Alasdair David Gordon Milne was a British television producer and executive. He had a long career at the BBC, where he was eventually promoted to Director-General, and was described by The Independent as "one of the most original and talented programme-makers to emerge during television's formative years". In his early career, Milne was a BBC producer and was involved in founding the current affairs series Tonight in 1957. Later, after a period outside the BBC, he became Controller of BBC Scotland and BBC Television's Director of Programmes. He served as Director-General of the BBC between July 1982 and January 1987, when he was forced to resign from his post by the BBC Governors following several difficult years for the Corporation, which included sustained pressure from the Thatcher government about editorial decisions which had proved controversial.
Before going to university Milne did his National Service as an officer in the Gordon Highlanders. He joined the BBC in September 1954 as a graduate trainee after his wife spotted a BBC advertisement. He was taken under the wing of Grace Wyndham Goldie who recruited, trained, guided and encouraged many well-known BBC broadcasters and current affairs executives. Milne was one of the so-called "Goldie Boys", a group of producers and presenters, which included Huw Wheldon, Robin Day, David Frost, Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan and Richard Dimbleby. Milne was the first television producer to become Director-General. His background was in current affairs and he was a founder producer of Tonight, and became the programme's Editor in 1961. He also worked on programmes such as That Was The Week That Was, one of the most controversial programmes of the 1960s, and The Great War. He was instrumental in bringing the entire Shakespeare canon to television, as well as one of the BBC's most acute comedies, Yes, Minister. Landmark broadcasting events during his time as Director-General included Live Aid, the massive music event precipitated by a BBC news report on famine in Africa. The BBC's new Breakfast Time programme went on air on 17 January 1983, presented by Frank Bough and former ITN newscaster Selina Scott. Milne was full of praise for the show, saying: "It was a terrific start. The first Tonight programme was not as good as this." As Director-General, Milne was involved with a series of controversies with the British government. Contentious programme-making included the Nationwidegeneral election special with Margaret Thatcher in 1983, the coverage of the miners' strike of 1984–85, the Real Lives fracas, the Panorama libel action, the reporting of the U.S. bombing of Libya and the controversy surrounding the programme Secret Society which took place in light of MI5's vetting of BBC employees. On top of this, Milne had to defend the existence of the BBC to the Peacock Committee, which was considering the future of the BBC. Milne defended the television licence thus: The licence fee survived the negotiations, and the BBC made an expensive and failed attempt to enter satellite broadcasting. In September 1986, Marmaduke Hussey was appointed Chairman of the BBC Governors. Perceived as being Margaret Thatcher's "hatchet man", he was accused of having been appointed because of her perception that the Corporation was biased towards the left. In an unprecedented step, Hussey convinced the Board of Governors that a change of direction was needed, and they forced Milne's resignation. Milne wrote: Alasdair Milne, who later described the governors as a "bunch of amateurs", resigned in January 1987.
Post-resignation comments about the BBC
Milne was strongly critical of later BBC Director-GeneralJohn Birt whom he called "blue skies Birt". Milne described Birt's thesis on television's so-called 'bias against understanding' as "balls, actually", and said In October 2004, stories were published implying that he had suggested that alleged dumbing down of the BBC was partly the consequence of the corporation's growing number of female executives: Milne later clarified his position:
Personal life
He married Sheila Kirsten Graucob in 1954, who was of Danish and Irish ancestry; she died in 1992. The couple had two sons, Ruairidh and Seumas and a daughter, Kirsty. Alasdair Milne died on 8 January 2013 at age 82 after suffering from a series of strokes.
