Nick Hitchon gave one last interview to the documentary series that had followed him since childhood. Three days later, he died.
That final conversation became part of 70 Up, the concluding chapter of a television project spanning more than six decades. Producer Claire Lewis described the timing in a September 2026 interview with Times Higher Education.
For audiences who had watched Hitchon grow from a quiet child into a scientist, his return to the screen carried the knowledge that he would never see the finished film.
A lifetime revisited every seven years
The story began in 1964, when Seven Up! introduced 14 British children from different social backgrounds. Made for Granada Television’s World in Action, it was originally intended as a single program exploring class and opportunity.
Michael Apted worked on the first film as a researcher. He became the director of the next installment, 7 Plus 7, in 1970 and continued directing the follow-ups through 63 Up in 2019.
Returning at seven-year intervals gave the project something a single interview could never capture: the distance between what a child imagines and what an adult experiences. Source: Downing College, Cambridge.
The scientist beyond the screen
Hitchon was known to viewers as Nick. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he was William Nicholas Hitchon, a professor in electrical and computer engineering.
He joined the university’s faculty in 1982. His research included theoretical and computational models of plasmas, semiconductor devices and other physical systems. Over his career, he published more than 100 journal articles and three books.
The university’s August 2023 tribute records that he died on July 23, 2023, aged 65. It remembers a researcher and educator whose professional life extended far beyond his occasional appearances on television.
One more conversation
Hitchon’s final contribution was recorded before 70 Up had been commissioned. Lewis told Times Higher Education that she persuaded ITV to send her and a camera crew after realizing how seriously ill he had become.
She recalled that he died while they were traveling home, three days after the interview.
Lewis also described his continuing dedication to his students, including working on their dissertations on his phone near the end of his life. These recollections make the interview more than a final television appearance: they place it alongside the ordinary responsibilities and relationships he still cared about. Source: Times Higher Education’s interview with Lewis.
Asif Kapadia brings the series to a close
Apted died in 2021. For the final chapter, filmmaker Asif Kapadia took over as director, working with a project that already held decades of recorded lives.
ITV describes 70 Up as the culmination of the series, returning to participants as they reflect on careers, relationships, parenthood and aging. The broadcaster subsequently confirmed that the series concluded in September 2026. Sources: ITV’s April 2026 program brochure and September viewing report.
What remains after the final interview
A series built around returning always carries a difficult question: what happens when someone cannot return?
Hitchon’s last interview gives that question a human face. His story remains both a record of change and a reminder that no documentary can contain an entire person.
The ending invites viewers to think about their own lives: the hopes they once held, the people who helped shape them, and the conversations they still have time to share.
Image credits
The photographs show the series’ directors, not Nick Hitchon or scenes from his final interview.
- Michael Apted at the 2013 Peabody Awards: Anders Krusberg / Peabody Awards.
- Asif Kapadia at the Senna premiere: Instituto Ayrton Senna.
Both images are used under CC BY 2.0, resized for web display.