"[8] Appleyard pointed out that: "the investment financial, intellectual and egotistical in the programme is enormous... Yentob is determined to put his own cultural stamp on BBC2 and Jackson has everything to prove.
"The Late Show cast its net wider in terms of formats... What drove it was the enthusiasm and passions of its presenters, producers and editors, and this built a certain eclecticism and unashamed highbrowness into its agenda...
It could be argued that the real high point of intellectual life on British television was not the 1960s or the 1970s, but the decade between the beginning of Channel 4 and the end of The Late Show in 1995.
"[9] Jackson remained as editor of The Late Show for the next two years, until in 1991 he was promoted to become BBC television's Head of Music and Arts.
[12] Other successes Jackson oversaw at the channel included the documentary series The Death of Yugoslavia (1995) and The House (1996), the daytime television series Ready Steady Cook (1994–2010) and Esther (1996–98)[18] and the comedies The Day Today (1994), Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge (1994) and The Fast Show (1994–2000).
[20] "I think it simply boils down to Michael not wanting to spend that much money that late," was how one "insider" described the decision to The Sunday Times newspaper.
[21] Jackson's next move came somewhat unexpectedly in the summer of 1996, when the Director-General of the BBC, John Birt, unveiled a series of major — and controversial[22] — changes to the structure of the corporation.
But in May 1997, after less than a year in his new post and in what The Guardian described as "a hammer blow" to the BBC, Jackson was tempted away from the corporation to succeed Michael Grade as the Chief Executive of Channel 4.
[26] The channel's comedy output enjoyed particular success under Jackson's aegis, with the sitcoms Spaced (1999–2001) and Black Books (2000–04), sketch show Smack the Pony (1999–2003) and the more generally comic Da Ali G Show (2000) and So Graham Norton (1998–2002) all proving to be popular successes.
[29] He did, however, point to significant British drama successes with Queer as Folk (1999–2000) and Teachers (2001–04), describing the former as one of the "signature shows" of his time at the channel.
[29] Jackson also later admitted that he had made a mistake in setting up the channel's independent film production company FilmFour Limited in 1998.
[31] The reaction to Jackson's departure was similar to that which had greeted his equally unexpected move from the BBC four years previously.
[31] After various mergers, his job became Chairman of Universal Television,[32] and in this role he commissioned the successful drama series Monk (2002–2009) and The Dead Zone (2002–2007)[33] and Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009) In January 2006, he was made President of Programming of Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp internet business responsible for developing and acquiring content-based web businesses.
He was Chairman of the leading UK photography non-profit The Photographers Gallery between 1998 and 2001 In 2018, Jackson Executive Produced his first drama series – Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Sky Atlantic/Showtime, 2018, 5x1hr).
Patrick Melrose was produced by Two Cities TV, Sunnymarch, Rachael Horotvitz’ company West Fourth Films, and Little Island.
Two Cities TV was founded in 2018 by Jackson, Stephen Wright and Alex Graham with funding from BBC Studios, based in Belfast, London, and New York.