PETER WILLIAMS MBE
Film Maker and Author
Peter Williams is Chief Executive of PETER WILLIAMS TELEVISION based in the South East of England and a supplier of factual programmes to the BBC, ITV, Channel Four and leading international broadcasters.
During a long and distinguished career, he has produced and directed documentaries on subjects as diverse as THE QUEEN AND HER CEREMONIAL HORSES, THE BANK OF ENGLAND, RICHARD BRANSON – including his attempts to fly a balloon around the world – the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, socialist pioneer ANEURIN BEVAN, war correspondent MARTHA GELLHORN, the GRIMALDIS, the GETTYS, singer and socialist PAUL ROBESON; a year in the life of CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL; SIR EDMUND HILLARY to mark the anniversary of his ascent of Everest; the history of the WELLINGTON BOMBER, KING’S, a series on the oldest school in Britain; and LORD REITH, founder of the BBC. His programme WHITE SINGS ROBESON, in which Willard White portrayed Robeson’s life in music and anecdote, was one of the first programmes on BBC 4. His UNIT 731, on Japan’s biological warfare experiments in WW2 won the Gold Medal at New York.
He is the only producer to have exclusive access to Dr Panayiotis Zavos’ attempts TO CLONE A HUMAN BEING (for Discovery). He explored for SKY the formation of the PREMIER LEAGUE, and recently produced the company’s first feature-length documentary HILARY LISTER: A RACE AGAINST TIME, which was adapted to show on BBC 2. He recently produced and directed a documentary for the 75th anniversary of Dunkirk on the paddle steamer MEDWAY QUEEN, one of the “Little Ships”, and a documentary on the Theatre Royal, Margate for BBC 1 called FERAL IN MARGATE. His feature length documentary THE CHALLENGE, telling the story of a father’s fight to save his son from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, won awards at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Best Documentary award at Milan (2016) and was shown on Discovery. He has just produced and directed a feature length documentary A CENTURY OF COAL on the history of the East Kent Coalfield, which has won five awards at Festivals around the world. Peter has also written a history of the Coalfield, titled IN BLACK & WHITE, on sale through Waterstones and Amazon. He is currently making a feature-length documentary on one of the most significant battles of World War II, for Hill 112 in Normandy, titled A CANTERBURY TALE.
His team discovered the wreck of the TITANIC (for National Geographic) in 1985; he made the exclusive documentaries on the birth of the first IVF babies in both the UK (for ITV in 1978) and in the US (for WGBH 1981). His TEST TUBE EXPLOSION was runner up for the Prix Italia and was shown in Stockholm at the ceremony at which Professor Robert Edwards received the Nobel Prize for Science.
A grammar-schoolboy, Peter Williams left school at 15 to become an office-boy at the Bristol Evening Post. After ten years as a newspaper journalist, he became the first newsreader when ITV opened its studios in Dover. He has since worked for ITV and the BBC, as both reporter and producer/director. He was a reporter/producer for ITV’s THIS WEEK for 14 years, and produced as many as 12 half-hour documentaries a year. He was responsible for more documentaries in the series than any other reporter/producer on subjects as diverse as RHODESIAN-UDI, NYMPHS AND SHEPHERDS (subsequently turned into a musical by Victoria Wood), RUDOLF HESS, BLOODY SUNDAY, MARLON BRANDO – THE ACTOR IN POLITICS, the US ASTRONAUTS (Everyone’s Gone to the Moon) and the birth of the world’s first TEST TUBE BABY (To Mrs Brown, a Daughter). He was then head-hunted by the BBC to make two series of OPEN SECRET and contribute to PANORAMA. He moved to TVS and as Controller of Factual Programmes, was responsible for 10 years for the company’s science, finance, industry, farming, arts, religious and documentary output, both regionally and for the ITV network.
He has often specialised in programmes on wartime history, making DOODLEBUG SUMMER on Hitler’s wartime Vengeance Weapons, the V1 and V2; THE ROAD TO D-DAY, on preparations for the Allied Invasion of Europe; and SECRET ARMY, on Britain’s Kent-based underground resistance in 1940 (for Meridian, LWT and the History Channel). His D-DAY - THE SHORTEST DAY, marked the 50th anniversary of D-Day for ITV, and the 60th anniversary on The History Channel.
He has won awards at many of the world’s television festivals - New York, San Francisco, Houston and from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the European Broadcast Union. His CHARLIE WING won the Royal Television Society Best Documentary award in 1990 and AMBULANCE (ITV Meridian) won the INDIES Best Regional Programme Award in 1994. He was awarded the RTS Industry Achievement Award in 2002. He is a member of the Royal Television Society and a founder member of United for Local Television (ULTV), which successfully lobbied successive governments to initiate Local TV in the UK.
He was awarded the Freedom of the City of Canterbury for services to the city and region in 2001. He is a Kent Ambassador, and was awarded the MBE by the Queen, for services to the arts and television in the 2007 Birthday Honours List. He was Chairman of the Canterbury Conservation Advisory Committee; Chairman, now President, of the Canterbury Festival for 21 years, former Chairman of The New Marlowe Theatre Development Trust, a Trustee of the Kent Community Foundation and Chair of Viridor Credits (Kent).
Honorary degrees: D Litt and MA from University of Kent (1998 and 2012); Hon Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University (2010).
