Peter Davies · The Up Series, 7 to 70
Peter is the series' cautionary tale about the camera itself. The cheerful Liverpool boy who wanted to be an astronaut took the conventional middle-class route, a history degree in London and a teaching job, and at 28 used his interview to say what most of Liverpool thought about Margaret Thatcher's government. The tabloid storm that followed drove him out of the series for 28 years, during which he quietly rebuilt his life offstage: divorce, law school, a career as a lawyer and Crown Prosecutor in the civil service, a second marriage in 1992 to Gabrielle Monk, two children, and a move home to Liverpool. Music was the thread: the alt-country band he formed with Gabrielle in 2003, The Good Intentions, won Best Americana Band at the 2011 British Country Music Awards, and it was to promote it that he walked back into 56 Up with a candour ('purely mercenary') that won the audience over. From there he became the series' most articulate commentator on how Britain had changed, and by 70 Up he was a published novelist and full-time musician who finally spoke about a lifetime of depression. His life proved the film's original premise wrong in the best way: a documentary meant to show class as destiny ended up showing a man who changed careers three times and was, by his own account, 'a different person, almost'.
Peter withdrew after 28 Up (1984): his on-camera attack on Margaret Thatcher's government brought a right-wing tabloid campaign that painted him as an 'angry young red' and, by his own account, hate mail; he skipped 35, 42 and 49 Up. He returned at 56 (2012), openly saying it was to promote his band The Good Intentions, and stayed for 63 and 70.
Age 7 · 1964 · Seven Up!
Peter was one of the two Liverpool suburban boys, filmed with his friend Neil as the series' middle-class control group between the East End and the prep schools. He wanted to be an astronaut and dismissed university as irrelevant to that plan. He came across as bright, bouncy and unremarkable, which was rather the point.
I don't think you want to go to university if you want to be an astronaut.
- Filmed at a middle-class suburban primary school in Liverpool alongside classmate Neil Hughes
- Wanted to be an astronaut
- Reasoned that university was unnecessary for an astronaut
- Rode his bike around the neighbourhood; presented as a cheerful, ordinary Liverpool lad
Age 14 · 1970 · 7 Plus Seven
At 14 Peter was a Liverpool schoolboy on a conventional academic track, still paired on screen with Neil. Published accounts of 7 Plus Seven say almost nothing specific about him; he was the participant whose life was, at this stage, going to plan. The contrast with Neil's later unravelling is what gives this pairing its retrospective weight.
- Still at school in Liverpool; filmed again alongside Neil
- Little specific detail about Peter in this instalment is documented in published sources
Age 21 · 1977 · 21 Up
At 21 Peter was a history undergraduate in London, articulate and idealistic, saying he did not want to drift through life without leaving a mark, even as the series would later characterise his university years as exactly that: drifting. He was the Liverpool boy who had made it to a degree while his friend Neil had dropped out. Liverpool FC's 1977 European Cup win stayed with him as a life highlight.
- Reading history at London University; later summed up as having 'drifted' through university
- Said he did not want a mediocre life and wanted to leave a mark
- Tommy Smith's goal in Liverpool's 1977 European Cup final was, he later said, one of the highlights of his life
Age 28 · 1984 · 28 Up
At 28 Peter was a married comprehensive-school teacher in Leicester, underpaid and angry about what was being done to state education, and he said so about Margaret Thatcher's government in the bluntest terms the series had ever broadcast. The tabloid backlash that followed made him the series' first casualty of fame: he was vilified as an angry young red and walked away. It was the last the cameras saw of him until 2012.
The most incompetent, uncaring bloody shower we've ever had.
- Teaching at a comprehensive school in Leicester; married
- Described in the film as an underpaid, uninspired teacher frustrated by education cuts
- Called Thatcher's government 'the most incompetent, uncaring bloody shower we've ever had'
- Right-wing tabloids branded him an 'angry young red'; he received hate mail and, by some accounts, it cost him his teaching job
- Quit the series in the aftermath and stayed away for 28 years
Age 56 · 2012 · 56 Up
Peter walked back into 56 Up with a disarming honesty about why: he wanted publicity for his alt-country band. In the meantime he had remade his life, leaving teaching for law and the civil service, divorcing and marrying Gabrielle, his harmony singer, and raising two children back in Liverpool. The angry young man of 1984 had become a wry, settled 56-year-old, and the audience welcomed him rather than jeering.
