Biography

Dyke was educated at Hayes Grammar School and gained a degree in Politics from the University of York. He moved from journalism into broadcasting in 1977 when he joined London Weekend Television. He was subsequently Editor-in-Chief of TV-am and Director of Programmes for Television South before being appointed Director of Programmes at London Weekend Television in 1987, Managing Director (1990 - 1991) and Chief Executive (1991 - 1994).

Between 1995 and 1999 he was Chief Executive of Pearson Television, the largest independent production company outside of the United States.

In January 2000 he was made Director-General of the BBC, succeeding the long-serving but controversial John Birt. Dyke was a surprise choice for some, as the top job at the BBC had usually been held by public school educated figures, frequently graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. Nevertheless, the working class Dyke proved popular with staff and made clear his desire to reverse some of the bureaucracy which many believed had been introduced by Birt. He also set out to improve the BBC's ethnic diversity, calling it "hideously white" shortly after joining. But some critics accused him of failing to improve the quality of the BBC's television output, with even a former Director-General, Alasdair Milne, criticising the corporation's lack of innovation and its cookery, gardening and makeover programmes.

However, it was the BBC's coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in particular Andrew Gilligan's report suggesting that the British Government had "sexed up" Iraq's military capability, which brought an end to Dyke's BBC career when he was forced to resign, along with BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

(2000-2004) Director-General of the BBC.

Resigned in January 2004 when the BBC was criticized by the Hutton Inquiry for airing a story that suggested the British government had deliberately "sexed up" the argument for going to war in Iraq. The story turned out to have errors in it.

On January 29th 2000, I became the BBC's 13th Director-General and the first who had been to neither a public school nor Oxbridge. I was also the first in peacetime who had never worked for the BBC. But by the end of my first week I woke up deeply depressed. I couldn't believe how bereaucratic the whole place was. The worst point had been getting into my car one evening and finding a pile of papers more than a foot high on the back seat. This was my reading for tomorrow.

British television used to be known as the best in the world, but in the last decade, HBO has helped America quietly steal our crown. (Speaking in 2009)

If British broadcasters want to recapture some of the lustre lost in recent years, and in particular the BBC because they're not funded by advertising, they must be willing to take more risks. Maybe it's time they stopped the scattergun approach to programming and put more money into bigger projects. And in the process, maybe it's time they gave more power to the creatives, to the producers, to the directors, to the writers. (Speaking in 2009)

I think the BBC is hideously white. The figures we have at the moment suggest that quite a lot of people from different ethnic backgrounds that we do attract to the BBC leave. Maybe they don't feel at home, maybe they don't feel welcome. Our biggest problem is at management level. I had a management Christmas lunch and as I looked around I thought, 'We've got a real problem here'. There were 80-odd people there and only one person who wasn't white.