Hugh Greene
Encyclopedia
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene KCMG, OBE
(15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987) was a British
journalist
and television executive
. He was the Director-General of the BBC
from 1960―1969, and is generally credited with modernising an organisation that had fallen behind in the wake of the launch of ITV
in 1955.
, Hertfordshire
, one of the four sons and two daughters of Charles Henry Greene, the then Headmaster of Berkhamsted School. He was the brother of the famous writer Graham Greene
and Raymond Greene
, a distinguished physician and Everest
mountaineer. (The eldest brother, Herbert Greene, was a relatively little-known poet recruited in 1933 as a Japanese spy and now perhaps best remembered for leading a march at BBC Broadcasting House in protest against one of his brother's actions as Director-General.)
After education at Berkhamsted School and Merton College, Oxford
, Greene came to prominence as a journalist in 1934 when he became the chief correspondent in Nazi Berlin
for the Daily Telegraph newspaper. He and several other British journalists were expelled from Berlin as an act of reprisal for the removal of a Nazi propagandist in England. Greene, however, went on to report from Warsaw
on the opening events of the Second World War and continued to follow its progress through the early stages. He served briefly with the Royal Air Force
in 1940 as an interrogator, but was encouraged by the military authorities to join the BBC
later that year.
aircraft over occupied Norway
to study the effects of Nazi radio jamming. He also presented news and discussion programmes and became fairly well known in Europe
for this role. From 1941, Greene also helped to smooth the relationship between the BBC and the Political Warfare Executive
(PWE) whose goals were somewhat at odds (the BBC strove for accurate, unbiased journalism whereas the PWE was largely concerned with propaganda).
Following the war, Greene helped with the rebuilding of German broadcasting infrastructure in the British Occupied Zone
. As the Cold War
got underway, he was given the task of leading the BBC's East European service and later produced propaganda for the British Army
in Malaya
during the Communist
uprising of 1947 (see History of Malaysia).
Greene returned to the BBC in the 1950s where his reputation and ability caught the attention of Director-General Sir Ian Jacob
. (It was probably during this period that he began using his middle name, Carleton, presumably to distinguish him from the popular ITV
presenter Hughie Green
.) He started as Director of Administration but in 1958 he swapped jobs with the unpopular Tahu Hole
to become Director of News and Current Affairs. He succeeded Jacob as Director-General two years later in 1960. Mere days after his promotion, Greene made arrangements for Hole to receive a golden handshake
to persuade him into early retirement. Indeed, according to one of his biographers, Greene thought one of his greatest contributions to broadcasting was the restoration of order to Hole's austere news department, which had come to be known as the Kremlin of the BBC. It later materialised that Hole had leaked a secret BBC document to the competing Independent Television Authority
(ITA) in which concerns were voiced about the financial interests of newspapers in ITV
companies. Greene learned of the leak from a displeased Ivone Kirkpatrick
, then chairman of the ITA. (Kirkpatrick had previously been a member of the Political War Executive, Head of the BBC's wartime European Services and High Commissioner of the British Occupied Zone in Germany and had worked with Greene many times before.) The leak would have led to Hole's immediate dismissal but actually it was only detected shortly after his retirement.
, Z-Cars
and That Was The Week That Was
, the BBC moved away from the ethos of Reithian
middle-class values and deference to traditional authority and power. Controversial, socially concerned dramas such as Up the Junction
and Cathy Come Home
were broadcast as part of The Wednesday Play
strand, which also gave Dennis Potter
his breakthrough as a dramatist with, among other works, the "Nigel Barton
" plays. Directly though, Greene is thought to have directly suggested only two programmes, the imported American series Perry Mason
and Songs of Praise
which began in 1961.
