Sydney Newman
Encyclopedia
Sydney Cecil Newman, OC
(April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed Acting Director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada
(NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation
, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State for Canada
.
During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 60s, he worked first with the Associated British Corporation
(ABC) before moving across to the BBC
in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career he was responsible for initiating two hugely popular fantasy series, The Avengers
and Doctor Who
, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist
drama series such as Armchair Theatre
and The Wednesday Play
.
The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications
describes Newman as "the most significant agent in the development of British television drama". Shortly after his death, his obituary in The Guardian
newspaper declared that "For ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was the most important impresario
in Britain ... His death marks not just the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art."
In Quebec
, as commissioner of the NFB, he attracted controversy for his decision to suppress distribution of several politically sensitive films by French Canadian
directors.
, studying art and design subjects. He initially attempted to follow a career as a stills photographer and an artist, specialising in drawing film posters. However, he found it difficult to earn enough money to make a living from this profession, so instead he switched to working in the film industry itself. In 1938 he travelled to Hollywood, where he was offered a role with the Walt Disney Company on the strength of his graphic design work. However, he was unable to take the job due to a failure to secure a work permit
. Returning to his native country, in 1941 he gained a job as a film editor at the National Film Board of Canada
. He was eventually to work on over 350 films while an editor for the NFB.
During the Second World War the head of the NFB, John Grierson
, promoted Newman to film producer, working on documentaries and propaganda film
s, including Fighting Norway
, which he directed. In 1944 he was made executive producer
of Canada Carries On
, a long-running series of such films. In 1949 Grierson again assisted Newman's career, entering him into television, then a new industry, on a one-year attachment to NBC
in New York City. His assignment there was to compile reports for the Canadian government
on American television techniques, focusing on dramas, documentaries and outside broadcasts.
was seen and admired by executives at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC), and in 1952 he joined the Corporation as their Supervising Director of Features, Documentaries and Outside Broadcasts. There he was involved in producing some of the earliest television editions of Hockey Night in Canada
, and the first Canadian Football League
game to be shown on television. After his experience of seeing the production of television plays in New York, he was eager to work in drama despite by his own admission "knowing nothing about drama". He was nonetheless able to persuade his superiors at CBC to make him Supervisor of Drama Production in 1954. In this position he encouraged a new wave of young writers and directors, including William Kotcheff and Arthur Hailey
, and oversaw shows such as the popular General Motors Theatre
.
Writing in 1990, the journalist Paul Rutherford felt that during his time at the CBC in the 1950s, Newman had been a "great champion of both realistic and Canadian drama". He felt that Newman "came to fulfil the role of the drama impresario with the vision to push people to develop a high-quality and popular style of drama."
Several of the General Motors Theatre plays, including Hailey's Flight into Danger
, were purchased for screening by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The productions impressed Howard Thomas
, who was the managing director of Associated British Corporation
(ABC), the franchise holder for the rival ITV
network in the English Midlands
and the North at weekends. Thomas offered Newman a job with ABC as a producer of his own Saturday night thriller series, which Newman accepted, moving to Britain in 1958. In 1975, the Head of Drama at the CBC, John Hirsch, noted that the fact that so many writers and directors followed Newman to the UK in the 1950s and never returned to work in Canada had made a detrimental impact on the standard of subsequent Canadian television drama.
Soon after Newman arrived in the UK, ABC's Head of Drama Dennis Vance
was moved into a more senior position with the company, and Thomas offered Newman his position, which the Canadian quickly accepted. He was, however, somewhat disparaging of the state in which he found British television drama. "At that time, I found this country to be somewhat class-ridden," he reminisced to interviewers in 1988. "The only legitimate theatre was of the 'anyone for tennis' variety, which on the whole gave a condescending view of working-class people. Television dramas were usually adaptations of stage plays and invariably about the upper classes. I said 'Damn the upper classes: they don't even own televisions!'"
Newman's principal tool for shaking up this established order was a programme which had been initiated before he had arrived at ABC, Armchair Theatre
. This anthology series was networked nationally across the ITV regions on Sunday evenings, and in 1959 was in the top ten of the ratings for 32 out of the 37 weeks it was broadcast, with audiences of over viewers. Newman used the strand to present plays by writers such as Alun Owen
, Harold Pinter
and Clive Exton
, also bringing over associates from Canada such as William Kotcheff. Writing in 2000, the television historian John Caughie
stated that "Newman's insistence that the series would use only original material written for television made Armchair Theatre a decisive moment in the history of British television drama."
In 1960 Newman devised a thriller series for ABC called Police Surgeon, starring Ian Hendry
. Although Police Surgeon was not a success and was cancelled after only a short run, Newman took Hendry as the star and some of the ethos of the programme to create a new series (not a direct sequel as is sometimes claimed) called The Avengers
. Debuting in January 1961, The Avengers became an international success, although in later years its premise differed somewhat from Newman's initial set-up, veering into more humorous territory rather than remaining a gritty thriller.
