The Lord Birt | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 11 February 2000 Life peerage | |
| 12thDirector-General of the BBC | |
| In office 1992–2000 | |
| Preceded by | Michael Checkland |
| Succeeded by | Greg Dyke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1944-12-10)10 December 1944 (age 80) Liverpool, England |
| Political party | Crossbench |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Jane Lake; (2) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | St Mary's College, Crosby |
| Alma mater | St Catherine's College, Oxford |
John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a formerDirector-General (1992–2000) of theBBC.
After a successful career in commercial television, initially atGranada Television and later atLondon Weekend Television, Birt was appointed Deputy Director-General of the BBC in 1987 for his expertise incurrent affairs. The forced departure of Director-GeneralAlasdair Milne after pressure from theThatcher government[1] required someone near the top, preferably from outside the BBC, with editorial and production experience (Milne had been summarily replaced byMichael Checkland, anaccountant).
During his tenure as Director-General, Birt restructured the BBC, in the face of much internal opposition. However, others have credited him with saving the corporation from possible government privatisation, and say he prepared for the era ofdigital broadcasting. After leaving the BBC, Birt was Strategic Advisor to Prime MinisterTony Blair from 2001 to 2005. He was appointed Chairman of CPA Global in 2015.
Birt was born inLiverpool to aCatholic father, a manager at theFirestone tyre company, and aProtestant mother. He was raised as a Catholic, and educated at thedirect-grant grammar school St. Mary's College, Crosby, near Liverpool and readengineering atSt Catherine's College, Oxford, graduating fromOxford University with athird-class degree in engineering.
From 1966 to 1971, Birt worked forGranada Television, where he devised and produced the magazine programmeNice Time before joining Granada'sWorld in Action current affairs series. Birt persuadedMick Jagger, who had just spent three nights in Brixton prison for possession of drugs, to participate in a 1967 edition ofWorld in Action in which Jagger conversed with the editor ofThe Times (William Rees-Mogg) and theBishop of Woolwich (John A. T. Robinson), among others. It was hailed as a "dialogue between generations."[2] WithGus Macdonald, Birt became joint editor ofWorld in Action in 1969.
Birt moved from Granada toLondon Weekend Television in 1971. At LWT he was the founding editor and executive producer of the current affairs programmeWeekend World. He became head of current affairs at LWT and, later, controller of features and current affairs. WithWeekend World presenterPeter Jay, Birt contributed a series of three articles toThe Times on the topic of television journalism. They argued that most television news and current affairs contained a "bias against understanding": pictures had taken precedence over analysis. Instead they advocated "a mission to explain". Makers of news and documentary programmes were required to outline their finished product in writing before setting out with a camera crew. Such an argument, was not universally accepted. Years later, in 2006,Alasdair Milne, the former BBC Director-General, said he thought Birt's "bias against understanding" argument was nonsense.[3]
In the mid-1970s, he took a break from LWT to produceDavid Frost'sThe Nixon Interviews with the disgraced former US PresidentRichard Nixon. In the 1977 interviews, watched by 45 million people, Nixon admitted his part in the scandal which had led to his resignation.[4]
Birt returned to LWT as director of programmes in 1982. During this period he revived the career of his old friend, the Liverpool singerCilla Black, who in due course became the highest-paid female performer on UK television. Birt formed a close working relationship with his boss at LWT,Michael Grade, although this would later sour when both were working at the BBC.[5]
Birt's success at LWT prompted the BBC's governors to appoint him Deputy Director-General in 1987 underMichael Checkland. Birt also served as the BBC's director of news and current affairs at this time.
Birt's promotion to Director-General in 1992 caused controversy when it was revealed he was employed on a freelance consultancy basis. Under political and public pressure, Birt became a BBC employee. He had to sell hisshares inLWT, losing out on a windfall of what would have been several million pounds when it was bought byGranada in 1994.The Sunday Times later revealed that Birt had been a member of theLabour Party at the time of his appointment, a concern to Conservatives who had already expressed concerns about allegedleft-wing bias at the organisation.[6]
As Director-General, Birt was tasked with securing the BBC's future at a time of rapid technical, cultural and economic changes in world broadcasting.[7] In seven years, Birt restructured and modernised the corporation which he wanted to make "the best managed public sector organisation".[5] Birt imposed a policy of radical change to deliver efficiency savings. In April 1993 he introduced Producer Choice, giving programme makers the power to buy services from outside the BBC. This theoretically reduced the cost to licence-payers of the BBC's historic resource base. Faced with high rental fees from the BBC's record library, producers found it cheaper to buy records from local record shops. In-house facilities were closed or stood idle, allegedly as a result of Birt's "creative accounting" methods.