The tone of BBC radio
overall changed less radically in the Hugh Greene era than that of BBC television, with full reforms of the networks not coming until 1970 (by which time Sir Charles Curran
was Director-General). However it was in 1967, under Greene's directorship, that the corporation embraced pop radio for the first time with Radio 1
, taking most of its DJs and music policy from offshore radio (on the notorious pirate ships), which had just been banned by the government. Hugh Greene also strongly resisted pressure from the 'clean-up TV' campaigner Mary Whitehouse
, a policy not always followed by future directors-general.
Greene's undoing followed the appointment of the former Conservative minister Lord Hill
as chairman of the BBC governors from September 1, 1967, by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson
, who had criticised Hill's appointment as chairman of the Independent Television Authority
by a Conservative government in 1963. A more cautious and conservative atmosphere then took hold in the corporation, typified by the axing (until 1972) of Till Death Us Do Part, one of the series most despised by Mary Whitehouse, but conversely one of its most popular in the ratings. In July 1968 the BBC issued the document Broadcasting In The Public Mood without Greene's significant involvement, seeming to question the continued broadcasting of the more provocative and controversial material (one of Greene's allies at the top level of the corporation described this document as "emasculated and philistine") and in October 1968 Greene announced that he would be retiring as Director-General. He was succeeded the next year by the more conservative Sir Charles Curran
. This move was welcomed by a great many MPs, Governors of the BBC, Churchmen and Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners Association
, as Greene was regarded, by the conservative minded, as a man of low moral fibre and as the person responsible for the increasing volume of sex and violence on television.
Echoes of the removal of Hugh Greene could be heard in the departure in 2004 of Director-General Greg Dyke
in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry
.
, for his part in the erosion of, what they see as, a better Britain. But he has been praised by some of liberal and Leftish leanings for opening up an, as they claim, ossifying institution, and creating a more tolerant and open-minded society. The fact remains that one's opinion of Sir Hugh Carleton Greene can depend entirely on one's opinion of the social changes—less deference to traditional authority and the traditional establishment—that are most frequently associated with the 1960s. Sir Hugh Greene's influence on British society—both on those who approve of what he stood for and on those who despise it—remains, as does the influence of those social changes more generally. Recently, in the wake of the Hutton Report, there has been some further debate about the relationship between the government, the Establishment and the BBC.
In 1985 he received the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor from the German Eduard Rhein Foundation.
Beyond his broadcasting and journalistic work, Greene was also known for his appreciation of beer
and eventually became a director of the Greene King Brewery
, originally established by his great-grandfather, Benjamin Greene
, in 1799. He also once bested his famous brother Graham in a writing contest to parody the novelist's writing style in the New Statesman
.
He died in Westminster
, London
, of cancer aged 76.
in the BBC
drama Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
. The play focused on Greene's war with Whitehouse (played by Julie Walters
) and latterly with Lord Hill (played by Ron Cook
) in the period while he was BBC Director General in the 1960s. The script, and Bonneville's performance, brought out many of the character's personal eccentricities, as well as his firm - and confessedly lustful - principles in withstanding calls for censorship.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and television executive
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. He was the Director-General of the BBC
Director-General of the BBC
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and is now appointed by the BBC Trust....
from 1960―1969, and is generally credited with modernising an organisation that had fallen behind in the wake of the launch of ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in 1955.
Early life and work
Hugh was born in BerkhamstedBerkhamsted
-Climate:Berkhamsted experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Castle:...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, one of the four sons and two daughters of Charles Henry Greene, the then Headmaster of Berkhamsted School. He was the brother of the famous writer Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
and Raymond Greene
Raymond Greene
Charles Raymond Greene was a Doctor of Medicine and mountaineer, brother of the novelist Graham Greene and the broadcaster Hugh Greene....
, a distinguished physician and Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
mountaineer. (The eldest brother, Herbert Greene, was a relatively little-known poet recruited in 1933 as a Japanese spy and now perhaps best remembered for leading a march at BBC Broadcasting House in protest against one of his brother's actions as Director-General.)
After education at Berkhamsted School and Merton College, Oxford
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to...
