My friend Clare Douglas, who has died aged 73, was a Bafta award-winning film editor of memorable television programmes.
She worked on the adaptation of John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979), Dennis Potter’s films Blackeyes (1989), Secret Friends (1991), Lipstick on Your Collar (1993), Karaoke (1996) and the four-parter Cold Lazarus (1996), directed by Renny Rye and starring Albert Finney as the writer Daniel Feeld.
After Le Carré’s Smiley’s People (1982), Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (1985) and – Le Carré again – A Perfect Spy (1987) with Peter Egan, she was in constant demand and went on to work with Paul Greengrass on The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (1999), Bloody Sunday (2002), and his feature film United 93, for which she was nominated for an Oscar despite having disagreed with the final version of the film.
She cut The Lost Prince (2003) for Stephen Poliakoff and went on to work on four more films with him: Friends and Crocodiles, and Gideon’s Daughter (both 2005), and Joe’s Palace and Capturing Mary (both 2007).
Her craft as an editor was developed from a rare gift – the ability to understand film and edit its dialogue. Clare had a passion for her work that extended beyond the working day. Those who knew her will remember her concern for others and her warmth and humanity. She was devoid of ego.
Born in Ipswich, where her father Gordon Douglas helped develop radar and her mother, Katherine (nee Dilley), was a journalist, Clare was the eldest of three sisters. The family eventually settled in Nottingham, where her father took an academic post. Clare attended West Bridgford grammar school and then went to Bristol University before taking a film and photography course at Hornsey College of Art, north London.
The BBC took her on as a trainee editor and her career took off. She met the film-maker and journalist Michael Barnes and edited some of his work, including Jessica Mitford: The Honourable Rebel (1977), Jane Fonda at 40 (1978), The Long Walk of Fred Young (1979) and the two-part The Case of the Hillside Strangler (1984). which won two Emmy awards in the US. They married in 1992.
Clare is survived by Mike, by her stepchildren, Suzie and Mandi, and grandchildren, Isobel, Josie and Barney, and by her sisters, Tina and Oriel.