John Tiffen a New Zealander who located to Leeds to help set up Yorkshire Television when it won the ITV franchise for the region in 1967.
John was a fixer who made things happen. Today he would be have been called an Executive Producer. He was very instrumental in setting up what was then Emmerdale Farm and oversaw so many of the production that would establish YTV as one of the Big 5 ITV suppliers to the fragmented ITV network which was then made up of 13 separate regional companies.
Most of the key people at YTV still lived and worked in London but John was one of those who helped the companies seem to be more Northern than they actually were. Under the guideline rules, all key personnel were supposed to be Yorkshire based. In reality, they never were, all though most, but not all of the productions they made were either made in Yorkshire or shot in their Kirkstall Road studios.
John would help many Yorkshire people along the way including Leeds actor David Wilkinson who lived on the same Horsforth estate as John, on Arran Drive.