Sheffield native director David Attwood, the helmer behind the Víctor Huggo Martin/Gael Garcia Bernal-starring biopic Fidel (Bernal would later reprise his role as revolutionary Ché Guevara in 2004’s The Motorcycle Diaries) and one of the first directors to call on the talent of a young Benedict Cumberbatch, has died aged 71.
Attwood was born in Sheffield in 1952 and began his screen career as an assistant floor manager at BBC Glasgow. From there he progressed to BBC Birmingham where he met illustrious contemporaries including Stephen Frears and David Hare.
Attwood spent five years from 1989 as a recurring figure behind the lens of ITV police procedural The Bill, before landing his big break directing an all-star cast including Alex Kingston, Daniel Craig and Diana Rigg in Granada’s big budget miniseries The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders in 1996.
In 1998 he made the Peabody-winning HBO/BBC Bosnian war drama Shot Through the Heart.
Further work included the 2000 BBC 2 crime drama Summer in the Suburbs and BBC/Tiger Aspect’s 2002 Hounds of the Baskervilles adaptation.
In 2005 he undertook the BBC’s miniseries adaptation of William Golding’s To the Ends of the Earth trilogy of novels (pictured), featuring a then-largely-unknown Cumberbatch alongside Jared Harris and Sam Neill. Cumberbatch and two fellow cast members were the victim of a “terrifying” carjacking during shooting in South Africa.
Attwood would soon reunite with Cumberbatch, casting him alongside Tom Hardy in 2007’s HBO/BBC co-production Stuart: A Life Backwards.
For the last 12 years Atwood has been unable to work due to early onset Alzheimers, and had been living in a care home in Bristol prior to his passing. He is survived by his children Jo and Maddy, his former wife and Bad Wolf founder Jane Tranter, and his brother Philip Attwood.
