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Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987) was a British television executive and journalist. He was
director-general of the BBC The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC. The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period of 1927 to 2007) and then t ...
from 1960 to 1969. After working for newspapers in the 1930s, Greene spent most of his later career with the BBC, rising through the managerial ranks of overseas broadcasting and then news for the main domestic channels. He encountered opposition from some politicians and activists opposed to his modernising agenda, but under his leadership the BBC was recognised to be outperforming its commercial rival, ITV, and was awarded a second television channel (
BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...
) by the British government and authorised to introduce colour television to Britain. After retiring from the BBC, Greene published several books, including a collaboration with his brother, the novelist
Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, and made television programmes both for the BBC and its commercial rival.


Background

Greene was born on 15 November 1910 in
Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new to ...
, Hertfordshire, the youngest of four sons and the fifth of the six children of Charles Henry Greene, headmaster of
Berkhamsted School Berkhamsted School is an independent day school in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. The present school was formed in 1997 by the amalgamation of the original Berkhamsted School, founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral ...
, and his wife (and cousin), Marion Raymond, the daughter of the Rev Carleton Greene, vicar of
Great Barford Great Barford is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, a few miles north-east of Bedford. It lies on the River Great Ouse at . It is twinned with Wöllstein, Germany. The village is bypassed by the busy A421 road on the way betw ...
. Among the couple's other children were
Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, the novelist, and
Raymond Greene Charles Raymond Greene (17 April 1901 – 6 December 1982) was a British doctor and an accomplished mountaineer. Biography Greene was born in Berkhamsted.Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...
, where he obtained a second class in classical moderations (1931) and English (1933). Before his undergraduate years at Merton, Greene had spent some time in Germany and, after graduating, he returned there, beginning his career as a journalist. He worked in Munich for the British publications '' The Daily Herald'' and the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'', and in 1934 he joined the Berlin office of ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'', becoming its chief correspondent in 1938."Greene, Sir Hugh (Carleton), (1910–19 Feb. 1987)"
''Who's Who & Who Was Who'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 March 2019 The writer of his entry in the ''
Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Colin Shaw, comments that Greene's direct witnessing of the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
deeply influenced him for the rest of his life, "teaching him to hate intolerance and the degradation of character to which the loss of freedom led". He was expelled from Germany in May 1939 in reprisal for the expulsion from London of a journalist and Nazi agent, Rudolf Rösel. ''The Daily Telegraph'' sent Greene to Warsaw but his time there was brief. In September 1939, the Germans invaded Poland and he was forced to leave. As the war spread in Europe he reported from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium and finally France, returning to Britain in June 1940, narrowly escaping the German army's arrival in Paris."Sir Hugh Greene"
''The Times'', 21 February 1987, p. 14 After a few months in the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
as a pilot officer in intelligence, he was released to join the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's German service, becoming its news editor. Throughout the war, the BBC remained committed to impartial and accurate reporting to enemy-occupied territories. In 1940, Greene was one of the first to undergo security clearance vetting by
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
while working at the BBC, as MI5 suspected Greene was a communist.


