Editing Jeremy Isaacs (section)

==Television career==
Isaacs began his career in television when he joined [[Granada Television]] in [[Manchester]] as a producer in 1958. At Granada he was involved in creating or supervising series such as ''[[World in Action]]'' and ''[[What the Papers Say]]''. He worked for the [[BBC]]'s ''[[Panorama (TV series)|Panorama]]'' in the 1960s and was the overall producer for the 26-episode series ''[[The World at War (TV series)|The World at War]]'' (1973–74) for [[Thames Television]]. He was Director of Programmes for Thames between 1974 and 1978. He produced ''Ireland: A Television History'' (1981) for the BBC and co-produced the twenty-four episode [[television documentary]] series [[Cold War (TV series)|''Cold War'']] (1998)<ref name="cnnarchive">[https://web.archive.org/web/20081210013042/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/01/ cnn.com/ColdWar] at [[Internet Archive]]</ref> and the ten-part series [[CNN Millennium|''Millennium'']] (1999).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/10/09/a-journey-of-athousand-years/339a340a-f748-4f8b-8752-83c12b95d679/|title=A Journey Of aThousand Years|last=Shales|first=Tom|date=9 October 1999|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=24 August 2018|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

===Channel 4===
Isaacs was the founding chief executive of [[Channel 4]] between 1981 and 1987, overseeing its launch period and setting the channel's original cultural approach with opera and foreign language film, although programmes with popular appeal such as the game show ''[[Countdown (game show)|Countdown]]'', the pop music series ''[[The Tube (1982 TV series)|The Tube]]'', and [[soap opera]] ''[[Brookside (television programme)|Brookside]]'' had a place in the schedule from the beginning. The channel commissioned [[Michael Elliott (director)|Michael Elliott]]'s production of ''[[King Lear (1983 TV drama)|King Lear]]'' (1983) with [[Laurence Olivier]] in the title role and Isaacs recommissioned a number of programmes from his time at Granada including ''What the Papers Say''. 

Isaacs' appointment of [[David Rose (producer)|David Rose]], previously long with the BBC, as the Commissioning Editor for Fiction led to the channel's involvement with the 1980s revival of the British film industry via the [[Film4|Film on Four]] strand. Despite a general liberal atmosphere, a few commissioned programmes, such as [[Ken Loach]]'s ''A Question of Leadership'', were withdrawn from transmission.

In 1989, Isaacs named 26 personal favourites from his tenure as Channel 4's chief executive, running from A (the discussion series ''[[After_Dark_(TV_programme)|After Dark]]'') to Z (a four-hour dramatisation of a Gothic horror novel, ''[[Zastrozzi]]'').<ref>''Storm Over 4'', Jeremy Isaacs, 1989.</ref>

When handing over responsibility for running the channel to [[Michael Grade]], Isaacs threatened to throttle him if he betrayed the trust placed in him to respect the channel's remit.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/the-independent-archive-channel-4-could-still-be-a-rather-good-delicatessen-1120661.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220608/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/the-independent-archive-channel-4-could-still-be-a-rather-good-delicatessen-1120661.html |archive-date=8 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Channel 4 could still be a rather good delicatessen|last=Leapman|first=Michael|work=The Independent|date=20 September 1989}}</ref>