   #copyright

Sydney Newman

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Producers, directors and
media figures

   Sydney Cecil Newman OC ( April 1, 1917– October 30, 1997) was a
   Canadian film and television producer, best remembered for the
   pioneering work he undertook in British television drama from the late
   1950s to the late 1960s. Initially a film editor with the National Film
   Board of Canada, he later moved into television with the Canadian
   Broadcasting Corporation, where he began his long association with
   drama.

   Moving to Britain in 1958, he worked first with the Associated British
   Corporation (ABC) before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the
   role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his
   career he was responsible for initiating two hugely popular fantasy
   series, The Avengers and Doctor Who, as well as overseeing the
   production of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as
   Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play.

   The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Newman
   as "the most significant agent in the development of British television
   drama." Shortly after his death, his obituary in The Guardian newspaper
   declared that "For ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was
   the most important impresario in Britain ... His death marks not just
   the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of
   popular art."

Early career in Canada

   Born in Toronto, Newman was the son of a Russian immigrant father who
   ran a shoe shop. After leaving school at the age of thirteen, he later
   enrolled in the Central Technical School, studying commercial and fine
   arts. He initially attempted to follow a career as a stills
   photographer and an artist, specialising in drawing film posters.
   However, he found it difficult to earn enough money to make a living
   from this profession, so instead he switched to working in the film
   industry itself, where he gained a job as a film editor at the National
   Film Board of Canada. He was eventually to work on over 350 films while
   an editor for the NFB.

   During the Second World War, the head of the NFB, John Grierson,
   promoted Newman to film producer, working on documentaries. In this
   role he oversaw acclaimed features such as Fighting Norway and Banshees
   Over Canada, along with various other wartime propaganda pieces. In
   1949 Grierson again assisted Newman's career, entering him into the
   then-new television industry on a one-year attachment to NBC television
   in New York City. He quickly became highly interested in the industry,
   and in 1952 with Grierson's assistance, he gained a job working at
   Canada's state television broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting
   Corporation (CBC).

   He initially worked in CBC's outside broadcasts department, of which he
   quickly became head, but after his experience of seeing the production
   of television plays in New York, he was eager to work in drama despite
   "knowing nothing about drama". He was nonetheless able to persuade his
   superiors at CBC to make him Supervisor of Drama Production in 1954. In
   this position he encouraged a new wave of young writers and directors,
   including William Kotcheff and Arthur Hailey, and oversaw shows such as
   the popular General Motors Theatre.

   Several of the General Motors Theatre plays, including Hailey's Flight
   into Danger, were purchased for screening by the BBC in the United
   Kingdom. The productions impressed Howard Thomas, who was the managing
   director of Associated British Corporation (ABC), the franchise holder
   for the rival ITV network in the English Midlands and the North at
   weekends. Thomas offered Newman a job with ABC as a producer of his own
   Saturday night thriller series, which Newman accepted, moving to
   Britain in 1958.

Associated British Corporation

   ABC's studios in Didsbury, Manchester, where Newman pioneered Armchair
   Theatre and The Avengers.
   Enlarge
   ABC's studios in Didsbury, Manchester, where Newman pioneered Armchair
   Theatre and The Avengers.

   Soon after Newman arrived in the UK, ABC's Head of Drama Dennis Vance
   was moved into a more senior position with the company, and Thomas
   offered Newman his position, which the Canadian quickly accepted. He
   was, however, somewhat disparaging of the state in which he found
   British television drama. "At that time, I found this country to be
   somewhat class-ridden," he told interviewers in 1988. "The only
   legitimate theatre was of the 'anyone for tennis' variety, which on the
   whole gave a condescending view of working-class people. Television
   dramas were usually adaptations of stage plays and invariably about the
   upper classes. I said 'Damn the upper classes: they don't even own
   televisions!'"

   Newman's principal tool for shaking up this established order was a
   Sunday night anthology series which had been initiated before he had
   arrived at ABC, but which he was to leave a firm mark upon. Armchair
   Theatre was networked nationally across the ITV regions on Sunday
   evenings, drawing huge audiences, and Newman used the strand to present
   plays by writers such as Alun Owen, Harold Pinter and Clive Exton, also
   bringing over associates from Canada such as William Kotcheff.

   In 1960 Newman devised a thriller series for ABC called Police Surgeon,
   starring Ian Hendry. Although Police Surgeon was not a success and was
   cancelled after only a short run, Newman took Hendry as the star and
   some of the ethos of the programme to create a new series (not a direct
   sequel as is sometimes claimed) called The Avengers. Debuting in
   January 1961, The Avengers became a huge international success,
   although in later years its premise differed somewhat from Newman's
   initial set-up, veering into more surreal fantasy territory rather than
   remaining a gritty thriller.

