Michael Peacock (television executive)

Ian Michael Peacock (born 14 September 1929, Christchurch, Hampshire) is a former British television executive, who from 1963 until the spring of 1965 was the first Controller of BBC 2, the Corporation's second television channel.

After graduating with an upper second class degree in sociology from the London School of Economics in 1952, Michael Peacock immediately joined BBC Television as a trainee producer, working under Grace Wyndham Goldie in the Television Talks Department, based at Alexandra Palace, which moved to the Lime Grove Studios the following year. In 1955 he became the producer of Panorama, the Corporation's first weekly TV current affairs series, at the age of twenty-six. Under his editorship with Richard Dimbleby as anchorman the programme developed a high reputation, and during the Suez crisis in 1956 audiences reached 12 million viewers. It was Peacock who was responsible for the April Fools' Day hoax which fooled many viewers into believing that spaghetti grew on trees.

In 1958 Peacock was appointed Assistant Head of Television Outside Broadcasts with the brief to develop documentary OBs. In 1959 he returned to Panorama where ratings had fallen badly. He recruited a new team of reporters including Robert Kee and James Mossman and restored ratings to the 8-10 million level. Michael Peacock and , with Ian Atkins, were given the daunting task in 1959 of preparing a report into ways to improve BBC Television News. Their recommendations were accepted in full, and in 1960 he was promoted to Editor of Television News, then based at Alexandra Palace. He remained in this post until 1963, when he was appointed Chief of Programmes (BBC-2). His task was to lead the launch of the BBC's second channel due to begin transmissions in 625line UHF in April 1964.

During the first year of BBC-2 he oversaw the screening of some significant successes such as the 26-part documentary series The Great War, Match of the Day and the sitcom The Likely Lads, but audiences for the new channel were very small. In 1965, he was moved across to be Controller of the more mainstream BBC 1, to which it was felt his talents would be more suited. Peacock is one of only three people (the others being Alan Yentob and Michael Jackson) to have been Controller of both channels..

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