A Tribute by Richard Brunskill
Born in 1944, educated at Ardingly College and later having taken an aeronautical engineering apprenticeship at Vickers in Weybridge, Dick Allen joined the BBC in 1964 almost by accident. He met a friend who recommended that he try to get in, which he did. Initially he worked in the vaults of the Film Library from where he progressed to the Film Examination section.
By now he knew film was what he wanted to work with and in 1967 he applied for and successfully obtained, a post as a Trainee Assistant Film Editor in Film Department. He was made up to Film Editor in 1973 and was soon sought after by producers and directors.
During his 28 years in the BBC he worked on major documentary series like "Horizon", "Chronicle" and "The Tribal Eye" with presenters such as Sir David Attenborough and Magnus Magnusson, but Drama was always his main interest.
He edited many prestigious dramas including the feature film "Enchanted April", directed by Mike Newell which opened the 1991 London Film Festival; "Shackleton"; "Fair Stood The Wind For France"; "Virtuoso", based on the life of pianist John Ogden starring Alfred Molina; "Contact" directed by the late, great Alan Clarke and "Hotel du Lac", for which he received a BAFTA award in 1986. Such was his talent and mastery of the craft, he received a second BAFTA award in 1991 for the series, "Portrait Of A Marriage" based on the life of Vita Sackville West.
He left the BBC in 1991 with the first wave of Film Department redundancies and was freelance for a time, still working with film. He edited two further series, "Oliver's Travels" starring Alan Bates and Sinead Cusack and "Love on A Branch Line", with Lesley Phillips and Michael Maloney.
He gave up editing altogether in 1994 to help look after his newly born son. He was also able to return to another great interest when he took up flying and achieved a full pilot's license.
Dick had a strong personality and was a perfectionist. His work, his home and his family meant much to him. Modest, never flamboyant and always confident he had a singular and witty sense of humour.
Dick had been diagnosed a diabetic some years ago and eventually was fighting poor health, but always took it in his stride. He died in early February and leaves his widow Robyn, their young son Jonathan, and a daughter and son from his previous marriage. He will be very much missed by all who knew him, who are still shocked by their loss.
Richard Brunskill
A tribute from Prospero November 2007 by Julian Miller
Multi-talented individual.
Friends and ex-colleagues will be saddened to learn of the death, in August, of David Thompson, film editor. He was 65.
David had joined the BBC at Ealing (TFS) as an assistant film editor in 1974. Working for several departments, Promotions, Tomorrow’s World and Music and Arts among others, he became a film editor in the 1980s and worked mostly on documentaries.
Born in Scotland he was quite a sporting teenager, being at one time a Scottish junior tennis champion. He was a graduate of Glasgow School of Arts where he studied textiles and gained a place at the prestigious Royal College of Arts where he won a silver medal. While there, he wrote directed and acted in a shorter feature ‘Dreamweaver’ played very much in the nouvelle vague of the time.
Multi-talented, David was a fine photographer and it was a photographic assignment that led him to cover a concert where he met and befriended the Rolling Stones, on one of whose tracks Off the Hook he earned a co-writing credit with Jagger and Richards. Later in life he had one-person exhibition based on photographs he’d made in the 60s of Glasgow children, with whom he had a natural affinity. It was in the later 1960s that he was drawn to the theatre, joining the international La MaMa troupe with whom he performed in several European countries and in the United States.
Morally upright, highly perceptive, a socialist and strong supporter of the union, he enjoyed the ethos of the BBC where his outstanding talent to make friends with people of all ages and for all levels of society for a flowered. The manic depression which plagued much of his adult life and which forced his early retirement in 1987 in no way diminishes the loyalty and affection that he inspired in others. Fortunately, in his retirement years in Glasgow and Sterling, the bouts of his illness became less frequent and less intense and he was able to follow the fortunes of his beloved Stirling Albion team and to pursue, amongst his many passions, his avid collecting of jazz records and films, first on VHS and subsequently on DVD.
Many people were the recipients of his care and extreme generosity.
Julian Miller.
A tribute by Paul Foxall
Former Chief Film Editor, Paddy Wilson, has died at home in his beloved Sussex by the sea, aged 82. He’d not been well for some time and the last few weeks were particularly distressing for him, his wife Joan and their family.
