Ian Breach was a superb TV scriptwriter and a passionate advocate for the environment. His skills were much in evidence in a documentary we made for BBC South West in 1987, Tarka's Troubled Water, about the river Torridge in Devon, the home of Henry Williamson's fictional otter Tarka. The film was praised by Ted Hughes, who wrote to the controller of BBC2 urging a network showing. It was originally slated for Christmas Day. The schedulers hadn't realised it was not a soft wildlife feature but a well-argued tale of a river heavily polluted by agricultural slurry, sanitary towels and used condoms. The documentary was still shown, but a couple of days later. Ian went on to make many powerful regional films for BBC South West including the first on the Camelford water disaster. He was inquisitive, challenging of pompous authority, and a beautiful crafter of television prose.
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