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Greg Dyke was born on the 20th May 1947 and was Director General of the BBC from January 2000 to January 2004.
Greg attended Hayes Grammar School and later the University of York where he gained a B.A. in politics. He went through a variety of careers between 1965 and 1983 before being persuaded to join the ailing TV-am as editor in chief at a time when the station was struggling with huge debt and not enough viewers. One of Greg Dyke’s first moves saw a change of presenters as he brought in Anne Diamond and Nick Owen. Greg also made a name for himself by promoting Roland Rat who was the show’s puppet. It was not long before TV-am overtook BBC’s Breakfast Time in the popularity stakes.
Greg moved away from TV-am in 1984 over budget cuts, and was quickly snapped up by Television South as director of programs, from where he returned to London Weekend Television as director of programs, and then chief executive. Perhaps his most significant promotion was to replace his good friend and former colleague John Birt on the ITV Program Controllers’ group. When Greg Dyke rose to become chair of that vital group, he effectively orchestrated the ITV companies’ scheduling against the BBC.
Under Greg Dyke’s command, LWT prospered as never before, with superb programs like Blind Date and Beadle’s About. However, successful companies always risk the danger of being taken over unless they are protected by government regulation, as was the case for ITV companies. When the Conservatives abolished these restrictions in 1993, LWT was at risk. Granada swallowed LWT for 900 million dollars in 1994 and Greg Dyke resigned. With 1.75 million dollars worth of share option, Greg Dyke made a 12 million dollar profit from the Granada bid.
In 1995 Greg Dyke chaired a successful bid, with Lord Hollick’s United Media group, for the franchise to run the new Channel Five. It was a low-budget operation, with the most basic of programme schedules, a nightly feature film timed to compete with News at Ten and, more controversially, followed by late night programmes which were often described as ‘soft porn’.
Greg was a non-Executive Director of Manchester United Football Club between 1997 and 1999 and has been a Trustee of the Science Museum since 1996. In 2004 he was made Chancellor of the University of York.
2004 saw the publication of Greg Dyke’s controversial book Inside Story which contained his account of the BBC’s relations with the Government, the behaviour of the BBC governors and the events surrounding the Hutton Inquiry. Greg Dyke resigned his Director General post after parts of Andrew Gilligan’s BBC reports of claims Downing Street ”sexed up” a dossier on Iraq’s illegal weapons were branded ”unfounded” by Lord Hutton.
In 2006 Greg’s love of football saw him take up position as non executive chairman of Brentford Football Club following a takeover by the Supporters Trust ‘Bees United’.
In 2008 Greg Dyke was appointed chair of the British Film Institute. He took over from Anthony Minghella, the Oscar-winning director of The English Patient and Cold Mountain, whose tenure saw the launch of the new British Film Institute Southbank centre in London.
Football was never far away and in 2013 he became chairman of the FA (Football Association), a post he held for three years.
In more recent years, Greg became BAFTA’s Vice President for Television and in 2018 became Chairman of the London Film School.