Newman's great success at ABC had been noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation, whose executives were keen to revive their own drama department
's fortunes in the face of fierce competition from ITV. In 1961 the BBC's Director of Television, Kenneth Adam
, met with Newman and offered him the position of Head of Drama at the BBC. He accepted the position, eager for a new challenge, although he was forced by ABC to remain with them until the expiration of his contract in December 1962, after which he immediately began work with the BBC.
" of the era. He also divided the drama department into three separate divisions—series, serials and plays, headed by Elwyn Jones
, Donald Wilson and Michael Bakewell
, respectively, each reporting directly to Newman.
In 1964 he and Kenneth Adam initiated the new anthology series The Wednesday Play
, a BBC equivalent of Armchair Theatre, which had great success and critical acclaim with plays written and directed by the likes of Dennis Potter
, Jeremy Sandford
and Ken Loach
. The strand attracted comment and debate for several of its productions, such as Cathy Come Home
, a Tony Garnett
production of a Jeremy Sandford script, tackling the issue of homelessness. There were also problems caused by Newman bringing in freelance directors to work on the programme, who sometimes overspent on their plays to try and increase their impact; with staff directors this could be compensated by reducing the budget of a subsequent production, but for a freelancer there would be no such recourse.
Shaun Sutton
was one of the drama producers who worked under Newman at the BBC, and later succeeded the Canadian as Head of Drama. He later wrote that Newman "galvanised television drama ... [He created] a climate in which boldness paid." In contrast, Don Taylor
, who was a director in the drama department at the time, later claimed that he felt Newman was unsuited to the position of Head of Drama, writing: "To put it brutally, I was deeply offended that the premier position in television drama, at a time when it really was the National Theatre
of the Air, had been given to a man whose values were entirely commercial, and who had no more than a layman's knowledge of the English theatrical tradition, let alone the drama of Europe and the wider world."
Newman's biography at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
website points out that much of the work Newman is credited for at the BBC was little different to that which had been undertaken by his predecessor Michael Barry, who "also attracted new young original writers ... and hired young directors ... However, it was the newness and innovation which Newman encouraged in his drama output that is most significant: his concentration on the potential of television as television, for a mass not a middlebrow audience." The academic Madeleine Macmurraugh-Kavanagh has criticised some of the eulogistic views of Newman's time at the BBC, writing that: "When archive and press material emanating from the 1964–65 period is examined, an interesting gap appears between what Newman seemed likely to accomplish and what he finally did accomplish ... Also relevant to the mythology that has sprung up around Newman is the fact that his favoured dramatic material was interpreted by some as being rather less radical than it seemed."
television series Doctor Who
. The series has been described by the British Film Institute
as having "created a phenomenon unlike any other British TV programme", and by The Times
newspaper as "quintessential to being British". Newman had long been a science-fiction fan: "[U]p to the age of 40, I don't think there was a science-fiction book I hadn't read. I love them because they're a marvellous way—and a safe way, I might add—of saying nasty things about our own society."
When Controller of BBC Television Donald Baverstock
alerted Newman of the need for a programme to bridge the gap between the sports showcase Grandstand
and pop music programme Juke Box Jury
on Saturday evenings, he decided that a science-fiction drama would be the perfect vehicle for filling the gap and gaining a family audience. Although much work on the genesis of the series was done by Donald Wilson, C. E. Webber
and others, it was Newman who created the idea of a time machine larger on the inside than the out
and the character of the mysterious "Doctor
", which remain at the heart of the programme. He is also believed to have come up with the title Doctor Who, although actor and director Hugh David
later credited this to his friend Rex Tucker
, the initial "caretaker producer" of the programme.
After the series had been conceived, Newman initially approached Don Taylor
and then Shaun Sutton
to produce it, although both declined. He then decided on his former production assistant
at ABC, Verity Lambert
, who had never produced, written or directed but readily accepted his offer. As Lambert became the youngest—and only female—drama producer at the BBC, there were some doubts as to Newman's choice, but she became a success in the role. Even Newman clashed with her on occasion, however, particularly over the inclusion of the alien Dalek
creatures on the programme. Newman had not wanted any "bug-eyed monster
s" in the show, but he was placated when the creatures became a great success. Later in the show's run, in 1966 he took a more hands-on role again in the changeover between the First
and Second Doctor
s.
In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature
", the Doctor (in human form as "John Smith") refers to his parents Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert. Verity Newman, a character in "The End of Time
" is also named after him. A similar tip of the hat had appeared in the show's original run: In "The Powerful Enemy", the first episode of the 1965 story "The Rescue", in order to hide the fact that one character is actually another character in disguise, the role is credited to the non-existent actor "Sydney Wilson", an amalgam of the names of Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson.
