Apted’s “49 Up” Airs on PBS

Back in 1964, British director Michael Apted was a researcher on a Granada TV project that filmed 14 children, all 7 years old, from different social and economic backgrounds in England, a film called “7 Up!” Every 7 years, he has returned as a director to interview as many of the 14 as were willing to cooperate. Some drop out, some drop back in again, but with the latest installment “49 Up” airing on PBS last week, Mr. Apted has shown that Britain has become a bit more egalitarian and meritocratic, but at the same time, the class system is still there.

Of the “stars,” the most interesting is Tony Walker, born into a working class family in London’s East End. He started out at 7 wanting to be a jockey, and by 14, he was working at a racing stable. At 21, his shot had come and gone, but he did get to race against the great Lester Piggott (and how many can say that?). He did the “knowledge” to become a London cab driver (one has to memorize every street in the city), and leveraged that into a few parts on TV, “The Bill” and “East Enders” (always as a cab driver it seems). He’s now off to Spain because Tony Blair’s taxes are grinding down the real estate business he built up. Mr. Walker will never be a member at the Athenaeum, but his life clearly demonstrates that one could strive in Britain and get somewhere.

Of course, getting out of Britain was always an option. Nick Hitchon, a lovely boy with a broad Yorkshire accent, grew up on a farm and attended a one-room school. An Oxford man, by “28 Up,” he had moved to Wisconsin and has been a working physicist of some repute (author of Plasma Processes for Semiconductor Fabrication, a light bedtime read, no doubt).

Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby and Charles Furneaux were all at a posh school in Kensington, London, where they sang “Waltzing Matilda” in Latin in the first show (what is Latin for “swagman”?). They all went to university (2 at Oxford, Mr. Furneaux to Durham). Messrs. Backfield and Brisby entered the legal profession, while Mr. Furneaux entered journalism. There is no sense in any of these cases that coming down in the world was possible.

The most troubling and hopeful has been Neil Hughes. At 7 and 14, he was doing well in school, but by 21, he had dropped out of Aberdeen University and was homeless in London. At 28, he was homeless in Scotland, and found a council house in the Shetland Islands by 35, where he also did some community theatre. Another of the group, Bruce Baldin, wound up with Mr. Hughes at his London apartment during “42 Up,” and Mr. Hughes had become active in politics as a Liberal Democrat. By “49 Up,” he had been elected as a local councilor in Cumbria, in the district of Eden.

There are other stories in the series that tend to suggest that one remained the product of one’s birth, but there is clearly a sense that personality (especially in Mr. Walker’s case) gives one a freedom to move that levels the playing field. What also shows through is that people in their 20s don’t seem to be as content as people in their 40s. “56 Up” is due for release in 2011 or 2012.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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