A severe knee injury ended his gridiron career in California, but Cvitanovich convinced the makers of Gene Autry's television series The Singing Cowboy that he could direct.
A documentary account of a five-day Canadian rock tour, that took several influential bands across Canada by train, it was finally released with contemporary interview footage in 2003.
With his then partner, Midge Mackenzie, his first film for Thames was Bunny (1972), a moving account of the treatment given to the couple's own brain-damaged son in a Philadelphia clinic.
For Thames he made films about motorcycle champion Barry Sheene, the footballing Charlton Brothers and Saturday’s Heroes (1976) about life behind the scenes at Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Yorkshire was also the setting for Bonny, Beauty, Daisy, Violet, Grace and Geoffrey Morton (1974), which won a BAFTA and several other awards.