Masterpiece Theatre | Series | Hosts + Producers

Hosts + Producers [imagemap with 8 links]

Hosts + Producers

These are the people who, over the past three decades, have conceived, created, molded and enhanced the singluar series that is Masterpiece Theatre. We are delighted to introduce...

The Hosts: Alistair Cooke | Russell Baker
The Producers: Christopher Sarson | Joan Wilson | Rebecca Eaton

The Hosts

Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke was the host of Masterpiece Theatre for 22 seasons, beginning with the show's premiere in 1971 and continuing until he retired in 1992. He became synonymous with the series and his social and historical commentary gave audiences a unique perspective on what they were about to see. Cooke often equated his role on the series with that of a headwaiter, "in the sense that I'm there to explain for interested customers what's on the menu and how the dishes were composed."

Cooke was born in Manchester, England, and received a First Class Honors Degree in English Literature from Cambridge University. In 1932, he attended the Yale School of Drama on a fellowship. Cooke subsequently directed plays at Harvard University for its Hasty Pudding Club and dramatic society, as well as for his own amateur theater company. He emigrated to America in 1937 and became a U.S. citizen in 1941. He served as foreign correspondent for the London Times and was then chief U.S. correspondent for the Manchester Guardian for 24 years. He produced his weekly radio talk, "Letter from America," for the BBC World Service for over fifty-five years. Cooke retired, at the age of 95, in early 2004 and died in March of that year.

In Remembrance of Alistair Cooke

Cooke's 1974 address to the House of Representatives

Russell Baker
When asked in 1992 if he'd like to succeed the venerable Alistair Cooke as host of Masterpiece Theatre, Russell Baker replied, "I'd like to be the man who succeeds the man who succeeds Alistair Cooke." A few months later he accepted the job without that interval.

Millions of readers know Baker's self-effacing style through his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Growing Up, its sequel The Good Times, 14 other books and 4,600 syndicated newspaper columns (also Pulitzer Prize-winning) written for The New York Times between 1962 and 1998 -- the longest running column in Times history.

Baker was born in 1925 in Loudon County, Virginia, and spent his boyhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Following pilot training with the Navy during World War II, he returned to Baltimore to complete his degree at Johns Hopkins University (English Literature, 1947) and stayed in town to work for The Baltimore Sun. In 1954, he joined the Washington bureau of The New York Times. There, he covered the White House, Congress, State Department, and national politics until a column beckoned in 1962. In 1986 he returned to his rural roots. He now lives in Leesburg, Virginia, not far from his birthplace.

The Producers

Christopher Sarson
Christopher Sarson graduated with honors from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1960, and worked as a director and producer for Granada Television. He first came to America in 1963 to work at WETA-TV in Washington, D.C., then at WGBH in Boston. The founding father of Masterpiece Theatre, Sarson was its first executive producer, from 1970 to 1973. He also created and produced the original Emmy-winning PBS children's show Zoom, and produced PBS's Live from the Met from 1977 to 1979 and Nickelodeon's Kids' Writes from 1982 to 1983. His program Parenting Works! aired on PBS in 1996; he has since spent his professional life creating videos about parenting and parenting education for children. At home in Colorado, he is active in community affairs.

Joan Wilson
In 1967, Joan Wilson joined WGBH as a producer in the Radio Drama Development Project, for which she also directed and acted. Joan succeeded Christopher Sarson as executive producer of Masterpiece Theatre in 1973. During her tenure, Joan brought classics such as I, Claudius and Upstairs, Downstairs to public television audiences nationwide. She also created Masterpiece Theatre's sister series, Mystery!, which made its debut in 1980 and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2000. Joan Wilson married Jeremy Brett (Mystery!'s Sherlock Holmes) in 1977. She died in 1985.

Rebecca Eaton
Rebecca Eaton worked at BBC World Service in London after graduating from Vassar College and has been with WGBH since 1972. She has produced a great deal of PBS programming, including segments for the original 1970s children's show Zoom, features for the business series Enterprise, and such specials as What Makes Rabbit Run?, a profile of writer John Updike. She was also coproducer of The Little Sister for American Playhouse and for its theatrical release.

Eaton has been executive producer of WGBH's Mystery! and Masterpiece Theatre since 1985, during which time the two series have won eleven primetime Emmy Awards, five Edgar Allan Poe Awards, eleven Peabody Awards for Excellence in Broadcasting, fifteen BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe and two Academy Award nominations, and have featured such high-profile miniseries as The Buccaneers, Poirot, House of Cards, Prime Suspect, Moll Flanders, King Lear, Touching Evil, David Copperfield and Inspector Morse. Under her leadership, Masterpiece Theatre has entered the world of feature films, coproducing Persuasion (1995) and the widely acclaimed Mrs. Brown (1997), starring Dame Judi Dench.