For more than six decades, viewers watched Nick Hitchon grow from a curious Yorkshire boy into a respected scientist through ITV’s extraordinary Up documentary series. Now, audiences have been given one final glimpse of his life through an interview recorded only three days before his d#ath in 2023.

Hitchon first appeared in Seven Up! in 1964, when he was just a child. In those early scenes, he spoke about his hopes and curiosity, including his desire to learn “all about the moon.” Over the decades that followed, cameras repeatedly returned to document his education, career, family life and changing perspective on the world.

His journey eventually took him far beyond the Yorkshire farm where he grew up. He studied at Oxford University before moving to the United States, where he became a nuclear fusion scientist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

By the time of 63 Up, Hitchon had revealed that he was seriously ill with throat cancer. His health had deteriorated significantly, yet he remained determined to contribute to the documentary project that had followed him since childhood.

In 2023, producer Claire Lewis arranged for a camera crew to visit Hitchon in the United States after realizing from his communications how seriously ill he had become. The resulting interview became his final contribution to the series. Hitchon d#ied just three days after filming.

The footage carries an unusual emotional weight because Hitchon knew that his appearance could be his last. Yet his reflections were not simply about illness. He also spoke about his family, his experiences and what being part of the Up project had meant to him.

For someone whose life had been documented repeatedly since childhood, the programme had become more than a television series. It had accompanied him through some of the most important stages of his life.

In his final interview, Hitchon reflected on what it would feel like when the cameras finally left. His words conveyed how deeply connected he had become to a project that had been present since he was a young boy.

The significance of those final moments became even clearer when viewers learned that Hitchon pᴀssed away only three days after the crew completed the interview.

His final appearance is now part of 70 Up, the concluding chapter of a documentary project that began in 1964 and followed its original participants at seven-year intervals. The final series, directed by Asif Kapadia after the d#ath of longtime director Michael Apted, brings more than six decades of stories to a close.

For viewers who first saw Nick as a child, his final appearance creates an extraordinary sense of continuity. The boy who once dreamed about discovering the mysteries of the moon became a scientist, husband, father and academic, while the cameras continued to record the different chapters of his life.

His story also illustrates what made the Up series so unusual. Rather than focusing on celebrities or extraordinary public figures, the documentaries followed ordinary people through decades of change, allowing viewers to witness how ambitions, relationships, careers and personal circumstances evolved over time.

Nick’s final interview therefore feels like more than an ending to his individual story. It is also part of the closing chapter of one of television’s longest-running documentary experiments.

After more than 60 years, audiences are able to hear Nick Hitchon reflect once more on the journey he began as a child.

His final recorded moments now stand as a lasting reminder of the remarkable life that unfolded in front of the cameras — from a young Yorkshire boy fascinated by the moon to a scientist whose story became part of television history.

Source: Times Higher Education, “‘Seven Up’ scientist’s commitment to teaching was ‘unbelievable’”