David Elstein

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David Keith Elstein (born 14 November 1944) is an executive producer[1] and a former chair of openDemocracy.

Early life and career

His parents were Polish orphans who were brought to Britain by the Rothschild Foundation, and ran a ladies' outfitters in

Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, before gaining a place to read History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, earning a double first.[3] After graduating at the age of 19, he became a trainee at the BBC in 1964. He spent most of his first year at the BBC on attachment to the new Centre of Cultural Studies at Birmingham University.[2]

At the BBC, David Elstein worked on

This Week (of which he became editor)[4] and elsewhere Weekend World
, A Week in Politics, Yuri Nosenko, KGB and Concealed Enemies.

Director of programmes at Thames

After a period as an independent producer working on programmes broadcast by

This Week series about Operation Flavius, the shooting in Gibraltar of three unarmed members of the IRA.[5]

Blamed in part for Thames losing its franchise to broadcast at the end of 1992, Elstein delivered the previous year's MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival. In his speech he mocked what was now an auction as Margaret Thatcher's "National Lottery", criticised the Conservative government for behaving with "spite" towards ITV, and called the franchise round "a death on the rack to make up for 'Death on the Rock'."[6] Elstein had hoped that a clause in the Broadcasting Act 1990 would save Thames thanks to its past reputation, since underbidding Carlton, the eventual winners, had been a deliberate choice. He found to his disappointment that "the exceptionality clause wasn't worth the paper it was written on."[6]

Later career

After serving as head of programming at

Channel 5
as its chief executive in 1997. Elstein has also been managing director of primetime productions and managing director of Brook Productions Ltd.

Other career highlights

He has been a visiting professor at the

licence fee with voluntary subscription.[8]

He is also a director of Kingsbridge Capital Advisors Limited, and was previously a supervisory board member of two German cable companies. He has also chaired

British Screen Advisory Council, the Commercial Radio Companies Association, Really Useful Theatres, XSN plc, Sports Network Group plc, Silicon Media Group, Civilian Content plc and the National Film and Television School. He was also a director of Virgin Media Inc
and Marine Track Holdings plc.

References

  1. The British Entertainment History Project
    . Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Charlotte Higgins "The BBC: there to inform, educate, provoke and enrage?", The Guardian, 16 April 2014
  3. ^ Sabbagh, Dan (29 August 2007). "Business big shot: David Elstein". The Times. London.
  4. ^ a b "David Elstein", BBC News, 14 May 1999
  5. ^ David Elstein "'Death on the Rock': 21 years later and still the official version lives on", openDemocracy, 23 November 2009
  6. ^ a b Sue Summers "Media: One of the walking wounded - David Elstein, a victim of the ITV shake-up, tells Sue Summers about his fears for quality commercial television", The Independent, 26 August 1992
  7. ^ The Political Structure of UK Broadcasting 1949-99. meson press. 2015.
  8. ^ "Newsnight" (26 November 2009)
  • Who's Who, 2006
  • Debrett's People of Distinction, 2006
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