A TV legend from Saltcoats who "pioneered the fly-on-the-wall documentary genre" has died at the age of 82.

Producer and director John Purdie, who attended Ardrossan Academy, passed away on October 3 having suffered from dementia.

A two-time Bafta award winner, Mr Purdie's work included BBC series Sailor - first shown in 1976 - which followed aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and its crew on a five-and-a-half month deployment to North America.

Sailor’s theme tune was Sailing, sung by Rod Stewart, which re-entered the charts as a result and became his most successful UK single.

Mr Purdie also worked as an executive producer on the terrifying 1984 film Threads, depicting the effects of a nuclear holocaust on the working-class city of Sheffield, and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization.

Also listed in his filmography, according to the British Film Institute, is The Story of Ruth (1982), Portrait of the Soviet Union (1988), Who Killed Tchaikovsky? (1993) and The Search for the Lost Fighter Bombers (2004).

Paying tribute on social media, Melanie Jappy - who worked with Mr Purdie on the 1995 documentary The Roswell Incident - said: "Most of you won’t have heard of John Purdie but he was arguably one of the most important filmmakers of his generation.

"His series, Sailor set on HMS Ark Royal was the beginning of the observational filmmaking as a genre.

"His tales from those shoots and many more kept me enthralled and inspired.

"He was a legend. Goodbye friend."