The long-running ITV series 70 Up came to an end with a ‘truly extraordinary’ finale on Tuesday night, as viewers finally got to see Nick Hitchon’s last interview, filmed just three days before his death.
Sixty-two years after the first episode, Seven Up! was broadcast in 1964, viewers were left in tears as they watched as the programme caught up with the participants at age 70.
The programme was actually meant to conclude with 63 Up in 2019, following the death of director Michael Apted, but it was participant Nick Hitchon’s devastating cancer diagnosis which prompted the filmmakers to return – this time with Academy Award-winning director Asif Kapadia at the helm.
But in 2023, Hitchon sent producer Claire Lewis an ‘almost coded email’ telling her that he intended to be here for the 70 Up series, but Lewis said ‘reading between the lines of his emails, I realised how extraordinarily ill he was’.
While the final series hadn’t yet been commissioned, Lewis persuaded ITV to fly her and a camera crew out to visit 65-year-old Hitchon in 2023, where he recorded a final interview. Hitchon died three days after filming.
Nick’s final interview was then played in full in the second part of the 70 Up swan song, and also featured clips showing him reflecting on his health in the previous episode, 63 Up.
The long-running ITV series 70 Up came to an end with a ‘truly extraordinary’ finale on Tuesday night, as viewers finally got to see Nick Hitchon’s last interview
Following his cancer diagnosis, Nick requested to record an interview for the ITV documentary series’ final episode, having appeared in the first programme, Seven Up! back in 1964
At the time, he said: ‘I lost 60 pounds in the last year, I am seriously ill. I have a cancer in my throat, and I don’t know what the prognosis is, I don’t know what’s going to happen.
‘So I’m not really focused on the long-term future, I’m focused on the fairly short-term future. I’m just keeping going and not asking too many questions about the long-term.’
In 70 Up, Nick then shared: ‘I had a stroke last Autumn, and apparently they asked Cryss [Nick’s wife] numerous times if they should just let me die. I had no idea that I was going to be this ill, and I had no idea I was going to keep living.
‘But yes, it’s a surprise to my doctors that I’m still around. Curious really, it’s like, one of them was saying, ‘It does happen that people in your condition survive,’ but made it clear that he didn’t expect it.’
Nick admitted he was ‘exhausted’ after enduring months of hospital visits, and said he felt ‘awful’ that his family members had to ‘pick up all the slack’.
He added that though he doesn’t think about the illness he faced, he was scared of going to his scans for fear of what the medics may discover.
Reflecting on his life, Nick then added: ‘I’ve had this life-long process of jumping in with both feet into things that were intimidating and that I could easily have said, ”I can’t do this,” in the Dales you just push through and push through and push through.
‘For various reasons, I’ve just kept pushing through and trying to do things. The film has helped with that.’
Sixty-two years after the first episode, Seven Up! was broadcast in 1964, viewers were left in tears as they watched as the programme caught up with the participants at age 70
On-screen text then shared with viewers that Nick sadly passed away in 2023, just three days after his interview was recorded
Viewers took to X to pay tribute to Nick, while noting that the final episode was a fitting end to the long-running series
He added: ‘To me, this is tremendously important. In my life, there’s always been another episode of this coming up. It’s kind of exciting.
‘So I’ll miss it, when [the camera crew] pack up and leave, and I’m fairly sure we’re not going to do this again, I think I’ll feel there’s a hole in things that I haven’t experienced since I was six. It’s been with me since I was six.’
On-screen text then shared with viewers that Nick sadly passed away in 2023, just three days after his interview was recorded.
Viewers took to X to pay tribute to him, while noting that the final episode was a fitting end to the long-running series.
They said: ‘A truly extraordinary series never to be repeated; I have long said it’s the greatest show in the history of TV. I wonder if that should extend to all television;
‘A completely one-off incredible series where we got a glimpse into their lives for 63 years. Rest in peace Lynn, Michael and Nick;
‘Wishing the rest of them all the best for the future.’
‘Seeing Nick is a very hard and sad watch. Life can be so f*****g cruel.;
‘Truly a life well-lived, with courage and positivity. I felt the need to give Nick a round of applause. I didn’t know him, but I won’t forget him;’
‘Well that was a moving end to an incredible series. Very emotional to say goodbye to them all;
‘A fantastic programme, so sad it’s ended. What an amazing thing to be able to look back on your life.’
The son of a Yorkshire farmer, Hitchon went on to study at the University of Oxford before moving to the US in the early 80s where he worked as a nuclear fusion expert and university professor in Wisconsin.
He married his Oxford university girlfriend Jacqui and went on to welcome a son before his divorce at the age of 42, telling the documentary that ‘the moment of pure, unadulterated joy in my life was when my son was handed to me when he was born’.
A clip was shown of Hitchon speaking in 2019 for 63 Up, when he revealed his cancer diagnosis on camera.
‘Well as you can see I have lost 60 Ib in the last year, I am seriously ill. I have a cancer in my throat and I don’t know what the prognosis… I don’t know what’s going to happen,’ he told the show.
‘So I’m not really focused on the long-term future. I’m focused on fairly short-term futures at the moment. I’m just keeping going and not asking too many questions about the long term.’
In the first part of the 70 Up conclusion, viewers saw Nick appearing in the previous special 63 Up, where he spoke about his cancer diagnosis
The son of a Yorkshire farmer, Hitchon went on to study at the University of Oxford before moving to the US in the early 80s where he worked as a nuclear fusion expert (pictured in 21 Up in 1977)
‘This section with Nick is hard, and I think we all know that he’s no longer with us. God bless him’ wrote one viewer
A camera crew flew out to 65-year-old Hitchon in 2023, where he recorded a final interview. Hitchon died three days after filming (pictured in 56 Up in 2012)
‘This section with Nick is hard, and I think we all know that he’s no longer with us. God bless him. I am currently in remission, and Nick is right. Focus shifts to the short term. What can we – all of us – do with the time we have left? Not waste it, would be a start,’ wrote one emotional viewer on X.
‘Kleenex at the ready for the final 10 mins? Nick,’ added another, whilst one wrote: ‘I’m bawling already knowing Nick is no longer with us.’
‘All of it is making me very emotional. In the blink of an eye, hopes and aspirations are just distant memories and time has run out. Life is over so very quickly. Too quickly,’ agreed one more.
Hitchon’s brother, Andrew, wrote a piece for the Telegraph, explaining how much his late sibling had pushed to have one final on-camera interview.
‘Nick was a determined character, and it seems likely to me that he wanted to finish what he had started,’ he said.
‘I hope that 70 Up will bring [the cast] proper closure and allow them to let go of a phenomenon they have coexisted with for more than six decades. Most of all, I hope filming that last interview did the same for Nick.’
