Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton, CBE (23 April 1928 – 11 August 2008)[1] was a British television producer and executive, and the son of big-band leader Billy Cotton.
Following a secondary education at the independent school Ardingly College, he 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.
In 1970, Cotton was promoted to Head of Light Entertainment, following the death of Tom Sloan in May. In this position, Cotton was responsible for overseeing the production of a whole series of popular and iconic comedy programmes, including The Morecambe and Wise Show (1968), Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969), The Two Ronnies (1971) and Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game (1971). Cotton's era was generally seen as the most popular 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.
Cotton’s success as Head of Light Entertainment led to his promotion to Controller of BBC One, the Corporation’s premier and the UK’s oldest television station, in 1977. He 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 a hundred days. Due to a period of ill health, his deputy controller Martin J. O'Connor stood in as controller of BBC One from the autumn of 1979 to the spring of 1980.
In 1981 he was replaced as Controller of BBC One by Alan Hart (television executive) and made the BBC's deputy managing director of television under Alasdair Milne. In 1984 Cotton was promoted (after being passed over for the post in 1982 in favor of his former BBC One deputy controller Martin J. O'Connor) to become Managing Director of Television, a role he fulfilled until his retirement from the Corporation in 1987. Cotton subsequently did some freelance executive producing work in the light entertainment area and he has served as Chairman of Noel Gay Television. He was Chairman of Meridian Television from 1988 until 2006.
Cotton was a Vice President of the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity. He received a BAFTA Fellowship Award in 1998. He was made a Knight Bachelor for his services to Television Broadcasting and Marie Curie Cancer Care in 2001.[2] He had previously been awarded a CBE in 1989[3] and an OBE in 1976.[4]
Cotton was related to television presenter Fearne Cotton, as he was a cousin of her grandfather.
BBC Two broadcasted an evening of programmes that he commissioned as part of a tribute night to him on Boxing Day 2008, including Morecambe & Wise Christmas show of 1971, The Generation Game Christmas Show of 1973, and The Two Ronnies Old Fashioned Christmas Mystery of 1973. There was also a documentary about his career with Michael Grade, Bruce Forsyth, Michael Parkinson, Terry Wogan, & Paul Jackson among those paying tribute.
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