Cecil McGivern

Cecil McGivern

Cecil McGivern CBE (May 22 1907 in Newcastle, England – January 30 1963 in Buckinghamshire, England) was a British broadcasting executive, who initially worked for BBC Radio before transferring to BBC Television in the late 1940s.

The son of Irish immigrants, McGivern was educated at St Cuthbert's Grammar School and later attended Durham University. His initial ambition was to be an actor, but he quickly realised that he lacked the necessary talent and so pursued a career as a teacher instead. He did, however, continue working in the theatre as a producer of amateur productions.

He joined the BBC in 1936, working as a producer of drama and documentary programmes in his native Newcastle and also in Manchester. In 1939, he was promoted to occupy the newly-created position of programmes director for the North-East of England. However, he only held this post for a short time before being seconded to the BBC in London after the outbreak of war, to become part of a group of producers working on war-related programming. During World War II, he wrote and directed several acclaimed radio documentary features, such as "Bombers Over Berlin", "The Harbour Called Mulberry", "Fighter Pilot", and "Junction X".

Following the end of the war in 1945, McGivern left the staff of the BBC to join the Rank Organisation film company, where he worked as a screenwriter. Probably the best-known film on which he worked for the company was "Great Expectations" (1946), starring John Mills. The script was nominated for the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay.

Despite this success in the film industry, however, in 1947, McGivern returned to the BBC, this time working for the BBC Television Service based at Alexandra Palace. As programme director, he worked under the station's controller, Norman Collins, to establish the popularity of the fledgling channel, with one of the major events covered during this time being the 1948 Summer Olympics, broadcast live by the BBC from Wembley Stadium in London. After Collins left the BBC in 1950 in protest at George Barnes being appointed as his superior, McGivern was elevated to succeed him as controller of programmes.

McGivern's period in Control of the channel's output saw an explosion in popularity of the television service, helped greatly by the 20 million audience for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. However, his tenure also saw the arrival of a commercial competitor, ITV, in 1955, breaking the BBC's broadcasting monopoly for the first time. In 1957 he was promoted to become the Deputy Director of BBC Television, but when this post was abolished in a reorganisation of the television service's management structure in 1961, he elected to once more leave the BBC rather than take the scriptwriting post he had been offered.

He joined ITV's northern weekday franchise holder Granada Television as an executive producer. However, in January 1963 he was involved in an accident late at night at his home in Buckinghamshire, setting fire to his clothes while attempting to light a cigarette. He was badly burned and died in hospital on January 30, 1963, with the coroner later recording an official verdict of death by misadventure.

In 1954, he was awarded the CBE for his services to broadcasting, and in 1962 received the Desmond Davis Award for Services to Television.

References

*cite news | title = Mr Cecil McGivern - Shaping of BBC Television | publisher = Times | date = January 31 1963

External links

*imdb name|0569414|Cecil McGivern


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • McGivern — may refer to: Cecil McGivern Ed McGivern Gary McGivern Geoff McGivern (footballer) Geoffrey McGivern John McGivern Leighton McGivern Ryan McGivern Ryan McGivern (footballer) William P. McGivern See also McGovern …   Wikipedia

  • Quatermass II — Infobox Television show name = Quatermass II caption = The opening title sequence of Quatermass II . format = Science fiction thriller camera = Multi camera picture format = 405 line black and white runtime = Approx. 30 mins per episode creator …   Wikipedia

  • Great Expectations (1946 film) — Infobox Film name = Great Expectations caption = original film poster writer = Original novel: Charles Dickens Screenplay adaptation: Anthony Havelock Allan Cecil McGivern Ronald Neame Kay Walsh starring = John Mills Anthony Wager Jean Simmons… …   Wikipedia

  • Blanche Fury — Données clés Réalisation Marc Allégret Scénario Audrey Erskine Lindop Cecil McGivern d après un roman de Joseph Shearing Acteurs principaux Valerie Hobson Stewart Granger Michael Gough Pays d’origine …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Les Grandes Espérances (film, 1946) — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Les Grandes Espérances. Les Grandes Espérances Données clés Titre original Great Expectations Réalisation David Lean Scénario …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Les Grandes espérances (film, 1946) — Les Grandes Espérances Titre original Great Expectations Réalisation David Lean Acteurs principaux John Mills Valerie Hobson Jean Simmons Alec Guinness Scénario Anthony Havelock Allan David Lean Cecil McGivern Ronald N …   Wikipédia en Français

  • 1963 — This article is about the year 1963. For other uses, see 1963 (disambiguation). Millennium: 2nd millennium Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century Decades: 1930s  1940s  1950s  – 1 …   Wikipedia

  • BBC One — Infobox TV channel name = BBC One logosize = 200px logofile = BBC One logo.svg logoalt = The BBC One logo since 2006 launch = 2 November 1936 picture format = 576i (PAL) 16:9 share = 20.8% share as of = June 2008 share source =… …   Wikipedia

  • Bernard Quatermass — Infobox character colour = name = Bernard Quatermass caption = Reginald Tate, the first actor to portray Professor Bernard Quatermass. first = The Quatermass Experiment (1953) last = Quatermass (1979) cause = nickname = alias = species = gender …   Wikipedia

  • Nigel Kneale — Thomas Nigel Kneale Nigel Kneale in 1990, discussing his career on BBC Two s The Late Show. Born 18 April 1922(1922 04 18) Barrow in Furness, England D …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”