Hundreds mourn regulator who defied Maggie

The memorial service yesterday for long-serving TV regulator David Glencross was a huge draw. Glencross was remembered as the razor sharp regulator who fostered and safeguarded public service television in an era of change - a far cry from 2007. Michael Grade, Sir George Russell, Sir Trevor McDonald, Sir Michael Checkland, Sir Paul Fox, Melvyn Bragg, Patricia Hodgson, Jim Moir were among those who packed out St George's Church, Hanover Square, Mayfair. Despite high winds and rain, hundreds attended the service to remember a humane, cultured, musical and highly engaging man. They were celebrating the life of the former chief executive of the Independent Television Commission, born in Salford, who died in August, aged 71. The congregation was reminded that Glencross's most challenging moment in a distinguished career came in 1988 when he was with the ITC's predecessor, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, and defied Margaret Thatcher to allow Thames Television to broadcast the incendiary current affairs documentary Death on the Rock. Glencross, who died of pancreatic cancer, was described by his close friend Checkland, former director general of the BBC, in this way: "For most of us public service broadcasting was a citadel that stood on a hill. Right up to his death [David] was its staunchest defender."