, Greene came to prominence as a journalist in 1934 when he became the chief correspondent in Nazi Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
for the Daily Telegraph newspaper. He and several other British journalists were expelled from Berlin as an act of reprisal for the removal of a Nazi propagandist in England. Greene, however, went on to report from Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
on the opening events of the Second World War and continued to follow its progress through the early stages. He served briefly with the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in 1940 as an interrogator, but was encouraged by the military authorities to join the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
later that year.
Wartime and post-war work
Greene entered the BBC as head of the German Service at the age of 29. He made significant improvements to their transmissions following a risky flight in a De Havilland MosquitoDe Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...
aircraft over occupied Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
to study the effects of Nazi radio jamming. He also presented news and discussion programmes and became fairly well known in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for this role. From 1941, Greene also helped to smooth the relationship between the BBC and the Political Warfare Executive
Political Warfare Executive
During World War II, the Political Warfare Executive was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the Occupied countries....
(PWE) whose goals were somewhat at odds (the BBC strove for accurate, unbiased journalism whereas the PWE was largely concerned with propaganda).
Following the war, Greene helped with the rebuilding of German broadcasting infrastructure in the British Occupied Zone
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
. As the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
got underway, he was given the task of leading the BBC's East European service and later produced propaganda for the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in Malaya
Malayan Union
The Malayan Union was a federation of the Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. It was the successor to British Malaya and was conceived to unify the Malay Peninsula under a single government so as to simplify administration. The Malayan Union later became the independent...
during the Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
uprising of 1947 (see History of Malaysia).
Greene returned to the BBC in the 1950s where his reputation and ability caught the attention of Director-General Sir Ian Jacob
Ian Jacob
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Ian Claud Jacob GBE, CB, , known as Ian Jacob, was the Military Assistant Secretary to Winston Churchill's war cabinet and later a distinguished broadcasting executive, serving as the Director-General of the BBC from 1952 to 1960.-Early life:Jacob was born in 1899 in...
. (It was probably during this period that he began using his middle name, Carleton, presumably to distinguish him from the popular ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
presenter Hughie Green
Hughie Green
Hughie Green was the host of numerous British television shows.-Early life:Hugh H. Green was born in London; his Scottish father was a former British Army Major who made his fortune supplying tinned fish to the Allied forces in World War I, while his mother Violet was the Surrey-born daughter of...
.) He started as Director of Administration but in 1958 he swapped jobs with the unpopular Tahu Hole
Tahu Hole
Tahu Ronald Charles Pearce Hole CBE was a New Zealand born journalist who worked as the BBC's television news editor during the period immediately following the Second World War.-Early life and work:...
to become Director of News and Current Affairs. He succeeded Jacob as Director-General two years later in 1960. Mere days after his promotion, Greene made arrangements for Hole to receive a golden handshake
Golden handshake
A golden handshake is a clause in an executive employment contract that provides the executive with a significant severance package in the case that the executive loses his or her job through firing, restructuring, or even scheduled retirement...
to persuade him into early retirement. Indeed, according to one of his biographers, Greene thought one of his greatest contributions to broadcasting was the restoration of order to Hole's austere news department, which had come to be known as the Kremlin of the BBC. It later materialised that Hole had leaked a secret BBC document to the competing Independent Television Authority
Independent Television Authority
The Independent Television Authority was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" , the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom...
(ITA) in which concerns were voiced about the financial interests of newspapers in ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
companies. Greene learned of the leak from a displeased Ivone Kirkpatrick
Ivone Kirkpatrick
His Excellency Sir Ivone Augustine Kirkpatrick GCB, GCMG was a British diplomat who served most notably as the British High Commissioner in Germany after the war, and as the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office -Summary:Kirkpatrick left school to join the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers...
