When I was just a wee little lass, I was hugely inspired by Granada Television's World In Action series, 7 Up.
Back in 1964, World in Action looked at the Jesuit saying: “Give me the child until he is 7, and I will show you the man“, or woman, and they did.
My introduction to the Up series of documentaries was through school, with
much of my "O" Level Humanities coursework based on watching the
programmes made in the sixties and seventies. It is still, without a doubt, my all time favourite documentary. Even though I have been but a mere trespasser in those peoples lives,
each and every one of them has encouraged me to open my mind and
appreciate life from different perspectives.
Today, much of the increasingly popular reality TV is nothing more than a
centre stage to emulate illusion and delusion in a wannabe fame seeking
section of society with subjects morphing into media marketed beings.
I guess everyone is entitled to their 15 minutes of
fame, but the 7 Up programme started something very real and truly
special, in my humble opinion. Something that many reality producers and stars may not even comprehend today.
The series mapped out changes in
our society, highlighting how preordained projections based on
stereotypes and social status may make assumptions that do not always
materialise, for many different reasons. The snippets of those different peoples' lives have shown evolution and individual growth according to an ever changing world
of challenges, opportunities, circumstance and personal abilities, not by media hype.
Every 7 years I have eagerly awaited an update, and despite knowing
that an instalment was due to be aired this year, I missed it. Thankfully, I was able to catch
up on 56 Up - Part 1 on ITV Player
Real people inspire me. I appreciate the insight that life is not always about what you have, or don't have, but what you do with those variables. And with that in mind... I'd like to thank all the people who took part in the Up Series over the years, in front and behind the cameras, for being a big part of my real life education.
I agree that life is often as much about what we do with our opportunities as about what we have. Too often we seem to be encouraged instead to think of and worry about what we don't have.
ReplyDeleteI much prefer my reality to the false dreams of reality TV.
Yeah... I like my reality too, and for any other dreams and fantasies, there's always my imagination!
ReplyDelete