John Pitman (journalist)

John Pitman (born 18 November 1939) is a television producer, reporter and interviewer. An experienced journalist he began his on-screen career as researcher on "Braden's Week" but later became known for his reporting work on the BBC award winning documentary series Man Alive.^[1]

He was born in Whitecroft, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire and attended Bexhill-on-Sea and then Cirencester Grammar Schools. He began his career in journalism with the Gloucestershire Echo and Brighton Argus newspapers before moving to the Daily Mail and then on to the BBC. His first on screen role was as reporter on 'Braden's Week' with Bernard Braden and Esther Rantzen.

He is also notable for reporting editions of the series The Big Time, an edition of which launched the career of the singer Sheena Easton and he presented a follow up programme Sheena Easton - the Making of a Star. Other notable editions included footballer Lol Cottrell, and "Beaminster and District Gardens and Allotments Society Goes to Chelsea". The series was produced by Esther Rantzen. In the late 1980s he devised and reported Just Another Day - a series of documentaries following a notional 'Day in the Life' of English places, institutions and professions. Another important series devised by Pitman was "The Other Half", exploring the lives of less well-known partners of celebrities; and featured the film on Angus Wilson and Tony Garrett, directed by Jonathan Gili, broke new ground. As did his series 'Fame' which he devised and reported and featured among others Barbara Windsor and Ronnie Knight, her then husband.

John Pitman was the reporter on the BBC1 documentary "The Ritz", which won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary of 1981. Later in the '80s he turned director, contributing some notable documentaries to the "40 Minutes" strand. Among the best-remembered are "Separate Tables", about retired elderly ladies in a hotel in Eastbourne, "Two sides of a Street", about gentrification in a West London suburb, and a life of Jessie Matthews.

After leaving the BBC he became an independent producer and was appointed series producer of 'An Inspector Calls" on Channel 4 for Twenty Twenty Television. He also contributed as reporter to the Holiday programme on BBC One.

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