User:Lginnane/Peter Grimsdale

Name: Peter Grimsdale

Occupation: 'Actor and broadcaster

Year of birth: 1955

Peter was born in Saltburn in 1955 just before his family moved to Sheffield. He was educated at Rowlinson School, Sheffield, Bedales School in Hampshire and East Brunswick High School in New Jersey, USA.

At the University of Sussex 1974-8 he read American Studies and won a scholarship to Georgetown University where he was also an intern on Capitol Hill to Congressman Charles B Rangel. While at Georgetown he won the Wagner Award for Fiction.

Career

He got his break into broadcasting in America at the Washington news bureau of Pacifica Radio, 1978-9, and joined the BBC. His producer credits include Real Lives, Crimewatch UK, Nippon – Japan since 1945, Small Objects of Desire and Locomotion – The World the Railways Made. From 1994 he was Commissioning Editor for History, Religion & Features at Channel 4, where he was responsible for programmes ranging from The Real Holiday Show to Cantebury Tales – the 20th Century history of the Church of England with Ian Hislop and the breakthrough ‘home made’ TV series  The Adam & Joe Show. In 1997 he won the Royal Television Society Award for the religious series Witness. After a brief return to the BBC as Head of Independent Commissioning he was back at Channel 4 as Head of Cross Platform programming, where he oversaw Big Brother 3 featuring Jade Goody. In 2003 he moved to Yahoo! as Editorial Director for Europe but returned to TV a year later as Channel Five’s Controller of Science. In 2008 his writing was launched with the publication by Orion of his first novel Pefect Night. A thriller inspired by his experiences in television and film archives, it was chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. The Guardian called it ‘utterly enthralling’ and leading crime writer Michael Connelly described it as ‘The perfect thriller’. Other writing includes contributions to the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Classic Cars and Classic & Sports Car He is married to writer and founder of badmothersclub.com Stephanie Calman.