A day at the zoo

In 1963 director Michael Apted took a group of lively seven-year-olds to London Zoo and told viewers they were Britain's future.

“a glimpse of what England will be like in the Year 2000”

Not just any class

The same could be said of any school class. What made these children different is that they were picked to cover the spectrum of the country's social classes.

Who got picked

Plummy boys from prep schools, sparky girls from east London, a cheeky Cockney lad, two wary boys from a care home and two cherubs from the Liverpool suburbs.

The tenth and last

A lifetime on, the two-part 70 Up says goodbye to them. Christopher Stevens gives the final chapter five stars.

Two empty chairs

Librarian Lynn died in 2013. Nuclear engineer Nick died of cancer after filming wrapped on this final instalment.

The director went first

Apted died in 2019, after a second career in Hollywood that included directing the Bond film The World Is Not Enough.

Why stopping now is right

Most of the group are in good health and enjoying retirement. Coming back every seven years until the last of them is gone would be deeply tasteless.

Part two faces it

The second half, streaming on ITVX, lets the group talk plainly about dying instead of editing around it.

John wants to go riding

John, a barrister and keen hunting man, says cheerfully that he hopes to break his neck on horseback.

“just as the hounds are about to go home”

Symon fostered 130 kids

Symon and his wife Vienetta have taken in 130 foster children. He thinks of death as a door rather than a wall.

“an open door to somewhere else”

It changed what it was

The project was conceived as a study of the British class system. What it became is a snapshot of the country's entire post-war history.

Nick's time-lapse

Nick compared the series to time-lapse photography, a whole life speeded up until you can watch it happen.

“It's amazing to see a flower grow and then decay in a couple of minutes.”

Strangers every seven years

Between one visit and the next, the same person is often all but unrecognisable. Growth and ageing arrive in seven-year jumps rather than day by day.

Lives that scattered

They switched careers, married, had children and then grandchildren. Several left Britain for good, for the States, Australia or Europe.

Fashions and cigarettes

Some of the change is surface level. Watch the clothes go in and out of style, and watch how many people used to be smoking.

A word that disappeared

Apted describes Symon as illegitimate. The label once carried real weight and has since dropped out of everyday English entirely.

“When did you last hear that word?”

The Leftie who dated badly

Apted was an outspoken man of the Left in the 1960s. Watched back today, plenty of his attitudes on screen sound badly out of step.

Jackie and her friends

He lumped the four girls together under one girl's name and seemed to assume their purpose in life was to become housewives and mothers.

Who was never in the room

Thirteen of the children were white and one was mixed race. None were Muslim, none were immigrants, and every one of them spoke English as a first language.