The decision to come back was on a purely mercenary basis because I wanted to get some promotion for the band I played in.
- Returned after 28 years, saying frankly the decision was 'purely mercenary': to promote his band The Good Intentions
- The Good Intentions, formed 2003 with his second wife Gabrielle Monk (married 1992), had been voted Best Americana Band at the 2011 British Country Music Awards and were recording their third album, Gone So Long, in the US
- Since 28 Up he had divorced, studied law, become a lawyer and Crown Prosecutor, joined the civil service where he met Gabrielle, and moved back to Liverpool
- Two teenage children
- Found the public reception warm rather than hostile; CD sales spiked and a record deal followed
Age 63 · 2019 · 63 Up
At 63 Peter was the series' historian, using his own life to measure how far Britain had come since 1964 and judging it more tolerant and less prejudiced, though not uncritically. He was still playing with The Good Intentions after the loss of a bandmate and increasingly describing himself as a writer. He talked more in this film than in his brief 56 Up return, at ease with the project he had once fled.
In 1964 it was illegal to be openly homosexual in Britain, women could not get an abortion, and you could have a sign that said, 'No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs' over your establishment.
- The Good Intentions still active, though one member had died
- Working as a writer and musician; the series was helping promote both
- Reflected on how Britain had changed since 1964: homosexuality illegal, no legal abortion, 'No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs' signs
- Said Britain had become more tolerant, more inclusive and less prejudiced, with reservations
Age 70 · 2026 · 70 Up
At 70 Peter was a novelist and working musician in south Liverpool, and 70 Up let him say something the earlier films never had: that he had struggled with depression for much of his life. He looked back on the 1984 furore without rancour, admitted the mercenary motive for coming back had paid off, and said the arc of humanity was still going the right way.
But the tabloids really went for me, and were quite vitriolic. I was taken aback by that, and so I left.
I really don't think there will be anything like this on TV again.
I think the arc of humanity is still going in the right way.
- Appeared in the two-part finale 70 Up (ITV1/ITVX, 15 and 22 September 2026, directed by Asif Kapadia), a stud in his left ear
- Working full-time as a writer and musician; debut novel Valediction Records (Cranthorpe Millner, 2024) about the former members of a briefly successful late-1970s band, decades after its collapse; co-wrote the musical Under the Mersey Moon with Jimmy Rae
- Spoke, from inside Durham Cathedral, about the depression he had lived with on and off throughout his life
- Said the tabloids had been 'quite vitriolic' in 1984 and that was why he left; his band got a record deal after he returned in 56 Up
- Said he felt no sadness at the series ending but doubted there would ever be anything like it on television again
Turning points
- Age 21: Left Liverpool for a history degree at London University, the conventional route his friend Neil fell off.
- Age 28: Attacked Thatcher's government on camera as a Leicester comprehensive teacher; the tabloid campaign that followed drove him out of the series for 28 years.
- Age 36: Married Gabrielle Monk (1992) after his first marriage ended; he had retrained in law and moved from teaching into the civil service, where they met.
- Age 56: Returned to the series 'on a purely mercenary basis' to promote The Good Intentions; the warm reception and a spike in record sales ended his estrangement from the project.
- Age 70: Closed the series as a debut novelist and full-time musician, speaking for the first time in the series about lifelong depression.
Looking back
What people say
Attacked by the tabloids after criticising the Thatcher government at twenty-eight, he stayed away for twenty-eight years: the most cited example of what the camera costs.
At fifty-six he came back, as he put it, purely to promote his band, and won the audience over.
At seventy he is a full-time musician with a published novel, spoke for the first time about lifelong depression, and said he had almost become another person.
What this life shows
The price of speaking in public can run for decades.
One interview, twenty-eight years of absence, three changes of career. The target was a secondary-school teacher; the attackers were the national press. It is what a pile-on looked like before the internet.
A person can change track several times.
Teacher, solicitor, civil servant, musician, novelist, and the band only started in his forties.
Depression can coexist with an entire accomplished life.
He said so for the first time at seventy. The saying itself is the useful part of his line; his own words, no diagnosis added.