David Attenborough’s cameraman dies on climbing journey in Nepal: Tributes to Bafta and Emmy award-winning wildlife film-maker
Tributes have flooded in for Sir David Attenborough‘s ‘pioneering’ wildlife cameraman who died while on a climbing trip in Nepal.
Multi Bafta and Emmy Award winner Doug Allan, 74, was described as a ‘true pioneer’ of wildlife filmmaking.
He was a principal cameraman on several high-profile David Attenborough BBC series, including Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and The Blue Planet.
The Scotsman died early yesterday morning while on a trip with a close friend, it is understood.
His management company Jo Sarsby Management said he died ‘immersed in nature and surrounded by friends’.
Paying tribute to him, they said: ‘A true pioneer of wildlife film-making, Doug captured some of the most breathtaking and intimate moments in the natural world.’
They added: ‘Doug leaves behind a visual legacy that few could ever match.
Working as David Attenborough’s camera man, Mr Allan racked up eight Emmy Awards, five Baftas, and five Wildscreen Panda Awards
‘Pioneering’ Doug Allan, 74, died yesterday morning while on a climbing trip with a close friend, it is understood
A picture taken by Mr Allan of a leopard seal peaking out over the ice in antarctica
‘His work brought audiences closer to the wonders of our planet, inspiring awe, understanding and deep respect for the planet.
‘When we think of Doug, we will always remember his unforgettable kindness and his extraordinary talent.
‘It has been an honour and a privilege to represent Doug as his agent and to know him as a friend for over 30 years. He was a true gentleman and he will be profoundly missed.
‘Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues across the wildlife film-making industry and the many people around the world who admired his work.’
In 2024, his work was recognised on one of the biggest stages in the entertainment industry when he won several Bafta and Emmy Awards for his work.
That same year he was also made an OBE for services to broadcast media and environmental awareness.
In total, he held eight Emmy Awards, five Baftas, and five Wildscreen Panda Awards.
His ex-wife and fellow wildlife photographer, Sue Flood OBE, paid tribute to the cameraman in a Facebook post, saying that it was ‘of comfort to know that he was doing something adventurous with a dear friend of ours, with whom he’d shared many adventures over several decades’.
His influence on her life had been ‘profound’, she added, saying he had ‘led to a lifetime working in the polar regions, a passion we shared’.
‘When we think of Doug, we will always remember his unforgettable kindness and his extraordinary talent,’ his management company said in a statement
Mr Allan worked on David Attenborough’s most high profile BBC programmes, including Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and The Blue Planet
As well as being highly acclaimed in the entertainment industry, Mr Allan was also made an OBE for services to broadcast media and environmental awareness
She sent her condolences to his surviving family members and finished saying she would remember him ‘with deep affection, respect and gratitude for a lifetime of memories’.
Born in 1951 in Dunfermline in Fife, Mr Allan went to study marine biology at Stirling University and graduated with honours.
In 1976, he became a research diver on the British Antarctic Survey station at Signy Island in the South Orkneys and his interest in filming developed.
He came to meet David Attenborough by chance – fate would have it that this moment would change his life and put him on course to become a wildlife cameraman.
In a previous interview, Mr Allan said: ‘When I graduated (from Stirling University) I came out and did various jobs to do with diving, went to the Red Sea to work with some biologists, worked for a year with Bill Abernethy, who was Scotland’s last full-time professional pearl fisherman.
‘Then I went to the Antarctic and that’s when I as a diver discovered photography.’
Asked how he became a wildlife film-maker, he explained: ‘It was a chance meeting with David Attenborough, of all people, in 1981. He turned up in our base with a small film crew.
‘I helped him for a couple of days and quite literally at the end of those two days I looked at the cameraman and thought ‘you know, you are doing all the things I like doing’.’
Mr Allan photographed a seal pup learning to swim at about a month old. This photo featured in his book Freeze Frame
He came into wildlife filming due to a change meeting with David Attenborough in the Antrarctic
He added: ‘The next trip to the Antarctic I bought a 16mm movie camera and in the wonderful naiveness of youth I went and did some filming of emperor penguins and sold the footage to BBC when I went back.
‘That’s where it all started.’
Sir David wrote the foreword to Mr Allan’s book Freeze Frame where he wrote his experience of the same first encounter.
He penned: ‘I was standing on the edge of the sea ice in Antarctica looking down at the black water. A head materialised many feet down, slowly rose, surrounded by bubbles, and broke the surface.
‘It was Doug. He removed the mouthpiece of his breathing apparatus and said, in the Scottish accent with which I was to become very familiar, “I want to make natural history films for television. How do I start?”‘