Above all, Birt is credited with preparing the organisation for the new landscape shaped by digitalisation – preparations that were "far in advance of the BBC's terrestrial rivals", according to the academicGeorgina Born. At the 1996 Edinburgh Television Festival, Birt said that without the resources to prepare for the digital age, the BBC would be "history".[8][9] Birt asserted that the changes made the BBC more agile, more competitive and allowed it to expand beyond its traditional broadcasting services, but remaining licence-fee funded. He was one of the driving forces behind the launch of continuous news output and he took much money from traditional services to fund the 24-hour news channel and advance on the internet. However, such ventures were criticised by many as being clearly detrimental to BBC core programming.[10]
Birt has argued that without his changes,[11] the BBC's operating charter might not have been renewed in the 1990s. Birt's advocates include the journalistsJohn Lloyd,John Simpson andPolly Toynbee.[12] Birt's use of impenetrablejargon became known as "Birtspeak", a phenomenon mocked in the satirical magazinePrivate Eye, complete with a miniatureDalek caricature of Birt. The comparison originated from playwrightDennis Potter, who labeled Birt a "croak-voiced Dalek" in his MacTaggart Lecture delivered in August 1993 at theEdinburgh International Television Festival.[13] The BBC's post-production department made aChristmas tape casting Birt asDavros, the head of the Daleks,[14] which was alluded to many years later on a BBC DVD commentary forGenesis of the Daleks by former directorDavid Maloney.[15] JournalistMark Lawson wrote at the time that Potter's "tendency towards unfocused vitriol and noisy self-examination made his contribution easily swattable by the BBC's damage controllers".[16] Birt himself did not agree with his critics' portrait of the BBC of the time, but did allow that drama was a source of concern. "The originality is not there as it was in the Sixties", he said.[17]
One of Birt's predecessors, Alasdair Milne, said Birt did little good for the BBC apart from establishing its internet service and criticised him for paying consultants large fees for the corporation's restructuring.[3] Many others opposed Birt, his methods and his reforms, including the journalistsJohn Tusa,Mark Tully andCharles Wheeler, and news correspondentKate Adie.[18][19] Radio broadcasterJohn Dunn believed morale was bad under Birt, whileDavid Attenborough commented that producers spend too much time worrying about money as a result of Birt's reforms.[20][21]
Birt's arrival at the BBC hastened the departure of executiveBill Cotton, who described his tenure as a "nightmare" for the BBC.[22]Marmaduke Hussey, who appointed Birt to his BBC role, later claimed to have regrets.[23] Some of Birt's changes were partially dismantled by his successorsGreg Dyke andMark Thompson. However, producerTony Garnett claimed in 2009 that Birt's legacy of "totalitarian micro management" has existed at the BBC ever since.[24]
In 1998, Birt imposed a ban on BBC output mentioning the private life ofPeter Mandelson.[25] This order followed an edition ofNewsnight, during whichMatthew Parris had said that Mandelson was homosexual.[25]Peter Ainsworth, the Conservative shadow Culture Secretary, questioned whether this was a generic ban on mentioning private issues or specific to Mandelson.[25]
Birt was succeeded as Director-General byGreg Dyke who also had ties to the Labour Party.[26]
Birt was brought into Number 10 to lead the development of long-term strategy for the government on key areas of public policy.Tony Blair asked him to produce a report on solutions to crime, and he served as advisor on Criminal Justice from 2000 to 2001. The establishment of a Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) was an idea originally conceived by Birt.[27]
Birt was made unpaid Strategy Adviser to Blair in 2001, appointed for what was termed "blue skies thinking" and claimed by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to be "worth every penny";[28][29] Blair wanted advice from outside the traditional Whitehall mindset – he had known Birt since the 1980s and approved of his analytical approach. Jeremy Heywood, Blair's principal private secretary, said: "He liked the way that John was willing to get right down into the data and understand the evidence, and come up with a real sense that you could do things in a totally different way."[27] Birt supervised the development of long-term strategy on drugs, health, crime reduction, education, transport and London. His 2004 report on drug policy recommended making heroin use a criminal offence on par with possession.[30]
However, Birt's recommendations made him unpopular with some ministers and Blair's decision to ask Birt for a "private" report on crime irritatedJack Straw and theHome Office.[31] In 2002, he proposed a second network of motorways operated astolls to counter the problems of traffic congestion.[32]
Many saw Birt's role in government as controversial, since as a special advisor, rather than a civil servant, he was not formally obliged to face questions fromHouse of Commonsselect committees. In October 2002 it emerged that the government had specifically asked him not to appear in front of the transport select committee, at a time when he was in charge of long-term transport strategy.
