Michael John Croucher (17 January 1930 – 26 May 2006) was a British documentary film maker and television producer for the

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Life and career

Born in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, he was evacuated to

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

in Canada during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1949, he undertook

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, before studying at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

. He started work in 1954 as a trainee sound technician at the BBC in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, where he made use of his experience in

wireless telegraphy Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimental technologies for ...

. After moving to BBC

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

in 1958, he was able to transfer his sound editing skills to television, and began to work on short documentary pieces on magazine programmes. ACH Smith, "Michael Croucher: Pioneering and patient BBC documentary film-maker", ''The Guardian'', 20 July 2006
Retrieved 27 December 2019 Obituary: Michael Croucher, ''The Times'', 10 June 2006
Retrieved 27 December 2019 He made short filmed documentary programmes, notably ''The Bashers'' about a boys' gang in the

Lawrence Hill Lawrence Hill (born January 24, 1957) is a Canadian novelist, essayist, and memoirist. He is known for his 2007 novel '' The Book of Negroes,'' inspired by the Black Loyalists given freedom and resettled in Nova Scotia by the British after the A ...

area of Bristol, and then worked on programmes with

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

. Croucher became assistant director to

John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...

, and they worked together on the series ''Citizen 63'' and ''The Newcomers''. With Boorman, he pioneered the approach of "filming ordinary people telling their extraordinary stories straight to camera." After Boorman began working on cinema films, Croucher became head of documentaries at Bristol, and produced a series of films with largely rural settings, including ''The Curious Character of Britain'', ''Summer 67'', ''The Way of the Warrior'', ''Seven Ages of Man'', and ''Leap in the Dark''. He also produced the semi-fictionalised '' Diary of Anne Hughes'' (1978), many one-off films, and the series ''The French Way'', ''The Italian Way'', ''The Yugoslavian Way'', and ''The Irish Way''. In technical work, he pioneered techniques of

colour separation Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white or monochrome printing). Any natural scene or color photograph can be optically and physiologically dissected into three ...

. "Michael Croucher: Filmmaker", ''BAFTA''
Retrieved 27 December 2019 He left the BBC in 1989, and in later years was a visiting lecturer at

Bristol University , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. He died in 2006, aged 76.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Croucher, Michael 1930 births 2006 deaths Military personnel from Kent 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel Royal Air Force airmen English documentary filmmakers BBC television producers People from Maidstone Alumni of the Royal College of Music