About Lillian

Lillian Crawford is a freelance writer covering film and culture for publications including Sight & Sound, BBC Culture, The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, A Rabbit’s Foot, Collectors Agenda, Empire, GQ, Curzon Journal, Picturehouse Recommends, MUBI Notebook, Composer, Plinth, Apollo, VAN, RadioTimes, Doctor Who Magazine, and Little White Lies. 

In her academic life, Lillian is currently completing a PhD on Screen Two with Royal Holloway University of London and the BBC. She wrote the introductions for Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Terence Davies’s screenplays, published by Bloomsbury and the BFI in 2025. Her first book The Mind of the Doctor: Across the Neurodiverse Universe of Doctor Who is published by Herne Books in 2026.

Lillian is a prolific programmer and curator, including for the BFI, the Barbican, the Garden Cinema, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and the EUNIC In Short Film Festival. Her work with the Autism Through Cinema project and podcast led to the foundation of the Stims Collective which curates relaxed screenings for neurodiverse audiences. Lillian also writes and edits video essays, and her podcast and blog on British film and television, Listen to Lillian. 

Lillian makes regular broadcasting appearances on podcasts and BBC radio, including Front Row, Free Thinking, Music Matters, and Screenshot. Having previously worked as a questions researcher and casting assistant on University Challenge, Lillian now writes questions for quiz programmes including BBC Radio 4’s music quiz Counterpoint. Her cultural expertise sees her in demand to deliver talks and host Q&As across the UK.

Lillian’s recent published works include essays for the BFI’s The Camera Is Ours DVD boxset, the BFI’s Jules et Jim, The Trial of Joan of Arc, EO, Western Approaches, Bluebeard’s Castle, Watership Down, Priest, and The House of Mirth Blu-rays, the BFI’s Chantal Akerman Collection, Second Sight’s The VVitch and Mean Streets Blu-rays, and Radiance’s She Dies Tomorrow and Palindromes Blu-rays. She is co-author of Screen Britain, The Magnificent, Magical, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Doctor Who: 60 Moments in Time, Big Smoke, Big Screen, and Great Expectations: Post-War British Cinema (1945-1960).

Lillian can be found on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Bluesky @lillcrawf