Photograph: Bill Cross/ANL/Shutterstock
Michael Deakin, who has died aged 83 of a lung infection after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was an executive producer and editor of documentaries at Yorkshire Television in the 1970s. His work there made him responsible for some of ITV’s most powerful programmes on social issues.
Johnny Go Home (1975), which he made with the producer and director John Willis, was a tale of runaway children on the streets of London, highlighting a national scandal and shocking viewers. The idea for the documentary came to Deakin when he stepped out of an editing suite in Soho at 3am after working on an Alan Whicker programme and found young boys huddled in the doorway.
