Paul Fox

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Sir Paul Fox, CBE, (born in 1925) is a British television executive, who spent much of his broadcasting career working for BBC Television, most prominently as the Controller of BBC One between 1967 and 1973.

He began his career at the Corporation in the 1950s, writing scripts for the Television Newsreel programme before going on to create and edit the popular sports programme Sportsview. While editing Sportsview, in 1954 he hit upon the idea of creating the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, a glittering ceremony which is still held every December by the Corporation and seen as one of the major events in UK sport.

By the early 1960s he had been promoted to Head of Public Affairs at BBC Television, and in this role was heavily involved in the news coverage of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the subsequent reaction to the events in the UK.

In 1967 he became the Controller of BBC One, the oldest television station in the UK, and he was to hold this post for six years, one of the longest reigns of any BBC Channel Controller. His achievements in the role included the launch of the enduring Dad's Army and overseeing the transition of BBC One into colour in 1969. He also commissioned a successful new colour era of Doctor Who for broadcast in 1970, The Two Ronnies and the Parkinson (TV series) talk show in 1971.

He was later the Managing Director of Yorkshire Television (YTV), during which he was quite vocal in his disapproval of the poaching of Dallas from the BBC by fellow ITV contractor Thames Television. This permanently soured his relationship with Thames executive Bryan Cowgill, who had been a former colleague at the BBC. Whilst at YTV he was prominent in representing the managerial view in the industrial dispute between members of the trade union the ACTT and the ITV companies, which blacked out the network for three months in 1979. He was Chairman of ITN from 1986 to 1988 and later Managing Director of BBC Network Television. He has subsequently been knighted, and is thus now Sir Paul Fox.

References

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