John Birt, Baron Birt

John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) served as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 1992 to 2000, having previously been deputy director-general from 1987.

Early career

Birt was born in Liverpool to a Catholic father who was a manager for the Firestone Tyre company and a Protestant mother. He was raised Roman Catholic and educated at St Mary's College, Liverpool and at St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he studied engineering and gained a third-class degree.

Between 1966 and 1971 he was a Producer at Granada Television, where he created the entertainment magazine programme "Nice Time" and worked on "World in Action". In his most memorable programme for "World in Action", in July 1967, he arranged for Mick Jagger, newly freed after drugs charges, to discuss his views with leading establishment figures including the editor of "The Times" William Rees-Mogg and the Bishop of Woolwich.

He became joint editor of the series with Gus McDonald in 1969, after which he moved to London Weekend Television (LWT). At LWT he created "Weekend World" and was the programmes founding editor. Subsequently, Birt was head of current affairs and then controller of Features and Current Affairs at LWT. At this time, Birt formed a close working relationship with Michael Grade, which would later go sour when both worked at the BBC (Source: The Harder Path). In the mid-1970s in a sabbatical away from LWT, he produced David Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon, returning to LWT as Director of Programmes from 1982; in particular during this period he was responsible for the revival in the career of Cilla Black, a life-long friend. Birt started working for the BBC in 1987.

At the BBC

Birt was a source of immediate controversy following his appointment as BBC Director General in 1992, when it was revealed that he was being employed as a consultant and therefore writing off numerous personal expenses against tax, including the secretarial services of his then wife. While this practice was acceptable in the private sector, most considered the role of Director General a Public Trust appointment, and under political pressure Birt negotiated to become a BBC employee. In the process Birt had to give up his shares in LWT that formed part of his final salary settlement. In 1994, when LWT was bought out by Granada Television, Birt lost out on a windfall of several million pounds.

In 1974, along with then "Weekend World" presenter Peter Jay, Birt had contributed three articles to "The Times" newspaper on television journalism. In their view, current affairs programming tended to contain a "bias against understanding": instead, they advocated the promotion of "a mission to explain." Pictures, in this view, took precedence over analysis in television broadcasting. Birt held the post of Director of News and Current Affairs for a time during his spell as deputy Director General under Michael Checkland, but his influence in this field remained pervasive subsequently.

In practical pursuit of this thesis broadcast journalists were required by Birt to prepare their arguments before any filming was undertaken, rather than leave this to the assembly of the programme or package in the editing suite. This was controversial, since findings were now determined "a priori" and thus arguably led to the reflection of a narrower viewpoint. In the view of journalist Kate Adie this went against the "obligation to report" [ [http://authorpages.hoddersystems.com/kateadie/extract.html THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS] ] or in the view of former Panorama presenter Fred Emery to "a certain blandness".

Birt's complex "virtual internal market" reforms of the BBC resulted in different departments within the BBC charging each other for other BBC internal services and even competing against each other when tendering contract submissions. Under the "Producer Choice" initiative which he introduced, producers were now obliged to use outside resources when cheaper to do so; in-house facilities, owned and paid for by the BBC, were closed or stood idle as a result because of the "creative accounting" methods used. Each BBC departments overheads were priced internally by the BBC for the "Producer Choice" experiment. So called unprofitable departments were suddenly axed, some after decades of service, including the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Birt was not well liked by most of the corporations's employees, and his reforms were partially dismantled by his successors Greg Dyke and Mark Thompson. Television playwright Dennis Potter, in particular, described Birt as a "croak-voiced Dalek" shortly before his death, and the allusion stuck for the rest of Birt's time at the BBC. His use of impenetrable jargon became known as 'Birtspeak', and this was frequently mocked in "Private Eye".

Birt though does have prominent defenders, including journalists John Lloyd and Polly Toynbee. It has been argued that without those reforms and Birt's relatively Conservative-friendly persona [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200211/ai_n9152342 reign of King John, The] ] , the BBC would not have secured its charter renewal in the 1990s. Birt was also responsible for a major modernisation of much BBC programming, not least the removal of Simon Bates, Dave Lee Travis and other veteran DJs from BBC Radio 1. This turned BBC Radio 1 into a much more youth-oriented station (though the channel's popularity declined), and in TV the demise of the "Paul Daniels Magic Show" and similar vintage variety formats on BBC1 TV.

Birt also invested heavily in Digital Broadcast resources for the BBC but this was criticised as being at the expense of the BBC's core programming with BBC grandees such as John Tusa launching attacks, claiming that, "you have to love an organisation in order to reform it." He also sought government approval to direct licence fee revenue into the new online service bbc.co.uk.

