Why a 55-year-long documentary series deserves an ending

For more than half a century, Michael Apted and his documentary crew followed the lives of a group of ordinary British schoolchildren. Then he died.

Michael Apted, who died on January 9, spent 55 years following the same group of people from the age of seven. Getty

Ben Lawrence

Jan 16, 2021 – 12.31am

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I want to be a jockey when I grow up. Yeah, I want to be a jockey when I grow up."

In 1964, these words from seven-year-old Tony Walker, a perky little scamp from the East End, caught the imagination of TV viewers on Seven Up!, a special edition of World in Action. The four-second footage, in grainy monochrome, has become a symbol – not just of youthful aspiration, but of a changing Britain, too. For that programme – which evolved into the Up series and has followed Tony and the other children ever since – became TV's greatest social experiment.

The Telegraph London