Bill Cotton

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Bill Cotton

Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
(23 April 1928 – 11 August 2008), was a British television producer

Television producer

The primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking....
and executive, and the son of big-band leader Billy Cotton

Billy Cotton

William Edward Cotton , better known as Billy Cotton, was a United Kingdom band leader and entertainer, one of the few whose orchestras survived the dance band era....
.

Following a secondary education at Ardingly College

Ardingly College

Ardingly College is an independent school Mixed-sex education Boarding school and day school, founded in 1858 by Nathaniel Woodard. The college is located in the village of Ardingly near Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England, having moved to its present location in 1870....
, he joined BBC Television

BBC Television

BBC Television is a service of the BBC which began in 1932. The British Broadcasting Corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927....
as an in-house producer of light entertainment

Light entertainment

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Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton CBE

Order of the British Empire

Television producer

Billy Cotton

Ardingly College

BBC Television

Light entertainment

Light entertainment is a term used to describe a broad range of usually televisual performances....
programmes in 1956, working on various programmes such as his father’s Billy Cotton Band Show
Billy Cotton Band Show

The Billy Cotton Band Show was a popular Sunday afternoon radio programme on the BBC Light Programme from 1949 to 1968.The band leader, Billy Cotton was a larger-than-life character who started each show with the cry ?Wakey-Wake ah!?, followed by the band?s signature tune ?Somebody Stole My Gal?, which was also featured in the video gam...
and popular music programme Six-Five Special
Six-Five Special

The Six-Five Special was a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain....
.

In 1970, Cotton was promoted to Head of Light Entertainment, following the death of Tom Sloan in May. In this position, Cotton was responsible for overseeing the production of a whole series of popular and iconic comedy programmes, including The Morecambe and Wise Show (1968), Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python?s Flying Circus is a BBC sketch comedy programme from the Monty Python comedy team, and the group's initial claim to fame. The show was noted for its surreality, Wiktionary:risqu? or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags, and sketches without punchlines....
(1969), The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies

The Two Ronnies was a British sketch show that aired on BBC 1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title....
(1971) and Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game (1971). Cotton's era was generally seen as the most popular in the history of BBC Light Entertainment, with programmes such as Morecambe and Wise becoming icons of British popular culture and drawing huge audiences, while the more subversive Monty Python provided a more cutting-edge, contemporary and daring complement.

Cotton’s success as Head of Light Entertainment led to his promotion to Controller of BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC . It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular public television service with a high level of ....
, the Corporation’s premier and the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
’s oldest television station, in 1977. He oversaw some of the channel’s highest-ever audience figures in 1979, although this was mostly due to the main opposition, ITV

ITV

ITV is a public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television network of British television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC....
, being on strike for over a hundred days.

In 1984 Cotton was promoted (after being passed over for the post in 1982) to become Managing Director of Television, a role he fulfilled until his retirement from the Corporation in 1987. Cotton subsequently did some freelance executive producing work in the light entertainment area and he has served as Chairman of Noel Gay Television. He was Chairman of Meridian Television from 1988 until 2006.

Cotton was a Vice President of the Marie Curie Cancer Care

Marie Curie Cancer Care

Marie Curie Cancer Care is a charitable organization in the United Kingdom which provides nursing care, free of charge, to Terminal illness people, giving them the chance to choose to be cared for – and die – at home....
charity. He received a BAFTA Fellowship Award in 1998. He was made a Knight Bachelor

Knight Bachelor

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Chivalric order....
for his services to Television Broadcasting and Marie Curie Cancer Care in 2001. He had previously been awarded a CBE

CBE

CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for Commander of the British Empire, a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Calgary Board of Education, public school board for the city of Calgary, Alberta...
in 1989 and an OBE in 1976.

Cotton was related to television presenter Fearne Cotton

Fearne Cotton

Fearne Cotton is an England presenter known for presenting a number of popular TV programmes such as Top of the Pops and the Red Nose Day telethon....
, as he was a cousin of her grandfather.

BBC Two broadcasted an evening of programmes that he commissioned as part of a tribute night to him on Boxing Day 2008, including Morecambe & Wise Christmas show of 1971, The Generation Game Christmas Show of 1973, and The Two Ronnies Old Fashioned Christmas Mystery of 1973. There was also a documentary about his career with Michael Grade, Bruce Forsyth, Michael Parkinson, Terry Wogan, & Paul Jackson among those paying tribute.

External links

from The Guardian
The Guardian

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in The Stage
The Stage

The Stage is a weekly United Kingdom newspaper founded in 1880, available nationally and published on Thursdays. Covering all areas of the entertainment industry but focused primarily on theatre, it contains news, reviews, opinion, features and other items of interest, mainly to those who work within the industry....