Charles Curran

Sir Charles John Curran 1921-1980 was the first ex-grammar school Director-General. He served in the Indian army but left to work in the BBC Talks department. He resigned after a dispute to edit Canadian Fishing News but came back in 1951 to BBC Monitoring.

Subsequent posts included Secretary and Director of External Broadcasting. The Board of Governors liked him but staff described him as a poor decision-maker. He was a good administrator but may have lacked the personality needed for a troubled time: industrial action, declining License Fee revenue, Government clashes, commercial radio and Lord Hill's interference in programme-making.

He worked better with new Chairman Michael Swann. He was not a television expert but oversaw a classic era of increased licence-fee income and many successful dramas, documentaries and comedies.

While Director-General he was President of the European Broadcasting Union for three terms. In 1977 he became Managing Director of news agency Visnews. He died of a heart attack in 1980.