Jeffery Boswall

Jeffery Boswall (20 March 1931 – 15 August 2012) was a British naturalist, broadcaster and educator.

One of the longest serving producers with the BBC Natural History Unit (1957-1987), and the writer and presenter/narrator of many of the programmes he produced, he was also prominent in the development of the ethics of natural history broadcasting and the encouragement of new entrants into the field. Boswall wrote and produced the first wildlife film shown in colour on the BBC, the The Private Life of the Kingfisher, filmed by Ron Eastman. It was broadcast in 1967 on BBC2. He was one of the "pioneers of British natural history broadcasting" (Daily Telegraph obituary, 5 September 2012).

Jeffery Hugh Richard Boswall was born in Brighton on 20 March 1931. A keen amateur ornithologist, his first published article appeared in the journal British Birds when he was 16. His interest in ornithology arose from a chance suggestion by a friend that he join him bird watching at the River Adur near Shoreham-on-Sea. His first full-time job was as assistant to the Director of Watchers and Sanctuaries for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Boswall began as a radio producer, upon joining the BBC Natural History Unit in 1957, producing series including Birds of the Air and The Naturalist.

He started to work on television programmes in 1964. He produced the Look series (introduced by Peter Scott) from 1963 to 1969, which is the series which made Peter Scott a household name in Great Britain.

Boswall wrote and produced the first wildlife film shown in colour on the BBC, the Private Life of the Kingfisher, filmed by Ron Eastman and narrated by Peter Scott. It was broadcast in 1967 on BBC2. It won the Silver Medal at the Moscow Film Festival in 1967. It enormous popularity led to it being repeated an unprecedented eight times, as well as to Boswall commissioning a series of 18 programmes on single species in a series known as Private Lives, ranging from the Jackass Penguin to the Siamese Fighting Fish to the Cuckoo.

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