749 Up

Director Michael Apted's ground-breaking documentary series, begun in 1964, follows the lives of 14 seven-year-old children, returning every seven years to chart their progress. Initially viewed as an interesting social experiment to discover whether children's lives are predetermined by their backgrounds, the programme developed into something broader and deeper. In this seventh edition, twelve of the children, Tony, Bruce, Sue, Jackie, Suzy, Paul, Simon, Nick, Andrew, John, Lynn, and Neil have reached middle-age and, after all the ups and downs that life has thrown at them, seem to be content with the way their lives have turned out thus far.