John Whale

I heard from Andrew Barr that John Whale our former boss died on Tuesday morning. He gave me my first production job in television. He was an interesting character and gave me the job in spite of the fact he didn't think much of my education. The first question I was asked when I walked into the religious programmes department at the BBC - did I go to Oxford or Cambridge? Most did, I certainly didn't.

He was intimidating but supportive. I read his book, Put it in Writing, which was essential because the presentation of written English was supremely important to him. He was deeply old fashioned and I remember he came to me in the office one night terrified about an interview he had to give on children's BBC. He said he couldn't remember anything about what it felt like to be a child and wanted my advice on what to say (I was somewhere in my mid 20s).

Here's his obit from the Guardian