Mark Damazer | |
|---|---|
 Damazer in 2022 | |
| Born | 15 April 1955 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, Hertfordshire [1] |
| Alma mater | Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge |
| Occupation | Media executive |
| Children | Two |
Mark David Damazer, CBE (born 15 April 1955), is a former Master of St Peter's College, Oxford, and a former controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra in the United Kingdom.
Damazer was born on 15 April 1955. [2] He is the son of a Polish-Jewish delicatessen owner in Willesden in North London. He is the younger brother of Benjamyn Damazer JP DL.
Damazer was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, [1] an independent day school in the village of Elstree in Hertfordshire. He then studied history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (from 1974), where he graduated with a double starred first in 1977. At Cambridge he had a relationship with Enoch Powell's daughter, Jenny. Enoch Powell thanked him in his biography of Joseph Chamberlain. [3] [4] After graduating, Damazer took up a Harkness Fellowship to study at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. [5]
Damazer returned to England to train at ITN in 1980, with fellow trainees Edward Stourton and Michael Crick. He joined the BBC World Service as a current affairs producer in 1981. From 1982 to 1984, he worked at TV-am, returning to BBC News in 1984. He joined Newsnight as an editor in January 1986. In August 1988, he became deputy editor of the Nine O'Clock News , becoming editor in 1990. In 1994, he became Editor of Television News Programmes, then Head of Current Affairs in May 1996. He became Head of Political Programmes in March 1998. [2] He became Assistant Director of BBC News in December 1999, then Deputy Director in April 2001. [2] He was appointed Controller of Radio 4 and BBC7 in October 2004, taking over from Helen Boaden. In 2006, he was involved in a controversy over his decision to replace the Radio 4 UK Theme with a "pacy news briefing, read by one of Radio 4's team of news readers". [6] In 2008, he sacked Edward Stourton from the Today programme, and replaced him in 2009 with Justin Webb. Damazer is a Fellow of The Radio Academy. [7]
On 12 April 2010, the BBC announced that Damazer was standing down as Controller of Radio 4 and leaving the Corporation to become Master of St Peter's College, Oxford. [5] He held the appointment of Master from October 2010 to September 2019. [8] [9]
In June 2020 he was announced as chair of the Booker Prize Foundation, succeeding Baroness Helena Kennedy. [10] [11]
Damazer served on the boards of trustees of the Institute of Contemporary British History and the Carl Rosa Opera. [2] and Mental Health Media.
Damazer is the Senior Non-Executive Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum [12] and a Trustee of the BBC since April 2015.
Damazer is married with two children. [2]
In the 2011 New Year Honours, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to broadcasting. [13]
Today, colloquially known as the Today programme, is BBC Radio 4's long-running morning news and current-affairs radio programme. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 06:00 to 09:00, it is produced by BBC News and is the highest-rated programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks. In-depth political interviews and reports are interspersed with regular news bulletins, as well as Thought for the Day. It has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda, with an average weekly listening audience around 6 million.
Alan Yentob is a retired British television executive and presenter. He has held senior roles at the BBC including head of music and arts, controller of BBC1 and controller of BBC2. He stepped down as the BBC's creative director in December 2015, and was chairman of the board of trustees of the charity Kids Company from 2003 until its collapse in 2015.
Sir William Frederick Cotton was a British television producer and executive, and the son of dance band leader Billy Cotton. The television and radio presenter Fearne Cotton is related to him, as he was her paternal grandfather's cousin.
Julia Hartley-Brewer is a conservative British radio presenter, political journalist, and newspaper columnist. She has hosted a radio show on Talkradio simulcast on TalkTV, called Julia Hartley-Brewer on weekdays from 10am. She has widely expressed her sometimes controversial views and opinions, including her pro-Brexit stance, her disbelief in climate change, and her belief that political correctness damages people's ability to freely express their political views. Many viewers and listeners have accused her of trivialising issues such as racism and Islamophobia, and they have also accused her of posting Tweets which are insensitive or harmful in nature.
The Harkness Fellowship is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several countries to spend time studying in the United States.
Edward John Ivo Stourton is a British broadcaster and presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme Sunday, and was a frequent contributor to the Today programme, where for ten years he was one of the main presenters. He is the author of eight books, most recently Confessions (2023).
Any Questions? is a British topical discussion programme "in which a panel of personalities from the worlds of politics, media, and elsewhere are posed questions by the audience".
Sir David Edwin Hatch, was an English broadcaster, involved in production and management at BBC Radio where he held many executive positions, including Head of Light Entertainment (Radio), Controller of BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 and later managing director of BBC Radio.
Percy Howard Newby CBE was an English novelist and broadcasting administrator. He was the first winner of the Booker Prize, his novel Something to Answer For having received the inaugural award in 1969.
The BBC Radio 4 UK Theme is an orchestral arrangement of traditional British and Irish airs compiled by Fritz Spiegl and arranged by Manfred Arlan. It was played every morning on BBC Radio 4 between 23 November 1978 and 23 April 2006.
The World at One, or WATO ("what-oh") for short, is a British lunchtime news and current affairs radio programme on BBC Radio 4, broadcast weekdays from 13:00 to 13:45 and produced by BBC News. The programme describes itself as "Britain's leading political programme. With a reputation for rigorous and original investigation, it is required listening in Westminster".
Lesley Douglas is a British former radio executive. She was the Controller of BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music from early 2004 until her resignation in October 2008 over The Russell Brand Show prank calls.
The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of licence-fee payers. On 12 May 2016, it was announced in the House of Commons that, under the next royal charter, the regulatory functions of the BBC Trust were to be transferred to Ofcom.
John Alexander Montgomery Cushnie was a landscape designer, author, journalist, and broadcaster in the United Kingdom, best known as a regular panellist on the long-running BBC Radio 4 programme Gardeners' Question Time.
Gwyneth Williams is a former controller of BBC Radio 4. She grew up in South Africa and attended St Hugh's College, Oxford.
Hannah Mary Rothschild is a British author, businesswoman, philanthropist and documentary filmmaker. In addition to screenplays and journalism, she has published a biography and three novels. She sits on charitable and financial boards. In August 2015, she became the first woman to chair the board of trustees of the National Gallery in London.
Stephen Edward Hewlett was a British print, radio and TV journalist, and visiting professor of Journalism and Broadcast Policy at the University of Salford.
A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 4, a British national radio station which began broadcasting in September 1967.
Samir Shah, CBE, is an Indian–British television and radio executive. He has worked for London Weekend Television, the BBC, and is the chief executive of Juniper TV, a British company. In 2021, he co-authored the UK government's Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report.