PETER Williams, the Kent-based independent television producer and chairman of Canterbury Festival, has been given a lifetime accolade. Mr Williams was presented with the Industry Achievement Award at the annual dinner of the Royal Television Society held in the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel, Southampton.

Mr Williams now runs Peter Williams Television at the Maidstone Studios, producing a string of successful documentaries such as Aspinall's Animals and Doodlebug Summer.

He has enjoyed a glittering career in television since starting as a reporter with the Bristol Evening Post. He reported for Southern Television's Day by Day news programme before joining Thames Television as a reporter and producer of This Week, one of two ITV flagship current affairs programmes,

He did a stint on the BBC news programme Panorama before presenting Open Secret for the BBC in the late 70s and early 80s. He became controller of factual programmes for TVS until 1991 when it lost its franchise to Meridian Broadcasting.

He then left to set up his own production companies. Jan Beale, general manager at Meridian, said: "He has never lost his enthusiasm for good programmes and his desire to maintain the highest production values in the face of falling budgets."

Greg Dyke, the BBC director-general, paid tribute to Mr Williams: "Peter is without doubt one of the best documentary makers I have worked with - someone with a brilliant instinct for a story."

Mr Williams has been chairman of the Canterbury Festival since 1987 and was made a Freeman of the City of Canterbury in 2001. He played a prominent part in this year's festival, including an interview with former England cricket captain Mike Atherton.