Norma Percy

Percy was born and raised in New York City. She studied politics at Oberlin College in Ohio, later studying for a master's degree at the London School of Economics.{{cite web|url=http://www.theoldie.co.uk/detail.php?item_id=377&page_id=7|title=The History Maker|work=The Oldie|accessdate=22 May 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.griersontrust.org/grierson-awards/past-awards/2009/the-grierson-awards-2009-winners/#award10 |publisher=The Grierson Trust|title=The Grierson Awards 2009: Trustees' Award |accessdate=2 April 2016}} She then became a researcher at the House of Commons where she spent six years; in her time there, she worked as a researcher for the MP John Mackintosh, who recommended her to the Granada Television producer Brian Lapping when he was looking for a researcher for a documentary on the workings of Parliament called The State of the Nation.

{{Expand section|date=May 2011}}

Percy produced the Granada series End of Empire (1985), which explored the effects of the end of the British Empire in various former colonies, and worked with Lapping on the 1987 drama-documentary Breakthrough at Reykjavik, a reconstruction of the Reykjavík Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.{{Cite book|title=Documentary in the digital age|first=Maxine|last=Baker|isbn=0-240-51688-5|pages=122–138|publisher=Focal Press|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EElCPUGP9osC&pg=PA128}}

After fifteen years at Granada, Percy joined the newly formed production company Brian Lapping Associates in 1988. (When that company later merged with Brook Associates in 1997, she was a founding director of the new company Brook Lapping.)

The Percy-produced documentary series Watergate aired on the BBC and the Discovery Channel in 1994. Narrated by Daniel Schorr and directed by Mick Gold, this five-part series chronicled the Watergate scandal and featured exclusive interviews with many of the key participants in the events, including H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John Dean and G. Gordon Liddy as well as former President Gerald Ford.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981225-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107082118/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981225-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 November 2012|title=TELEVISION: Nixon Without Nostalgia|magazine=Time|accessdate=23 May 2011|author=Richard Zoglin|date=8 August 1994}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/06/movies/television-review-principal-players-of-watergate-reprise-perfidies-and-inanities.html|title=TELEVISION REVIEW; Principal Players of Watergate Reprise Perfidies and Inanities|author=Walter Goodman|work=New York Times|date=6 August 1994|accessdate=23 May 2011}}{{cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1994/08/07/watergate-20-years-later/|title=Watergate - 20 Years Later|date=7 August 1994|access-date=23 May 2011|work=Orlando Sentinel|author=Ron Miller}} The series won an Emmy Award.

The Death of Yugoslavia (1995), with Lapping as co-producer, covered the events that led to the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the aftermath. The series again contained interviews with many of the major participants, including Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić. The series won a BAFTA Award as Best Factual Series for 1995.{{cite web|url=http://www.bafta.org/awards/television/nominations/?year=1995|title=Past Winners and Nominees - Television - Awards - 1995|publisher=British Academy of Film and Television Arts|accessdate=22 May 2011}} The Balkans were revisited in the 2001 series The Fall of Milošević which dealt with the fall from power of the Serbian leader.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/arts/television-review-the-bad-old-days-of-yugoslavia-s-fallen-dictator.html|title=TELEVISION REVIEW; The Bad Old Days of Yugoslavia's Fallen Dictator|author=Thom Shanker|date=26 August 2003|accessdate=23 May 2011|work=New York Times}}

Percy, along with Brian Lapping, was awarded the Alan Clarke Award (for outstanding contribution to Television) at the 2002 BAFTA awards.{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/event/20163|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206001305/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/event/20163|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 February 2009|title=BAFTA Television Awards: 2002|publisher=British Film Institute|accessdate=14 November 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bafta.org/search.html?q=Norma%20Percy&w=true|title=Search results Norma Percy|publisher=BAFTA|accessdate=14 November 2012}}

Percy was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 1999{{cite web|url=http://www.rts.org.uk/rts-fellows|title=RTS Fellows|publisher=Royal Television Society|accessdate=23 May 2011}} and was awarded the Judges Prize by that society at the 2010 RTS Awards.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/7460124/Royal-Television-Society-Awards-shun-talent-shows.html|title=Royal Television Society Awards shun talent shows|work=The Telegraph|date=17 March 2010|accessdate=23 May 2011}} In 2009, at the Grierson Awards, she, along with colleagues from the Brook Lapping production company, won the Best Documentary Series award for Iran and the West;{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/04/norma-percy-grierson-awards|title=Norma Percy wins two Grierson awards|author=Tara Conlan|work=The Guardian|date=4 November 2009|accessdate=14 November 2012}} Percy also given the Trustee's Prize by the Grierson Trust for her contributions to documentary film over the previous 30 years.{{cite web|url=http://theorwellprize.co.uk/winners/norma-percy/|title=Norma Percy wins two Grierson awards|accessdate=23 May 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/people/percy-wins-two-gongs-at-grierson-awards/5007667.article|title=Percy wins two gongs at Grierson Awards|date=4 November 2009|accessdate=23 May 2011|work=Broadcastnow}} The Special Prize for Lifetime Achievement was given to her at the Orwell Prize ceremony in 2010.{{cite web|url=http://theorwellprize.co.uk/winners/norma-percy/|title=Norma Percy The Orwell Prize|publisher=The Orwell Prize|accessdate=23 May 2011}}

In 2009, The Guardian wrote of Percy: "Her documentaries stand out for their seriousness, but most of all for the extraordinary range of people who agree to appear on them. These programmes do not depend on one celebrity autobiography, or a handful of journalistic talking heads; they interrogate players from all sides with a respect for complexities that demands concentration."{{cite web| url = https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/feb/17/norma-percy-praise| title = In praise of Norma Percy| date = 17 February 2009| accessdate = 10 August 2016| work =The Guardian}}

In 2004, she married the geneticist Steve Jones; the couple had lived together since 1977.'JONES, Prof. (John) Stephen', Who's Who 2011, A & C Black, 2011; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2010; online edn, Oct 2010 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U22395, accessed 22 May 2011]

• Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October (2025)
• La guerre de Poutine (2024)
• Putin vs the West (2023)
• Cuba: Castro vs the World (2020)
• Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil (2019)
• Inside Obama's White House (2016)
• The Iraq War (2013)
• Putin, Russia and the West (2012)
• Iran and the West (2009)
• Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace (2005)
• Endgame in Ireland (2001)
• ''The Fall of Milošević (2001)
• The American Experience - Nixon's China Game episode producer (2001)
• The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs (1998)
• The Death of Yugoslavia (1995)
• Watergate (1994)
• Timewatch
• Countdown to War (1989)
• End of Empire (1985)

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Norma Percy}}

• {{IMDb name|0672919|Norma Percy}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Percy, Norma}}

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:American documentary film producers

Category:Businesspeople from New York City

Category:Oberlin College alumni

Category:BAFTA winners (people)

Category:Film producers from New York (state)

Category:American women documentary filmmakers

Category:21st-century American women