David Walter Darlow (born January 1942) is a British film producer and director, who predominantly produced documentary films and series.

Life

Darlow was active as an producer of documentary films and series since the 1970s. He worked for the BBC. In 1972 he planned to produce a documentary for the BBC about the vanishing of Royal Navy frogman Lionel Crabb. This led to a conflict with the British Ministry of Defence and ultimately the BBC abandoned the project.[1] Darlow also directed some productions such as the documentary The Sword of Islam (1987)[2][3] or the TV movie Coded Hostile (1989).

Together with John Smithson he co-founded the production company Darlow Smithson Productions in 1988. In June 2002 Smithson acquired full control and bought out Darlow's 50 % stake.[4] A month later Darlow left the company.

In 2000 Darlow won a News & Documentary Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Background/Analysis of a Single Current Story – Programs for the episode Decoding Nazi Secrets of the documentary series Nova. In the previous year he was nominated for the same award in the category Outstanding Investigative Journalism – Programs for an episode of Survival in the Sky.

Selected filmography

Producer

Executive Producer

Director

References

  1. ^ Mike und Jacqui Welham: The Crabb Enigma. Matador, 2010, ISBN 978-1848763821. p. 205 ff.
  2. ^ John Corry: TV Review; 'Sword of Islam,' on 13. In: The New York Times, 13 January 1988.
  3. ^ The Sword of Islam. In: bfi.org.uk, access date 23 February 2021.
  4. ^ RDF producer heads to Darlow Smithson. In: c21media.net, 27 July 2004.