Cigar-chomping veteran with true passion for TV

Michael Grade's appointment will be greeted with great relief across the BBC - although not, perhaps, in Mark Byford's office in Broadcasting House.

The cigar-chomping, redbracewearing multi-millionaire has the broadcasting experience and the charisma needed to restore the corporation's shattered morale.

He might have earned the Daily Mail's disapproval as broadcasting's "pornographer-in-chief ", but Grade is the strong, independent voice that the BBC needs at this crucial stage.

When he last applied to be chairman, three years ago, Grade declared that he would not, of course, be asked, as he was "a bit of a strong taste . . . bit too independent".

That is why, along with David Dimbleby, he was such a strong internal favourite for the job now.

Veteran Panorama reporter Tom Mangold explained why Grade was the man to save the BBC:

"Unusually for a top broadcasting executive, he has always been popular within television, where he is liked for his 鬡n, an indomitable cheerfulness, incurable optimism-and a true passion for television-programmes." More importantly, he will also appoint the director-general who will take the corporation into charter renewal - and who will protect its independence from government bullying.

Grade's £81,000 job will not be easy. As well as repairing relations with the Government, he will also need to reconcile the contradictory roles of his board as both regulator and champion of the BBC's independence.

He will do so from a strong position of knowing how to bring out the best in the corporation.

As controller of BBC1 from 1984 to 1986, and then director of programmes at BBC TV, he earned a reputation for a popular touch in programming yet also finding space for more "highbrow" areas such as the arts.

He also, as Bob Geldof said, had "the bottle" to give over a channel for 24 hours to Live Aid.

It was at Channel 4, where he was chief executive from 1988 to 1997, that he became known for what Norman Tebbit called "dirt, smut and other rubbish". But for all the controversy caused by Eurotrash, The Word and Brass Eye, Grade made the channel financially viable and increased its share of viewers.

Indeed, Grade's commercial touch - both in terms of programming, and the money he has made for himself - leads some senior insiders to see him in Greg Dyke's mould.

That will not be good news for a former Birtist such as acting director general Byford, who is hoping to get Dyke's job.

Grade learned early that he had to play tough to be accepted.

Abandoned by his mother as a baby, he nonetheless had all the advantages of a comfortable showbusiness family: his uncles were Lords Grade and Delfont, not necessarily an advantage when he sought acceptance at the Daily Mirror where he was a trainee.

After a couple of years as a sports columnist, he became a theatrical agent before moving into television at LWT, where he was director of programmes.

Much of his drive, he said, came from seeing his father have a stroke when he was 23.

Grade has been married three times. He and his wife Francesca have a four-year-old son, Samuel.