Michael Grade, the new head of the BBC has issued a Manifesto. According to the Guardian: "he also made the creative standards of the BBC a central plank of the corporation's manifesto, promising to make quality and innovation the watchwords of everything on the BBC."
Almost fifteen years ago, I interviewed Grade for my book "Masterpiece Theatre and the Politics of Quality," when he was head of Channel Four. Grade had produced a number of British classic serials broadcast on PBS. During our meeting, he held a big cigar, just like his famous uncle, Lord Grade, founder of ATV. Grade was watched a soccer match on a small television throughout the interview, muted it from time to time, turned on the sound for a "g-o-o-a-l" -- and impressively managed to pay full attention to both the game and our interview. Multi-tasking before multi-tasking was cool, in a way.
Shortly after speaking with him, Grade left Channel Four to buy a football club. So, I think he has a pretty good chance of accomplishing what he sets out to do.
