Mr James Ferman, Director of the British Board of Film Classification for 23 years, has today announced that he is to retire at the end of this year. The Board will immediately begin the search for a successor.
Mr Ferman was appointed in 1975 at the age of 45 and will be 68 when he leaves.
Mr Andreas Whittam Smith, President of the BBFC, said: "In my three months as President, I have quickly recognised the thoughtful and moral contribution which James Ferman makes to the work of the Board. I have found an organisation which is extremely effective in its work, and which cares deeply - and agonises often - about its responsibilities. The Board as we know it today is essentially James's creation. He can be very proud of what he has achieved in often difficult circumstances."
Mr Ferman said: "My 23 years as Director of the Board have been without doubt the most interesting and challenging of my career. It has proved an enormously enjoyable job, and I am glad that I am now able to leave it with such a strong and professional team. The Board has established itself internationally as a leader in its field, hosting a series of international conferences and initiating important research. The results of these efforts have been highly encouraging.
"There are still a number of things I want to do elsewhere which I feel passionately about and which I still have the energy to pursue.
"But first, we have some major tasks to accomplish here at the Board. In the next few months, we shall be taking on two new Vice Presidents and four examiners, all of whom will need a detailed introduction to BBFC policy and practice. More importantly, we shall be embarking on the Board's first nationwide consultation exercise, with meetings being held In major cities around the country, where the new Classification Guidelines can be presented and public opinion canvassed on how well we're fulfilling our responsibilities.
"Meanwhile, I look forward to helping Andreas Whittam Smith during his first year in charge of the Board and to helping the Board to find a new Director. My ambition has always been to leave a going concern, and that, I believe, is already assured."
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James Ferman has been Director of the British Board of Film Classification (formerly Film Censors) since 1975.
Born in America on 11 April 1930, Mr Ferman was educated at Cornell and later at Cambridge, where he wrote and directed a musical comedy based on Max Beerbohm's novel Zuleika Dobson. This was bought for the West End, where it had a successful run in 1957.
Theatrical success led to a general traineeship on ABC Television's Armchair Theatre (1957-59), where he directed four Sunday night plays. At 29, he became a highly successful staff director at ATV (1959-65) directing plays, drama series, and documentaries."
In 1963-64, he was principal director on The Planemakers, which won a BAFTA award for best dramatic series.
His drama productions in 1964-65 included the ITV entry to the Monte Carlo Festival, Miss Hanago, after which he began a 10-year career as a freelance, mostly at the BBC, where he was a regular director on The Wednesday Play and Play for Today. The Pistol was the first of many distinguished plays he directed for the BBC. In 1965, he was one of five BAFTA nominees for Best Drama Director.
The following year, his BBC production of Kafka's Amerika won the Critics Circle Award, andin 1969 his production of Somerset Maugham's Before the Party won a BAFTA Award.
He also won awards for TV commercials and a series of management training films.
A TV documentary on heroin addiction led to a series of five documentary films for teachers, doctors and social workers called 'Drugs and Schoolchildren', which were shown to all teachers in London secondary schools on the ILEA Cable Television Network. Those teaching films were used regularly in the training of specialist workers in the drugs field in the 1970s and '80s and are still in the library of the World Health Organisation. That series of documentaries became the basis of a part-time lectureship in community studies at the Polytechnic of Central London (now Westminster University), where he was Director of the Community Mental Health Programme organised jointly with MIND (1973-75).
He was appointed Secretary of the BBFC in June 1975, when the Board had a staff of 11 occupying one shabby floor at 3 Soho Square and classifying 424 films for the cinema. In 1997, a staff of 51 occupied the whole of that building and classified 436 films, 3187 videos and 47 digital media, including video games. In 12½ years under the Video Recordings Act, the BBFC has classified 41,600 video features, not one of which has ever been cited in a criminal trial as having had an anti- social influence.
In 1982, the Board organised the first world conference for film classification boards. There have been three more international conferences since then, attended not just by film classifiers but by regulators of video, television and the new digital media. The first European conference was held at the Board in 1989, since when European Boards have developed close consultative relations, including those with the world's leading academic researchers. In Britain and around the world, the law has been developing rapidly, and the BBFC has been consulted on a great many pieces of media legislation. Information has been shared through a worldwide network of contacts and communications, which will shortly be expedited through the internet. For 23 years, the Director feels he has been lucky to work in such an interesting and challenging environment.
Mr Ferman is married, with 2 grown-up children and 3 grandchildren. His enjoys the theatre, music, reading and hill-walking.