Peter Bazalgette


Peter Bazalgette

Born Peter Bazalgette
April 24, 1955 (1955-04-24) (age 54)
London, England
Residence Notting Hill, London
Nationality British
Occupation TV Producer
Employer used to work with Endemol
Salary £4.6million
Known for Ready Steady Cook
Changing Rooms
Ground Force
Partner Hilary Newiss
Children Two children
Relatives Sir Joseph Bazalgette
Edward Bazalgette

Peter Bazalgette (born on 22 May 1953) is a British media expert who helped create the independent TV production sector in the UK and went on to be the leading creative figure in the global TV company Endemol.

Widely known as Baz, The Independent has argued he may be "the most influential man in British television" because of his commercial fire power and impact on the development of both reality television and his pioneering role in lifestyle TV programmes." The Daily Mail named him as one of the "Ten Worst Britons" for Endemol's Five show The Farm, in which Rebecca Loos became intimate with a pig. The London Evening Standard television critic Victor Lewis-Smith says that Bazalgette has "done more to debase television over the past decade than anyone else."[1]

Contents

Biography

Peter Bazalgette is the great-great-grandson of Victorian civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. A third cousin is Edward Bazalgette who directed and produced the 2003 documentary The Sewer King which charted Sir Joseph Bazalgette's design and engineering of the London sewers. Bazalgette himself presented a later show for five, called The Great Stink

For the first 12 years of his life Peter Bazalgette parents didn’t have a television. He attended Dulwich College, and gained a third class degree from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University while also becoming the president of the Cambridge Union Society.

Career

Bazalgette joined the BBC News graduate news training scheme, and was subsequently picked by Esther Rantzen to be one of her “boys” on "That’s Life!" from 1977.

While a reporter at the BBC for "Man Alive," he formed video production company Epic. The BBC put him in charge of producing the "Food and Drink," where he claims to have created the celebrity chef. He continued producing by forming his own company Bazal, which resultantly created a series of hits for British TV including Ready Steady Cook, Changing Rooms and Ground Force.

Endemol

In 1990, Bazal was acquired by Broadcast Communications which itself was absorbed by Endemol. In September 2007 it was announced that he was standing down from this position to assume the role of advisor.[2]

Although John de Mol invented Big Brother in the Netherlands, Bazalgette is credited with popularising the format around the world thanks to his adaptations built into the UK version.

In January 2005 Bazalgette became Chairman of Endemol UK and Creative Director of Endemol Group worldwide. He was responsible for shows including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal which were hits around the world, and led Endemol's digital entertainment strategy. During his time on the global board Endemol grew strongly and in 2005 it was launched on the Dutch stock exchange. Over the next eighteen months it trebled in value and was sold in 2007 for €3.2 billion, where Bazalgette was paid £4.6m in salary.

Other interests

He co-wrote four books including The Food Revolution and You Don’t Have to Diet, is author of a study of the international TV formats business, Billion Dollar Game and is a regular speaker at global media events.

He is a former board member of Channel 4 and is a non-executive director of the market research company, YouGov. He is a board member of English National Opera and is deputy chairman of the UK's National Film and Television School. He lectures on media convergence and creativity.

Personal life

He is married to intellectual property rights lawyer and bioethicist, Hilary Newiss, with whom he has two children. The family live in Notting Hill.

References

  1. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/peter-bazalgette-attack-is-the-best-form-of-defence-445797.html
  2. ^ Chris Tryhorn "Bazalgette to leave Endemol", The Guardian, 27 September 2007. Retrieved on 27 September 2007.

External links







stock | retire | vm
Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History