With 70 Up - the final instalment of the iconic TV series 7 Up - about to air, two of the programme’s subjects Jackie Bassett and Sue Fitzgerald reflect on being part of history.
Contrary to George Bernard Shaw’s claim that “Youth is the most beautiful thing in this world”, life actually gets better with age. So say the participants in the long-running and celebrated 7 Up collection of documentaries, who are now embarking on their eighth decade.
ITV is showing the final chapter, 70 Up, in two parts in September 2026. These mark the culmination of a groundbreaking TV journey that has involved following the lives of 14 people since 1964 when they were just seven years old. Every seven years since then, cameras have returned to capture the lives of those taking part, from childhood to teenagers to adulthood, through careers, relationships, parenting, bereavement and more.
Now 70-year-old pensioners, in the two new episodes the interviewees reflect on their lives, the experiences they’ve faced, their successes and tricky times and what happened to their early hopes and dreams. They also consider the original premise of the show, which was the Jesuit saying: “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.”
In an exclusive interview with Saga Magazine, two of the 70 Up participants, Jackie Bassett and Sue Fitzgerald, both originally from London’s East End, speak openly about the experience of being part of the series, the lessons it’s taught them and how life is currently entering a particularly good phase.
“This is definitely one of the best times of my life,” says Jackie. “I’ve got to an age where I don’t care what people think about me anymore and I’m just enjoying it and feel this is time for me.’”
She explains that in the last seven years, she has moved from Scotland to Norfolk and has a place of her own in a retirement complex. Previous documentaries showed her getting married at 20, having three sons – now adults with their own families – and divorcing, before her ex-husband tragically died following a road traffic accident.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love my sons and grandchildren and I see them a lot but moving to Norfolk and having autonomy and peace at this time in my life is very important to me,” she says. “I’m more relaxed, I’ve got a wonderful friendship group and having my own place, which remains exactly the same when I go out and when I come back, is a miracle to me having brought up three messy boys.”
Jackie reveals that she is also enjoying a relationship with a new partner, Eddy, who knew her from playing in the street as children and who had watched her in the TV programmes over the years. “A friend connected him with me about six years ago and it just went from there,” she says. “It’s been so lovely and has given me another aspect to my life that I didn’t have in Scotland. He lives in London but we’re only two hours apart. We go to football matches together and I went to America with him. It’s great.”
Romance has also featured prominently in her lifelong friend Sue’s past seven years, with her finally marrying her partner Glenn at the end of 2020 aged 64, after more than 20 years together. The earlier programmes showed her marrying at 24, having a son and daughter, and then being divorced by 35.
“Glenn and I had the longest engagement known to man,” she tells Saga. “We go to Goa a lot and were there at the start of 2020 and, at sunset he wrote ‘Will you marry me?’ in the sand and got down on one knee. I already had one engagement ring, but he got me another and we finally got married in Devon at the end of 2020 in between the Covid lockdowns.”
Particularly important to Sue, who now lives in Gidea Park, near Romford, was the fact that both her parents were at her wedding, her father walking her down the aisle and dancing with her at the reception. Since then, both parents have died, in their early 90s, two years apart.
“A lot of the past seven years, since the last TV programme, was taken up with looking after my parents,” she explains. “My mum was bedridden for quite some time and I was dealing with care systems and things like that. It’s something that people of our generation are dealing with. Losing both of them has been sad and awful, but it’s also the way of things and they’d enjoyed a great life. It does mean that heading into our 70s Glenn and I have more time to do things and to travel.”
That said, a year and a half into her retirement from university administration at Queen Mary University in London, where she’d worked for 25 years, Sue confesses she is still adjusting: “I had a busy, hectic job and I’m finding retirement quite difficult. It’s taking some getting used to.”
She is now filling part of her time with a new routine of going to the gym, something that Jackie has also recently added to her life and both of them say they are taking their fitness more seriously than ever before, with a keenness to stay as healthy and independent for as long as possible. “Our parents never thought about exercise –I think we’re the first generation who are really aware of looking after ourselves,” says Sue.
Both women agree that, despite the many highs and lows of their lives, the original premise of the show – “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man” – does stand up. “Looking back at the first film, I don’t think you’d have a problem matching me now with the child I was at all,” says Jackie. “A person’s personality is a thing that’s fixed by seven.”
Sue agrees: “The way you are, in terms of your confidence, whether you’re extravert or not is there by the age of seven. Life chucks things at you and can shape your attitude but your basic personality is decided by then.”
Both say they feel immensely proud of having played their part in the documentaries, which leave a legacy for their families and for society at large. “Historians of the future will be able to look at the era we’ve lived through, the clothes we’ve worn and all of the weird hairstyles,” laughs Sue.
And they also feel grateful for having had the opportunity to meet people from various backgrounds whom they would not have otherwise met. “We were working class, while some of the others came from a life of privilege, so we’ve mixed with people from completely different lifestyles,” says Sue. “We don’t meet in between the programmes but most of us get together to watch it every seven years and it’s like having another family – we all chat and get on well.”
The pair both remember fondly the other member of their childhood trio, Lynn Johnson, who took part in the documentaries up until her death in 2013 at the age of 57, having suffered with a brain condition. “She was a very special person,” says Jackie. “She was a big part of our TV experience up until she died and it was so sad when she wasn’t there anymore.”
As for the lessons they’d tell their seven-year-old selves, neither of them miss a beat. “Think before you speak, work harder and educate yourself better,” says Jackie. “Education is the one thing I maybe have a little regret over in my life.’
“I’m such an organiser, I would say: ‘Don’t try to plan everything and aim to live more in the moment’,” answers Sue.
As this article goes to press, both Jackie and Sue are looking forward to watching the programmes with the other participants, tissues at the ready as they prepare to say goodbye to it forever.
“I feel very emotional it’s the last one, but it feels like the right time to finish. Seven to 70 has a nice symmetry to it. It’s been the most incredible experience,” says Jackie.
70 Up will be on ITV1 on 15 and 22 September on ITV1. Both episodes will be on ITVX from 15 September and the whole 7 Up collection is available to watch now.
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