His initial ambition was to be an actor (he played the central role in the première of the thriller Land's End at the People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1935), but he quickly realised that he lacked the necessary talent and so pursued a career as a teacher instead.
However, he only held this post for a short time before being seconded to the BBC in London after the outbreak of war, to become part of a group of producers working on war-related programming.
During World War II, he wrote and directed several acclaimed radio documentary features, such as Bombers Over Berlin, The Harbour Called Mulberry, Fighter Pilot, and Junction X.
As programme director, he worked under the station's controller, Norman Collins, to establish the popularity of the fledgling channel, with one of the major events covered during this time being the 1948 Summer Olympics, broadcast live by the BBC from Wembley Stadium in London.
McGivern's period in Control of the channel's output saw a rapid increase of the television service's popularity, helped greatly by the 20 million audience for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.