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Graeme Patrick David MacDonald (30 July 1930 – 30 September 1997), sometimes credited as Graeme McDonald or Graham McDonald, was a British television producer and executive.
Early life
MacDonald was educated at
St Paul's School, London
(''By Faith and By Learning'')
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and
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...
, where he initially studied geology and physics, but changed to an arts degree. While at Cambridge he was vice-president of the
Footlights
Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University.
History
Footlights' inaugural ...
and president of the University Players, but left without a degree.
Career
MacDonald began his career in 1960 as a trainee director at
Granada Television. In 1966 he joined the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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, becoming a producer in the drama department, working particularly on anthology play series such as ''
The Wednesday Play
''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction ...
'' (for which he produced some of
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...
's early work), ''
Thirty-Minute Theatre
''Thirty-Minute Theatre'' was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which t ...
'', and ''
Theatre 625
''Theatre 625'' is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production a ...
''. In the 1970s he became the producer of the single play strand ''
Play for Today'', the successor to ''The Wednesday Play'', during which he worked on many acclaimed pieces, such as
Jack Rosenthal
Jack Morris Rosenthal (8 September 1931 – 29 May 2004) was an English playwright. He wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' and over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations. ...
's ''
Bar Mitzvah Boy'' (1976).
By this time one of the senior producers working in the BBC's drama department, in 1977 he was promoted to become the Head of Serials. This department was merged with the Series department in 1979, and MacDonald became head of the new larger Series & Serials department which ensued. In 1981, he was promoted again to succeed
Shaun Sutton
Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton (14 October 1919 in Hammersmith, London – 14 May 2004 in Norfolk) was an English television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s. His m ...
as the overall Head of Drama at BBC Television.
MacDonald became the Controller of
BBC2 in 1983, the first ever BBC channel controller to come from a background in the drama department. He was controller of the channel until 1987 (combining it with his Head of Drama role until he left this post in 1985), during which the
Zircon affair erupted surrounding an edition of the ''Secret Society'' documentary series due to be shown on the channel.
MacDonald left the BBC in 1987 and became chief executive of Anglia Films (1988–94), where he produced the television film ''
Goldeneye
''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell, it was the first in the se ...
'' (1989) about
Ian Fleming, and later
Ardent Productions (1994–97).
References
External links
*
1930 births
1997 deaths
Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
BBC executives
BBC television producers
BBC Two controllers
British television producers
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at St Paul's School, London
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