BBC

In a recent interview with cinematographer, Philip Bonham-Carter, he reveals his passion for capturing situations when they happen.  It doesn’t matter if the lighting isn’t good or even if there is no light at all –the importance of capturing these moments, that can never be repeated, governs his approach.  This is how the ground-breaking BBC documentary series, ‘The  Family’ was filmed in 1974. An approach that bought him quite a lot of criticism, at the time, from his fellow cameramen at the BBC who felt he was ‘letting the side down’, by not carefully lighting the interiors. This technique was very different from that used by Richard Cawston  when he produced the documentary, ‘This is the BBC’ in 1959. While you are meant to be watching events as they happen over a 24 hour period at the BBC, every scene is obviously clearly crafted with probably two or three takes for each scene.

In an interview conducted by Mike Dick, Philip Gilbert, Head of BBC Events Department in 1997, explains the difficult decisions that had to be taken the week after the sad news that Diana , Princess of Wales, had died in a car crash on 31^stAugust in 1997. Philip was also the BBC person who liaised with Buckingham Palace but no information, for a number of days after her death, was forthcoming about the funeral arrangements – Philip and his team had to second guess what arrangements were being made or would be made for Diana’s funeral. You can find out what happened behind the scenes that week and the whole of Philip Gilbert's career by listening to the full interview with him on the BEHP website.

Interview number. 733