MBS Events
Michael Grade – Entertainer in Chief
In conversation with Ray Snoddy, Media Editor, The Times
Thu November 22, 2001
| Century, London
“…then they hit us with a breach of contract suit, an Office of Fair Trading inquiry and contravention of the Treaty of Rome”. Michael Grade has always known how to make an impression. Twenty-two years on from the legal wrangle over LWT’s ‘Snatch of the Day’ that first propelled him firmly into the public eye, Grade lines up four large cigars as he eyes Ray Snoddy, his wily inquisitor.
From behind Grade’s showman exterior emerges a man who cares deeply about the future of public service broadcasting. “It’s not about individual programmes; in the end, it’s the range of programmes that matters.” Grade is almost embarrassed to say “this sounds pretentious and sentimental, but I felt my calling was public service broadcasting and I really enjoyed it”.
A stint running an American production company in the early 1980s convinced Grade that a true public service broadcaster can never be forced to compete for revenue. “We had a new sitcom airing on NBC and I was sitting at home in LA, watching it with friends and the writers. During the second commercial break, the telephone rings – it’s the head of NBC, the late Brandon Tartikoff. He says, "Michael, we’re in trouble. I’ve just got the overnights from New York… we need to have a meeting, we need to fix the show, I’ve got to move it – and the show has not even finished airing in Los Angeles yet.” That was why Grade took the "biggest pay cut in history” to come back home as Controller of BBC One.
But it was taking the Chief Executive’s post at Channel 4 that Grade says was the best decision he ever made. Following the appointment, Jeremy Isaacs famously threatened to “come round and ring the bastard’s neck if he damages my baby.” Looking back, Grade’s view is that he shook the channel up into a professional operation: “There were some incredibly wonderful programmes that Jeremy created – the Tube, Max Headroom, Film 4, Channel 4 news. But the crap that filled the rest of the schedules…” Any specific examples? “All that Polish animation! I’ve got nothing against Polish animation but at eight o’clock in the evening on a commercial channel? It was wild – it was too erratic and we had to lose our amateur status and become professional about broadcasting.”
On the hot issue of privatising Channel 4, Grade remains vehement. “Absolutely not,” he barks, “under no circumstances.” Grade takes us to the first board meeting of Channel 4 plc: “The Sales Director is under pressure from the board. He says “I’ve done the figures. I could get another £6m to the bottom line. I just need to run a movie at seven o’clock and get rid of Channel 4 news.” Ray Snoddy stops him mid-puff: “if I were head of OfCom, I wouldn’t let you do that” – in the audience, the Director General of OfTel raises an eyebrow – “I’ll make damn sure there’ll be one hour of the highest quality news as a condition of your licence.” But Grade says that would turn the regulator into the scheduler. “There is no question you could have a privatised Channel 4 and the Treasury would have a major hit. But it would not be the Channel 4 that you see today It would be nearer to Sky One and Channel 5 – but without the quality”.
And the dream job for the man who has done everything? “ Conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra?”, he muses, “but that’s just a fantasy… I genuinely would have liked to have been Chairman of the BBC. Only because I passionately believe in the BBC as one of the great cultural ideas of the Twentieth Century. I’d have loved to have been part of it in a more meaningful way than I was as a transient channel controller for a few years.” For someone who has always had the drive to fulfil his dreams, we can only wait and see…
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