In the 1980s and 90s Nick Ross produced, directed, reported or narrated many films including The Biggest Epidemic of Our Times (on road accidents, BBC-1 and 2, variously repeated and updated), The Fix and The Cure (on drug addiction) for BBC-2, We Shall Overcome, an award-winning autobiographical account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and biographies of Robert Mugabe and Enoch Powell.
Nick Ross had reported for Man Alive on drug abuse and returned to the theme as a director and producer, exposing the hidden depths and complexities of addiction and following the life, and repeated near death, of an addict called Gina. View programme
In the 1980s Nick Ross wrote, produced and directed a hugely influential documentary which transferred from BBC2 to BBC1 and was often-repeated, with excerpts being broadcast for over 20 years. He turned an abstract number of UK road deaths into graphic footage by persuading residents of a typical a market town (Wallingford, pop 6,000) to lie down as if dead, and reframed road safety as The Biggest Epidemic of Our Times. was widely credited with transforming public attitudes and public policy and caused the government to introduce targets for road fatalities. Deaths fell from over 6.000 to 1,710 in 2017. View programme
Nick Ross’s autobiographical and controversial TV history of the start of the Northern Ireland troubles. Transmitted BBC One Northern Ireland October 1998, UK BBC Two 7.30pm Saturday 27 March 1999, and PBS in the US. We Shall Overcome took the Best Documentary award at the Celtic Film Festival in March 1999. See articles. “The true story was told for the first time on television in We Shall Overcome, presented by Nick Ross, the well-informed English journalist (nearly an oxymoron when it comes to writing about Ireland).” Eoghan Harris, Sunday Times. “He demolishes many myths and gives us the kind of fact-based plain speaking that is all too often lacking on this subject.” Critics’ TV Choice, Daily Mail, “An accessible, opinionated and vivid account of what went wrong.” The Guardian. View programme
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