Christopher Nigel John Ryan

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(12 December 1929 – 18 July 2014) was a British journalist, and an outspoken former Editor of ITN throughout the 1970s, when ITN was influential (through having much-reduced competition), and significantly out-pacing the coverage from the BBC. He had a noted dislike of superfluous trade union practices in the television industry, and could put noses out of joint.

Early life

He was born in north-west

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. He attended independent school and went to university to study modern languages, acquiring a degree in French and Spanish in 1952. His parents moved to

Uckfield Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald. Etymology 'Uckfield', first recorded in writing as ...

in Sussex.

Career

Speaking fluent French and Spanish, he became a foreign correspondent.

ITN

He joined ITN at

Television House Television House is the former name of a building on Kingsway in London. From 1918, it was the base of the Air Ministry, and later from 1955, was the headquarters of Associated-Rediffusion/Rediffusion London, Independent Television News (ITN), ' ...

in 1961, becoming the producer of the UK's first half-hour television news programme, in July 1967. He became the Editor of ITN on 14 February 1968, when 38. He worked under Donald Edwards (from BBC radio), and Sir David Nicholas had been deputy-editor since 1963, who would follow him as Editor from 1977 to 1989. ITN moved to ITN House on 16 August 1969, where ITN moved to colour television technology from 20 October 1969, but not for broadcasts. Also at ITN was

Brian Wenham Brian George Wenham (9 February 1937 – 8 May 1997) was the controller of BBC2 from 1978 until 1982. He was known for having nurtured ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'', and coverage of snooker and opera. He had been a senior producer for ITN on '' ...

, later to be Controller of

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 ...

. He showed the Queen around the ITN studios on Thursday 20 November 1969, when she officially opened the building. The Queen launched the early evening bulletin from the production studio, which also took ITV into a colour transmission. In 1970, the annual budget for ITN was £3m. Throughout 1970 and 1971, individual

ITA Ita or ITA may refer to : Places and jurisdictions * ITA, ISO 3166-1 country code for Italy * Ita (Africa), an ancient city and former bishopric in Roman Mauretania, presently a Latin Catholic titular see * Itá, Paraguay People * Ita (prin ...

( IBA from 1972) transmitters were converting to colour. In June 1971 he became the Chief Executive of ITN, as well, when Donald Edwards left the company. ITN is now

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...

. On Wednesday 14 September 1977, when 47, he resigned from ITN, leaving his job on 4 November 1977. At a conference organised by the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

in Birmingham in October 1977, he revealed that broadcasting trade unions (in the UK) had deliberately prevented recent up-to-date electronic equipment from being implemented. ACTT (the

Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians The Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1933 and 1991. History The union was founded by technicians at the Gaumont British Studios in 1933 as th ...

) had also attracted negative attention from some film directors.

NBC

He made documentaries at NBC in the late 1970s.

Thames Television

He was Director of Programmes from 1980 to 1982 at

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 ...

. At a conference held by the Royal Television Society in Southampton, he revealed that broadcasting trade unions were adding to costs, in how these trade unions operated restrictive practices, such as

work-to-rule Work-to-rule (also known as an Italian strike, in Italian: ''Sciopero bianco'', or Slowdown in US usag is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract or job, and strictly follow time-cons ...

(to keep workforce numbers artificially high).

TV-am

He joined the board of

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

, becoming chairman from 1989 to 1992.

Personal life

In the 1960s, he lived in Kent. He married on Thursday 10 May 1984 in London.''The Times'' Saturday 12 May 1984, page 8 He was awarded the CBE in the 1977 Birthday Honours.

References

External links

Times obituary

The Queen visits ITN in November 1969
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Nigel 1929 births 2014 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English television executives ITN newsreaders and journalists ITV people