1. Sir William Frederick Cotton was a British television producer and executive, and the son of dance band leader Billy Cotton.
15 Facts About Bill Cotton
1. 2.
The television and radio presenter Fearne Cotton is related to him, as he was her paternal grandfather's cousin.
3.
Bill Cotton joined BBC Television as an in-house producer of light entertainment programmes in 1956, working on various programmes such as his father's Billy Cotton Band Show and popular music programme Six-Five Special.
4.
Bill Cotton's era was generally seen as the most eclectic 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.
5.
Bill Cotton oversaw some of the channel's highest-ever audience figures in 1979, although this was mostly due to the main opposition, ITV, being on strike for over two months.
6.
In 1984 Bill Cotton was promoted to become managing director of television, a role he fulfilled until his retirement from the corporation in 1988.
7.
Bill Cotton subsequently did some freelance executive producing work in the light entertainment area and served as chairman of Noel Gay Television.
8.
Bill Cotton was deputy chairman of Meridian Broadcasting from 1992 to 1996, then chairman until 2001.
9.
In 1950, Bill Cotton married Bernardine Maud, daughter of Bernard Charles Henry Sinclair; they had three daughters.
10.
Bill Cotton married secondly, in 1965, makeup supervisor Ann Corfield Henderson, daughter of Lieutenant General Gerard Bucknall and former wife of Andrew V Henderson.
11.
Bill Cotton married thirdly, in 1990, Marie Curie Foundation homes officer Kathryn Mary, daughter of chief education officer Frederick Ralphs and former wife of David P H Burgess.
12.
Bill Cotton was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1976 New Year Honours, and promoted to Commander of the same order in the 1989 Birthday Honours.
13.
Bill Cotton received a BAFTA Fellowship in 1998, and was knighted in the 2001 Birthday Honours for services to Television Broadcasting and Marie Curie Cancer Care.
14.
Bill Cotton was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1995 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire.
15.
Bill Cotton was played by Michael Jibson in The Reckoning.