70 Up viewers are left 'heartbroken' and 'in tears' over Neil Hughes as he opens up on mental health battles and loneliness in emotional show finale

Viewers of 70 Up were left heartbroken by the final episode of the series on Tuesday night, as Neil Hughes spoke about his decades-long battle with his mental health.

Sixty-two years after the first episode, Seven Up! was broadcast in 1964, viewers were left in tears as the longest-running documentary series in television history caught up with the participants for the final time at age 70.   

The extraordinary ITV documentary explored the lives of 14 people from disparate class backgrounds every seven years. The story of one participant in particular, Neil Hughes, had viewers in tears as he reflected on his life and the challenges he has faced.

As a schoolboy in Liverpool, Neil dreamed of becoming an astronaut but over the years viewers saw him struggle with his mental health, as he dropped out of university and struggled to hold down jobs.  

He was homeless for 28 Up, in a council house by 35 Up and had a brief marriage that had ended by 63 Up.   

'At age seven and 14 everybody wants to speak to you and now nobody wants to speak to me,' Neil told the filmmakers in the final instalment. 

Neil now lives in France at the house he holidayed at for years. He explained that his week revolves around the half a day he spends volunteering at a local bookshop and going to church.   

Neil separated from his wife after a four-year marriage, admitting 'it very suddenly ended and I was at a bit of a loss to understand that.'

'[It was] probably years of living on my own, I'd become, without realising it, much more selfish than I would have wanted to be.'

He admitted that he has always struggled with relationships and friendships, explaining: 'I'm not very good with others, and even the friends who have remained, they've remained friends because I don't see them everyday of the week.'

'They're people I can turn to, but I'm not the sort of person who goes around in groups with others.'

The film showed a clip of Neil at age 28, when he was living in a caravan in the Scottish Highlands as he explained 'I have always had a nervous complaint, I've had it since I was 16 and it was responsible for my leaving university and for some of my difficulties with work.' 

Labelling it 'basically depression,' he said he had suffered with 'periods of very bad depression which make it difficult for me to do anything constructive'.

'It has side effects because when I'm trying to pretend as if I'm not depressed this is when my behaviour can become erratic. It's trying to act a role which is impossible that can make the situation worse.'

Asked in 1984 if he thought he could overcome his depression, Neil said 'it remains to be seen.'

Fast forwarding to Neil at 70, he explained how he has stuck to tried and tested strategies for many years.

'I've tried to avoid being caught up in situations where I know I'll be at a disadvantage without trying to avoid the whole of life,' he said. 'I've come across people who have had similar problems and become total reclusives, and in the end it doesn't help them.'

'If someone has a mental health problem, it doesn't mean they're odd. It doesn't mean they've chosen to be weird or anti-social, it's just part, as much as a person's sexuality, it's not something they choose, it's what they are. Can we get to be in a society that recognises this?'

Neil had previously told the filmmakers how he knew from a young age that he would never be 'content with a quiet, domesticised life, I had to go out and seek adventure', but that that had had its downsides over the years because his childhood hadn't prepared him for a life outside of suburbia. 

'I'm probably as happy as I could be, given my life. A great deal more could have gone wrong than has done. I am still quite lonely at times but this is a common characteristic of our age,' he continued. 

'I don't suppose there's anybody who can really say "I'm happy". They must be deluding themselves when they say that.' Quoting the poet Edith Sitwell, he said he would 'like to be able to say when I go out "It's all been rather good really hasn't it?"'

Viewers were moved by Neil's story, with one posting on X: 'Neil was the most endearing of this series throughout.'

'Neil is such an intelligent man who has just lost his way. Very sad.' 

'Watching #70Up. Neil breaks my heart every 7 years. He was such a happy little boy,' added another. 

'Always look forward to see how Neil is doing, with his challenge of suffering life long depression he’s lived a remarkable travelled life with a real life story. Wishing him well for the future.'

'"I had to go out and seek adventure, but I wasn't prepared for it". Neil hitting the nail on the head. Restless and questing, yes, but not really grasping what it meant. And he's right: the suburbs do this to some people. Cabin-feverish and dissatisfied, but unprepared.'

'I hope Neil realises how much people care about him. He’s always been the one we’ve all worried about,' said another.

