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This is taken from the Guardian:
Nigel Farrell
Broadcast journalist and docu-soap pioneer
by Anthony Hayward
Wednesday 23 November 2011 18.38 GMT
The journalist Nigel Farrell, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 58, was one of the pioneers of docu-soaps, mixing fly-on-the-wall filming techniques with soap opera-style dramas. After working as a reporter on the BBC regional news programme South Today, he stuck with parochial issues to show the inner workings of everyday life in rural communities.
The Village (1990-93), on Radio 4, followed the residents of Bentley, in Hampshire, over 50 episodes and was so popular that Farrell turned it into a television series (1993-2001) in ITV's Meridian region, which he narrated, produced and directed. It was subsequently screened on BBC2, as well as abroad. Viewers saw everything from weddings and hop-picking to Nicholas Parsons opening a fête.
Farrell copied the popular drama and soap format of featuring just a handful of main characters in each episode, constantly returning to their stories and having a cliffhanger ending. He also demonstrated the journalist's talent for spotting a good story, latching on to scandal, tensions and conflicts that would guarantee entertainment.
Before The Village ended, he was already producing Country House (1999-2004) for the BBC. The first three series were filmed in and around Woburn Abbey, with typical scenes featuring the parish clerk posing nude for art classes, and a final run was shot at Somerley, home of the sixth Earl of Normanton.
Then, based on his earlier series The Parish (1977), Farrell produced and directed A Country Parish (2003), which followed a curate in a Wiltshire village; A Seaside Parish (2004-06), in Boscastle, Cornwall; and, from 2007, An Island Parish, with four series on the Isles of Scilly and two in the Outer Hebrides (one still to be screened).
Farrell put himself in the spotlight for the Channel 4 series A Place in France (2002-03). He was seen as being completely inept at managing the renovation – and budget – when he and his friend Nippi Singh bought a rundown farmhouse in the Ardèche.
Opening an Indian restaurant nearby for a follow-up series, A Place in France: An Indian Summer (2004), also proved disastrous, leaving Farrell heavily in debt. His attempts to pay this off by putting the house up for sale and renting part of a farmhouse where he could offer bed-and-breakfast accommodation, seen in a final series, Nigel's Place in France (2005), fared little better. "It's a common misconception that you make a lot of money from being on TV," he said afterwards. "In my case, it's actually cost me a small fortune."
Farrell was born in London, the son of a doctor. After Christ's Hospital school, near Horsham, West Sussex, he started studying medicine at St Bartholomew's hospital, London, but was advised to seek another career. After working as a deckhand on a yacht, he was a reporter on the Kent and Sussex Courier (1973-75) and the Southern Evening Echo (1975-77). He joined BBC Radio Solent in 1977, then switched to TV with BBC South, in Southampton (1979-83), before he was seen nationally on Breakfast Time (1983-85).
Turning freelance, he made regional documentaries for BBC South, such as Farrell's Travels (1988), before his 20-year relationship with Tiger Aspect Productions, and the executive producer Paul Sommers, led to almost 300 nationally screened programmes.
Farrell is survived by his partner of nine years, Sally Ann Fitt, and a son and two daughters from his marriage to Alison Smith, which ended in divorce.
• Nigel George Farrell, journalist and television producer and director, born 22 January 1953; died 24 September 2011
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