Not the sickly-sweet, lemon-lime soft drink, but the British documentary series launched during the mid-1960s.

Seven Up introduced 14 children from diverse backgrounds in 1964 as a one-off documentary that revealed the gap between Britain's socio-economic classes as it explored the motto: "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man."

It was a television smash-hit, which was lauded for challenging the British class system.

Directed by the late Paul Almond, the then-researcher Michael Apted helped cast the children in Seven Up.

Seven years later, Apted was asked to direct a follow-up, 7 Plus Seven, revisiting the teenagers.

Since then Seven Up has mapped the lives of the participants every seven years through their careers, relationships and bad haircuts. (Let's face it, very few people made it through the 1980s without at least one regretful hair style!)

The aim of the series was stated at the start of Seven Up as: "We brought these children together because we wanted a glimpse of England in the year 2000. The shop steward and the executive of the year 2000 are now seven years old."

The subjects were first seen on a group visit to London Zoo, where the narrator announced: "We brought these 20 children together for the very first time."

The series, however, only followed 14 of them: Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Furneaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Neil Hughes, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk and Tony Walker. Later Apted admitted it had been a poor decision to include only four females in the documentary! (In the first loss for the series, Lynn died after a short illness in mid-2013.)

Living in Shepparton during the late 1990s just out from the new Millennium, I discovered 42 Up and have been checking back in with the series since.

It was probably the world's first foray into reality TV, though with far more compelling content by today's standards and a cast of much more relatable people.

Now showing on SBS this month, 63 Up is the ninth instalment in the Seven Up franchise.

The Guardian describes it as a "documentary marvel" that "makes all other reality TV look trivial", while The Telegraph says it is "a reminder that reality TV can be a noble enterprise".

Regardless of how you look at it, checking in on how you thought your life might turn out aged seven makes for fascinating footage.

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One of the show's standouts, Neil gained a following for boldly wanting to go where few had been before.

Aged seven, the chipper Liverpool lad wanted to be an astronaut. By 21, he was living in a squat in London, having dropped out of university. With mental health issues, he was still homeless at 28 before moving to a council house off the north coast of Scotland.

By 42, Neil had moved in with a fellow Seven Up peer before returning to study and finding his feet again in the world of local politics.

He claimed to have no regrets about his role in the series.

In 63 Up, Sue stated it was a life-long achievement to be part of the series.

Now engaged to her boyfriend for 21 years, Sue relished her role as a university administrator despite never having the chance to study beyond high school.

In a clip from the 42 Up episodes, academic Nick joked: "I would like to be more famous for science than for this program, but unfortunately, Michael (Apted), it's not going to happen."

In 56 Up, Tony told an anecdote about giving astronaut Buzz Aldrin a ride in his taxi, and being surprised when a passerby asked him, and not Aldrin, for an autograph.

The Seven Up subjects are divided on whether the course of their live was set at age seven; instead that simply remains up to the audience to ponder.

Reality TV could learn from it!

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