Interview with Michael Apted
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Michael Apted
English director who followed the same group of children every seven years from 7 Up to 63 Up, and directed Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist and The World Is Not Enough.
Source: BUILD Series on YouTube
These answers are taken from "63 Up" Director Michael Apted Has A Conversation About His Documentary on BUILD Series's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with filmmaking?
I'd just joined the company, along with five other young men, at Granada in Manchester, and I'd been in the company about six months doing very little, because they were trying to train another generation of people. Then we started to have to work on proper programs. They couldn't afford to keep paying us for doing nothing.
So one of the first assignments I had was to join a Canadian director who was doing this for the first time, about this idea of the English class system and how can we best dramatize it. We got on well. I was very political, and he was a good director but entirely ignorant of the British system, so we began to work together on it. What I had to bring to it was the idiotic way that the British were running their education. So we got on very well, the Canadian and I, and then we did it.
How did your filmmaking career unfold?
After the first one I went back to doing the odd job. I was doing a bit of Coronation Street and things like that. Then about five years later I got a summons from the management saying, we want to try another one, would you do it? Because Paul had gone back to Canada a long time before. So I said yes. I thought about it for about six seconds, and I did the second one, and that went well too.
I remember after the first week of filming I rang the management up and said, look, I don't want to stay in Manchester for the rest of my life, although it was a really good company in those days. I want to go to America and work in America. But if you say to me we're going to go on with this, I guarantee that I'll come and do it, because I think this is so important. And so I did. I've been going back every seven years.
How do you keep your cast and crew communicating well on set?
I have been very disciplined about not going into them. Now and again we arrange a little treat: if I have a film opening in London, we'll do a special screening for them to come in. But generally I don't have much to do with them during the seven years. There's a lady who works with me, Claire. She lives in England and she keeps an eye on things, but not in an aggressive way. It seemed to be important that we didn't know too much.
It's give and take. I can't have it all my own way. Sometimes they just want something taken out of the film, and if it's passionate and I can understand their motives, I'll agree with it immediately, because I don't want to lose them. They have the upper hand, because they can say, if you don't take that out, I'm never coming back.
They took, to a certain extent, ownership of it. Before, I was pushing them around, but now they know more about their lives than I do. It's a shared matter what goes in and what we're going to talk about and what we're not.
Of all the projects you have made, which is your favorite?
I think the last one is always the favorite. I think we made a big step forward in 28 Up, when we really did start talking real stuff. We started to get into things as a group at that age, and they were settled in some ways in their life, so it wasn't what school are you going to go to, have you done this, have you done that. I could see it turn at 28 and just become theirs.
I know in my mind what I want them to talk about, but I won't push it down them. If they have things to talk about, in the reasonable time I'm going to have with them, that's what goes on: what they want to talk about, not what I wanted to talk about. Around 28 it started moving over to them. They realized they knew more about their lives than I did, and so they should step up and tell me.
Describe your filmmaking style.
I don't know what's going to go where in the film until I've shot the film, because I truly don't know what's coming out. I could be shocked by things I don't know about that I should maybe have known about. So it's starting from scratch every time. I know what I've done in the past is going to be useful, so if they're married or have had children, I know I want to bring that up and maybe get some pictures of it. But I like the fact that I can discover things when we do it, rather than have them prepared and trying to figure out the best way to say it.
I'm not in it at all. My little voice is there, but you don't see me, so I don't want to attract visual attention to me. I don't do shots walking around the local grocery with them. I always keep my presence away from it. I want them to tell me and my audience about their lives: not my vision of their lives, but their vision of their lives.
Tell me about a production that was hard to pull off. What was it and why was it challenging?
I was really caught out by Brexit. When I was discussing with the studio how much money I could have to do it, I said, look, I must have the resources to do a piece about Brexit when it happens. I was very worried about it, because I couldn't put the program out with nothing about Brexit. I got three little bits from the more political boys as a kind of reserve.
It looked as though it was going to happen before I started shooting, and we had all sorts of contingencies. We thought how clever we are: here's some money put aside, here's a few extra days put aside if something happens between us finishing shooting and going out on the air. And really, up to about ten days before we broadcast, there was still no resolution of it. So for the last ten days or so I just had to hope the good Lord was on my side.
Where has your work been shown, and what was the biggest audience it reached?
The first one was a huge hit here, because it did go deep into people's souls. It was nailing the country for ignoring their young people, and it got a tremendous reception.
63 Up has come out already in Great Britain on television. It has to, because it was financed by television companies. But it's different now in America, because now it's going to go into cinemas before it goes onto television. So it'll get more press attention, I think, because it's going to be shown in cinemas, and that will create a bigger audience for television. We're in a much better situation, I think, than we've ever been.
What are some of your professional goals for the future?
We'll know when to stop it. I may not be here in seven years, but I would hope this program would go on without me. I don't know who would do it; people have worked on it with me. I'd like it not to stop until it has to stop, because it becomes irrelevant and the society in England is more equal.
It's still ridiculous in the way people are treated. Education is still not as good as it should be, but it's a whole lot better than it was when I was at school, and for generations after me. So it is certainly improving.
Michael Apted's Full Biography
Michael Apted was born on 10 February 1941 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Amazing Grace (2006), Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Rome (2005). He was married to Paige Simpson, Dana Stevens and Jo Apted. He died on 7 January 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.