Early broadcasting career

At the end of the war the British government asked Greene to return to Germany as controller of broadcasting in the British-occupied zone. He established a peacetime radio service,
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR; ''Northwest German Broadcasting'') was the organization responsible for public broadcasting in the German Länder of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from 22 September 1945 to ...
, served as its first director-general and gave it a charter on the lines of the BBC. In 1948, the station was handed over to the German authorities and Greene returned to England. He was appointed head of the BBC's eastern European service in 1949, just before the Russians began to jam its broadcasts. In 1950, he was again seconded for government service, this time as head of emergency information services for the
Federation of Malaya The Federation of Malaya ( ms, Persekutuan Tanah Melayu; Jawi: ) was a federation of what previously had been British Malaya comprising eleven states (nine Malay states and two of the British Straits Settlements, Penang and Malacca)''See' ...
, helping to combat the efforts of communist insurgents. Among his assistants was the future prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew, who became a close friend. On his return to London, Greene resumed his work at the BBC. First, in 1952, as assistant controller of overseas services, and then, in 1955, as controller. In 1956, Sir
Norman Bottomley Air chief marshal Sir Norman Howard Bottomley, (18 September 1891 – 13 August 1970) was the successor to Arthur 'Bomber' Harris as Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command in 1945. RAF career Born in Ripponden, West Riding of Yorkshire, Bot ...
, director of administration and deputy to the director-general, Sir
Ian Jacob Lieutenant General Sir Edward Ian Claud Jacob (27 September 1899 – 24 April 1993), known as Ian Jacob, was a British Army officer, who served as the Military Assistant Secretary to Winston Churchill's war cabinet and was later a distinguished ...
, retired. Greene was appointed to succeed him; Shaw comments that this temporarily distanced him from any direct involvement with programmes, but clearly identified him as the potential successor to Jacob, who was due to retire in 1959. After two years Greene was appointed to a newly-created post – director of news and current affairs. It was established in the wake of television's rise to overtake radio as the dominant broadcasting medium, and Greene's brief was "to secure overall co-ordination and editorial direction of topical output in both radio and television". In this role Greene encountered resistance to modernisation by key figures in the BBC news division, headed by
Tahu Hole Tahu Ronald Charles Pearce Hole CBE (29 March 1906 – 22 November 1985) was a New Zealand born journalist who was the BBC's television news editor during the period immediately following the Second World War. Early life and work Hole was bo ...
. The commercial
Independent Television News Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...
(ITN), launched in 1955 was strongly outperforming the BBC in innovation, flair and audience numbers. Jacob backed Greene's modernising approach, and moved Hole to be director of administration. Among the reforms introduced by Greene was the abandonment of a restrictive and bureaucratic system for covering party politics. Before the 1959 general election he announced, "We are going to cover the election, nationally and locally, like any other news story – on the basis of news value", putting the BBC on a similar basis to ITN and the press.


BBC director-general

Greene's appointment to succeed Jacob was announced in 1959. It was received with widespread approval by BBC staff, partly because Greene was the first director-general to have risen through the ranks of BBC management, and partly because his transformation of news and current affairs coverage had impressed the programme makers and made them feel valued as they had not felt previously. He assumed the post on 1 January 1960. Early on, Greene abolished the position of director of news and current affairs, and appointed himself editor-in-chief. In that capacity, Shaw writes, he remained "a working journalist capable, when the need arose, of dealing expeditiously with those editorial issues that were referred to him". As director-general he led a modernisation of the BBC, increasing its audience after the creation of a rival commercial ITV television network (the first contractors were on air from September 1955) which had become much more popular than the BBC. Soon after Greene's appointment, the government set up a committee of inquiry into broadcasting, chaired by the industrialist Sir
Harry Pilkington William Henry Pilkington, Baron Pilkington (29 April 1905 – 23 December 1983) was an English glass manufacturer and president of the Federation of British Industries, who is remembered politically as chairman of the Pilkington Committee that p ...
. Greene pressed the BBC's case, arguing that the interests outside television of the commercial franchise holders constituted a conflict of loyalties with their public service obligations, and that the quality of programmes from commercial television was greatly inferior to that of the BBC's. The committee's report was highly favourable to Greene and the BBC, and despite pressure from the commercial television lobby, the government awarded the BBC the proposed third channel and introduction of colour television. In a short history of the corporation, the BBC says of Greene's tenure, "he encouraged programme-makers to reflect the social changes and attitudes of the Sixties": Greene was more frank in private: Although under Greene's leadership the BBC caught up with and overtook commercial television in popularity among the British public as a whole, there were dissenting voices.
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
, who became prime minister in 1964, was less tolerant than his predecessors of the BBC's satire and lack of deference, and
Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permi ...
, a campaigner who described herself as "an evangelical Christian and moral crusader", accused Greene of being "the devil incarnate" for allowing the broadcast of dramas with sexual content or bad language. Greene ignored Mary Whitehouse, but he was vulnerable to Wilson's hostility. When the chairman of the BBC, Lord Normanbrook, died in 1967, his successor Lord Hill, was appointed reportedly at Wilson's request. Hitherto chairman of the BBC's rival, the
Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" ( ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA existed from 1954 un ...
, Greene at that point held him in contempt.Tracey, Michael
"Greene, Mrs Whitehouse and the BBC"
''The Observer'', 14 August 1983, pp. 21–22 If, as was suspected at the time, Wilson's motive was to provoke Greene into resigning, the ploy almost succeeded, but Greene's advisers convinced him that if he resigned the whole board of management of the BBC would resign with him, leaving the corporation "at the mercy of its new master" as one colleague put it. Greene and Hill established a working relationship that was uneasy but viable. Nonetheless, after a year Greene began to look forward to retirement. After more than eight years in post he left in March 1969. To make it clear that the decision was his, rather than Hill's, the latter proposed that Greene should become a member of the BBC's board of governors. He did so, and served for two years before resigning, feeling that his presence was inhibiting his successor.


