Founded in 1976 and now in its 30th year the Festival is held annually over the August bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Featuring prominent television industry voices and sessions covering pertinent issues facing the future of broadcasting, the Festival is best known for its keynote address; the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture. This features prescient speeches from controversial and powerful media figures that reads like a who's who of British TV over the last 3 decades. In recent years this has included Greg Dyke, John Birt, Mark Thompson, Tony Ball, John Humphreys and in 1989; Rupert Murdoch. Probably the most well known speech was by an ill Dennis Potter in 1993 when he attacked the chairman and director general of the BBC by saying; "you cannot make a pair of croak-voiced Daleks appear benevolent even if you dress one of them in an Armani suit and call the other Marmaduke." Greg Dyke Greg Dyke (born 20 May 1947) is a journalist and broadcaster. ... John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944), served as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 1992 to 2000, having previously been deputy director-general since 1987. ... Mark Thompson (born July 31, 1957) is Director-General of the BBC, and a former chief executive of Channel 4. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch (born on March 11, 1931), is an Australian-born American media proprietor who is the majority shareholder and managing director of News Corporation, one of the worlds largest and most influential media corporations. ... Dennis Christopher George Potter (May 17, 1935 – June 7, 1994) was a controversial English dramatist who is best known for several widely acclaimed television dramas which mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Daleks can refer to either: Plural of Dalek, the fictional robot; or Daleks (video game). ...

John Birt returned to give the Lecture in 2005. John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944), served as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 1992 to 2000, having previously been deputy director-general since 1987. ...

External Links

• Full List of Mactaggart Lectures
• Media Guardian: Who was James MacTaggart?
• Media Guardian: The Foresight Sagas, 10 of the best Mactaggart Lectures - Owen Gibson