Michael Grade

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Producers, directors and media figures

Michael Ian Grade CBE (born March 8, 1943) is a British businessman and a distinguished figure in the field of broadcasting. He became Executive Chairman of ITV plc on 8 January 2007 after his resignation from the role of BBC chairman. Born into a Jewish show business family (original family name : Winogradski), his father was the theatrical agent Leslie Grade, and his uncles were the impresarios Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont. He was educated at Stowe School, and St Dunstan's College, London.

He was made a CBE in 1998, and is married to his third wife, Francesca; they have a son, Samuel. He was previously married to Penelope Jane Levinson, with whom he had two children, and Sarah Lawson, a producer.

Career

He began his career with the Daily Mirror in 1960, and was a sports columnist from 1964 to 1966. By an account he told himself (on a Channel 4 chat-show, entitled The Late Clive James), the job had been organised by his father. When his father suffered a serious stroke in 1966, the 23-year-old Grade moved into his theatrical business. In 1969 he moved to London Management & Representation.

LWT

He went into television in 1973 when he joined LWT as Deputy Controller of Programmes (Entertainment), achieving the post of Director of Programmes in 1976. At LWT, Grade worked alongside both John Birt and Greg Dyke and as Director of Programmes commissioned the controversial series Mind Your Language as well as the popular The Professionals and the long running arts strand The South Bank Show. In 1981 he had a stint in the United States as President of independent production company Embassy Television and as an independent producer.

BBC

Grade joined BBC Television in 1984 as Controller of BBC One, becoming Director of Programmes in 1986 and Managing Director Designate in 1987. His tenure as Controller was especially controversial, with several high profile public outcries over decisions, such as the forced 18-month hiatus for Doctor Who in 1985. It is not entirely clear the extent to which Grade alone was responsible for these rulings, but in the case of both Dynasty and Doctor Who, he became the most prominent target of the campaigns to save the series. In recent years, Grade has, on a number of occasions, claimed that he postponed Doctor Who out of personal dislike. Later in 1986 he took the decision to fire actor Colin Baker from the title role of Doctor Who. Grade was going out with Baker's ex-wife, Liza Goddard, at the time. In 2003, Grade remarked to a journalist for The Daily Telegraph that he had fired Baker because he thought his portrayal of the Doctor was "utterly unlikable, absolutely god-awful in fact."

Grade was also responsible for the repeating of Australian soap opera Neighbours, at first purely an afternoon programme, in a later timeslot, on the advice of his daughter who was irritated that she could not watch it due to her being at school. This proved to be a successful scheduling decision that still remains in place as of 2007, and paid off at the time with audiences in excess of 15 million viewers for the new 5.35pm showings. It acts as a target finish time for CBBC and as a buffer between it and the 6 O'Clock News. He also came close to completely axing the sitcom Blackadder, judging the first series to be unfunny, because of lukewarm reviews and high cost (it featured extensive location sequences). He demanded that the price for renewing the series was that it be a completely studio-based production with an audience. It went on to become one of the most successful British sitcoms of all time.

Channel 4

In 1987 he returned to commercial television, accepting the post of chief executive of Channel 4, replacing Jeremy Isaacs. Grade phased out some of the channel's more high-brow programming, for which he was accused of 'dumbing down'. Grade responded that in the week he took over at Channel 4 they had screened a repeat of The Far Pavilions in which the American actress Amy Irving blacked up as an Indian Princess. During this period he was attacked by the Conservative press: the columnist Paul Johnson in the Daily Mail gave him the soubriquet of Britain's "pornographer-in-chief". He was successful in developing the business at a time when Channel 4 was obliged to give a proportion of its advertising revenue to the rival ITV network. As well as securing talent from the BBC Grade also recognised the improving quality of US television output making series such as Friends and ER mainstays of the channel's schedule. Grade also became embroiled in a vicious dispute with Chris Morris over the series Brass Eye. He went from Channel 4 to head First Leisure Corporation, leaving there in 1999 after a substantial restructuring to return to media as chairman of the new Pinewood Studios company.

BBC (again)

Grade had ambitions to become chairman of the BBC board of governors in 2001, but lost out to Gavyn Davies. He was also on the board of the ill-fated Millennium Dome. He has been chairman of Octopus Publishing, the Camelot Group, and Hemscott, which he has indicated he will be giving up.

Following Davies' resignation as a result of the Hutton Inquiry report, it was announced on 2 April 2004 that Grade had been appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC; at the time his only show-stopper requirement was that he did not have to give up being a Charlton Athletic Director. He took up his post on 17 May.

Following the end of the first season of the revived series of Doctor Who in 2005, he wrote a letter to the BBC Director-General, congratulating all involved in the project on its success, signing-off with "PS never dreamed I would ever write this. Must be going soft!"

On 19 September 2006, he joined Ocado (the Waitrose food delivery company) as Chairman.

ITV

On 28 November 2006, Grade and the BBC confirmed that he was to resign from his post with the BBC to replace Sir Peter Burt as Chairman and Charles Allen as Chief Executive of commercial rival ITV, becoming Executive Chairman of ITV plc effective from early 2007.

ITV, which has been struggling with falling advertising and ratings, said the appointment was a "real coup". Mr Grade said his first priority at ITV would be to improve its programming. On 12 September 2007, Grade announced a controversial five-year restructuring plan targeting entertainment as the corporation's top priority. A major overhaul of the regional structure of ITV was also proposed. The proposals would see consolidation of the ITV regional news programmes, with regions now broadcasting one service per region rather than multiple tailored local services (for example: ITV Yorkshire would no longer broadcast separate Northern and Southern regions). The proposed changes would also fully merge ITV Border with ITV Tyne Tees and ITV West with ITV Westcountry, effectively ending two regions' tenure as independent players within ITV, these proposals have been highly criticized by BECTU and The Nutional Union of Journalists . Any changes would be subject to full approval by Ofcom.