70. What have they learnt about life?

https://www.thetimes.com/article/8ac346c7-501a-4b1b-970a-79f473cdf2a2?shareToken=d7b32565191986821694652d51d2cdb9

I think that’s a bit of a reach about their motives for most of them returning re Apted. Neil implied in an interview that money was a reason why he’s kept returning (and could be for others). He also wasn’t happy with how he was portrayed. Suzy said that Nick’s participation whilst he was dying forced her to “get a grip” to get involved in this series. I think the biggest factor is probably wanting to be part of TV history.

I watched all the earlier episodes , and thought it was interesting that the narrator of the first series said there were 20 children.
One of them was a girl, who was interviewed beside Tony, and just didn’t appear in later series, but there must have been 5 others, who you can see indirectly in footage at the zoo, party and playground, but never get interviewed.

I wonder if that group included more girls, and if footage exists of them being interviewed at 7, but it never got used.
I suppose it wasn’t originally planned to follow up 7 years later, so then because they didn’t really appear in the first one they obviously weren’t approached later.
I wonder how they feel about having missed out!

Thank you!

This was definitely my experience as a child in a suburban not posh state primary school.
it stood me in very good stead!

What if they wanted to pursue an interest in the Arts or Engineering? Or teaching, I think Bruce said his parents weren't impressed with that.

I agree with a pp who thought it was horrible to have your parents plan your life like that.

I'm a year old than them and it wasn't normal to have your life mapped out in the circles I grew up in (state school, Grammar school, university). The very idea would have been horrific to me.

I must be very lucky then never to have been kicked, punched or hit by anyone, pupil or teacher, at school between 1959 and 1973. It was not the ethos in any school I taught in either.

I don't think it was uncommon in that world (private school, uni, career in the city/ forces/law). In the same way generations of families worked in the same factories etc.

I'm not sure it's something to get hung up on, it's just how it was in some families, it's also of course what the editing chose to show - in the same way we see the quote from Lynn that she wanted to work in Woolworths.

I'd rather see the expectation of progression that what was common at the time the expectation that girls wouldn't do very much.

That's why i think there is a whole cohort missing - lower middle/middle class girls like me who went to Grammar school and definitely were expected to do something with their lives, something better than their parents at least. But we did have the choice of which University/Polytechnic or Teacher training college to go to. Interestingly when I talked to my fellow 6th formers (male and female) in the very early 70s about our plans for the future the idea of earning huge amounts of money didn't come into it. We all wanted to follow our interests.

Remember that our parents had lived through WW2 and were full of ideals about making the world a better place with more opportunities. Some, like my Dad had received training in the Forces allowing them to come out with better prospects. Some took advantage of government help to go to University which they might not otherwise have had. The more I think about it the more surprised I am that the original producers only really thought about 'rich' and 'poor' and not about the massive changes in society already going on in the 50s and 60s.

That's very true @CaptainMyCaptain. It was University ( the school didn't care which one or which subject) or Teacher Training College at my High School. I went to a state school and ended up at Uni besides girls from private schools who were doing medicine and architecture. None of those options were ever mentioned to us but then there was no career advice as such in my school. You were just told Mr Rankin was in charge. That part must have come from their parents and/or private schools. 3 girls from different cities but all private. This was early 1970s.

What you say about career choices is true. I chose to be a teacher and have no regrets but there were lots of possibilities I didn't consider because I didn't know about them.

sorry, I meant that I didn’t get kicked/punched, etc because I could stand up for myself!

Love this series, we watched them all during lockdown so excited for the update (although i didn’t know about Nick 😢thought he was still alive by how they ended the first episode?)
I feel the happiest two were Symon and Sue.Both seemed to be very happy with their families, careers. Made me laugh about Sues husband cringing at the clip of him with love heart eyes at the karaoke!
I also always felt Lynne had a generally happy life although quite funny how miserable Lynne always looked in marked contrast with what she was saying. I know she died before 63 though i think? Her mum had died around this age i think as well?
Symon really overcame the odds, seemed really balanced and content despite what must have been a brutal childhood- was discussing this with dh…what factors made things work out well for him? and Paul…odds are stacked against kids in care and both would have had attachment issues from childhood yet seemed v resilient?
I found Peter really entertaining in the earlier ones so looking forward to his catch up- he was a fed up teacher who then formed a band i think …probably the most relatable to me
Neil seems to have turned out just about ok although as others have said clearly some trauma between 7 and 14…or possibly autism and depression. He reminds me a little of my late dad.
I have less interest in all the upper class kids - kind of assumed they would all do well which they did. Suzy at 21 was interesting - looked a bit off the rails, then the next episode she looked like Princess Diana in a terrible jumper!
Interesting with the ages, time period and how different it would be if different age range- i think apart from Neil everyone got married and had kids, unlikely thar would be the case if filmed now

The questions are awful. Talk about making people feel insecure.

I'm just watching the latest episode now. Still feel for Neil.

Apted was privately educated, went to Cambridge, quickly went up the career ladder at Granada, and directed his first film at 31. If he did devise the questions, I think that to some extent he would have been seeing the participants through his own lens, and as Neil said, had an agenda.

I don't think I found it necessary though snd I dudnt see it going on around me. As a teacher I know there were children who tried to hurt other children but it wasn't normal and it was dealt with. I mean, its very difficult to get children excluded and they still have to educated somewhere, there are also children who are impervious to punishments but it was never accepted as normal and it was certainly not encouraged.