Rowan Ayers on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Rowan Ayers (16 June 1922 – 5 January 2008) was a British
television producer
A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...
and executive. He was best known as producer of
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 exam. ...
...
's ''Line-Up'' and ''
Late Night Line-Up'' in the 1960s. He was the originator of BBCs influential late night rock music show ''
The Old Grey Whistle Test
''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music show. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988. ...
'' and the long-running ''
Points of View''. He was also responsible for the BBC's ''
Open Door''.
__NOTOC__
Born in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
and educated at
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...
, Ayers served in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, reaching the rank of lieutenant and serving in the
Battle of the Atlantic,
and began his career as a journalist on
Fleet Street as the television editor for ''
Radio Times'' before moving to television. After several years with the BBC, where he had served as assistant head of presentation and run the BBC community programmes unit,
in 1974 he moved to Australia where he joined the national
Channel 9 network.
Ayers launched ''Abbey Road'', the Beatles' last recorded album, on his show ''Late Night Line-Up'' to rapturous applause in late 1969. He was the father of
Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers (16 August 1944 – 18 February 2013) was an English singer-songwriter who was active in the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely assoc ...
, a founder member of
Soft Machine, and a very keen Merlin Rocket sailor in the 1960s.
Publications include
* ''Aspects in Adolescence. Being the moods of a young man'' London, A. H. Stockwell (1940) Poetry
* ''Australian Film, Television & Radio School Guide to Video Production'' (Allen & Unwin (Jun 1990) – 272 Pages – )
* ''Guide to Video Production'' Allen & Unwin (Feb 1992) – 280 Pages – )
References
External links
*
The Times obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayers, Rowan
1922 births
2008 deaths
20th-century British journalists
BBC executives
BBC television producers
People educated at Dulwich College
Royal Navy officers of World War II
Military personnel from Essex
Royal Navy officers