June 30, 2025

Peter Jessop BSC (1930 - 2025)

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of our friend and colleague, Peter Jessop BSC.

Peter was born in Cambridgeshire in 1930 with his love of cinema coming from the wartime trips to the cinema he took with his mother in Norwich.

He entered National Service just after the Second World War, and rose to the rank of Lance Corporal before returning home in 1951.

By 1952 he had found a job at the Cinechrome in Bournemouth, an industrial film unit run by the filmmaker Thomas Bentley, who became established in the silent film era.

In order to save enough money to move to London, he joined the Merchant Navy as a purser's writer and sailed three voyages to Buenos Aires on the liner The Highland Chieftain.

After moving to London in 1954, he was recruited by the Technical Scientific Films as an assistant, and from there moved to Merton Park Studios where he became a resident focus puller, working productions such as The Criminal (1960) directed by Joseph Losey and shot by Robert Krasker BSC. 'I tried to understand everything Krasker was doing. Like Walking around during the wake with a hand held filler light'.

In 1969 he became a cinematographer the the Film Producers Guild, and eventually went freelance. After Spending four months travelling around Germany with director Clive Rees on Germany: A Regional Geography, he returned and formed the commercial production company Ocelot, where, for the next two decades, he photographer over a thousand commercials for clients such as Martini, John Smith and the iconic PC Tips campaign with the 'talking' chimpanzees.

His first feature film as a Cinematographer was Her Private Hell in 1969 directed by Norman J. Warren. He worked on several television series including The Avengers (1968) and Catweazle (1970), as well as the feature films Nutcracker (1982, pictured) and Real Life (1984).

In the previous decade, Peter had begun a nine-film collaboration with director Pete Walkers on a series of hard-hitting, gritty horror films which included House of Whipcord (1974), The Flesh and Blood Show (1972) and House of Mortal Sin (1976).

He retired in 1997 after his last television production Wokenwell. According to Peter, his career highlights were working on Jeeves and Wooster (1992) and Poirot (1989), as well as the wonderful friendships formed with Peter Sinclair BSC, Chris Howard BSC, Jamie Harcourt Assoc BSC and Ian Macmillan BSC. 'Over the many years, without having wonderful gaffers it wouldn't have been half as much fun'.

Peter was invited to join the BSC in 1974.

Our thoughts go out to his family at this time.

Text from "Preserving the Vision", written by Phil Méheux BSC and James Friend ASC BSC