The Forsyte Saga
in 1967, a Donald Wilson project on which Newman had not initially been keen. However, it became one of the most acclaimed and popular productions of his era, watched by people in 26 countries. After also initiating other popular series such as Adam Adamant Lives!
, at the end of 1967 Newman's five-year contract with the BBC came to an end, and he did not remain with the Corporation. Instead, he returned to the film industry, taking a job as a producer with Associated British Picture Corporation
. "I want to get away from my executive's chair and become a creative worker again," he told The Sun
newspaper of his decision.
However, the British film industry was entering a period of decline, and none of Newman's projects ever went into production. ABPC was taken over by EMI
, becoming EMI Films
, and at the end of June 1969, Newman was dismissed from the company, later describing his eighteen months there as "a futile waste". Despite being offered an executive producer
ship by the BBC, keen to regain his services on the very day he left ABPC, Newman decided to return to Canada. He left the UK on January 3, 1970, leading The Sunday Times
to comment that "British television will never be the same again."
, where he battled Canada's private broadcasters, especially CTV
, over new Canadian content
regulations. This lasted for only a few months, before in August 1970 he became the new Government Film Commissioner, the Chairman of the National Film Board of Canada, returning to the same institution for which he had worked in the 1940s. In this role, he experienced considerable problems in Quebec resulting from the fact that he did not speak French, at a time when the NFB's French Program branch was attracting young Quebec nationalist
filmmakers. Some staff members also felt that he had been away from the NFB for too long, while the filmmaker Denys Arcand
felt that Newman did not understand Quebec culture.
Newman was able to improve the NFB's relations with broadcaster CBC, securing prime time television slots for several productions, although he was criticised by some filmmakers for allowing the CBC to screen NFB films with commercial interruptions. He also moved the NFB entirely over to color film production. However, the Toronto Star
s Martin Knelman felt that Newman was "mired in political warfare and administrative chaos". He was responsible for censoring or banning several productions, including Arcand's On est au coton
and Gilles Groulx
's 24 heures ou plus. These films were concerned, respectively, with the conditions of textile factory workers and critiquing consumer society. Such censorship or banning resulted in some critics attacking Newman for being anti working-class and pro-capitalist.
Newman had a mixed record with French-language films. He defended Pierre Perrault
's Un pays sans bon sens! to a committee of parliament in 1971, but the same year personally rejected the release of Michel Brault
's film about the October Crisis
, Les ordres. This was despite the fact that the film had already been approved by the board's French-language committee, and it was not eventually released until Brault personally released it in 1974.
Newman himself had been regarded as a possible terrorist abduction target during the October Crisis, and armed guards had patrolled the headquarters of the NFB. Newman was concerned about the idea of releasing films with Quebec nationalist
themes, such as Groulx's 24 heures ou plus, at such a tense political time, worried about what the Canadian public would think. Although it was Newman's deputy André Lamy
who in some cases drew the monolingual Newman's attention to the controversial nature of French language productions, it was Lamy himself who later permitted the release of some of these same films after he succeeded Newman as Government Film Commissioner.
When Newman's contract with the NFB came to an end in 1975, it was not renewed. Film historian Gerald Pratley claims that by this point, the NFB was "an almost-forgotten institution" due to "the stupor that had overtaken it." The writer Richard Collins felt that "the very experiences that enabled [Newman] to recognize the nature of the NFB's problem and the need for a change of diction and reorientation to the tastes of Canadians had left him out of touch with Canada." For his part, Newman felt that the NFB's French program had not made enough effort to communicate with people in English Canada or to make films that were relevant to "the ordinary men, who have no particular axe to grind."
Newman went on to become a Special Advisor on Film to the Secretary of State
, and from 1978 until 1984 he was Chief Creative Consultant to the Canadian Film Development Corporation
.
in 1981, the country's highest civilian honour. Shortly thereafter he returned to live in Britain again for some time following the death in 1981 of his wife Elizabeth McRae, to whom he had been married since 1944. His main reason for going back to the UK was to attempt, unsuccessfully, to produce a drama series about the Bloomsbury Group
for the new Channel 4
network.
In 1986, the then Controller of BBC One, Michael Grade
, unhappy with the current state of Doctor Who, wrote to Newman to enquire whether he had any ideas for reformatting the series, which was at the time struggling in the ratings. Newman wrote back to Grade on October 6 that year with a set of detailed proposals and a suggestion that he take direct control of the series as executive producer. Grade suggested that Newman meet the current Head of Drama, Jonathan Powell, for lunch to discuss the Canadian's ideas. Newman and Powell did not get on well, however, and nothing came of their meeting. He was also unsuccessful in an attempt to have his name added to the end credits of the show as its creator. Acting Head of Series & Serials Ken Riddington
, to whom Newman's request had been referred, wrote to him that "Heads of Department who originate programmes have to be satisfied with the other rewards that flow from doing so."
