Award-Winning Chiswick Film Editor Remembered

Clare Douglas worked on some of the most memorable TV dramas of our times

The award-winning film editor, Clare Douglas, who has died while on holiday in France, was responsible for crafting some of the most memorable television dramas of our times.

From John Irvin’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ in 1979, to Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘The Lost Prince’ (2003) and beyond, she never failed to be in demand. She made four further films with Poliakoff.

She left the BBC to edit the writer Denis Potter’s last films, which he directed. These were ‘Blackeyes’ (1989) and ‘Secret Friends’ (1991), but she had edited some of his earlier work, directed by Renney Rye – ‘Karaoke’(1996), ‘Cold Lazarus’ (1996) and ‘Lipstick On Your Collar’ (1993).

Her touch helped make Simon Langton’s ‘Smiley’s People’(1982)’, Ross Devenish’s ‘Bleak House’ (1985), Peter Smith’s ‘A Perfect Spy’(1987) and she worked with Paul Greengrass on ‘The Murder of Stephen Lawrence’ (1999), ‘Bloody Sunday’ ((2002), and his feature film ‘United 93’ (2006), for which she was nominated for an Oscar – although she disagreed with the final version of that film. The list of her achievements and BAFTA awards are many, but it is for her warmth and humanity that she will be remembered. With Clare there was no ego and she was deeply concerned for those less fortunate.

She had a special talent – that rare gift to understand film and edit dialogue - which she combined with deep sensitivity and a passion for her work that was only surpassed by her love for her friends and family. Clare helped many young editors in their careers with advice and carefully crafted references. She was a very good writer, too, and wrote long letters to friends across the world.

Clare was born in Ipswich where her father worked on the development and testing of Radar equipment. Her mother, a journalist, wrote pamphlets for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and had employment in a local factory. After two years in Cardiff, where Clare started school, they moved to Nottingham in 1951 where her father took up an academic post. The eldest of three sisters, she attended West Bridgford Grammar School, going on to read English, Drama and Philosophy at Bristol University, before taking a Film and Photography course at Hornsey College of Art. After training as an editor at the BBC she worked on many documentaries before moving to drama.  She was an active member of the film and television union, ACTT, for many years. Clare developed an early understanding of the complexities of cricket through her father’s obsession with the game and her own ability to bowl overarm at him in their garden.

During her time at the BBC, she met and married another cricket lover, the filmmaker, Michael Barnes. They worked together on his documentaries. Among many were ‘Jessica Mitford – The Honorable Rebel’, ‘Jane Fonda at 40’, ‘The Long Walk of Fred Young’, and ‘The Case of the Hillside Strangler’, a two-part Emmy Award winner.

They had no children, but Clare was always there for Mike’s two daughters from his first marriage, Suzy and Mandy, They were together for 43 years and were regular visitors to Test Matches up and down the country.

It was on the last night of their holiday in France that she fell backwards down a stairwell in their hotel room and died. Mike and her sisters, Tina and Oriel, survive her.

Elizabeth Clare Douglas. Born February 21, 1944, died July 9, 2017.

David Boardman

August 1, 2017