Gone but not forgotten is Antonia Bird, our Visiting Professor for Film and TV, who has sadly died from cancer at the age of 54.  Tributes have been coming in for the multi-award winning writer, director and producer for stage and screen – television and film. Robert Carlyle actor in Antonia’s well known films Priest, Face and Ravenous, said: “RIP Antonia Bird. Farewell my beautiful friend.”

Head of Lincoln School of Media, Dr Sarah Barrow: “We were privileged and honoured to have known Antonia and been associated with her. She was an incredible advocate for the role of women in media. And a very talented person across all media. BAFTA award-winning ‘Priest’ was an amazing film and I’ll never forget the special [jam-packed] screening of it at Cambridge Arts Cinema in 1994, presented by Linus Roach. More recently, ‘The Village’ on BBC1 (with John Simm and Maxine Peake) was so powerful, brave and provocative. And her work with Jimmy McGovern on the inimitable ‘Cracker’ was ground-breaking.”

LSM’s Senior Lecturer Marcella Forster: “So sad that Antonia has died.  She was a great director and an inspiring woman.”

For more tributes see The Guardian; BBC News; The Telegraph and Metro.