麻豆社

Over the course of his career, reporter and filmmaker Desmond Wilcox took the nation on incredible journeys to meet fascinating people. Wilcox鈥檚 sensitivity to real people鈥檚 stories influenced his methods and he explained his ethos in a 1986 interview; 鈥渞eal life honestly portrayed is sufficiently dramatic in itself. The idea that might lurk in some people's minds that you somehow have to beef it up, or pump it up or invent the circumstances to make it more colourful, is an idea born of Fleet Street and ignorance.鈥�

锘緼lex McCall, who worked with Wilcox on the award-winning programme The Boy David remembers how reflecting an honesty in their work was a key priority. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want to do anything fancy, any tricks, we just wanted to tell the story in the best possible way we could鈥�.锘�

It was Wilcox who initially approached the Jackson family about the remarkable story of David, a Peruvian child whose face had been destroyed by Noma disease. Dr Ian Jackson brought David to Glasgow to perform life-changing surgery and decided with his wife, Marjorie, to adopt David. McCall remembers it was Wilcox鈥檚 determination that got the subsequent films made. 鈥淒esmond being the persuasive man that he was, convinced them that it would be a very good thing for the public to see that despite the most horrific deformities that people were still people and that they should be allowed their place in the world.鈥�

The documentaries had a huge impact on the Scottish community, and a 麻豆社 spokesman reported 鈥渢housands of letters poured into the 麻豆社 praising David鈥檚 bravery, the skill of Ian Jackson and the sensitive handling of the subject by the 麻豆社 Scotland production crew.鈥� Wilcox received a posthumous Grierson Documentary Film Awards Life Tribute in 2001.