Exclusive: Channel 4’s landmark documentary series about former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has been put on ice indefinitely.
Deadline understands The World According to Paul Dacre [working title] was derailed after filming was impacted due to Covid-19 delays and scheduling challenges. There is no suggestion the delay is due to editorial differences of opinion and a Channel 4 spokesman said the show has been “paused.”
The landmark from My Daughter’s Killer indie Rogan Productions was unveiled with fanfare three years ago and slated to launch in 2021.
Described as “telling the extraordinary story of how [Dacre] shaped the Mail as the voice of Middle England,” the former Editor was due to be interviewed extensively for the doc.
The show was an example of the way in which Channel 4 Chief Content Officer Ian Katz had set about ordering programs that negated accusations of left-wing bias directed at the commercial pubcaster.
Dacre is an...
Deadline understands The World According to Paul Dacre [working title] was derailed after filming was impacted due to Covid-19 delays and scheduling challenges. There is no suggestion the delay is due to editorial differences of opinion and a Channel 4 spokesman said the show has been “paused.”
The landmark from My Daughter’s Killer indie Rogan Productions was unveiled with fanfare three years ago and slated to launch in 2021.
Described as “telling the extraordinary story of how [Dacre] shaped the Mail as the voice of Middle England,” the former Editor was due to be interviewed extensively for the doc.
The show was an example of the way in which Channel 4 Chief Content Officer Ian Katz had set about ordering programs that negated accusations of left-wing bias directed at the commercial pubcaster.
Dacre is an...
- 12/15/2022
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Michael Grade may be one of the British television industry’s elder statesmen, but this does not necessarily make him the right person to lead the country’s TV regulator Ofcom, apparently.
Professor Jean Seaton, the BBC’s official historian, labelled the 79-year-old former producer turned TV executive “too old to be chair of Ofcom, too lazy to be chair of Ofcom, too many conflicts of interest” at a panel to discuss the BBC’s future, which took place at Hay Festival on Saturday.
The professor accused the government, which appointed Grade to the post, of “an enormous bullying attack,” saying there was “clearly an agenda” and the government was not interested in hearing alternative views.
The process for appointing a new Ofcom boss was particularly fraught, with Daily Mail boss Paul Dacre previously revealing he had applied for the role, then told he wasn’t suitable, then invited to reapply.
Professor Jean Seaton, the BBC’s official historian, labelled the 79-year-old former producer turned TV executive “too old to be chair of Ofcom, too lazy to be chair of Ofcom, too many conflicts of interest” at a panel to discuss the BBC’s future, which took place at Hay Festival on Saturday.
The professor accused the government, which appointed Grade to the post, of “an enormous bullying attack,” saying there was “clearly an agenda” and the government was not interested in hearing alternative views.
The process for appointing a new Ofcom boss was particularly fraught, with Daily Mail boss Paul Dacre previously revealing he had applied for the role, then told he wasn’t suitable, then invited to reapply.
- 6/3/2022
- by Caroline Frost
- Deadline Film + TV
British broadcasting heavyweight Michael Grade, who has overseen every major UK broadcaster, has been appointed Chair of media and broadcasting regulator Ofcom, bringing to an end an at-times controversial hiring process that has been running for more than a year.
Grade, a former BBC Controller and Chair, ITV Executive Chair and Channel 4 CEO who is also a Conservative Life Peer, will be recommended by the government’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, a formality that will be rubberstamped over the next few weeks at which point he will succeed interim chair Maggie Carver.
The 79-year-old is a British broadcasting heavyweight, well known in media circles, and his father Lew was an ITV Founder.
Grade and a consortium had also been linked to a takeover bid of Channel 4 if the network is privatized and he has been public with his criticism of the UK’s Public Service Broadcasting sector,...
Grade, a former BBC Controller and Chair, ITV Executive Chair and Channel 4 CEO who is also a Conservative Life Peer, will be recommended by the government’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, a formality that will be rubberstamped over the next few weeks at which point he will succeed interim chair Maggie Carver.
