Peter Salmon (producer)

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For other uses, see Peter Salmon (disambiguation).

Peter Salmon
St Theodore's RC High School
Alma materUniversity of Warwick
Employer(s)Endemol Shine Group
BBC
Channel 4
Granada Television
TitleController of BBC One (1997–2000)
Spouse
​
(m. 2001)​
Children4

Peter Salmon (born 15 May 1956

in-house programme production,[2] and Director of BBC North.[3]

Early life and career

Born in

British Government press officer,[5] before going on, in 1978, to work as a junior reporter for the Chatham News and Standard newspaper,[5] where he worked alongside Martin Brunt, now crime correspondent of Sky News. He is a fan of Burnley F.C.[4]

Career

Initial BBC career

In 1981 Salmon joined the staff of the

dramatic reconstruction to be featured on the crime series Crimewatch, and he later went on to produce the programme.[2] He also worked on the children's magazine show Blue Peter and the current affairs series Newsnight.[2]

In 1989 he moved away from the central BBC in London to become the Head of Television Features at

Academy Award-winning short film The Wrong Trousers (1993).[2]

Channel 4 and Granada

In 1993 he left the BBC to take up a position as Head of Factual Programmes at

International Emmys and two successive Prix Italias.[2]

During his time at Channel 4, Salmon was also responsible for overseeing the channel's annual

Queen Elizabeth II's official message on BBC One and ITV every 25 December at 3pm. In 1994, Salmon attracted some criticism for choosing the controversial American civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson to deliver the message.[7]

He left Channel 4 in February 1996 to become Director of Programmes at

Granada Television, one of the largest companies of the ITV network and one of the major providers of nationally-networked programming for the channel.[5] During his time at Granada he oversaw successes such as the comedy drama Cold Feet (1997) and the docudrama Hillsborough (1996),[2] although both of these had already been commissioned before he joined the company.[5]

BBC One

In 1997 he left Granada after only twenty months to return to the BBC when the job of Controller of BBC One, the corporation's primary channel, became available. This vacancy had come as something of a surprise, resulting from

Michael Jackson's sudden move to Channel 4 after just a year in charge.[8] Salmon took charge of BBC One in September 1997.[9]

Salmon rejoined the BBC at a difficult time, when it was losing many senior executives such as Jackson to rival broadcasters.[10] Responsible for a £652 million annual programming budget,[10] Salmon commissioned several successful programmes, such as the drama series Clocking Off (2000–03) and the sitcoms Dinnerladies (1998–2000) and My Family (2000–2011).

However, prior to the arrival of new

Panorama.[13][14] BBC One also saw its audience fall to record lows on several occasions during Salmon's period in charge.[15]

Finally, on 13 September 2000, the BBC officially announced that Salmon was to leave BBC One to become the new Director of BBC Sport.[15] His successor was eventually confirmed as being Lorraine Heggessey, who had been widely speculated as replacing Salmon even before his departure had been confirmed.[12]

BBC Sport, Television Corporation and BBC Vision Productions

Salmon's new role saw the BBC's sports coverage across

2004 UEFA European Football Championship and 2004 Summer Olympics events.[2] He was aided in these achievements by a large increase in the department's budget from Director-General Greg Dyke; in 2003 alone, BBC Sport was given a budget of £300 million.[16]

In July 2005, he left the BBC to become the Chief Executive of the independent production company Television Corporation, producers of programmes such as

The Hamburg Cell.[17] However, when Television Corporation was taken over by the Welsh company Tinopolis, Salmon left the organisation.[18]
He returned to the BBC in 2006 to become Chief Creative Officer of the new "BBC Vision Productions" set-up, overseeing all creative output from the BBC's in-house production centres.

In December 2008 he became the director of BBC North Group Division, and in May 2014 was appointed Director of

BBC England
.

Personal life

He is married to the actress Sarah Lancashire.[18] They have a son together. Salmon has three sons from a previous relationship, and Sarah has two sons from a previous marriage.

References

  1. Guardian Unlimited
    . Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  2. ^
    BBC Press Office
    . Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  3. ^ "Biographies — Peter Salmon".
  4. ^ a b "Burnley BBC man promoted to director for England". Lancashire Telegraph. 1 June 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Brown, Maggie (8 September 1997). "Big fish makes a fine catch". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Burrell, Ian (28 February 2005). "Kevin Lygo: The art of television". The Independent. Retrieved 8 July 2010.[dead link]
  7. The Sunday Times
    .
  8. ^ Culf, Andrew (3 May 1997). "BBC bereft as Channel 4 picks Grade's successor". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Longrigg, Clare (3 September 1997). "BBC1 'people's channel'". The Guardian.
  10. ^ a b Culf, Andrew (2 September 1997). "BBC poaches top executive from Granada TV". The Guardian.
  11. ^ a b Wells, Matt (30 August 2000). "BBC1 controller close to being moved". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  12. ^ a b Wells, Matt; Brown, Maggie (4 September 2000). "One hell of a drama". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  13. ^ Elstein, David (22 May 2000). "A shameful decision". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  14. ^ Aaronovitch, David (16 May 2000). "You cannot be serious!". The Independent.
  15. ^ a b Wells, Matt (14 September 2000). "BBC1 chief appointed director of sport". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  16. ^ a b c Kelso, Paul (8 March 2004). "A question of sport". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  17. ^ Pimlott, Daniel (22 April 2005). "Television Corp looks to leap with Salmon". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
  18. ^ a b Brown, Maggie (11 December 2006). "Salmon's leap of faith". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2007.

External links

Media offices
Preceded by Controller of BBC One
1997-2000 		Succeeded by
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