Paddy Wivell

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Paddy is a documentary director based in London. A multiple BAFTA nominee and winner, his work has received numerous other industry accolades, including Royal Television Society, Broadcast and Grierson awards.

Over the last 20 years, his highly personal and often poignant films have explored the communities, cultures and sub-cultures through which we define ourselves. From Eton scholars to Banger racers, Hasidic Jews to London rent-boys, rebellious pensioners to reformed drug addicts, his ability to tell people’s stories with warmth, insight and irreverence has brought his work widespread critical acclaim, with credits across well-known strands such as Wonderland, Cutting Edge and Louis Theroux. Paddy also directs commercials and is represented by Just So.

Described by The Times as ‘a filmmaker of such exceptional talent, so gifted and unassuming that you scarcely notice how accomplished he is’, his recent work has included two series of Prison for Channel 4 – an honest, sometimes harrowing, and often humorous document of day-to-day life inside HMP Durham and HMP Foston Hall; The Tribe, an intimate portrayal of tribal families living in an Ethiopian village; and Extremely British Muslims, a revealing account of the lives of Islamic communities in Birmingham.

In March 2021 Channel 4 will broadcast his latest project, The Pandemic at No.47, a film documenting life under the first lockdown for neighbours and residents of the London street he lives on.