The 79-year-old is a British broadcasting heavyweight, well known in media circles, and his father Lew was an ITV Founder.
Grade and a consortium had also been linked to a takeover bid of Channel 4 if the network is privatized and he has been public with his criticism of the UK’s Public Service Broadcasting sector,...
- 3/25/2022
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
After a two-year search, U.K. media regulator Ofcom has finally found a new chair in Lord Michael Grade.
He will take over from former chair Terry Burns, who stepped down in 2020.
The decision to appoint Grade was taken by culture secretary Nadine Dorries. Grade will still have to undergo a pre-appointment hearing in front of members of parliament although this is likely to be just a formality.
The TV veteran’s career spans seven decades and the top job at three of the U.K.’s biggest broadcasters. He has held posts as managing director and chairman of the BBC, executive chairman of ITV and chief executive of Channel 4.
Controversially, Grade is also a Conservative peer in the House of Lords who is said to support the privatization of Channel 4 (despite having previously campaigned against it when he worked there) and has been vocal in support of freezing the BBC licence fee.
He will take over from former chair Terry Burns, who stepped down in 2020.
The decision to appoint Grade was taken by culture secretary Nadine Dorries. Grade will still have to undergo a pre-appointment hearing in front of members of parliament although this is likely to be just a formality.
The TV veteran’s career spans seven decades and the top job at three of the U.K.’s biggest broadcasters. He has held posts as managing director and chairman of the BBC, executive chairman of ITV and chief executive of Channel 4.
Controversially, Grade is also a Conservative peer in the House of Lords who is said to support the privatization of Channel 4 (despite having previously campaigned against it when he worked there) and has been vocal in support of freezing the BBC licence fee.
- 3/24/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
The BBC has responded to the story that’s the talk of the British TV industry: that the government is poised to appoint the right-wing Daily Telegraph columnist Charles Moore as the BBC’s next chairman.
The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that it was a “done deal” that Moore would get the top job, even though the government is yet to launch a formal recruitment process for the role.
The news shocked many industry watchers, given Moore has a history of being nakedly aggressive towards the BBC and was fined by a court in 2010 for failing to pay his licence fee.
A Very English Scandal actor Hugh Grant described the prospect of Moore at the BBC, and former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre becoming the new chair of Ofcom, as the nail in the coffin for Britain.
Giving evidence to British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee today,...
The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that it was a “done deal” that Moore would get the top job, even though the government is yet to launch a formal recruitment process for the role.
The news shocked many industry watchers, given Moore has a history of being nakedly aggressive towards the BBC and was fined by a court in 2010 for failing to pay his licence fee.
A Very English Scandal actor Hugh Grant described the prospect of Moore at the BBC, and former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre becoming the new chair of Ofcom, as the nail in the coffin for Britain.
Giving evidence to British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee today,...
- 9/29/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
“If we were making Amy, Senna and Maradona today, we would do six-hour versions.”
Amy producer James Gay-Rees is looking to land more multipart series as his Oscar-winning indie On The Corner steps up its push into TV.
Headed by producer Gay-Rees and director Asif Kapadia, On The Corner secured its first TV commission last year, for BBC1 doc series Stephen: The Murder That Changed A Nation – an exploration of the racially charged murder of Stephen Lawrence. The three-part series launches on 16 April.
Gay-Rees told (Screen’s sister publication) Broadcast that the series – which marks the 25th anniversary of the...
Amy producer James Gay-Rees is looking to land more multipart series as his Oscar-winning indie On The Corner steps up its push into TV.
Headed by producer Gay-Rees and director Asif Kapadia, On The Corner secured its first TV commission last year, for BBC1 doc series Stephen: The Murder That Changed A Nation – an exploration of the racially charged murder of Stephen Lawrence. The three-part series launches on 16 April.
Gay-Rees told (Screen’s sister publication) Broadcast that the series – which marks the 25th anniversary of the...
- 4/11/2018
- by Manori Ravindran Broadcast
- ScreenDaily
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