    sir charles john curran (13 october 1921 &ndash; 9 january 1980), was a british television executive and director-general of the bbc from 1969 to 1977. ==early years== charles curran was born in dublin. his father, felix curran, was an army schoolmaster and his mother, alicia isabella bruce, came from aberdeen. three weeks after his birth the family moved to aberdeen, then his family moved to yorkshire in 1924. he was the eldest child of the family, with three younger sisters. ==career== he served in the indian army from 1942 to 1945, but left to work in the bbc talks department. he resigned following a dispute to edit the "canadian fishing news", but he returned in 1951 to join bbc monitoring. subsequent posts included secretary and director of external broadcasting. while director-general, he served three terms as president of the european broadcasting union. he succeeded ronnie waldman as managing director of the news agency visnews in 1977. he was director-general of the bbc from 1 april 1969 to 30 september 1977. he was the first grammar school educated director-general. following his grammar school education at wath-on-dearne he studied at magdalene college, cambridge where he received a first class honours degree. he is not to be confused with a former conservative member of parliament leslie charles curran, although it has been said that they had broadly similar politics. following the appointment of the former conservative minister lord hill as chairman of the bbc governors in 1967 (ironically, the labour prime minister who appointed hill, harold wilson, had attacked hill's appointment as chairman of the independent television authority under a conservative government in 1963), curran's arrival marked a return to a more cautious approach after the radicalism of sir hugh carleton greene. curran also suffered criticism from harold wilson, at that time the leader of the opposition, who claimed that the documentary yesterday's men (1971) was biased against himself and the labour party,david wilby [http://www.bbc.co.uk/histor
1921_births 1980_deaths Alumni_of_Magdalene_College,_Cambridge BBC_executives Deaths_from_myocardial_infarction English_journalists English_television_executives Knights_Bachelor People_educated_at_Wath_Comprehensive_School