Background

Colin Don Shaw was born on November 2, 1929, in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He was the son of Rupert Morris Shaw, bank clerk, and his wife nid Fryer (Smith) Shaw.

Education

From 1943 to 1947 Colin attended Liverpool College. He got a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Oxford University in 1952 and a Master of Arts in 1956.

Career

Colin Shaw, who wrote plays, principally for radio, joined BBC Radio in 1953. His first job at the corporation was as a drama producer in Leeds and going on to be Assistant Head of Programmes, North Region (1963-1966), and Head of Programme Planning Group at BBC Television from 1966 to 1969.

Shaw was appointed Secretary to the BBC in 1969 and promoted to Chief Secretary in 1972. He left the BBC in 1977 to become Director of Television at the newly founded Independent Broadcasting Authority.

At the BBC, part of his time was taken up by corresponding with Mary Whitehouse. She was convinced the corporation was responsible for what she regarded as the country's moral decline. When Whitehouse complained in 1970 that BBC drama was full of nudity, Shaw responded by pointing out that nudes had been a feature of art for a great many years.

Defending the comedian Dave Allen against a charge of blasphemy - Allen was a practising Catholic - Shaw pointed out that it was a well-known tradition that the best jokes against religion were told in convents and monasteries.

He was involved in intense negotiations over the licence fee, which, during times of high inflation, was often set annually.

Shaw's duties at the IBA involved important work that formulated the structure of what became Channel 4.

In 1983, he was appointed Director of the program planning secretariat for the TV Companies' Association and was the first Director of the Broadcasting Standards Council from 1988 to 1996.

And even when he retired from such elevated positions, he carried on his work on behalf of writers as one of the chief negotiators with the BBC for the Society of Authors, co-operating closely with the Writers' Guild, of which he was also a member.

Achievements

• Colin Shaw was a well-known executive and writer. Shaw's low-key, but incisive, wit helped negotiate the BBC out of many a tight spot in the 1960s and 1970s. He has been listed as a notable professional society administrator and writer by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Revolutionize Your Customer Experience

    (In his previous groundbreaking book with John Ivens, Coli...)

    2004

Views

Colin Shaw was the quiet and diplomatic chief secretary of the BBC who, in the 1970s, engaged in vigorous debate with the public over the acceptable level of nudity, violence, and bad language on mainstream television. His natural tact was deployed to the fore in a lengthy correspondence with Mary Whitehouse, the Christian housewife with a rock-solid hairdo who waged war on the "permissive society," blaming its spread, in large part, on the BBC.

Personality

David Attenborough described Shaw as very efficient, meticulous in all details, and very diplomatic, with an extraordinary ability to phrase letters.

Throughout his life, he was an avid theatre-goer and amassed a huge collection of theatre programs.

He was meticulous, patient, and tactful. Shaw cared deeply for words and famously banned his daughters from reading Enid Blyton because he said the experience would not expand their vocabulary.

Interests

• Walking, writing letters, theater

Connections

Colin married Elizabeth Ann Bowker on April 23, 1955. They had three children: Tessa, Susan Soul, Giles.

Father:

Rupert Morris Shaw

Mother:

Enid Fryer (Smith) Shaw

Wife:

Elizabeth Ann (Bowker) Shaw

Daughter:

Tessa Shaw

Daughter:

Susan Soul Shaw

Son:

Giles Shaw

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, vol. 212
  2011