Christopher Parsons

Christopher Eugene Parsons OBE (23 August 1932 – 8 November 2002) was an English wildlife film-maker and the executive producer of David Attenborough's Life on Earth nature documentary. As a founding member and a former Head of the BBC Natural History Unit, he worked on many of its early productions and published a history of its first 25 years in 1982. Besides television, he was also passionate about projects which helped to bring an understanding of the natural world to a wider audience, notably the Wildscreen Festival and ARKive.

Film-making career After obtaining a degree in science from the University College of the South West of England, Exeter, Christopher Parsons joined the BBC in 1955. He began as an apprentice film editor at the newly formed West Region Film Unit in Bristol, England. Here, he worked on a wide range of programmes in the fledgling medium of television, including some of the BBC's earliest natural history films.

In 1957 he was one of the founding members of the BBC Natural History Unit, becoming a pioneer of the genre alongside names such as Peter Scott, Tony Soper, Pat Beech and Eric Ashby. His early work included roles editing and producing Look, the Unit's first series, which was presented by Scott. In 1963 he produced the Unit's first film in colour, The Major, though it was another four years before the programme could be transmitted in colour.

Parsons accompanied his friend Gerald Durrell on animal-collecting expeditions to Australia and Sierra Leone to produce the television series Two in the Bush (1962) and Catch Me a Colobus (1966). Developed with funding from the National Lottery, its aim was to raise awareness of global biodiversity and conservation issues using a combination of live animal exhibits, videos and interactive displays. Recognition for his achievements came with the WWF International award for Conservation Merit in 1990 and honorary membership of the Linnean Society of London, for services to natural history.

His final project was a long-standing passion to establish an electronic database of all the world's species, first mooted in the early 1980s before the necessary technology was available. The resulting website, ARKive, went live in May 2003. Parsons never lived to see the fruition of the project, succumbing to cancer in November 2002 at the age of 70. In 2003, the World Land Trust, of which he had been a Trustee, dedicated a rainforest reserve in Ecuador in his memory.

Film and TV credits The following is a list of Parsons's main productions: The Unknown Forest (1960) – producer The Major (1963) – producer Two in the Bush (1962) – producer Unarmed Hunters (1964) – producer Look (1955–1964) – editor and producer A Bull Named Marius (1966) – producer Catch Me A Colobus (1966) – producer Animal People (1967) – producer The Man Who Loved Giants (1971) – producer Animals in Action (1973) – producer Their World (1973) – presenter and producer The World About Us (1968–1976) – series editor Life on Earth (1979) – executive producer Mountain Gorillas (IMAX) (1992) – producer The Secret of Life on Earth (IMAX) (1994) – producer Survival Island (IMAX) (1996) – producer