Rod Caird

TV producer Rod Caird, a former Granada and A&E Networks executive, has died aged 73. 

In my firmament, he's more remembered for his part in the Greek Week demonstrations at the Garden House Hotel in Cambridge, back in February 1970.  It was designed to promote tourism, at the time of the military junta.  Rod, reading oriental languages at Queen's was involved in The Shilling Paper, the newspaper of the student left which opposed most things. Rod threw a mole fuse, a smoke bomb used in pest control, and was charged with wilful damage. By the time of the trial in June, he faced four new charges, including actual bodily harm. He says: "That arose from the process of arrest. I and the policeman both fell over, and that was the basis of the charge – I didn't hit him or anything."

He was convicted and sentenced to 18 months; the first part spent in Wormwood Scrubs, before transfer to HMP Coldingley in Surrey. "Prison completely derailed what I was planning to do with my life," he said, "but as it turned out, I had a very interesting career in television. I've never made any secret of the fact that I went to jail in 1970, and everyone I've worked with knows about it.".