Filmography

Selected Filmography

To download a complete filmography in PDF format, click here.

1961-1962: Researched and directed scores of short films including the first film of The Beatles in the Liverpool Cavern Club and a film about the painter L.S. Lowry in 1963, Mr Lowry.

1961 -1989: Leslie Woodhead was a staff Director/Producer with Granada TV of Manchester, England. All his films during this period were made for Granada. Woodhead directed and produced more than 100 films for Granada’s “World in Action” current affairs series. He was also Series Editor from 1967 to 1969.  From 1968 and 1984, Woodhead also made a dozen Documentary Specials, including “The Stones in the Park” (1969) about the Rolling Stones celebrated Free concert in Hyde Park. He also directed filmed Dramas by Arthur Hopcraft and Jim Allen. Woodhead’s major work at Granada in the 1970s and 1980s was in pioneering Dramatised Documentaries, and in Anthropological Films for the Disappearing World series.

Since 1989, Leslie Woodhead has worked as a freelance writer, producer and director on films such as The Hunt for Bin Laden (ITV/Smithsonian 2012) 9/11 The Day that Changed the World (ITV/Smithsonian 2012), and How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin (BBC Storyville, 2010)

 

GRANADA DRAMATISED DOCUMENTARIES

1970 THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T KEEP QUIET (Soviet Dissident) 52 mins
1972 A SUBJECT OF STRUGGLE (Chinese Red Guard Trial) 65 mins
1976 3 DAYS IN SZCZECIN ( Polish Dock strike) 75mins
1978 COLLISION COURSE ( World’s worst air collision) 75 mins
1980  INVASION (Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia)113min
1981 STRIKE (Birth of “Solidarity” in Poland) 100 mins
1991 WHY LOCKERBIE? ( Investigation of Air Disaster) 80 mins

ANTHROPOLOGICAL FILMS:

1974 – 2001 THE MURSI ( 6 films following the lives of Ethiopian nomads) 6x 52/76 mins
1976 THE SHERPAS ( Nepali mountain people) 52 mins
1983  CHILDREN OF REVOLUTION ( Chinese Peasants ) 52 mins
THE NEWEST REVOLUTION ( China’s new economics) 52 mins
1986 THE LAU ( Fishermen in the South Pacific) 52 min
1987 THE BASQUES (Shepherds in the Pyrenees) 52 mins
1988 THE WODAABE ( Nomads in Nigeria) 52 mins

 

Since 1989 ( as a freelance Producer/Director)

  • 1991  WHY LOCKERBIE? (Dramadoc – as above)      80 mins
  • 1992  THE INCREDIBLE CASE OF COMRADE ROCKSTAR BBC 2      90 mins
  • 1993  THE LAST SOVIET CITIZEN ( Arts and Soviet Space travel)BBC 2    78 mins
  • 1994  RANDY NEWMAN”S AMERICA (The Music & myths of Newman)ITV   60 mins
  • 1994  CHILDREN OF WOODSTOCK (25th anniversary of Festival)-ITV      60 mins
  • 1995  WHO IS VLADIMIR POZNER? ( Soviet journalist)- BBC 2      60 min
  • 1997  TONY BENNETT’S NEW YORK ( Profile of the Singer)-BBC2      80 mins
  • 1998  444 DAYS ( US Hostages and their Iranian captors)-BBC2     104 mins
  • 1999  MISSILEERS (US ICBM Squadron ) BBC2           50mins
  • 1999  ENDURANCE (Ethiopian Olympic Runner)Pressman/ Disney/C4    80 mins
  • 1999  A CRY FROM THE GRAVE (Srebrenica Massacre) – BBC2/PBS    104 mins
  • 2000  THE HOLOCAUST ON TRIAL (Holocaust denier in court) BBC2/PBS   90 mins
  • 2001  ROCKETCHIKI (Russian Missileers) BBC2 /PBS           50mins
  • 2001  FIRE WILL EAT US (Mursi Film 6) C4      76mins
  • 2002  MILOSEVIC: HOW TO BE A DICTATOR – BBC/PBS/FRANCE 2&5  80 mins
  • 2003  STAR WARS DREAMS (BBC4/ARTE FRANCE)      54 mins
  • 2004  MY LIFE AS A SPY : (Personal Cold War) – BBC4      59 mins
  • 2005  SREBRENICA: NEVER AGAIN? (10 th anniversary) (BBC4)      79 mins
  • 2005  CHILDREN OF BESLAN (School Siege)(BBC2/HBO)            59 mins
  • 2006  SAVING JAZZ (New Orleans Music post Katrina) (BBC4/Sundance)     59mins
  • 2007  GODLESS IN AMERICA (US Atheism) (BBC4/Sundance) 59 mins
  • 2009 HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN (impact of the Fab 4 in the Soviet Union) BBC 4/ARTE/PBS 60 mins
  • 2011   9/11: DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Tenth Anniversary Film) ITV/ Smithsonian /FR3/NHK 92 mins
  • 2011  THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN ITV/ Smithsonian /FR3/NHK 92 mins
  • 2013  THE DAY KENNEDY DIED ( ITV, Smithsonian)
  • 2015 THE DAY THEY DROPPED THE BOMB ( ITV, Smithsonian)

Awards & Nominations

In the course of his career, Leslie Woodhead has won numerous awards and nominations for his documentaries

  • 1968 Rank Documentary Award -“The Stones In The Park”
  • 1981 Rts Cyril Bennett Award – Granada  Dramadoc  Unit
  • 1986 Bafta Desmond Davis Award -“Outstanding Creative Contribution To Television”
  • 1992 Royal Anthropological Institute Award For 5 Films With the Mursi Of Ethiopia, 1974-1991
  • 1999 Special Jury Prize, Amsterdam  Documentary Festival for A Cry From The Grave
  • 1999 Honorary Companion, University Of Manchester
  • 2000 Silver Award, Fipa Festival, Biarritz for ” A Cry From The Grave”
  • 2000 Banff  TV Festival: “A Cry From The Grave”  – Grand Prize; also Best History & Biography Prize.
  • 2000 Amnesty Us Awards: “A Cry From The Grave” – Media Spotlight Award.
  • 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award – “A Cry From The Grave”
  • 2004 “History Today” Award: “Star Wars Dreams”
  • 2006 Fipa “Grandes Reportages Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’
  • 2006 Royal Television Society Journalism Award ; ‘Children Of Beslan’.
  • 2006 Royal Television Society Documentary Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’.
  • 2006 Peabody Documentary Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’
  • 2006 One World Documentary Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’
  • 2006 Banff Best Social And Political Documentary;’Children Of Beslan.
  • 2006  Emmy Nomination: Best Documentary: ‘Children Of Beslan’
  • 2012   Bafta Nomination   9/11 –  DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Best single Documentary)
  • 2013   Aldeburgh Documentary Festival Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 2014   Bafta Nomination    THE DAY KENNEDY DIED  (Best Single Documentary)