''The Money Programme'' is a finance and business affairs television programme on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

which ran between April 1966 and November 2010. It was first broadcast on 5 April 1966 and presented by "commentators" (financial journalists) William Davis, Erskine B. Childers and Joe Roeber. The programme's

theme tune Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

was a version of the main title theme from ''

The Carpetbaggers ''The Carpetbaggers'' is a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title. The prequel '' Nevada Smith'' (1966) was also based on a character in the novel. In the United States, the term "carpe ...

'' (1964) (which appeared on an album by jazz organist Jimmy Smith). By 1989, the programme was updated with a new theme by

George Fenton George Richard Ian Howe Fenton (born 19 October 1949), known professionally as George Fenton, is an English composer. Best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, he has received five Academy Award nominations, several ...

, but an updated version of the original theme tune was re used again later on. The programme used a magazine style starting in the 1980s, but changed to a single subject documentary in 2001. More recently the programme has formed a partnership with the Open University Business School. The

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

provides input into programmes and supplementary materials written by OU Business School academics. On 1 June 2007, an episode of the ''Money Programme'' called "Virtual World / Real Millions" became the first full

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 ...

programme to have been broadcast inside the virtual world

Second Life ''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...

. That episode featured an interview with Second Life founder and CEO Philip Rosedale amongst others. This programme was parodied in Series 3 of ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, w ...

'' as the opening sketch of the third episode in that series first airing on the BBC on 3 November 1972.

Presenters

* Max Flint *

Libby Potter Libby Potter is a British reporter best known for her appearances on BBC Three and BBC Two's ''The Money Programme''. Biography After gaining a degree in English literature from St John's College, Cambridge, Potter's media career began in the B ...

Former presenters

* James Bellini * Michael Charlton * Erskine B. Childers *

Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both '' The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for fo ...

Nick Clarke Nicholas Campbell Clarke (9 June 1948 – 23 November 2006), was an English radio and television presenter and journalist, primarily known for his work on BBC Radio 4. Biography Clarke was born in 1948 in Godalming, Surrey, and educated at West ...

Rajan Datar Rajan may refer to: *Raja, an Indian title for kings *Rajan (name), an Indian name * Rajan, a character in the 2024 Indian sci-fi film ''Kalki 2898 AD'', portrayed by Brahmanandam See also *Raja (disambiguation) Raja is an Indian term for a monar ...

* William Davis * Maya Even * Peter Hobday * Peter Jay *

Donald MacCormick Donald MacCormick (16 April 1939 – 12 July 2009)Veteran BBC newsman dies aged 70
...

* Michael Robinson * Joe Roeber *

Valerie Singleton Valerie Singleton (born 9 April 1937) is an English television and radio presenter best known as a regular presenter of the popular children's series ''Blue Peter'' from 1962 to 1972. She also presented the BBC Radio 4 '' PM'' programme for te ...

* Hugh Stephenson * Alan Watson *

Brian Widlake Nigel Brian Windsor Widlake (13 April 1931 – 2 January 2017) was a British journalist, broadcaster and presenter. Early life Widlake was born in Fiji on 13 April 1931. Education Widlake was educated at two independent schools for boys, at the ...

Interviewees

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

* Lord Black of Crossharbour *

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...

* Sir Richard Branson *

Lord Browne of Madingley Edmund John Phillip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley (born 20 February 1948), is a British businessman and a crossbencher, crossbench member of the House of Lords. Browne was the CEO, chief executive of BP between 1995 and 2007. This period ...

Shiatzy Chen Shiatzy Chen () is a Taiwanese luxury fashion house founded in 1978 by Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia (王陳彩霞) and her husband Wang Yuan-Hong. Its style is described as "neo-Chinese chic", combining the aesthetics of Chinese clothing and handicraft ...

* Stuart Lowry *

Michael Dell Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies. As of May 2025, accordin ...

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner ( ; born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film ...

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is now its chief technology officer a ...

* Sir Rocco Forte *

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

* Sir Chris Gent *

Sir James Goldsmith Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 – 18 July 1997) was a French-British financier and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family. His controversial business and finance career led to ongoing clashes with British media, fr ...

Sir Philip Green Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman, and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. In May 20 ...

* Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou *

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, politician and fraudster. After escaping the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, ...

Alexander McQueen Lee Alexander McQueen (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen (brand), Alexander McQueen label in 1992 and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His ac ...

Lakshmi Mittal Lakshmi Niwas Mittal (; born 15 June 1950 in Sadulpur, Rajasthan, Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India) is an Indian steel magnate, based in the United Kingdom. He is the executive chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world's second largest steelmaking company ...

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

Peter Oakley Peter Oakley (20 August 1927 – 23 March 2014) was an English pensioner and Internet personality, who posted YouTube videos under the Internet pseudonym geriatric1927. With his YouTube debut in August 2006 with ''Telling it all'', a series of ...

Bernd Pischetsrieder Bernd Peter Pischetsrieder (born 15 February 1948) is a German automobile engineer and manager. Early life and education Pischetsrieder was born in Munich, Bavaria, and studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich fro ...

* Sir Paul Smith *

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

* Sir Alan Sugar *

Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish musician, singer, songwriter, and producer best known as a member of the musical group ABBA. He is also the co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duve ...

* Robin WinterBBC – Press Office – Money Programme is first BBC show to broadcast in Second Life
/ref>

References

External links

* * - Archived page on BBC News
''The Money Programme'' partnership with Open University

BBC's ''Money Programme'' series to become one-off specials
(

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Money Programme, The 1966 British television series debuts 1960s British television series 1970s British television series 1980s British television series 1990s British television series 2000s British television series 2010 British television series endings BBC Two original programming Business-related television series in the United Kingdom