Charles Tremayne is a television executive who edited several network series in the UK before moving to America in 2000. He is best known for his involvement with the Granada Television investigation into the Birmingham Six case, editing World in Action on ITV, and overseeing several long running cable series in USA, including The First 48, Room Raiders, William Shatner’s Weird or What? and American Pickers. He was portrayed by Roger Allam in the docudrama Who Bombed Birmingham?. He came to America in 2000 to run the joint venture between The New York Times and Granada Television. In 2002 he won a News and Documentary Emmy as executive producer of a program for NOVA about bioterrorism. In 2007 he joined Zodiak New York to run its office, before joining Cineflix Productions an Executive Vice President in 2009, becoming President in 2013. He is Chairman of BAFTA New York: and a Fellow of the Royal Television Society. He lives in New York with his wife, Caroline, and their two children.
World in Action
Tremayne joined Granada Television’sWorld in Action in 1983 from the BBC where he had been a graduate news trainee. His debut program for the series is believed to be the first ‘life swap’ program on television when he challenged Conservative MP, Matthew Parris, to survive for a week on welfare payments. The controversial program was one of the highest rated programs in the series’ history. Parris later became a successful correspondent for The Times. Shortly afterwards Tremayne joined forces with author and politician Chris Mullin to investigate the case of the Birmingham Six and the safety of their conviction for setting off IRA bombs in pubs in Birmingham. Along with producer Ian McBride and researcher Eamon O’Connor, the resulting series of programs eventually led to the release of the six men and the establishment of a Royal Commission on Criminal Justice. Another controversial investigation, with journalist Tony Watson, exposed the activities of the Economic League, a privately financed organization set up to stop ‘subversives’ working in industry. The three programs led to the collapse of the organization. In 1990 he co-authored a book with journalist Mark Hollingsworth called The Economic League – The Silent McCarthyism. He and Mark Hollingsworth later teamed up on a program into the illegal activities of former MP, John Browne, which eventually led to his resignation.
Granada Television
In 1990 Tremayne became Editor of Regional Features for Granada before becoming an Executive Producer overseeing the long running daytime series, This Morning. In 1993, he returned to World in Action as its Executive Producer, before taking over all current affairs and documentaries for Granada. In this period, under the leadership of editor Steve Boulton, World in Action had one of its most well known investigations looking into the financial affairs of Defense Minister, Jonathan Aitken. As a result of the program, Jonathan Aitken accused Granada and the Guardian newspaper of libel. In the resulting court case, Aitken was found to have lied to the court and was later imprisoned for perjury. In 1999, ITV made the decision to bring World in Action to an end. Granada was successful for winning the competitive tender for its replacement, Britain’s first news magazine show, Tonight with Trevor McDonald. Tremayne worked with editor Jeff Anderson to launch the series, which debuted with a controversial interview obtained by journalist Martin Bashir with the five men suspected of the Stephen Lawrence murder. In 2000 he was invited to move to the USA to start a joint venture between Granada and The New York Times.
New York
From 2000, Tremayne partnered with journalists of The New York Times to produce programs for PBS, Discovery, TLC and A&E, including programs for NOVA and Frontline. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the team produced many programs for Investigative Reports on A&E, including a critically acclaimed two-hour special, Anatomy of 9/11. In 2002 their special for NOVA on bioterrorism won a News and Documentary Emmy. In 2002, when the joint venture came to an end, Tremayne became Executive Vice President for Granada America, whose New York production office made hundreds of hours of programming for American cable channels. He created the long running Room Raiders for MTV, and also co-created, with John X Kim, The First 48 on A&E. In 2007 Tremayne joined RDF USA as Executive Vice President overseeing the east coast production base in New York, which included the production of ABC’sWife Swap. In 2009 he joined Cineflix Productions where he started their New York office and worked with executive producer Mark Poertner to launch American Pickers on the History Channel, which is one of the highest rated programs on American cable television, and is now in its 5th season. He has also worked with William Shatner on William Shatner’s Weird or What? and former Soprano, Steve Schirripa, on Nothing Personal.
