Christopher Ralling has had a long distinguished career in broadcasting, in the course of which he has won many international honours, including two Emmys and two British Academy Awards. In the sixties, he covered the world, working for the BBC's Panorama programme, which included taking the first major TV team into Communist Chine, and reporting on the war in Vietnam. Later, as a documentary film producer, he made many programmes concerned with adventure and exploration, among them to the South Pole with Peter Scott, Everest the hard way and Kon-Tiki Man. He also produced programmes about two remarkable, but different, femme fatales, Mata Hari and Josephine Baker. He is probably the best known for his drama/documentary series The search for the Nile, The Fight Against Slavery, Shackleton and The Voyage of Charles Darwin. In 1980 he was appointed Head of Documentaries BBC Television. And, in 1992, he was awarded the OBE for services to broadcasting.
