56 Up returns to our screens

Peter Peter Davies attended the same school in Liverpool as Neil Hughes when he featured in the first documentary aged seven. The Up series last saw Peter when he was just 28. At the time he was married and teaching at a school in Leicester.

He was quite outspoken about his views about the education system and after coming under-fire in the press he decided not to take part in the series anymore.

Peter, who at seven told the programme he wanted to be an astronaut, remained in contact with Michael Apted, who asked him to come back to the show every seven years. Now, after setting up a successful country music band, Peter has decided to re-join the Up series to continue his story.

To read more about tonight's programme click here

Neil Neil appeared as a happy child at his primary school in Liverpool in the first series Seven Up! but was wandering lonely and homeless in the Highlands at 28. He surprised viewers when he was rediscovered working as a Lib Dem councillor in Hackney at the age of 42.

At 49 Neil was living in Cumbria, sitting on the local council and volunteering at the local Oxfam shop. But where is he now?

Michael Apted’s groundbreaking documentary, which has interviewed a group of Britons every seven years since they were seven years old, is now half a century in the making.

The show, called Seven Up!, was never designed as a long-running venture, but it proved so popular that the programme makers returned to the subjects when they were 14, again when they were 21, and so on. And now they’re 56.

Tonight sees the return of the series at 9pm on ITV1. We'll hear from Peter and Neil, both from Liverpool who featured in the original Seven Up! programme.