Hugh Miles is a British filmmaker who specialises in

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

films. Miles spent time in his school holidays - he attended

King's Ely King's Ely The School's Terms and Conditions and the Companies House registration would suggest that the School's legal name remains "The King's School, Ely" is an All-through school, all through Public school (United Kingdom), public school ...

- working on conservation at

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

reserves, and decided on a career as a wildlife filmmaker after watching

Eric Ashby Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby, FRS (24 August 1904 – 22 October 1992) was a British botanist and educator. Born in Leytonstone in Essex, he was educated at the City of London School and the Royal College of Science, where he graduated with a ...

on television in the early 1960s. After first going to film college, Miles got a job at the Film Unit in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

and worked there for nearly nine years. Miles then joined the RSPB and was in charge of producing one hundred minutes of film a year. Miles went freelance in the mid-1970s, with his first job being to film for the BBC wildlife series '' Life on Earth''. Miles made use of a technique, learnt from J. A. Baker's book, ''The Peregrine'', which allowed him to gain the trust of the animals he filmed. By wearing the same clothes and doing the same thing every day, he hoped that the animals would get used to him as part of the landscape and would eventually take no notice of his presence. This enabled him to get close to wild otters and pumas. He has made programmes about

angling Angling (from Old English ''angol'', meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless te ...

: the film 'Tom's River', and the series 'A Passion for Angling' (1993) with Chris Yates and Bob James, and 'Catching the Impossible' (2009) with Martin Bowler, both narrated by Bernard Cribbins. One of the films that Miles made is ''People of the Sea''. After they had started filming, it became clear that there was a conservation story to be told about the decline of the

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

stocks in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

, and they ended up making a programme that was different from the one that they had set out to make. The film went on to win awards for Best Conservation Film at Jackson Hole 1997 and

Wildscreen Wildscreen is a wildlife conservation charity based in Bristol, England. The charity was founded in December 1987 from a Trust law, trust which had operated since 1982, with the initial aim of encouraging and applauding excellence in the produ ...

1998, and was also seen by the Premier of Newfoundland, who decided to put a copy in every school so that the children were brought up understanding their environment and the dangers of over exploitation of a wildlife resource. He was awarded the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

Cherry Kearton Medal and Award The Cherry Kearton Medal and Award is an honour bestowed by the Royal Geographical Society on "a traveller concerned with the study or practice of natural history, with a preference for those with an interest in nature photography, art or cinemato ...

in 1986, won a BAFTA TV award for Best Photography in 2000, shared with Chip Houseman, for Wildlife Special: Tiger; and was awarded the Panda for Outstanding Achievement at Wildscreen 2002. In 2011, Hugh was awarded an honorary degree from the

University for the Creative Arts The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in Southern England. It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Institu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Hugh Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British cinematographers People educated at King's Ely