{"id":8600,"date":"2025-07-19T16:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T16:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/8600\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T16:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T16:49:09","slug":"bbc-presenter-film-producer-left-six-figure-sum-for-his-wife-after-death-aged-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/8600\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC presenter & film producer left six-figure sum for his wife after death aged 95"},"content":{"rendered":"

A FORMER BBC presenter and film producer left a six-figure sum for his wife following his death last year, aged 95. <\/p>\n

Tony Soper, the former BBC<\/a> wildlife presenter, died in September 2024 and left a \u00a3628k fortune to his family<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Wildlife presenter Tony Soper died last year, aged 95Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd\"Black<\/a><\/p>\n

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He left a \u00a3628k fortune to his family following his deathCredit: Getty\"Black<\/a><\/p>\n

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Tony Soper Date: 19\/06\/69 Photo: Salmon Neg No: W6104Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd<\/p>\n

Soper left instructions in his will for his estate to pass to his wife Hilary, who he had lived with in a home in Slapton, Devon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was born in Southampton<\/a> in 1929 and brought up in Plymouth<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It was there that he began his long career at the BBC as a trainee engineer in 1947 before progressing onto radio and producing.<\/p>\n

His\u00a0TV<\/a>\u00a0break came when he filled in as unofficial assistant floor manager for Wild Geese in Winter in 1954.<\/p>\n

And his debut as a presenter was on Animal Magic with Johnny Morris in the 1960s. <\/p>\n

He was the co-founder of the BBC’s Natural History Unit which began in 1957 in Bristol<\/a> and has produced countless wildlife<\/a> programmes around the globe. <\/p>\n

The unit has become world renowned and produced the Planet Earth series narrated by another wildlife icon, Sir David Attenborough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to his\u00a0website<\/a>, he started working as a freelancer in 1963 so he could live closer to the sea in Devon.<\/p>\n

As well as a wildlife camera operator, Soper was also a film<\/a> producer and went on to present a number of TV shows. <\/p>\n

His skill in front of the camera<\/a> earned him the nickname \u201cOne-take Tony\u201d. <\/p>\n

BBC presenter Tony Soper introduces Birdwatch<\/p>\n

He presented Birdwatch, Birdspot, Discovering Birds, Discovering Animals, Beside the Sea, Wildtrack and Nature.<\/p>\n

Soper later pursued a career in leading wildlife cruises to the Arctic<\/a> and Antartica<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He also penned a string of books about wildlife in the UK and further afield. <\/p>\n

Following his sad passing last September, former colleagues flocked to social media to pay their tributes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lorraine Kelly said at the time: “On one of my very first shows presenting on TVam, this wonderful kind man came on to talk about his book on owls. <\/p>\n

“He was a joy and a delight.”<\/p>\n

Wildlife<\/a>\u00a0presenter Stephen Moss said: “Very sad news – Tony Soper was a huge influence on generations of birders and broadcasters.<\/p>\n

“I had the huge privilege of working with Tony and getting to know him.<\/p>\n

“The last person who was there at the start of the BBC Natural History Unit – a lovely man.”<\/p>\n

Soper is survived by his wife Hilary, his two sons Tim and Jack and his five grandchildren.<\/p>\n

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Soper began his career at the BBC as a trainee engineer in 1947Credit: Collect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A FORMER BBC presenter and film producer left a six-figure sum for his wife following his death last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[243,5254,5255,457,2283,2972,2499,5257,309,96,59,347,99,392,1715,56,54,55,5256],"class_list":["post-8600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bbc","tag-bbc-one","tag-bbc-two","tag-books","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-celebrity-marriages","tag-celebrity-relationships-and-break-ups","tag-devon","tag-england","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-itv","tag-los-angeles","tag-netflix","tag-twitter","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife-and-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}