Later years

After he left the post of director general, Greene made some programmes for the BBC and also – causing some disapproval at the BBC – for ITV. He edited several collections of stories about the rivals of
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
, collaborated with his brother Graham on ''Victorian Villanies'' (1984) and became chairman of
Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...
, his brother's publisher. His lifelong hatred of totalitarianism and dictatorship led him to be active in campaigning against the
military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...
that ruled Greece after the coup of 1967. After civilian rule was reestablished, Greene was adviser to the Greek government on the constitution of broadcasting.


Personal life

Greene was married four times. In October 1934, he married Helga Mary (b. 1916), the daughter of Samuel Guinness, a banker, of London. They had two sons; the couple divorced in 1948. In September 1951, he married Elaine Shaplen (b. 1920), the daughter of Louis Gilbert, an accountant, of New York. They had two sons, and divorced in 1969. In May 1970, Greene married the German actress
Tatjana Sais Tatjana Sais, Lady Greene (28 January 1910 – 26 February 1981) was a German film actress. She appeared in 20 films between 1937 and 1967 and was a member of the jury at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival. She was married to Günte ...
(1910–1981); they had lived together in the late 1940s. She died in 1981, and in December 1984, he married Sarah Mary Manning Grahame (b. 1941), a script supervisor from Australia. There were no children of the third and fourth marriages. Greene died from cancer in
King Edward VII's Hospital King Edward VII's Hospital (formal name: King Edward VII's Hospital Sister Agnes) is a private hospital located on Beaumont Street in the Marylebone district of central London. Agnes Keyser, later known as Sister Agnes, established the hospi ...
, London, on 19 February 1987.


Honours

Greene was appointed OBE in 1950 and knighted (
KCMG KCMG may refer to * KC Motorgroup, based in Hong Kong, China * Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, British honour * KCMG-LP, radio station in New Mexico, USA * KCMG, callsign 1997-2001 of Los Angeles radio station KKLQ (FM) ...
) in 1964. He received honorary degrees from the
University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
, the
University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for post-nominals) is a collegiate research university, located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, co ...
and the
Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...
. The West German government awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit in 1977. In 1985 he received the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honour from the German
Eduard Rhein Foundation The Eduard Rhein Foundation was founded in 1976 in Hamburg (Germany) by Eduard Rhein. The goal of the foundation is to promote scientific research, learning, arts, and culture. This is done in particular by granting awards for outstanding achievemen ...
for outstanding work related to the promotion of scientific research and of learning, the arts and culture. The road where the German radio station he helped to organise is located is now named after him (Hugh-Greene-Weg).


Publications

* ''The Spy's Bedside Book'' (ed., with Graham Greene, 1957) * ''The Third Floor Front: A View of Broadcasting in the Sixties'' (1969) * ''The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Early Detective Stories'' (ed., 1970) * ''Cosmopolitan Crimes: More Rivals of Sherlock Holmes''; US edition ''Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'' (ed., 1971) * ''The Crooked Counties: Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'' (ed., 1973) * ''The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'' (1976) * ''The Pirate of the Round Pond and Other Strange Adventure Stories'' (ed., 1977) * ''Victorian Villainies'' (ed., with Graham Greene, 1984) ::Source: ''Who's Who''.


Notes


References


Further reading

*


External sources


Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Hugh 1910 births 1987 deaths Alumni of Merton College, Oxford BBC executives BBC Governors English television executives BAFTA fellows Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Berkhamsted School People from Berkhamsted Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century English businesspeople Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Air Force officers Deaths from lung cancer in England 20th-century British journalists New Statesman people The Daily Telegraph people British foreign correspondents English expatriates in Germany