John Lloyd (producer)
John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd is an English producer and writer of television and radio comedy. His television work includes Not the Nine O'Clock News, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Blackadder, Spitting Image and QI. He presents BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity.
Early life
John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd was born on 30 September 1951 in Dover, Kent. His father, H. L. "Harpy" Lloyd, was an Anglo-Irish captain with the Royal Navy. As a child, Lloyd lived in several different places, owing to his father's job. This led him to attend school properly only at the age of 9. He was educated at West Hill Park School in Titchfield, Hampshire, a place where he claims bullying was "endemic", and later at The King's School, Canterbury. He read law at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a member of the Footlights. He became friends with fellow student Douglas Adams, with whom he later worked and shared a flat.Lloyd is the great nephew of the soldier John Hardress Lloyd.
Career
Lloyd worked as a radio producer at the BBC between 1974 and 1978 creating The News Quiz, The News Huddlines, and Quote... Unquote. He wrote Hordes of the Things with Andrew Marshall, co-authored two episodes of Doctor Snuggles with Douglas Adams, and co-wrote the fifth and sixth episodes of the first radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Adams. He pitched a story for Doctor Who, The Doomsday Contract, while Adams was script editor of the series, which was never made at the time but eventually became an audio play adapted by Nev Fountain and produced by Big Finish Productions. He also produced series three and four of The Burkiss Way on Radio 4.Lloyd then worked as a television comedy producer at both the BBC and ITV. As well as being associate producer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he created Not the Nine O'Clock News and produced Spitting Image. He also produced all four Blackadder series.
Lloyd was originally to have been the host of BBC topical news quiz Have I Got News for You, with the programme initially intended to be called John Lloyd's Newsround. A pilot episode of the show was recorded under this name in mid-1990, with Lloyd hosting alongside team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton. Lloyd subsequently decided to pull out of hosting the programme full-time and the pilot episode was never broadcast. Lloyd was replaced by Angus Deayton as host and the show was renamed Have I Got News for You in time for its debut on BBC2 later that year.
Lloyd's first new TV series for 14 years, QI starring Stephen Fry, Sandi Toksvig and Alan Davies, began on 11 September 2003 at 10pm on BBC Two for a run of 12 episodes. In its eighth series, which started on BBC One in September 2010, Lloyd appeared as a panellist in one of the episodes. Lloyd has presented the radio series The Museum of Curiosity, which he co-created with producers Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber and former co-host Bill Bailey. In December 2011, Lloyd appeared as captain of the winning Trinity College, Cambridge, team on the Christmas University Challenge.
Lloyd was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting. Lloyd was also awarded an honorary degree from Southampton Solent University.
In August 2014, Lloyd was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.
Lloyd's book 1,411 Quite Interesting Facts to Knock You Sideways, a collaboration with John Mitchinson and James Harkin, was published in 2014 by Faber and Faber.
Personal life
Lloyd married Sarah Wallace in 1989, with whom he has three children.Influences
In a 2016 interview with the spiritual Beshara Magazine, Lloyd talked about the process of self-knowledge, and explained his interest in the Indian guru Nisargadatta Maharaj's book I Am That and in Sufi mysticism, particularly the works of the writer, thinker and Sufi teacher Idries Shah. On BBC radio's , he chose The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, by Alan Watts.Awards
| Awarding Body/Event | Awarded |
| BAFTA Television Awards |
|
Books
Not! The Nine O'Clock NewsNot 1982 Not 1983 Not the Royal WeddingNot the General ElectionThe Meaning of Liff The Deeper Meaning of Liff The Appallingly Disrespectful Spitting Image BookSpitting ImageBlackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty 1485–1917 The Book of General Ignorance The Book of Animal Ignorance The QI Annual E Advanced Banter The QI Annual F The QI Annual G The QI Book of the Dead If Ignorance is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People? Smart Quotes for Dumb Times The Second Book of General Ignorance 1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off Afterliff 1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop 1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways 1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless The Third Book of General Ignorance 1,342 QI Facts To Leave You Flabbergasted 1,423 QI Facts to Bowl You Over 2,024 QI Facts To Stop You in Your Tracks Funny You Should Ask... Your Questions Answered by the QI Elves- ''Funny You Should Ask... Again''