Michael Grade New BBC Chairman

I think this is VERY good news for BBC viewers as he is bound to be *quite* radical in abolishing some under-performing programmes but commission some new programme ideas aswell.

Michael Grade will still have to appoint a DG.

Also Michael Grade was the person who successfully brought Eastenders to our screens and hopefully can restore it to its original splender and grittyness rather than the drab, uninteresting storylines that are currently plodding along.

It was great to see the ITV News Channel had the only video camera outside his house this morning when he left for work!

I think Grade's appointment makes Mark Byford's appointment as DG no longer cut and dried.

Like how he abolished my beloved Doctor Who, even though it still had good ratings, just because he personally disliked it, when he was Channel Controller of BBC One in the 1980s. What a sensible, mature attitude he has to media - allowing his personal taste to influence his decisions, in preference to regarding licence fee-paying viewers. How professional!

To bring this Doctor Who-hating c*nt back to the BBC, just as the BBC are about to relaunch Doctor Who is an ars*hole of a decision. He'll derail the project for sure - he did it once, so he'll do it again. The c*nt. Well done, BBC!

Just as I'm looking forward to DW coming back, I hear this news...



In a manner of speaking, EastEnders was launched out of the ashes of Doctor Who (I can't be bothered to relate the whole story behind this, but trust me). That is one of the reasons that I've never been an EastEnders viewer. That, and the fact that NOTHING positive has EVER happened in it - just an endless parade of life traumas, murders, injustice, psychopaths, miserable faces, etc. Television to commit suicide by.

Look what happened over Hutton, part of the problem was that both the DG and Chairman didn't really know what to do and made mistakes. Grade and Dyke are very similar in the respect that they're both experienced in business but essentially are entertainment people with no background in news.

With Grade as Chairman the DG they pick had better be sh*t hot on the editorial side of things

I don't think it was ever cut and dried. And the prevailing opinion seems to be that very few people actually want him as DG

How Media Guardian broke the story

You say that the views of license payers are important and then say that to replace the dying Doctor Who with the massively successful EastEnders was the wrong thing to do!

I am indifferent to both programmes, but if axing Doctor Who was needed to allow resources for the production of EE, then axed it should have been.

Anyway, to judge a Chairman of the BBC on one of his programme decisions ages ago is stupid.

Lets hope he can turn the BBC around and get some decent programs on the BBC. I think his first job to do will be to sack the controller Lorraine Hegessey as she comes up with all these crappy programs, and the exec producer at EastEnders, Louise Berridge, as she keeps coming up with loads of crappy storylines!

Anyhow, its just a thought.

I think a lot of people here have the wrong idea about what the chairman does. This appointment is NOT Greg Dyke's replacement, it will not be down to Grade to directly dictate the schedule of BBC1 - the idea that he can axe Doctor Who again or bring in more episodes of Eastenders is rubbish.

Oh dear God, you really have no grip on reality, do you...?

He can't get decent programmes on
He can't sack the controller of BBC ONE
He can't change the storylines on EastEnders

He is the Chair of a board of Governors. It is the Director General who makes these decisions.

God, when are people going to realise!!

But can he get one of his media chums appointed as Director General who will do these things for him, as well as axing the all new Dr Who?