Newman returned to Canada again in the 1990s, where he died of a heart attack in Toronto in 1997. He was survived by his three daughters, and by his new partner Marion McDougall.
|-
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed Acting Director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
(NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation
Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....
, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State for Canada
Secretary of State for Canada
The position of Secretary of State for Canada was a Canadian Cabinet position with a corresponding department. It was established in 1867 as the official channel of communication between the Dominion of Canada and the Imperial government in London...
.
During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 60s, he worked first with the Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
(ABC) before moving across to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career he was responsible for initiating two hugely popular fantasy series, The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
and Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
drama series such as Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
and The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
.
The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications
Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...
describes Newman as "the most significant agent in the development of British television drama". Shortly after his death, his obituary in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper declared that "For ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was the most important impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
in Britain ... His death marks not just the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art."
In Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, as commissioner of the NFB, he attracted controversy for his decision to suppress distribution of several politically sensitive films by French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
directors.
Early life and the NFB
Born in Toronto, Newman was the son of a Russian immigrant father who ran a shoe shop. After studying at Ogden Public School, which he left at the age of thirteen, he later enrolled in the Central Technical SchoolCentral Technical School
Central Technical School is a composite high school located at 725 Bathurst Street at Harbord Street in Toronto, Canada.C.T.S. offers a wide range of programs, including all core academic courses, as well as concentration and specialization in visual arts and technical studies. C.T.S...
, studying art and design subjects. He initially attempted to follow a career as a stills photographer and an artist, specialising in drawing film posters. However, he found it difficult to earn enough money to make a living from this profession, so instead he switched to working in the film industry itself. In 1938 he travelled to Hollywood, where he was offered a role with the Walt Disney Company on the strength of his graphic design work. However, he was unable to take the job due to a failure to secure a work permit
Work permit
Work permit is a generic term for a legal authorization which allows a person to take employment.It is most often used in reference to instances where a person is given permission to work in a country where one does not hold citizenship, but is also used in reference to minors, who in some...
. Returning to his native country, in 1941 he gained a job as a film editor at the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
. He was eventually to work on over 350 films while an editor for the NFB.
During the Second World War the head of the NFB, John Grierson
John Grierson
John Grierson was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. According to popular myth, in 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film.-Early life:Grierson was born in Deanston, near Doune, Scotland...
, promoted Newman to film producer, working on documentaries and propaganda film
Propaganda film
The term propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures.” However, in the 20th century, a “new” propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that...
s, including Fighting Norway
Fighting Norway
Fighting Norway is a 1943 Canadian documentary film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and directed by Sydney Newman. Ten minutes in length, the film examines the role of the free forces of occupied Norway during the Second World War...
, which he directed. In 1944 he was made executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of Canada Carries On
Canada Carries On
Canada Carries On was a series of short films by the National Film Board of Canada, which ran from 1940 to 1959. The series was initially created as morale boosting propaganda films during World War II...
, a long-running series of such films. In 1949 Grierson again assisted Newman's career, entering him into television, then a new industry, on a one-year attachment to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in New York City. His assignment there was to compile reports for the Canadian government
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
on American television techniques, focusing on dramas, documentaries and outside broadcasts.
CBC Television
One of Newman's reports on outside broadcastingOutside broadcasting
Outside broadcasting is the electronic field production of television or radio programmes from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video camera and microphone signals come into the production truck for processing, recording and possibly transmission...
was seen and admired by executives at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(CBC), and in 1952 he joined the Corporation as their Supervising Director of Features, Documentaries and Outside Broadcasts. There he was involved in producing some of the earliest television editions of Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada is the branding used for CBC Sports' presentations of the National Hockey League...
, and the first Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
game to be shown on television. After his experience of seeing the production of television plays in New York, he was eager to work in drama despite by his own admission "knowing nothing about drama". He was nonetheless able to persuade his superiors at CBC to make him Supervisor of Drama Production in 1954. In this position he encouraged a new wave of young writers and directors, including William Kotcheff and Arthur Hailey
Arthur Hailey
Arthur Hailey was a British/Canadian novelist.- Biography :Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, Hailey served in the Royal Air Force from the start of World War II during 1939 until 1947, when he went to live in Canada. Hailey's last novel, Detective , is a mystery told from the perspective of a...
, and oversaw shows such as the popular General Motors Theatre
General Motors Theatre
General Motors Theatre was a Canadian television anthology series, which ran on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation under its various titles from 1953 until 1961. First transmitted under the sponsored title on October 5 1954, a new 60-minute drama would be presented each week...
.
