Paul Watson, a British producer, director and editor who pioneered fly-on-the-wall documentaries like The Family, has become a BAFTA Special Award winner.
Watson has made a unique contribution to British filmmaking over the past 35 years, working on more than 200 films. Documentaries include the groundbreaking series The Family, The Fishing Party, Rain In My Heart and Malcolm And Barbara. His work on A Year in the Life led to winning the Television Factual Documentary BAFTA in 1970 and his other work has been nominated a further seven times since then.
Reflecting on his remarkable career, Watson said: “People say I have fantastic luck in making films. I don’t – I create the luck…”
An iconic British documentary-maker
Having studied at the Royal College of Art in the 1960s, Watson’s TV career began as a researcher on Whicker’s World. His work on the show resulted in the BBC giving him his own documentary series, A Year in the Life.
Watson broke new ground with his innovative working methods – something he calls “present-tense filmmaking”. This novel approach first surfaced in The Family, which focused on the lives of a working class family and aired in 1974. Widely credited as the first example of fly-on-the wall TV documentary, the programme earned Watson a place in the canon of British documentary-makers.
