Ian McIntyre (9 December 1931 – 19 April 2014) was a British BBC Radio producer, journalist, broadcaster and author. who was Controller of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

from 1976 to 1978 and then Controller of

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...

between 1978 and 1987.Constable & Robinson publishers' mini biography
/ref> After joining the BBC in 1957 after

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

, he presented and produced a number of influential current affairs programmes, most notably ''

Analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

'' and ''At Home and Abroad''. After his retirement from Radio 3 in 1987, he became associate editor of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' and has written a number of biographical books.

Early life

Ian McIntyre attended Prescot Grammar School in

Prescot Prescot is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it lies about to the east of Liverpool city centre. At the 2001 Census, the c ...

, Lancashire, then read

Modern Languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such ...

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

, where he was President of the Union; his contentious style of chairmanship led to the formal vote of thanks at his retirement debate being unprecedentedly opposed (see Radio 4 below).Dogfight: The Transatlantic Battle Over Airbus
/ref> After graduating from Cambridge in 1953 Ian McIntyre spent a postgraduate year at The

College of Europe The College of Europe (french: Collège d'Europe) is a post-graduate institute of European studies with its main campus in Bruges, Belgium and a second campus in Warsaw, Poland. The College of Europe in Bruges was founded in 1949 by leading ...

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

, followed by

in the Intelligence Corps in Sussex. In February 1957 he joined the BBC as a producer in the Topical Talks Unit, initially working on a twice-weekly current affairs magazine programme ''At Home and Abroad''. After two years he was made Editor of ''At Home and Abroad'', which he did for a year. He was then moved to become a course organiser at the BBC Training School, but after a year he left to join the

Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" ( ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA existed from 1954 un ...

(ITA) though he only stayed there a short time. Ian McIntyre spent much of the 1960s working at the

Conservative Central Office The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ), formerly known as Conservative Central Office (CCO), is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members, including campaign coordinators and man ...

in Scotland, and stood unsuccessfully as a member of parliament against

David Steel David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, (born 31 March 1938) is a British politician. Elected as Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles, followed by Tweeddale, Ettrick, and Lauderdale, he served as the final leade ...

.Bournemouth University BBC Radio 4 Analysis Archive Project
BBC Analysis mini biography
/ref>

BBC career

''Analysis''

Ian McIntyre returned to the BBC as a freelancer making documentaries around the world, initially for Radio 3. At the tail end of the 1960s, his old friend and colleague

Tony Whitby Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...

– then controller of Radio 4 – asked him to present a new series of current affairs programmes. McIntyre stated in 1999 that Tony Whitby proposed a remit to provide "serious current affairs broadcasting...that...should be a sort of demonstration of good faith to the listener that there were going to be serious things done". The brief of the programme was to "make them challenging, make them interesting, and make them amusing if you can". Thus in 1970 Ian McIntyre became the founder presenter of ''

''.

Radio 4

In 1976 Ian McIntyre was appointed Controller of

. According to BBC producer Simon Elmes, he gained the nickname " Mack the Knife" due to his programme of cuts and abrasive style of governance, described by producer Piers Plowright as "ruthless". At one meeting, the head of radio drama Ronald Mason was said to have become so infuriated that he "threw his chair across the room and stalked off." As part of the cuts, McIntyre halved the length of '' PM'' and the ''

Today Programme ''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is a long-running British morning news and current-affairs Radio program, radio programme on BBC Radio 4. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, it is produced by BBC N ...

'', in the latter case filling the spare air time with the short-lived lighter breakfast news programme ''

Up to the Hour ''Up to the Hour'' was a programme on BBC Radio 4 that ran from May 1977 to June 1978. There were two editions every weekday morning, each 25 minutes long and finishing at 7am and 8am respectively (hence the title). Both parts were followed by the ...

''.Gillian Reynolds,
Change for the worse at Radio 4
, ''

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'', 25 January 2006 In 1978 he commissioned

Fritz Spiegl Fritz Spiegl (27 January 1926 – 23 March 2003) was an Austrian-born English musician, journalist, broadcaster, humorist and collector who lived and worked in Britain from 1939. His works include compiling the Radio 4 UK Theme in 1978. Early lif ...

to produce the

Radio 4 UK Theme The ''BBC Radio 4 UK Theme'' is an orchestral arrangement of traditional British and Irish airs compiled by Fritz Spiegl and arranged by Manfred Arlan. It was played every morning on BBC Radio 4 between 23 November 1978 and 23 April 2006. Th ...

, an arrangement of traditional British melodies to signify Radio 4 as a service which, from its move from medium wave to 1500 metres/200 kiloHertz long wave on 23 November 1978, would for the first time broadcast a unified service to the whole United Kingdom (i.e. without the regional opt-outs which it had inherited from the old Home Service in 1967).

Radio 3

McIntyre was moved sideways to become controller of Radio 3 in 1978. According to his colleague,

Howard Newby Sir Howard Joseph Newby (born 10 December 1947) is a British sociologist. He was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool in 2008 and retired in December 2014. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton from 1994 to ...

, this was "to create smoother waters at Radio 4". He remained at Radio 3 for nine years. During his tenure, relations with several departments, especially the Music Division became uncomfortable; financial cuts at the BBC hit Radio 3 hard in 1980 and an internal paper recommended the disbandment of several of the BBC orchestras. Industrial action by musicians delayed the start of

the Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

after redundancies in the Music Division. In 1987 a decision was taken to merge the positions of Controller, Music (held by John Drummond who had also been running the Proms), and Controller, Radio 3 (held by McIntyre). Drummond was appointed and McIntyre left the BBC shortly afterwards.

Later life

After leaving the BBC Ian McIntyre authored a number of biographical books including ''

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

: The Life and Times of the Royal Academy's First President'', ''The Expense of Glory: A Life of John Reith'', ''Dirt and Deity: A Life of

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

'', '' Hester: The remarkable life of

Dr Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

's "Dear Mistress"'' and a biography of 18th century actor

David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...

. He died at the age of 82 on 19 April 2014.

Publications

Books

* ''Proud Doers: Israel After Twenty Years'', BBC, 1968, * ''Dogfight: The Transatlantic Battle Over Airbus'',

Greenwood Press Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...

, 1992, * ''The Expense of Glory: Life of John Reith'',

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

, 1994, * ''Dirt & Deity: A Life of Robert Burns'',

, 1995, * ''Garrick'',

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fict ...

, 1999, * ''Robert Burns: A Life'', Welcome Rain Publishers, 2001, * ''Joshua Reynolds: The Life and Times of the First President of the Royal Academy'', Penguin/Allen Lane, 2003, * ''Hester: The remarkable life of Dr Johnson's 'Dear Mistress,

Constable & Robinson Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an imprint of Little, Brown which publishes fiction and non-fiction books and ebooks. Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co., and by Nick Robinson as Robinson Publishing Ltd in 1983 ...

, 2008, * ''Robert Burns: A Life'' (revised edition),

, 2009,

Articles

* Johnson and Garrick: the Ninth Annual Johnson Society Lecture * Book review: In the highest degree odious – A W Brian SimpsonThe masseuse as national threat
– ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 2 January 1993

References

;Bibliography *Carpenter, Humphrey, ''The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3, 1946–1996'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996 *Elmes, Simon, ''And Now on Radio 4'', London: Arrow Books, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:McIntyre, Ian 1931 births 2014 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge BBC executives BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 controllers BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 controllers BBC radio producers British radio executives British writers College of Europe alumni People from Banchory Presidents of the Cambridge Union People educated at Prescot Grammar School