Watson was born on 27 August 1926, and grew up on a sugar farm in Queensland. He began his career as an actor at the age of sixteen on Australian radio firstly as an actor and then as an announcer, before moving to the UK in 1955. He was soon hired by
ATV and in 1956, joined
Ned Sherrin and
Noele Gordon in
Birmingham to establish the base of
ATV Midlands where his job was as head of
Light Entertainment. In this role, he created many programmes for the station with his first big hit being the live daily chat show,
Lunchbox. It ran from 1956 to 1964 to over 3,000 editions with its presenter, Noele Gordon, becoming a regional celebrity. In 1958, Watson submitted a proposal to ATV for a new Midlands based soap opera; however, it was not until 1964 that
Lew Grade, head of the company, granted approval for a series. Initially called
The Midland Road, the project was renamed
Crossroads by Watson just before its run began. Created by
Hazel Adair and
Peter Ling, it achieved audiences of 18 million. After ten years producing
Crossroads and eighteen years at ATV, he decided to return to Australia in 1973. Upon his return home, he took up the post of senior vice-president in charge of drama at
Reg Grundy Productions. Thanks to his popular British soap, he was able to create many more series in Australia including
Until Tomorrow (1975),
The Young Doctors (1976),
The Restless Years (1977),
Prisoner (1979),
Taurus Rising (1982),
Sons and Daughters (1982),
Waterloo Station (1983),
Starting Out (1983),
Possession (1985), and
Richmond Hill (1988). in order to avoid confusion with
Patrick McGoohan's
surreal 1960s TV series. The prominence he gained from
Sons and Daughters helped his idea for
Neighbours to be picked up by the
Seven Network in 1985. After being cancelled by Seven that year due to low ratings, it switched to the
Ten Network at the start of 1986 and slowly its ratings climbed.
Neighbours ended in July 2022 after 37 years but, four months later, it was announced that
Neighbours was to return on
FreeVee and the first episode of the new series aired in September 2023. It is the longest-running drama series in Australian television history. At the 47th Annual
TV Week Logie Awards held on 1 May 2005,
Neighbours became the 22nd inductee into the
TV Week Hall of Fame. Watson also dabbled in television in the US, producing
Dangerous Women, a short-lived soap opera based on the Australian
Prisoner series. ==Personal life==