What if the Seven Up! series started today? | Letter
Gordon McDougall recalls finding the original children to feature in the documentary strand that started in 1964
In your editorial on the Up series (20 September), your point is well made that exposing seven‑year-olds on television today would expose them to dangers not encountered in the 60s. However, Seven Up! was made in the early part of 1964, not 1963 as you stated, and it was the brainchild of Tim Hewat, the producer of World in Action.
As he was leaving the series, the oversight was given to the Canadian director Paul Almond and, for our first jobs after passing through training, Michael Apted and I were given the task of finding the original 20 children (14 of whom were followed in subsequent films). The show was seen as a one‑off and it was only at the instigation of Denis Forman, then CEO of Granada TV, that the follow-up, 7 Plus Seven, was commissioned in 1969. I was too busy running the Stables Theatre Club to work on it, so Apted directed it alone.
