History Series / UP

* AmbiguousDisorder: Neil shows signs of suffering from depression and anxiety.

The ''Up'' Series comprises (at present) nine television documentaries following 14 English people's lives from the age of 7 upward. Beginning as an episode of the [[Creator/{{ITV}} Granada]] Television ''World In Action'' series in 1964, "Seven Up!" aimed to show the different attitudes and prospects of children from different social classes. It proved so popular that the children were revisited seven years later, and every seven years after that. Creator/MichaelApted was involved with the original programme as a young researcher and chose the child participants, and has made every subsequent instalment over the decades since.

* TheSixties: ''Seven Up!''
* TheSeventies: ''7 Plus Seven'' and ''21 Up''
* TheEighties: ''28 Up''
** EightiesHair: Quite a bit of it.
* TheNineties: ''35 Up'' and ''42 Up''
* TurnOfTheMillennium: ''49 Up''
* TheNewTens: ''56 Up'' and ''63 Up''
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* PrecisionFStrike: Bruce, of all people, drops a minor version in ''Seven Plus 7'' when he talks about most TV programs being "crap." Later, in a scene that was not shown on ''21 Up'' but appeared in later installments as archival footage, Lynn drops an actual F-bomb while quoting one of her teachers.

The ''Up'' Series comprises (at present) nine television documentaries following 14 English people's lives from the age of 7 upward. Beginning as an episode of the [[Creator/{{ITV}} Granada]] Television ''World In Action'' series in 1964, "Seven Up!" aimed to show the different attitudes and prospects of children from different social classes. It proved so popular that the children were revisited seven years later, and every seven years after that. Film director Michael Apted (''Film/GorillasInTheMist, Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough, Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'') was involved with the original programme as a young researcher and chose the child participants, and has made every subsequent instalment over the decades since.

* UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion: The original documentary's hypothesis, based on the quote at the top of this page, was that the UK's class structure is so strong a person's life path would be set at birth: at seven years old, the children's lives would already be representative of what they would grow up into. The assumption is that those born into the 'higher' classes of society will do better for themselves than those from the 'lower', who will struggle to progress up the social ladder. (The producer of the original programme had at one point thought to line 20 children up on the street, have three of them step forward and narrate ''"of these twenty children, only three will be successful"''... an idea which was not used, [[ValuesDissonance perhaps mercifully in hindsight]].) The idea of class immobility held up in most, but not all, cases as the series has progressed: the children from the working classes have by and large remained in those circles, though Tony seems to have become more middle class.

* FunnyAfro: Symon sports one as a young man.

* YourCheatingHeart: Tony admitted he was feeling tempted to cheat on his wife at 35, and by 42 he had actually done it. The marriage survived, and both he and his wife are remarkably willing to talk about it to the cameras.

* DefrostingIceQueen: The upper-class Suzy is quite stoic and somber even in the original film, but becomes more relaxed as she enters into middle age.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: A rather tragic example with Neil, who, at age 7, was the picture of a CheerfulChild. In ''Seven Plus 7'', he was noticeably more reserved -- a fact he lampshades a few installments later. By ''21 Up'' he had become a disillusioned young adult who had dropped out of college to live as a squatter. He continued to spiral in and out of self-destructive depression for many years before finally finding some fulfillment in local politics by ''42 Up''.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: A rather tragic example with Neil, who, at age 7, was the picture of a CheerfulChild. By ''21 Up'' he had become a disillusioned young adult who had dropped out of college to live as a squatter. He continued to spiral in and out of self-destructive depression for many years before finally finding some fulfillment in local politics by ''42 Up''.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted by Susan "Sue" Davis and Suzanne "Suzy" Lusk (and Susan Kligerman, Paul's wife), and again by Sue ''Davis'' and Peter ''Davies''.

* PrecisionFStrike: Bruce, of all people, drops a minor version in ''Seven Plus 7'' when he talks about most TV programs being "crap." Later, in a scene that was not shown on ''21 Up'' but appeared in later installments, Lynn drops an actual F-bomb while quoting one of her teachers.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In ''7 Up'' and ''Seven Plus 7'', Nick (William Nicholas Hitchon) is referred to by his complete middle name. Meanwhile, Sue (Susan) and Lynn (Lindsay) are likewise called by their full names in the first two films. Also, in ''7 Up'', the narrator calls Jackie by her nickname, but Sue and Lynn both call her Jacqueline.

* FirstNameBasis: The participants' surnames are never mentioned.