As the moving finale of Seven Up! airs, Sue Fitzgerald and Jackie Bassett, now 70, share what they’ve learned about love, loss and regret in a final farewell to the show that shaped their lives

Sue Fitzgerald and Jackie Bassett, both now 70, were selected as children from a working-class east London school to appear in Seven Up!, a Granada TV documentary that followed the lives of 14 seven-year-olds. 

Michael Apted, a researcher on the show who helped select the children, became the director of its seven-yearly follow-ups, and later a Hollywood director of blockbusters including The World Is Not Enough and Enigma. 

Apted died aged 79 in 2021 but now, in a moving finale – 70 Up, directed by Asif Kapadia – the series reaches its end. Here, Sue and Jackie reflect on a life spent on screen.

Sue Fitzgerald is a retired university administrator, married to her second husband, Glenn. She has a son and daughter in their early 40s from her first marriage and lives in Essex.

Jackie and I attended the Susan Lawrence Primary School in Bethnal Green and, along with our classmate Lynn Johnson, we were inseparable.

At the beginning of the show we were very cute, but, as the years went on, Lynn became quite serious and thought hard before she spoke. Jackie challenged Michael sometimes, whereas I’m more laid back. But we very much supported each other.

By the third film, Jackie and Lynn were already married and Michael kept asking me, ‘Why aren’t you married? What is it you’re looking for?’ I was only 21! The three of us were grounded, very East End – we just liked being in each other’s company and having a laugh.

Looking back, there was no push for university for us girls. I don’t ever remember my parents talking about education. The more privileged boys in the first documentary talked about going to Charterhouse or Oxford, but people thought we’d just want to work in a shoe shop.

I got a job as a secretary and progressed in the university field. Lynn told Michael she wanted to work in Woolworths, but she became a librarian.

By 24 I was married, then had two kids, but we split up when I was 35. Like any breakdown, it was sad. Jackie also divorced young and moved to Glasgow, so we went our separate ways, but the great thing is we meet up every seven years. When we get together it’s like we’ve never been apart.

Jackie’s had tough times, whereas, apart from the divorce, I’ve had a good, balanced life. We lost Lynn young. She died in 2013 of a brain condition when she was 56. She was well loved and had a huge funeral, which we attended.

After the longest engagement (25 years!), I married Glenn in 2020. My kids are doing well and have their own places, which is a big thing for me because my parents were council tenants. I’m proud I was the first in my family to own my own home, thanks to the government’s right-to-buy scheme.

Growing up, we didn’t even have phones, never mind mobiles. And now we have the internet and AI. I worry the Government is missing the boat with apprenticeships. Not everyone wants to go to university, especially if you leave with debt and can’t get a job.

Jackie and I were open books, because our lives could have taken any direction. There were no plans for us. At the beginning, maybe they didn’t expect much of us, but we were able to do far more than anyone imagined.

Jackie Bassett lives in an over-55s complex in Norfolk. She has three sons in their 30s, two from her relationship with former partner Ian (who died in 2012 after being hit by a car) and one from a previous relationship. She has six grandchildren aged two to 18.

At the start, the show was totally about class. They took us on filming trips including to a cinema where we queued up outside. They didn’t even let us see the film – I think it was an experiment to see if we’d behave badly and the richer children behaved better.

Michael would ask the boys about the world and politics, but the girls would be asked about men, marriage and family.

There weren’t any female captains of industry back then, but that started to change over the 1970s and 80s.

I wonder whether Michael was out of touch, because he was mostly based in America. I once said, ‘You do realise we got the vote, don’t you, Michael?’ I hated filming 21 Up (1977) – the world was changing, but Michael seemed to think we would remain the little women in the home. I swore at him and walked off.

Michael was the nicest man, but he knew what he wanted from the programme, which made him very single-minded. I wouldn’t discuss anything that could hurt my family, but he’d still try to sneak in a question about them. I don’t think he understood how hard it is being a single mother.

Today I’m lucky, my boys are grown-up and working, but it was very difficult at times. When their father died in a car accident, just after we filmed 56 Up, it was terrible. My eldest son Charlie needed a lot of counselling and will not watch the show any more in case of flashbacks to that time.

I started out working in insurance in the City, but left to help my parents run their pub. When my mum died, it all went up in the air and I moved to Scotland.

I worked as a secretary there before I got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at 40. I don’t talk about it on screen, but there are days when I feel great and others when I don’t want to get out of bed. You can’t see any symptoms, though, so I don’t think Michael thought I had a problem.

If I could talk to my teenage self, I’d tell her to get further education. I say to my 14-year-old granddaughter, ‘You can be anything. Just tell me what that is, and we’ll find a pathway for you to do it.’

Because Michael opened up a new world to us, we’d be invited to London for screenings. We met Mick Jagger once and Sue met Pierce Brosnan on the Docklands set of the Bond film Michael was shooting. He walked up and said, ‘Your programme’s brilliant!’ Her mouth dropped.

I loved Lynn – she was a good, kind person – but Michael expected us to be crying three years later and we couldn’t force it. I lost my mum at 30; I lost the boys’ dad at 56. You can’t compare it to losing a friend I saw once every seven years.

When we filmed 63 Up, Michael looked so frail. His death came as a shock but I can’t say it surprised me. I remember having a meal after filming and he said, ‘I thought I’d have another film in me, but I don’t think I have.’

Today, I’m happier than I’ve been for a long while. My partner Eddie, a retired swimming teacher, lives in London. We have our own lives, but we meet up, go to football matches and on holiday. It suits us. I’ve always said the best husband is one you can put in a cupboard and bring out when you need them.

I think Sue and I have done pretty well for ourselves. Ironically, we had choices the boys didn’t have because their lives were already mapped out. I’d rather be in my position than theirs. When we all meet up, we chat about everything. We might be from different worlds, but they are my second family.

70 Up starts on ITV on September 15 at 9pm