In 1998, BBC programmes were prevented from mentioning the private life of the cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson, shortly after Mandelson had complained about Matthew Parris's inclusion of his name as a senior Minister who was gay. Mandelson and Birt had known each other while they were working for London Weekend and there was press speculation that Birt had instigated the direction, although it had been issued by Anne Sloman, the BBC's chief political adviser, editorial policy

Sir John was awarded the life peerage as Baron Birt, of Liverpool in the County of Merseyside in 1999, and took his seat in the House of Lords in March 2000 as a Crossbencher.

Post-BBC career

In 2001 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1483994.stm Birt becomes Number 10 adviser] ] Tony Blair appointed Birt as his personal advisor, for what was termed "Blue Skies thinking" [ [http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1520872,00.html Blue skies thinker with the eye of an accountant] ] ; it is thought his long-standing friendship with Peter Mandelson had a role in his appointment. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3916089.stm Profile: Peter Mandelson ] ] His role in government has been controversial, since as a special advisor, rather than a civil servant, he is not formally obliged to face questions from House of Commons Select committees. In October 2002 an uproar was created when it emerged that the government had specifically asked him not to appear in front of the transport select committee, at a time when he was in charge of long-term transport strategy. Earlier that year, a paper of Birt's had proposed a second network of motorways operated as tolls to counter the problems of traffic congestion. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1996237.stm,Toll road network 'planned for UK'] ] In parallel, he has subsequently become a part-time consultant with McKinsey & Company, which some see as a conflict of interest with his government involvement. In December 2005 he quit his role as advisor to Tony Blair to join private equity firm Terra Firma, "for personal reasons".

Since February 2004, Birt has been a member of the Board of Directors of PayPal.

The "Financial Times" reported at the beginning of July 2005 that Birt's office ceiling at No 10 Downing Street had fallen in. No one was injured. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4605723.stm' Blue sky' Birt's ceiling falls] ]

Returning to his earlier career on 26 August 2005, Birt delivered his second MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. Partly a review of his professional life as a broadcaster, he also criticised the "tabloidisation" of intellectual concerns. More importantly, he argued that Channel Four should receive financial help, in order to preserve "public service broadcasting", which was taken as advocacy of the BBC sharing its licence fee with Channel Four. He also mentioned that his long standing feud with Michael Grade had been resolved, but the speech as a whole was not admired by many figures in the industry. [ [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1558255,00.html Plenty of problems but no solutions] ]

In 2006, Lord Birt joined the consulting firm Capgemini. He will advise the firm, with a focus on its consulting services in the public sector and telecom, media and entertainment. [ [http://www.accountancyage.com/management-consultancy/news/2148989/lord-birt-joins-capgemini Lord Birt joins Capgemini] ]

He is currently working with Infinis, the UK's largest independent generator of renewable power from landfill gas.

Private life

John Birt's first wife was the American-born Jane Lake. They met in 1963, whilst she was an art student at Oxford. The couple married in Washington, D.C. in 1965, and have two children, Eliza and Yahya (formerly Jonathan) Birt.

In April 2005, Birt admitted a twelve-month affair with Eithne Wallis, a divorced mother of three and a former head of the National Probation Service. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1559788,00.html Birt divorces his wife of 40 years for a new love - Britain - Times Online ] ] . The divorce cost him just £1,500, after he also admitted adultery in his court papers.

Birt and Wallis' marriage took place on 16 December 2006 at Islington Register Office. It was attended by neither set of children, and cost just the registrar's fees of £103.50, plus £30 to post the notice of marriage. A reception was held after the ceremony at the fashionable London St John restaurant in Smithfield [ [http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=423129&in_page_id=1770 Former BBC boss John Birt spends £150 on wedding | the Mail on Sunday ] ] , attended by, among others, the politician Peter Mandelson and Trevor Philips, the head of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, also a former employee of LWT. The bridegroom's speech paid tribute to his new wife's efficiency in her post at the Probation Service. Fact|date=March 2007

Bibliography

*cite book | author = John Birt | title = The Harder Path | isbn = 0-316-86019-0 | year = 2002 | publisher = Time Warner Books
*cite book | author = Georgina Born | title = Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC | isbn = 0-436-20562-9 | year = 2004 | publisher = Secker & Warburg

References

External links

* [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst;jsessionid=GjpH2ymvMk2BQLpvv4dJcH3PJh82Gtq6BF8LFD26QYn172SkGlJP!-1689471358!68860294?a=o&d=5000379121 "New Statesman" interview with John Birt] , June 21, 1996 by Ian Hargreaves
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,819910,00.html Review of John Birt's "The Harder Path"] by Peter Bazalgette in "The Observer", October 27, 2002
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/minutes/000307/ldminute.htm Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords]