Chris Terrill - Biography

Biography

Born in Brighton, Sussex in 1952, Terrill attended Brighton College 1965–1970, and then went to Durham University, where he gained a joint-honours degree in Geography and Anthropology. Between 1976 and 1977 he lived with the remote Acholi Tribe of Southern Sudan where he carried out doctoral research on the impact of civil war on the tribal society before taking up the post of Head of Geography at Rendcomb College in Gloucestershire. In 1983, he left teaching to become a full-time professional anthropologist working for the International Disaster Institute and the UN in Geneva and throughout the famine gripped and war ravaged areas of Africa. Later, and quite by accident, he moved into broadcasting when he went to give an interview to the BBC African Service and was offered a job on the spot. Instantly, he changed careers and became a producer for the BBC World Service specialising in African affairs. After five years in radio he joined BBC television as a documentary producer, making investigative documentaries and observational films about communities all over the world.

As a programme maker, Terrill has stayed true to his academic background and has continued to employ anthropological methodology—particularly participant observation. He will embed with communities for months and years if necessary to achieve the necessary trust to make his films or write his books. Indeed, as a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Royal Geographical Society, Terrill is still widely regarded as a practising anthropologist/geographer who uses film as his primary research tool and recording medium in the field.

He was awarded a Royal Television Society Award for Innovation for his series Soho Stories (BBC2) as well as an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism for a film called Ape Trade. This Inside Story Special (BBC1) exposed the major gangs smuggling endangered orangutans to illegal markets in Taiwan, the USA and Russia. After 20 years at the BBC, and with over 100 prime time films to his name, he left the corporation in 2003 to set up his own company, Uppercut Films, and began to specialise in military and high adventure documentaries—though always concentrating on communities/groups and their internal dynamics. In 2007, he documented and participated in the rigorous eight months training with the Royal Marine Commandos after which he followed the newly qualified recruits to the front line in Afghanistan for their first taste of real war. Terrill is the first civilian to complete all four commando tests for which he was awarded an honorary green beret. Terrill is also the oldest person—military or civilian—to have passed the commando tests.

Terrill never uses a film crew, preferring always to work alone, doing his own camerawork and sound recording. This "lone wolf" technique, a hallmark of his work, lends his films a very intimate and personal style. Using the new digital technology, he was the first front line filmmaker to experiment as a self shooting/self recording director in the early 1990s on his seminal Soho Stories. This series, a colourful portrait of London's glamorous Soho district, was a runaway success and gave birth to the much vaunted, and subsequently much copied, docu-soap style of filmmaking. Widely credited as the "father of the docu-soap", though both Paul Watson and Jeremy Mills have similar claim to the title, Terrill then went on to refine his techniques on prime time series such as The Cruise (BBC1), Jailbirds (BBC1), Through the Eyes of the Old (BBC1), The Ship (BBC2), Shipmates (BBC 1) and two feature documentary specials on Charlotte Church—Spreading Her Wings (BBC1) and Confessions of a Teen-angel (ITV1). Commando: On the Front Line (ITV1)—a powerful account of Royal Marine Commandos fighting in Afghanistan was followed by Nature's Fury (ITV1) a trilogy on the world's greatest storms and their impact on communities. By now Terrill had expanded his multi-skilling into not only filming and directing but being his own presenter as well. This "one man and his camera" approach is a sub-genre of his own filmmaking style that he is continuing to develop, particularly in the realm of high adventure.

In 2009 Terrill made a series on the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, called Theatreland. This was an intimate portrait of theatre people in their own environment and featured Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Anna Friel. In the same year he made a two-part film series about Royal Marines, badly injured in Afghanistan, attempting to climb in the high Himalayas (Wartorn Warriors—Sky1). In 2010 he spent six months on HMS Manchester in the Caribbean filming counter narcotics operations as well as humanitarian disaster relief during the hurricane season (Royal Navy: Caribbean Patrol for Channel Five and National Geographic). In 2011 Terrill returned to working with the Royal Marines when he joined 42 Commando in the dangerous Nad e Ali (north) district of Helmand Province. This was for a 6-part series commissioned by Channel Five entitled "Royal Marines: Mission Afghanistan" transmitted in January/February 2012.

In late 2011 Terrill embarked on a project that brought together his two passions (the military and the theatre) in a remarkable way. The Theatre Royal, Haymarket (where Terrill had filmed Theatreland in 2009) put on a play using injured soldiers and marines as the actors. The play, written by the poet Owen Sheers and based on the experiences of the soldiers mostly in Afghanistan, was called The Two Worlds of Charlie F. After two months' rehearsal when the badly injured cast were transformed into seasoned actors, singers and dancers (despite many of them being amputees) the play was performed in front of a gala audience on 22 January 2012. It was a triumphant success. Terrill's feature-length film entitled Theatre of War followed the story from day one of rehearsal right through to the performance and was shown to critical acclaim on BBC1's Imagine strand.

Terrill is a keen amateur athlete, specialising in ultra running, triathlon and boxing.