Richard Brock obituary

The Guardian

20-02-2025

My friend and colleague Richard Brock, who has died aged 86, was a BBC Natural History Unit producer for 35 years, and latterly a guerrilla film-maker trying to make a difference through his own means. He enjoyed sharing his passions about the natural world and our impact on it.
He had a long and successful working relationship with David Attenborough, starting with Eastward with Attenborough (1973). They worked together again on the groundbreaking series Life on Earth (1979), with Richard taking responsibility for the sixth episode and amphibian segment, Invasion of the Land.
He was then given the role of executive producer for the second part of Attenborough's epic Life trilogy, The Living Planet (1984), surveying the world from an ecological point of view.
Richard's love for nature started early on. The son of Arthur Brock, a teacher and businessman, and Eileen (nee Scudamore), he was born in Bristol, from where the family soon moved to the edge of Dartmoor. They all loved being in the countryside, but Richard was particularly in his element, collecting and housing creatures all over.
He boarded at Bryanston school in Dorset, where his teachers encouraged his interest in nature, taking him on trips where he studied migrating birds and other wildlife, which further embedded his passions. He went on to study zoology and botany at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he was also a successful squash and hockey player.
After graduation, he wanted to start communicating his passions, so he approached the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol for a job. Jeffery Boswall, a natural history radio producer, gave him his first job, as a general assistant. In 1964, when Boswall moved into television, he took Richard with him, giving him his first film to produce, Masters of Movement, which aired on Peter Scott's Look series.
Several years later, Attenborough, then BBC director of television programmes, decided to move back into making films. Still in his early 20s, Richard met David in London to discuss producing a series with him travelling around Borneo and south-east Asia, which became Eastward with Attenborough.
A highly successful producer, Richard made many other films at the BBC NHU, including for the Wildlife on One and The World About Us series.
During his time there Richard became increasingly aware of worrying changes in the natural world. He was upset that this was not being reflected in the films they were making. He left the corporation in 2006 and set up Living Planet Productions and the Brock Initiative to produce his own films. He made more than 100 films for his Wildlife Winners and Losers series, and wrote a book called Planet Crunch (2021).
Richard will be greatly missed by the villagers of Chew Magna, in Somerset, where he lived. He made friends all over the world, through film-making and conservation, and inspired numerous young film-makers, whom he called 'bright green sparks'.
In 1976 he married Gillie Day; they divorced in 2011. Richard is survived by his sister, Cherry, and his nephews, Julius and William, and niece, Emily.