‘I'm much more confident now'

As the 7 Up 2000 generation return, star Gemma tells us about the challenges she’s had to overcome over the past seven years…

- HANNAH DAVIES

The latest generation of BBC1’s Up documentary franchise were first filmed at the age of seven in 2000. They returned to our screens aged 14 and 21, and are now back firmly settled into adulthood in a new two-part programme, 28 Up: Millennium Generation.

But it turns out that being in their 20s hasn’t been plain sailing for everyone, including Boltonborn Gemma. At seven, she stole the hearts of TV viewers, having been diagnosed with a rare virus when she was 18 months old that left her with extensive paralysis in her arms and legs. Now aged 28, she’s faced discrimination that has forced both a change of outlook and career.

Here, Gemma chats to TV Times about what it’s like being filmed every seven years, and where she’d like to be in 2028…

How has life changed since we last saw you at 21?

I’m now renting a place with Charlie, my partner of 11 years, and I’m also working for an organisation that fights for disabled people’s rights.

It came about because after I graduated from university [in 21 Up, cameras followed Gemma in her final year as a criminology student], I applied for lots of jobs but was always overlooked.

It made me feel discriminated against, because I knew I was fully qualified and I had all the experience I needed, but people’s attitudes to disabled people meant they assumed I couldn’t do the work. That was a real time of sadness – and anger!

Are you living the life you imagined for yourself?

Not entirely! When I was younger, I couldn’t imagine living away from my parents or being in my own home! But I’m much more confident now.