Writing in 1990, the journalist Paul Rutherford felt that during his time at the CBC in the 1950s, Newman had been a "great champion of both realistic and Canadian drama". He felt that Newman "came to fulfil the role of the drama impresario with the vision to push people to develop a high-quality and popular style of drama."
Several of the General Motors Theatre plays, including Hailey's Flight into Danger
Flight into Danger
Flight into Danger is a 1956 Canadian television film starring Corinne Conley, James Doohan , Kate Reid, Zachary Scott and Philip Gilbert...
, were purchased for screening by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The productions impressed Howard Thomas
Howard Thomas
Howard Thomas CBE was a Welsh-born British radio producer and television executive.-Early career:Thomas began his career typing invoices for a firm of wire-drawers in Manchester. While doing that job, he taught himself to write newspaper articles and short plays...
, who was the managing director of Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
(ABC), the franchise holder for the rival ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network in the English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
and the North at weekends. Thomas offered Newman a job with ABC as a producer of his own Saturday night thriller series, which Newman accepted, moving to Britain in 1958. In 1975, the Head of Drama at the CBC, John Hirsch, noted that the fact that so many writers and directors followed Newman to the UK in the 1950s and never returned to work in Canada had made a detrimental impact on the standard of subsequent Canadian television drama.
Associated British Corporation
Dennis Vance
Dennis Vance was a British television producer and director.Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, he began his career as an actor in the late 1940s, appearing in small parts in various films before switching to become a producer with BBC Television in the early 1950s...
was moved into a more senior position with the company, and Thomas offered Newman his position, which the Canadian quickly accepted. He was, however, somewhat disparaging of the state in which he found British television drama. "At that time, I found this country to be somewhat class-ridden," he reminisced to interviewers in 1988. "The only legitimate theatre was of the 'anyone for tennis' variety, which on the whole gave a condescending view of working-class people. Television dramas were usually adaptations of stage plays and invariably about the upper classes. I said 'Damn the upper classes: they don't even own televisions!'"
Newman's principal tool for shaking up this established order was a programme which had been initiated before he had arrived at ABC, Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
. This anthology series was networked nationally across the ITV regions on Sunday evenings, and in 1959 was in the top ten of the ratings for 32 out of the 37 weeks it was broadcast, with audiences of over viewers. Newman used the strand to present plays by writers such as Alun Owen
Alun Owen
Alun Owen was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television, but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night ....
, Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
and Clive Exton
Clive Exton
Clive Exton was a British television and film screenwriter, sometime playwright, and former actor. He is best known for his scripts of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster, and Rosemary & Thyme.-Early career:He was born Clive Jack Montague Brooks in Islington, London,...
, also bringing over associates from Canada such as William Kotcheff. Writing in 2000, the television historian John Caughie
John Caughie
John Caughie is a British academic, specialising in film and television studies. Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, his books include Theories of Authorship, A Companion to British and Irish Cinema and Television Drama: Realism, Modernism, and British Culture...
stated that "Newman's insistence that the series would use only original material written for television made Armchair Theatre a decisive moment in the history of British television drama."
In 1960 Newman devised a thriller series for ABC called Police Surgeon, starring Ian Hendry
Ian Hendry
Ian Hendry was an English film and television actor. He is best known for his work on several British TV series of the early 1960s such as The Avengers, and for his roles in 1970s films such as Get Carter .-Career:Hendry was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and educated at Culford School...
. Although Police Surgeon was not a success and was cancelled after only a short run, Newman took Hendry as the star and some of the ethos of the programme to create a new series (not a direct sequel as is sometimes claimed) called The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
. Debuting in January 1961, The Avengers became an international success, although in later years its premise differed somewhat from Newman's initial set-up, veering into more humorous territory rather than remaining a gritty thriller.
Newman's great success at ABC had been noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation, whose executives were keen to revive their own drama department
BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...
's fortunes in the face of fierce competition from ITV. In 1961 the BBC's Director of Television, Kenneth Adam
Kenneth Adam
Kenneth Adam CBE was an English journalist and broadcasting executive, who from 1957 until 1961 served as the Controller of the BBC Television Service.-Education:...
, met with Newman and offered him the position of Head of Drama at the BBC. He accepted the position, eager for a new challenge, although he was forced by ABC to remain with them until the expiration of his contract in December 1962, after which he immediately began work with the BBC.
Arrival and impact
There was some initial resentment to his appointment within the Corporation, as he was an outsider and he was also earning more than many of the executives senior to him, although still substantially less than he had been paid at ABC. As he had done at ABC, he was keen to shake up the staid image of BBC drama and introduce new outlets for the kitchen sink drama and the "Angry Young MenAngry young men
The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...
" of the era. He also divided the drama department into three separate divisions—series, serials and plays, headed by Elwyn Jones
Elwyn Jones (writer)
Elwyn Jones was a British television writer and producer, whose best-known work was perhaps the co-creation of the famous police drama series Z-Cars for BBC Television in 1962...
