He was educated at
Dulwich College and then studied at the
University of Oxford, worked as a theatre director from 1981-1986 at
York Theatre Royal, The
Mercury Theatre, Colchester,
Nottingham Playhouse and the
Lyric Theatre, Belfast before joining
BBC Northern Ireland as a producer of radio drama in 1986. From 1989 to 1991 he was an assistant commissioning editor at
Channel 4, where he was in charge of development of
Film4. He returned to radio and was managing editor for the drama on
BBC Radio 3 before moving back into television as an executive producer for
BBC Two 10x10 new directors strand where he commissioned work by
Joe Wright,
Sarah Gavron,
Andrea Arnold,
Debbie Isitt,
Ian Iqbal Rashid and others, as well as producing documentaries and single dramas like
The Falklands Play and
This Little Life. In 2011 he published a memoir -
Mummydaddy - about bringing up his two daughters singlehandedly after the 1992 murder of his first wife, the academic Dr Elizabeth Howe, author of
The First English Actresses. He is now married to the writer and movie producer
Jennifer Howarth, whose producing credits include
Distant Voices, Still Lives,
On the Black Hill and
Blame It on the Bellboy. ==Response towards Howe’s appointment==