, then chairman of the ITA. (Kirkpatrick had previously been a member of the Political War Executive, Head of the BBC's wartime European Services and High Commissioner of the British Occupied Zone in Germany and had worked with Greene many times before.) The leak would have led to Hole's immediate dismissal but actually it was only detected shortly after his retirement.
Director-General of the BBC
Greene kept the BBC in pace with the major social changes in Britain in the 1960s, and through such series as Steptoe and SonSteptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
, Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
and That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost...
, the BBC moved away from the ethos of Reithian
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom...
middle-class values and deference to traditional authority and power. Controversial, socially concerned dramas such as Up the Junction
Up the Junction
Up the Junction is a 1963 novel by Nell Dunn that depicts contemporary life in the industrial slums of Battersea near Clapham Junction.The book uses colloquial speech, and its portrayal of petty thieving, sexual encounters, births, deaths and back-street abortion provided a view of life that was...
and Cathy Come Home
Cathy Come Home
Cathy Come Home is a 1966 BBC television play by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, about homelessness. An industry poll rated it as the best British television drama ever made. Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 16...
were broadcast as part of The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
strand, which also gave Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
his breakthrough as a dramatist with, among other works, the "Nigel Barton
The Nigel Barton Plays
The Nigel Barton Plays are two semi-autobiographical television dramas by British playwright Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC1 in 1965 as part of The Wednesday Play strand...
" plays. Directly though, Greene is thought to have directly suggested only two programmes, the imported American series Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
and Songs of Praise
Songs of Praise
Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional Christian hymns. It is a widely watched and long-running religious television programme, one of the few peak-time free-to-air religious programmes in Europe Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional...
which began in 1961.
The tone of BBC radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
overall changed less radically in the Hugh Greene era than that of BBC television, with full reforms of the networks not coming until 1970 (by which time Sir Charles Curran
Charles Curran (broadcaster)
Sir Charles John Curran , was a British television executive.Charles Curran was born in Dublin. He served in the Indian army from 1942-45, but left to work in the BBC Talks department. He resigned following a dispute to edit the "Canadian Fishing News", but he returned in 1951 to join BBC Monitoring...
was Director-General). However it was in 1967, under Greene's directorship, that the corporation embraced pop radio for the first time with Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, taking most of its DJs and music policy from offshore radio (on the notorious pirate ships), which had just been banned by the government. Hugh Greene also strongly resisted pressure from the 'clean-up TV' campaigner Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, a policy not always followed by future directors-general.
Greene's undoing followed the appointment of the former Conservative minister Lord Hill
Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton
Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton PC was a British administrator, doctor and television executive.Charles Hill was born in Islington, London and was educated at St Olave's Grammar School in Southwark, London. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge where he gained a first class degree...
as chairman of the BBC governors from September 1, 1967, by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
, who had criticised Hill's appointment as chairman of the Independent Television Authority
Independent Television Authority
The Independent Television Authority was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" , the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom...
by a Conservative government in 1963. A more cautious and conservative atmosphere then took hold in the corporation, typified by the axing (until 1972) of Till Death Us Do Part, one of the series most despised by Mary Whitehouse, but conversely one of its most popular in the ratings. In July 1968 the BBC issued the document Broadcasting In The Public Mood without Greene's significant involvement, seeming to question the continued broadcasting of the more provocative and controversial material (one of Greene's allies at the top level of the corporation described this document as "emasculated and philistine") and in October 1968 Greene announced that he would be retiring as Director-General. He was succeeded the next year by the more conservative Sir Charles Curran
Charles Curran (broadcaster)
Sir Charles John Curran , was a British television executive.Charles Curran was born in Dublin. He served in the Indian army from 1942-45, but left to work in the BBC Talks department. He resigned following a dispute to edit the "Canadian Fishing News", but he returned in 1951 to join BBC Monitoring...
. This move was welcomed by a great many MPs, Governors of the BBC, Churchmen and Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners Association
Mediawatch-uk
Mediawatch-uk, formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, is a pressure group in the United Kingdom, which campaigns against the publication and broadcast of media content that it views as harmful and offensive, such as violence, profanity, sex, homosexuality and...
