Symon Basterfield · The Up Series, 7 to 70
Symon began as the series' hardest case, a mixed-race boy in a charity home with no father and a mother too ill to keep him, and he never left the working class: sausage-factory freezer room, forklift, airport freight, warehouse. What changed was his idea of what a life is for. The five children he fathered by 28 were his answer to his own fatherless childhood; the divorce he hid from the cameras at 35, and his mother's death in 1990, nearly undid him. Vienetta, whom he married by 42, supplied the drive he lacked, and together they turned the children's-home wound into a vocation, fostering well over a hundred children near Heathrow while he slowly won back his estranged first family and became a grandfather of ten. His creed, that you work to live rather than live to work, and his refusal to blame anyone but his own laziness for his lack of schooling, made him the series' most disarming voice. The friendship with Paul, filmed at 7, 21, 49 and 63 and sealed by his first trip to Australia, runs the length of the project. At 70, hearing aid in, he finally admitted the question he had dodged since 14: he wished he had asked who his father was.
Symon sat out 35 Up (1991): he was going through his divorce from Yvonne, the mother of his five children, and his mother had died of cancer in 1990; he said he could not have been honest on camera at that point. He returned in 42 Up and appeared in every film after.
Age 7 · 1964 · Seven Up!
Symon was the series' most disadvantaged starting point: a mixed-race boy in a charity home in a Britain where that alone marked him out, with no father and a mother too depressed to raise him. He was gentle and barely audible, and his answer about the future, that he would just walk around and see what he could find, was quietly heartbreaking. He and Paul were placed together as the bottom of the class ladder the film set out to test.
Well, before I'm old enough to get a job, I'll just walk around, and see what I can find.
- Resident of Shaftesbury Homes children's home in Twickenham, filmed with Paul in the dormitory
- The only non-white participant: Black father he never knew, white mother with depression
- Placed in care because his mother could not cope; described on air as 'illegitimate'
- Shy and quiet; said he would just walk around and see what he could find before he was old enough to work
Age 14 · 1970 · 7 Plus Seven
At 14 Symon was living with his mother for the first time in years and openly missed the children's home where everyone had been his friend. Asked repeatedly about his absent father, he insisted it did not affect him, a line the series would revisit for fifty years. His stated ambition was already the one he would fulfil: to be a good father.
I don't think having a father has an effect on me.
- Had left the children's home at about 13 to live with his mother in London
- Missed the home, where 'everybody was your friend'
- People kept asking him where his father was; he insisted not having a father had no effect on him
- Wanted to marry, have children and be a good father; hoped for acceptance growing up among white Londoners
- Had lost confidence and struggled to look at the camera
Age 21 · 1977 · 21 Up
At 21 Symon had a job in the freezer room of a sausage factory and a stated intention to move on, but no plan. He was protective of his fragile mother and had little sense of his own worth, answering 'no' when asked if he deserved more. The film reunited him with Paul, and he came across as gentler and better-dressed than anyone expected, but going nowhere in particular.
No, I haven't really; I suppose I just like hard work, I don't know.
- Working in the freezer room of a sausage factory in London; said he would not stay there long
- Living with his mother, whose depression weighed on him; described them as 'more friends than family'
- Asked whether he thought he was worth more, answered no: he supposed he just liked hard work
- Reunited on film with Paul; more confident, with a sharp sense of style
Age 28 · 1984 · 28 Up
At 28 Symon was a family man with five children and the same freezer-room job, and he made no apology for either. The film showed a warm, encouraging father who measured success by the thing he had lacked: his children had a dad. He had chosen ease over ambition, and said so.
They have everything, they have a father.
- Married to his first wife, Yvonne, whose quiet nature he had fallen for; father of five children born within about a decade
- Still working at the freezer factory he had said at 21 he would leave; content, not pushing himself
- Devoted, gentle father determined to give his children what he never had: 'they have everything, they have a father'
- Turned down the chance to move into building work
Age 42 · 1998 · 42 Up
Symon came back at 42 with a second marriage, a young son, a stepdaughter, a dead mother he wished he had spoken to, and five children who no longer trusted him. Vienetta, forthright where he was passive, had pushed him to train as a foster parent and to want more. He blamed his own laziness rather than the system for his lack of education, and stated the creed he would repeat for the rest of the series: you work to live.
I was a lazy sod, who didn't have any desire to try harder.
You don't live to work, you work to live.
- Returned after missing 35 Up; had divorced Yvonne and remarried Vienetta, gaining a stepdaughter
- Son Daniel, about four, born to him and Vienetta
- Estranged from his five older children and struggling to convince them 'that Daddy is still Daddy'; acknowledged breaking his promise about fatherhood
- His mother had died of cancer in 1990; he regretted never telling her he loved her
- The freezer factory had closed; working as a forklift operator, moving into freight work at Heathrow
- He and Vienetta had trained to become foster parents; said of school: 'I was a lazy sod, who didn't have any desire to try harder'
Age 49 · 2005 · 49 Up
At 49 Symon was a foster father and airport freight worker, calmer and more reflective than before. He had reconnected with three of his five estranged children and was open about how the children's home had left him without confidence or ambition, which was exactly why he fostered. Paul's visit from Australia gave the film its warmest scene.
