Sir Michael Checkland (born 13 March 1936) is a retired British television executive, who was Director-General of the BBC from 1987 to 1992,[1] being appointed after the forced resignation of Alasdair Milne.
Michael Checkland was educated at the state grammar school King Edward VI Five Ways in Birmingham, and Wadham College, Oxford, of which he was appointed an Honorary Fellow in 1989.
In 1985 he was appointed Deputy Director-General of the Corporation, and at the same time he became vice president of the Royal Television Society, a position he retained until 1994.
It has been claimed[citation needed] that the exodus to Channel 4 in the early 1990s of dramatists like Dennis Potter and Alan Bleasdale, who had both been responsible for series which caused outrage among Conservatives during the Milne era, had much to do with the relative lack of risk-taking at the BBC under Checkland and his successor John Birt, who was deputy director-general throughout Checkland's reign.
He has since become involved in a range of other charities and public bodies: Director of the National Youth Music Theatre (1992–2002), Chairman of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1995–2001), Governor of Westminster College, Oxford (1993–97), Governor of Birkbeck College London (1993–97), Visiting Professor at the International Academy of Broadcasting, Montreux (1995–97), the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors (1994-2000),[5] and Chairman of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (1997–2001).