Iconic TV series 7 Up is slapped with trigger warning by ITV bosses for 'containing outdated attitudes'

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 05:28 EDT, 31 August 2026 | Updated: 05:37 EDT, 31 August 2026 The iconic TV series 7 Up has been slapped with a trigger warning by ITV bosses because it 'contains outdated attitudes'. The original episode, from 1964, followed 14 seven-year-olds talking about money, class, school and the future. The programme returns to them every seven years, and will end this year with 70 Up. Michael Apted, the director who died in 2021, said the project should be a mirror held up to society, and therefore must not be filtered. 'The series was an attempt to do a long view of English society and the class system which needed a kick up the backside,' he said. Despite his successes in Hollywood, Apted recognised the show as 'the most important thing I have ever done'.Following the new trigger warning, a TV insider told The Sun: 'The whole purpose of 7 Up was to capture how Britain thought in 1964 and then watch it change.'Warning people that a documentary about attitudes contains attitudes is like warning them that a nature programme contains animals.' The TV series 7 Up from 1964 (pictured) has been slapped with a trigger warning by ITV bosses because it 'contains outdated attitudes' The programme returns every seven years, and will end this year with 70 Up Lord Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said: 'It can't be a surprise to anyone that a 1964 documentary contains outdated attitudes.'The 7 Up series is set to come to an end on September 15. The 14 participants first appeared on TV screens in the 60s in an ITV World In Action special. There have since been eight more films, released seven years apart and exploring how their lives had changed in the intervening years.The stars, now pensioners and retirees, will appear in the final instalment, 70 Up. Familiar returning faces include 'cheeky chap' Tony, a London cabbie who had wanted to be a jockey – and Neil, who dreamed of being an astronaut but experienced homelessness.The show will remember the participants who passed away, including Lynn, who died in 2013, and Nick, a farmer's son who became a nuclear physicist and died in 2023. ITV factual controller Jo Clinton-Davis previously said the series was a 'truly distinctive landmark piece of filmmaking that has become part of our cultural fabric'.She said: 'In the evolving stories of our cast we see the universal themes of life play out... Ultimately, this is a tribute to the courage of all the cast who continue to share their lives with us so we can see our lives in them.'The Daily Mail has contacted ITV for comment.