Biographies

Director, Archive Content

Roly Keating is the BBC's Director of Archive Content. This new role is responsible for the development and implementation of a strategy to radically increase public access to the BBC's massive archives, whether by publicly-funded or commercial means. Roly acts as overall editorial leader for all current archive-based services based on the BBC's core television output.

From 2004 to 2008, Roly was Controller of BBC Two. Under his tenure, memorable BBC Two programmes included Andrew Marr's History Of Modern Britain, The Choir, the White Season, Jerry Springer The Opera, Rain In My Heart, Shoot The Messenger, The Power Of Nightmares and Stephen Fry – The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive, alongside comedy successes such as Extras, The Catherine Tate Show, That Mitchell And Webb Look and the re-launched Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

He also oversaw the launch of a raft of influential and popular returning series, including Dragons' Den, Coast, Tribe, Springwatch and the first two series of Who Do You Think You Are? and The Apprentice. Its top rating programme, Top Gear, continued to go from strength to strength.

BBC Two was named Broadcast Channel of the Year 2007, having reversed its decline in reach, held its peak share and successfully broadened its audience while maintaining its distinctive quality and range of content.

Before joining BBC Two, Roly was the Controller of BBC Four, leading the launch of the channel in March 2002. With programmes ranging from The Falklands Play to The Alan Clark Diaries, the channel under his Controllership won numerous awards, including non-terrestrial Channel Of The Year at the 2004 Media Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival and a Bafta for The National Trust.

Roly joined the BBC as a general trainee in 1983. As a producer and director in Music and Arts, he made films for Omnibus, Bookmark and Arena – including documentaries about Ealing Studios, VS Pritchett and Philip Roth.

He was a founder producer and subsequently editor of the long-running arts and media magazine The Late Show. From 1992 to 1997 he was editor of Bookmark, winning the Huw Wheldon Bafta for Best Arts Programme in 1993.

In 1997, Roly became Head of Programming for UKTV, overseeing the launch of the BBC's joint venture channels with Flextech, including UK Style, UK Horizons and the re-launched UK Gold.

In 1999 he was made BBC Controller of Digital Channels, with overall editorial responsibility for BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge, as well as UKTV and BBC Prime. The following year he became Controller Arts Commissioning, with responsibility for music and arts programming across BBC Television, before moving to BBC Four in December 2001.

In 2003 he was seconded for six months to act as joint leader of the BBC's Charter Review project. From October 2007 to May 2008 he combined his job on BBC Two with the role of acting Controller, BBC One.