English filmmaker Ron Peck was BOTD in 1948. Born and raised in London to a middle-class family, he developed an early interest in film. He studied at Swansea University and Sussex University, before attending the London Film School. His graduation project, the short film Its Ugly Head, portrayed a closeted gay man in an unhappy marriage. In 1975, he and three classmates formed the Four Corners Films collective, to support filmmakers from disadvantaged backgrounds. He is best known for his 1978 film Nighthawks, a gritty, verité portrait of a gay schoolteacher named Jim (played by Ken Robertson) negotiating London’s singles scene. After being turned down for funding from the British Film Institute, Peck raised the funds himself with the help of filmmakers Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell and Chantal Akerman. Peck’s friend Derek Jarman lent his Butlers Wharf studio as a location and made a cameo appearance in a nightclub scene. Screened at the London and Edinburgh Film Festivals and at London’s Gate Cinema, the film received praise for its honest portrayal of gay sexuality and homophobia, particularly a scene where Jim comes out as gay to a class of jeering students. Peck’s next project, a documentary about artist Edward Hopper, was followed by What Can I do with a Male Nude? a critique of censorship of naked male bodies which provoked its own controversy for its sexually explicit images. His next narrative feature, Empire State, portrayed tensions between working-class neighbourhoods and Thatcherite Yuppies in 1980s London. He also worked as assistant director on James Ivory‘s 1984 adaptation of Henry James‘ The Bostonians. In 1991, he established the production company Team Pictures, releasing Strip Jack Naked, a documentary about the genesis and legacy of Nighthawks, and the TV film Real Money, set in the homoerotically-charged world of boxing clubs. In the 1990s, he raised funds for Team Pictures to offer production and editing facilities for emerging filmmakers. Openly gay since forever, he lived long enough to witness a more tolerant audience for Nighthawks, which was re-released in DVD format by the British Film Institute in 2009. He died in 2022, aged 74.