Catherine Freeman

Catherine Sheila Freeman (née Dove, formerly Wheeler; 10 August 1931 – 15 July 2020) was a British TV producer for shows including Panorama and diplomatic hostess.

Life Freeman was born in Penang.

Her husband returned to the UK and became a producer on the fledgling current affairs series Panorama in 1956. Just hours after Wheeler returned to Britain, the Warsaw Pact invaded Hungary and crushed the revolt.

In 1957 she was involved in the BBC April Fools scam where the programme reported on the spaghetti harvest showing the workers picking the spaghetti from the trees where it grew.

In 1976 she returned to her television career after she and John Freeman divorced. She went not to the BBC but to Thames Television becoming in time the controller of documentaries. At the Channel Four Television Corporation she obtained their backing for a programme that would follow children from their birth to the age of majority which was titled Citizen 2000. She later served on committees of the Arts council.