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Alan Pattillo obituary

My great-uncle Alan Pattillo, who has died aged 90, was a director, film editor, script editor and screenwriter. After joining the film industry in the 1950s, his varied career spanned films such as Walkabout (1971), All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) – for which he won an Emmy award – Gandhi (1982), and Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Supermarionation productions. He directed the first episode of Thunderbirds (1965), setting the template for what was to become a global cult hit.

Alan was born in Aberdeen, the second son of Gladys (nee Glennie), who worked for an insurance company, and William Pattillo, company secretary at the local newspaper, the Aberdeen Press and Journal. He was educated at Robert Gordon’s college in Aberdeen, then read English at Aberdeen University.

In the mid-50s he went on to study Russian at Cambridge University – his contribution to national service – and was enrolled in the Joint Services School for Linguists, which was dubbed “a school for spies” by Russia. Shortly afterwards, having made it known at Cambridge that he was interested in a career in films, he was taken on by the Hungarian-born British film director and screenwriter Alexander Korda as his assistant.

His collaboration with the Andersons began in 1965 and was to last a decade – he directed four episodes of Thunderbirds, was script editor for 25 others, wrote one of the best-known episodes, Attack of the Alligators, and was director for four other series: Four Feathers Falls (starring Nicholas Parsons), Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Terrahawks.

He also wrote an episode for The Avengers (starring Diana Rigg), was sound editor on Performance and Walkabout (directed by Nicolas Roeg), edited the sound effects for Pink Floyd’s The Wall, was film editor on All Quiet on the Western Front, and was associate editor on Gandhi.

Witty and gregarious, Alan had a knack for extracting people’s life stories – and after he retired in the early 90s he began researching his own history, in a genealogy project that took him around Scotland and the US.

He lived in London throughout his career, but in 2002 he was drawn back to Scotland. His homes were filled with books, pictures, social gatherings and his accomplished piano-playing. To adapt Alan’s own words about his friend Christine Glanville, the puppeteer: “He aspired to make his life larger and more spectacular.”

He is survived by his brother, John.