Deaths on January 8

Alasdair Milne, Indian-English director and producer (b. 1930)

Alasdair David Gordon Milne (8 October 1930 – 8 January 2013) was a British television producer and executive. He had a long career at the BBC, where he was eventually promoted to Director-General, and was described by The Independent as "one of the most original and talented programme-makers to emerge during television's formative years".In his early career, Milne was a BBC producer and was involved in founding the current affairs series Tonight in 1957. Later, after a period outside the BBC, he became controller of BBC Scotland and BBC Television's director of programmes. He served as Director-General of the BBC between July 1982 and January 1987, when he was forced to resign from his post by the BBC Governors following several difficult years for the BBC, which included sustained pressure from the Thatcher government about editorial decisions which had proved controversial.