Doug Allan/ underwater filming and diving expeditions- Arctic and Antarctic

Legendary underwater and Arctic cameraman of the BBC's 'The Blue Planet' fame.

Doug Allan is a freelance cinematographer. He is best known for his topside and underwater photography in cold remote places, but his travels have taken him all over the world filming both animals and people. 'The Blue Planet' is the latest of many award-winning programmes that he has helped to film.

Born in 1951 in Scotland, he graduated with an honours degree in marine biology from Stirling University in 1973. On completion of his degree he decided that science at the sharp end wasn't quite where he sought to be. Underwater anywhere became his drive and for the next three years he worked on a wide range of diving jobs. He searched for (and found) freshwater pearls in the rivers of Scotland. Commercial diving in Germany involved underwater video work and rebuilding canals. Twice he assisted with research on marine biological expeditions with Cambridge University in the Red Sea. In the summer of 1975 he ran the Bouley Bay Underwater Centre in Jersey in the Channel Islands.

British Antarctic Survey

Doug's big break was in 1976 when he first went to the Antarctic to work as a research diver on the British Antarctic Survey station at Signy Island in the South Orkneys.

The job entailed helping the scientists to carry out their underwater studies working from boats in the summer and beneath the ice in the winter. It was the start of an affair with ice that has continued to this day. Over the next ten years until 1985, Doug and B.A.S. had a great relationship - he spent four winters and nine summers "down south" in that time, and was awarded the Fuchs Medal and then the Polar Medal for his work. He spent three winters at Signy as diver, and one at Halley Station at 75° S as Base Commander.

Halley was no place for a biologist but it offered a chance to winter with emperor penguins, and a first opportunity for Doug to turn over with cine film rather than Kodachrome.

BBC

The BBC took first option on buying his Emperor Penguin footage for their forthcoming series 'Birds for All Seasons', and Doug's career took a new direction. Using his experience of ice diving, and intimate knowledge of Signy throughout its winters, he proposed two films to Survival Anglia then in 1987 he spent ten months in the Antarctic making them.

The Blue Planet

Since then he has returned frequently to both the Antarctic and the Arctic, with a string of high profile award-winning films and series for major TV networks around the world. In contributing to 'The Blue Planet' he made over 25 filming trips, which included footage of orcas attacking grey whales off California, and polar bears trying to capture belugas in a frozen hole in Arctic Canada - both on-screen firsts.

Documentaries

Doug also likes the challenge of filming people as well as animals, and has done documentary sound synch shooting for many programmes, including assignments with Discovery along the length of the Andes, to the deserts of Africa and to the upper reaches of Mount Everest.

Radio and Writing

Doug has also contributed to numerous radio shows. His audio diary recordings while he made his 'Wildlife Special - Polar Bear' became an acclaimed radio programme in its own right. ('And Here's the Tape to Prove It', Radio 4, 1997). Over the years he's also written numerous articles about wildlife and his experiences, and two children's books.

He lives in Bristol with his wife Sue, herself a wildlife documentary producer who used to work in the BBC Natural History Unit. He has one son by a previous marriage, Liam, who's eleven.

Doug and Sue set up Tartan Dragon Ltd. in 2003, their company through which they now both make their own films.