Alasdair Milne

Alasdair David Gordon Milne (8 October 1930 – 8 January 2013) was a British television producer and executive. He had a long career at the BBC, where he was eventually promoted to Director-General, and was described by The Independent as "one of the most original and talented programme-makers to emerge during television's formative years".[1]

Not to be confused with Alistair Milne.
Alasdair Milne
Director-General of the BBC
In office
1982–1987
Preceded bySir Ian Trethowan
Succeeded byMichael Checkland
Personal details
Born(1930-10-08)8 October 1930
India
Died8 January 2013(2013-01-08) (aged 82)
NationalityBritish
Spouse(s)
Sheila Kirsten Graucob
​
​
(m. 1954; died 1992)​
Children3, including Seamus and Kirsty
EducationWinchester College
Alma materNew College, Oxford
OccupationTelevision producer and controller

In his early career, Milne was a BBC producer and was involved in founding the current affairs series Tonight in 1957. Later, after a period outside the BBC, he became controller of BBC Scotland and BBC Television's director of programmes.[2] He served as Director-General of the BBC between July 1982 and January 1987, when he was forced to resign from his post by the BBC Governors following several difficult years for the BBC, which included sustained pressure from the Thatcher government about editorial decisions which had proved controversial.[2]

Early life

Born in India to an Aberdonian doctor, who worked as a surgeon in India, and his wife, the daughter of a headmaster of George Heriot's School, Edinburgh.[3][4] He would spend the first six years living with his maternal grandparents in Morningside, Edinburgh, until his father returned and they moved to Kent. He would go onto to study at Winchester College and New College, Oxford.[2]

Career

Before going to university Milne did his National Service as an officer in the Gordon Highlanders. He joined the BBC in September 1954 as a graduate trainee after his wife spotted a BBC advertisement.[5] He was taken under the wing of Grace Wyndham Goldie who recruited, trained, guided and encouraged many well-known BBC broadcasters and current affairs executives. Milne was one of the so-called "Goldie Boys", a group of producers and presenters, which included Huw Wheldon, Robin Day, David Frost, Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan and Richard Dimbleby.

Milne was the first television producer to become Director-General.[6] His background was in current affairs and he was a founder producer of Tonight, and became the programme's editor in 1961. He also worked on programmes such as That Was The Week That Was, one of the most controversial programmes of the 1960s, and The Great War. He was instrumental in bringing the entire Shakespeare canon to television, as well as one of the BBC's most acute comedies, Yes, Minister.[7] He would also set up BBC Scotland, when as the appointed controller in January 1968, he decided to change the lettering on the front of the building from 'BBC' to 'BBC Scotland'.[8] According to The Herald:

"He campaigned for BBC Scotland to make programmes reflecting Scottish values and culture, believing in its obligation to support the Gaelic language"[9]

Landmark broadcasting events during his time as Director-General included Live Aid, the massive music event precipitated by a BBC news report on famine in Africa. The BBC's new Breakfast Time programme went on air on 17 January 1983, presented by Frank Bough and former ITN newscaster Selina Scott. Milne was full of praise for the show, saying: "It was a terrific start. The first Tonight programme was not as good as this."[10]

As Director-General, Milne was involved with a series of controversies with the British government. Contentious programme-making included the Nationwide general election special with Margaret Thatcher in 1983, the coverage of the miners' strike of 1984–85, the Real Lives fracas,[lower-alpha 1][11] the Panorama libel action,[lower-alpha 2] the reporting of the U.S. bombing of Libya and the controversy surrounding the programme Secret Society which took place in light of MI5's vetting of BBC employees.[12]

On top of this, Milne had to defend the existence of the BBC to the Peacock Committee, which was considering the future of the BBC. Milne defended the television licence thus:

