I remember William (Bill) Cran as a colleague and a friend. He ranked among the best film and television documentary producers internationally. There seemed no activity, however illegal or immoral, that he could not expose to an hour of broadcast daylight.
Bill died at 79 on June 4th, 2025. His life received generous obituaries in Britain (BBC, ITV), the US (PBS), and elsewhere. He worked several years for CBC-TV’s The Fifth Estate. Then he returned to London, expanding his InVision studio to add independent productions.
Over beer in a pub near his Hammersmith studio, Bill pondered my question: “Why study Classics at Oxford to go filming humanity’s sins for TV?”
He replied: “The more you learn from the Roman Empire, the faster you recognize corruption in the modern world.”
I argued, “Only one Roman emperor smothered his dinner guests under flower petals.”
Bill smiled, swatting that away: “Weird behaviour may be unique, but never the motivations driving it. Lust, fear, paranoia, malice, hatred, greed — ambition, even jealousy: they’re all in the human basket. Now, as then.”
Bill made many of his 50-plus documentaries for The Fifth Estate. Two of these featured aerodynamicist Dr. Gerald Bull, a professor of aeronautics at McGill University. Dr. Bull had developed high-speed wind tunnels, and was marketing the notion of launching rockets by firing them from guns. Ultimately, he designed a massive artillery piece that used compressed air rather than explosive charges as propellant. Saddam Hussein bought into Bull’s supergun, so Bull developed a monster cannon called Big Babylon. Other governments took umbrage. Five shots into Bull’s head were the propellants that launched him to another world. He had been either an asset, liability, or both to many parties and governments. That was Bill’s tale for The Fifth Estate.
Principal figures in such tales may be dead, or deliberately missing. If found living, they may not speak. A producer needs ingenuity, patience, restraint, courage, and the discipline to go silent and listen. Bill combined these qualities into an already gracious, thoughtful personality. He seldom lost it, even in challenging times.
I hadn’t seen Bill in recent years but, in my head, he never seemed far away. How I miss him now!
From William Cran’s obituary for Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper (June 2025). By Robert Fripp