Catherine Freeman (née Dove, 10 August 1931 – 15 July 2020) was a British TV producer for shows including ''Panorama''.

Life

Freeman was born in

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

. Her husband returned to the UK and became a producer on the fledgling current affairs series ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

'' in 1956. As part of ''Panorama''s team, her husband travelled to Hungary to cover what would become known as the Hungarian Uprising. Taking ''Panorama's'' camera into the country, he filmed the jubilant Hungarian reaction to the rebellion. He and Catherine had to persuade the BBC to give the story prominence. Just hours after Wheeler returned to Britain, Russia re-entered Hungary and crushed the revolt. In 1957 she was involved in the BBC April Fools scam where the programme reported on the spaghetti harvest showing the workers picking the spaghetti from the trees where it grew. She took the credit for that and ''Panorama'' pushed back other boundaries when it transmitted the first British pictures of a baby being born and the word "fuck" being used. In 1962 she remarried to a former member of parliament, John Freeman. He was honoured in 1965 to be chosen as the High Commissioner to India by

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

's government. He went on to be the British Ambassador to the United States. Freeman gave up television and became a renowned host in New Delhi where she and John had three children. She toured during the Bihar Drought in 1967 writing a report for the UK government. Having seen the results of the drought, she raised funds to build wells. Freeman met many important people, taking a dislike to

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. In 1976 she returned to her television career after she and John Freeman divorced. She went not to the BBC but to

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

becoming in time the controller of documentaries. At the

Channel Four Television Corporation Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned media company headquartered in London. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4. The company was founded in 1982 as the Channel Four T ...

she obtained their backing for a programme that would follow children from their birth to the age of majority which was titled Citizen 2000. She later served on committees of the Arts council.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Catherine British television producers 1931 births 2020 deaths People from Penang