UK Edition
Barry Norman, doyen of film critics, dies aged 83
Film critic Barry Norman, one of the most popular practitioners of his profession for his insightful yet approachable reviews, has died at the age of 83.
Norman, who died in his sleep on Friday night, presented BBC One's show Film... between 1972 and 1998 and as its longest running host nurtured a generation of film lovers.
He also wrote for a number of publications, including the Daily Mail and the Guardian, and his work did much to promote an intelligent critique of film among a wider audience that that addressed by some of his more more self-consciously intellectual colleagues..
His daughters, Samantha and Emma, described him as "remarkable" and added: "He had a great life, a wonderful marriage and an enviable career."
Norman’s literary agent Curtis Brown said he was "the defining voice of film criticism and insightful interviewing of screen legends from both sides of the camera".
Cinema surrounded Norman from an early age. Norman’s father, Leslie, was a producer and director who worked on The Cruel Sea and Dunkirk, while his mother, Elizabeth, was employed in the cutting room at Ealing Studios.
He began his career as a gossip columnist for the Daily Mail, before taking over as film critic and eventually moving to the BBC.
In 1998 Norman left the corporation after 26 years to work for Sky, eventually retiring in 2001. He was later awarded a CBE for services to broadcasting.
His wife Diana Norman, who wrote a series of best-selling historical thrillers under the name Ariana Franklin, died in 2011 aged 77. The couple met while working as journalists and married in 1957.
Norman said: "I was working as a gossip writer on the Daily Sketch for my sins, which was the only job I could get, and she was working as a very highly respected writer on the Daily Herald, as it was then. We met in Fleet Street and married."
BBC director-general Tony Hall said: "Barry Norman was a first class presenter and critic. Film buffs always found his programmes essential viewing.
"He dominated broadcasting about films for a generation with wit and great knowledge. He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with his family and friends."
Several TV stars paid tribute to Norman, including Jonathan Ross, who succeeded him as Film . . . presenter.
Ross tweeted: “Very sad to hear that Barry Norman has left us. A great critic and a lovely, lovely man.”
A number of his fans mentioned Norman’s pickled onions – a family recipe handed down from his grandmother that he launched as a range in supermarkets in 2007.
Actor and presenter Stephen Fry also mentioned them, tweeting: “Sad to hear of Barry Norman’s departure. A film critic and a provider of fine pickled onions. That’s a good life.”
Speaking in 2001 Norman bemoaned what he appeared to regard as the vulgarisation of TV culture.
“When I started nearly 30 years ago, people were asked to go on television because it was felt that they could bring some sort of knowledge to what they were discussing,” he told the Guardian.
“I think the difference now is that people go on television because they want to be celebrities and that seems to be an empty ambition. I do like to feel I’ve contributed something, as well as just sitting there.”