Asif Kapadia directed “70 Up,” the final installment of the “Up” documentary series, closing out a project that has tracked the same group of Britons since childhood. The two-part finale aired Sept. 15 and 22 on ITV in the U.K. Speaking at Rome’s MIA Market on Oct. 22, Kapadia reflected on what it meant to bring the decades-spanning series to its conclusion, calling it one of the most significant pieces of television ever made in Britain.
“In the U.K., this is one of the most important television shows made,” Kapadia said, according to Variety. “There’s nothing [like it]. It deals with humanity and life. Real people. Ordinary people.”
How the Up Series Began
The “Up” series started in 1964 with “Seven Up!” — a one-off look at the British class system through the eyes of 10 boys and four girls, all 7 years old at the time. Cameras returned to the group every seven years afterward, capturing their lives as they moved through careers, marriage, divorce, parenting and bereavement. The project ultimately spanned more than 60 years, making it one of the longest-running documentary efforts of its kind.
Michael Apted, a researcher on the first film, directed every installment from 1970’s “7 Plus Seven” through 2019’s “63 Up.” His death in 2021 left open the question of who would steer the project to its close, and Kapadia said he felt the weight of that responsibility once he was approached about taking over. He told the Rome audience he “felt very honored and privileged to have a chance to be a part of it.”
From Lifelong Fan to Final Director
Kapadia, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker known for “Senna,” “Diego Maradona” and “Amy,” which earned the Oscar for best documentary feature in 2016, grew up watching the “Up” series with his family in north London. He’d even named it his favorite documentary of all time back in 2014. That personal history shaped how he approached the material once he got the job.
Adjusting to the demands of television production, Kapadia went back to the original dailies and pulled in footage that had been shot but never shown. The finished film draws on 14 participants filmed over 63 years, plus one more face viewers know mostly as a voice: Michael Apted. Kapadia chose to make the late director a character, using the final chapter to examine the nature of documentary filmmaking alongside the lives of the original subjects.
That’s how Kapadia’s own count reaches 15.
“I’ve got 15 characters over 60 years,” Kapadia said. “It’s a lot of material, so that was the real challenge. But I’m really quite proud of it. It’s quite amazing and profound and beautiful, because of how it somehow covers life. It’s all there somewhere.”
A Dream Job Six Decades in the Making
The scale of the “Up” series, tracking real people from age 7 into their 70s, set it apart from most television projects, according to Kapadia. He summed up taking on the final installment in four words.
“It’s a dream job,” Kapadia said.
Kapadia made his comments during the 12th edition of Rome’s MIA Market, which ran Oct. 19-23. With “70 Up” now in the books, the series that began as a single look at British childhood has reached the ending Apted never got to film himself.
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