Kenneth Griffith, celebrated actor and documentary maker dies, at
the age of 84.
Born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Griffith became a familiar face on TV
and cinema screens from the 1940s onwards, but it was his
documentary work that explored controversial subjects where
Griffith made his lasting impression.
Griffith, who died in his London home on 25th June 2006, made many
documentaries on historical subjects in Africa, Ireland and the US,
often taking a controversial and unorthodox approach to historical
reconstruction and documentary filmmaking. He also made a number of
biographical films on a range of historical figures including
Napoleon, Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, Clive of India and David
Ben-Gurion.
His documentary career was kick started in 1967 when then
controller of BBC2, David Attenborough, gave him the go ahead to
make a film about the Boer War. The Boer War fascinated Griffith
and he went on to become a world authority on the subject. He was
deeply committed to an accurate film about the siege and relief of
Ladysmith. His knowledge and commitment to the subject encouraged
Attenborough to commission the work despite Griffith having no
experience of documentary filmmaking.
The outcome was Soldiers of the
Widow (1967) a documentary which Griffith researched, wrote
and presented. Griffith's approach to re-creating the past was that
of the enthusiastic storyteller who acted out all the parts
himself. Reconstructing the past by dramatising his point of view
he created a bold and authored way of making documentaries that
conjured up the emotional spirit of events in history.
Five years later he returned to the subject with the four-part
Sons of the Blood (subtitled The
Great Boer War, 1899-1902) (1972), that presented a
procession of surviving Boer War veterans whose recollections of
the events provided the basis of the narrative. Marking the
anniversary of the conflict he made a two-part documentary
The Boer War which was
aired on the BBC in 1999.
American history was also on Griffith's list of passions. In the
build-up to the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Griffith was
commissioned by America's ABC News to prepare an hour-long
documentary on the events leading up to the start of the
Revolutionary War. However the network found Griffith's documentary
take on the subject 'unacceptable' and reworked the piece, creating
a more diluted version of events that was
Suddenly An Eagle
(1976).
His last passionate polemic on a reading of American history was an
assessment on the 18th century life of Thomas Paine,
The Most Valuable Englishman
Ever (1982). Griffith's tribute to the Norfolk-born Paine,
the author of Rights of Man, who had helped stir up the American
Revolution, was expressed with as much dynamism as the
revolutionary writings of his subject.
However, perhaps his most famous and contentious, work was the 1972
ATV documentary profile of the Irish soldier and IRA leader Michael
Collins who was assassinated in 1922,
Hang Out Your Brightest Colours:
The Life and Death of Michael Collins. In presenting the
life of Michael Collins as a catalyst to give viewers the truth
about the setting up of the Border in Ireland, Griffith's film was
banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) on the
grounds that it was 'an incitement to disorder' because of the
situation in Northern Ireland.
Incensed by what he saw as an intolerable act of censorship
Griffith's next film was about television censorship.
The Public's Right to Know
(1974), dealt with the prevention of
Hang out Your Brightest
Colours… as well as the restrictions placed on him by the
ACTT (now BECTU) when filming his 1973 documentary about
Baden-Powell because of their South Africa boycott policy of the
time.
A further film on Ireland Curious
Journey (1976) became the second Griffith documentary on
Ireland that did not receive a public showing until years later.
However his third documentary about modern Irish history,
Roger Casement - Heart of
Darkness (1992), was transmitted. It told of the rise and
fall of the Irish Protestant and British consul who espoused the
Irish Republican movement and was tried and executed for treason in
1916.