Greg Dyke

And we

saw Greg Dyke.

We did Apologising?

No, well...

And who are these people? And, of course, now they're playing second guess.

I always remember when Greg Dyke got the job as boss of the BBC.

There was weeks before he first came to see us out in the outpost.

I was in Coventry at the time.

And then the leadership of the organisation changed.

Greg Dyke came in as Director General.

And like most chief executives, director generals, whatever title you want to give them, he did what any new leader does, which is wants to change the culture.

And that's what he did.

You've got some very good players here who you've put together, and Manchester United is gonna come up, and you have a very, very good chance.

And I've been told that by Greg Dyke of getting Man United.

Don't waste it by going to Leeds where there's a problem." Anyway, the upshot was, I don't think much was settled that day, but the next day they played Tottenham.

It was on television.

And so I came back wanting to be my own promoter.

and um i had the you know the thing the idea was okay originally i'm taking control of my career and it didn't seem like that door was open but because of the impact of what i had done with the bbc and greg dyke was a boxing man um i went to i got invited to an england england were playing football i got invited i was sitting in the in the box and And they called all the Olympians that were there.

There was a few Olympians there.

They all got called out different times.

no because it's like you know they say you have your 15 minutes of fame and i think i extended mine well from where i came from you know young offenders yeah it would have been great to to to have like got all of my goals achieved to achieve everything but unfortunately for me that wasn't my That wasn't my bed that I was going to get to lay in because I grew up, you know, on the wrong side.

I'd done a lot of bad things and I turned it around amazingly.

And being where I was, the platform that I had, basically my ship, A-Force Promotions, like I said, Greg Dyke was, you know, my... supporter in the BBC.

And basically all the problems that I had as a professional in terms of the business side of things, like trying to be my own promoter, trying to be my own manager, fighting the system.

But actually the best thing about what we did was that you have that clear structure that had been around for a long time alongside just you did things... to help each other because you liked each other, not because of job title.

And Greg Dyke, who's a very inspirational DG, one of the things he put a lot of effort in is getting the senior managers together, getting to know each other a bit, because the more you know about each other, the more likely you are to kind of feel some sense of loyalty towards them.

You may not, you don't have to like everybody, that's not what I'm saying, but do you know what I mean? That you...

I think it's...

And actually, if we hear that you have misbehaved with that uniform on, you have a job.

That was really clear to me, Donald, on day one of my induction program, right? Because I was representing them, whether I was in the pub or whether I was, you know, in a cinema.

But going back to the thing about that story and the story of Greg Dyke, there's a wider learning point, and it is that one of the things all the DGs wanted it, but Greg was particularly good at saying, I want you to understand what my strategy is.

Read my 10-page strategy paper.

...

Greg Dyke's exit from the building.

Yeah.

That was a pretty high-profile departure.

He was an intellectual, and he, I think he did great damage to the BBC.

Whereas Greg Dyke, who also was in that zone, was a magic guy, and he did the London program, I think it was called, and I directed some stuff for him.

He was just brilliant, utterly brilliant, and I'm very fond of him.

I, I was strands on This Morning.