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

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Life

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 east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, he was educated at Cranbook school. His education there was interrupted when he was evacuated to

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

in Canada during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1949, he undertook

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or 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 ...

in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, before studying at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

. He married the writer and actor Rosalind Gee in 1955, and had two sons and one daughter with her. After his divorce from Rosalind, he was married to the artist Anne Adamson from 1979 to his death in May 2006. They had two daughters. ACH Smith, "Michael Croucher: Pioneering and patient BBC documentary film-maker", ''The Guardian'', 20 July 2006
Retrieved 27 December 2019

Career

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

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, where he made use of his experience in

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

. After moving to BBC

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

in 1958, he was able to transfer his sound editing skills to television, and began to work on short documentary pieces on magazine programmes.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 architect ...

. Croucher became assistant director to

John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing feature films such as '' Point Blank'' (1967), '' Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), '' Zardoz'' ...

, 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 produced the semi-fictionalised '' Diary of Anne Hughes'' (1978) of which it was said he was proud of. He produced 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). History of color printing Woodblock printing on textiles preceded printing on paper in both Eas ...

."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 The University of Bristol is a public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had ...

in the drama department. He died May 26th 2006, aged 76.

References

External links

*
Obituary in the Guardian 2006
{{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