Sydney Newman was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed Acting Director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission and then head of the National Film Board of Canada. He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State for Canada. During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 60s, he worked first with the Associated British Corporation (ABC) before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career he was responsible for initiating two hugely popular fantasy series, The Avengers and Doctor Who, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play. The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Newman as "the most significant agent in the development of British television drama". Shortly after his death, his obituary in The Guardian newspaper declared that "For ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was the most important impresario in Britain ... His death marks not just the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art." In Quebec, as commissioner of the NFB, he attracted controversy for his decision to suppress distribution of several politically sensitive films by French Canadian directors.
Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Newman> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1645: English Civil War: In the Battle of Naseby, the main army of King Charles I was defeated by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Naseby> 1822: In a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society, English mathematician Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine, an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/difference_engine> 1846: Anglo-American settlers in the Town of Sonoma began a rebellion against Mexico, proclaiming the California Republic and eventually raising a homemade flag with a bear and star . <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Republic> 1982: Argentine forces surrendered to the British, essentially ending the Falklands War. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War> 1985: TWA Flight 847 was hijacked shortly after takeoff from Athens, where it with its passengers and crew then endured a three-day intercontinental ordeal as they were forced to travel back and forth several times between Beirut and Algiers. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_847> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: semese (adj): Half-eaten <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/semese> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: The Zen disciple sits for long hours silent and motionless, with his eyes closed. Presently he enters a state of impassivity, free from all ideas and all thoughts. He departs from the self and enters the realm of nothingness. This is not the nothingness or the emptiness of the West. It is rather the reverse, a universe of the spirit in which everything communicates freely with everything, transcending bounds, limitless. ... The disciple must, however, always be lord of his own thoughts, and must attain enlightenment through his own efforts. And the emphasis is less upon reason and argument than upon intuition, immediate feeling. Enlightenment comes not from teaching but through the eye awakened inwardly. Truth is in "the discarding of words", it lies "outside words". --Yasunari Kawabata <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yasunari_Kawabata> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
