Peter Levelle, the veteran film producer, director and founding father of the British Arrows, formerly the British Television Advertising Awards, has passed away.
Peter began his advertising career in 1964 as a trainee at Charles Hobson & Grey Advertising. Forty years later he retired from the industry where he had held positions as producer at Gerry Poulson & Associates; managing director of Rose Magwood Productions, and as the founder of Picture Palace Productions with John Crome and Malcolm Craddock.
Additionally, in 1975, Peter masterminded the British Television Advertising Awards (BTAA), which would later become the British Arrows, alongside a group of young producers from the Advertising Film & Videotape Producers Association (AFVPA) Council. He launched the awards a year later to be ‘by the business, for the business’, free of any commercial influence, not for profit and incorruptible.
Peter served as the awards’ vice-chairman, with Tony Solomon who was then the newly retired head of TV at Dorland as Chairman, a position Levelle later held until his retirement.
Peter joined Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP) as Head of TV, and as a film director, he worked on several “in-house” projects at CDP through his personal company Beechurst Film Productions. Resigning in 1982, he left CDP to open Beechurst’s studio in Bloomsbury.
Peter will be remembered by the UK’s moving image advertising and production community for his lifetime’s dedication to the industry.
Lisa Lavender, Managing Director of the British Arrows said, “Peter was always there to support us and we will continue to preserve the Arrows as he would want, by promoting and inspiring the British advertising community and preserving the founders wish that the Arrows are ‘by the business, for the business,’ free of any commercial influence and not for profit.”
