- Born
- Birth nameDavid Nicholas Wilkinson
- Nickname
- David Wilkinson
- David Nicholas Wilkinson's very first film as a producer was To The Lighthouse, the first true independent production with the BBC, thanks to the foresight of BBC Head of Plays Keith Williams and Head of Co-Production Ronnie Marsh who sat with Wilkinson on three seperate days and found a formula for a new way of working with the BBC. This prodcution was nominated for a television BAFTA. As Wilkinson often jokingly says, "It has been downhill from there ever since".
He is a director/ producer/ founder and owner of Guerilla Films is probably unique in the UK entertainment industry in that he has been involved in so many different sectors since he entered the entertainment industry in 1969 in a TV commercial. His first acting role was playing Ronnie Winslow in "The Winslow Boy" with Kenneth More and then later with Richard Todd in the lead role.
His film "Getting Away With Murder(s) was voted No17 in The Guardian Best Films of 2021 in the UK (and by default the highest-rated documentary on that list).
On the 3rd of December 2024, Wilkinson was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Bradford.
Films he has produced have won awards at the Sundance Film Festival, DocFest, the Galway Film Fleadh, the Grierson Awards, etc. In November 2023, he was awarded the first-ever Stirling Award for Achievement in Documentary by the Central Scotland Documentary Festival and the University of Stirling (home of the John Grierson Archive).
From 1999 - 2023, apart from Alex Gibney Zero Days and Lasse Hallström Hilma, Wilkinson's Guerilla Films has only released British & Irish productions/ co-productions within the UK & Ireland, specialising in those films that other distributors thought difficult and un-commercial.
Since Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince made the world's first film on 14th of October 1888, no other British distribution company has ever made such a strong and wholehearted commitment to British films.
Some of these films starred Anthony Hopkins, Alan Bates, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Penelope Wilton, Pete Postlethwaite, Harvey Keitel, Richard Attenborough, Ewan McGregor, Kenneth Branagh, Stellan Skarsgård, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, Susannah York, Rita Tushingham, Tom Courtenay, Joanna Lumley, Derek Jacobi, Bob Hoskins, Elizabeth McGovern, Peter Capaldi, Richard Armitage, Elliott Gould, Lena Olin,Tom Wilkinson, Michael York and many more. (See guerilla films limited's IMDb page for details).
He is also a writer both for the screen, newspapers, and magazines and co-wrote the book "Ronald Harwood's Adaptations" and has twice appeared on BBC's Radio 4's Today Programme as an expert on the British film industry.- IMDb mini biography by: Alison Butters Guerilla Films
- Spouse
- ChildrenPip Wilkinson
- Went to Benton Park Secondary Modern School in Rawdon from 1967-72 but was hardly there from 1970 as he was away performing in professional theatre productions. Many people think he went to public school as a result of the way he speaks. This is due to the elocution lessons he had at 14 in order to play the title part in a stage production of The Winslow Boy.
- Is known for his love of clothes.
- He said he always tries to get Leeds into his documentary films he directs.
- Met costume designer Amy Roberts on "The Weather In The Streets". They have two children.
- Christopher Fairbank made his acting debut when Wilkinson was taken ill with peritonitis of the appendix while performing "The Wisest Fool" in Darlington. The star, Marius Goring wouldn't let Wilkinson go to the hospital as it was opening night, and he did not want the understudy going on. As a result, Wilkinson nearly died.
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