Sir Huw Wheldon - Joining WWII, After the War

Broadcaster, from Wales, UK, the son of Sir Wyn Wheldon. Partly educated in Germany, he fought in World War 2, and was awarded the MC in 1944. He joined the BBC in 1952, and was responsible for the seminal arts programme Monitor (1957–64), where the cultural life of the land was reviewed and illuminated with a rare passion and enthusiasm. He became head of documentaries and music programmes in 1963, controller of programmes for BBC-TV in 1965, and the Corporation's managing director (1968–75). Afterwards he returned to active programme-making as the co-writer and presenter of Royal Heritage (1977), before serving as the president of the Royal Television Society (1979–85).

Legendary BBC broadcaster Sir Huw Wheldon (7 May 1916 - March 14, 1986), was born in Wales. His father, Sir Wynn Wheldon, was a prominent educationalist, who had been awarded the DSO for gallantry in the First World War.

Joining WWII

On the outbreak of war in 1939 Wheldon joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers, but subsequently applied for transfer to the Parachute Regiment, and joined the Royal Ulster Rifles, with whom he flew into Normandy.

After the War

After the war Wheldon joined the Arts Council of Wales, and then in 1951 became the Arts Council's administrator for the Festival of Britain, work for which he was awarded an OBE.

In 1952 he joined the BBC as a publicity officer, but he was keen to make programmes, and he made his first appearance on television running a nationwide conker competition, and thence became a familiar face on children's TV with his programme All Your Own.

He also began to produce and present adult programmes, such as Orson Welles' Sketchbook, Men in Battle with Sir Brian Horrocks, and Portraits of Power with Robert McKenzie.

But it was the arts magazine programme Monitor with which Wheldon truly made his mark on the cultural scene.

Wheldon's Monitor lasted until he had "interviewed everyone I am interested in interviewing", and he was succeeded by Jonathan Miller.

Wheldon now entered BBC management, becoming by turns Head of Documentaries and then Controller, BBC1. During this time Wheldon again gathered a team of the talents about him, promoting fellow programme makers such as David Attenborough and Paul Fox to high executive office, and the period of his administration, which has come to be known as 'the Golden Age of British Television' included programmes such as Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, Dad's Army, Civilization, The Ascent of Man, America, and plays by Dennis Potter and David Mercer among many others.

After he retired from management Wheldon co-wrote, with J.H.

Huw Wheldon was knighted in 1976 for services to broadcasting. In addition to this, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) dispenses a Huw Wheldon Award for Specialist Factual Programme. There are also Wheldon bursaries and awards at the LSE and the University of Wales, Bangor.

Wheldon's lasting influence, other than as a programme maker, which was considerable, probably lies in the ways in which he articulated the needs and requirements of public service broadcasting.

Wheldon died of cancer in 1986.

Huw Wheldon was highly regarded in the United States, where he had many friends, one of whom, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, caused Norman Podhoretz's obituary of his friend Wheldon to be entered into the Congressional Record.

Wheldon was married to the novelist Jacqueline Wheldon.