Michael Checkland

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Sir Michael Checkland (born 13 March 1936) was Director-General of the BBC from 1987 to 1992, having been appointed after the forced resignation of Alasdair Milne.

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[edit] Early life

Michael Checkland was educated at King Edward VI Five Ways, and Wadham College, Oxford, of which he was appointed an Honorary Fellow in 1989. After leaving Oxford he worked first as an auditor at Parkinson Cowan Ltd and then as an accountant at Thorn Electronics.

[edit] Career at the BBC 1964-87

Checkland joined the BBC in 1964 as a senior cost accountant and in 1969 he was promoted to be head of the Central Finance Unit and chief accountant for Central Finance Services. In 1971 he moved to BBC TV, where he was successively chief accountant (1971-76), financial controller (1976-77), controller of planning and resource management (1977-82), and director of resources (1982-85). He had meanwhile been a director of Visnews from 1980 until 1985. In 1985 he was appointed Deputy Director-General of the Corporation, and at the same time he became Vice President of the Royal Television Society, a position he retained until 1994. In 1986 he became Chairman of BBC Enterprises, of which he had been a director since 1979. The following year he became Director-General upon the resignation of Alasdair Milne. This appointment coincided with a term of office as President of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association from until 1988.

[edit] Director-General of the BBC

As a former BBC accountant (hence his somewhat derogatory nickname "Michael Chequebook") he was more cautious and less radical than Milne, and therefore much less potentially unsettling to the Thatcher government. It has been claimed that the exodus to Channel 4 in the early 1990s of dramatists like Dennis Potter and Alan Bleasdale, who had both been responsible for series which caused outrage among Conservatives during the Milne era, had much to do with the relative lack of risk-taking at the BBC under Checkland and his successor John Birt, who was deputy director-general throughout Checkland's reign. He was also Director-General at the time when Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989.

[edit] After the BBC

He bowed out from the BBC, and slammed the Governors and Marmaduke Hussey at a Royal Television Society conference for thinking "FM" stood for "Fuzzy Monsters". Following his retirement from the BBC, Sir Michael became closely associated with the British charity, NCH (originally National Children's Homes).

Since then Sir Michael has also become widely involved in a range of further charities and public positions, including Director of the National Youth Music Theatre (1992-2002), Chairman of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1995-2001), Governor of Westminster College, Oxford (1993-97), Governor of Birkbeck College London (1993-97), Visiting Professor at the International Academy of Broadcasting, Montreux (1995-97), and Chairman of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (1997-2001).

In 1997-8 he was elected Vice-President of the British Methodist Conference, the highest lay position in the Church.

He is currently a Trustee of Reuters, Chairman of Horsham YMCA, Chairman of Horsham Arts Festival, Chairman of the University of Brighton and a Member of the Independent Television Commission.

Media offices
Preceded by
Alasdair Milne
1982–1987		 Director-General of the BBC
1987–1992		 Succeeded by
John Birt
1992–2000

[edit] References

  • Sir Michael CHECKLAND, Debrett's People of Today (12th edn, London: Debrett's Peerage, 1999), p. 352


Persondata
NAME Checkland, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Director-General of the BBC 1987—1992
DATE OF BIRTH 1936-03-13
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH