My friend Peter Coulson, who has died aged 82, was one of the finest film editors of his generation. Across 20 years he edited some of the most memorable productions in the BBC’s drama output, including the 1971 film Cider With Rosie, four Plays for Today and the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries that starred Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Among his 29 films and dramas were nine with the director Charles Sturridge, three of which (Gulliver’s Travels, 1996, Longitude, 2000, and Shackleton, 2002) earned him Bafta nominations for best editing.
Sturridge explained how sending his rushes (the rushed print) from a day’s filming on location, to Peter, his editor, often based in Soho, London, “is pretty much like sending the pages of your diary as you are writing it. Every omission, fudged moment, missed beat scene, would land, uncensored, in front of Peter.”
