Top Gear was “an accident waiting to happen”, said Lorraine Heggessey, who told the audience enjoying her RTS London Christmas Lecture that she would have dealt with the programme’s presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, more quickly.
“Jeremy is a bit like a spoiled toddler,” she said. He had “crossed the line several times with quite racist remarks and got away with it”, added the former BBC and TalkbackThames executive.
New to the show in January is the Virtual Voice, which will offer 360-degree virtual reality video, and a greater focus on BBC iPlayer to satisfy growing demand for content on mobile and connected TV platforms.
The Voice’s digital producers use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and BBC online, adding new content to create a buzz around the show.
Renowned futurist David Wood has warned against a world in which “technology runs out of control” and viewers and consumers are “manipulated” by machines.
Wood was speaking on the “Accelerating digital revolution” at a special members-only London Centre event, hosted at IBC, in October.
The futurist, he explained, “anticipates a set of possible futures, including things that could go very badly [wrong], but, equally, is looking for opportunities”. Before embarking on a career as a technological seer, Wood was a pioneer of the smartphone industry.
Events in television don't get much bigger than the RTS Cambridge Convention and the RTS London Conference. Held on alternate years, each event brings together the senior leaders and CEOs from the global TV industry for discussion and debate, setting the agenda for the future media year.
Every two years the most recognisable faces, influential names and powerful voices of television converge for three days of stimulating talks, chaired by one of the UK's main broadcasters.
Knitted together by Laurence Olivier’s narration and a Carl Davis score, the programme movingly tells the story of the Second World War using eyewitness accounts and interviews with important figures, including Albert Speer and Lord Mountbatten.
Sir David Attenborough
