Lorraine Heggessey

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Lorraine Sylvia Heggessey (born 16 November 1956) is a British

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

and executive. From 2000 until 2005, she was the first woman to be Controller of

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

, the primary

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

of the

British Broadcasting Corporation #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. ...

...

. She has also served as the Chief Executive of the production company

Talkback Thames Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames ...

. Until October 2019 Heggessey was the Chief Executive of

The Royal Foundation The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales is a charity which supports the work of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Their projects revolve around conservation, the early years, mental health, and the emergency services. Hist ...

Early life, education and career

Heggessey was educated at Vyners Grammar School in

Ickenham Ickenham is an area in Greater London, forming the eastern part of Uxbridge and within the London Borough of Hillingdon. While no major historical events have taken place in Ickenham, settlements dating back to the Roman occupation of Britain ...

Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civ ...

and later earned an Upper Second Class BA Honours degree in English Language & Literature from

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills ( Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_cha ...

( Collingwood College), before beginning her career in local newspaper journalism. She worked initially for the Westminster Press Group, where her first job was as a trainee reporter on the ''Acton Gazette'' local newspaper. In 1978 she applied for a

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

traineeship, but was rejected without an interview. She then worked voluntarily in hospital radio and gained a paid job on a

local newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports an ...

, before re-applying for the BBC traineeship the following year, this time successfully. She spent the next fifteen years working in

current affairs Current affairs may refer to: News * ''Current Affairs'' (magazine) a bimonthly magazine of culture and politics. * Current affairs (news format): a genre of broadcast journalism * Current Affairs, former name for Behind the News Politics * An ...

programming in television.

Career

Current affairs

By the early 1980s she had become a producer on the BBC's flagship current affairs series ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined i ...

'', before she left the staff of the BBC to join

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

's '' This Week'', broadcast on the rival ITV network. She then moved on again, this time to the small independent production company Clark Productions, for whom she worked on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's current affairs programme ''Hard News''. In the early 1990s, she and the

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...

collaborated on an edition of ''Hard News'' which investigated the treatment of

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

ist leader Arthur Scargill by '' The Daily Mirror'' newspaper and

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

Roger Cook. When Cook declined to be interviewed for the programme, Heggessey, along with Ken Capstick, Vice President of the Yorkshire NUM, employed one of his own tactics from his television series ''

The Cook Report ''The Cook Report'' was a British ITV current affairs television programme presented by Roger Cook which was broadcast from 22 July 1987 to 24 August 1999. The series featured the journalist investigating corruption, criminals, government so ...

'', "doorstepping" him outside the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

hotel in which he was staying and pursuing him, with a camera crew and asking questions, down the street as he walked away. She also worked on another Channel 4 documentary series, '' Dispatches'', before returning to the BBC, where she founded the viewer feedback series ''Biteback''. She also secured another notable television moment when she obtained the first interview with the notorious criminal "Mad" Frankie Fraser, for ''The Underworld'' documentary series. Working in the science department, she became

Editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

of the BBC One series '' QED'', and then

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

of the documentary series '' Animal Hospital'' and '' The Human Body''.

Children's BBC

Heggessey was considering leaving the BBC again and returning to working in the independent sector, when she was offered the position of Head of

Children's BBC BBC Children's and Education is the BBC division responsible for media content for children in the UK. Since the launch of specially dedicated television channels in 2002, the services have been marketed under two brands. CBBC (short for Chi ...

. As her daughters were at the time aged four and eight, she decided to accept the role, later explaining that "Short of taking over

Hamleys Hamleys is a British multinational toy retailer, owned by Reliance Retail. The world's oldest toy store, it was founded by William Hamley as "Noah's Ark" in High Holborn, London, in 1760. It moved to its current site on Regent Street in London's ...

, this was the next best job for them." She took up this post in 1997. It was as Head of Children's BBC that she became involved in the dismissal of ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Te ...

'' presenter Richard Bacon. In October 1998, the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one ...

'' newspaper revealed that Bacon had taken

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...

, and he was subsequently sacked from his job as a presenter on the high-profile children's programme. Heggessey appeared on-screen in a specially-recorded one-minute address to viewers shown directly before the first episode of ''Blue Peter'' to be screened following Bacon's sacking, on 19 October 1998, to explain to young viewers why Bacon had been dismissed, stating that he had "not only let himself and the team on ''Blue Peter'' down, but he has also let all of you down badly."

BBC One

In 1999 she was promoted to Director of Programmes and Deputy Chief Executive of the BBC's in-house production arm, BBC Production, responsible for supervising in-house output across all the various genres. She was in this role for little over a year however before she was promoted to Controller of BBC One, a post she took up on 1 November 2000. In this position she was responsible for co-commissioning the channel's output with the various heads of department — drama, news, etc. — and deciding the channel's overall strategy and schedule. She had previously been sounded out about the job in 1997, after

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...

's departure, but had turned down the opportunity as she felt she was then not yet experienced enough. During Heggessey's five years in charge, BBC One's audience share fell by 19.9%, to 23%, although this was in the context of declining audience figures across all British television channels due to increased competition from multichannel

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative adva ...

