Doug Allan
A respected and award-winning wildlife cameraman, Doug Allan has spent over twenty years filming in some of the planet's toughest and most extreme environments.
Born in Scotland in 1951, Doug's love of diving has taken him all over the world. On graduating from Stirling University with a degree in marine biology Doug pursued a career in the underwater world, rebuilding canals in Germany and assisting Cambridge University with their research expeditions in the Red Sea.
1976 saw Doug learning to ice-dive, gaining a post with the British Antarctic Survey station in the South Orkneys, he spent the next nine winters gaining experience in this specialised field. Doug's career changed path when he worked at Halley Station as base commander. An accomplished stills photographer, Doug also used cine-film to record his winter with the emperor penguins, footage that was immediately snapped up by the BBC for their 1986 series, Birds for All Seasons.
Survival Anglia accepted his ideas for two pieces on the Antarctic environment and Doug subsequently spent most of 1987 filming Antarctica – The Last Frontier (1989) and Deep South Seal (1991). Since then Doug has contributed to numerous shows and series for many major production companies, including the ground-breaking series The Blue Planet (2000) and in 2006, Planet Earth and Everest Extreme.
Doug has returned to the Arctic and Antarctic countless times, recording footage never captured on film before, including polar bears trying to capture beluga whales. During the filming of The Wildlife Specials: Polar Bear (1997) his audio diary recordings were broadcast on Radio 4 on And Here's the Tape to Prove It and were met with great acclaim.
Doug has been honoured with numerous awards for photograph and film work as well as his exploration efforts. He has received the Polar Medal, the Royal Geographical Society Cherry Kearton Photography Medal (1993) and in 1997 shared two awards at the Jackson Hole Film Festival (1997) for the Newfoundland documentary, People of the Sea.
Doug still works as a freelance cameraman, making his films through Tartan Dragon Ltd, a company he set up with his wife, Sue Flood, in 2003.
View the oral history of Doug Allan
Antarctica - The Last Frontier (1989)