"The licence fee itself has some flaws of which we have been aware for many years, but whose virtues greatly outstrip its flaws. The licence fee is a form of hypothecated tax and, yes, it is regressive and burdens old age pensioners (who amount to one-third of all licence fee holders and who are the heaviest users of the available service), it is compulsory and, paid as a single annual payment, amounts to a good deal of money. On the other hand, it does amount to the best bargain in Britain, a slogan which is truer than any single advertising claim I can think of: it is by far the cheapest form of paying for a high standard of broadcasting."[13]

The licence fee survived the negotiations, and the BBC made an expensive and failed attempt to enter satellite broadcasting.[5]

Resignation

In September 1986, Marmaduke Hussey was appointed chairman of the BBC Governors.[14] Perceived as being Margaret Thatcher's "hatchet man", he was accused of having been appointed because of her perception that the corporation was biased towards the left.[15] In an unprecedented step, Hussey convinced the Board of Governors that a change of direction was needed, and they forced Milne's resignation.[16]

Milne wrote:

"Patricia Hodgson, the Secretary, asked me if I would go and see the chairman. I thought it odd that she addressed me by my Christian name; everybody else did, but for some reason she had never done so before. When I walked into Hussey's office, Barnett and he were both there. I remember the blinds were drawn against the sun which was brilliant that morning. Hussey's lip trembled as he said: 'I am afraid this is going to be a very unpleasant interview. We want you to leave immediately. It's a unanimous decision of the Board."[17]

Milne, who later described the governors as a "bunch of amateurs",[6] resigned in January 1987.[14] The New York Times reported on 30 January 1987, "Mr. Milne, who became director general in 1982, resigned during a meeting of the board of governors and left without issuing a statement. The BBC said his deputy, Michael Checkland, had taken over temporarily."[18]

Post-resignation comments about the BBC

Milne was strongly critical of later BBC Director-General John Birt whom he called "blue skies Birt". Milne described Birt's thesis on television's so-called 'bias against understanding' as "balls, actually", and said:

"[Birt is] the most graceless man I have ever known. Ghastly man".[19]

In October 2004, stories were published implying that he had suggested that alleged dumbing down of the BBC was partly the consequence of the corporation's growing number of female executives:

"Too many dumb, dumb, dumb cookery and gardening shows... I have nothing against women. I've worked with them all my life. It just seems to me that the television service has largely been run by women for the last four to five years and they don't seem to have done a great job of work."[20][21]

Milne later clarified his position:

"What I actually said was that the three people who had run the television service for the past four or five years had not, it seemed to me, done a marvellous job. I would have said the same if they had been mice or men. They happened to be women and then I was stitched up by The Times."[22]

In 2006, at a private gathering at the Royal Television Society, Milne, when asked about Marmaduke Hussey, who fired him, said: "What can I say about Hussey? Not a lot." In his own career he was proudest of programmes such as Tonight, That Was the Week That Was and the historical series The Great War. He had thought he would find something else to do [after resigning in 1987] but it never happened. "So I decided to go and spend the summer fishing and the winter shooting in beloved Scotland and wrap up that end of my life," he said.[23]

Personal life

He married Sheila Kirsten Graucob in 1954, who was of Danish and Irish ancestry; she died in 1992.[2][24] The couple had two sons, Ruairidh and Seumas and a daughter, Kirsty[6] (who died in July 2013).[25]

Death

Milne died on 8 January 2013 at age 82 after suffering from a series of strokes.[6] His obituary in The Guardian noted "...Yet his term as director general ended prematurely, in January 1987, when he resigned to avoid the ignominy of being sacked. The ostensible cause was a succession of public gaffes by the BBC in 1985-86, plus a costly out-of-court libel settlement over a 1984 edition of Panorama, all of which Tory ministers, the Times, the Daily Mail and others were able to exploit."[26] The BBC noted "Milne's time as director general was marked by clashes with Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government" adding "...he strongly defended the BBC's independence and it flourished creatively, with the launch of breakfast television, Newsnight and EastEnders, and the Live Aid concert broadcast."[27]

