- Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks are godparents of his children.
- He attended King's School, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
- He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television culture.
- He is regarded as a supporter of science-fiction. He brought Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) to British television as controller of BBC Two, screened repeats of Doctor Who (1963) and while running BBC One he made efforts to restore Doctor Who (1963) to the channel despite antipathy towards it from other BBC executives at the time. This eventually led to the production of the Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) film starring Paul McGann, which was a ratings hit in the UK but failed to take off in America.
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