Alan Hume BSC, Director of Photography on most episodes of Space Precinct, has died at the age of 85. Space Precinctcame near the end of Hume’s career which began as a Camera Operator in 1957 for director Gerald Thomas, whose productions he stayed with for many years, graduating to Director of Photography with 1961’s Carry On Regardless. He moved temporarily to television production in the mid-Sixties, photographing 26 episodes of The Avengers between 1965 and 1968.
Staying in regular employment even in the depths of the post 1972 collapse of the British film industry, he worked with many of the Space:1999 crew when he photographed two episodes of the cult Anglo-German science fiction series Star Maidens in 1976, plus work on the special effects photography of a third story in the series.
Hume started working on bigger productions after John Glen chose him as his Director of Photography on his first two James Bond films, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy, fitting in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in between. In the nineties he worked increasingly in filmed television, including his old boss Gerald Thomas’s Laugh With the Carry Ons compilation series, the American series Acapulco H.E.A.T. and Space Precinct. His last production, in 1998, was appropriately the 40th anniversary Carry On documentary What’s A Carry On, directed by John Highlander, aka The Protectors’ director John Hough.
Alan Hume passed away on 13th Tuesday July 2010. He is survived by his wife Sheila and his four children – all of whom have followed him into the industry, as has one of his grandsons.
Originally published in FAB 67.