Archive on 4 - Meeting Myself Coming Back: Series 1 - Michael Grade

High-profile figures, in conversation with John Wilson, replay their own sound archive and use it as a basis for a re-examination of their lives. Michael Grade reflects on the soundtrack to his life drawn through over 30 years of the BBC sound archives. From his earliest job as a sports writer on the Daily Mirror to his varied career as controller of BBC One, chief executive of Channel 4 and now in charge of ITV, his life has been a very public one. Coming from a showbusiness family, with an agent for a father and uncles Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont in theatre and television, Grade has seen at first hand how the language of variety and vaudeville can work. In his six-year career at the Daily Mirror, as 'Mike Grade', he had a sports column and learned how to work with the press. His move into TV came in the 1970s, and from the 1980s he was a major player in BBC television, becoming controller of BBC One. He hears the sound archive of his life and ponders what he has learned and how he has developed, from his earliest writings to his return to the BBC in 2004 and his subsequent move to ITV.