Chris Terrill

Chris Terrill is a British anthropologist, adventurer, author and filmmaker.

Born in Brighton, Sussex in 1952, Terrill attended Brighton College 1965–1970, and then went to Durham University, where he gained a joint-honours degree in Geography and Anthropology. Between 1976 and 1977 he lived with the remote Acholi Tribe of Southern Sudan where he carried out doctoral research on the impact of civil war on the tribal society before taking up the post of Head of Geography at Rendcomb College in Gloucestershire. In 1983, he left teaching to become a full-time professional anthropologist working for the International Disaster Institute and the UN in Geneva and throughout the famine gripped and war ravaged areas of Africa. Later, and quite by accident, he moved into broadcasting when he went to give an interview to the BBC African Service and was offered a job on the spot. He changed careers and became a producer for the BBC World Service specialising in African affairs. After five years in radio, in which he specialised in current affairs, documentaries and drama, Terrill joined BBC television as a documentary producer, making investigative documentaries and observational films and series about communities all over the world.

As a programme maker, Terrill has always favoured anthropological methodology, particularly participant observation, rather than more conventional documentary making techniques. As a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Royal Geographical Society, Terrill is regarded as a practising anthropologist/geographer who uses film as his primary research tool and recording medium in the field.

He won an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism for a film called Ape Trade. This Inside Story Special (BBC1) exposed the major gangs smuggling endangered orangutans to illegal markets in Taiwan, the USA and Russia. After 20 years at the BBC, and with over 100 prime time films to his name, he left the corporation in 2003 to set up his own company, Uppercut Films, and began to specialise in military and high adventure documentaries—though always concentrating on communities/groups and their internal dynamics. In 2007, he documented and participated in the rigorous eight months training with the Royal Marine Commandos after which he followed the newly qualified recruits to the front line in Afghanistan for their first taste of real war. Terrill is the first civilian to complete and pass all four commando tests for which he was awarded an honorary green beret.

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