Clive Syddall

Clive Syddall is a British filmmaker and television journalist noted for several campaigning documentaries. He also served as a Trustee of Marie Curie Cancer Care and Communications Advisor to the British Red Cross.

Life and career
Syddall was born in Forfar, Scotland. He was educated at St Egbert's College London, followed by the University of Leicester and Wadham College, Oxford.

Syddall's television career began in 1968. First as a graduate trainee with Southern Television, then moving to the BBC as a producer and director on 24 Hours, Midweek and later BBC's flagship Panorama where he produced films from the front line in Northern Ireland, the Arab-Israeli 'Yom Kippur' war, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the civil war in Rhodesia.

He was the BBC’s resident producer in Washington covering the Watergate Hearings securing the first interview with Nixon White House aide, John D. Erlichman, later gaoled for his role in the scandal. Clive also persuaded President Nixon's daughter Julie and her husband David Eisenhower, grandson of the former President, to appear live on the BBC to take questions from the ordinary British public. Reported at the time as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘an astonishing coup by the BBC’.

He went on to cover the Reagan campaign in his first bid for the republican nomination and the 1976 presidential campaign between President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

In 1978 he was appointed Deputy Editor of the BBC's The Money Programme and later Story Editor on Newsnight.

In 1982 he moved to New York as an independent producer, directing and producing documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and PBS. Films included the now cult film Gang City – the story of the ongoing gang warfare in the Olympic City of Los Angeles BBC2, A Bitter Harvest - The Killing Fields of Mindanao, an investigation into major human rights violations taking place on a plantation funded by the British taxpayer in the Philippines (Channel 4) and Eater of Men - the first rafting expedition attempting the descent of the treacherous Waghi River in New-Guinea 'the-most-dangerous white-water river run ever filmed' reported The Royal Geographic Society at the time; produced for British Academy award-winning award-winning series River Journeys (BBC / PBS). He was also involved in the development of several feature films including the Oscar winning movie The Mission (Warner Brothers).

In 1988 he was invited to become managing director of Antelope Films. Productions included Global Rivals - The History of US Soviet Rivalry, for PBS, Pasternak - for an extended South Bank Show - a dramatised documentary on Boris Pasternak, the creator of Dr Zhivago, the first co-production between the British film Industry and Soviet State Film Company Video-Film. Other productions included The Margot Fonteyn Story (Channel 4) and the Cinema Short 1867 The Execution of Maximilian winner of the New York Film Festival Gold Medal Award for best Cinematography.

In 1992 he founded Paladin Pictures Ltd, specialising in current affairs, history and music & arts programming. Productions included Dance Ballerina Dance a BBC Christmas special and Travels With My Tutu which attracted record audiences, both presented by the Royal Ballet's principal ballerina Deborah Bull, The People's Duchess - the dramatised documentary of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire the ill-fated ancestor of Diana Princess of Wales, reviewed at the time as 'The Benchmark for all Future History Documentaries (Channel 4). Several campaign documentaries included The Last Flight of Zulu Delta 576 - an investigation into the Chinook helicopter crash over the Mull of Kintyre killing 29 of Britain's top secret service personnel (Channel 4). The film led to a Parliamentary Inquiry and a decision in 2008 by the Secretary of State for Defence to review the case finally clearing the names of the two helicopter pilots.

In 2000 he formed a joint venture with Emmy-award-winning director Bill Cran and formed Paladin Invision. Productions for international distribution included Sinatra Dark Star - a 90-minute investigation into Sinatra's connection to the Mafia, Harem – TV mini-series telling the story of three of the most powerful women in the Ottoman Empire for Channel 4 and Jihad - The Men and Ideas Behind Al-Qaeda (15) a 2-hour documentary that launched the PBS series ‘America at a Crossroads’, awarded the du Pont Columbia University Award for ‘Excellence in Journalism’ in 2008.

He was Council member of the Royal Television Society, Trustee of Marie Curie Cancer Care 1991-1994 and served as Communications advisor to the British Red Cross (1991-1994). He has also served on the judging panel of the Royal Television Society Television Journalism Awards and the US News & Documentary Emmy Awards.