Obituary: The BBC executive who commissioned EastEnders and loved Watford FC

The former editor of Grandstand and head of BBC Sport died last month at the age of 85. Away from a highly successful career in the media, Alan enjoyed a life-long passion for Watford Football Club that has now passed down to a fourth generation of his family.

One of the driving forces in establishing Watford Hospital Radio in the 1950s, a former vice-president and kit sponsor, Alan became friends with a number of people at Vicarage Road, including the Hornets’ record goal scorer.

“You would never, ever be aware of what that man did,” Luther said. “He just came along to watch football and chatted about it. We found out all the other bits about him, but he was very unassuming and a very gentle and honest man as well. He never shouted, apart from at the football. He was just a fantastic man.

“The things he gave to us…EastEnders. Probably a lot of people were saying ‘don’t do it’, but he saw where it would go and look what it’s become now, but as a Watford supporter he had time for everybody just like he did in his general life.

“I just feel very blessed that I knew him and [fellow vice-president] Peter Ingram because they were literally two peas from the same pod. They were such very nice people that loved their football club and loved talking about their football club.”

The late controller of BBC1 became friends with Luther Blissett

Born in April 1935, the son of Lillian and Reginald Hart was educated at University College School, Hampstead, and cut his teeth as a young reporter on the Willesden Chronicle and Cricklewood Times.

Alan moved to the Evening News as a sports reporter in 1958, but what was to be the start of an impressive career in television came the following year when he was recruited by the creator and editor of the BBC sports programme Sportsview Paul Fox.

By 1965 Alan had succeeded Fox as the programme’s editor, having been involved in the launch of Match of the Day the previous year, and he was also to take charge of BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Alan’s rise continued in 1968 when he became editor of Grandstand, spending nine years at the helm of the Saturday afternoon sport show, and in 1977 he was appointed head of sport for both BBC television channels.

It was his handling of the sensitivities around the 1980 Olympics – when the British Olympic Association defied Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s wishes to follow the USA’s lead in boycotting the Games in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan – that earned Alan a reputation as a ‘safe pair of hands’. This led to him being appointed controller of BBC1 in succession to Bill Cotton in 1981.

The commissioning of a new soap opera, EastEnders, has proved to the biggest success of his four years in the post, but there were other notable highlights - famous comedy Only Fools and Horses was also first screened on his watch.

Alan retired from the BBC in 1991, became chairman of Eurosport and was also involved in the charity Give Them A Sporting Chance, yet one constant before and after his media career was Watford Football Club.

Alan started going to games with his father Reginald from their home in Pinner as a child, and he continued to attend matches all through his life until a few months before lockdown, in recent years travelling from the home in Avonwick, Devon, that he bought with his wife Celia in 1988, having previously lived in Chalfont St Peter.

Alan’s son David, who is a Hornets’ season-ticket holder along with his brother Dominic, recalled one match around 1978 when his father was a boardroom guest at Vicarage Road.

David smiled: “I was 15 or 16. When we arrived Elton offered us a cup of tea. He went to pour one for us and discovered the pot was empty, so went off to the kitchen to fill it up. So, Elton John made us a cup of tea! And we won 4-1 v Scunthorpe.”

There are many other Hornets-related memories David treasures with his father.

He said: “Dad, my brother and I went to the unforgettable second leg of the League Cup when we beat Southampton 7-1 [in 1980]. We didn’t watch the match together though, and I remember Dom and I being told off by him on the way back to Chalfont for confessing we were part of the pitch invasion!

“One earlier match that really springs to mind was when we beat Liverpool 1-0 in the FA Cup quarter final in 1970. Barry Endean’s winner was in front of 34,000.

“Particularly memorable was that he went with his dad and myself. This was a rarity as most Saturday afternoons for years he was in the Grandstand studios as editor.”

The Watford Observer’s former long-serving Hornets correspondent Oliver Phillips remembers “a gentleman, measured with a dry sense of humour. He was a true professional in everything including establishing high standards with the hospital broadcast.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Dave Roberts, a long-serving member of the hospital radio commentary team.

He said: “When work permitted Alan would still occasionally return to Vicarage Road to watch the Hornets as a guest of the club.

“As Pete Munroe and I joined the commentary team in the 1970s, we remember Alan picking his way through the crowd in the old East Stand from the directors’ box to say hello to his old friends Reg Stacey, Lionel Wright and Ken Felton in the commentary box at half time.

“When we could persuade him to stay and do a bit of commentary to the hospital patients and blind listeners, you got a sense of why the man had made such a success of his career at the BBC. Calm, unflustered, knowledgeable, and obviously a safe pair of hands.”

Alan Hart died on January 15. He is survived by his wife Celia, a former BBC secretary whom he married in 1961, daughter Gabrielle, who still lives in the Chalfont’s, sons David and Dominic, and four grandchildren, Josh and Josephine, Daisy and Elodie.