Denys Blakeway

Denys Blakeway is a British television producer and author who is best known for documentaries and books about contemporary history.

In 1994 he set up Blakeway Productions, a television company based in London.^[1] Before establishing himself as an independent producer Blakeway wrote and directed a number of documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, including Primo Levi: The Memory of the Offence,^[2] The Falklands War;^[3] and Thatcher - The Downing Street Years,.^[4] He has also been responsible for several documentaries about former British prime ministers, all made with their participation: Edward Heath,^[5] John Major^[6] and Tony Blair^[7] Since setting up Blakeway Productions he has produced numerous programmes for British public service television including many documentaries about the British royal family, the Second World War, several series with historians Niall Ferguson and David Reynolds, and more recently arts programmes with artist and critic Matt Collings. In 2004 Blakeway Productions was acquired by the Ten Alps plc media group.

Denys Blakeway is the author of Fields of Thunder-Testing Britain's Bomb^[8], The Falklands War^[9] and The Last Dance,^[10] an account of the turbulent year of 1936.

Blakeway has also written and presented numerous programmes for BBC Radio 4 including the Peabody award winning The Unspeakable Atrocity, a documentary about the BBC and the Holocaust.

References

1. ^ Blakeway Productions' website www.blakeway.tv details past and present programming
2. ^ BBC 2 and WNET, 1992. The film used excerpts from Levi's writing and memories of those who knew him. It won a Sandford St Martin award
3. ^ Channel 4, 1992, a four part series which included the testimony of senior military comamnders and politicians from both sides of the 1982 conflict between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands/Las Malvinas
4. ^ BBC 1 1993. Margaret Thatcher, former colleagues and world leaders (including Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan) remembered and debated her years as Britain's prime minister
5. ^ A Very Singular Man, BBC2, 1998 - written and presented by Michael Cockerell
6. ^ The Major Years, BBC 1, 1998
7. ^ The Last Days of Tony Blair, Channel 4, 2007 - written and presented by Will Hutton.
8. ^ George Allen & Unwin, London, 1985 ISBN 0-04-341029-4
9. ^ Sidgwick & Jackson with Channel 4 Television, London 1992 ISBN 0-283-0610-4
10. ^ John Murray, London, 2010 ISBN 978-0-7195-2383-0