The documentary 70Up: The Victorians, broadcast for the first time since 1964, revisits a group of elderly Britons who lived through the dramatic changes of the 20th century. Conceived as a companion to Granada TV’s long-running 7Up series, it offers a distinctive portrait of people born in Queen Victoria’s Britain and nearing the end of their lives, rather than beginning them.

The programme features pensioners from varied social backgrounds, most of them women, reflecting the heavy male casualties of two world wars and women’s longer life expectancy. The oldest participant was born in 1870, while contributors recall large families, high infant mortality, poverty and the threat of the workhouse; many were left unnamed, making the restored film both a historical record and a possible source of recognition for viewers’ relatives.