His energy and passion for his chosen profession were apparent to anyone who met him. 

But that was only part of Roger’s professional life, which involved so many chairmanships, memberships and trusteeships that his Who’s Who entry ran to 14 lines. These ranged from London Transport to the LSE, where he was a visiting criminology fellow, via the Metropolitan Police to the Brandt Commission. 

His 1982 BBC 12-part observational series Police, about Thames Valley Police, made headlines and was discussed in Parliament. The film changed the way rape victims were treated and was typical of how he was able to get under the skin of institutions.

ITV’s Decision, winner of an RTS award, was a fly-on-the-wall account of how organisations, including British Steel and the Communist Party, reach decisions. The Siege of Scotland Yard featured Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon at the time the Stephen Lawrence report was published, in 1999. He made more than 30 documentaries on the police and judicial system in the UK. 

Roger was an influential figure in helping to create Channel 4 and became a founding board member in 1980. He played a key role in selecting the broadcaster’s first Chief Executive, Jeremy Isaacs, and had a radical vision for the channel. 

He suggested that Channel 4 should be housed in a warehouse in King’s Cross, at the time a rundown area of London. The idea was that it would make a direct connection with its audience as well as help to regenerate the neighbourhood. 

He was determined that Channel 4 should be different from the existing broadcasters. In 1987, when Michael Grade succeeded Isaacs, becoming Channel 4’s second CEO, Roger made it to the final shortlist of candidates for the job, although, frankly, it would be difficult to imagine him happily adapting to a corporate role. 

Born in New York, Roger was the son of a distinguished doctor. His mother was a United Nations volunteer. At Harvard, where he majored in English, he spent most of his time directing plays and opera. In 1962, he came to Britain to direct Tennessee Williams’s Period of Adjustment at the Royal Court. 

His first film was One of Them Is Brett for the Society for the Aid of Thalidomide Children. It demonstrated to primary school headteachers that the physical disabilities of children did not prevent them from being active mentally. It won the Silver Dragon Prize in Krakow, Poland, and was broadcast by the BBC, CBC and ABC Scope in the US, as well as being added to medical school curricula. 

Roger said in a BBC interview in 2014, “Nobody had ever seen them as people, they had only seen them as cases, and it entered medical school curricula immediately because doctors had never seen them at home.”

He made a series of arts documentaries culminating in Why Save Florence? and, in 1970, made an observational film shot in Morocco which showed how ordinary Muslims live. 

Roger directed several TV specials, including: the first three Amnesty International comedy galas between 1976 and 1979, and the first Secret Policeman’s Ball, a benefit show for Amnesty; and co-produced the first Comic Relief with Richard Curtis in 1985. 

Mark Browning, CEO of Zinc Media Group, which acquired Films of Record in 2008, said: “He was a trailblazer in programme-making and used documentary to open people’s eyes to issues in society and the changing world around them.

“His pioneering work helped establish documentaries as an authoritative force for positive change in our world, and this became part of the DNA of Films of Record. 

“The contribution that Roger made to the genre cannot be underestimated. His contribution to the industry will be sorely missed, but he leaves behind an industry that is all the better for him having been part of it.”