HUW WHELDON. Born in Wales, 1916. Attended schools in Wales and in Germany. Served in armed forces during World War II; Military Cross, 1944. Publicity officer, BBC, 1952; producer and as presenter, various children's programmes; editor and presenter, arts programme Monitor, 1957-64, commissioning first films from Ken Russell, John Schlesinger and Humphrey Burton; head of documentary and music programmes, 1963-65, and controller of programmes, 1965-68; managing director of television, BBC, 1968; deputy director general, BBC, 1976; after retirement from senior posts at the BBC, continued to work as a writer and presenter. President, Royal Television Society, 1979-85. Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Died 1986.

TELEVISION SERIES (presenter)

1954 All Your Own
1957-64 Monitor (also editor)
1977 Royal Heritage (also co-writer)

PUBLICATIONS

Monitor: An Anthology. London: Macdonald, 1962.

"British Traditions in a World Wide Medium." London: BBC, 1973.

"The Achievement of Television: A Lecture." London: BBC, 1975.

"The British Experience in Television." London: BBC, 1976.

Sir Huw Wheldon was one of the leading figures among BBC television program makers in the 1960s and a top BBC administrator in the 1970s. A man of profound intellect and understanding, he inspired great loyalty among those who had the privilege of working with him.

After a distinguished war career, he became the Arts Council Director for Wales, and was awarded an OBE for his contributions to the Festival of Britain. Joining the BBC publicity department in 1952, he quickly established himself as a gifted television presenter with the children's program All Your Own. Wheldon's greatest contribution to modern television in Britain was his editorship of the arts program Monitor from 1958 to 1964. He both produced the program and appeared as its principal interviewer and anchor, surrounding himself with a brilliant team of young directors which included David Jones, Ken Russell, and Melvyn Bragg. Wheldon was a wonderful encourager. He made a major contribution to the work of young directors like Ken Russell, whose career was boosted by his Monitor film on the life of Edward Elgar.

Wheldon made Monitor the seminal magazine program of the arts. As interviewer he guided his audience by his readiness to learn and to inquire rather than to pontificate. His sensitivity to language and his skilled use of film sequences made Monitor the outstanding arts program of its day. Though some criticised his editorship as promoting a "middle culture" which was neither high art nor pop art, Monitor captured and held a large and varied audience. Wheldon described this group as "a small majority, the broad section of the public well-disposed to the arts."

The second part of Wheldon's career was as a manager and administrator. He became head of documentary programs in 1962, a post that was enlarged the following year to head of music and documentary programs. He proved himself a good administrator who could detect and promote real talent. At that time Wheldon believed it was difficult to find superior documentary makers outside the department, and he seldom used freelances. Three years later, however, when he became controller of programs, he accepted the value of the BBC employing brilliant freelance film makers like Jack Gold, Ken Russell and Patrick Garland. In 1968 Wheldon succeeded Kenneth Adam as director of BBC Television.

The post was later re-designated as managing director and in that position Wheldon was committed to three conflicting objectives; to maintain and enhance standards; to secure at least half of the viewing audience in competition with ITV; and to contain costs in an era of inflation. Wheldon easily maintained and enhanced standards, but the challenge of competitive scheduling was formidable. His published paper The British Experience in Television revealed how the BBC television audience as a whole suffered because the ITV companies ran very popular programs like Coronation Street and Emergency Ward 10 at 7:30 P.M., thus winning the audience in the early evening and keeping it. Wheldon's solution was to fight like with like; pitting film against film, current affairs against current affairs. He wrote, "both BBC-1 and ITA had to adopt broadly competitive policies if they were to remain, each of them in a 50-50 position. Neither could afford to be in a 20-80 position.....A 50-50 position was achieved in the sixties, and broadly speaking, has prevailed ever since."

Containing costs was an ever harder task; the BBC employed the management consultants McKinsey to make recommendations, and as a result of their report, the Corporation, through the efforts of Wheldon and others, introduced a system of total costing. Under this system individual programs were charged a true proportion of the overheads. The prospect of employment casualization worried the broadcasting unions; every time he imposed cutbacks the unions became restive. Wheldon believed that 70% of the program staff should be on permanent budget, and the other 30% on temporary or short term contracts.

Sir Ian Trethowan who succeeded Huw Wheldon as managing director of television described Wheldon's style of leadership as tending towards the flamboyant and inspirational. Wheldon was also a shrewd professional broadcaster, with a passion for the public service role of the BBC. He believed it was the BBC's organisational foundation that made it possible to work well and achieve excellence. For Wheldon, the singularity of the BBC lay in its privileged position. Supported by the license fee, and armed with all the radio channels and two television channels, it could afford excellence.

Huw Wheldon was perhaps the last great leader in BBC television; none of his successors measured up to his achievements. He was described as the "last of the great actor-managers," but such a judgment underestimates a man who was much more than a performer. It is fascinating to speculate what would have happened if age had not debarred him from succeeding Charles Curran as director general. Instead the job went to his immediate successor in the job of managing director of television, Ian Trethowan. It was Huw Wheldon's misfortune that his luck ran out just when he could have made his greatest contribution to the fortunes of the BBC as director general.

-Andrew Quicke