The Independent remarked "Alasdair Milne is destined to be remembered for the brutal manner of his dismissal as Director-General of the BBC in 1987, during Margaret Thatcher's drive to purge the corporation of what she saw as its indiscipline, extravagance, irresponsibility and anti-Conservative bias." noting his contributions "...In 1962 Milne and [Donald] Baverstock were involved in another ground-breaking experiment. With Ned Sherrin they created That Was The Week That Was, the BBC's first attempt at regular political satire. "[28]

Variety observed "From the moment Milne was appointed as the pubcaster's [A publicly owned broadcasting station or network] director general in 1981, he had to battle to defend its editorial independence. At the time, the UK was engaged in a war with Argentina, and government supporters felt the BBC should support the "home" team rather than report on the conflict from a neutral perspective."[29]

See also

Footnotes
  1. The Real Lives episode "At the Edge of the Union" included an interview with Martin McGuiness, and Milne and the BBC Governors initially prevented it from being broadcast following government complaints. It was eventually shown in October 1985.
  2. On 30 January 1984, Panorama broadcast "Maggie's Militant Tendency". Neil Hamilton sued for libel, the BBC settled out of court.

References
  1. Leapman, Michael (10 January 2013). "Alasdair Milne: BBC executive who rose to Director-General but was sacked under pressure from Mrs Thatcher". The Independent. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  2. "Alasdair Milne". The Daily Telegraph. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  3. "Alasdair Milne". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Philip Purser Obituary: Alasdair Milne, The Guardian, 9 January 2013
  6. Dan Sabbagh "Alasdair Milne, former BBC director general, dies aged 82", The Guardian, 9 January 2013
  7. "Alasdair Milne – Obituaries – The Stage". 1 February 2013.
  8. "Putting the Scottish voice into BBC Scotland". IPPR. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  9. "Alasdair Milne". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  10. "1983: BBC wakes up to morning TV". BBC News. 17 January 1983. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  11. "Real Lives". www.bbc.com.
  12. Hastings, Chris (2 July 2006). "Revealed: how the BBC used MI5 to vet thousands of staff". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  13. James McDonnell Public Service Broadcasting: A Reader, 1991, Routledge.
  14. Maggie Brown "How BBC director general Alasdair Milne was hustled out by Hussey", The Guardian, 10 January 2013
  15. Caroline Davies "Hussey, the man behind BBC shake-up, dies", The Daily Telegraph, 28 December 2006
  16. "BBC – Press Office – Director-Generals".
  17. DG: The Memoirs of a British Broadcaster. p. 201.
  18. "HEAD OF BBC QUITS, ENDING STORMY TENURE (Published 1987)". The New York Times. AP. 30 January 1987. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  19. Snoddy, Raymond (9 January 2006). "Knives are out for the BBC bosses". The Independent. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  20. Gibson, Owen (8 October 2004). "Former director general blames BBC women for 'dumb' shows". The Guardian.
  21. "Ex-BBC boss slates 'dumb' shows". BBC News. 8 October 2004. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  22. "The wrath of Alasdair Milne".
  23. "Knives are out for the BBC bosses". The Independent. 9 January 2006. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  24. Wilby, Peter (16 April 2016). "The Thin Controller". New Statesman. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  25. Iain Martin "Obituary: Kirsty Milne, journalist and academic", The Scotsman, 16 July 2013
  26. Purser, Philip (9 January 2013). "Alasdair Milne obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  27. "Obituary: Alasdair Milne". BBC News. 9 January 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  28. "Alasdair Milne: BBC executive who rose to Director-General but was". The Independent. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  29. Barraclough, Leo (9 January 2013). "Former BBC chief Alasdair Milne dies". Variety. Retrieved 22 November 2020.

Publications
  • DG: The Memoirs of a British Broadcaster, 1988.
Media offices
Preceded by
Ian Trethowan		 Director-General of the BBC
1982–1987		 Succeeded by
Michael Checkland
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