Sir Bill Cotton

Aug 14 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

WHILE so much of Britain was falling apart in the 1970s, its television comedy programmes reached their zenith in quality and imagination.

Any doubt about the standards reached back then in light entertainment is dispelled by seeing BBC’s current schedules still laden with the likes of Porridge, Dad’s Army, The Good Life, The Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise, Monty Python and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, which are beguiling a new generation of viewers.

One thread running through all these superlative productions was the presence of the BBC broadcasting executive Sir Bill Cotton, who has died, aged 80.

What also marked Cotton out in the BBC hierarchy was his rise from a showbusiness background practically to the top of the Corporation, instead of being one of the usual bureaucratic grey suits.

The younger son of the famous British bandleader Billy “Wakey, wakey!” Cotton, after National Service and working in Chappells music company, joined the BBC as a trainee producer on The Six-Five Special, and then spent four years producing his father’s variety show – leading to inevitable charges of nepotism. However, he deftly handled his father’s mercurial temper. Bill senior instilled in him the value of understanding your audience, which heralded a less stuffy approach by the BBC to drama and light entertainment. Cotton’s key appointments were head of light entertainment (1970-77), controller of BBC1 (1977-81) and managing director of television (1984-88).

During that time, he either discovered or took performers to new heights as household names. These included Bruce Forsyth on the Generation Game, Dave Allen at Large and Michael Parkinson, a so-so reporter, who became Britain’s premier chatshow host, and channelling Cilla Black into becoming “the new Gracie Fields”. This hot-housing of home-grown talent stopped the BBC from over-relying on imported US shows, such as those starring Lucille Ball and Dick Van Dyke.

Cotton had the knack of bringing performers together with writers and producers, creating a greater sum of the parts. No better example was the coupling of Morecambe & Wise with former Ken Dodd scriptwriter Eddie Braben and producer John Ammonds. With Braben’s material, filled with classic Scouse humour, Morecambe and Wise attracted 28m viewers for their mid-1970s Christmas shows – an unsurpassable record.

Sir Bill Cotton, television executive; born, April 23, 1928; died, August 11, 2008