Tom Sloan (broadcaster)
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Thomas James Harman Sloan (14 October 1919 – 13 May 1970) was a British broadcaster and journalist and BBC Head of Light Entertainment in the 1960s.


Early life

Sloan was born in
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...
, England, the son of a Scottish Free Church Minister, and educated at
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 ...
. He entered 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. ...
...
Sound Effects Department in 1939, but left at the start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
to serve in the
Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
throughout the war. He married Patricia Coverdale in 1943 and had four children.


Broadcasting career

In 1946 he returned to
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. ...
...
radio as a talks producer and spent several years as the BBC's representative in Canada. In 1956 he joined the BBC Light Entertainment group, under
Ronnie Waldman Ronald Hartley Waldman (13 May 1914 – 10 March 1978) was a British radio presenter and television executive for the BBC. Biography Born in London, he was the eldest son of Michael Waldman OBE JP, a sometime Mayor of Hackney, and was educa ...
. During this period, he provided the British commentary for the
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
s in
1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...
,
1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
and later the
1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
on radio (
BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
), and in
1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
,
1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...
and
1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * J ...
on BBC Television. In 1961 he was appointed Head of Light Entertainment, taking over from
Eric Maschwitz Albert Eric Maschwitz OBE (10 June 1901 – 27 October 1969), sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, editor, broadcaster and broadcasting executive. Life and work Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, and des ...
(who became Assistant Controller of Programmes). One of his first tasks was to attempt to hold on to one of the BBC's biggest stars of the time,
Tony Hancock Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, ...
. After he failed to persuade Hancock to sign a
golden handcuffs Golden handcuffs, a phrase first recorded in 1976, refers to financial allurements and benefits that have the objective to encourage highly compensated employees to remain within a company or organization instead of moving from company to company ...
deal designed to prevent him defecting to ITV or the cinema, he wrote a confidential memo to the BBC Controller of Programmes on 13 April 1962, stating "Hancock is a moody perfectionist with a great interest in money and no sense of loyalty to the corporation". He added that nothing short of handing over entire "production control" to Hancock and paying him an unprecedented £150,000 – the equivalent of £2m today – for a further 13 episodes of his TV sitcom would be enough to persuade him to stay with the BBC. In the autumn of 1961 he approached Hancock's writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, with the idea of a series called ''
Comedy Playhouse ''Comedy Playhouse'' is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including ''Steptoe and Son'', '' Meet the Wife'', ' ...
''. He had ten half-hour slots and asked them to fill them with anything they wanted, insisting only that his title of ''Comedy Playhouse'' be used. The fourth episode of the series, broadcast on 5 January 1962, was entitled ''The Offer'' and starred Harry H. Corbett and
Wilfrid Brambell Henry Wilfrid Brambell (22 March 1912 – 18 January 1985) was an Irish television and film actor, best remembered for playing the grubby rag-and-bone man Albert Steptoe alongside Harry H. Corbett in the long-running BBC television sitcom '' ...
as
Steptoe and Son ''Steptoe and Son'' is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and w ...
. Sloan badgered Ray Galton and Alan Simpson to write a series of ''
Steptoe and Son ''Steptoe and Son'' is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and w ...
'' episodes, which were broadcast between May and June 1962. A further seven series, totalling 57 episodes, would eventually be made between 1962 and 1974. In his post as Head of Light Entertainment, Sloan provided viewers with a tougher and socially more critical view of comedy than was available before. The polite, middle-class humour which had previously limited the BBC's vision of what television amusement should offer, was supplemented with the social realism of comedies such as ''
Steptoe and Son ''Steptoe and Son'' is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and w ...
'' and '' Till Death Us Do Part''. Sloan once said, "Comedy ought to reflect life. It is at its best when it does this. I've no intention of giving viewers a marzipan view of life".Obituary: Mr Tom Sloan, ''
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'' ( ...
'', 14 May 1970, p.12 It was later claimed that Sloan attempted to invert the BBC's founding principles of "education, information and entertainment", giving priority to entertainment, followed by information and education. This was considered acceptable because entertainment, to him, meant not only what was cheerfully relaxing but also what was vigorous, thoughtful, stimulating and downright disturbing. He found the writers and the stars to provide and embody what he wanted, and created a space and audience for them. Sloan held the post of Head of Light Entertainment for nine years. In this time he saw the BBC's output of light entertainment programmes dramatically increase. In 1955 BBC Light Entertainment had just six producers and turned out five programmes a week. By 1969, Sloan had thirty-four producers under him, responsible for sixteen programmes a week on two channels. In a lecture given in December 1969, he said "If I drop dead tomorrow, I would not mind being remembered for having some responsibility at least for ''
The Black and White Minstrel Show ''The Black and White Minstrel Show'' was a British light entertainment show that ran for twenty years on BBC prime-time television. Running from 1958 to 1978, it was a weekly variety show that presented traditional American minstrel and count ...
'', ''
Hancock Hancock may refer to: Places in the United States * Hancock, Iowa * Hancock, Maine * Hancock, Maryland * Hancock, Massachusetts * Hancock, Michigan * Hancock, Minnesota * Hancock, Missouri * Hancock, New Hampshire ** Hancock (CDP), New Hampshir ...
'', ''
Steptoe and Son ''Steptoe and Son'' is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and w ...
'', '' Till Death Us Do Part'', ''
Harry Worth Harry Bourlon Illingsworth (20 November 1917 – 20 July 1989), professionally known as Harry Worth, was an English comedy actor, comedian and ventriloquist. Worth portrayed a charming, gentle and genial character, totally bemused by life, ...
'', ''
Not in Front of the Children ''Not in Front of the Children: "Indecency," Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth'' is a non-fiction book by attorney and civil libertarian, Marjorie Heins about freedom of speech and the relationship between censorship and the "think of the ...
'', ''
Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran fo ...
'', ''
Val Doonican Michael Valentine Doonican (3 February 1927 – 1 July 2015) was an Irish singer of traditional pop, easy listening, and novelty songs, who was noted for his warm and relaxed style. A crooner, he found popular success, especially in the ...
'' and ''
Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...
'' shows, and '' Dixon of Dock Green''". During his nine years as Head of Light Entertainment his production group carried off every major professional award in show business, including seven awards at the Montreux International Festival. He was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1969 New Year Honours list. His last project was the Royal Television Gala, recorded on the day of his death.


Death

Sloan died on 13 May 1970, while still in his post as Head of Light Entertainment. He was succeeded by
Bill Cotton Sir William Frederick Cotton (23 April 1928 – 11 August 2008) was a British television producer and executive, and the son of dance band leader Billy Cotton. The TV and radio presenter Fearne Cotton is related to him, as he was her paterna ...
. A memorial service was held in
St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...
in the
City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a city and borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of central Greater London, including most of the West En ...
, London on Tuesday 23 June 1970.
Harry Secombe Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'' (1951–1960), playing many characters, ...
read the lesson and Huw Wheldon (managing director of BBC Television) gave the address.Memorial Service: Mr. Tom Sloan, ''
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'' ( ...
'', p12, published 24 June 1970


References


External links

*
Tom Sloan references at the BBC Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sloan, Tom 1919 births 1970 deaths British television executives BBC television producers BBC radio producers Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Hertfordshire British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery officers