How a landmark documentary caused a seven year itch

Nick Hitchon recently went back to where it all began.

In 1964, the Yorkshire farmer’s son was one of 14 children chosen for what was meant to be a one-off film for World In Action. Seven Up! has now entered television history as one of the most watched documentaries of all time. So successful was the original, that it was decided to revisit the children at seven year intervals and for the latest instalment, 56-Up, Nick, who now lecturers in engineering and lives in Wisconsin, returned to the Dales.

“What struck me is how gentrified the place has become,” he says, the accent untouched by his years out in the US. “The old barns are now million pound houses and there aren’t enough sheep in the fields to keep the grass short. When I lived there we were lucky to have running water; now it feels like a boutique hotel. For all that, I still don’t think you could find a more peaceful place in the world than Arncliffe Church.”

Nick was filmed against the backdrop of Kilnsey Crag in a recreation of his first appearance on the show, which the voiceover said was the young boy’s walk to school. Eagle eyed viewers were quick to note that Nick was in fact walking in the opposite direction to Arncliffe Primary School and it wouldn’t be the last time fact was sacrificed in the name of artistic licence.

“When I was seven, I figured out that if I said something silly that’s what they would end up showing,” he says. “In 14-Up I was filmed chasing a load of sheep in a field, if I looked mad it was because I was. I was mad at the filmmakers who kept making me do all these ridiculous things.”

Back then it didn’t matter so much and besides in return for letting the cameras into his rural life Nick was taken out to dinner. However, his appearance on 28-Up was far more harrowing.

By then, Nick had already left the Dales and was living with his first wife in America. Viewers were told he’d left England for a salary of $30,000 and the inference was he’d some how sold out. On his TV review show, Did You See...? Ludovic Kennedy echoed many others when he said, “I’m really sorry he turned out that way.”

“I honestly thought it was going to be a postcard home, but it turned out to be a poison pen letter,” says Nick, who almost three decades on is still hurt by the comments. “When I graduated, Margaret Thatcher was in power and the universities weren’t hiring. I had to get a job and it just happened that America was where the work was. It was as simple as that, but it made it me look terrible.

“When someone sticks a microphone under your nose and says, ‘So why did you choose your wife?’ What are you supposed to say. Here in a America, the response would be, ‘Because they are greatest’, but that’s not the British way. It wasn’t just me a lot of us found ourselves responding with a ‘Don’t know’ or ‘I’m not sure’. The problem is when people watch the finished programme, they read something else entirely into it.

“You are being judged and with 28-Up I knew that every single person I went to school with and every family member would watch it and draw conclusions about my life. After that series, I lay awake at night for months.

“I once received a thesis someone had written on the series. It was called Manufacturing the Man and it looked at how every shot had been deliberately used to convey a certain idea or feeling. Of course that never occurred to any of us, why would it? Everything is a set up, that’s how you make entertaining television.

“The truth is from the start there were poor kids and rich kids and while the poor kids had a hard life it was the rich kids who came off worse in the voice over, which dripped with venom.”

Nick says he can’t bear to watch himself on the television and when his wife recently sat down to view the latest programme he had to ask her to turn the volume down when he heard the sound of his own voice. Yet, despite his reservations he has appeared on every series when he could have walked away.

“It was a new idea at the time and if you’re not prepared to do interesting things you might as well not be alive. It’s like time lapse photography.

“When you see people every day, it’s hard to see how they’ve changed and while it may be excruciating I do think the series has shown the impact small decisions have on people’s lives.

“No one involved finds letting the cameras into their lives enjoyable. You need to wear a flak jacket, but I’ve never once doubted its importance.”

56 Up is on ITV1 tonight at 9pm.