Charles Andrew Parsons is a British

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, 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 acce ...

known as the creator of the ''

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

'' franchise. He also created ''

The Big Breakfast ''The Big Breakfast'' is a British breakfast light entertainment television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4 from 1992 to 2002, and as a revival from 2021 to 2022. The show had various presenters, starting with Chris Evans (presenter), ...

'' and '' The Word''.

Education

Parsons was educated at

Tonbridge School Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...

, a boarding

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in South East England, and credits the tough boarding school regime he endured there in the early 1970s, which at the time was commonplace, as providing an inspiration for his creation of the series ''Survivor''. He then went to Pembroke College at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where he studied English literature and afterwards trained as a journalist.

Life and career

The early days of Parsons's career saw him working at London Weekend Television on programmes including Network 7, which won a BAFTA award for originality. Parsons co-founded production company Planet 24 with

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part ...

and his partner Waheed Alli. Planet 24 created reality programmes including ''

,'' '' The Word,'' and ''Survivor'', which first aired in Sweden during the 1997 season. Planet 24 was sold to Carlton in 1999, but the owners kept the rights to ''Survivor''. Charlie Parsons is currently the executive producer of the American version of ''

'' going into its 48th season on CBS. Parsons has also developed and produced shows for the stage. Parsons is developing Runaway Entertainment with Olivier-award-winning producer Tristan Baker. '' Girl from the North Country'' returns from its Broadway acclaim to The Gielgud Theatre in London and is one of the many shows developed and produced by Runaway Entertainment. Parsons founded The Great BBC Campaign, set up to provide a bold ambitious new mandate for the BBC, designed to build on the success of the impartial and independent broadcasting organisation.

References

External links

* 1958 births Living people 21st-century British LGBTQ people Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford British LGBTQ businesspeople British television company founders British television producers LGBTQ television producers People educated at Tonbridge School British television show creators {{UK-tv-bio-stub