Suzy Lusk (Suzanne Dewey) · The Up Series, 7 to 70
Suzy is the series' clearest case of a life that refused its own opening chapter — and of a participant who fought the series while remaining in it. The heiress who at seven assumed nannies became at 21 a chain-smoking drop-out who rejected marriage, children and the film itself, then at 28 a serene wife and mother in Bath who could not explain the change except by looking at her husband. Grief in her thirties — a father's death, a mother's cancer — turned into a vocation as a bereavement counsellor. Throughout she said she hated the films and kept appearing out of a 'ridiculous sense of loyalty', until at 63 she finally stayed away, feeling picked on as the one woman filmed alone. She returned at 70 to say so directly. Her arc is the counter-argument to the Jesuit maxim from the top of the class ladder: the seven-year-old predicted almost nothing about her, and the twenty-one-year-old predicted even less.
Declined to take part in 63 Up (2019) — she said she felt 'picked on' and, as the only woman appearing without a partner, singled out for scrutiny; only archive footage to age 56 was shown. She later regretted the absence and returned for 70 Up (2026).
Age 7 · 1964 · Seven Up!
Suzy at seven was the series' picture of privilege: ballet, a London day school, a country estate and an assumption of nannies. The camera would return to that assumption for decades.
- Filmed at a private London day school; the wealthiest girl in the cohort, daughter of a Scottish landowner
- Shown doing ballet; said that when she had children she would have a nanny
- Voiced the casually prejudiced attitudes of her class and era, which later films replayed to her
Age 14 · 1970 · 7 Plus Seven
The confident little girl had become a guarded teenager in the middle of her parents' divorce. Her hostility to the films began here and never entirely left.
- Her parents were divorcing around this time
- Withdrawn, awkward and camera-shy; rolled her eyes at the questions
- Already called the project pointless and silly
Age 21 · 1977 · 21 Up
21 Up is Suzy's most famous appearance: a disaffected, chain-smoking young woman who dismissed marriage, children and the film itself. It is the image she spent the rest of the series living against.
- Had dropped out of school at 16 and gone to Paris; later attended secretarial college and worked as a receptionist
- Chain-smoked through the interview; visibly anxious and unhappy
- Said she was cynical about marriage and did not want children
- Said she had always hated doing the programme and had been pressured into it by her parents
Age 28 · 1984 · 28 Up
The transformation between 21 and 28 is among the most striking in the series: the cynic had become a settled wife and mother who was, for the first time on camera, at ease. Asked what had changed her, she looked at Rupert.
- Married at 22 to Rupert Dewey, a solicitor in Bath
- Mother of young children (two sons; the daughter's timing between 28 and 35 is uncertain); had reversed her nanny remark and wanted to be a full-time mother
- Calm, warm and visibly happy; credited the marriage with the change
Age 35 · 1991 · 35 Up
Loss entered Suzy's life in her thirties — a father dead, a mother ill — and she turned it into work, counselling the bereaved. The privileged girl had found something useful to do with grief.
- Three children — two boys and a girl; one son diagnosed with dyslexia
- Her father had died and her mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer
- Began training/working as a bereavement counsellor, a vocation that grew from those losses
- Marriage described as strong and affectionate
Age 42 · 1998 · 42 Up
Suzy at 42 was content and reflective, and openly wished she could rewrite the adolescence the cameras had caught. Her adult life was comfortable but a step down from the estate she was born to.
- Full-time mother and bereavement counsellor; eldest son was 16
- Said that if she could change anything it would be her life between 14 and 21
- Family life in Bath stable; noticeably less wealth than her childhood, after her father's death
Age 49 · 2005 · 49 Up
With the children grown, Suzy's centre shifted to her counselling. She began saying goodbye to the series — a goodbye it would take her fourteen years to complete.
- Children leaving home; spoke of the empty nest
- Passionate about her bereavement counselling work
- Said she thought this would be her last appearance, while admitting a sense of obligation to the project
Age 56 · 2012 · 56 Up
56 Up caught Suzy still turning up despite herself. Paired with Neil, she was frank about the cost of being recognised and judged by strangers for a life edited into seven-year slices.
I suppose I have this ridiculous sense of loyalty to it, even though I hate it.
- Interviewed alongside Neil Hughes, the two paired for their rural lives and shared ambivalence about the films
- Admitted that her sense of obligation to the series outweighed her doubts
- Said members of the public who recognised her were not always kind
Age 70 · 2026 · 70 Up
Suzy came back to close the circle on her own terms, naming what had driven her away and what the films had got wrong about her. At 70 she measured her life against friends already gone and found herself lucky.
What I always found difficult was that I was the only woman on my own and that I was being slightly got at.
- Returned for the final film after skipping 63 Up
- Explained the absence: she felt 'picked on' and 'slightly got at' as the only woman appearing on her own
- Felt the series had misrepresented the trajectory of her life
- Deaths of younger friends had made her feel fortunate to be in reasonable health at 70
Turning points
- Age 14: Her parents' divorce; the confident child became a guarded, hostile teenager
- Age 21: Dropped out at 16 for Paris; the chain-smoking, marriage-rejecting interview that defined her public image
- Age 28: Marriage at 22 to Rupert Dewey and motherhood — the transformation the series is most often cited for
- Age 35: Her father's death and mother's illness led her into bereavement counselling
- Age 63: Refused to appear, feeling picked on; returned at 70 to explain and to reclaim her own account
Looking back
What people say
The chain-smoking interview at twenty-one, in which she said she did not want marriage or children, followed by the settled wife and mother of twenty-eight, is the most-quoted transformation in the series.
She has always said she hates the films and comes back only out of a "ridiculous loyalty". At sixty-three she stayed away because, as the only woman interviewed alone, she felt singled out: the other women appeared as a trio, most of the men with their wives present.
At seventy she came back not to say goodbye but to say that to Apted's successor's face.
What this life shows
A parents' divorce can hit a child hard, and still not be for life.
A confident seven-year-old from a wealthy home became guarded and hostile after the divorce at fourteen and rejected everything at twenty-one; she met Rupert at twenty-two and was someone else by twenty-eight. "Child of divorce" is still a label with a prediction built in. Suzy is the counter-example.
Twenty-one is the worst age to draw a conclusion from.
Her public image was fixed at twenty-one and void by twenty-eight. The decade from twenty to thirty is when people change most, which is exactly when the pressure to settle things lands.
Fighting the series is part of the series.
She never truly left, yet resisted it in almost every film. Her absence at sixty-three is the only time "the way I was asked was unfair" was recorded in the only form available to her.