A leading British documentary maker has died in a mountaineering accident in the French Alps.

Michael Lachmann, 54, slipped and fell while climbing down the Grands Couloirs glacier in the Vanoise National Park on Sunday morning.

The father-of-two, the son of the Cambridge immunologist Sir Peter Lachmann, was in the region to visit a “beloved” property his family had owned for many years.

Known as one of Britain’s leading factual directors and producers, he helped turn Prof Brian Cox into a household name following their work together on the BBC’s Wonders series of programmes about nature and space.

Prof Helen Lachmann, Mr Lachmann’s sister, described him as “the most lovely, funny, talented, witty, clever man and filmmaker”.

She added: “He knew everything about everything, and made it sound fresh and funny. He adored his two boys, they were the centre of his whole life. He was much loved, and he will be much missed.”

Award-winning career

Mr Lachmann’s career as a filmmaker spanned two decades, during which he was nominated for an Emmy and three Baftas, winning one.

As well as Wonders, he made programmes about the Celts, Albert Einstein, Sir Stephen Hawking and cosmonauts.

He was known for pioneering the use of CGI to portray space and prehistoric Earth, as well as filming underwater and in extreme environments.

Mr Lachmann’s agent said he had most recently been a showrunner for the series Spacetime Capsule, which offered “unprecedented access to Chinese science and technology” and was released last year.

In recent years he also directed a 90-minute film starring Prof Cox about Mars for BBC Two, along with an Emmy-nominated documentary about Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Mr Lachmann became a BBC producer and director after completing science degrees at Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge.

He also worked with BBC presenters Marcus du Sautoy and the late Michael Mosley.