   Newman's great success at ABC had been noted by the British
   Broadcasting Corporation, whose executives were keen to revive their
   own drama department's fortunes in the face of fierce competition from
   ITV. In 1961 the BBC's Director of Television, Kenneth Adam, met with
   Newman — in a pub — and offered him the position of Head of Drama at
   the BBC. He accepted the position, eager for a new challenge, although
   he was forced by ABC to remain with them until the expiration of his
   contract in December 1962, after which he immediately began work with
   the BBC.

The BBC

   There was some initial resentment to his appointment within the
   Corporation, as he was an outsider and he was also earning more than
   many of the executives senior to him, although still substantially less
   than he had been paid at ABC. As he had done at ABC, he was keen to
   shake up the staid image of BBC drama and introduce new outlets for the
   kitchen sink drama and the " Angry Young Men" of the era. He also
   divided the unwieldy drama department, with 175 staff under his
   control, into three separate divisions — series, serials and plays,
   headed by Elwyn Jones, Donald Wilson and Michael Bakewell,
   respectively, each reporting directly to Newman.

   In 1964 he initiated the new anthology series The Wednesday Play, a BBC
   equivalent of Armchair Theatre, which had great success and critical
   acclaim with plays written and directed by the likes of Dennis Potter,
   Jeremy Sandford and Ken Loach. The strand attracted controversy, such
   as that concerning the banning of Peter Watkins's drama documentary The
   War Game in 1965. The department also had success with more traditional
   BBC fare such as the costume drama The Forsyte Saga in 1967, a Donald
   Wilson project which Newman had not been keen on initially, but which
   became one of the most acclaimed and popular productions of his era.

   However, his best-remembered BBC project, and the part of his career
   for which he is most noted, was the creation of the science fiction
   television series Doctor Who, which began in 1963 and ran until 1989 in
   its original form, and after a resumption in 2005 is still in
   production. Newman had long been a science-fiction fan: "[U]p to the
   age of 40, I don't think there was a science-fiction book I hadn't
   read. I love them because they're a marvellous way — and a safe way, I
   might add — of saying nasty things about our own society."

   When BBC Controller of Programmes Donald Baverstock alerted Newman of
   the need for a programme to bridge the gap between the sports showcase
   Grandstand and pop music programme Juke Box Jury on Saturday evenings,
   he immediately decided that a science-fiction drama would be the
   perfect vehicle for filling the gap and gaining a family audience.
   Although much work on the genesis of the series was done by Donald
   Wilson, C. E. Webber and others, it was Newman who created the idea of
   a time machine larger on the inside than the out and the character of
   the mysterious " Doctor", which remain at the heart of the programme.
   He is also believed to have come up with the title Doctor Who (although
   actor and director Hugh David later credited this to his friend Rex
   Tucker, the initial "caretaker producer" of the programme).

   After the series had been conceptualised, Newman initially approached
   Don Taylor and then Shaun Sutton to produce it, although both declined.
   He then decided on his former production assistant at ABC, Verity
   Lambert, who had never produced, written or directed but readily
   accepted his offer. As Lambert became the youngest — and only female —
   drama producer at the BBC, there were some doubts as to Newman's
   choice, but she became a great success in the role. Even Newman clashed
   with her on occasion, however, particularly over the inclusion of the
   alien Dalek creatures on the programme. Newman had not wanted any "
   bug-eyed monsters" in the show, and he regarded the Daleks as the
   epitome of such things, but after their huge success, he generally left
   Lambert to her own devices. Later in the show's run, in 1966 he took a
   more hands-on role again in the changeover between the First and Second
   Doctors. After his time at the BBC, though, as the series drifted
   further away from his initial semi-educational concepts, he became
   critical of its tone and production.

   After also creating other popular series such as Adam Adamant Lives!,
   at the end of 1967, Newman's five-year contract with the BBC came to an
   end, and he did not remain with the Corporation. Instead, he decided to
   pursue a return to the film industry, taking a job as a producer with
   Associated British Picture Corporation — coincidentally, the parent
   company of his former employers ABC Television. "I want to get away
   from my executive's chair and become a creative worker again," he told
   The Sun newspaper of his decision.

   However, the British film industry was entering a period of decline,
   and none of Newman's projects ever went into production. ABPC was taken
   over by EMI, becoming EMI Films, and at the end of June 1969, Newman
   was dismissed from the company, later describing his eighteen months
   there as "a futile waste". Despite being offered an executive
   producership by the BBC, keen to regain his services on the very day he
   left ABPC, Newman decided to return to Canada. He left the UK on
   January 3, 1970, leading The Sunday Times to comment that "British
   television will never be the same again."

Return to Canada

   His first post upon returning to his home country was as Director of
   Programmes at CRTC Ottawa — simultaneously, he became the Chairman of
   the National Film Board of Canada, returning to the same institution
   for which he had worked in the 1940s. He remained Chairman of the NFB
   until 1975, but left CRTC in 1972 to become a Director of the Canadian
   Broadcasting Corporation, another post he occupied until 1975. Towards
   the end of his active professional career, he was for two years Special
   Advisor on Film to the Secretary of State, and then briefly a part-time
   consultant to the Canadian Film Development Corporation.

