What should I read after watching the Up series?

June 30, 2014 1:57 PM

I am an American who has just finished watching the Up series on Netflix, and I am wondering if there are any articles or books worth reading about the series. I would be interested in anything, but I'm particularly interested in anything that fleshes out the stories of these people's lives and also anything concerning how the series changed the lives of those portrayed (are they celebrities in the UK? etc.)
posted by imabanana to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

It's incredible, isn't it?
Here are a few articles you might be interested in:
-NPR
-New Yorker
-NYT
-Guardian
-Documentary.org
posted by leitmotif at 2:23 PM on June 30, 2014

There was a book made at the time of 35 up (I picked it up second hand a while back). Looking through it, it doesn't seem to have a lot of detail not present in the films, it's more a snapshot of the participants at different ages.

A few of the participants comment in the films on how intrusive the process is, so I doubt most of them would be up for providing more detail.
posted by Cheese Monster at 2:28 PM on June 30, 2014

One of the participants, Nick Hitchon, was recently a guest on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and had some additional comments about it. (He's now a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.) Link to that week's show over here.

(I haven't actually gotten around to watching the series, have been meaning to, and listening to him talk about it made me want to more.)
posted by modernhypatia at 3:11 PM on June 30, 2014

The participants aren't celebrities by the standard definition: although they have spoken of being recognised by the general public, the press generally lets them live their lives during the seven-year gap between updates.
posted by holgate at 9:38 PM on June 30, 2014