Francesca Wilkinson obituary and funeral details

Obituary for Francesca Beatrice Cordelia Wilkinson

6^th September 1950 – 29^th November 2024

Francesca Wilkinson died on 29^th November in ICU at Charing Cross Hospital, aged 74.  She was an exceptionally talented international advertising agency producer and former Head of Television and Board Director at Grey Advertising, London in the 1980s. 

Francesca had an unusual and interesting childhood, if a little unpredictable. Her British father, Frank Wilkinson, was an artist working for UNESCO and her Swiss mother, Madeleine Moushka Wittsgard, was a writer.  From her infancy Francesca was a globetrotter especially after her parents divorced and her mother remarried an Italian diplomat, forcing her to bounce between boarding schools, Rome, Venice and wherever her father’s current far-flung posting was. This forged her fiercely independent streak and she learned five languages, the art of diplomacy and networking.

By the early 70s Francesca had settled in London, studying typography at the London School of Print, followed by art at Goldsmiths. Advertising was in Francesca’s DNA (her grandfather produced some iconic adverts for the Underground in the 1920s), and in 1976 she started working as a trainee producer for David Williams and Ketchum. By 1978 she was a fully-fledged producer for Foot, Cone and Belding.  

Whilst advertising in the 80s was the era of “bigger is better,” most ad agencies were still not the most inclusive nor welcoming of environments for women, indeed it wasn’t uncommon for women to be regarded as “little girls only fit to be PAs”.  Francesca’s talent shone through though and she was well placed to service the largest of clients across their worldwide markets.  In 1982 she was appointed as the Head of Television and a Board Director at Grey Advertising London, where she pioneered Pan-European productions, not only restructuring the London TV department to meet their rapidly growing workload, but also developing TV departments in other countries.  Susie Innes recalls, “Francesca was brilliantly of her time; silk shirts, leather trousers, big belt, big hair, big blue eyes and matching make up. She was magnificent, impressive and really quite something, a force of nature.”  Indeed, in one of the Grey Christmas videos they dubbed Francesca’s dulcet tones calling for her assistant “Lucy!!!”  over footage from “Sheena Queen of the Jungle,” just as Sheena was riding her zebra, haloed by a flowing mane, in skimpy suede bikini as she calls her army to war. Francesca had a wicked sense of humour and LOVED it. 

Francesca got married in 1981 and in 1990, she moved to Germany to support her husband as he took over the family business.  She formed her own company, FW Productions and worked specialising in pan-European campaigns for among others Proctor & Gamble, Mars, Wrigley, Slimfast and Moulinex. She was in great demand by film & tv production companies and worked on several European co-productions. Her marriage ended in 1995, and she moved back to her beloved Chiswick.  By then, she was working for Grey Düsseldorf, exclusively on P&G.  Yuval Zommer recalls working with her on these international productions and how they bonded over the impossible schedules, the Germans hating the Italians, the Italians hating the French and the French hating the English.  Francesca’s sense of humour was contagious and together they somehow managed to keep everyone happy. Yuval also discovered Francesca had a taste for fine dining and grand hotels.  Wherever they were in the world, she knew all the best places! 

In 2005 Francesca became the Cost Controller for Wilkinson Sword. For over 10 years, she chaperoned numerous TV commercial projects through the turmoil of local, regional and international marketing teams. She could be extremely firm and she was certainly very well respected. She made complexity manageable through her enthusiastic attention to detail and her creativity in problem solving. She was relentless in her pursuit of excellence.

More than anything however, Francesca was immensely kind and generous, particularly to those starting out in the business. She had an eagle eye for talent and took many under her wing. Francesca was interested in everyone on set, for example when she spotted one of the runners being particularly switched on, she’d take them out for a drink to find out more about them. If they passed muster, she would champion them to her vast network of industry contacts. That was so unusual for a client to do.   Countless people attribute their careers to Francesca. She had an enormous enthusiasm and energy for life – and drinking, but what she loved most of all was people and Cannes was the highlight of her year. No wonder she was called the “Queen of Cannes.”  

She is survived by a wide and loving network of family and friends. 

Francesca’s funeral will be at 1:30pm on Thursday 9^th January 2025 at St Mary’s Barnes, Church Road, London, SW13 9HL. The funeral will also be live-streamed.  If you would like the login details or to attend, please email f[email protected]