Tweet

This series is a national institution and offers one of the most compelling narratives in television history

Now entering its fifth decade, this extraordinary exploration of the British class system has become a national institution, as well as one of the most compelling narratives in television history. Taking the Jesuit maxim “give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man” as his starting point, in 1964 Michael Apted selected fourteen 7 year-old British schoolchildren on the basis of their socio-economic backgrounds, asking them their hopes and dreams for the future.

The children were revisited seven years later almost as an afterthought, with no long-term provision made to ensure their future participation. This gave the series its format, but also its sense of unpredictability, and a television tradition was born – every seven years the nation would eagerly await to see which participants would return, and how their lives had progressed.

This long-awaited collection contains all seven series made thus far. Long before the current fad for reality television, this landmark series revealed how unscripted encounters can be more articulate and compelling than any TV drama.

 

Anne Biggs on 10th September 2008
View all 7 of Anne Biggs's reviews