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The Guardian (06/Feb/1993) - Granada Television founder Lord Bernstein dies aged 94

(c) The Guardian (06/Feb/1993)

Granada Television founder Lord Bernstein dies aged 94

Lord Bernstein of Leigh, a pioneer of 20th century entertainment and founder of Granada Television, died early yesterday, aged 94.

Often compared with the Hollywood moguls, he was one of nine children in a Jewish family which emigrated from Sweden. He built up the Granada cinema chain before moving into independent television at its outset.

Lord Bernstein was one of the first to enter the concentration camps of Buchenwald and Belsen and later recruited director Alfred Hitchcock to help prepare a film to remind the German people of their acquiescence in the atrocities. It was never shown. Lord Bernstein moved to Hollywood as producer for Hitchcock, leaving Granada in the hands of his brother Cecil. But in 1952, he returned to Britain to join the race for television contracts.

He launched Granada Television in 1956 and it became a market leader which set new standards in investigative reporting.

A lifelong Socialist and Labour Party member, he was made a life peer in 1969.

Lord Bernstein announced his retirement as director and chairman of Granada in 1979 and became president for life.

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