Another asked how they could reach out to Neil, posting: 'How can we write to Neil at #70up so he is not lonely. He does not do anything digital, I wonder if he would like that.'

Audiences were also devastated to see Yorkshire lad Nick Hitchon appear on the documentary just three days before he died of throat cancer in July 2023.

The programme was actually meant to conclude with 63 Up in 2019, following the death of director Michael Apted, but it was participant Nick Hitchon's devastating cancer diagnosis which prompted the filmmakers to return – this time with Academy Award-winning director Asif Kapadia at the helm. 

But in 2023, Hitchon sent producer Claire Lewis an 'almost coded email' telling her that he intended to be here for the 70 Up series, but Lewis said 'reading between the lines of his emails, I realised how extraordinarily ill he was'.

While the final series hadn't yet been commissioned, Lewis persuaded ITV to fly her and a camera crew out to visit 65-year-old Hitchon in 2023, where he recorded a final interview. Hitchon died three days after filming. 

Nick's final interview was then played in full in the second part of the 70 Up swan song, and also featured clips showing him reflecting on his health in the previous episode, 63 Up. 

In 70 Up, Nick shared: 'I had a stroke last Autumn, and apparently they asked Cryss [Nick's wife] numerous times if they should just let me die. I had no idea that I was going to be this ill, and I had no idea I was going to keep living.

'But yes, it's a surprise to my doctors that I'm still around. Curious really, it's like, one of them was saying, 'It does happen that people in your condition survive,' but made it clear that he didn't expect it.'

Nick admitted he was 'exhausted' after enduring months of hospital visits, and said he felt 'awful' that his family members had to 'pick up all the slack'.

He added that though he doesn't think about the illness he faced, he was scared of going to his scans for fear of what the medics may discover.

Reflecting on his life, Nick then added: 'I've had this life-long process of jumping in with both feet into things that were intimidating and that I could easily have said, ''I can't do this,'' in the Dales you just push through and push through and push through.

'For various reasons, I've just kept pushing through and trying to do things. The film has helped with that.'

He added: 'To me, this is tremendously important. In my life, there's always been another episode of this coming up. It's kind of exciting. 

'So I'll miss it, when [the camera crew] pack up and leave, and I'm fairly sure we're not going to do this again, I think I'll feel there's a hole in things that I haven't experienced since I was six. It's been with me since I was six.'

On-screen text then shared with viewers that Nick sadly passed away in 2023, just three days after his interview was recorded.

The series 7 Up was helmed by director Michael Apted from 1970 until his death in 2021. For the finale, Academy Award-winning director Asif Kapadia stepped in.

There have been a total of ten films which explore how the participants' lives have changed in the intervening time periods.

Most of the stars have appeared every seven years, but some have missed episodes, dropped out or been unhappy with their portrayal.

Public schoolboy and lawyer John Brisby said in 70 Up he felt he'd been 'set up to represent an outmoded class system that had no validity in the modern world'.

Meanwhile, East End girl Jackie Bassett also appeared. She said she was initially picked because 'I wouldn't stop talking. In our house, if you didn't speak up you didn't get heard. I don't think I've changed.'

Jackie married at 19, divorced, remarried, moved to Scotland, had three children, divorced again and was a single mother. Her fellow East Ender Lynn died in 2013.

Sue, also from the East End, married at 24 but was divorced by the age of 35. She has now remarried.

In 70 Up, she revealed she has now retired after holding a series of office jobs. She said, however, she needs to find herself a 'new direction' as she sometimes doesn't know what to do with herself.

Public schoolboy Bruce, who wanted to be a missionary, also appeared on tonight's show, as well as Symon, who has fostered more than 120 children and has 12 grandchildren.

Viewers also heard from Charles, a former participant who stopped appearing in the films after the age of 21.

Lawyer Andrew, the prep school pupil who read The Financial Times, returned together with Suzy – once a young ballerina who hated her private school.

ITV factual controller Jo Clinton-Davis previously said the series was a 'truly distinctive landmark piece of filmmaking that has become part of our cultural fabric'.

She said: 'In the evolving stories of our cast we see the universal themes of life play out... Ultimately, this is a tribute to the courage of all the cast who continue to share their lives with us so we can see our lives in them.'