Roger Froome Laughton CBE FRTS (born 19 May 1942) is a BAFTA-winning television producer and former Chief Executive of Meridian Television. [1]
Laughton attended the state boys' grammar school King Edward VII School, Sheffield (KES). He studied at Merton College, Oxford, gaining a degree in History in 1963, and a DipEd from the Institute of Education in Oxford the following year. [2]
He was a television producer for the BBC from 1965–90, working on programmes such as Michael Wood's In Search of the Dark Ages and Great Railway Journeys of the World . On 27 October 1986 he launched the BBC Daytime service. In November 2006, he produced the Laughton Report, which found that the local BBC television services were disruptive to local newspapers, but employed fewer journalists. [3]
From 1991-96, he was the Chief Executive of Meridian Broadcasting (now ITV Meridian). He received the CBE in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to regional broadcasting. He became a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 1994. Laughton married Suzanne Taylor in 1967, and they have a daughter, Catherine.
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene was a British television executive and journalist. He was director-general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969.
Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs is a Scottish television producer and executive, opera manager, and a recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards.
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.
Frederick Edgar Dinenage MBE is a British author, broadcaster and television presenter. His television career has spanned nearly 60 years, including the long-running children's programme How and ITV's regional programming in the south of England. Dinenage retired from presenting regional news on ITV Meridian on 16 December 2021, after 38 years as a news anchor.
Arthur Clifford Michelmore was an English television presenter and producer.
Sir Howard Stringer is a Welsh-American businessman. He had a 30-year career at CBS, culminating in him serving as the president of CBS News from 1986 to 1988, then president of CBS from 1988 to 1995. He served as chairman of the board, chairman, president and CEO of Sony Corporation from 2005 to 2012. He is also the head of the board of trustees of the American Film Institute and now serves as a non-executive director of the BBC. He was knighted in 1999.
Mark Shivas was a British television producer, film producer and executive.
John Morris Roberts was a British historian with many published works. From 1979 to 1985, he was vice chancellor of the University of Southampton, and from 1985 to 1994, he was warden of Merton College, Oxford. He also wrote and presented the BBC TV series The Triumph of the West, first broadcast in 1985.
Alan Will Wyatt CBE was formerly managing director of BBC Television (1991–96) and Chief Executive of BBC Broadcast (1996–99). He was later a company director, media consultant and author.
Mark David Damazer, CBE, 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.
Stewart Peter Purvis CBE is a British broadcaster, broadcasting executive, author and academic.
Anthony David Smith, CBE was a British broadcaster, author and academic, who was president of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1988 to 2005.
Northgate High School is a co-educational secondary school situated in north Ipswich, Suffolk, England. It is a co-educational comprehensive school, for ages 11–16, and 16–18 in the Sixth Form Department. It has approximately 1736 children on roll.
Francis George Gillard was a BBC executive, reporter and radio innovator.
Tessa Sarah Ross CBE is an English film producer and executive. She received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award and was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour in 2013. She is an honorary fellow of the National Film and Television School. In the 2010 New Year Honours, she was appointed a CBE for services to broadcasting.
Andrew Rutherford was a Scottish scholar and university administrator. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of London from 1994-1997.
Geoffrey Malcolm Copland is a British physicist and former vice-chancellor of the University of Westminster.
Geraint Stanley Jones was a Welsh television executive. From 1981 to 1989, Jones was the Controller of BBC Wales, from which he oversaw the launch of S4C, the Welsh-language public-service television channel, in 1982. Jones also served as the chief executive of S4C from 1989 to 1994.
Joanna Ravenscroft Spicer CBE born Joanna Gibbon was a British television executive employed by the BBC. Described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as "virtually unknown", she was involved with discussions leading to Doctor Who and Civilisation. It was said that she "ran BBC Television single handed."
Samir Shah, CBE, is a 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.