- He and Vienetta were fostering children, partly so others would not grow up in institutions as he had
- Had rebuilt contact with three of his five children from his first marriage
- Working in freight at Heathrow after the factory's closure
- Paul was flown from Australia at Granada's expense to visit him; the reunion was filmed
- Reflected that his children's-home upbringing had left him short of confidence and drive
Age 56 · 2012 · 56 Up
At 56 Symon handled freight at Heathrow by day and, with Vienetta, had given a home to some sixty-five foster children. He looked at the education he had not bothered with and at the income it had cost him without bitterness, calling himself a lazy sod rather than a victim. His marriage was happy and he described himself, half amused, as a shy boy who had somehow become a bit of a star.
You don't live to work, you work to live.
- Freight handler at Heathrow Airport
- He and Vienetta had fostered more than 60 children (about 65) at their home near Heathrow, on top of raising Daniel
- Regretted his lack of formal education, believing it had capped his income; said he 'could have done a lot better' but had been 'a lazy sod'
- Happily married; called himself a shy disadvantaged East End boy who had become 'a bit of a star'
- Repeated: 'You don't live to work, you work to live'
Age 63 · 2019 · 63 Up
At 63 Symon was a warehouse worker, foster father and grandfather of ten whose fractured first family was slowly knitting back together. The film flew him and Vienetta to Australia to see Paul, and the two old dormitory-mates compared the confidence they had never had with the families they had built anyway. Symon, once the boy who would 'just walk around', told Apted he was living proof that you have to push yourself and keep going.
I am the proof that you need to push yourself and go on.
- Working in a warehouse; still fostering with Vienetta, with foster children living at home
- Ten grandchildren; relationships with his children from the first marriage continuing to mend
- He and Vienetta were flown to Australia to visit Paul and Susan, his first visit, 55 years after the two shared a dormitory
- The two men talked about the lack of confidence they had both carried and how their childhoods shaped them as fathers and grandfathers
- Told Apted he was proof that you have to push yourself and go on
Age 70 · 2026 · 70 Up
At 70 Symon was the series' great quiet achievement: the boy from the home had, with Vienetta, fostered well over a hundred children and built a home full of family and foster kids. What broke through was the unfinished business with his father: at 14 he had said it made no difference, and at 70 he broke down over never having asked. He faced death with equanimity, calling it an open door to somewhere else.
It's still in my head now, I should have asked. First, who's my dad? What did he do? Where did he come from?
I know nothing about the man, I never saw him.
The one thing I have taken from this programme is that my story is special because it has been seen. Not because it is special. Just because it's been seen.
- Appeared in the two-part finale 70 Up (ITV1/ITVX, 15 and 22 September 2026, directed by Asif Kapadia); now wearing a hearing aid
- He and Vienetta had fostered some 130 children over roughly twenty years (Wikipedia says 'more than 100'; Woman & Home 'over 120')
- Confronted the question he had waved away at 14: his biggest regret was never asking his mother who his father was; he had been told the man might be Nigerian but says he does not know, and knows nothing about him
- Said he thinks death will be 'an open door to somewhere else'
- Said what he took from the programme was that his story was special because it had been seen
Turning points
- Age 13: Left the children's home to live with his depressed mother; missed the place where 'everybody was your friend'.
- Age 28: Married to Yvonne with five children, deliberately giving them the father he never had, while staying in the freezer-room job he had said he would leave.
- Age 35: Divorce from Yvonne and his mother's death from cancer (1990); withdrew from 35 Up because he could not be honest on camera.
- Age 42: Returned remarried to Vienetta, with son Daniel; her drive pushed him into training as a foster parent and into wanting more from life.
- Age 56: Had fostered around 65 children near Heathrow; by 70 the count was around 130, the wound of the home turned into a vocation.
- Age 70: Admitted his lifelong regret at never asking his mother who his father was, reversing what he had said at 14.
Looking back
What people say
Symon is the only non-white participant; the early films barely touch race and he barely mentioned it himself. Not until seventy did he say he regretted never asking his mother who his father was.
He and Vienetta fostered around a hundred and thirty children near Heathrow, the part of the series most often called redemption. His own words: "You don't live to work, you work to live."
He blamed his schooling on himself, "I was a lazy sod", and never on the children's home, race or his mother's illness.
What this life shows
Giving what you never had is the commonest healing in middle age.
Five children before twenty-eight was his answer to having no father; after forty-two, a hundred and thirty foster children. "My children will not go through what I did" is said in almost every family. Symon extended it to a hundred and thirty who were not his.
"I was lazy" is the structure talking.
Taking structural hardship onto yourself is the deepest wound class leaves. "I just did not work hard enough" is one of the most common stories people tell about themselves; Symon's life is a place to open it up.
The film he skipped was his most honest one.
At thirty-five he stayed out because he could not be honest on camera. An absence is also an answer.