Blair asked Birt to help him define his main domestic policy priorities so he could develop precise plans for the period after the 2005 election. Birt had first proposed the idea of the "five-year plans" in 2003 and was now responsible for overseeing the Third Term Plan. This included the overall policy programme, machinery of government changes and the legislative timetable. A special project team to develop the third term was led by Birt and Turnbull and reported regularly to the prime minister. Birt's team produced detailed proposals with a precise grid on how to implement policy.
Concurrently, Birt served as an advisor atMcKinsey & Company's Global Media Practice from 2000 to 2005. His relationship with government and McKinsey caused some controversy as McKinsey were increasingly working with UK government departments in a range of public service and defence areas.[33] Birt remained at Number 10 as an unpaid adviser until December 2005, when he left to join private equity firmTerra Firma Capital Partners as an adviser.
TheFinancial Times reported at the beginning of July 2005 that Birt's office ceiling at10 Downing Street had fallen in. However, Birt was not injured.[34]
From 2006 to 2010, he was an adviser for consulting firmCapgemini on strategic issues, with a focus on the public sector and its Telecom, Media and Entertainment practice.[35] Birt served as chairman of Lynx New Media (subsequently Lynx Capital Ventures) from 2000 to 2004. He was chairman ofWaste Recycling Group and subsequently non-executive director ofInfinis, a generator of renewable power. He also served chairman of Maltby Capital from 2007 to 2010.[36]
Birt was chairman ofPayPal Europe between 2010 and 2014, having joined the board in 2004. He later served periods as chairman ofHost Europe Group (2013–2017) and CPA Global (2015–2017).[37]
He is currently Vice-Chairman ofEutelsat, having joined the board as an independent director in 2006.[38]
Birt received an Emmy in 1995, for his "outstanding contribution" to international television.[39]
Birt was awarded aknighthood,[40] and on 11 February 2000 he was created alife peer asBaron Birt, ofLiverpool in the County ofMerseyside.[41] He took his seat in the House of Lords in March 2000 as acrossbencher.
Birt is an active cross-bencher in the House of Lords, speaking out in 2011 and 2012 in favour of government's proposed Health and Social Care Bill.[42] Birt's special interests include the Media/ Broadcasting/ Communications Industry, Climate Change/ Environment, Criminal Justice and Education[43]
In 2013 Birt voiced his opinion to the House of Lords on the Gay Marriage bill stating "this bill goes the whole hog and rightly allows gay couples, if they wish, to make the powerful statements of love and commitment that marriage proclaims. If gay couples want that option, they should have it."[44]
In 2014 Birt showed his support for the assisted dying legislation, in the House of Lords debate, in which participants were evenly split.[45] Before the 2014 Scottish referendum, Bird argued that Scottish independence would have a devastating impact on the BBC.[46] In 2015, he led criticism of the decision for the BBC to start funding TV licences for over-75s, calling it a "deeply shocking announcement".[47]
Returning to his earlier career on 26 August 2005, Birt delivered his second MacTaggart lecture at theEdinburgh International Television Festival. Partly a review of his professional life as a broadcaster, he also criticised the "tabloidisation" of intellectual concerns. He argued thatChannel 4 should receive financial help, in order to preserve "public service broadcasting", which was taken as advocacy of the BBC sharing itslicence fee with Channel Four, so called "top slicing". He also mentioned that his long-standing feud withMichael Grade had been resolved, but the speech as a whole was not admired by many figures in the industry.[48]
Following Director-GeneralGeorge Entwistle's resignation in November 2012,James Purnell argued that the new Director-General "should learn from the Birt era" stating that it was Birt's "boldness" that saved the BBC. Instead of playing it safe and avoiding mistakes, he said, Birt transformed output and embraced the internet, and rebuilt relationships with government, business and the public.[49] Media commentatorSteve Hewlett, Birt's former colleague and friend, suggested in 2012 that it might be time for the BBC "to bring in Birt 2.0". Hewlett acknowledged that many of Birt's reforms were unpopular, but said that without them, "it is questionable whether the BBC would exist in anything like its present capable and competitive form, or indeed would have retained the huge affection of audiences".[50]
Birt is portrayed byMatthew Macfadyen inFrost/Nixon (film).Birt is portrayed byNicholas Gleaves in the fifth season of The Crown.
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| Preceded by | Director-General of the BBC 1992–2000 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Birt | Followed by |
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