AS 7UP SCHOOLKIDS
One of three giggly East End comprehensive girls, she moved to Glasgow and had three sons. By 42 she was living alone after splitting with her partner Ian, father of her two youngest sons.
At 49 she still lived near Ian and he was a big part of her sons’ lives. But in 56 Up, she revealed he had been killed in a car crash.
Still in Scotland, Jackie Bassett has had family losses but reflects on the circle of life now she is a grandmother.
This series sees Jackie feeling more comfortable with filming than she’s ever been. Privately educated John Brassy predicted his career in law at the age of seven. By 35, he was a barrister and married to the daughter of a former ambassador to Bulgaria.
By 56, John revealed he was orphaned at nine, brought up by a working mother, and attended Oxford on a scholarship.
He worked hard at raising money for Friends of Bulgaria.
He regretted the fact two of his friends were government ministers and had always wanted to be to politics. Did he manage? Extrovert, cheerful chap pie Tony Walker, of Loughton, Essex, wanted to be a jockey. At 14, he raced against Lester Piggott but he gained weight and his career ended after two races.
He became a London cabbie, and landed roles as an acting extra. After admitting cheating on his wife Debbie in 42 Up, amid the pain of losing a child and his parents, he managed to keep his marriage together.
In 49 Up they had a home in Spain and in 56 Up they wanted to open a sports bar. Did they? Public schoolboy Bruce Balden wanted to be a missionary in Africa so he could “teach people who are not civilised to be, more or less, good”.
He graduated from Oxford and taught in Bangladesh. But in 35 Up he said he wished he was married, and by 42 Up he was.
He and wife Penny hoped to start a family and in 49 Up, while he was teaching maths in London, we met their two sons.
Bruce had taken time out over the years to help his old school friend Neil. Is he still happy? Aged seven, Suzanne Lusk was at boarding school and lived on her father’s 4,000 acre Scottish estate.
But soon afterwards her parents divorced and she lost confidence. She dropped out of school at 16.
By 21 she was living in Paris but by 28, she was married with two sons and later had a daughter. By 49 and 56, she was reluctant to film and declines to appear. In 1964 he was an impish, mop-topped Liverpool boy who announced he wanted to be an astronaut – and if that didn’t work out, a coach driver.
By 21, Neil Hughes had dropped out of university and was living in a squat. By 28, he was homeless in the Highlands and in a poor mental state.
Fellow 7 Upper Bruce tried to help. He pieced his life together and in 42 Up was a Lib Dem councillor in Hackney, London.
Living in Cumbria and still a councillor, what else happened?