, as Greene was regarded, by the conservative minded, as a man of low moral fibre and as the person responsible for the increasing volume of sex and violence on television.
Echoes of the removal of Hugh Greene could be heard in the departure in 2004 of Director-General Greg Dyke
Greg Dyke
Gregory "Greg" Dyke is a British media executive, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing 'tabloid' television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am...
in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry
Hutton Inquiry
The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.On 18 July 2003, Kelly, an employee...
.
Other roles
Hugh Greene then became one of the BBC governors, a position he held until 1971. He has remained a divisive figure in what have been called the British "culture wars" (after the American term for the liberal-conservative divide in US society); he has frequently been attacked by those of a conservative bent, especially the writer Peter HitchensPeter Hitchens
Peter Jonathan Hitchens is an award-winning British columnist and author, noted for his traditionalist conservative stance. He has published five books, including The Abolition of Britain, A Brief History of Crime, The Broken Compass and most recently The Rage Against God. Hitchens writes for...
, for his part in the erosion of, what they see as, a better Britain. But he has been praised by some of liberal and Leftish leanings for opening up an, as they claim, ossifying institution, and creating a more tolerant and open-minded society. The fact remains that one's opinion of Sir Hugh Carleton Greene can depend entirely on one's opinion of the social changes—less deference to traditional authority and the traditional establishment—that are most frequently associated with the 1960s. Sir Hugh Greene's influence on British society—both on those who approve of what he stood for and on those who despise it—remains, as does the influence of those social changes more generally. Recently, in the wake of the Hutton Report, there has been some further debate about the relationship between the government, the Establishment and the BBC.
In 1985 he received the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor from the German Eduard Rhein Foundation.
Beyond his broadcasting and journalistic work, Greene was also known for his appreciation of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
and eventually became a director of the Greene King Brewery
Greene King Brewery
Greene King is a British brewery established in 1799 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. It has grown to become one of the largest British owned breweries in the UK through a series of takeovers which have been the subject of some criticism. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent...
, originally established by his great-grandfather, Benjamin Greene
Benjamin Greene
Benjamin Greene was the founder of Greene King, one of the United Kingdom's largest brewing businesses.-Career:...
, in 1799. He also once bested his famous brother Graham in a writing contest to parody the novelist's writing style in the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
.
Personal life
Sir Hugh Greene was knighted in 1964. He was married four times: to Helga Guinness, Elaine Shaplen, Tatjana Sais and Sarah Grahame. He had two sons by each of the first two marriages.He died in Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, of cancer aged 76.
Portrayals in popular culture
In 2008 the role of Greene was played by the actor Hugh BonnevilleHugh Bonneville
Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville , is an English stage, film, television and radio actor.-Education:...
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
drama Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story is a 2008 BBC Television docudrama written by Amanda Coe, telling the life story of the British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse...
. The play focused on Greene's war with Whitehouse (played by Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
) and latterly with Lord Hill (played by Ron Cook
Ron Cook
Ron Cook is an English actor who has been active in the theatre, film and television since the 1970s. He is from South Shields, Co Durham, England and is a graduate of Rose Bruford College.- Stage appearances :...
) in the period while he was BBC Director General in the 1960s. The script, and Bonneville's performance, brought out many of the character's personal eccentricities, as well as his firm - and confessedly lustful - principles in withstanding calls for censorship.
Publications
- The Spy's Bedside Book (ed. with Graham Greene) (1957)
- The Third Floor Front: A View of Broadcasting in the Sixties (1969)
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Early Detective Stories (1971)
- Cosmopolitan Crimes: Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971)
- The Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1973)
- The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1979)
Sources
- Tise Vahimagi, 'Sir Hugh Greene (1910-1987)', screenonline: the definitive guide to Britain's film and TV history
- Greene King Brewery website