He began his career in television as a trainee for six-months at Granada Television in Manchester, where he worked as a researcher. One of his first projects at Granada would become his best known: the "Up "series, which began in 1964 as a profile of 14 seven-year-old children for the current affairs series "World in Action." As a researcher and assistant to Canadian director Paul Almond, Apted was involved in selecting the children, who came from a variety of backgrounds and classes. Though originally conceived as a one-off documentary, the series has become an institution. When it was suggested that they revisit the subjects at ages fourteen and twenty one, Apted accepted the offer to direct and directed every subsequent episode in the series. It explores Apted's thesis that the British class system remains largely in place. It studies the participants based on the Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man", looking at how they develop during their lives, compared to when they were seven. The series looks at the lives of these people over the years; the latest installment, "63 Up", was produced in 2019. It won a Peabody Award in 2012 "for its creator’s patience and its subjects' humanity."