Peter William Armstrong (born 1 April 1943) is a television and radio producer, whose career at the BBC spanned 25 years. He is best known for innovative religious programming and as the founder and project editor of the BBC's Domesday Project (1986), for which he won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

s. He is the father of documentary maker

Franny Armstrong Franny Armstrong (born 3 February 1972) is a British documentary film director working for her own company, Spanner Films, and a former drummer with indie pop group The Band of Holy Joy. She is best known for three films: '' The Age of Stupid ...

, and the son of top civil servant William Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Sanderstead.

Educational background

Armstrong earned

First Class Honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

Philosophy, Politics and Economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

and continued doctorate studies at Mansfield College, Oxford.

Professional background

Armstrong joined the BBC in 1971, after he was spotted by the then head of religious programming John Lang. He quickly moved from radio into television, founding well-known series like ''Everyman'',

Songs of Praise ''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns, worship songs and inspirational performances in churches of varying denominations from around the UK alongside interviews and stories reflecting how Ch ...

, and ''Global Report'', as well as writing and producing one-off series and programmes including '' The Sea of Faith'', which led to the formation of the Sea of Faith movement. Armstrong was innovative in his approach to religious programming, insisting that, rather than viewing the world through the lens of faith, the programmes (''Everyman'' and ''Heart of the Matter'') would bring a journalist's eye to bear on the world's faith communities.

1986: The BBC Domesday Project

Inspired by the original

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, Peter Armstrong wondered if it would be possible to harness technology to recreate the philosophy of the Domesday Book, but applied to modern Britain. The resulting BBC Domesday Project bought together millions of British citizens to produce an interactive record of the nation. He went on to create the award-winning Interactive Television Unit, and became its chair when it floated as the MultiMedia Corporation.

Oneworld.net

In 1995, Armstrong co-founded oneworld.net, the first internet portal devoted to global justice and development. Oneworld.net's central purpose was to act as a newswire for issues related to social justice – to aggregate and highlight the content of development NGOs such as

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

and

Christian Aid Christian Aid is a relief and development charity of 41 Christian (Protestant and Orthodox) churches in Great Britain and Ireland, and works to support sustainable development, eradicate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster rel ...

. Oneworld joined Yahoo!'s world news platform in 2001 alongside newswires such as AP and

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

. Sarah Wright,

Yahoo! News Yahoo News (stylized as Yahoo! News) is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo. The site was created by Yahoo software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such ...

Editor, said "OneWorld journalists provide a unique and valuable resource to Yahoo by providing context for international headlines and voices from the front lines of international development." He also founded OneWorldTV and OneClimate, part of the OneWorld Network.

Awards

In 2004, Armstrong received a Lifetime Achievement

at the Interactive Awards for his contributions to interactive media. He was the second person to win this award, after Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Peter William Alumni of Mansfield College, Oxford 1943 births Living people British television producers