The Books of My Life: Seven Up

In 1964 ITV broadcast a documentary called Seven Up!. As Stella Bruzzi notes in her monograph Seven Up (London: BFI, BFI TV Classics series, 2007), Seven Up! was the brainchild of an Australian and a Canadian working in Britain who wanted to explore the impact of class on the present and futures of English girls and boys. To get at the impact of class on English youth the makers of Seven Up! chose ten males and four women, some from the upper class, some from the middle class, the class the Up Series celebrates, claims Bruzzi, and some from the working class, and one minority. "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man", Seven Up!, quoting Ignatius of Loyola, declared. The fourteen were asked questions, some where shown at play, some at school, and all were brought together at the end of the 40 minute long "episode" at the zoo so that the camera and the voice of god narrator could "observe" how the fourteen interacted with each other.

As Bruzzi notes, Seven Up! was initially a one off. ITV, however, decided to revisit the participants in a second installment in the series in 1970, Seven Plus 7. Since then ITV and Michael Apted, one of the researchers in Seven Up! and now the chief interviewer and director starting with the third installment in the series, have revisited as many of the participants who wanted to be participate every seven years in 21 Up (1977), 28 Up (1984), 35 Up (1991), 42 Up (1998), 49 Up (2005), 56 Up (2012), and 62 Up (2019). the most recent installment of the series. As a result, as Bruzzi notes, the Up Series has become one of  the most celebrated and iconic documentaries and perhaps the most celebrated and iconic documentary series ever, has been mimicked by a host of other Up like documentaries, and has influenced a host of documentaries that came after it.

Bruzzi's monograph on the Up Series is a good workmanlike exploration of the series. In her monograph Bruzzi briefly explores the influences on the series, the contextual background to the series, the production of the series, the "participants" in the series, the influence of the series, and the "narrative" structure of the series. Bruzzi's monograph is enhanced by interviews with two of the "children", Michael Apted, and executive producer Claire Lewis.

Bruzzi's monograph puts Up into the context of the realist tradition of documentary cinema with its emphasis on exploring everyday life and the direct documentary tradition. Bruzzi also explores the changes in the series over its 66 year history. Bruzzi argues that the Up Series changed with 28 Up, transforming itself from a series focused collectively on class with most of the interviews conducted along the class based lines of the "children", to one in which interviews were conducted individually with the 'participants. Bruzzi argues that the tragic trajectory of one of the lives of one of the "children", Neil, was one of the main factors for this change to a more individualistic format, as were changes in the television documentary form itself as television documentaries became more focused on the lives of individuals in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Up Series has stuck with this format ever since. As a result of this change from a more collectively focused documentary to a more individualistically focused one, a change marked by a change from the juxtaposition of posh participants to working class "participants to individual interviews, Bruzzi argues, the narrative of the Up Series changed somewhat and, like other documentaries that focused on individual lives, used the individual lives of the "children" to make points about the broader social and cultural contexts of the lives of the "children" As Bruzzi notes, over the years the "children" and particularly Neil, have become kind of "reality" stars and the Up Series became a forerunner and role model of the "reality" shows of the late 20th century and early 21st. Many of the "participants" also became, very early on in the series, critics of how the series portrayed giving the series a reflexive quality. This was one of the reasons, as Bruzzi notes, that some of the "children" refused to participate in later installments in the series.

If you haven't seen the Up Series it is definitely worth your time. If you are looking for a good guide to this documentary bildungsroman, Bruzzi's introduction and exploration of it, is also worth your time. Bruzzi's textual analysis of the series alone is probably worth the price of admission  even if some might like to see more production analysis of the series grounded in a greater degree of archival research.