Michael Grade

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Michael Ian Grade CBE (born 8 March 1943) is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman and is currently Executive Chairman of ITV plc, but has announced he will step down from his executive role by the end of 2009.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Grade was born into a Jewish show business family originally called Winogradski; his father was the theatrical agent Leslie Grade, while his uncles were the impresarios Lew Grade^[2] and Bernard Delfont. He was educated at two independent schools: Stowe School at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, and St Dunstan's College, in London. He did not go to university.

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, 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.

London Weekend Television

He entered television in 1973 when he joined London Weekend Television (LWT) as Deputy Controller of Programmes (Entertainment), achieving the post of Director of Programmes in 1976.^[2] At LWT, Grade worked with both John Birt and Greg Dyke and as Director of Programmes commissioned ^[3] the controversial series Mind Your Language as well as the popular The Professionals and the long running arts strand The South Bank Show.^[3] In 1981 he had a stint in the United States as President of independent production company Embassy Television and as an independent producer.

BBC (1st stint)

Grade joined BBC Television in 1984 as Controller of BBC1^[2], 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 decision to stop importing Dynasty (subsequently reversed) and 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. Grade claimed at the time that Doctor Who was being rested because it was becoming too violent, it was losing its audience, its imagination and wit. He also claimed that the BBC was giving the show a rest “because we want another 21 years of Doctor Who”. In recent years, Grade has, on a number of occasions, claimed that he postponed Doctor Who out of personal dislike. During an appearance on Room 101 in 2002, Grade said, "I thought [Doctor Who] was rubbish, I thought it was pathetic, I'd seen Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., and then I had to watch these cardboard things clonking across the floor trying to scare kids!" Eric Saward, script editor of Doctor Who at the time Grade put the show on hiatus, responded to this remark during the audio commentary recorded in 2008 for the Doctor Who story Warriors of the Deep: Saward remarked that, as the Controller of BBC1, this comment by Grade was so unfair because he was in a position to allocate more money and time to the programme (i.e. to improve its production values).

In late 1986, Grade took the decision to fire actor Colin Baker from the title role of Doctor Who. 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 unlikeable, absolutely god-awful in fact."^[4] Reportedly, Grade was dating Baker's ex-wife Liza Goddard around the time he had Baker fired.^[5]

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 remained in place until February 2008 before it moved to Five, and paid off at the time with audiences in excess of 15 million viewers for the new 5.35pm showings. It acted 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 accepted 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 satirical series Brass Eye. Grade repeatedly intervened to demand edits to episodes of Brass Eye, and rescheduled some shows for sensitivity (the 1997 series' final episode, which had been most tampered with, included a single-frame subliminal message reading "Grade is a cunt"). Grade left Channel 4 in 1997 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 (2nd stint)

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!"^[6]

On 19 September 2006, he became non-executive chairman of Ocado (the Waitrose food delivery company).

ITV plc

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 one of the companies which formed part of its commercial rival ITV, becoming Executive Chairman of ITV plc effective on 8 January 2007.

Under his jurisdiction ITV as a network, has been struggling with falling advertising and ratings. Mr Grade said his first priority within ITV plc would be to work as a senior partner of ITV Network Limited to improve ITV programming as well as improving its own Digital Channels ITV2,ITV3,ITV4 and CITV. On 12 September 2007, Grade announced a controversial five-year restructuring plan for ITV plc owned Regions^[4] targeting entertainment as the Broadcasters top priority to bring to ITV . A major overhaul of ITV Plc's regional structure was also proposed.^[7] The proposals would see consolidation of the ITV regional news programmes in England, 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 criticised by BECTU and The National Union of Journalists ^[7] . Any changes would be subject to full approval by Ofcom.

In March 2009, Grade initiated libel action against another television executive, Greg Dyke, and The Times newspaper over allegations of improper conduct made by Dyke about Grade, relating to his move from the BBC to ITV in 2006. The newspaper subsequently withdrew the allegations and published an apology, admitting that the allegations had no justification.^[8].

On 23 April 2009, Grade announced he would be stepping down as chief executive to become non-executive chairman at the conclusion of regulatory reviews into advertising contract rights and digital television before the end of 2009.^[1]

Personal life

Grade was created CBE in 1998, and is married to his third wife, Francesca; they have a son, Samuel. He was previously married to Penelope Jane Levinson, now the wife of writer and historian Sir Max Hastings, with whom he had two children, and Sarah Lawson, a producer. In 1998, his autobiography was published, entitled "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time". He is a Charlton Athletic fan.^[9]

References

External links

• bbc.co.uk Grade goes Commercial again
• ft.com Grade's letter to staff and BBC response from BBC release
• telegraph.co.uk Grade defects to ITV
• BBC News: Michael Grade is new BBC chairman
• BBC News: Michael Grade profile
• Michael Grade biography at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Michael Grade at the Internet Movie Database