Desmond Wilcox

{{Short description|British documentary filmmaker (1931–2000)}} {{Use British English|date=October 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{More citations needed|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Desmond Wilcox | image = Desmond Wilcox 1974.jpg | alt =  | caption = Wilcox in 1974 | birth_name = Desmond John Wilcox | birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|5|21|df=y}} | birth_place = Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|9|6|1931|5|21|df=y}} | death_place = Paddington, London, England | other_names = | education = Cheltenham Grammar School<br />Christ's College, Finchley | occupation = Television producer, filmmaker, journalist, television executive | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse = {{plainlist| *{{marriage|Patsy Price|1954|1977|end=div.}} *{{marriage|Esther Rantzen|1977}} }} | children = 6, including Rebecca }}

'''Desmond John Wilcox''' (21 May 1931 – 6 September 2000) was a British television producer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and television executive. He worked at the BBC and ITV during his career and was producer of series such as ''This Week'', ''Man Alive'', and ''That's Life!''

==Early life== Wilcox was born in 1931 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire,<ref>[http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/93961 Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102204408/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/93961 |date=2 November 2013 }}, BFI.org.uk; accessed 29 March 2016.</ref> to John Wallace Wilcox, a student of architecture under Sir Edwin Lutyens, becoming partner in architectural firm Anderson, Forster, Warren and Wilcox (later Anderson, Forster and Wilcox)<ref>''The London Gazette'', 26 September, 1941, p. 5607.</ref><ref>''Country Life'', collected volume 194, 2000, p. 141.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=204863|title = Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report (April 3, 2022, 2:29 pm)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=100549|title = Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report (April 3, 2022, 2:29 pm)}}</ref> and a Second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers,<ref>Supplement to the London Gazette, 26 September, 1941, p. 5589</ref> and Alice May, née Whittle.<ref>''People of Today'', ed. Jonathan Parker, David Williamson, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 1995, p. 2126.</ref> He attended Cheltenham Grammar School and Christ's College, Finchley. He was then a training apprentice with the Outward Bound Sea School and left home to work as a deckhand in the merchant marine.<ref name=obit>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1354356/Desmond-Wilcox.html|title=Desmond Wilcox Obituary |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |year=2013 |access-date=23 February 2013}}</ref>

== Career ==

In 1949, Wilcox began a career in journalism as a reporter on a weekly newspaper. After two years of national service, he moved to Fleet Street to work for the ''Daily Mirror'', becoming a foreign correspondent in the New York bureau.

In 1960, Wilcox moved to television as a reporter on ITV's ''This Week'' current affairs programme, where he stayed for five years until joining the BBC.

He was co-editor and presenter of the landmark ''Man Alive'' series in 1965. He later formed the Man Alive Unit as well as providing the distinctive voice-over in the weekly current-affairs programme ''TEMPO'' directed by Mike Hodges.

In an interview in 1986 he said: {{quote|Real life honestly portrayed is sufficiently dramatic in itself. The idea that might lurk in some people's minds that you somehow have to beef it up or pump it up or invent the circumstances to make it more colourful, is an idea born of Fleet Street and ignorance.}}

From 1972 to 1980, Wilcox was head of general features at the BBC. He made series including ''Americans'', ''The Visit'', ''Black in Blue'' and ''A Day in the Life''.

He wrote the book ''Explorers'' (BBC, 1975), based upon the BBC television series of the same name, about the journeys of ten explorers.<ref>The book is translated into Dutch: ''In het voetspoor der ontdekkers'' (1976).</ref>

== Personal life == Wilcox married Patsy Price and they had three children: Claire, Adam, and Cassandra. During his marriage he had an eight-year affair with television presenter Esther Rantzen, and in 1977 he married Rantzen after obtaining a divorce from Patsy. There were three further children from this marriage, including the television presenter Rebecca Wilcox. In 1992, Wilcox converted to Judaism, the religion of his second wife.

==Later life and death== After he left the staff of the BBC, Wilcox was involved in the occasional series ''The Boy David'', following the story of David Jackson (David Lopez), a badly-deformed Peruvian boy (a sufferer of noma) whose face was rebuilt by a Scottish surgeon who adopted him.<ref name=obit /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/sep/05/1|title=About a boy|newspaper=The Guardian|date=5 September 2003|first=Duncan|last=Campbell|author-link=Duncan Campbell (journalist, born 1944)}}</ref> The series won six international awards.

Wilcox died of a heart attack in Paddington, London, on 6 September 2000, at the age of 69.<ref name="obit" />

==Media== In 2023, in the ITV1 drama ''The Long Shadow'' Wilcox was portrayed by the actor Adam James.

==Awards== Wilcox was posthumously awarded the Grierson Documentary Film Awards Life Tribute in November 2001. A media arts centre at a High School in Rainhill, Merseyside, has been opened, named in his honour.<ref name="rainhillhigh">[http://rainhillhighschool.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7&Itemid=8 Rainhill High School - Media Arts Status ]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.</ref>

== Coat of arms == {{Infobox COA wide |image = Wilcox Achievement.png |escutcheon = Argent a Pile reversed bendwise Gules the point surmounted in dexter chief by a Sun in Splendour overall a three-masted Schooner in full sail Or the hull charged with a Barrulet Azure fracted with Portholes Or. |crest = Upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Azure Within a Circlet of Oak Leaves erect Vert a Horse rampant Or. Mantled Azure doubled Or. |motto = '''Amor Vincit Omnia''' (Love Conquers All) |notes = On May 31, 2018 he was granted<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/news-grants/newsletter/item/155-july-2018-newsletter-no-55|title=July 2018 Newsletter (no. 55) - College of Arms|access-date=2018-07-25|language=en-gb}}</ref> these arms by the College of Arms, through Letters Patent of Garter and Clarenceux Kings of Arms. }}

==Sources== *Esther Rantzen, ''The Autobiography'', BBC Worldwide, 2001

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/912532.stm Obituary] * {{IMDb name|0928198}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcox, Desmond}} Category:1931 births Category:2000 deaths Category:20th-century British Army personnel Category:20th-century English businesspeople Category:British documentary film producers Category:Converts to Judaism Category:English documentary filmmakers Category:English Jews Category:Military personnel from Hertfordshire Category:People from Welwyn Garden City Category:Royal Engineers officers