Greg Dyke

Greg Dyke stepped down as Director-General of the BBC on 28 January 2004, exactly four years after taking up the post. His departure followed the publication of the Hutton Report and thrust him into the public eye. This autobiography goes back much further, to his schooldays, when he was judged a failure, and to the period when he was out of work at thirty.

His career took off in 1977, when he was hired as a current affairs researcher at London Weekend Television. He then climbed through the independent television industry, eventually running LWT, Channel Four and Pearson Television. Along the way he was the person responsible for briefly saving TV-am, a rescue that owed something to Roland Rat. The book describes a route to the top that followed no conventional path and was driven by stubborn determination.

He also writes about his efforts to improve the BBC and his refusal to back down in the face of a campaign of harassment waged by Downing Street. The result is a personal and forthright account of a man whose career reflects the times he worked in, and of the influence that broadcasting can have.