Bryan Cowgill: pioneering sports broadcaster Posted on July 20th
Bryan Cowgill, who has died aged 81, was at various times a pioneering sports
broadcaster, the controller of BBC1 and the managing director of Thames
Television. A buccaneer, born out of his time, he was also an unsettling
reminder that occupying media executive hot seats can be both short and
brutish. The quarterdeck of a pirate schooner would have suited his face and
also his managerial style. According to a colleague, “his verbal lashings
could reduce strong men to tears”. As BBC head of sport, he would push aside
the director of a live sports relay and take over when coverage was not
going to his liking. A former copy boy on the Lancashire Evening Post,
“Ginger” Cowgill was an oddity among the BBC’s university-educated ranks
when he was promoted to take charge of BBC1. “He got on at the BBC,” said
one competitor ruefully, “because at first everyone thought he was thick.
But in fact he was busy making his way up the ladder.”