Seven Up was filmed around England in the winter and first telecast on Granada Television on May 5, 1964 in black and white at 45 minutes (reduced to 30 minutes later). The makers included the Head of World in Action Tim Hewat, Cinematographer Paul Samuelson and Editor Lewis Linzee; Michael Apted and Gordon McDougall were researchers.

In the autumn of 1962, I left the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where I had been directing for some eight years, and was hired by Granada under a year's contract (negotiated by Elspeth Cochrane) to originate and to direct programs, with the general title of Executive Producer.

My initial assignment was to direct The Rose Tattoo, one of the first set of plays which Tennessee Williams allowed on Televison. Around Christmas, soon after it was aired, I was having a drink in a pub near 36 Golden Square, the London office of Granada Televison, with Tim Hewat, longtime head of World in Action. I (Canadian) and he (Australian) were discussing the class prejudices we found in the England of that day when the Labour Government had supposedly brought in a "classless society". Tim pointed out the old Jesuit saying: "Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man." Thus the two of us came up with the idea of making a film about seven- year-old children.

Tim got us a meeting with Sidney (later Lord) Bernstein, the hands-on boss of Granada TV, who ran it very much as the old moguls ran their studios in Hollywood. We three met in the conference room at 36 Golden Square where Tim and I told him our idea. Sidney liked it and said, "Why don't we call it 7Up?" I myself thought it was a terrible title at the time, as did Tim, because it was the name of a soft drink, but at Granada, Sidney's word was law. He gave us carte blanche, told us to start right away, and gave Tim the extra budget such a project would entail. That is precisely how the idea for 7Up came into being.

I was then given two young researchers, Michael Apted and Gordon McDougall, both Cambridge graduates and new to Granada. I discussed the project with them, and sent them off to find the children. I wanted a child from Yorkshire because I had gone hiking in the Dales, and I also wanted one with a Lancashire accent. So I sent Gordon McDougall there, and he found a two (including Neil) from suburban Liverpool, one (Nicholas) from the remote Yorkshire Dales as well as one (Paul) from a children's home. Michael Apted found the three girls from the East End and the young would-be jockey. Others followed. I reviewed their choices with these two researchers and selected the children for the film.

I was assigned an experienced team: cameraman David Samuelson and Editor Lewis Linzee. In shooting the children, and David and I decided upon what was, in the England of that day, a somewhat unorthodox style: the hand-held camera. David would get down to the height of these seven-year-olds and film them from their own vantage point. He was at first worried that the lab would report him for shaky camera work, but I promised to stand behind him. He grasped this "new" way of shooting with relish, and in fact, it later became the norm in many British documentaries.

I had not written a script before shooting, which at that time in British documentaries was also unusual. Because Lewis Lindsay had no script to follow, I worked closely with him on assembling the rough cut. We had chosen more children than we needed, and we decided together on which children we should concentrate.

Once we had a rough cut of the film, I wrote the commentary for a narration to supplement my own voice asking questions throughout the film. British televison at that time had few time constraints, although World in Action usually ran half an hour. With Sidney and Tim, we pared the final cut down to about 40 minutes and Sydney arranged for us to get this extra time, perhaps demonstrating the unusual nature of the film. I taped the announcers reading my script and then I brought Michael and Gordon with me to a small studio where I supervised the mix. I had arranged for them to follow the film throughout. In fact, I later asked Tim to add them to the standard World in Action credit of "Edition Prepared by:" so it could read Paul Almond, Michael Apted, Gordon McDougall."

Tim Hewat, longtime Head of World in Action,
Gordon McDougall, the other Researcher
David Samuelson, the Cameraman,
Lewis Lindsay, the Editor,
Elspeth Cochrane, Agent