Episode 27: Tony (The Up Series)

One film project that has had a huge impact on me is the Up Series. The Up Series is an ongoing British series of documentary films that began in 1964 and followed 14 children from different socio-economic backgrounds in England. Every 7 years director Michael Apted meets up with the kids, who are now 64 years old, and talks about what has happened in their careers, mindsets, families and so on. The project packs an emotional wallop, and the longer it continues, the more compellingly humanist it becomes. The latest episode, 63Up, came out in 2019. I started to watch the series in my early teens and I’m now 35, so these individuals have accompanied me in some way for more than half my life. With all this in mind, you can imagine how happy I was when I got the chance to speak to Tony, the very charismatic London cabbie and former jockey, the “cheeky chappie” as he calls himself, who is one of the protagonists of the film series. We talk about his life, his priorities, and of course, we talk about the Up Series.