Forum for former BBC staff

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http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Notices, obituaries and tributes >> John Gau http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1711910367 Message started by Administrator on Mar 31^st, 2024, 6:40pm

Title: John Gau
Post by Administrator on Mar 31^st, 2024, 6:40pm

Peter Hill has provided this obituary:

John had a bad fall on 3 March from which he did not recover. He was 83.

In his later years he was an independent film and TV producer of considerable distinction. He rose to be Chairman of the Royal Television Society, and Head of Programming at British Satellite Broadcasting. He was appointed a CBE in 1989 for services to broadcasting.

Among the works and series he oversaw as an independent were a history of aviation, a miniseries about the growth of the internet, a 13-part TV series on the motor racing industry, and several other programmes including one about Steve Jobs, and one on Tony Bullimore. Many of the series he produced were commissioned by Channel 4.

He went to Haileybury, read Classics, and won a minor scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1958. He studied for a further year at the University of Wisconsin.

His rise in the BBC was rapid, from assistant film editor in 1963 to producer on ’24 Hours’ and ‘Panorama’, (where he worked closely with Julian Pettifer), to Editor of ‘Nationwide’ and Head of Current Affairs. He had several tussles with the bosses, including with the D.-G. Ian Trethowan, over programmes about transplant donors, and about filming an IRA roadblock at Carrickmore (never shown), which resulted in sackings and a reprimand. But John stayed in post.

He left the BBC in 1981 to run his own independent company, which for over twenty years produced a string of successful documentary programmes and series, for both BBC and commercial channels. He also helped Neil Kinnock with his election campaign broadcasts.

For several years after he ceased working in TV he lived in Languedoc, but about 5 years ago gave his house to his sons, as he told me that ‘as he entered the unsaddling enclosure of life’, visiting and keeping it up became too much. He and his wife Susan sold up their flat in Kensington and moved to Knightsbridge.

John came from a theatrical family, originally in South Africa. His mother was a well-known actress, Nan Munro. His father was William Gau. When he died in 1945, Nan married Rayne Kruger, an actor and historical writer (who later left her for Prue Leith). John had an older brother Donald who also went to Trinity Hall, and a younger sister Angela.

John was clear-minded, a hard worker, and a tough trailblazer in the new media world that evolved with the arrival of new channels and satellite TV.
John and Susan had two sons, Will and Chris, and two grandchildren, Tom and Ella Rose.

There was an obit and picture in the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/14/john-gau-obituary) on Mar 14th 2024: