63 Up

"Give me a child until he is 7, and I will give you the man."

Director Michael Apted has been revisiting the same group of 14 British-born adults every seven years for 56 years. It's a documentary achievement not ever before attempted. It succeeds magically.

His above thesis centers around the notion that at 7 years you can see the same person at 63. Well, maybe not fully, but their individual personalities come through as Apted flashes back to scenes from previous 7-year iterations, including the first in 1963 to let us see the growth of his engaging subjects.

Almost all participants have achieved some happiness, from laborer and mother to Oxford grads and barrister. Common to most of their happiness is children, as good an endorsement of having children as you will ever see. Yet, disappointments and tragedy follow them as well as impermanent happiness, as happens to all who walk this earth.

Apted smartly updates his take by asking questions about current life, such as Brexit or lack of opportunity to buy a home. It is obvious that their children are often staying home into maturity from their inability to buy. Even Tony, a real estate developer, is forced by 2008 to downsize.

Nick learns 10 days before Apted's arrival that he has lung cancer, and librarian Lynn has died from a playground accident. All in all, life has just moved on relentlessly to its inevitable conclusion.

Somehow Apted doesn't set us off into grim thoughts about the human condition; rather he celebrates the small moments of life that give joy and connect us all in common experiences. As his series seems to be coming to a close, we can enjoy watching cohesive parts of the lives we share with each other.

The 9th episode of an epic documentary series that I really think everyone should watch at some point in their lives. It is so powerful with its simplicity honesty that anyone can easily find something relevant to them. Witnessing how people change over the years but also how they don't change, understanding the importance of our early years and how they shape our future, the goals that we want to achieve in life and the ones we fail to achieve. It's all here.

A group of people from different backgrounds who were born in 1957 are interviewed every 7 years. (p.s. need to start from first one "Seven Up")

For half a decade, people have been astonished at Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD, a movie shot over the course of more than a decade, using the same cast.... as if Michael Apted had not been doing the same thing as a documentary for more than half a century since, as a researcher at ITV, he had been a part of the landmark SEVEN UP (1964) and ever since writer, interviewer, director and occasionally the object of his subjects' scorn for his old-fashioned attitudes.

The first one took the quote "Give me a child for seven years, and I will show you the man" and offered to check in every seven years to review the result. Now, as the subjects face retirement, one has died, and others are looking forward to the endings of their lives, they are called on for review. Is that seven-year-old still with them? What have they learned from the 'program' and is it of any value? Is the class system so evident a lifetime ago still in place? How do they feel about Brexit?

I think the series has been a remarkable achievement, and as a survey of the Baby Boomers, fascinating. It's a pleasure and an education to watch these people show up, grow up, and become, slowly and eventually, themselves, typical and unique.

Apted has called the situation for 70 UP (2026?) "fluid". He himself will be 85 if it comes out, along with many death notices for such of the original subjects that yet survive. It's possible, I suppose, but I'm a couple of years older than these people, and there is, therefore, some doubt I will be around to hear from my old friends from Britain. I wish them all well. They have not been easy friends, but they have been far more honest about who they are than most people I know.... or me.

Time remains undefeated. Death is stalking the series now. It's the uncredited cast member haunting everyone from this point on. Michael Apted remains the director but I don't know for how long. He stays off camera to my disappointment. Some members are battling illnesses. Work is winding down or even gone. Most are happy to talk about their kids and grandkids. A few speak about Brexit. Neil is not fully open about his trouble marriage and I can understand why. Tony's cab business has been heavily damaged by Uber and he has retreated from his Spanish dreams. I wonder if Lynn's family gets their own section in the next one. Does this continue beyond death? More and more, I wonder about mortality in general and the mortality of this series.

Each time a new instalment arrives, my admiration and respect for the participants grows. They show a real and courageous dedication to the series and its importance, and I'm always mindful that the effects from this level of exposure have not always been positive for them.

Michael Apted has, at times, been guilty of some insensitive and perhaps inappropriate questioning, and has been taken to task quite robustly by his interviewees. And rightly so. It's academic now as to whether or not Mr Apted, a very successful international film director, has actually possessed the empathy to make him the right person to steer this project. But then, without some of his deliberate provocations, would there have been the great, intense moments we've seen? The result, for better or worse, is a sum of all its parts.

It's been a real privilege to visit these old friends every seven years, and share their lives' success, failures, loves and tragedies. In a world full of celebrity for its own sake and superficiality, there is an authenticity here that is rarely found. They deserve our thanks for sharing part of themselves with us. They certainly have mine.