   In 1979 he returned to the UK on a short visit to participate in an
   edition of the ITV documentary series The South Bank Show, before
   returning to Britain on a longer-term basis in the 1980s following the
   death of his wife. His main reason for doing so was to attempt,
   unsuccessfully, to produce a drama series about the Bloomsbury Group
   for the new Channel 4 network. Then in 1986, the then Controller of BBC
   One, Michael Grade, unhappy with the current state of Doctor Who, wrote
   to Newman to enquire whether he had any ideas for reformatting the
   series, which was at the time struggling in the ratings.

   Newman wrote back to Grade on October 6 that year with a set of
   detailed proposals and a suggestion that he take direct control of the
   series as executive producer. Grade suggested that Newman meet the
   current Head of Drama, Jonathan Powell, for lunch to discuss the
   Canadian's ideas. Newman and Powell did not get on well, however, and
   nothing came of their meeting. He was also unsuccessful in an attempt
   to have his name added to the end credits of the show as its creator.
   Acting Head of Series & Serials Ken Riddington, to whom Newman's
   request had been referred, wrote to him that "Heads of Department who
   originate programmes have to be satisfied with the other rewards that
   flow from doing so."

   Newman returned to Canada again in the 1990s, and he was awarded the
   Order of Canada in 1991, the country's highest civilian honour. He died
   of a heart attack in Toronto in 1997. Elizabeth McRae, his wife since
   1944, had predeceased him in 1981. He was survived by their three
   daughters.

Critical analysis

   In his book The Largest Theatre in the World about his career working
   for the BBC, Newman's successor as Head of Drama — Shaun Sutton, who
   served under the Canadian as a producer and later as Head of Serials —
   praised Newman's work in reinventing the BBC's drama output. "Sydney
   galvanised television drama," Sutton wrote. "He was brusque, sardonic,
   and straightforward; stern when one made mistakes, fiercely supportive
   if anyone dared to suggest that you had. He was passionate about
   writers and writing, demanding new plays by the score. He was
   contemporary, irreverent, and a determined enemy of cant and pomposity
   ... Sydney's accomplishment was the creation of a climate in which
   boldness paid. He wanted contemporary drama; he wanted to raise
   rumpuses and get questions asked."

   The biography of Newman on the British Film Institute's Screenonline
   website echoes Sutton's praise for the Canadian's aims, pointing out
   that "Newman's concerns, incidentally, were equally with the viewer: he
   recognised that television was a mass medium that needed to appeal
   across the social strata, from porters to professors. His policy,
   therefore, was to present plays about contemporary life in a
   contemporary idiom."

   However, it is also noted by critics and academics that the success of
   Newman's achievements at the CBC, ABC and BBC were not down to him
   alone. "His skill can be located in an ability to successfully exploit
   the best of already favourable circumstances with an incorrigible
   enthusiasm and clarity of vision," notes his biography on the Museum of
   Broadcast Communications website. They also posit that "In retrospect
   Newman's ... conscious characterisation of BBC drama output as static
   and middlebrow is unfair. His counterpart at the BBC during the late
   1950s, Michael Barry, also attracted new young original writers ... and
   hired young directors ... However, it was the newness and innovation
   which Newman encouraged in his drama output that is most significant:
   his concentration on the potential of television as television, for a
   mass not a middlebrow audience."

   There were also some elements within the British theatrical and
   television industries who were openly hostile to Newman's influence on
   the drama genre. Director Don Taylor, in particular, did not welcome
   the Canadian's arrival at the BBC in 1963. "Sydney was not formally
   educated ... He also had a contempt for 'intellectuals'... I was in a
   group lunching with him one day after Philip Saville's production of
   Hamlet was screened ... It was clear that Syd didn't know the play,
   hadn't read it, and had seen it for the first time on screen ... To put
   it brutally, I was deeply offended that the premier position in
   television drama, at a time when it really was the National Theatre of
   the Air, had been given to a man whose values were entirely commercial,
   and who had no more than a layman's knowledge of the English theatrical
   tradition, let alone the drama of Europe and the wider world."

   In contrast to Taylor's views, John Caughie, author of the book
   Television Drama: Realism, Modernism, and British Culture, which
   analyses British television drama from the 1960s to the 1990s, believes
   that it was Newman's concentration on material written directly for
   television rather than adapted from other sources, the very
   non-theatrical nature which Taylor professed to despair of, which was
   his greatest contribution to the genre in the UK. "Newman's insistence
   that the series would use only original material written for television
   made Armchair Theatre a decisive moment in the history of British
   television drama, and both he and Ted Kotcheff, the ambitious young
   director he brought with him from Canada, belonged to a television
   culture which had no particular reverence for the classics of theatre
   and literature."
   Preceded by:
   Michael Barry BBC Television Head of Drama
                 1962–1967                   Succeeded by:
                                             Shaun Sutton
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Newman"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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