Michael Powell knows what I am going to say even before I say it — maybe even before I have thought it – and that is very rare. You are lucky if you meet someone like that once in your life.

In the 1930s many European films were made in different versions for each of the main European languages. They had an instant rapport and went on to make 20 films together in less than 20 years many of them world-class. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 1981 and a Fellow of the BFI in 1983.

He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell in a multiple-award-winning partnership known as The Archers and produced a series of classic British films notably 49th Parallel (1941) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) A Matter of Life and Death (1946 also called Stairway to Heaven) Black Narcissus (1947) The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).