Grierson’s influence on factual film-making was immense, underpinned by a strong social commitment. Of this he said: “The basic force behind [documentary] was social and not æsthetic. It was a desire to make a drama out of the ordinary, to set against the prevailing drama of the extraordinary: a desire to bring the citizen’s eye in from the ends of the earth to the story, his own story, of what was happening under his nose.”

The documentary (especially on television) has gone through many stages of creative development since he died, but he left behind a legacy in the many film-makers who dominated the British factual film (and BBC television) after the war. It could well be argued that the special place of excellence enjoyed by British television today owes much to that tradition, which was available to make movies when the BBC only had radio experience behind it.

This is not to say that Grierson did not generate an element of mythology, fuelled at times by some of his colleagues. My own single meeting with him near the close of his life confirmed, for me at least, my suspicion that he thrived on being centre of the stage, was a shrewd publicist for his own causes, self-interested, brutally blunt about his colleagues, and a great performer in projecting a carefully cultivated image.

But if he perfected this style in raising his own stature, he did it for worthy and sincerely supported causes. Without it, he could never have succeeded in making governments, industry and bureaucrats finance the schemes and the films which created the British documentary movement. If the role of the moving picture in society today has succumbed to becoming chewing gum for the masses, it is because the world has no real successors to the likes of Grierson and his colleagues – nor, let it not be forgotten, to Sir Stephen Tallents, the senior civil servant who encouraged and helped to make possible the early work of Grierson.

Film-makers who worked with Grierson or were inspired by his approach to documentary later permeated the BBC and television generally. His influence and enthusiasm spread everywhere.