Bryan Cowgill (27 May 1927 – 14 July 2008) was a senior British television executive. He was Head of Sport for BBC Television from 1963–1973, Controller of BBC One from 1973–1977, and Managing Director of Thames TV from 1977-1985.
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Born in Clitheroe, Lancashire, he attended Clitheroe Royal Grammar School. After leaving school he became a copy boy with the Lancashire Evening Post, where his father was a printer. In 1942 he joined the Royal Marines, and during the next five years he saw service in Southeast Asia.
On demobilisation in 1947 he rejoined the Evening Post as a reporter and feature writer, and then for five years he edited a local weekly paper in Clitheroe. He joined the BBC in 1955 as a production assistant in Outside Broadcasting.
In 1958 he devised the Saturday afternoon sports showcase Grandstand, which was an immediate success and ran on BBC One until 28 January 2007. In 1963 he was promoted to Head of Sport.
In 1964, under his control of the department, the BBC introduced the football highlights programme Match of the Day, another famous format which continues to this day. Also during his tenure the BBC covered an increasing number of ambitious sporting events, including organising extensive coverage as host broadcaster of the 1966 World Cup and showing coverage live by satellite from Mexico of both the 1968 Olympic Games and 1970 World Cup.
In 1973, after a decade in charge of the sports department of BBC Television, he was promoted to Controller of BBC One, the Corporation’s premier television station. Despite coming from a sports background, he was able to oversee a successful era of programming across all types and genres, with the introduction of popular new sitcoms such as Porridge, The Good Life, Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and dramas in the vein of Poldark, When the Boat Comes In and The Duchess of Duke Street. He was the most successful controller the channel has ever had, winning an average audience share of 45 per cent during his period. He inherited successful and established series such as Z-Cars, Dad's Army, The Two Ronnies, Parkinson (TV series), Morecambe and Wise and The Generation Game, while he oversaw the highest consistent ratings for the long-running Doctor Who series. During this time, he was also responsible for importing shows from America, such as Kojak and Starsky and Hutch, which became immensely popular with British viewers and gained massive audiences for BBC1.
In 1977 he accepted an offer to leave the BBC after over twenty years to join Thames Television as Managing Director. In 1984 Cowgill, in a foretaste of changes to come within the industry, successfully resisted demands by the ACTT union for additional payments to use new technology, by maintaining a reduced service while the other ITV contractors met demands for a 20% rise in pay.[1]
During his tenure at Thames he tried to acquire the popular 1980s soap opera Dallas which had previously been associated with the BBC, abandoning a gentleman's agreement not to poach purchased programming. Other ITV companies refused to show Dallas if Thames retained it, and this led to Cowgill's resignation in 1985 at the age of 58.[1]
Towards the end of his life, Cowgill argued for the abolition of the Television licence that finances the BBC: "In the context of more than 200 channels how can little green vans going up and down the country saying effectively: 'What are you watching and have you got a licence to watch it?' survive?" [2]
He published an autobiography, Mr Action Replay in 2006 (ISBN 0955299209) [1].
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| Preceded by Paul Fox |
Controller of BBC One 1973-1977 |
Succeeded by Bill Cotton |