Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, and an opera manager. Following a career at

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

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 ...

, Isaacs was the founding chief executive of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in 1982, serving in the role until 1987. He won the

BAFTA Fellowship The BAFTA Fellowship, or the Academy Fellowship, is a lifetime achievement award presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in recognition of "outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image". The award is t ...

in 1985, the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1986, and the

International Emmy Directorate Award The International Emmy Directorate Award is presented by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and honors individuals or organizations for their outstanding contribution to international television. The awards ceremony has take ...

in 1987. He was also the General Director of the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

from 1987 to 1996. A recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and

International Emmy Awards The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sc ...

, Isaacs was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a 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. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the 1996 Birthday Honours "for services to Broadcasting and to the Arts."

Early life

Isaacs was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

from what were described as "Scottish Jewish roots". He grew up in

Hillhead Hillhead (, ) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland. Situated north of Kelvingrove Park and to the south of the River Kelvin, Hillhead is at the heart of Glasgow's fashionable West End, with Byres Road forming the western border of the area, the ...

, the son of a jeweller and a GP, and is a cousin to virologist Alick Isaacs. He was educated at the independent Glasgow Academy and

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

, where he read

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

. Whilst at Oxford he served as President of the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest unive ...

. He also served in the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

Television career

Isaacs began his career in television when he joined

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

as a producer in 1958. At Granada he was involved in creating or supervising series such as ''

World in Action ''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its product ...

'' and '' What the Papers Say''. He worked for the

's ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

'' in the 1960s and was the overall producer for the 26-episode series ''

The World at War ''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. Produced in 1973 at a cost of around £880,000 (), it was the most expensive factual series ever made at the time. ...

'' (1973–74) for

. He was Director of Programmes for Thames between 1974 and 1978. He produced ''Ireland: A Television History'' (1981) for the BBC and co-produced the twenty-four episode

television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

series ''Cold War'' (1998)cnn.com/ColdWar
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

and the ten-part series ''Millennium'' (1999).

Channel 4

Isaacs was the founding chief executive of

between 1981 and 1987, overseeing its launch period and setting the channel's original cultural approach with opera and foreign language film, although programmes with popular appeal such as the game show '' Countdown'', the pop music series '' The Tube'', and

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

'' Brookside'' had a place in the schedule from the beginning. The channel commissioned Michael Elliott's production of ''

King Lear ''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...

'' (1983) with

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...

in the title role and Isaacs recommissioned a number of programmes from his time at Granada including ''What the Papers Say''. Isaacs' appointment of David Rose, previously long with the BBC, as the Commissioning Editor for Fiction led to the channel's involvement with the 1980s revival of the British film industry via the Film on Four strand. Despite a general liberal atmosphere, a few commissioned programmes, such as

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...

's ''A Question of Leadership'', were withdrawn from transmission. In 1989, Isaacs named 26 personal favourites from his tenure as Channel 4's chief executive, running from A (the discussion series '' After Dark'') to Z (a four-hour dramatisation of a Gothic horror novel, '' Zastrozzi''). When handing over responsibility for running the channel to

Michael Grade Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth (born 8 March 1943) is an English Media proprietor, television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive ...

, Isaacs threatened to throttle him if he betrayed the trust placed in him to respect the channel's remit.

Later career

After leaving Channel 4 at the end of 1987, and having failed to be appointed director-general of the BBC, Isaacs became General Director of the

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

, a role he fulfilled until 1996. This was a difficult period for the ROH, which was not helped by the broadcast of the revealing '' The House'' (1996) documentary series on BBC2. Isaacs also served on the Board of Governors of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

in the 1980s. From 1989 to 1998, Isaacs was the interviewer in a revival of the BBC series '' Face to Face''; the former politician and journalist John Freeman had filled this role in the original 1959–62 run. Between 1997 and 2000, Isaacs was 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 ...

. He was also chairman of

Artsworld Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, films, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...

before it was sold to

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

Publications

* ''Storm Over 4: A Personal Account'',

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld ...

, 1989 * ''Never Mind the Moon'', Bantam Press, 1999 * ''Look Me in the Eye: A Life in Television'',

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

, 2006 * ''Cold War'' (In collaboration with Taylor Downing), Bantam Press, 1998

References

External links

*
Cold War: About the Series
at CNN.com

Retrieved 3 March 2008 * ttps://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/nov/05/features11.g23 Sabine Durrant (interview with Isaacs), "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts", ''The Guardian'' (London), 5 November 1999Retrieved 3 March 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Isaacs, Jeremy 1932 births 20th-century British Army personnel Alumni of Merton College, Oxford BAFTA fellows BBC television presenters BBC television producers British arts administrators British film studio executives British opera managers Channel 4 people Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Governors of the British Film Institute ITV people International Emmy Directorate Award Knights Bachelor Living people Mass media people from Glasgow Military personnel from Glasgow People associated with the University of East Anglia People educated at the Glasgow Academy People from Hillhead Presidents of the Oxford Union Presidents of the Royal Television Society Royal Opera House Royal Scots Fusiliers soldiers Scottish Jews Scottish people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Scottish television executives Scottish television producers