Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jeremy Israel Isaacs 28 September 1932 |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Merton College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Television executive |
| Years active | 1958–2000 |
| Known for | Channel 4 |
Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, opera manager, and a recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards.
Isaacs won the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1986, the International Emmy Directorate Award in 1987 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1985. He was also the General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1987 to 1996.
Isaacs was knighted in the 1996 Birthday Honours "for services to Broadcasting and to the Arts."[1]
Early life
Isaacs was born in Glasgow from what were described as "Scottish Jewish roots".[2] He grew up in Hillhead, the son of a jeweller and a GP, and is a cousin to virologist Alick Isaacs. He was educated at the independent Glasgow Academy and Merton College, Oxford, where he read Classics.[3][4] Whilst at Oxford he served as President of the Oxford Union and was close friends with Michael Heseltine. He did his National Service in the Highland Light Infantry.
Television career
Isaacs began his career in television when he joined
Channel 4
Isaacs was the founding chief executive of
His appointment of David Rose, previously long with the BBC, as the Commissioning Editor for Fiction led to the Channel's involvement with the eighties revival of the British film industry via the Film on Four strand. Despite a general liberal atmosphere, a few commissioned programmes, such as Ken Loach's A Question of Leadership, were withdrawn from transmission.
In 1989, Isaacs named twenty-six personal favourites from his tenure as Channel 4's chief executive, running from A (the discussion series After Dark) to Z (a four-hour dramatisation of a Gothic horror novel, Zastrozzi).[7]
When handing over responsibility for running the channel to Michael Grade, Isaacs threatened to throttle him if he betrayed the trust placed in him to respect the channel's remit.[8]
Later career
After leaving Channel 4 at the end of 1987,
From 1989 to 1998, Isaacs was the interviewer in a revival of the BBC series
Publications
- Storm Over 4: A Personal Account, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989
- Never Mind the Moon, ISBN 0-593-04355-3
- Look Me in the Eye: A Life in Television, ISBN 0-316-72728-8
- Cold War (In collaboration with Taylor Downing), ISBN 0-593-04309-X
References
- ^ "No. 54427". The London Gazette. 14 June 1996. p. 2.
- ^ Attias, Elaine. "Britain's exciting Channel 4 breaking all the TV rules", Toronto Star, 1 November 1986. Accessed 31 August 2011. "In his early 50s, he is a personal and passionate man who went from Scottish Jewish roots to a philosophy degree at Oxford, presidency of the Oxford Union and on to top programming positions at Thames and Granada television, Britain's powerful commercial independents."
- ^ Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900–1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 425.
- ^ Isaacs, Jeremy (6 September 2008). "My mentors". The Guardian. London.
- ^ cnn.com/ColdWar at Internet Archive
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
- ^ Storm Over 4, Jeremy Isaacs, 1989.
- ^ Leapman, Michael (20 September 1989). "Channel 4 could still be a rather good delicatessen". The Independent. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022.
- ^ "Screen: Buzz", The Sunday Times, 3 January 1988
External links
- Jeremy Isaacs at IMDb
- Cold War: About the Series at CNN.com
- Raymond Snoddy (interview with Isaacs), "Sir Jeremy Isaacs: History man – a life in pictures", The Independent (London) 27 February 2006 Retrieved 3 March 2008
- Sabine Durrant (interview with Isaacs), "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts", The Guardian (London), 5 November 1999 Retrieved 3 March 2008