Jackie’s story isn’t just about what happened to one of the children from #sevenup. It’s also about who gets to tell a woman’s story — and what gets missed when the wrong questions are asked. Jackie Bassett was one of the three working-class girls from London’s East End featured in #sevenup, alongside Sue and Lynn. From the beginning, she was outspoken, funny and skeptical of the whole project — and over time she became one of the participants most willing to challenge the series itself. Jackie married young, at 19, and initially seemed to fit exactly the future the filmmakers had imagined for the East End girls. But her life became much more complicated. By 35up she was divorced and raising a young son alone while working behind a bar. She later had two more sons and moved to Scotland, where she raised all three largely as a single mother. But Jackie’s most important contribution to the series may have been the way she confronted the programme about how it treated women. She repeatedly pointed out that Michael Apted asked the boys about politics, careers and the state of the world, while Jackie, Sue and Lynn were asked about marriage, boyfriends, children and domestic life. Jackie remembered thinking even when she was young: why were the men being asked about the country while the women were being asked about marriage? By 49up, she confronted Apted directly, arguing that he would never have asked some of the men the questions he asked her. And in 63up, she returned to the subject even more explicitly, telling him that he had treated the women “totally different.” Apted ultimately acknowledged that she had a point and admitted that the series had reflected the male-dominated assumptions of its time. And in 70up, after decades in Scotland, Jackie has found a new chapter on the Norfolk coast with a new partner, Eddie. She describes this period as almost a “second childhood” — a surprisingly peaceful ending for someone whose life has contained so much struggle. #70up #7up #itv @ITV - @theherculeannyc