Editor Reviews:

Book Description:
A richly illustrated companion volume to the acclaimed 7 Up film series-- a fascinating longitudinal study, published to coincide with the film release of 42 Up. "Utterly fascinating," "groundbreaking," "unparalleled." These are among the accolades American critics have used to describe the series of British television programs that began in 1964 when filmmaker Michael Apted set out to test the aphorism "Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man." He filmed fourteen seven-year-old boys and girls from all walks of British life and revisited the same group at fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight, thirty-five, and, now, forty-two. This series, chronicling their successes and failures, fears and dreams, is one of the greatest-and most fascinating- longitudinal studies of all time. 42 Up is being published to coincide with the American film release of the most recent installment and provides an overview from the project's inception. Illustrated throughout, the book chronicles the life-stories of each of the film's subjects, capturing the spirit and candor of the films in an accessible, affordable format.

Rating : - As an UP series fan, this is a disappointment
This is a thin little book (155 pages) that is mostly transcripts of the film 42 UP. It includes snippet interviews of the other UP film series, but these are identical to what you will find in the "flashbacks" in the 42 UP film. There is a little bit extra here from the 35/42 Uppers than in the movie but not enough to be hyped as "never-before-available out-takes from 35 UP and 42 UP". The interviews themselves are raw transcripts without descriptive comments like "sighs", "laughs", "winces" which would help put the verbal comments in perspective.

It saddened me to see such classy people like Michael Apted and Roger Ebert involved in this book project which clearly came from a marketing person. This book will not enhance your experience of 42 UP in the least.

My advice is to get the 42 UP series DVD and listen to Michael Apted's commentary track. It contains much more information than is found in this book.