Television producer and director Nicky Illis, who worked on BBC shows including Antiques Roadshow, has died of cancer aged 53.
Illis was the long-term director of Fake or Fortune, and also made series including David Dimbleby’s A Picture of Britain and drama documentary The Real Jane Austen.
She started on The Late Show in the 1990s and went on to direct history programmes such as One Foot in the Past and The House Detectives.
In 2009, she helped develop investigative art show Fake or Fortune with historian Philip Mould and Simon Shaw. The series first aired in 2011 and Illis went on to produce and direct ten series.
BBC director Nicky Illis, known for producing has died aged 53 from cancer
A peak six million viewers watched an episode about a picture attributed to Renoir, and a show on Turner saw several of his paintings reinstated at the National Museum of Wales.
Other episodes of the series covered Constable, Vuillard, Henry Moore and William and Ben Nicholson.
Some installments ended inconclusively, with the origins of a Sir Winston Churchill painting from series four left unsolved until as recently as 2020.
Illis directed a new episode of the show at the beginning of this year with presenters Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce.
Ms Bruce paid tribute to the director’s ‘irreplaceable talent’.
She said: ‘Nicky is simply irreplaceable. Not just for her huge talent but also for her sheer exuberance, enthusiasm and sense of fun. Everyone on the team loved her and none more than me.’
She is survived by her husband Seb and their children Luke and Eliza.
