Jane Marianna Root[1] (born 18 May 1957)[2][3] is a creative executive in the media industry, who has run major television networks on both sides of the Atlantic.
[4] Later awarded an honorary doctorate from the university in 2002, she worked for several years as a freelance journalist, writing for publications such as Honey, The Guardian, and Cosmopolitan.
The group – which dealt with drama, entertainment and factual – was responsible for hits like The Naked Chef, and Root was dubbed the "high priestess of lifestyle television" after she championed Jamie Oliver.
[6] Her controllership included commissioning the original British series of The Office as well as Coupling, The Weakest Link, Top Gear, What Not to Wear, and Who Do You Think You Are?.
[citation needed] In the five years Root was controller, during which BBC Two celebrated its 40th anniversary,[14] the channel bucked the trend in declining viewing figures by increasing its audience share.
Jana Bennett, Director of Television at the BBC, said at the time that the channel was losing "an exceptional creative talent who has inspired programme-makers".
[16] In 2009 Janice Hadlow, current controller of BBC2 talked about her influence in an article in The Guardian[17] newspaper and said "A lot of the things Jane did were extraordinary, channel defining".
She also organised the promotion around Planet Earth (2006 TV series), a joint venture with the BBC, which quickly became one of Discovery's biggest hits.
The site was also part of the Top Ten Digital Hot List in Adweek in the same year, where the network was praised for truly delivering on both online video content and multi-platform ad opportunities.
The series achieved the highest-rated special documentary in the network's history,[2] with the debut show gaining 5.7 million viewers In December 2010, Root gave the Keynote speech at the SPAA Conference[23] in Sydney.