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>