The family of a documentary film-maker who died of heart failure at the age of 43 won six-figure damages yesterday from three doctors who failed to diagnose and treat his worsening condition.

Nick Rossiter, who created the popular art programme Sister Wendy’s Odyssey, had been suffering “increasingly severe” hypertension before he had a fatal cardiac arrest in July 2004.

Mr Justice Foskett, sitting at the High Court, was told that Mr Rossiter’s death would have been avoided had Pearl Chin, Cathy Benson and Sharon Alikhani, GPs at the Westbourne Grove Surgery, West London, prescribed appropriate medication from December 2003 onwards.

The three GPs, who treated Mr Rossiter between 2001 and his death, admitted to a breach of duty in having failed to spot and appropriately treat his hypertension.

Mr Rossiter left a widow, Beatrice Ballard, a celebrated television producer in her own right, and two daughters, Alice, 11, and Pandora, 9.

The amount of damages was not disclosed in court but Ms Ballard, the daughter of the novelist J. G. Ballard, said: “No amount of money can replace my children’s father, but it will help in securing their future.” The judge described the loss as “almost impossible to value”.

The court was told that Mr Rossiter had visited Westbourne Grove Surgery two months before his death, but left without receiving a vital blood-pressure test.

The defence had argued that Mr Rossiter may not have completed his course of medication even if he had been prescribed it. But Ms Ballard’s barrister, Henry Whitcomb, dismissed the claim on the grounds that Mr Rossiter was a highly intelligent man who had given up smoking and was “absolutely devoted to his family”.

The barrister said that Mr Rossiter was “highly regarded” in the film industry, and Alan Yentob, a former controller of BBC Two, joined those paying tribute to his work.

The Times described Mr Rossiter in his obituary as an inventive director with the “eye of a painter and the nose of a journalist”. He joined the BBC as a production trainee in 1986 and cut his teeth on programmes such as Newsnight and Heart of the Matter.

His biggest coup may have been to direct the Prince of Wales’s polemic on architecture, the award-winning A Vision of Britain, which made headlines around the world in 1988 and won Rossiter the first of many awards.

He also created one of the most idiosyncratic and popular art programmes by recruiting Sister Wendy Beckett, a nun with a passion for visual art. Sister Wendy’s Odyssey and Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting reached audience numbers far in excess of any arts series of the time.

Other projects he spearheaded included The Secret Art of Government, which showed the removal from Downing Street of John Major’s preferred paintings, such as a portrait of W. G. Grace, and the influx of modern works favoured by the new Labour Government. The programme also gave an insight into Peter Mandelson’s influence as he presided over the change.

Mr Rossiter also received critical acclaim for a thriller-style film recounting the life story of one of Picasso’s most valuable masterpieces, the painting Au Lapin Agile.

His obituary noted that he was on the verge of leaving the BBC to become a freelance director when he died. “Typically, he was checking out new areas, racing with energy and commitment towards a new chapter.” After the decision, the family’s solicitor, John Pickering, said: “The end of this case comes as a huge relief to Nicholas’s wife, and will provide a secure future for their daughters. Doctors Chin, Benson and Alikhani . . . did not treat him with antihypertensive medication as they should have done.

“His family are relieved that this matter is now closed and they can move on with their lives.”

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