Genius

Seven Up! first hit the screens in May 1964, and was intended as a one-off programme, a snapshot of the British class system and the way it conditioned so much of life. Tim Hewat, the Australian founding editor of World in Action, had the idea for the programme, and took as its starting point the Jesuit saying: "Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man."...It is worth replaying the beginnings of what has become a television institution because, though it looks to have been inevitable that the makers would return every seven years to check on the progress of their proteges, it wasn't. They only returned at 14 because Denis Forman, the visionary head of Granada TV, suggested it, and Apted, whose career is now intertwined with the series, took over as director because Almond was making feature films in Canada. Even the name might have been different. Seven Up! was Granada founding chairman Sidney Bernstein's idea, and Hewat and Almond hated it because of possible confusion with the soft drink. Half a century later, the TV brand has become equally powerful.

A show that took place before Hard Day's Night is still happening. Wow.