Behind the creative chaos that was the start of Channel 4 television, there stood from the very first days one elegant, quizzical, unobtrusive figure making order and a sustainable business where there was none before. Colin Leventhal, who has died of cancer aged 73, was a solicitor who was mad about film, had been head of copyright at the BBC and came to Channel 4 in 1981 to set up the first business relationships with the independent programme-makers who were springing up all round the country.
His intellectual brilliance, fair-mindedness and deep sympathy for creative artists made as important a contribution as any to the success of the new channel. He rose to become director of acquisition and a board member, and in 1993 set up Channel Four International Limited and Film Four Distributors.
Colin was born in Nottingham, the son of Morris, a manufacturer of ladies’ coats and costumes, and Olga (nee Weber). He went to Carmel College in Wallingford, then in Berkshire, and read philosophy at King’s College London before training as a solicitor and joining the BBC in 1974.
Feature films were his love. He played a central role in C4’s innovative film financing policy, which boosted the whole industry and produced a string of hits for Film on Four including My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears), The Crying Game (Neil Jordan), The Madness of King George (Nick Hytner), and Trainspotting (Danny Boyle). His contribution to the wider film industry continued after he left Channel 4 in 1997, founding Miramax HAL Films with his wife, Trea Hoving, and David Aukin, a partnership with Miramax that lasted until 2000.
When I was C4’s director of programmes I made many headaches for Colin. These were heady years of challenging the staid rules of broadcasting to transmit contentious material from Northern Ireland and highly polemical programmes from all points of the compass – which produced a stream of letters from libel lawyers, angry politicians and exasperated regulators.
I have no idea what Colin’s politics were but he saw his job as serving the channel’s duty to break new ground while keeping us out of jail or from losing our licence. All I ever got was sound legal advice, the occasional raised eyebrow and the best specialist defence counsel we could find. We lived to tell many tales, thanks to him.
He was a lovely colleague, a huge enthusiast for programmes and programme-makers, and a great professional. It was a pleasure to see how joyfully he took to late fatherhood, patiently waiting to pick up his little girls from their dance class, looking after their dog Belle and carting them all off to the Hamptons for summers with their American family.
He is survived by Trea, whom he married in 1995, his daughters, Amelia, Kate and Matilda, and his sister Patricia.