, Donald Wilson and Michael Bakewell
Michael Bakewell
Michael Bakewell is a British television producer. He is best known for his work during the 1960s, when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC after Sydney Newman divided the drama department into separate series, serials and plays divisions in 1963...
, respectively, each reporting directly to Newman.
In 1964 he and Kenneth Adam initiated the new anthology series The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
, a BBC equivalent of Armchair Theatre, which had great success and critical acclaim with plays written and directed by the likes of Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
, Jeremy Sandford
Jeremy Sandford
Jeremy Sandford was an English television screenwriter who came to prominence in 1966 with Cathy Come Home, his controversial entry in BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology strand which was directed by Ken Loach...
and Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
. The strand attracted comment and debate for several of its productions, such as Cathy Come Home
Cathy Come Home
Cathy Come Home is a 1966 BBC television play by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, about homelessness. An industry poll rated it as the best British television drama ever made. Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 16...
, a Tony Garnett
Tony Garnett
Tony Garnett is a film producer who has worked in feature films and on British television. He was born in Birmingham, England, and studied psychology at the University of London....
production of a Jeremy Sandford script, tackling the issue of homelessness. There were also problems caused by Newman bringing in freelance directors to work on the programme, who sometimes overspent on their plays to try and increase their impact; with staff directors this could be compensated by reducing the budget of a subsequent production, but for a freelancer there would be no such recourse.
Shaun Sutton
Shaun Sutton
Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton OBE was an English television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s...
was one of the drama producers who worked under Newman at the BBC, and later succeeded the Canadian as Head of Drama. He later wrote that Newman "galvanised television drama ... [He created] a climate in which boldness paid." In contrast, Don Taylor
Don Taylor (director)
Donald Victor Taylor was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre, radio and television for over forty years...
, who was a director in the drama department at the time, later claimed that he felt Newman was unsuited to the position of Head of Drama, writing: "To put it brutally, I was deeply offended that the premier position in television drama, at a time when it really was the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
of the Air, had been given to a man whose values were entirely commercial, and who had no more than a layman's knowledge of the English theatrical tradition, let alone the drama of Europe and the wider world."
Newman's biography at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...
website points out that much of the work Newman is credited for at the BBC was little different to that which had been undertaken by his predecessor Michael Barry, who "also attracted new young original writers ... and hired young directors ... However, it was the newness and innovation which Newman encouraged in his drama output that is most significant: his concentration on the potential of television as television, for a mass not a middlebrow audience." The academic Madeleine Macmurraugh-Kavanagh has criticised some of the eulogistic views of Newman's time at the BBC, writing that: "When archive and press material emanating from the 1964–65 period is examined, an interesting gap appears between what Newman seemed likely to accomplish and what he finally did accomplish ... Also relevant to the mythology that has sprung up around Newman is the fact that his favoured dramatic material was interpreted by some as being rather less radical than it seemed."
Doctor Who
In 1963 he initiated the creation of the science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The series has been described by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
as having "created a phenomenon unlike any other British TV programme", and by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper as "quintessential to being British". Newman had long been a science-fiction fan: "[U]p to the age of 40, I don't think there was a science-fiction book I hadn't read. I love them because they're a marvellous way—and a safe way, I might add—of saying nasty things about our own society."
When Controller of BBC Television Donald Baverstock
Donald Baverstock
Donald Baverstock was a British television producer and executive, born in Cardiff, Wales. He initially worked for BBC Television in their Talks Department, where he was the Editor of the topical magazine programme Highlight and then co-devised and edited its more ambitious and better-remembered...
alerted Newman of the need for a programme to bridge the gap between the sports showcase Grandstand
Grandstand (BBC)
Grandstand was a British television sport programme. Broadcast between 1958 and 2007, it was one of the BBC's longest running sports shows, alongside BBC Sports Personality of the Year.Its first presenter was Peter Dimmock...
and pop music programme Juke Box Jury
Juke Box Jury
Juke Box Jury was a musical panel show which originally ran on BBC Television from 1 June 1959 until December 1967. The programme was based on the American show Jukebox Jury, itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series....
on Saturday evenings, he decided that a science-fiction drama would be the perfect vehicle for filling the gap and gaining a family audience. Although much work on the genesis of the series was done by Donald Wilson, C. E. Webber
C. E. Webber
Cecil Edwin Webber was a British television writer and playwright. He is best remembered for his contribution to the creation of the famous science-fiction series Doctor Who while working as a staff writer for the BBC in the early 1960s...
and others, it was Newman who created the idea of a time machine larger on the inside than the out
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
and the character of the mysterious "Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
", which remain at the heart of the programme. He is also believed to have come up with the title Doctor Who, although actor and director Hugh David
Hugh David
Hugh David was an actor turned television director. David was born in Aberystwyth, Wales. His directorial credits include Compact, Z-Cars, The Pallisers and Doctor Who, for which he directed two stories in the Patrick Troughton era...
later credited this to his friend Rex Tucker
Rex Tucker
Rex Tucker was a British television director in the 1950s and 1960s.He was born in March in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire. Amongst his work, he was a driving force during the formative stages of Doctor Who in 1963, acting as a caretaker producer prior to the arrival of Verity Lambert...
