Robin Nash

Robert Henry Douglas Drane (10 March 1927 – 18 June 2011), known professionally as Robin Nash, was a British television producer and executive, who was probably best known as producer of Top of the Pops from 1973 to 1981. At the BBC, he became Head of Variety and later Head of Television Comedy.

Nash was born in Norwich and grew up in Cromer on the north Norfolk coast, where he was educated at Paston School. His initial theatrical training was as a young member of Miss Alexander's dance group at the Lecture Hall in the town. Often the only boy in the group, he was therefore sure of a place in their productions at the local venues. A fellow dancer was his sister Anne (Lewin), a ballerina and West End dancer who would later become a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force. His secondary education was at The Paston School, North Walsham (whose most distinguished former pupil was Horatio Nelson). As a teenager during the Second World War he entertained allied troops and met David Croft who later wrote Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum for the BBC.

After a series of acting and other theatrical jobs in London's West End, Nash joined the BBC as a studio manager in 1955. In 1961 he directed location filming for Ted Willis's thriller Flowers of Evil and, in 1962-3, worked on two of Willis's other creations, the long-running police drama Dixon of Dock Green and the comedy-drama series Taxi! starring Sid James.

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