Sir Paul Leonard Fox, (born 27 October 1925) is a British
television executive, who spent much of his broadcasting career working for
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 ...
, most prominently as the Controller of
BBC1 between 1967 and 1973.
Early life
Fox was educated in
Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
and served in the
Parachute Regiment, 1943–46.
BBC career
Fox began his career at the Corporation in the 1950s, writing scripts for the ''
Television Newsreel
''Television Newsreel'' is a British television programme, the first regular news programme to be made in the UK. Produced by the BBC and screened on the BBC Television Service from 1948 to 1954 at 7.30pm, it adapted the traditional cinema news ...
'' programme before going on to create and edit the popular sports programme ''Sportsview''. While editing ''Sportsview'' in 1954 he hit upon the idea of creating the annual
BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, a glittering ceremony that is still held every December by the Corporation and seen as one of the major events in
British sport.
By the early 1960s he had been promoted to Editor of ''
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 ...
'' and later Head of Public Affairs at BBC Television and in this role was heavily involved in the news coverage of the assassination of
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the subsequent reaction to the events in the United Kingdom. In 1967 he became the Controller of
BBC1 a post he held for six years, one of the longest tenures of any BBC Channel Controller. His achievements in the role included the launch of the enduring ''
Dad's Army'' and overseeing the transition of BBC1 into colour in 1969. He also commissioned ''
The Two Ronnies'', ''Bruce Forsyth and the'' ''
Generation Game
''The Generation Game'' is a British game show produced by the BBC in which four teams of two people from the same family, but different generations, compete to win prizes.
The game
There are eight competitors, hence the catchphrase "Let's me ...
'' and the ''
Parkinson'' talk show in 1971. All the Moon landings of
Project Apollo occurred during his tenure, and Fox allocated generous time on his network for
coverage
Coverage may refer to:
Filmmaking
* Coverage (lens), the size of the image a lens can produce
* Camera coverage, the amount of footage shot and different camera setups used in filming a scene
* Script coverage, a short summary of a script, wri ...
.
Later career
Ward Thomas brought in Fox as Head of Programmes of
Yorkshire Television (YTV) in 1973, and later became managing director of Yorkshire Television between 1977 and 1988. During this period he was quite vocal in his disapproval of the ultimately unsuccessful poaching in 1985 of ''
Dallas'' from the BBC by fellow
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
contractor
Thames Television.
[Anthony Haywar]
Obituary: Bryan Cowgill
''The Independent'', 17 July 2008 This permanently soured his relationship with Thames executive
Bryan Cowgill
Bryan Cowgill (27 May 1927 – 14 July 2008) was a British television executive. He was Head of Sport for BBC Television from 1963 to 1973, Controller of BBC1 from 1973 to 1977, and Managing Director of Thames Television from 1977 to 1985. He ha ...
, who had been a former colleague at the BBC.
Whilst at YTV, Fox was prominent in representing the managerial view in the
industrial dispute
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...
between members of the
ACTT trade union and the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
companies, which blacked out the network for three months in 1979. He was chairman of
ITN
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...
from 1986 to 1988 and later managing director of BBC Television (1988–91). Fox retired from the BBC at the age of 65 in 1991 and became chairman of the Racecourse Association from 1993 to 1997, chairman of DISASTERS EMERC Committee from 1996 to 1999 and a sports columnist for
''The'' ''Daily Telegraph'' from 1991 to 2003.
Honours
Fox was honoured with a
CBE in 1985 and was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in 1991. He was awarded the
Honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) by
Leeds University in 1984 * , and the
Honorary degree of
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from
Bradford University in 1991, and 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 ...
Gold Medal for Outstanding Services to television in 1992.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Paul
1925 births
Living people
BBC One controllers
British television executives
BAFTA fellows
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Knights Bachelor
Mass media people from Bournemouth
International Emmy Founders Award winners
British Parachute Regiment soldiers
British Army personnel of World War II
Yorkshire Television