Stuart Preeble dead: ITV legend and Grumpy Old Men | UK News

Stuart Prebble, the creator of the  BBC sequence Grumpy Old Men and a former CEO of ITV, died on Thursday, August 21, at the age of 74. His household confirmed the tragic news, revealing his trigger of death was pancreatic cancer. Broadcaster Michael Crick called him “one of the most distinguished TV journalists of modern times,” as he led the tributes on X – previously identified as Twitter.

“A really talented, inspiring and creative TV executive, who was able to navigate very tricky fast changing times. Sad news,” another individual penned. A 3rd chimed in: “One of Britain’s best TV journalists, editors, investigators and original minds: fabulous sense of humour has died. RIP Stuart Prebble: Editor of ‘World in Action’ and creator of ‘Grumpy Old Men’ and @sky ‘Landscape Artist’ ⁦.” A fourth penned: “At Newcastle Uni he lead the weekly debate on Saturday evenings in the debating chamber at the students’ union. No topic was too daft, too serious or too controversial. He was a superb public speaker who could think on his feet. RIP.”

One of his first-ever scoops famously got here while he was still at college in 1972. Paul McCartney and his new band Wings had been taking part in a sequence of impromptu gigs at universities around Britain in the celebrities’ first post-Beatles reveals.

They pitched up in Newcastle and encountered Stuart, who was working on the next version of the coed newspaper The Courier. “I looked in the back of the van and there was Paul McCartney,” Stuart later recalled. “I told them the Student Union was closed on a Sunday but that they might be able to play in the canteen.”

He took charge of the logistics for the gig where 400 college students paid 50 pence each to hear McCartney’s new music, which gave him a front-page story.

In 1974, he utilized to be a part of the BBC’s journalist training scheme and moved to London on a two-year contract as a news reporter, although he was soon back in Newcastle working for BBC North East & Cumbria, where he offered the Look North slot.

It was the start of a long and distinguished profession that noticed him straddle the boardroom and broadcasting roles. He remained with the BBC for 5 years before shifting to Granada.

He went on to current, produce, and edit ITV’s current affairs show World In Action, “righting wrongs, taking on the establishment and uncovering dodgy dealings of one kind or another,” as he described it.

In 2001, he became CEO of ITV, but his tenure was brief, ending in the wake of a debacle over ITV Digital, of which he was also CEO. In 2002, he created one of his best-known formats when he invited well-known men to moan about everything that annoyed them about the world.

Big names enlisted to bare their souls on BBC‘s Grumpy Old Men, including Jeremy Clarkson, Bob Geldof, John Humphrys, John Peel, Will Self, Tim Rice, Rick Wakeman, and Kelvin MacKenzie.

It ran for 4 sequence and spawned quite a few spin-offs, including, naturally, Grumpy Old Women, in which Ann Widdecombe, Germaine Greer, and Janet Street-Porter had been among those moaning about life in the twenty first century.