Joanna Spicer

[3] Spicer became the assistant controller of planning at the BBC and was one of those who backed the idea of creating a science fiction series for Saturday evenings.

The BBC credit Spicer as being the main proponent of it being initially based at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush.

An important conversation she had with David Attenborough, then controller of BBC2, was her suggestion that documentaries should be made to exploit the introduction of colour television to the UK.

She was offered a lucrative position as independent television's representative at Eurovision, but the BBC wanted to retain her expertise.

Spicer spent a decade working with historian Asa Briggs who wrote a multi-volume history of broadcasting in the UK.

"[1] Holding, as she did, a key job during an important time in the history of British television,[5] the veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby described her over 30 years after her death as a “great woman” who “today would be Director-General”,[6] although Monica Sims, former head of children’s programmes, has spoken regretfully of what she saw as Spicer’s preference for promoting the careers of “beautiful young men”[7]