Daniel Nicholas Cohen (born 15 January 1974) is a British television executive who currently serves as President of Access Entertainment which invests in film, television and digital companies and content. He was previously the
Director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
of
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
from 2013 to 2015.
["Danny Cohen named as new BBC director of television"](_blank)
BBC News, 23 April 2013 Before that, he was the Controller of
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
for three years, the BBC's principal television channel in the United Kingdom and the youngest person to be appointed as controller of the channel. During his time at the BBC, he commissioned programmes such as
''Poldark'', ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'', ''
Strictly Come Dancing
''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...
'', ''
EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...
'' and ''
The Graham Norton Show
''The Graham Norton Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton s ...
'', and led BBC One's coverage of the
2012 London Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
.
Education
Cohen was born in
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
, the son of middle-class
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
intellectuals. He attended a local Jewish primary school in north London, followed by the
City of London School
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Boys' independent day school
, president =
, head_label = Headmaster
, head = Alan Bird
, chair_label = Chair of Governors
, chair = Ian Seaton
, founder = John Carpenter
, speciali ...
, an independent school for boys in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
.
Cohen read English at
Lady Margaret Hall
Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, from which he graduated with a Double First in English Literature.
Career
Channel 4
Between 2000 and 2007, Cohen worked at
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
and its youth service
E4. His roles there included Head of Documentaries for Channel 4 and Head of E4.
Cohen's television commissions in this period included ''
Skins'', ''
The Inbetweeners
''The Inbetweeners'' is a British coming-of-age television teen sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 until 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager ...
'', ''
Fonejacker
''Fonejacker'' is a British comedy programme broadcast on E4 featuring a series of prank calls involving a number of different characters performed by British Iranian television actor Kayvan Novak. It first appeared in May 2006 and became a fu ...
'',
''Supernann''y and the documentary strand ''
Cutting Edge''.
Controller of BBC Three
Between May 2007 and October 2010, Cohen was the Controller of
BBC Three
BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...
. During his tenureship of BBC Three, the channel increased its share of 16-34-year-old viewers by 58% and won Digital Channel of the Year at the Edinburgh International TV Festival in two out of three years – 2008 and 2010. His BBC Three commissions included Our War, the BAFTA nominated ''
Blood, Sweat and T-shirts
''Blood, Sweat and T-shirts'' is a British TV documentary series, broadcast in 2008 on BBC Three.
The series followed six British fashion consumers aged between 20 and 24 as they travelled to India to live and work alongside Indian garment wor ...
'' and follow-up series ''Blood, Sweat and Takeaways'', ''The Undercover Princes'', ''
Britain's Missing Top Model
''Britain's Missing Top Model'' is a British Reality TV modelling show for disabled women, aired on BBC Three. The premiere episode aired on 1 July 2008. The show courted controversy, with many arguing that the show made disability a spectat ...
'', ''The World's Strictest Parents'', ''The Adult Season'', ''Russell Howard's Good News'', ''Young Voter's Question Time'', ''
Stacey Dooley Investigates'', ''
Lip Service
Lip service may refer to:
Idiom
* Lip service, an idiom for insincere talk
Film
* ''Lip Service'' (1988 film), an American comedy TV film
Television
* ''Lip Service'' (TV series), a 2010 dramatic series broadcast on BBC Three
* ''Lip Serv ...
'', ''
Lee Nelson's Well Good Show
''Lee Nelson's Well Good Show'' is a British comedy sketch show, written and presented by Simon Brodkin and produced by Avalon Television for BBC Three. It featured Brodkin hosting a studio based show as his comedy character Lee Nelson, a happy- ...
'', ''
Being Human''.
Alongside these commissions, he also acquired ''
Summer Heights High
''Summer Heights High'' is an Australian mockumentary television sitcom written by and starring Chris Lilley. Set in the fictional Summer Heights High School in an outer suburb of Sydney (based on Summer Hill), it is revolves around high scho ...
'' from Australia and built a strong following for US animation ''
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...
''. He also revamped the hourly bulletins ''
60 Seconds
''60 Seconds'' is a short-news programme which ran between shows on BBC Three (and before that BBC Choice). It was broadcast under the BBC News format and branding. The presenters included Tasmin Lucia-Khan, Andy May, Matt Cooke, James Dagwel ...
'' adding a World News update.
In February 2008, ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' newspaper described Cohen as "the boy wonder of British television". In January 2009, the Royal Television Society's magazine ''Television'' wrote an article about Cohen which posed the question of whether "the 34-year-old wunderkind" would be Director General of the BBC by his early forties.
Controller of BBC One
As Controller of BBC One between 2010 and 2013, Cohen's commissions included: ''Call The Midwife'', ''Happy Valley'', ''Car-Share'', ''Poldark'', ''The Casual Vacancy'', ''The Voice'', ''Last Tango in Halifax'', ''Eat Well For Less'', ''The Missing'' and the forthcoming ''Dickensian'' and ''War and Peace''.
