Barney Platts-Mills (15 October 1944 – 5 October 2021) was a British film director, best known for his award-winning films, Bronco Bullfrog and Private Road. Biography Platts-Mills was born in 1944 in Colchester, England, a son of barrister John Platts-Mills (who was briefly a Labour MP), and was educated at University College School, London, and at Bryanston School, Blandford, Dorset. He entered the film industry in 1960, as 3rd assistant editor at Shepperton Studios and worked on Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Lewis Gilbert's The Greengage Summer and John Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving among other films, for editors including Peter R. Hunt and Reggie Beck. Platts-Mills worked as editor for Anglia TV's Survival and Granada TV's World in Action. In 1966, he established Maya Films with James Scott, Adam Barker-Mill and Andrew St. John. Platts-Mills produced and edited Love's Presentation, a 30-minute documentary on the work of David Hockney, directed by James Scott, and also produced and directed St Christopher, a 45-minute documentary on children in the care of St Christopher's School, Bristol, and the Camphill Village Trust, Botton, Yorkshire. He wrote, produced and directed The War, a cinema short, starring Colin Welland and Eric Burdon (15 minutes, B&W 35 mm Panavision). He wrote and directed Everybody's an Actor, Shakespeare Said, a documentary on the work of Joan Littlewood, with young people in the East End of London (35 minutes, 16 mm Eastmancolor). In 1969, he wrote and directed Bronco Bullfrog with young people from the East End (83 minutes, 35 mm B&W) Selectione a l'Unanimite pour Semain de la Critique, Festival de Cannes. The film won a Screenwriters' Guild award for Best Original Screenplay. In 1971, he wrote and directed Private Road (86 minutes, 35 mm Eastmancolor), starring Bruce Robinson, Susan Penhaligon and Michael Feast. It was awarded the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival for Best Film. In 1972, Platts-Mills was made a Governor and Honorary Life Member of the British Film Institute and Director of the Prodigal Trust, Inner London School's video project. He took piano lessons with Trevor Fisher. Platts-Mills' screenplay Double Trouble was published as a novel by Duckworth in 1976. The following year, he wrote screenplays for The Scotsman and Hero. After two years' preparation he directed Hero (82 minutes, 16 mm Eastmancolor) for Film Four in ancient Gaelic with actors drawn from a Glasgow youth gang. Hero was an official entry at the Venice