Peter Fincham

At 67 years old, Peter Fincham physical status not available right now. We will update Peter Fincham's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Career

He began producing in 1985 as a producer for Talkback Productions, an independent production company. Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, comedians, created radio programs, television advertisements, and corporate videos at the time. Fincham became the company's managing director in 1986, and when it produced its founders' sketch show Smith and Jones for BBC One, it turned TalkBack into a fully fledged television production.

TalkBack (BBC Two, 1994, 1994) and The Truth About You (BBC Two, 1995 and 2002), Knowing Me Knowing You With Alan Partridge (BBC Two, 1994), Smack the Pony (Channel 4, 2000), and Da Ali G Show (Channel 4, 2000). On several of these shows, Fincham served as executive producer. He also assisted in the establishment of TalkBack as a well-known producer in other genres, with the company slipping into turmoil with Stephen Poliakoff's Shooting the Past (BBC Two) in 1999.

Fincham received an Indie Award in 2001 for outstanding contribution to the independent production sector. During the year, TalkBack was sold to FremantleMedia in a £62 million contract, making Fincham a multi-millionaire. Fremantle acquired TalkBack, Thames Television, as part of another of its acquisitions, to create the new Talkback Thames production firm, of which Fincham became the Chief Executive in February 2003. He stayed in this role until 2005, after twenty years at TalkBack and its successor company, claiming he wanted "a new challenge and a new adventure." Despite being "rich enough not to have to work again," BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey's appointment to his old post opened up the job at BBC One, which he applied for and won.

Fincham was regarded as a surprising pick as Controller by some quarters as the first in command of either the BBC or another broadcaster, having spent his career in the free production industry. He was ultimately responsible for a £873 million annual programming budget at BBC One in 2006.

How Can You Solve a Problem Like Maria? Fincham oversaw the development of hit BBC One shows like Jane Eyre and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (both 2006) and Robin Hood (2006-09). The channel's audience share increased year on year in his first full year as the channel's audience increased by 26% in August 2006, down from 22.2 percent in 2005.

Fincham initiated both the early evening current affairs and lifestyle series The One Show (2006–2004) and the prime time chat show Davina (2006), which were both conceived as a tool for host Davina McCall. However, Davina was a performance and ratings disaster that Fincham later admitted was personally responsible, although he defended the theory of experimenting with the BBC One program. In January 2007, he made another significant change to the calendar, moving the current affairs series Panorama back from Sunday nights to the prime time Monday evening slot, which had been cut off from earlier in 2000, but this decision was at least in response to a call from the BBC's Board of Governors to have more current affairs programming in prime time.

Fincham had to scrap the BBC One "Rhythm and Movement" idents, which had been used to provide the channel with the channel's on-screen identity between programs since they were first introduced by Heggessey in 2002. In the fall of 2006, they were replaced by a new generation of idents, known as the "Circle idents," but Fincham was again chastised by The Daily Telegraph newspaper for opting to spend £1.2 million on the set of eight ten-second films, some of which were shot in Mexico and Croatia; others were shot in Mexico and Croatia. Jonathan Ross' £18 million salary was also included in his public display in 2006, although Ross' BBC One work, which mainly consisted of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Film... and various one-off events, was only part of his BBC commitment, which also included BBC Three and BBC Radio 2.

Fincham made the decision to withdraw the Australian soap opera Neighbours from BBC One after twenty-one years on the channel, after its makers raised the price for the BBC to pay for it in a bidding war. "We'd love to have kept it but not at any price," Fincham said.

Fincham was embroiled in a further controversy in July 2007, when it was held a press conference to promote BBC One's upcoming fall season schedules for later this year. A trailer from the documentary Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work was included on the season launch tape for journalists. The Queen was clearly yelling out of a session with American photographer Annie Leibovitz over a disagreement about what she should wear, but the BBC later revealed that one of the images used in the trailer had been edited out of order. Fincham admitted to the mistake, but initially denied calls that he should resign from his position as a result. Nevertheless, his resignation was triggered after the publication of the Wyatt Report on October 5th.

Fincham, the BBC's biggest competitor, had been hired to be its new Director of Television, according to the BBC's chief competitor, on February 28, 2008. Fincham said that television broadcasters such as ITV were under too much pressure from industry regulator Ofcom to produce programs that were mainly of a minority interest, as opposed to strictly entertainment programs for a mainstream audience at the Edinburgh Television Festival in August 2008. In 2010, he made the decision to cancel the long-running drama series The Bill; ATV News Network announced that 97% of the people opposed the change. In December 2011, he unilaterally decided to delete a song from The Jonathan Ross Show that had been commissioned specifically for the spectacle by comedian and songwriter Tim Minchin. The song, "Woody Allen Jesus," had already been licensed by Ross's designer and ITV's legal compliance officers. Minchin, who was dissatisfied with the decision, later posted the video on his own website, where he also criticized Fincham's decision.

Fincham had to step down as Director of Television and leave the company in January 2016.

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