My friend and colleague Colin Adams, who has died aged 78, was a former controller of drama at the BBC who had worked his way up through the organisation first as a broadcaster and editor, then as an executive.
Born in Runcorn, Cheshire, Colin was one of the three children of Phyllis (nee Hayes) and Bill Adams, who worked for ICI. Colin failed his 11-plus and left Balfour Road secondary modern boys’ school at 16, going on to Runcorn College of Further Education to study shorthand and typing, which helped him in his first job as a junior reporter on the Cheshire Observer.
After moving on to the Sheffield Star, in 1968 he started his broadcasting career by joining the newly opened BBC Radio Sheffield. This launched his life with the BBC, in which he crisscrossed the country as a producer, editor and executive.
In 1970 he became news editor at Radio Humberside, and was then lured to London to work first as deputy editor of Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme, and then deputy editor of Today on Radio 4. His career continued on an upward trajectory, leading him to Manchester in 1978 as editor of File on 4 (radio’s equivalent of Panorama) and subsequently as editor of BBC television features.
Managerial roles then took him to Birmingham as head of network television, and in 1992 back to Manchester with the splendid title of head of broadcasting in the north. After four years in that post, Colin went to London to become controller of production and then, to the surprise of most people (including himself), controller of drama.
In that role he had to sort out what had become an unwieldy and almost unmanageable empire. One of his first tasks was to evict an impecunious dramatist who was using one of the drama department offices as his home.
In 2000 Colin left the BBC. He had always been sensitive about his lack of a university education in the graduate-heavy corporation, and immediately signed up for a history BA at the University of East Anglia. His first-class degree surprised none of his friends, and provided him with proof of the divisiveness of the 11-plus. He went on to gain an MA with distinction and thoroughly enjoyed his later years of academic achievement, also spending time travelling extensively around the world.
Colin married Mags Sailes in 1968. She survives him, as do their daughters, Julie, Jeni and Kate, his grandchildren, Ellie and Lily, and his siblings Ian and Judith.
