Greg Dyke is a British media pioneer, journalist and broadcaster who’s had a long career in the UK in print and broadcast journalism since the 1960s. Born in Hayes, Middlesex, his father was an insurance salesman. Greg was educated at Yeading Primary School and then Hayes Grammar School, where he left with one grade “E” at A-level mathematics. After school, he briefly worked as a trainee manager at Marks & Spencer before going on to work as a trainee reporter for the Hillingdon Mirror and becoming chief reporter in eight months.

Greg left the Mirror after attempting to stage a union-backed protest against the junior staff’s poor pay conditions. Afterwards, he got a job at the Slough Evening Mail, and among his colleagues at the time was future music journalist Colin Irwin. With an early career as a journalist, Greg started his broadcasting career at London Weekend Television. This led to him being given the chance to launch a new early evening current affairs topical news programme, which became The Six O’Clock Show, fronted by Michael Aspel, with co-hosts Danny Baker and Janet Street-Porter. Greg then became Editor-in-Chief of the breakfast station TV-am. He was instrumental in reviving the station’s breakfast shows by introducing a new schedule based around popular features, including bingo, celebrity gossip, and horoscopes.

In the 1990s, he was the Director of Programmes at Television South and the Group Chief Executive at LWT plc before Granada took over LWT. In 1994, he joined Pearson Television as Chief Executive before guiding the group that created Channel 5 and becoming its first Chairman.