Seven-Up! star Tony Walker on life as a cabbie: I've had stars like Johnny Depp and Hugh Grant in my taxi - they often ask for my autograph

Tony Walker is best known for being in the long-running documentary series Seven Up!

The 71-year-old, who has worked as a black cab driver in London for nearly 50 years, says: 'Appearing in the series was one of the best things that's ever happened to me, and the cast members are now like family.'

The father of three grown-up children – a boy and two girls, all in their 40s – lives with his cabbie wife Debbie in Epping Forest, Essex.

What did your parents teach you about money?

I was one of four – I've got two brothers and a sister – and grew up in Bethnal Green in London's East End. I wore hand-me-downs to school every day.

We lived in a bomb-damaged terraced house, but later moved to a three-bed council flat.

My dad Johnnie, who lived to 69, was a three-card trickster and was in and out of prison.

When he was locked up in Pentonville nick, my dear old Mum, who lived to 65, would pawn his suits to pay the bills and put food on the table.

Time travel: Tony Walker pictured in 1985 

Yes, we were poor but everyone was in the same boat, so we didn't know it – I had the best upbringing no money could buy.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Yes. When I worked in stables in my teens, I was on ten bob a week and money was tight, but I was doing it for the love of horses – I've felt an affinity with them ever since I first got on a Shetland pony as a kid.

In my 20s I took The Knowledge [the famous navigational exam to become a London black cab driver] and became a cabbie, like my two older brothers. 

I've been a cabbie for 47 years, though I'm now semi-retired – and have never looked back.

It's given me a good living, though I've worked hard for the money. 

My first job was in a local greengrocer's, putting out the fruit and veg, aged seven or eight – it paid six bob a week.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

My childhood dream was to be a jockey. If I'd succeeded in that ambition and got to the top, I could well have made silly money. 

I'm little over 5ft tall and it's never held me back.

But it's very competitive and, when things didn't work out, I became a bookie's runner in my teens, putting bets on the greyhounds at Hackney Wick dog track and living by my wits.

If I placed £600 in bets over the course of an afternoon I'd get around £60, which was good money at the time – but you'd have good weeks and not so good weeks.

Being a cabbie pays well but no one gets rich driving a black cab – most of the tips are no more than £5 to £10. 

I've also worked as an occasional extra on everything from The Sweeney, which paid £12 cash, to films like Empire Of The Sun (1987) – I was a stand-in for the 11-year-old Christian Bale because of my height – and Splitting Heirs (1983), starring Eric Idle. That paid about £100.

More recently, I did a TV advert with Joanna Lumley for Lancome perfume starring as the cabbie – that was a great experience.

What was the best year of your financial life?

My best years as a cabbie were the 1980s because I was young, keen and happy to work all hours as I had a family to support.

Things have got tougher recently, what with the rise of Uber and other rival cab firms, but nobody knows London like a black cab driver.

I don't think Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is a friend of cabbies – pedestrianising Oxford Street isn't going to do us any favours. 

There were 24,000 black cabbies when I started out, but there's now only around 16,000.

Cab driver: Tony Walker on the Up! series in 2019

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

I liked to drive a smart black cab so I leased a new one every four or five years, though a new cab now would cost about £77,000.

I'm not an extravagant person, though I took my wife Debbie on a cruise to the Caribbean earlier this year – it cost more than £2,000 but was the best holiday of my life.

What has been your biggest money mistake?

Losing my first car, a used Hillman Hunter, on a bet.

I bought it for £380 in 1976 during my days as a bookie's runner, but I had to pay out to three winning punters one afternoon. 

That left me skint and with no choice but to sadly sell the car – I remember it like it was yesterday.

Best money decision you have made?

Becoming a black taxi driver and being my own boss. I bought my first used black cab for £3,300 in 1984 and have since owned a further three – though most drivers, including me, now lease their cabs.

I've had Sigourney Weaver, Catherine Zeta Jones, Hugh Grant, Johnny Depp and John Cleese in the back of my cab over the years, to name a few.

When they learn that I've worked with Michael Apted on the Seven Up! TV series, they let their hair down and chat away. 

A couple of them have even asked for my autograph. I can talk to anyone – that's why I've been dubbed 'the gabby cabbie'.

Will you pass down your money or spend it all?

When my time is up, I'll pass on what's left to my wife and family – I've now got six grandchildren and want to help provide for their future. 

But at the same time, I'll leave something to the charities that are closest to my heart, such as the Haven House children's charity and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Back in the day: A photo showing Tony Walker as a child in 1964

Do you have a pension?

Just the state pension, which I can now draw. 

Although I'm beginning to wonder whether the Labour government is still on my side after Andy Burnham talked about doing away with the pension triple lock.

Do you own any property?

Yes, a modest park home in Epping Forest that my wife Debbie and I bought for a six- figure sum 12 years ago.

We bought our first property in Woodford, east London, for £74,000 in the 1980s.

If you were chancellor what would you do?

I'd scrap VAT on fuel and give pensioners more benefits. Like a lot of people of my generation, I've never been on the dole. I think we deserve a decent retirement.

What is your number one financial priority?

To work until I drop to help make ends meet. I've always been a grafter – I've worked since I was seven and don't know anything different.

The last ever episode of the Up! series, which began in 1964, is available on ITVX. Tony supports the homelessness charity Crisis (crisis.org.uk)