My friend Guy Crossman, who has died unexpectedly aged 69, was a television film editor and a master of his craft. He edited a broad range of factual programming, including many films for the BBC arts strand Arena. He was made for editing, to be at the heart of the creative process. He also had an exceptional talent for friendship.
The son of Marie (nee Davies) and John Crossman, Guy was born in Paddington, west London, and grew up in Putney. His father had trained as a chef at the Dorchester before becoming a solicitor. Guy himself was a fabulous cook. He went to school at St Paul’s, where, according to his wife, Caroline, he was “a teenage rebel with a maverick’s scepticism of formal education”.
Instead of going to university Guy travelled widely. He became fascinated by spirituality, in all its different guises across the world, and this was a lifelong interest. His editing was infused with the knowledge and experience he gained on his travels.
Guy joined the BBC Television trainee film editor scheme in 1980, becoming an assistant film editor in 1981 and a full editor in 1986.
He and his partner, Caroline, a magazine editor, got together in 1990, having first met when they were teenagers, and they married in 2012. In 2013 their beloved daughter, Anna, died suddenly aged 20. In her memory they set up the Anna Crossman Trust, a charity that continues to support the work Anna started when she volunteered to teach deprived children in Kerala, India.
I first met Guy in 1980 when he was a trainee assistant editor at the BBC, and assigned to Arena, where I was then one of the core directors. It was quickly clear to everyone that here was a real talent and a unique personality. Guy went on to edit some 20 films for Arena between 1986 and 2022. In 1999 he was nominated for a best editing Bafta award for a series he and I worked on together, The Brian Epstein Story.
Guy used to say it was not so difficult to get a film to 90%, but to 95% was a different matter. He had a way of seeing what a film needed, of coaxing the best out of a director’s original vision when it might have gone awry, not by arguing but by a quiet questioning persistence. A director colleague has written fondly of his “bedside manner”.
He edited for some of the best directors around. After going freelance in 1994 he was constantly working; not least because he had so many repeat customers, including the makers of 12 series presented by Joanna Lumley: Guy cut an episode in each of them.
She said of him: “He made me look far cleverer than I am.” Guy did that for us all.
He is survived by Caroline, and his sister, Susanna.