I first met Paddy in the 60’s when he was the Chief on 24 Hours and I was one of the film editors and we became instant friends. He was a terrific guy to work for having such a generous spirit, great warmth and a delicious sense of humour. 24 Hours was a happy ship, due to the calm leadership of Paddy and Gordon Forsyth at the helm. Our paths crossed again at Kensington House on documentaries in the early seventies. He still loved to ‘keep his hand in’ on such programmes as, Chronicle and One Hundred Great Paintings. I always envied Paddy because whenever I popped into his cutting room for a chat it was full of women – I can only put this down to his famous ‘nautical’ saying that “the ladies liked the cut of his jib”!
Born in Colombo in Ceylon Paddy was a manager of a tea plantation. He was educated at Blundell’s in Devon and joined the Navy at 18. Before starting at the BBC he worked at Merton Park Studios. Paddy had a passion for motor cycles and it was when trying to start a particularly defiant model that it’s fair to say he did long term damage to his knee. For many years he lived with Joan and his daughters Rebecca and Clare at a lovely rambling house in Addlestone, Surrey. Paddy’s favourite curries were always on the menu, beautifully prepared by Joan.
Paddy loved sailing, which was one of the reasons he retired to Pagham. Sadly at about this time his health began to suffer, so he was never able to enjoy his retirement to the full. However, in order to keep in touch with Paddy, a group of about 20 editing colleagues met for lunch each summer at The Lamb in Pagham. Regular pals at the table included, Pam Bosworth, Alan Martin, Geoff Botterill and Dave King. Paddy attended these early gatherings, but when ill-heath intervened he was unable to be there. However, this tradition continued and it looks as if it will remain so for many years to come as a tribute to his memory.
A tribute by Ken Locke
Family and friends joined Bill’s beloved wife Betty for a humanist service at
Breakspear Crematorium, North West London, to mourn the passing and celebrate
the life of Bill Wright, film editor, who died on the 6th of January after a
short illness, aged 73.
The large gathering showed the affection widely held for Bill. It included many of his colleagues, paying tribute to his personal affability and an outstanding editing career at the BBC and later in the freelance world.
Bill and Betty both hailed from Dunoon in West Scotland, where Bill’s father managed the La Scala Cinema. His early days as a projectionist there started a lifelong love of film, and led him to move to London in 1959,where he joined the Projection Department at TFS Ealing and married Betty in 1961.
Paying close attention to the way the films he ran were constructed enabled him to begin a career in the cutting rooms that spanned more than 35 years. The fast moving world of Current Affairs helped hone his editing skills, and his work on Tonight and Panorama saw his measured and decisive approach attract Producers from Documentary and Drama Departments.
In the Seventies and early Eighties Bill’s editing enhanced BBC productions such as ‘the Family’, ‘Kizzy’, ‘Anna Karenina’, ‘Wilfred and Eileen’, ‘Going Straight’, and ‘The Chinese Detective’. The moving story of ‘The Silent Twins’ was followed a year later with the 1986 Dennis Potter classic ‘The Singing Detective’.
His outstanding work on 3 episodes of this landmark production rightly earned him a Guild of British Film Editors Award - an honour from his fellow editors Bill greatly treasured. Later his work on the elegant costume drama ‘Clarissa’ was BAFTA nominated.
In the mid-Nineties he went freelance, and his reputation ensured a constant flow of work, including ‘The Blonde Bombshell’, a two part dramatisation of the turbulent career of Diana Dors, and an undervalued feature film.
This was ‘Keep The Aspidistra Flying’, a sharp and witty adaptation of a George Orwell story. For its U.S.A. release it became ‘A Merry War’, with their distributor’s agent complaining “What the hell is an Aspidistra?”. As Bill commented later “What the hell is a merry war?”.
Bill then decided it was time to take it easy and enjoy the world. He and Betty travelled widely, crossing the Atlantic on ‘Queen Mary 2’ and exploring the U.S.A. coast to coast. In London Bill kept up a keen interest in cinema, TV, and Theatre, with a special affection for stage and film musicals.
Proud Scots who typified their nation’s reputation for warm hospitality, Bill and Betty were wonderful hosts, conveying their enthusiasms with insight and humour. Memorable meals and great conversation made these occasions happy events their many friends will always fondly remember, even as we grieve with Betty for her great loss.