, the initial "caretaker producer" of the programme.
After the series had been conceived, Newman initially approached Don Taylor
Don Taylor (director)
Donald Victor Taylor was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre, radio and television for over forty years...
and then Shaun Sutton
Shaun Sutton
Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton OBE was an English television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s...
to produce it, although both declined. He then decided on his former production assistant
Production assistant
A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production...
at ABC, Verity Lambert
Verity Lambert
Verity Ann Lambert, OBE was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture, and for her association with Thames Television...
, who had never produced, written or directed but readily accepted his offer. As Lambert became the youngest—and only female—drama producer at the BBC, there were some doubts as to Newman's choice, but she became a success in the role. Even Newman clashed with her on occasion, however, particularly over the inclusion of the alien Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
creatures on the programme. Newman had not wanted any "bug-eyed monster
Bug-eyed monster
Bug-eyed monster is an early convention of the science fiction genre. Extraterrestrials in science fiction of the 1930s were often described as grotesque creatures with huge, oversized...
s" in the show, but he was placated when the creatures became a great success. Later in the show's run, in 1966 he took a more hands-on role again in the changeover between the First
First Doctor
The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...
and Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
s.
In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature
Human Nature (Doctor Who episode)
"Human Nature" is the eighth episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by Paul Cornell adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature...
", the Doctor (in human form as "John Smith") refers to his parents Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert. Verity Newman, a character in "The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
" is also named after him. A similar tip of the hat had appeared in the show's original run: In "The Powerful Enemy", the first episode of the 1965 story "The Rescue", in order to hide the fact that one character is actually another character in disguise, the role is credited to the non-existent actor "Sydney Wilson", an amalgam of the names of Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson.
Other work and departure
Newman also had success with more traditional BBC fare such as the costume dramaCostume drama
A costume drama or period drama is a period piece in which elaborate costumes, sets and properties are featured in order to capture the ambiance of a particular era.The term is usually used in the context of film and television...
The Forsyte Saga
The Forsyte Saga (1967 series)
The Forsyte Saga is a 1967 BBC television adaptation of John Galsworthy's series of The Forsyte Saga novels, and its sequel trilogy A Modern Comedy...
in 1967, a Donald Wilson project on which Newman had not initially been keen. However, it became one of the most acclaimed and popular productions of his era, watched by people in 26 countries. After also initiating other popular series such as Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
, at the end of 1967 Newman's five-year contract with the BBC came to an end, and he did not remain with the Corporation. Instead, he returned to the film industry, taking a job as a producer with Associated British Picture Corporation
Associated British Picture Corporation
Associated British Picture Corporation , originally British International Pictures , was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970...
. "I want to get away from my executive's chair and become a creative worker again," he told The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper of his decision.
However, the British film industry was entering a period of decline, and none of Newman's projects ever went into production. ABPC was taken over by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, becoming EMI Films
EMI Films
EMI Films was a British film and television production company and distributor. The company was formed after the takeover of Associated British Picture Corporation in 1968 by EMI....
, and at the end of June 1969, Newman was dismissed from the company, later describing his eighteen months there as "a futile waste". Despite being offered an executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
ship by the BBC, keen to regain his services on the very day he left ABPC, Newman decided to return to Canada. He left the UK on January 3, 1970, leading The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
to comment that "British television will never be the same again."
Chairman of the NFB
His first post upon returning to his home country was an advisory position with the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) in OttawaOttawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, where he battled Canada's private broadcasters, especially CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
, over new Canadian content
Canadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
regulations. This lasted for only a few months, before in August 1970 he became the new Government Film Commissioner, the Chairman of the National Film Board of Canada, returning to the same institution for which he had worked in the 1940s. In this role, he experienced considerable problems in Quebec resulting from the fact that he did not speak French, at a time when the NFB's French Program branch was attracting young Quebec nationalist
Quebec nationalism
Quebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...
filmmakers. Some staff members also felt that he had been away from the NFB for too long, while the filmmaker Denys Arcand
Denys Arcand
Georges-Henri Denys Arcand, is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. He has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004 for The Barbarian Invasions...
felt that Newman did not understand Quebec culture.
