Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein
| The Lord Bernstein | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Sidney Lewis Bernstein 30 January 1899 Ilford, Essex, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 5 February 1993 (aged 94) London, England, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Media baron |
| Known for | Founder of Granada Television Chairman of the Granada Group |
| Spouse(s) | Zoe Farmer (m. 1936; divorced) Sandra Alexandra Malone (m. 1954; 3 children) |
Sidney Lewis Bernstein, Baron Bernstein (30 January 1899 – 5 February 1993) was a British media baron who was known as the founding chairman of the London-based Granada Group and the founder of the Manchester-based Granada Television in 1954.
In 1954 he founded Granada Television, which was one of the original four ITA franchisees. He believed the North's media industry had potential to be cultivated. Granada Television eventually became one of the most successful British production companies in history and still produces programmes in 2011 under the ITV Studios moniker.
Although born in Essex, Bernstein became an adopted northerner, building Granada Television, which created a proud heritage of television broadcasting in Manchester – a legacy which continues to this day. He is described by the British Film Institute (BFI) as the "dominant influence on the growth and development of commercial television in Britain".
Bernstein left school at 15 and he gradually inherited the property portfolio his father had built.
Bernstein built, with his brother Cecil, a successful circuit of some sixty cinemas and theatres, the first step in the creation of a diversified group of leisure-oriented enterprises. Some of the cinema were on property he inherited from his father. The Bernstein holdings eventually encompassed interests in publishing, real estate, motorway services, retail shops and bowling alleys, as well as the hugely profitable television-rental business.
Bernstein was a co-founder of the London Film Society in 1925, where he met and befriended the young Alfred Hitchcock, who became a lifelong friend and eventual producing partner. He was the first to bring October: Ten Days That Shook the World and other works from the great Russian filmmakers Eisenstein and Pudovkin to London, and sponsored Eisenstein's trip to Hollywood in the early '30s. He also ventured into theatre, building an elegant new venue which housed the premiere of Private Lives by Noël Coward, the smash hit which cemented that playwright's reputation. Though his involvement with the live stage was short-lived, he was passionate about the construction of state-of-the-art film palaces throughout Britain. As early as 1931, he was advising the planning committee for the then-nascent National Theatre to include film projection and television production facilities into its plans for a theatre, which was not built until 1976.
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