Biographies

Director, BBC North, and Chief Creative Officer, BBC Vision

In December 2008 Peter Salmon was appointed as the first Director, BBC North. He will join the BBC's Executive Board in 2010 as the BBC's new home in Salford Quays nears completion.

Until mid-2009 Peter will also continue as BBC Vision's Chief Creative Officer, responsible for the Corporation's new in-house multimedia broadcasting and production centre in the division. In this role he oversees the work of about 3,000 people for BBC in-house production, making programmes throughout the country.

The BBC is due to move into its new home at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester in 2011. Peter, who will be based in Salford Quays, will lead the development of the world's most advanced broadcasting centre. This will involve the largest move of staff and departments out of London in the BBC's history.

On completion the centre will house about 2,400 staff, with approximately 1,400 jobs moving there from London (departments moving are Children's, Learning, Sport, 5 Live and parts of Future Media and Technology).

Peter Salmon has a long and distinguished programme-making and commissioning track record throughout the UK.

He started at the BBC as a General Trainee in 1981 and eventually became BBC Bristol's Head of Factual, in charge of shows such as Antiques Roadshow, CIA and Small Objects Of Desire.

Along the way he directed the first-ever film shown on Crimewatch UK before going on to produce the series; he was responsible for more than 40 environmental programmes for Bristol's Natural History Unit; he was co-creator of Sport Relief, BBC One's companion piece to Comic Relief, which has so far raised £75m.

Peter signed Wallace And Gromit creator Nick Park to the BBC, where he then executive-produced Aardman Animation's Oscar-winning film The Wrong Trousers; he was producer on David Dimbleby's contemporary BBC One history series, Across The Great Divide; and he edited a major season of documentaries on BBC Two, War And Peace, marking 50 years since the Second World War.

He also worked on Blue Peter, Newsnight and BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat and Manchester's File On Four series.

Peter left the BBC in the early Nineties and during his time in the commercial sector he was responsible for some notable programmes.

As Director of Programmes at Granada in Manchester his output ranged from World In Action to Reckless, Hillsborough to the first episode of Cold Feet, Coronation Street to The Royle Family.

As Controller of Factual Programmes for Channel 4, his teams won a record number of BAFTAs, RTS Awards and International Emmies as well as two consecutive Prix Italias.

Peter was Controller of BBC One from 1997 to 2000, commissioning projects as diverse as Clocking Off, Waking The Dead, Holby City, Dinnerladies, My Family, Wives And Daughters, MacIntyre Undercover and Walking With Beasts.

Then as Director of Sport, from 2000 to 2005, and a member of the BBC's Executive Board, he oversaw the Athens Olympics, plus successive World Cup and European football campaigns.

He pioneered sport interactive television at Wimbledon and the Manchester Commonwealth Games as well as the development of BBC Sport online. He also regained a number of key contracts for the BBC, notably The Derby and Match Of The Day.

He left the BBC in 2005 to become Chief Executive at The Television Corporation, but quit following a takeover in summer 2006.

In October 2006 he became Chief Creative Officer of BBC Vision Productions.

Peter was born and brought up in Burnley, Lancashire.