Phillip Whitehead (30 May 1937 – 31 December 2005) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician, television producer and writer.

Early life

Born in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, he was adopted by a local family in

Rowsley Rowsley () is a village on the A6 road in the English county of Derbyshire. The population as at the 2011 census was 507. It is at the point where the River Wye flows into the River Derwent and prospered from mills on both. The border of the P ...

, and attended

Lady Manners School Lady Manners School is an English secondary school located in Bakewell, a market town in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District ...

Bakewell Bakewell is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, known also for its local Bakewell pudding. It lies on the River Wye, about 13 miles (21 km) south-west of Sheffield. In the 2011 census, ...

and Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained his BA degree. Whitehead went up to Oxford following in his adoptive parents' footsteps as a Conservative. He was President of the

Oxford University Conservative Association The Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) is a student Conservative association founded in 1924, whose members are drawn from the University of Oxford. Since October 2009, OUCA has been affiliated to Conservative Future and its su ...

and the Oxford Union in 1961.

Career

Whitehead was an independent documentary producer in the early 1960s and later an editor with the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

and

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 ...

from 1967 to 1970.

House of Commons

After standing unsuccessfully at West Derbyshire in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, he represented Derby North as a Labour MP from

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, when he was defeated by the Conservative

Greg Knight The Right Honourable Sir Gregory Knight (born 4 April 1949) is a British politician, author and musician. He has served as the Conservative MP for East Yorkshire since 2001, having previously served as the MP for Derby North from 1983 to 1997 ...

. He tried to win back the seat in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

but was beaten once again. Whitehead was a member of several parliamentary committees: * Member,

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

WEU The Western European Union (WEU; french: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO; german: Westeuropäische Union, WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 ...

* Member, Annan Committee on the Future of Broadcasting * Member,

Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs The Home Affairs Select Committee is a Departmental Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Remit The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons Select committees related to government departments: its ...

, which abolished ' sus' * Front Bench Spokesman on Higher Education and the Arts

Back to television

After his defeat at the 1983 general election, Whitehead returned to television as a producer and director. He was also author of several books derived, with the exception of his Fabian essays, from the television series he produced: * ''The Writing On The Wall: Britain in the Seventies'' (London: Michael Joseph, 1985); * ''Dynasty: The Nehrus and the Gandhis'' (1997; with

Jad Adams Jad Adams (born 27 November 1954) is a British writer and television producer. Education Adams attended Forest Hill School and the University of Sussex where he was influenced by the lectures of radical philosopher Paul Feyerabend on question ...

; ) * contributor to ''Changing States'', Fabian Essays, ''Ruling Dimension'' *'' The Windsors—A Dynasty Revealed 1917–2000'' (2000; with

Piers Brendon Piers Brendon (born 21 December 1940) is a British historian and writer, known for historical and biographical works. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read history. He received a Ph.D. degree for h ...

: ; original 1994: ) * ''Stalin, a Time for Judgement'' In 1988 he was

MacTaggart Memorial Lecturer James MacTaggart (25 April 1928 – 29 May 1974) was a Scottish television producer, director and writer. He worked in London from 1961. Early life MacTaggart was born in Glasgow and served in the Royal Army Service Corps from 1946, rising to ...

at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

European Parliament

He was a Labour

member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from 1994 to his death, first serving as MEP for Staffordshire East and Derby, and later as one of the members for the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

. On 23 July 2004 he was elected chair of the Parliamentary Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. He was also member of the

European Parliament's African, Caribbean and Pacific Joint Parliamentary Assembly European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...

and chair of the European Parliamentary Labour Party. A list of EP committees of which Whitehead was a member: * Member, EP

Committee for Environment, Public Health, Consumer Protection A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

* Substitute member, EP

Committee for Culture, Youth, Education, Media A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

* Chair,

European Parliament Consumer Intergroup European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...

* Member, Vice-President, EP delegation for relations with Czech Republic * Member, EP delegation to EU Bulgaria Joint Parliamentary Committee * Member and co-ordinator, EP Committee of Enquiry into BSE * Chair, European Parliamentary Labour Party * Member, EP Committee for Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection * Substitute member, EP

Committee for Culture, Youth, Media and Sport A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

* Member, EP Temporary Committee on Foot and Mouth Disease * Member, EP delegation for relations with Czech Republic * Member, Consumer Forum

Intergroup Intergroups are formed of Members of the European Parliament from any political group and any committee, with a view to holding informal exchanges of views on particular subjects and promoting contact between Members and civil society. Intergroups ...

* Chair,

Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee Internal may refer to: *Internality as a concept in behavioural economics *Neijia, internal styles of Chinese martial arts *Neigong or "internal skills", a type of exercise in meditation associated with Daoism *''Internal (album)'' by Safia, 2016 ...

* Substitute Member,

Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) is a Committees of the European Parliament, committee of the European Parliament. It has 81 full members and is currently chaired by Pascal Canfin. Evolution During the 1990s i ...

* Member, ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly * Member, European Parliament delegation for relations with Romania Other professional memberships held by Whitehead: * Director, Brook Associates TV production company * Chair of the Fabian Society * Council member and Chair of the Consumers' Association * Chairman of

Statesman-Nation Publications The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

Death

He retained a close association with

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, especially the

area, throughout his life. Whitehead was taken ill on 31 December 2005 and died later that evening in a hospital in Chesterfield from a heart attack aged 68. In recognition of his service to the city The Phillip Whitehead Memorial Library, a public library on Chaddesden Park in Derby, was opened in March 2013.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitehead, Phillip 1937 births 2005 deaths Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford BBC television producers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Derbyshire Emmy Award winners English television producers Labour Party (UK) MEPs Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies MEPs for England 1994–1999 MEPs for England 1999–2004 MEPs for England 2004–2009 National Union of Railwaymen-sponsored MPs People from Derbyshire Dales (district) Politics of Lincolnshire Presidents of the Oxford Union Presidents of the Oxford University Conservative Association UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 Chairs of the Fabian Society