Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
Desmond WILCOX (1931-2000)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Desmond Wilcox, journalist and filmmaker, was surprised by Michael Aspel while filming on the London Eye.
Desmond, who was born in Welwyn Garden City, began a career in journalism as a reporter with the Edgware Local in 1948. After his national service, he joined the Daily Mirror as their youngest-ever foreign correspondent, working out of their New York bureau. In 1960, he moved into television as a reporter with ITV's This Week current affairs programme. Five years later, he joined the BBC as co-editor and presenter of the landmark series Man Alive.
He was head of general features at the BBC between 1972 and 1980, when he quit the corporation to become a freelance documentary maker. As one of the UK's most innovative documentary makers, his groundbreaking films, under the generic title of The Visit, told moving stories of human lives in extraordinary circumstances and won several international awards.
"Well, you are joking? Michael! I don't believe it! I've gone all funny - I may fall into the river!"
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Series 40 subjects
Roger Black | Hewitt Clark | Martin Kemp | Denise Welch | Rudolph Walker | Martin Jarvis | Stuart Hall | Rita Tushingham