57 Facts About Greg Dyke

Gregory Dyke was born on 20 May 1947 and is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist, and broadcaster.

Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism.

Greg Dyke is credited with introducing 'tabloid' television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am.

Greg Dyke was the director-general of the BBC from January 2000 to January 2004; he resigned following heavy criticism of the BBC's news reporting process in the Hutton Inquiry.

Greg Dyke was a director of Manchester United and chairman of Brentford football clubs, and from 2013 to 2016 was chairman of the Football Association.

Greg Dyke was chancellor of the University of York from 2004 to 2015 and chairman of the British Film Institute between 2008 and 2016.

Greg Dyke is currently the chairman of children's television company HiT Entertainment, and is a panellist on Sky News's The Pledge.

Since 2016, Greg Dyke has been vice president for television of BAFTA.

Greg Dyke was born in 1947, in Hayes, Middlesex, the youngest of three sons in a "stable, lower middle class" family.

Greg Dyke left the Mirror after attempting to stage a union-backed protest against poor pay conditions by the junior staff of the work on the paper.

Greg Dyke then got a job at the Slough Evening Mail.

Greg Dyke then went on to study for a degree at the University of York as a mature student, graduating in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in politics.

Greg Dyke met and married his first wife Christine Taylor whilst at the university.

Greg Dyke's politics were more of a traditional Labour supporter than some of the more radical and dissentient students of his day.

Greg Dyke was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university in 1999 and was chancellor from 2004 to 2015.

Greg Dyke had become disillusioned with newspaper journalism, and tried for a job as a junior reporter at BBC Radio Teesside.

Greg Dyke was unsuccessful, apparently because the interviewers felt no-one would understand his accent.

Greg Dyke instead found work covering rural affairs for the Newcastle Journal.

Greg Dyke moved back to London with Christine in 1974 to become campaign officer for the Wandsworth Community Relations Council.

Greg Dyke hated the job and left to campaign to be elected GLC councillor for Putney.

Greg Dyke was given assistance getting a job at London Weekend Television by fellow ex-Newcastle journalist Nicholas Evans, who was at the time working on Weekend World.

Greg Dyke got a junior position on LWT's local politics programme, in the current affairs department.

Greg Dyke attracted attention for trying to give the programmes he worked on a more populist edge.

Greg Dyke was instrumental in reviving the breakfast show's fortunes by introducing a new schedule based around popular features including bingo, celebrity gossip and horoscopes.

Greg Dyke left TV-am, in May 1984 after Bruce Gyngell was brought in to enhance and improve the company to allow it to be financially viable.

Greg Dyke was responsible for cancelling ITV's coverage of professional wrestling in 1988.

Greg Dyke's role was primarily to bring new and imaginative ideas to the station without taking on full day-to-day running.

Greg Dyke became chairman and chief executive of Pearson Television in January 1995, and began expanding the company.

Greg Dyke was appointed chairman of Channel 5 on 21 February 1997.

Apart from restoring staff morale, Greg Dyke laid claim to two major achievements during his office.

In September 2004, Greg Dyke received an award for his remarks from Glasgow-based organisation Empower Scotland, which fights against workplace racism.

Greg Dyke attracted criticism when he "forgot" to sell an equity stake in Granada Television, which presented a conflict of interest in his new position.

Greg Dyke caused controversy when he lost the rights to Premier League football to ITV, then accused the league of fixing the auction.

Greg Dyke said he had tried to raise the problem during his time in charge of the BBC but discussion had been blocked by a combination of the "politicos on the board of governors" of the BBC, the Labour cabinet and the political journalists at the BBC.

Greg Dyke believed that these groups resist change as it is not in their interests.

Greg Dyke resigned from the BBC on 29 January 2004 along with Gavyn Davies and Andrew Gilligan, after the publication of the Hutton Report into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly.

Greg Dyke stood for brave, independent and rigorous BBC journalism that was fearless in its search for the truth.

On 28 November 2003, Greg Dyke was formally appointed by the University of York as its new chancellor, replacing Dame Janet Baker, who had served in the post since November 1991.

Greg Dyke has made a personal grant to the new Department of Theatre, Film and Television, to found the Greg Dyke Chair in Film and Television.

On 6 February 2004, Greg Dyke announced that he had signed a six-figure book contract with HarperCollins.

In July 2004, Greg Dyke was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Sunderland, Middlesex University and in 2006 from The University of Bedfordshire.

Greg Dyke was appointed chair of the British Film Institute on 15 February 2008, succeeding Anthony Minghella.

Greg Dyke has been a director of both Manchester United and Brentford football clubs, and was chairman of the FA from 2013 to 2016.

Greg Dyke has said that he supported both clubs since he was a child, although his older brothers supported Tottenham.

Greg Dyke became a fan of Brentford when his brother played for the club as a junior.

From 1997 to 1999, Greg Dyke served as a non-executive director of Manchester United, and was the sole board member to oppose a takeover bid from BSkyB, which was rejected by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

Greg Dyke was the non-executive chairman of Brentford from 20 January 2006 until July 2013.

Greg Dyke was appointed as part of the club takeover by Bees United, the Brentford Supporters Trust.

At Brentford, Greg Dyke's focus was on budget constraints for the small club and the necessity to generate money from televised matches and other means.

Greg Dyke remained upbeat: "We are slightly disappointed with this season, as we increased the playing budget," he said.

Greg Dyke replaced David Bernstein as chairman of The Football Association in July 2013 after relinquishing his role as Brentford chairman and receiving approval from the FA council.

Greg Dyke left the FA in 2016, deciding not to stand for re-election, as he struggled to reform the organisation.

Greg Dyke appeared on BBC Two's Newsnight programme on 8 July 2011 alongside comedian Steve Coogan, where he confronted former News of the World deputy features editor Paul McMullen over his attitude to the events of the phone hacking scandal.

Greg Dyke told McMullen "You're [the tabloids] nothing to do with a free press, or a decent democracy".

Greg Dyke was of the opinion that stronger independent regulation of the press was needed, saying that broadcast media had always been more strictly regulated.

On 2 May 2005, prior to the general election, the former Labour supporter Greg Dyke went public at a Liberal Democrats press conference and said that "Democracy was under threat if Labour was elected for a third term".

Greg Dyke met his first wife Christine Taylor at the University of York; they were married for most of the 1970s.