Reality TV Legend Paul Watson Has Died

The documentary filmmaker was a pioneer of the "fly-on-the wall" serial, his credits including shows like 'The Family' and 'Sylvania Waters.'

By Allison Schonter

Paul Watson, a renowned British television documentary filmmaker credited with being the "father of reality TV," has died. Watson passed away on Saturday, Nov. 18 following a battle with dementia, according to his son, Daniel Watson. Known for series like The Family and Sylvania Waters, Watson was 81.

"Dad travelled the world, meeting a huge number of people and gathering stories with his camera as he went," Daniel said of his father, per The Guardian. "He, and the windows his films opened into the often overlooked lives of those he encountered, will be sadly missed. Wherever he is now, as in life, I'm sure he'll have the same, inexhaustible fascination in his surroundings and those that inhabit them."

Born in London, Watson got his start as a researcher for the BBC's Whicker's World in the mid-1960s, later going on to direct the Bafta award-winning series A Year in the Life. Throughout his career, Watson made hundreds of films and received multiple awards including a Bafta, a Royal Television Society award, a Prix Europa, and a Broadcasting Press Guild award.

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He was perhaps best known for his controversial BBC series The Family (1974), which followed the Wilkins family from Reading. The documentary, widely regarded as having invented the fly-on-the-wall serial, faced plenty of controversy for its honest depiction of the living conditions and lifestyles of working-class people. Watson previously shared that during the show's broadcast, "we had lots of obnoxious letters from the middle classes saying how dare you show these people ... here were the Wilkins, with a love child, living in overcrowded conditions, teaching their children to fib to the council about getting housing points. These things had never been discussed on a popular mainstream channel like BBC One."

Watson undertook a similar venture in the 1992 BBC One documentary Sylvania Waters, thought to be the first reality show in TV history. The series centered around the Donahers, an Australian family from Sylvania Waters, a well-off Sydney suburb. His other credits include the 2007 ITV film Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell, which followed the progression of Alzheimer's disease in a middle-aged man, the 1985 documentary The Fishing Party, 1997's The Dinner Party, and 2006's Rain in My Heart.

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