Seven Up!

[XFool]

Up documentary series voted most influential UK TV show of last 50 years

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/12/up-documentary-series-voted-most-influential-uk-tv-show-of-last-50-years

Programme that follows the lives of 14 children at seven-year intervals tops Broadcasting Press Guild’s 50th anniversary chart

[bungeejumper]

Well deserved. A riveting series that proved to be full of surprises. I must get round to watching it again some time.

Spoiler (although not really) - the middle-class kids who seemed best placed for the future didn't always follow through, to put it mildly. Whereas some of the poorer and less confident ones went on to become quite eminent in later life, not least by dint of their personalities. Meanwhile, some others from modest backgrounds who wanted nothing much more than to get a job in Woolworths and have a family ended up with arguably more satisfaction than their more affluent peers.

The only thing that ever worried me was that these young people were inevitably going to be influenced by their TV stardom in one way or another. And having the TV cameras coming back at them every seven years was likely to become both stressful and intrusive as they tackled the challenges of adolescence. How would we have felt about that prospect? I don't think I'd have wanted it, for a start.

BJ

[redsturgeon]

I've always watched this with interest since I am the same age as the participants.

John