I can’t quite remember when I first came across the ground-breaking World in Action television series which began with Seven Up! in 1963. Whenever it was, I was gripped. Under the slightly autocratic leadership of Michael Apted, the programme’s director, a group of children who turned seven in 1963 were brought together for something which was part social experiment, part genius programming and part ongoing historical documentary. There had never been anything like it before and there would never be anything like it again. The series concluded with Seventy Up this year.