Lesley Walker obituary

2026-02-19 - 13:23

Film editor who made an important contribution to the work of the directors Terry Gilliam and Richard Attenborough Lesley Walker, who has died aged 80, edited films as lively and varied as Letter to Brezhnev (1985), a salty romantic comedy about two Merseyside women who fall for Soviet sailors; the thriller Mona Lisa (1986), a kind of Soho spin on Taxi Driver; and a pair of escapist, female-led crowd-pleasers revolving around Greek getaways: Shirley Valentine (1989) and the Abba musical Mamma Mia! (2008). “It was unusual to have a woman editing at that level when Lesley began,” said her friend and former assistant editor, Sue Kingsley. “She was well ahead of the game there.” Continue reading...