Sydney Newman

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Cecil Newman, OC (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer who was active in British television drama from the 1950s to the late 1960s.

After returning to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed Acting Director of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and later Chief of the National Film Board of Canada. (NFB)

During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, he served first with the Associated British Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and as an advisor to the Secretary of State.

During this period of his career, he was responsible for launching two immensely popular television shows, the spy drama The Avengers and the science-fiction film Doctor Who, as well as the development of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Playhouse. Newman is portrayed by the Museum of Broadcast Communications as "the most influential agent in the development of British television drama." "For ten short but glorious years, Sydney Newman... was Britain's most influential impresario" -- not only the end of an era, but the laying to rest of a whole tradition of popular art, according to his obituary. "He attracted controversies in Quebec when he refused to ban the selling of several politically controversial films by French Canadian filmmakers."

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Early career in Canada

Newman, the son of a Russian-Jewish immigrant father who owned a shoe store, was born in Toronto with the surname Nudelman. He later enrolled in the Central Technical School, studying art and design subjects after attending Ogden Public School, which he left at the age of thirteen. He began a career as both a stills photographer and an artist, with a specialization in drawing film posters. However, he discovered that earning enough money to support a living from this work, so he turned to working in film studios. He moved to Hollywood in 1938, where he was given a job with the Walt Disney Company as a result of his graphic design work. However, he was unable to work due to his inability to obtain a work permit. He returned to his homeland in 1941, where he worked as a film editor at the National Film Board of Canada. As an editor for the NFB, he would eventually work on over 350 films.

During the Second World War, John Grierson, the NFB's chief, promoted Newman to film producer, filming on documentaries and propaganda films, including Fighting Norway, which he produced. He was born executive producer of Canada Carries On, a long-running series of such films, in 1944. On a one-year deal with NBC in New York City, the NFB welcomed him into television, then a new industry. His task was to compile reports for the Canadian government on American television methods, focusing on dramas, documentaries, and outside broadcasting.

Executives at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) recognized one of Newman's broadcasting stories outside of television broadcasting, and in 1952, he joined the corporation as their Supervising Director of Features, Documentaries, and Outside Broadcasting. He was involved in the development of not only some of the oldest television versions of Hockey Night in Canada, but also the first Canadian Football League game to be broadcast on television. Following his interest in the production of television plays in New York, he was keen to work in drama, despite, "knowing nothing about drama" was revealed. In 1954, he was able to convince his subordinates at CBC to make him Supervisor of Drama Production. He influenced a new generation of young writers and directors, including Ted Kotcheff and Arthur Hailey, and oversaw productions such as the iconic General Motors Theatre in this position.

Paul Rutherford, a journalist from 1990, believed that during his time at the CBC in the 1950s, Newman had been a "great promoter of both realistic and Canadian drama." "Newman fulfilled the role of the drama impresario with the intention to inspire people to produce a high-quality and popular form of drama," he said.

Several of the GM Theatre's productions, including Hailey's Flight to Danger, had been purchased for television viewing by the BBC in the United Kingdom. Howard Thomas, the managing director of ABC Weekend TV, was captivated by the show's excellence, especially the nithine ITV network in the English Midlands and North at weekends. Thomas offered Newman a job with ABC as a creator of his own Saturday night thriller series, which Newman accepted, when moving to Britain in 1958. John Hirsch, the CBC's Dramatic Director, argued that the practice of so many writers and directors following Newman to the UK in the 1950s and never returning to Canada had a detrimental effect on the quality of subsequent Canadian television drama.

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