In 2012, BBC One had a record-breaking year with its largest ever growth in peak audience share and its first all-hours audience share growth on record.
Director of BBC Television
In May 2013, Cohen became Director of
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
, succeeding
, who had been temporarily in the post since August 2012. In this role Cohen oversaw the BBC's Television Networks (
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
,
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
,
BBC Three
BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...
and
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 ) and BBC Productions – Europe's largest television production group. He also had responsibility for the BBC's feature film unit,
BBC Films
BBC Film (formerly BBC Films) is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'', '' Alan Part ...
, and the BBC's content on its digital platform,
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...
.
In 2014, BBC Television was the most successful UK television network, and in the first quarter of 2015, the BBC's main network, BBC One, delivered its best start to the year in a decade with a prime-time audience share of 25.2%.
In October 2015, Cohen announced that he was leaving the BBC to pursue a new leadership challenge. On the announcement of his departure, the
Director-General of the BBC
The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC.
The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period of 1927 to 2007) and then the ...
,
Tony Hall, said: "Danny has done an extraordinary job over the last eight years at the BBC. In a world of intense competition and choice, he has further enhanced the BBC's reputation for quality programming that is full of ambition and creativity... and has also made an outstanding contribution to comedy and entertainment".
President of Access Entertainment
In May 2016, Cohen launched Access Entertainment with the industrialist
Len Blavatnik
Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik, russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник, Leonid Valentinovich Blavatnik (born June 14, 1957) is a Ukraine-born American-British business magnate and philanthropist. As of March 202 ...
. The company has set out an ambition to be 'one of the world's leading independent investors in the entertainment media sector...with a concentration in high-quality television, films and theatrical productions'. The company aims to invest 'several hundred million dollars in the initial phase'.
Controversies
Jimmy Savile and Pollard report
The Pollard review into ''
Newsnight
''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...
''s decision to drop an investigation into sex abuse claims against
Jimmy Savile
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including ''Top of the Pops'' and ''Jim'll Fix It''. During his lifetime, he was well known ...
found that Cohen had not read emails that had been copied to him warning of Savile's "dark side" and which indicated there was knowledge within the BBC of the unsavoury side of Savile's character. Had he done so "it was at least possible that further questions
n the advisability of running the Christmas 2011 tributes
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
would have followed".
Jeremy Clarkson
The former BBC presenter,
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...
, has been highly critical of Mr Cohen, stating: "Everybody thinks that the BBC was a bloody nightmare. It wasn’t. Cohen was. The BBC was brilliant to work for until the arrival of Mr Cohen. They never really interfered at all. But he was a bloody nuisance and caused me an enormous amount of stress". Clarkson was further aggravated when exploratory talks surfaced between Cohen and
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
in relation to
Amazon Video
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pri ...
's movements in Europe. In early 2016, it was said there was a chance Cohen could have become Clarkson's boss on the factual entertainment series ''
The Grand Tour
''The Grand Tour'' is a British motoring television series, created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Andy Wilman, made for Amazon exclusively for its online streaming service Amazon Prime Video, and premiered on 18 Novembe ...
''.
Personal life
Cohen is married to economist and author
Noreena Hertz
Noreena Hertz (born 24 September 1967) is an English academic, economist and author, and has hosted her show, "MegaHertz: London Calling," on Sirius XM's Insight channel since 28 August 2017. She has been Honorary Professor at the Institute for ...
. They were married in 2012 at the
Bevis Marks Synagogue
Bevis Marks Synagogue, officially Qahal Kadosh Sha'ar ha-Shamayim ( he, קָהָל קָדוֹשׁ שַׁעַר הַשָׁמַיִם, "Holy Congregation Gate of Heaven"), is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom in continuous use. It is loc ...
in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
, in a ceremony conducted by
Lord Sacks
Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks ( he, יונתן הנרי זקס, translit=Yona'tan Henry Zaks; 8 March 19487 November 2020) was an English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author. Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United He ...
, the
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a ...
, and attended by guests including
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970 ) is an English actress. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Rachel Weisz, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a BAFTA Award.
We ...
,
Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English food writer and television cook.
She attended Godolphin and Latymer School, London. After graduating from the University of Oxford, where she was a member of Lady Margaret Hall, Lawson ...
and
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi (; ar, تشارلز ساعتجي; born 9 June 1943) is an Iraqi-British businessman and the co-founder, with his brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led the business – the world's largest a ...
. They live in
Primrose Hill
Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842.Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) It was named after the natural hill in the centre of ...
, London.
In 2014, in an interview Cohen said that he had "never felt so uncomfortable as a Jew in the UK".
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Danny
1974 births
Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
BBC executives
BBC One controllers
BBC Three controllers
Living people
People educated at the City of London School
People from Westminster
British people of German-Jewish descent
English Jewish writers