Bruce Balden, one of the original participants in ITV's Seven Up! documentary series, has spoken about his contentment in retirement ahead of the broadcast of "70 Up", the latest instalment following his life since 1964. First interviewed at age seven, when he expressed a wish to see his father, an RAF officer then stationed in southern Africa, Balden is now 70 and living in Berwick-upon-Tweed, where he sings in a choir and volunteers with the RNLI lifeboat service.

In the new episode, Balden reflects on his estranged relationship with his father, revealing a photograph and poem his father sent him as a child, which he has since had framed. His father, stationed in what was then Southern Rhodesia, separated from his mother, and Balden was raised largely by his aunt while attending boarding school in Hampshire. He went on to study maths at Oxford, teach in London's East End, Bangladesh and Hertfordshire, and married history teacher Penny in 1997, with whom he had two sons. The Up series, which began in 1964 by following 14 seven-year-olds from varied backgrounds, has revisited its participants every seven years since.