Monica Louie Sims (27 October 1925 – 20 November 2018) was a British

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 ...

Radio producer A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. The job title covers several different job descriptions: *Content producers or executive producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature. The content producer might organize music cho ...

who became Head of Children's Programmes,

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

, and then Controller of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. She was also a vice-president of the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films exhibited ...

, and Director of the

Children's Film Foundation The Children's Film Foundation (CFF) is a non-profit organisation which makes films and other media for children in the United Kingdom. Originally it made films to be shown as part of children's Saturday morning matinée cinema programming. Th ...

.Mini biography

BBC career

She spent three seasons working in theatres in Windsor and Bristol before joining BBC Radio as a Talks Producer, where she rose to become Editor of ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

'', a position she held until 1967.Dissertation on the Trumptonshire trilogy, Katy Brier
/ref> She then moved to

as Head of Children's Programmes from 1967 to 1978 where she "believed passionately that the child audience deserved the best possible service and she, like her predecessors fought hard to increase the range of programming and the BBC’s investment in it". She moved back to BBC Radio to become Controller of

, replacing

Ian McIntyre Ian McIntyre (9 December 1931 – 19 April 2014) was a British BBC Radio producer, journalist, broadcaster and author. who was Controller of BBC Radio 4 from 1976 to 1978 and then Controller of BBC Radio 3 between 1978 and 1987. After joinin ...

, a position she held from 1978 until 1983. The features producer Piers Plowright described her as "tactful but firm ... never a hair out of place, always elegant but with steel running through her". She described Radio 4 as providing "Surprise, through different perspectives on life through satire, poetry, storytelling, songs, argument, defining ideas, contact with opinion formers, writers, scientists, historians, philosophers and imaginative stimulus through works of art, music, drama, literature."

Early life

She lived at 'Brimps' at

Upton St Leonards Upton St Leonards is a village in the English county of Gloucestershire. Forming part of the district of Stroud, it is a mile or so north of the A46 road between Stroud and Cheltenham. Facilities The village has two four-star hotels (Hatton ...

. Her mother was heavily involved with the WI at Tuffley. In the late 1930s she took part in many drama productions, and at the Girls High School and with the Electrical Association for Women, and took part in speech events at the

Cheltenham Music Festival The Cheltenham Music Festival is a British music festival, held annually in Cheltenham in the summer months (June, July) since 1945. The festival is renowned for premieres of contemporary music, hosting over 250 music premieres as of July 2004. ...

. She left school in 1943 to study an English degree at the University of Oxford, at the same time and place as

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

. At university, she joined the drama society, with

Harold Hanbury Harold Greville Hanbury (19 June 1898 at Compton Verney House, Warwickshire – 12 March 1993 at Pinetown, Natal Province, Natal, South Africa) was Vinerian Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford from 1949 to 1964. Biography He was ...

, taking part in a production of the ''Taming of the Shrew'', as Bianca Minola.

Later career

In 1985 Monica Sims produced a report ''Women in BBC Management''. It revealed that the number of women in top jobs was virtually the same as it had been a decade before - 6 women compared with 159 men. The report concluded with nineteen recommendations, including the appointment of a women's employment officer; more career guidance for both women and men; an examination of the policy on Appointments Boards for senior posts; an increase in the number of women attending Management Training Courses and the introduction of women-only courses as an experiment. Part-time work, job sharing and further options for flexible working should also be encouraged. After leaving the BBC she was also a Vice President of the

and Director of the

. She died on 20 November 2018 at the age of 93, at Richmond Village, Painswick, Gloucester.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Monica 1925 births 2018 deaths BBC executives BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 controllers British radio executives BBC radio producers Officers of the Order of the British Empire British women radio producers British radio producers