Said Nicholas Hitchon, quoted in "Nicholas Hitchon, Who Aged 7 Years at a Time in ‘Up’ Films, Dies at 65/He was one of the original children profiled in 'Seven Up!,' a 1964 British documentary, and reappeared in subsequent installments for more than a half-century" (NYT).
He also thought the filmmakers had a tendency to play up stereotypes of British society, something he said he felt even as a boy in the early installments, when crew members would chase sheep into the camera’s view while filming him.
“These people thought that I was all about sheep,” he told The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2005. “I’m quite fond of sheep, but I was more interested in other things.”
The shot that begins at 0:39 is taken at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Terrace. That's Lake Mendota in the background:
He studied physics at Oxford University, earning a bachelor’s degree there in 1978, a master’s in 1979 and a Ph.D. in engineering science in 1981. Soon after, he left for the United States to teach at the University of Wisconsin, a move that he thought “28 Up” (1984) had wrongly portrayed as abandoning his home country in pursuit of money.
“He took us out to West Towne” — a Madison mall — “and had us walk around over and over again,” Professor Hitchon told The Capital Times of Madison in 1987, speaking of Mr. Apted. “Then he did a voice-over where he talked about that I’d come to America for a salary of $30,000.”
Professor Hitchon pursued research on nuclear fusion, then switched to computational plasma physics. Once in a while, Mr. Apted would ask him about his work.
“When I try to explain,” Professor Hitchon told Physics Today in 2000, “his eyes glaze over.”...
“My ambition as a scientist is to be more famous for doing science than for being in this film,” he told Mr. Apted on camera. “Unfortunately, Michael, it’s not going to happen.”
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18 comments:
R.I.P. The "Up" films were surely an inspiration for "The Truman Show." I'd not want to be thrust into lifelong publicity at age 7...by parents and the then-dominant BBC/network show runners. That series was created back when all culture was funned through a small number of hands...and they've gone all weird now that everyone can have a social media platform if they desire one.
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
I've enjoyed them from the get go.
You can win science awards and not be famous, in fact that's the rule.
It's the TV series that makes you famous.
My husband was in a longitudinal study as a child. When I met him in our late 20s he would still get an annual call from the clinic to update his life. I've seen footage from one of his question sessions when he was 7.
I guess I can't get on a high horse and say how much more enlightened we are today about medical abuse toward children considering the covid school mask mandates and the transition monstrosities. Does Dante have a circle of hell for a certain breed of doctors?
diversity [dogma]
Sheep or sleep?
“He also thought the filmmakers had a tendency to play up stereotypes of British society ….”
Pushing narratives is common in the US media as well.
Watching the series over the years, the filmmakers' desire to fit these people's lives into a pattern was almost palpable, but our actual lifetime and lives are unimaginable to those around us at age seven, and the adults with their points to make and axes to grind proved just as naive as the kids. In the end life is too weird and uncanny, and we all live as individuals with paths no one can foretell.
RIP Nick.
I thought that quote was from Ramaswamy. Which is partially based on the idea that, he, Vivek is running to be Trump’s number 2 pick.
#TrumpChallenge
The earlier shows were perhaps more revelatory of the filmmakers biases than of the children they filmed. The class system in England was predictive not so much of how children will turn out but rather as to how filmmakers will film such children. The filmmakers had vaguely Marxist biases. They thought the posh kids were destined to be snobs and the working class kids were going to lead futile lives.....But for all that, the show had lots of poignant moments. There's that fulcrum moment in most people's lives when they realize that things aren't going to turn out as they hoped. They captured that moment in some of their subjects' lives. You don't have to be working class to lead a futile life. Nicholas Hitchon, as I remember, was a young man of infinite promise. He never discovered fusion, had an unsuccessful marriage, and was the first of the seven-ups to perish.
Hey, McLeod, get off of my ewe!
"Does Dante have a circle of hell for a certain breed of doctors?"
Yes. All the doctors in that circle perform amputations on one another simultaneously-- sans anesthesia -- in perpetuity. And they don't wash their hands.
William: Nick was not the first one in the series to die. Lynn Johnson passed away ten years ago.
I never saw the series--only stories about it--but I gather from the comments that my impression was correct: the narrative was plotted in advance to show what the makers wanted it to show.
I've had some experience with documentarists and journalists whose stories were already in concrete--they just needed some visuals.
Only “Seven-Up” was made by the “ Marxist leaning” director, Paul Almond. Apted had the idea for a follow-up, 14Up,and it all took off from there.
This mockumentary series is being remade daily, by thousands to millions of participants in social media. Future researchers will try to make sense of it all, but eventually will realize the "Delete" option is available for a good reason.
I first watched the first episode of' 7 Up' documentary years after it's debut at the tender age of 14. I've kept up with it ever since. My favorite participant was/is Tony Walker who was first a jockey, then cab driver. His personality remained pretty consistent throughout the episodes.
So non-profit documentaries can be as realistic as reality shows?
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