Line #65 Series/Up


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/upseries_flat.jpg]]
2
3	->''Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.''
4	-->'''-- Jesuit maxim'''
5
6	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 made every subsequent instalment over the decades. With Apted having passed away in 2021, it remains to be seen whether the series will continue.
7
8	[[AC:The films so far are:]]
9	* ''Seven Up!'' (1964)
10	* ''7 Plus Seven'' (1970)
11	* ''21 Up'' (1977)
12	* ''28 Up'' (1984)
13	* ''35 Up'' (1991)
14	* ''42 Up'' (1998)
15	* ''49 Up'' (2005)
16	* ''56 Up'' (2012)
17	* ''63 Up'' (2019)
18
19	[[AC:The people featured are:]]
20	* Three upper-class boys from a posh pre-preparatory school in Kensington: John Brisby, Charles Furneaux and Andrew Brackfield.
21	* Suzanne (Suzy) Lusk, also from a wealthy family, attended a posh private school
22	* Bruce Balden, also privately educated
23	* Two middle-class boys from Liverpool, Neil Hughes and Peter Davies
24	* Nicholas (Nick) Hitchon, who grew up on a small farm in Yorkshire
25	* Three girls from working-class London: Jackie Bassett, Lynn Johnson (died in 2013) and Susan (Sue) Davis
26	* Tony Walker, from the East End of London
27	* Symon Basterfield and Paul Kligerman, from a children's home in London. Symon was the only non-white person featured; he had a black father and white mother.
28	----
29	!!Tropes associated with the ''Up'' Series:
30
31	* BoisterousBruiser: Tony and Symon, aged 7 at least.
32	* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Ten of the 14 were Londoners or boarding in London when the show was made.
33	* BritishBrevity: Probably the best example: ten episodes in 42 years...
34	* TheBusCameBack: John didn't appear in ''28 Up'' but returned for later editions to publicise his Bulgarian charities. Symon missed ''35 Up'' as he [[spoiler:was going through a messy divorce]]; he returned for the later versions.
35	** Peter dropped out after ''28 Up'' after his comments about Margaret Thatcher cost him his job. He's finally returning in ''56 Up''.
36	* BusCrash: Apted would often talk about how he hoped to die before any of the participants, so the series wouldn't have to deal with their deaths. Sadly it didn't happen, as Lynn died a year after ''56 Up''.
37	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
38	** Charles dropped out after ''21 Up'' and never returned. He attempted to sue Apted for using some of the footage of him in later films. Since then, any photos showing him with the other children have his face blurred out.
39	** Nick's wife refused to be interviewed after ''28 Up'' after many fans said she didn't deserve him.
40	* 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. It still doesn't change her generally negative view toward the series, though, and by ''63 Up'', she finally chooses not to participate.
41	* DisappearedDad: Symon had one, leading to him being determined to be present in his own kids' lives even after his first wife divorced him.
42	* {{Documentary}}: A pretty unique one, following a set of people through their entire lives, from when they were little schoolchildren to retirement age.
43	* DriverOfABlackCab: Tony
44	* 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 complete first 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.
45	* FirstNameBasis: The participants' surnames are never mentioned, except for Neil, who mentions his full name in ''7 Up'' while talking about a teacher who often gets "cross" with him.
46	* FollowTheLeader: Many versions followed, in the USSR, USA, South Africa, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Netherlands...
47	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: ''Seven Plus 7'' has perhaps the most memorable shot of the whole series, where Suzy's dog chases down and kills a rabbit in the middle of her interview, then presents her with it. Complete with Apted saying "I think your dog has something for you."
48	* TheGoodOldBritishComp: Jackie and Susan attend one.
49	* HesAllGrownUp: Most notable with Nick, who goes from a quiet and shy shepherd at 7 to an upbeat and gregarious nuclear physicist and college professor as an adult. His first interview in ''21 Up'' even has him admit that he went out of his way to resolve to become more outgoing when he left home.
50	* IrregularSeries: Each release comes seven years after the previous one.
51	* LondonGangster: Apted suspected that Tony would become one, and filmed him driving around "rough" areas in ''21 Up'' for use in later films. However, Tony went on to achieve law-abiding success.
52	* LongRunner: The first film debuted in 1964 and it has returned in some form every seven years since then.
53	* MustHaveNicotine: Suzy, in ''21 Up.''
54	* MyNaymeIs: Symon
55	* TheNapoleon: A non-malicious example can be found in Tony, who remains noticeably short throughout his life and is infallibly scrappy and talkative.
56	* OneSteveLimit: Averted by Susan "Sue" Davis and Suzanne "Suzy" Lusk (and Susan Kligerman, Paul's wife), and again by Sue ''Davis'' and Peter ''Davies''. Also averted in ''28 Up'', where Nick is married to a woman named Jackie. (They eventually divorced, however, and Jackie Hitchon chose not to appear in ''35 Up'' and ''42 Up'' due to negative fan feedback toward her.)
57	* ParentalAbandonment: At 7, Symon and Paul were in a children's home; Symon's mother was clinically depressed; Paul's father's reasons are not given.
58	* PickyEater: Paul, at age 7, says he doesn't want to get married because he doesn't want his wife feeding him stuff he doesn't like -- vegetables, or "greens," for instance.
59	* PornStache: Paul, from ''28 Up'' onwards.
60	* 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 toward the end of ''21 Up'', Lynn drops an actual F-bomb while quoting one of her teachers.
61	* SequelEscalation: The films get noticeably longer with each entry, as a natural consequence of the children growing and developing more complex characters and lives.
62	* ShrinkingViolet: Nick and Suzy in ''Seven Plus 7'' make almost no eye contact with the camera.
63	* TokenMinority: Symon is the only non-white (although, in fairness, 1 in 14 is far higher than the actual proportion of non-whites in 1960s England).
64	** To a lesser degree, the female participants fit here as well. Only 4 of the 14 children were girls -- while the programme aimed to show children from different ''class'' backgrounds, equal ''gender'' representation was not particularly considered in 1964. Apted has stated since that one of his regrets is that they did not take feminism into account, and consequently included fewer girls and did not select them on the basis of any possible careers they might choose.
65	* 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, but still ostensibly an average 14-year-old -- 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''.
66	* WalkingTheEarth: Neil, to an extent, in ''28 Up'', where he has no permanent residence and thus is constantly moving from place to place.
67	* WildCard: Neil counts as this to a degree. While for the most part all of the children followed through with Apted's expectation that they would remain within the boundaries of their social classes throughout their lives, he ended up going completely OffTheRails and turning his back on his middle-class suburban upbringing to live as a squatter. As a result, he tends to be found in entirely new and unexpected circumstances each time the documentary returns to check up on him.
68	* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Bruce has had an uncanny ability to sound incredibly profound as far back as age 7.

Context Series / Up