14 Facts About Jeremy Isaacs

Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs was born on 28 September 1932 and is a Scottish television producer and executive, opera manager, and a recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards.

Jeremy Isaacs was the General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1987 to 1996.

Jeremy Isaacs was born in Glasgow from what were described as "Scottish Jewish roots".

Jeremy Isaacs grew up in Hillhead, the son of a jeweller and a GP, and is a cousin to virologist Alick Isaacs.

Jeremy Isaacs was educated at the independent Glasgow Academy and Merton College, Oxford, where he read Classics.

Jeremy Isaacs did his National Service in the Highland Light Infantry.

Jeremy Isaacs began his career in television when he joined Granada Television in Manchester as a producer in 1958.

Jeremy Isaacs has worked for the BBC in the 1960s and was the overall producer for the 26-episode series The World at War for Thames Television.

Jeremy Isaacs was Director of Programmes for Thames between 1974 and 1978.

Jeremy Isaacs was the founding chief executive of Channel 4 between 1981 and 1987, overseeing its launch period and setting the channel's original cultural approach with opera and foreign language film, although such programmes as the pop music series The Tube and soap opera Brookside had a place in the schedule from the beginning.

The channel commissioned Michael Elliott's production of King Lear with Laurence Olivier in the title role and Jeremy Isaacs recommissioned a number of programmes from his time at Granada including What the Papers Say.

When handing over responsibility for running the channel to Michael Grade, Jeremy Isaacs threatened to throttle him if he betrayed the trust placed in him to respect the channel's remit.

Between 1997 and 2000, Jeremy Isaacs was president of the Royal Television Society.

Jeremy Isaacs was chairman of Artsworld before it was sold to Sky.