Graeme MacDonald

Who was Graeme MacDonald?

Graeme MacDonald was a British television producer and executive.

Working for BBC Television from the early 1960s, he became a producer in the drama department, working particularly on anthology play series such as The Wednesday Play, Thirty-Minute Theatre, and Theatre 625. In the 1970s he became the producer of the single play strand Play for Today, the successor to The Wednesday Play, during which he worked on many acclaimed pieces, such as Jack Rosenthal's Bar Mitzvah Boy.

By this time one of the senior producers working in the BBC's drama department, in 1977 he was promoted to become the Head of Serials. This department was merged with the Series department in 1979, and MacDonald became head of the new larger Series & Serials department which ensued. In 1981, he was promoted again to succeed Shaun Sutton as the overall Head of Drama at BBC Television.

MacDonald becameg the Controller of BBC 2 in 1983, the first ever BBC channel controller to come from a background in the drama department. He was controller of the channel until 1987, during which the Zircon affair erupted surrounding an edition of the Secret Society documentary series due to be shown on the channel.