Mark Cooper

Biography

Mark Cooper was Head of Music at the BBC and lately BBC Studios for 20 years until July 2019, leading the team that created some of the BBC’s most popular music documentaries and shows. He is the founding producer of Later… with Jools Holland and the annual Hootenanny show working with Jools Holland and Director Janet Fraser Crook. He has led on BBC TV’s coverage of Glastonbury since it began in 1997 overseeing its growth on the BBC’s digital channels and developing it as the main televisual event it is today. Between 2013 and 2018 Mark oversaw the TV coverage of The Proms, curating both the David Bowie and Stax Proms and was executive producer on a number of classical and dance films from Pappano’s Classical Voices to Good Swan, Bad Swan: Dancing Swan Lake with Tamara Rojo. Producing multiple hours of documentaries on some of the biggest names in music, he has also been responsible for series that explore musical origins like Reginald D Hunter’s Songs of the South as well as leading the strands Britannia, which contains 25 films on the evolution of music genres in the UK, The Joy Of Abba, Easy Listening and Country and America - Rock & Roll, Blues and Tap. Mark continues to work with the BBC as an Executive Producer on special projects. Biography adapted from BBC Press Release