Alasdair Milne(1930-2013)
- Producer
- Director
- Editor
Alasdair Milne worked at the BBC for 34 years and rose through the
ranks to achieve the top job as Director-General.
He was educated at Winchester College and Oxford University. He joined
the BBC as a general trainee and worked on the current affairs series
Tonight (1957), the groundbreaking
satire
That Was the Week That Was (1962)
and The Great War (1964). He
later became Controller of BBC Scotland and in the 1970s he served as
BBC Director of Programmes and Managing Director of BBC Television.
During this period he banned the controversial
Dennis Potter play
Brimstone and Treacle (1976)
and oversaw the acclaimed Shakespeare productions on BBC Two.
In 1982 he replaced Ian Trethowan as
Director-General of the BBC. Milne's tenure lasted for five difficult
years which saw the BBC under increasing pressure from
Margaret Thatcher's government over
programmes such as the
Nationwide (1969) general election
special with the prime minister in 1983, in which she was questioned by
a member of the public over the sinking of the General Belgrano in the
Falklands War, the libel action brought by Conservative MPs regarding
the Panorama (1953) episode
"Maggie's Militant Tendency", broadcast in 1984, the Real Lives
interview with Martin McGuinness in
1985, the BBC's coverage of the United States' bombing of Libya and the
Secret Society programme about the Zircon spy satellite. In January
1987, Milne was forced to resign by the BBC's Board of Governors, which
brought an unhappy end to a long career at the BBC.
ranks to achieve the top job as Director-General.
He was educated at Winchester College and Oxford University. He joined
the BBC as a general trainee and worked on the current affairs series
Tonight (1957), the groundbreaking
satire
That Was the Week That Was (1962)
and The Great War (1964). He
later became Controller of BBC Scotland and in the 1970s he served as
BBC Director of Programmes and Managing Director of BBC Television.
During this period he banned the controversial
Dennis Potter play
Brimstone and Treacle (1976)
and oversaw the acclaimed Shakespeare productions on BBC Two.
In 1982 he replaced Ian Trethowan as
Director-General of the BBC. Milne's tenure lasted for five difficult
years which saw the BBC under increasing pressure from
Margaret Thatcher's government over
programmes such as the
Nationwide (1969) general election
special with the prime minister in 1983, in which she was questioned by
a member of the public over the sinking of the General Belgrano in the
Falklands War, the libel action brought by Conservative MPs regarding
the Panorama (1953) episode
"Maggie's Militant Tendency", broadcast in 1984, the Real Lives
interview with Martin McGuinness in
1985, the BBC's coverage of the United States' bombing of Libya and the
Secret Society programme about the Zircon spy satellite. In January
1987, Milne was forced to resign by the BBC's Board of Governors, which
brought an unhappy end to a long career at the BBC.