As the 63-year-long TV documentary 7 Up comes to a close with its final instalment 70 Up, we’ve asked our author R Peter Davies to share his thoughts on how the experiment has impacted his life.
Davies says, “I only have hazy memories of how I became involved in what was eventually described as the greatest documentary series of all time, but that involvement has been a part of my whole life. Despite the accolades heaped upon 7 Up and its successors, it’s therefore always been difficult for me to step outside of the programme and look at it objectively.
As I grew up into early adulthood, the degree of intrusion into my life became increasingly difficult. After 28 Up, I took a break from the series, after some particularly venomous criticism from parts of the tabloid press (I had dared to criticise the Thatcher government). I returned some years later, on the condition that there be a focus on my creative life. Initially, that was mainly about the band I was in, and still am. More recently, I have co-written a stage musical, Under The Mersey Moon, and written my debut novel, Valediction Records, published by Cranthorpe Millner. I make no apologies for using 70 Up to publicise either: writing is, after all, at the core of my life.
I do feel that, as a study of social class in Britain, the …Up series has been flawed: too few girls; only one non-white boy; too many caricatures. However, it has now evolved into something else. As all the participants have become older (and two, together with the original director, have died), the final episodes have a reflective, elegiac tone. The series now stands as nothing less than a story of what it means to lead a human life, something I have tried to write about in Valediction Records. A classic case of art imitating life, perhaps.”
Due to popular demand, we now have a limited number of signed editions of R Peter Davies debut novel Valediction Records:
R Peter Davies in the press:
