Grace Wyndham Goldie

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name = Grace Wyndham Goldie


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birth_name = Grace Murrell Nisbet
birth_date = 1900
birth_place = Scotland
death_date = 3 June 1986
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nationality = British
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employer = BBC
occupation = television producer,
title = Head of BBC Television Talks, later Head of BBC News & Current Affairs
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Grace Wyndham Goldie (née Grace Murrell Nisbet) (1900–1986) was a major influence in British broadcasting for over twenty years. When she joined the BBC she took on the male establishment, no mean feat in the 1940s. Over her career as a producer she would invent many of the television formats now taken for granted. Wyndham Goldie went on to become the Head of BBC Television Talks and later Head of the BBC News & Current Affairs directorate.

Early life

Grace was born in the western Highlands of Scotland. Much of her childhood was spent in Egypt and she went to a French school in Alexandria before going on to Cheltenham Ladies' College and Somerville College, Oxford. She joined the staff of the BBC in 1944 after a spell at the Board of Trade.

Career

Grace Wyndham Goldie recruited, trained, guided and encouraged many well-known broadcasters at the BBC and independent television. She pioneered the coverage of politics and current affairs on television, and established programmes such as Tonight, Panorama, The Money Programme and That Was The Week That Was.

Among her team of producers and presenters, the so-called 'Goldie Boys', were Alasdair Milne, Huw Wheldon, Robin Day, David Frost, Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan and Richard Dimbleby.

Wyndham Goldie pioneered television coverage of general elections. In February 1950 came the first general election of the television era. The BBC engaged in no reporting of the campaign what so ever because of a cautious reading of the Representation of the People Act 1948. However, producer Grace Wyndham Goldie managed to persuade the BBC to transmit a programme on election night to report the results only, there was to be absolutely no prediction of what was to come.

The 1950 election programme was a big success. It led immediately to the first regular scheduled political discussion show. In March 1950 Wyndham Goldie began a programme called "In the News". The programme was a pioneering format for the time; four iconoclastic commentators dicussing current controversies among themselves. "In the News" was a hit with the viewers who relished the empassioned arguments. By 1952, "In the News" was watched by 48% of people with TV sets.

In 1953 Wyndham Goldie started a new programme where each week three journalists would interview a leading politician. It was called "Press Conference" and Cabinet Ministers had to get permission from the Prime Minister to appear on it. This sort of programme is now a staple of political programming.

Wyndham Goldie relaunched the ailing Panorama in 1955, with Richard Dimbleby as the main presenter. She was instrumental in recruiting Robin Day from ITN to present the programme at the end of the 1950s.

By 1955, the existence of television on election nights was having a significant effect. It prompted returning officers to hold their counts immediately after the close of polls, so that the results were declared during the early hours of the morning, rather than the following day. In 1955, for the first time, a majority of constituencies declared on the night (357 of the 630 constituencies).

Wyndham Goldie supervised the gestation and birth of the first regular political programmes, arts programme, the first nightly magazine programme and the first topical satire programme. She in effect wrote the rules of engagement for broadcasters and politicians. These rules are still pretty much adhered to to this day.

Grace Wyndham Goldie died on 3 June 1986 at the age of 86.

Publications

Facing the Nation: Television & Politics 1936-76, (1977)