Sir Peter Lytton Bazalgette (; born 22 May 1953) is a British television executive and producer, best known for producing over 3000 episodes of BBC's Food and Drink and

Ready, Steady, Cook ''Ready Steady Cook'' is a BBC daytime TV cooking game show. It debuted on 24 October 1994 and the last original edition was broadcast on 2 February 2010. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley ...

. He was elected President of the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

and Deputy Chairman of the National Film School. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

in the New Year Honours for 2012 for services to broadcasting. He has been a benefactor to the arts and Chairman of English National Opera. He was Chair of

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

from 2012 until 2016 and Chairman of ITV from 2016 to 2022. He is also Chair of LoveCrafts, the online Retail and a Non-Executive Board member of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). He also serves on the Advisory Boards of BBH and YouGov. In January 2017, his latest book ''The Empathy Instinct'' was published.

Personal life

Peter Bazalgette is the great-great-grandson of Victorian

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

Sir Joseph Bazalgette ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

. A third cousin is

Edward Bazalgette Edward Bazalgette is a British television director and former musician. Biography Bazalgette was the lead guitarist in the 1980s rock group The Vapors, whose hit " Turning Japanese" remains a popular one-hit wonder. He later became a film edi ...

, who directed and produced the 2003 documentary ''The Sewer King'' which charted Sir Joseph Bazalgette's design and engineering of the London sewers. Peter Bazalgette presented a later television show for

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

, called ''The Great Stink'', and chaired the Crossness Engines Trust raising £4.5 million to restore the Victorian pumping station built by his ancestor. For the first 12 years of his life Peter Bazalgette's parents did not have a television. He attended

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...

, and gained a third class degree in Law from Fitzwilliam College,

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

while also becoming the president of the

Cambridge Union Society The Cambridge Union Society, also known as the Cambridge Union, is a debating and free speech society in Cambridge, England, and the largest society in the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1815, it is the oldest continuously running debati ...

. He is married to intellectual property rights lawyer Hilary Newiss, with whom he has two children. The family lives in

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...

Career

Bazalgette joined the

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 ...

graduate news training scheme, and was subsequently picked by

Esther Rantzen Dame Esther Louise Rantzen (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, who presented the BBC television series ''That's Life!'' for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes, and fou ...

as a researcher on ''

That's Life! ''That's Life!'' was a satirical TV consumer affairs programme on the BBC, at its height regularly reaching audiences of fifteen to twenty million, and receiving 10–15,000 letters a week. The series broadcast on BBC1 for twenty-one years, ...

'' from 1977. While a reporter at the BBC for '' Man Alive'', he joined Eric Parsloe's video production company Epic. The BBC put him in charge of producing the programme '' Food and Drink,'' where he claims to have created the

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...

. He continued producing by forming his own production company Bazal, which created hits for British TV including ''

Ready Steady Cook ''Ready Steady Cook'' is a BBC daytime TV cooking game show. It debuted on 24 October 1994 and the last original edition was broadcast on 2 February 2010. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley ...

'', ''

Changing Rooms ''Changing Rooms'' is a do-it-yourself home improvement show broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC between 1996 and 2004. The series was revived on Channel 4 in 2021. The show was one of a number of home improvement and lifestyle shows p ...

'' and '' Ground Force.'' In 1990, Bazal was acquired by Broadcast Communications, which itself was absorbed by

Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

. In January 2005 Bazalgette became Chairman of Endemol UK and Creative Director of Endemol Group worldwide. He was responsible for shows including '' Big Brother'' and ''

Deal or No Deal ''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch '' Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this format is the final round (a.k ...

'' which were hits around the world, and led Endemol's digital entertainment strategy. Although ''Big Brother'' was an adaption of an existing series in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, Bazalgette is credited with popularising the format around the world thanks to the adaptations he built into the UK version. During Bazalgette's time on the global board, Endemol grew strongly and in 2005 it was launched on the Dutch stock exchange. Over the next eighteen months it trebled in value and was sold in 2007 for €3.2 billion. In September 2007 it was announced that Bazalgette was standing down as Chairman and would assume the role of advisor. Bazalgette has long championed the value of the BBC for its trusted news and critical investment in original programming and creative talent. Along with others he has speculated how long the current funding model of the BBC will last, and whether in the future the licence fee might be reduced to pay specifically for core news and information content with voluntary subscription introduced to pay for drama and entertainment. Bazalgette has been awarded fellowships by BAFTA and the

, and was president of the

2010-2017. He was as a non-executive director of the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

. In September 2012 he was appointed chairman of

, and began his 4-year term on 31 January 2013. ''

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 ...

'' argued that he may be "the most influential man in British television" as a result of his impact on the development of reality television and lifestyle TV programmes. The ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' once named him as one of the "Ten Worst Britons" for Endemol's Channel 4 show '' Big Brother'' and the ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' television critic

Victor Lewis-Smith Victor Lewis-Smith (12 May 1957 – 10 December 2022) was a British film, television and radio producer, a television and restaurant critic, a satirist and newspaper columnist. He was executive producer of the ITV1 Annual National Food & Dr ...

said that Bazalgette had "done more to debase television over the past decade than anyone else." In September 2012 it was announced that he would succeed Dame Elizabeth Forgan as Chair of the

. This was during a time of cuts to public arts spending, partly remedied with a new system of tax credits. In September 2016 it was announced that

Sir Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017. ...

would replace him at the Arts Council England. In February 2016 Bazalgette was named as the Chairman of ITV, effective from 12 May 2016. In March 2022 ITV announced that Peter Bazalgette would step down as Chairman of ITV, effective from 29 September 2022.

Other interests

Bazalgette has co-written four books including ''The Food Revolution'', ''You Don't Have to Diet'', and a biography of

Egon Ronay Egon Miklos Ronay (24 July 1915 – 12 June 2010) was a Hungarian-born food critic who wrote and published a famous series of guides to British and Irish restaurants and hotels in the 1950s and 1960s. These guidebooks are credited with raisin ...

. He is author of a study of the international TV formats business, ''Billion Dollar Game'' and, more recently, ''The Empathy Instinct''. He is a speaker at global media events and lectures on media convergence and creativity. He has written widely on privacy and the internet, young people and voting, arts and philanthropy, public service broadcasting and student volunteering. He was a consultant to two of Sony’s television divisions in the UK, and was non-executive director of Base79. In early 2017, he was tasked with leading the new independent review of the creative industries for BEIS and DCMS. He is a former board member of

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 ...

and former Deputy Chairman of the National Film & Television School where he helped put up an £8million new teaching building. He was Chairman of

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

and was a Trustee of Debate Mate.

References

External links

*
Profile
''The Guardian'', May 2010; accessed 17 March 2014.
Peter Bazalgette profile
Media Masterclass on Producing Television, blip.tv; accessed 17 March 2014. *
The people who ruined the decade: PETER BAZALGETTE TV's posh popularist
guardian.co.uk; accessed 17 March 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bazalgette, Peter 1953 births Living people People educated at Dulwich College Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Presidents of the Cambridge Union British television executives BAFTA fellows Knights Bachelor Businesspeople from London Chairmen of ITV