Jackie Bassett and Peter Davies, two of the most outspoken participants in the long-running Seven Up! television experiment, say they would still do it all over again as the final episodes air. Both praised new director Asif Kapadia, with Jackie describing his arrival as “like a breath of fresh air”.
The series began in 1964, when 14 seven-year-olds were chosen to take part in a TV experiment that would follow them every seven years to see how their different starts in life affected them. Most of the participants have now reached the age of 70. Two have died, along with the show’s long-term director Michael Apted, who later built a career making films in Hollywood.
Peter's difficult return
Peter, a left-wing former teacher from Liverpool, was working at a comprehensive school in 1984 when 28 Up aired. He was vilified by the right-wing press for calling the Thatcher government “the most incompetent, uncaring bloody shower we've ever had” and pulled out for many years, not returning until 56 Up, when he realised it was a good way to promote the music he was releasing.
“I think for a long time I felt cynical about the programme and the way in which individual stories were shaped,” he says now. “I'm thinking particularly back to when I did 28 Up - I think one of the headlines was, 'Would you let this man teach your children?' At the time I was quite shocked because I'd never experienced anything like that - the sheer level of vitriol involved in some of the comments. I was quite taken aback.”
He held Michael partly responsible for how he was portrayed. “I actually spoke to Michael and said, ‘You know, you've really condensed me there almost to a caricature—the angry young man from the North of England.’” But “on balance” he would still do it all again because of how it turned out. “It's not a decision I'd have taken lightly because there has been a downside as well.” That downside is the fame the show brought. “I've found that intrusion difficult at times,” he admits.
Jackie's new life
Jackie has left Scotland, where she brought up her three sons, and moved to the Norfolk coast. “I love my children, I love my grandchildren, but it was time for me to have a life and that's what I'm doing now,” she declares. “It only took me 65 years to get there, but I'm finally pleasing myself.” She agrees the public’s reaction can feel like a lot. “The thing is, they see you for 15 minutes on that screen and suddenly believe they know everything about you. And that's ridiculous, as most normal people would understand.”
Peter feels the show’s aim of showing the class system evolved into “something much bigger” but still missed certain areas. “I think something they missed was the emergence of a new lower middle class perhaps - people like myself whose parents were working class, but who were able, by virtue of a properly resourced welfare state and state education system, to move out of that background, go to university, change our lives.”
Memories of Michael Apted
Before Michael’s death in 2021, Jackie enjoyed sometimes putting him in his place, famously challenging him on camera in 2005 for asking the women about marriage and children rather than anything else. Later, she would point blank refuse to speak about certain topics.
“He never saw us, never had contact with us. So he'd come back from America to do a film with me, or Peter, or whoever, and he just sat down and started throwing questions at you. And sometimes he didn't like the fact that we didn't want to answer them. I was not going to talk about something that would affect my family, my children - so I basically just told him no. He didn't like it, but there wasn't much he could do about it.”
That said, she also had warm feelings for him, knowing he gave her opportunities she wouldn’t otherwise have had. “I probably would do it all over again yes,” she confesses. “Because Michael opened up a whole different world to me with the screenings of his films and things like that. Obviously there's points on the programme that I've not enjoyed, usually because I sort of opened my mouth without engaging my brain, but I think I would do it.”
Criticism of the original selection
She thinks it was outrageous to have only four girls alongside ten boys - herself and two friends Lynn and Sue, all from the same primary school in working class East London, along with solo upper-class Suzy. “The quote wasn't ‘show me the boy and I'll give you the man,’ it just says ‘give me the child at seven’,” Jackie points out. “I think it was partly because at that time women were mostly at home looking after children. Women didn't have careers - you may have had one or two, but they were few and far between. It was just, ‘well, we'll keep it to a minimum because they're not going to go very far and they're not going to do very much.’ But they knew they made a mistake. They really did.”
Peter says Michael actually admitted he’d got that wrong. “It was outrageously sexist, but this was the early 60s and people behaved in outrageously sexist ways all the time.”
Emotional finale ahead
They have not yet seen the final films and know watching themselves for a final time will feel emotional. “I've been told to take plenty of tissues. I have no idea what to expect, and it's probably going to feel strange,” Jackie says. Peter believes it will be “momentous”, reasoning: “It's just the culmination of so much, isn't it?”
The pair enormously enjoyed making the double-bill 70 Up finale with new director Asif Kapadia. “I think it had become a little formulaic,” Peter says. “So having someone new on board was going to shake things up a bit. And I think he did. Some of the questions he asked were difficult to answer, but they were interesting and made me work a bit harder.”
Jackie concurs. “I'll second that. I think it had got very staid and in its box, and Asif came in like a breath of fresh air. It was far more relaxed, nowhere near as formal. I think it actually should have worked pretty well, fingers crossed.”
They feel now is the right time to pull the plug. “The last thing we want is us all walking in with Zimmer frames or in wheelchairs or whatever age does to us. I think it's very appropriate to end on 70,” Jackie says, laughing: “I have no idea why it fascinates people, not really.”
“It can't go on forever,” Peter agrees. “Two of the cast members have gone, Michael's gone. So yeah, this feels like the right time to end it.”
Seven Up! launched in 1964 with 14 participants - 10 boys and four girls - picked to represent different elements of the UK’s class structure. They are: Andrew Brackfield, Bruce Balden, Charles Furneaux, Jackie Bassett, John Brisby, Lynn Johnson, Nick Hitchon, Paul Kligerman, Peter Davies, Neil Hughes, Sue Davis, Suzy Lusk, Symon Basterfield and Tony Walker. 70 Up: The Final Chapter airs on 15 and 22 September at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.
