Tribute to popular BBC TV producer Michael Blakstad

Yet his career was characterised by change and innovation, reflecting a restless temperament and a passion for the new. He was, in his time, documentary maker, entrepreneur and, in later life, a passionate campaigner for the needs of people with dementia.

Born in Penang in 1940, his early years were shaped by expat life in the dying years of British colonial rule. He was too young to remember his own evacuation during the war, or his father’s capture and torture. Post-war, a comfortable childhood in Malaya ended when he had to make his own way to school from the age of nine – first in Australia and then in England. The family later moved to Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, where he studied and his father taught maths.

He won a scholarship to Oxford University, where he studied Greats and was president of the Art Club. As part of the university boxing squad, he sparred with future actor and singer Kris Kristofferson. On graduation in 1963, he joined the BBC as a general trainee. While learning the crafts of television directing and production, he met and married Tricia Wotherspoon. Their twin daughters were quickly followed by a son, growing the family from two to five in just 18 months.

In 1969 he joined Yorkshire Television where his credits included the globe-trotting series Whicker’s World. Other young producer-directors might have been cautious about putting debonair presenter Alan Whicker in front of unpredictable interviewees like Haitian dictator Papa Doc, but Blakstad proved fearless, and his bold choices made for striking television.

He maintained this single-mindedness throughout his career. His 1974 Prix de Jeunesse-winning documentary Children in Crossfire explored the effects of the Troubles on the youth of Northern Ireland. After its airing, the BBC received a death threat purporting to be from the IRA, but Blakstad refused to alter his routines. He continued to cycle to work each day from his west London home – followed closely, as he would later claim, by a Special Branch tail.

Returning full-time to the BBC, he became series producer and editor of several ground-breaking shows: The Risk Business, a series on industry that won the Shell International prize, The Burke Special, and Tomorrow’s World. As a writer, he authored books to accompany The Risk Business and Tomorrow’s World, and contributed regularly to Design and Ideal Home magazines.

On leaving the BBC, he took advantage of the opening up of the TV industry to commercial competition that took place in the 1980s and 90s. He was part of the consortium that won the southern ITV franchise, and in 1981 became programme controller of the newly-formed Television South (TVS). He also founded two independent production companies: first Blackrod, with former Tomorrow’s World presenter Michael Rodd, and later the Winchester-based Workhouse Limited.

His increasing focus on corporate video and on the digital communications channels that were then emerging led to his co-authoring another book, The Communicating Organisation, with friend and business partner Aldwyn Cooper. Formats he pioneered included interactive TV and the ill-fated video disc. In the latter stages of his career he became an advisor on the transition to digital television.

Retirement did not slow his momentum: as he often said, ‘retirement is when you stop getting paid for the work you do’. When he’d co-founded TVS, he and his family had moved to the Hampshire village of East Meon, and his later life pursuits reflected his passion for the village and the surrounding region. He edited a number of publications with the East Meon historical society, and wrote a history of Liphook Golf Club. Life-long lovers of theatre and film, he and Tricia were enthusiastic supporters of Theatre Royal Winchester and Chichester Festival Theatre, and helped establish the Moviola roving cinema in the village.

It was not through choice that they left East Meon in 2019. Her Alzheimer’s and his Parkinson’s were in their early stages, but it was already clear that would soon need specialist support. They moved to an independent living community near Southampton. Here, they hoped, they would be able to live together for many years, however their medical conditions developed.

Things did not go according to plan. In early 2020, a fall and a broken hip exacerbated Michael’s mobility problems. This, combined with Tricia’s worsening dementia, made it harder for them to live independently and, before the first Covid lockdown was over, Tricia was in full-time residential care. Michael did his best to spend time with her in the home when rules permitted, but quarantine rules meant she was spending increasing amounts of time isolated in her room, and her condition deteriorated rapidly.

Infuriated by the policy choices that he believed had led to this plight, Michael began to make regular appearances on the BBC’s flagship radio news show, Today. His wife’s situation had mobilised him into his final role: that of campaigner. In spite of his increasing disability, which eventually forced him into residential care, he marshalled a network of technology companies, broadcasters and care homes to deliver a concept that he called Media versus Dementia. The goal was to provide ‘reminiscence media’ that would stimulate the brains of those in the early stages of the condition. Much remains to be done to make this vision a reality, but he was striving at the project up to the very last.

He died in his care home room in Winchester on November 21. Michael Blakstad (1940–2023).