CELEBRATIONS to mark the 60th anniversary of East Devon branch of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts, took place at Sidmouth s Manor Pavilion Theatre on Friday.

CELEBRATIONS to mark the 60th anniversary of East Devon branch of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts, took place at Sidmouth's Manor Pavilion Theatre on Friday.

A birthday cake was cut by branch chairman Marienne Carnochan and DA president Rachel Thomas CBE.

To a packed theatre, international award-winning wildlife filmmaker and TV producer Andrew Cooper gave a 60th anniversary lecture: Around the World in 80 BBC Wildlife Films from Africa to the Arctic, Hawaii to the Himalayas and Scilly Daffodils to Devon.

Mr Cooper, a biologist and anthropologist by training, is best known for his work with the BBC Natural History Unit based in Bristol.

His documentary The Farm that Time Forgot ranked among the highest rating Natural World documentaries and won a Royal Television Society award for the best network documentary.

It also provoked the biggest response to a wildlife documentary recorded by the BBC.

In Devon he has formed Wildlink, enabling many to share in the on-going life of Church Farm, Haccombe.

Mr Cooper is also an author, whose books include East Devon Pebblebed Heaths.

The East Devon branch of DA will have more Sidmouth links at its annual meeting in February when Dr George Wilkins will talk about The Lockyer Family in Sidmouth.