Biography

John Bridcut is an award-winning film maker, with a string of varied documentaries to his name.   Much of his recent work has been with his own company, Crux Productions, but he also works as a freelance director and producer for other production companies.  He has also published two books.

His latest music documentary Delius: Composer, Lover, Enigma, explores the pleasures of Frederick Delius, and will be shown on BBC Four on Friday 25 May.  The following week, on the eve of the Diamond Jubilee weekend, HRH The Prince of Wales's personal film tribute to The Queen will be shown on BBC One, while Bridcut's 2011 film Rostropovich: the Genius of the Cello (2011) will be repeated on BBC Four.  This film, after winning the Vaclav Havel Foundation award at the Golden Prague TV Festival, has now been nominated for a BAFTA Craft Award for sound.

At the same time, his recent documentary, The Prince and the Composer, a film about Hubert Parry by HRH The Prince of Wales, will be released on DVD after its acclaimed screening on BBC Four last year.  This followed his BBC One film for the Prince’s 60th birthday, Charles at 60: The Passionate Prince, in 2008, and the BBC One series he made for the Golden Jubilee of HM The Queen, Queen and Country. 

The third of Bridcut's composer-portraits, Elgar: the Man Behind the Mask, won the Czech Crystal Award for best documentary at the Golden Prague TV Festival in October 2010, and went on to secure the 2011 BAFTA Craft Award for Sound (Factual).  The Passions of Vaughan Williams (2008) and Britten’s Children (2004) have also won awards.  He complemented the Britten film with a book of the same title, which was published by Faber and Faber in 2006.  Since then, he has written the Faber Pocket Guide to Britten, which was published in November 2010.

John Bridcut began his career as a journalist on the staff of The Spectator, and moved into broadcasting as a BBC News Trainee.  After twelve years at the BBC, where he worked in national and regional newsrooms, and produced programmes such as The World at One, Newsnight and The Money Programme, he moved into independent production.  With Viewpoint, and later Mentorn, he produced a range of current affairs programmes for Channel 4 and the BBC, as well as several series on subjects of contemporary history.  For a total of almost ten years now, he has produced programmes through his own company, Crux Productions.

In 2007 he authored a report for the BBC Trust about the safeguarding of impartiality in the 21st century, entitled From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel.