Michael Apted (1941 - 2021)

[The Post Office]

Michael Apted died 7th January 2021 aged 79.
Best known for the Up series of TV documentaries following the lives of 14 people every seven years.
He also directed the films "Coal Miner's Daughter", "Gorillas In The Mist" and Bond movie "The World Is Not Enough".
And one of my favs "The Triple Echo" with Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55597263

[Mark]

The "Up" series was an amazing project, and always fascinating to watch.

R.I.P.

[Brock]

What's amazing is that it was never planned as a series - the original "Seven Up" documentary was intended as a one-off. Remarkable for Michael Apted to have stuck with the project for such a long time.

[Mark]

A great legacy, I wonder if it will continue.?

[paul.austin]

a big flaw in the "Up" series is that it needed more girls. And non-whites.

[Brian F]

a big flaw in the "Up" series is that it needed more girls. And non-whites.

I assume the gender/race balance was different when the series started. I have looked at my own primary school group photos There are 28 boys and 11 girls, 31 white 8 non-white in the class and the school was very near Brixton (actually in Railton Road).

[stearn]

Considering Windrush, that is less than I would have expected for non-whites. Obviously not all settled in the area, and Windrush was a major influx so had to be processed in a prepared place, later arrivals were spread out more. When I was at secondary school, there were two black boys and one Chinese girl in my year group - for the entire 5 years, and the two boys were both in 'care', so their families were not local. I think the gender balance was more even, but I can't really remember and don't have photos.

[Brock]

a big flaw in the "Up" series is that it needed more girls. And non-whites.

I assume the gender/race balance was different when the series started.

No it wasn't. They followed the same fourteen people throughout the entire series (though some of them declined to take part in future programmes, and one has died). Only four of them were female, and there was one mixed-race participant. Apted himself said in 2012 that he thought it was a "horrible error" to have so few girls in the original selection.

As I said above, it was never planned as a long-term series - the aim of the original Seven Up! documentary was to examine class immobility, and issues to do with gender and race presumably weren't considered so significant then.

[fatcat]

I thought it started as just another episode of World in Action and at the time a series had not even been thought about..although they planned to revisit it once again in the year 2000 when the kids were adults.

I am sure it was not as simple as it looked on screen and they probably did camera tests on many children to see who would react and be comfortable on camera and 'give' something to the viewers. In the context of the time (compared to today) many people were rather suspicious of ..and uneasy in front of cameras as you can see in old home movies Uncle Birt ducking out of shot or staring into the lens with annoyance.
I don't think it was biased against gender or race...TV loves animated characters and I for one think that if they had found
some others ( whatever their gender/race) in the fast weekly turnaround of a World in Action episode
they would have also been included.




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[stearn]

I thought it started as just another episode of World in Action and at the time a series had not even been thought about..

You're quite right about the origin, I don't know whether there were any plans immediately to follow it up though.

5.5.64

[Brock]

This is getting a little repetitive...

What's amazing is that it was never planned as a series - the original "Seven Up" documentary was intended as a one-off. Remarkable for Michael Apted to have stuck with the project for such a long time.

As I said above, it was never planned as a long-term series - the aim of the original Seven Up! documentary was to examine class immobility, and issues to do with gender and race presumably weren't considered so significant then.

There was no intention to create a follow-up at the time of the original transmission. At all. Even seven years later, when they had the idea for 7 Plus Seven, I don't think they intended to create a long-term series. I think the idea was just to go back and visit the children again to get another snapshot.

If I understand correctly, it wasn't until 21 Up that the focus of the documentaries changed from a political to a more personal one.

[stearn]

My apologies for not reading your posts fully.

I thought it might be fun to add the TV Times listing from World in Action, and my comment about following it up was more to do with when someone thought there was mileage in another, possibly from ratings/reception, rather than it ever being considered as a long running series. Spin offs of any sort were never usually planned from the get-go, it was either because there was a huge reaction to someone or something in a series or something serious happened - the death of a leading actor - and a continuation was required in some other form. Of course, this had quite a gestation period, so even if someone did think, how about another edition, there was nothing to say World In Action would still be going then.

Anyway, here is the Seven Plus Seven listing from 15 Dec 1970:



At least Apted is mentioned in this listing.

[ProfessorP]

What a pity! Could the series even continue now? Maybe a last time as farewell, but the personal bond of decades can't be replaced at will.

I had never made the link until now that the man behind Up! was the same as the Bond movie!

[The Post Office]

Would that be the same Mike Hodges who directed "Get Carter"?

[fatcat]

Would that be the same Mike Hodges who directed "Get Carter"?

According to IMDB ..yes

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388198/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0



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[paul.austin]

One of the lads so hated the jockey clip that he screamed at the telly: "i want to be a cokehead when i grow up!"