Willock, Colin 1919–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 13, 1919, in London, England; died March 26, 2005. Filmmaker and author. For forty years, Willock was the producer and writer for the British nature program Survival. Beginning his career as a journalist, in the late 1930s he was a young reporter for Courier, and during World War II he saw action in Africa and Europe with the Royal Marines. Returning home after the war, he worked as an editor for the periodicals Liliput and Picture Post. He moved to television when he was hired to be on the staff of the program This Week andjoined Anglia Television's Natural History Unit in 1961. An avid hunter and fisherman who was a columnist for Shooting Times from 1968 to 1995, Willock did not possess the sentimentality and empathy for wildlife often associated with many nature conservationists, but he did come to believe that because humanity has the power to exterminate entire species it has an equal obligation to work to preserve them from annihilation. This, he felt, was in mankind's best interest, as well as in the interest of other animals. For four decades Willock and his team of photographers and other staff, including his wife, trekked around the world to bring informative and entertaining nature programming to their viewers. In fact, Willock's filmmaking style, which was much less staid than that of the series Look hosted by David Attenborough, has been credited with changing wildlife filmmaking to be more appealing to the average audience. The program, which involved so many dangers that three members of the production crew lost their lives over the course of the series, received three Emmy awards. Willock remained as head of the Natural History Unit until 1987, and continued with his program until 2001. He shared his interest in nature with the public in numerous nonfiction and fiction books as well, including The Enormous Zoo (1964), Survival: A Drop in the Ocean (1976), The Complete Dudley (1988), Kingdom of the Deep (1990), Kingdoms of the East (1991), Wildfight (1991), and The Book of the Woodpigeon (1995). Among his more recent edited titles are The New ABC of Fishing (1992), The New ABC of Shooting (1994), and A Life on the Wild Side (2001).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph (London, England), April 12, 2005.

Guardian (London, England), April 9, 2005, p. 25.

Times (London, England), April 19, 2005, p. 67.