By Chris Jones of the BBC's News Profiles Unit

Samuel Grade might be unaware that he is a member of a showbusiness dynasty, but at the tender age of 13 months, he is already an influential figure in the life of his father.

Father is Michael, who is back in the entertainment world as the head of the consortium buying Pinewood Studios from Rank for �62m.

Considerations about Samuel's future school have helped to persuade his father and mother, Michael Grade's third wife, Francesca, to sell their handsome family home in Hampshire and start house-hunting in west London.

And the 70-foot yacht which Michael Grade once said was the happiest experience he had ever bought is also going - "sailing is not safe for a small child".

The son of Leslie, the theatrical agent who booked stars like Bob Hope and Danny Kaye, and nephew of the showbiz giants, Lords Grade and Delfont, Michael Grade also wants to be nearer Pinewood.

He is setting out to take the complex, now best-known as the film set for James Bond's battles with master-villains, "into the multi-media age".

The Pinewood deal was sealed when Grade was in Australia, enjoying an extended holiday after stepping down as the chief executive of First Leisure Corporation.

One of Michael Grade's first tasks was to scotch rumours that he was planning to turn the 100-acre Pinewood site in Buckinghamshire into a James Bond theme park.

But then, he is used to being under fire, and countering charges of vulgarity.

In his eight years at Channel Four, its controversial programming led the Daily Mail columnist, Paul Johnson, to dub Grade the "Pornographer-in-chief".

But he put the channel on a sound financial footing and oversaw a growth in its share of viewers.

Although he has abandoned the red braces and red socks that seemed a necessary part of his aggressive image, one suspects Michael Grade's head still wins most battles with his heart.

His father's stroke when he was 23 was a watershed in his life. His uncle, Bernard Delfont, told him: "You've got to get serious, young man. Your father's not going to be the power he was and we need you to learn the business."

Yet, as boss of First Leisure, the company founded by Lord Delfont, Michael Grade dismayed the impresario's widow, by selling off much of the company, including Blackpool Tower.

"I am devastated," she said. "My nephew has destroyed everything my husband worked so hard to build."

Grade's antennae were never tuned to the City's wavelength, and First Leisure's shares suffered.

But his television instincts have been generally sound, realising the winning potential of EastEnders and surprising critics by scheduling quality arts programmes.

And nobody else, says Bob Geldof, would have had "the bottle", in what proved a remarkable coup, to hand over a network for 24 hours to Live Aid.

Under the direction of a man who is an avid Charlton Athletic supporter but also an opera-lover, Channel Four's film department arguably kept the British movie industry in work. It helped to finance films like Trainspotting and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Grade's genius in television was as a scheduler who trusted his instincts.

But industry observers always suspected his greatest ambition was the big screen.

He has never had a career plan. Some of his appointments have been a surprise and it seems several of them have ended simply because he became bored.

Michael Grade will run Pinewood alongside Ivan Dunleavy, formerly the chief executive of a video production company.

He says their aim is to maintain its reputation as a premier film studio for big international pictures, but also to develop it as a television facility.

And, with the Pinewood acres, he has the biggest stages on which to exploit the best of both worlds.