The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD

The VLV is delighted that Lord Puttnam CBE has agreed to deliver the Jocelyn Hay Voice of the Listener & Viewer Lecture 2017.

“The Jocelyn Hay VLV Lecture was established to reflect the huge contribution that Jocelyn Hay, our founder, made to public broadcasting and civic debate over thirty years.” said Colin Browne.    The first Jocelyn Hay Voice of the Listener & Viewer Lecture was delivered by Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO on Broadcasting for a better society? Civil society and the media in 2012 and the second lecture was delivered by Professor Jean Seaton in May 2015 on the History of the BBC.

Lord Puttnam chaired the Inquiry into the Future of Public Service Television,part of the BBC Charter Review debate.  It was compiled in conjunction with Goldsmiths College, University of London.  The Future for Public Service Television report said the licence fee should be abolished “as soon as is practically possible” and replaced with a more progressive funding mechanism via council tax or general taxation.  It also called on broadcasters to do much more to reflect the diversity of the UK, backing Lenny Henry’s calls for ring fenced funding for black, Asian and minority ethnic productions, and said it was time for the BBC to commit to Scottish and Welsh opt-outs of its main BBC1 news bulletins.  The report said appointments to the BBC’s new unitary board, which will replace the BBC Trust, should be ‘entirely independent from government’ and overseen by a new independent appointments body.

Lord Puttnam spent thirty years as an independent producer of award-winning films including The Mission, The Killing Fields, Local Hero, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and Memphis Belle.   From 1994 to 2004 he was Vice President and Chair of Trustees at the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) and was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2006. 

He retired from film production in 1998 to focus on his work in public policy as it relates to education, the environment, and the creative and communications industries.  He was Deputy Chairman of Channel 4 Television (2006 – 2012) and The Sage Gateshead (2007- 2012), founding Chair of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and Chair of both the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television and the National Film and Television School for ten years the latter of which he is an honorary fellow. 

We do hope you will be able to join us.  To get tickets for the lecture please go to VLV’s website.