Newman was able to improve the NFB's relations with broadcaster CBC, securing prime time television slots for several productions, although he was criticised by some filmmakers for allowing the CBC to screen NFB films with commercial interruptions. He also moved the NFB entirely over to color film production. However, the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
s Martin Knelman felt that Newman was "mired in political warfare and administrative chaos". He was responsible for censoring or banning several productions, including Arcand's On est au coton
On est au coton
On est au coton is a documentary film directed by Denys Arcand in 1970, about the conditions of workers in the textile industry in Quebec.-Suppression:...
and Gilles Groulx
Gilles Groulx
Gilles Groulx was a Canadian film director. He grew up in a working-class family with 14 children. After studying business in school, he went to work in an office but found the white-collar environment too stultifying...
's 24 heures ou plus. These films were concerned, respectively, with the conditions of textile factory workers and critiquing consumer society. Such censorship or banning resulted in some critics attacking Newman for being anti working-class and pro-capitalist.
Newman had a mixed record with French-language films. He defended Pierre Perrault
Pierre Perrault
Pierre Perrault was a Québécois documentary film director. He directed 20 films between 1963 and 1996. He was one of the most important filmmakers in Canada although largely unknown outside of Québec...
's Un pays sans bon sens! to a committee of parliament in 1971, but the same year personally rejected the release of Michel Brault
Michel Brault
Michel Brault, OQ is a Quebec cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s...
's film about the October Crisis
October Crisis
The October Crisis was a series of events triggered by two kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec during October 1970 in the province of Quebec, mainly in the Montreal metropolitan area.The circumstances ultimately culminated in the only peacetime use...
, Les ordres. This was despite the fact that the film had already been approved by the board's French-language committee, and it was not eventually released until Brault personally released it in 1974.
Newman himself had been regarded as a possible terrorist abduction target during the October Crisis, and armed guards had patrolled the headquarters of the NFB. Newman was concerned about the idea of releasing films with Quebec nationalist
Quebec nationalism
Quebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...
themes, such as Groulx's 24 heures ou plus, at such a tense political time, worried about what the Canadian public would think. Although it was Newman's deputy André Lamy
André Lamy
André Lamy was a Canadian film producer, who served as Canada's Government Film Commissioner from 1975 until 1979. In this position he was the Chairman of the National Film Board of Canada ....
who in some cases drew the monolingual Newman's attention to the controversial nature of French language productions, it was Lamy himself who later permitted the release of some of these same films after he succeeded Newman as Government Film Commissioner.
When Newman's contract with the NFB came to an end in 1975, it was not renewed. Film historian Gerald Pratley claims that by this point, the NFB was "an almost-forgotten institution" due to "the stupor that had overtaken it." The writer Richard Collins felt that "the very experiences that enabled [Newman] to recognize the nature of the NFB's problem and the need for a change of diction and reorientation to the tastes of Canadians had left him out of touch with Canada." For his part, Newman felt that the NFB's French program had not made enough effort to communicate with people in English Canada or to make films that were relevant to "the ordinary men, who have no particular axe to grind."
Newman went on to become a Special Advisor on Film to the Secretary of State
Secretary of State for Canada
The position of Secretary of State for Canada was a Canadian Cabinet position with a corresponding department. It was established in 1867 as the official channel of communication between the Dominion of Canada and the Imperial government in London...
, and from 1978 until 1984 he was Chief Creative Consultant to the Canadian Film Development Corporation
Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....
.
Later years
Newman was awarded the Order of CanadaOrder of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
in 1981, the country's highest civilian honour. Shortly thereafter he returned to live in Britain again for some time following the death in 1981 of his wife Elizabeth McRae, to whom he had been married since 1944. His main reason for going back to the UK was to attempt, unsuccessfully, to produce a drama series about the Bloomsbury Group
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
for the new Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
network.
In 1986, the then Controller of BBC One, Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
, unhappy with the current state of Doctor Who, wrote to Newman to enquire whether he had any ideas for reformatting the series, which was at the time struggling in the ratings. Newman wrote back to Grade on October 6 that year with a set of detailed proposals and a suggestion that he take direct control of the series as executive producer. Grade suggested that Newman meet the current Head of Drama, Jonathan Powell, for lunch to discuss the Canadian's ideas. Newman and Powell did not get on well, however, and nothing came of their meeting. He was also unsuccessful in an attempt to have his name added to the end credits of the show as its creator. Acting Head of Series & Serials Ken Riddington
Ken Riddington
Ken Riddington is a British television producer, who has worked predominantly in BBC television drama, with a career active since the 1970s. He has produced several high-profile television series and serials, including Tenko , The Citadel , A Very Peculiar Practice , The House of Eliott and Andrew...
, to whom Newman's request had been referred, wrote to him that "Heads of Department who originate programmes have to be satisfied with the other rewards that flow from doing so."
Newman returned to Canada again in the 1990s, where he died of a heart attack in Toronto in 1997. He was survived by his three daughters, and by his new partner Marion McDougall.
External links
- Sydney Newman at the National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of CanadaThe National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
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