Producer, Director
13 February 1940 to 3 October 2022
A British filmmaker, who helped pioneer the fly-on-the-wall documentary for British television, starting with Sailor (1976), which won two BAFTAs. Purdie was nominated twice more for The Hong Kong Beat (1979), a series following the Hong Kong police force. In 1981, Purdie became editor of the BBC’s special features unit, producing (and often directing) such true story dramas as The Story of Ruth (1982), Freud (1984), Threads (1984) and he commissioned The Monocled Mutineer (1986). Across his career, he produced and directed episodes for The World About Us (1971-1972), Inside Story (1974-1975), Cutting Edge (1991) and Omnibus (1993).
Read John Purdie's Guardian obituary
