The off-camera drama that plagued 7UP… from cheating scandal to ‘racism’ storm, ‘fake’ storylines & heartbreaking deaths

SEVEN Up! was the revolutionary TV experiment which was supposed to reveal the real Britain – but behind the scenes arguments threatened to derail the entire project. Many of the cast, who were plucked from obscurity at the age of seven to appear on the first ITV show in 1964, refused to return later on due to the agony of the spotlight. The eleven participants of 70 Up Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Jackie (left), Lynn and Sue (right) all aged seven in 1964 Credit: Handout Tonight, in the final documentary titled 70 Up, eleven of the remaining cast members talk about their experiences. Two of the original children have died and public schoolboy Charles Furneaux has not participated on screen since he was aged 21 in 1977. Sign up for the TV newsletter Thank you! The “reality” program was supposed to offer a unique insight into the United Kingdom – yet the participants were not representative of the nation. Out of the 14 children chosen to take part, only four were female, six attended private schools and none were from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. There was also only one non-white child, Symon Basterfield. Michael Apted, the director of the majority of the shows, chose to focus on the class divide to the annoyance of some involved. Privately educated barrister John Brisby, who called the doc a “little pill of poison”, said: “I never liked Michael. “I hadn’t been very happy with the way I had been portrayed. I felt that I had been set up as the bad guy or bogeyman to represent an outmoded class system. Most read in TV “He had a sneering and somewhat supercilious manner and I didn’t feel he was on my side. “He wasn’t really interested in me as a person, the real me. He wanted the fake me.” Seven Up! started out as an episode of Granada’s World in Action in 1964 with Apted the researcher tasked with finding 14 children to take part in just three weeks. By the time the second series, 7 Plus Seven, came around he was the director. Apted, who went on to direct the 1999 James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, remained in charge until 2019. He died five years ago aged 79 and the final episode has been made by Amy and Senna director Asif Kapadia. Director Michael Apted on location Credit: Handout Suzy questioned the lack of women in the series Credit: Handout The three-times married Apted upset two of the women by grilling them about their love lives, while asking the men about politics. Jackie Bassett confronted the director on camera in 2005, saying angrily: “I think he still thought we were all in the kitchen, as I mentioned to him at 21. “I just thought, ‘No, come on, it’s about time one of us called you out on it, because he never never asked us questions about politics. It was nearly always domestic.” She once asked him: “You do realise we got the vote, don’t you, Michael?’” Jackie revealed that in 1977: “I hated filming 21 Up – the world was changing, but Michael seemed to think we would remain the little women in the home. I swore at him and walked off.” Off camera Suzy Dewey challenged Apted about the gender imbalance in the series. The director told her “Well, in 1964 women weren’t so relevant.” Suzy said: “It’s a frightening thing to look back on.” Her attitude to the TV show was “mostly hate” and felt that Apted picked on her because she had a posh background. Suzy told Good Morning Britain: “I have found the process really, really hard but looking back on it now, I realise it’s an extraordinary piece of history that will always be there, and in some ways, in a perverse way, I’m quite proud of having actually been in it, even though I find it difficult. “I get why people find it fascinating. Do I wish it was my life? Probably not.” One of the key characters over the years has been East End wide boy Tony Walker. His father was a jailbird, his mum was an alcoholic but the self declared “artful dodger” dreamt big. Having left school aged 15 he pursued horse racing but quit after three races and tried his luck in Hollywood instead. Tony was a double for Christian Bale in 1987’s Empire of the Sun and had walk-on roles in Minder and EastEnders. In July 1998’s 42 Up it was revealed that Tony cheated on his wife Debbie. Debbie says in the final series: “I don’t know how I have got over things with him to be honest, sometimes I don’t feel that I have. But I am still here.” She didn’t want to be in the show, but agreed to be interviewed for her husband. Debbie says: “To be truthful, I never wanted to go on it.” One of the most controversial moments was when Apted accused Tony in 2012 of sounding “racist” for remarking that immigration has changed the East End. John Brisby blasted the original 7Up series director Michael Apted Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Taxi driver Tony Walker with wife Debbie Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Tony said this week: “I felt insulted at the time.” Despite that, though, Tony saw the director as a father figure. Speaking tearfully to The Observer, he commented: “I can’t get over the fence without getting emotional about him. I trusted that man with my whole life. “He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea with the cast. But to me, he was like a dad.” Charles Furneaux dropped out because he felt “cast” by Apted. He said: “I felt I had a sense of being trapped in a situation that wasn’t me.” The director admitted to going “berserk” when Charles told him he didn’t want to return to 28 Up in 1984. Apted said: “I did everything to keep him in it but he wouldn’t do it. I was so upset I behaved incredibly badly. I swore at him and everything.” Other participants, such as Peter Davies, left and then returned. The teacher took a lot of flak for criticising the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 28 Up in 1984 but came back for 56 Up to promote his band. Peter, from Liverpool, told the director “you know, you’ve really condensed me there almost to a caricature – the angry young man from the North of England.” But he has come to terms with the process and said he would “do it all again.” (l-r) Bruce Andrew Peter John Jackie Lynn (back) Neil front Tony Charles Sue Symon Paul Suzy and Nick when they were aged 21 Credit: Shutterstock Tony Walker when he was aged seven Credit: Rex Features The frustration cut both ways. Apted admitted that at times he wanted to “kill” the participants for the way they behaved. He said in 2019: “These people are like my children. Sometimes they annoy the s*** out of you. Sometimes you want to kiss them, sometimes to kill them. “It is that intimate relationship that goes beyond a moment. We have arguments but, like having a child, it always gets sorted out. “In the end they’ll have the last word because I want them to come back. If I alienate them, embarrass them or am mean to them they won’t come back. And I love these people – we’re a big part of each other’s lives.” Watching the program was difficult for Jackie’s son Charlie whose father Ian died in 2012 after being hit by a car. She said: “When their father died in a car accident, just after we filmed 56 Up, it was terrible. My eldest son Charlie needed a lot of counselling and will not watch the show any more in case of flashbacks to that time.“ Tragically, librarian Lynn Johnson died in 2013 and nuclear scientist Nick Hitchon passed away in 2023 aged 65. Nick, who had throat cancer, stuck with the process despite finding it “disturbing.” The Yorkshireman said: “You’re asked to discuss every intimate part of your life. You feel like you’re just a specimen pinned on the board.” Tony was close to Lynn, who suffered from a brain condition, and organised for many of the cast members to visit her grave. Many of the participants got to know each other off screen, with Bruce Balden offering a place to stay to homeless Neil Hughes. Bruce, a retiree in Berwick-upon-Tweed, doesn’t think that seven year-old children would be put on a TV show and asked such probing questions these days. He said: “I don’t think they could make the programme now in terms of duty of care and all of that.” But he defended Apted’s program. He concluded: “All I can say is their duty of care to us has been, I think, exemplary. “Some reality TV now is very contrived. We had none of that. It was just, ‘Tell us what you’re doing, where you’re at, what you’re interested in’.” 70 Up is on ITV1 at 9pm on September 15. Comment now