. However, in 2001 BBC One overtook its main rival

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

in terms of annual audience share for the first time since the rival channel had launched in 1955, although much of this was down to the success of the channel's

daytime television Daytime is a block of television programming taking place during the late-morning and afternoon on weekdays. Daytime programming is typically scheduled to air between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., following the early morning da ...

line-up, which had its own Controller in

Jane Lush Jane Elaine Lush (born 10 August 1952) is the Chairman of BAFTA, and a former BBC executive. She left the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2006, after a career spanning over 35 years. Life and career Lush was born in Marylebone. She attended ...

. When Heggessey arrived at the channel in November 2000, she inherited two controversial schedule changes which had been implemented the previous month, at the behest of

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 ...

Greg Dyke Gregory Dyke (born 20 May 1947) is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist, and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing ' ...

; the main evening

bulletin had been moved from 9pm to 10pm, and ''Panorama'' moved from a Monday night prime time slot to a later slot on Sunday nights. The moving of ''Panorama'' attracted criticism that BBC One was sidelining serious programming in favour of more populist output. Heggessey publicly defended the decision despite it not being hers, claiming that ''Panoramas ratings would have "dwindled" in its previous slot. Heggessey and the BBC's Controller of Drama Commissioning, Jane Tranter, took advantage of the weekday 9pm slot opened up by the moving of the news to commission new popular drama output, such as the successful '' Waking the Dead'' (2000–2011) and '' Spooks'' (2002–2011). Celebrity dancing show ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 j ...

'' (2004–present) was also a popular success on Saturday nights and continues to be. Heggessey did later concede in a 2005 interview with ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' newspaper that

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

programming had suffered a cutback under her control of BBC One. However, she did respond to this omission following criticism from the

Board of Governors of the BBC The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replace ...

by commissioning programmes such as the arts documentary series '' Imagine...'' (2003–present) and '' A Picture of Britain'' (2005). During her early days at BBC One, Heggessy criticized the "Balloon" idents the channel had been using for its between-programme

idents Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, particularly in th ...

since 1997 for being "slow and distant" and so, in 2002, after much speculation, she took the decision to abandon the "Balloon" idents (and the traditional "Globe" idents the channel had used in a variety of forms since 1963). They were replaced by a new style of on-air identity for the channel, the "Rhythm & Movement" idents. The new idents attracted some criticism for going against the traditions of the channel and pandering to

political correctness ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

, as they featured activities performed by people of various ethnicities. One of Heggessey's most notable decisions and last major success at the channel was the re-commissioning of the science-fiction drama series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

'', which had been a popular hit in previous decades but ceased production in 1989. Heggessey and Jane Tranter commissioned a new version of the series in September 2003, after Heggessey had spent two years persuading the BBC's commercial arm,

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadca ...

, to abandon their attempts to make a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

version of the programme and allow it instead to return to BBC One. The new version of ''Doctor Who'' (2005–present) debuted on 26 March 2005 and became a critical and popular hit, with

Paul Hoggart Paul Hoggart is a British journalist and novelist. Early life and career Hoggart spent some years as a further education lecturer at Kingsway College and then Woolwich College in London before moving into journalism as a book reviewer, featur ...

of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' newspaper describing the series as "a joyful, exuberant reinvention and a fine legacy from Ms Heggessey." On 14 February 2005 it was announced that Lorraine Heggessey was to leave the BBC to take up the post of Chief Executive at production company

. She left on 15 April. Five months after her departure, BBC One was named "Channel of the Year" at the Edinburgh Television Festival, primarily on the strength of Heggessey commissions such as ''Strictly Come Dancing'' and ''Doctor Who''.

Talkback Thames

, Heggessey was responsible for overseeing the production of high-profile programmes such as ITV1's ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused o ...

'' and ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

'',

's '' QI'' and Channel 4's ''

Green Wing ''Green Wing'' is a British sitcom set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital. It was created by the same team behind the sketch show '' Smack the Pony'' – Channel 4 commissioner Caroline Leddy and producer Victoria Pile – and stars Mark H ...

''. She was also responsible for delivering to BBC One in early 2006 two Stephen Poliakoff dramas that she herself had commissioned before she left the channel, ''

Friends and Crocodiles ''Friends and Crocodiles'' is a one-off British television drama production, written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff and first broadcast on BBC One on 15 January 2006. Overview The film charts the shifting power between a boss and his secret ...

'' and '' Gideon's Daughter'', the latter of which went on to win two

Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

(Mini-series, Best Actor for

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with '' The Illuminatus!'' in 1977. There he ...

and Mini-series, Best Supporting Actress for Emily Blunt) in 2007. In June 2010 it was announced that she was leaving her post of Chief Executive with Talkback Thames.

Boom Pictures

Heggessey returned to the television industry in July 2012, when she became co-owner and Executive Chairman of the new Cardiff-based independent production company Boom Pictures. In June 2014 Heggessey left the company, the success created by her led to its subsequent acquisition by

ITV Studios ITV Studios is a British multinational television production and distribution company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadca ...

The Royal Foundation

In April 2017, Heggessey was appointed Chief Executive of

, the primary philanthropic and charitable vehicle for The Duke and

Duchess of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by male de ...

and The Duke and

Duchess of Sussex Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle; August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is the wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III. Meghan was ...

. She left the position on 1 October 2019.

Personal life

Heggessy is married to Ron de Jong, a musician and composer, and they have two daughters.

References

External links

*official website: https://lorraineheggessey.com/ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heggessey, Lorraine 1956 births Living people Alumni of Collingwood College, Durham BBC executives BBC One controllers British chief executives British women business executives People from Hillingdon