Christopher Nigel John Ryan

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(12 December 1929 – 18 July 2014) was a British journalist, and an outspoken former Editor of ITN throughout the 1970s, when ITN was influential (through having much-reduced competition), and significantly out-pacing the coverage from the BBC. He had a noted dislike of superfluous trade union practices in the television industry, and could put noses out of joint.

Early life

He was born in north-west

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. He attended independent school and went to university to study modern languages, acquiring a degree in French and Spanish in 1952. His parents moved to

Uckfield Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District, Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald. Etymology "Uck ...

in Sussex.

Career

Speaking fluent French and Spanish, he became a foreign correspondent.

ITN

He joined ITN at

Television House Television House is the former name of a building on Kingsway in London. From 1918, it was the base of the Air Ministry. From 1955, the building was the headquarters of Associated-Rediffusion/Rediffusion London, Independent Television News (ITN) ...

in 1961, becoming the producer of the UK's first half-hour television news programme, in July 1967. He became the Editor of ITN on 14 February 1968, when 38. He worked under Donald Edwards (from BBC radio), and Sir David Nicholas had been deputy-editor since 1963, who would follow him as Editor from 1977 to 1989. ITN moved to ITN House on 16 August 1969, where ITN moved to colour television technology from 20 October 1969, but not for broadcasts. Also at ITN was Brian Wenham, later to be Controller of

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 ...

. He showed the Queen around the ITN studios on Thursday 20 November 1969, when she officially opened the building. The Queen launched the early evening bulletin from the production studio, which also took ITV into a colour transmission. In 1970, the annual budget for ITN was £3m. Throughout 1970 and 1971, individual ITA ( IBA from 1972) transmitters were converting to colour. In June 1971 he became the Chief Executive of ITN, as well, when Donald Edwards left the company. ITN is now

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British news television channel of ITV (TV network), ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. ITN, Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the netwo ...

. On Wednesday 14 September 1977, when 47, he resigned from ITN, leaving his job on 4 November 1977. At a conference organised by 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 ...

in Birmingham in October 1977, he revealed that broadcasting trade unions (in the UK) had deliberately prevented recent up-to-date electronic equipment from being implemented. ACTT (the

Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

) had also attracted negative attention from some film directors.

NBC

He made documentaries at NBC in the late 1970s.

Thames Television

He was Director of Programmes from 1980 to 1982 at

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 ...

. At a conference held by the Royal Television Society in Southampton, he revealed that broadcasting trade unions were adding to costs, in how these trade unions operated restrictive practices, such as

work-to-rule Work-to-rule, also known as an Italian strike or a slowdown in United States usage, called in Italian a ''sciopero bianco'' meaning "white strike", is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their co ...

(to keep workforce numbers artificially high).

TV-am

He joined the board of

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

, becoming chairman from 1989 to 1992.

Personal life

In the 1960s, he lived in Kent. He married on Thursday 10 May 1984 in London.''The Times'' Saturday 12 May 1984, page 8 He was awarded the CBE in the 1977 Birthday Honours.

References

External links

Times obituary

The Queen visits ITN in November 1969
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Nigel 1929 births 2014 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English television executives ITN newsreaders and journalists ITV people