Lorraine Heggessey
Media executive
Reflecting on a career in some of the very biggest jobs in UK television, then working with the British royal family
Lorraine Heggessey has had some of the biggest jobs in broadcasting – head of Children’s BBC, controller of BBC1 (the first woman to do so) and chief executive of Talkback Thames. Now a media consultant, public speaker and advisor to Channel 4, she left the media world in 2017; and spent two years working for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, as chief executive of The Royal Foundation. In this in-depth interview, Lorraine recalls the time she memorably fired Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon for taking cocaine, describes the risks she took when commissioning Strictly Come Dancing in order to “reinvent Saturday nights,” and discusses her work as chair of the Grierson Trust, which helps young people from diverse backgrounds to get into documentary making.
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