Peter Salmon is the big fish in the BBC1 pool, the man ultimately responsible for what you'll be watching on the channel this autumn, writes GEORGE FREW.

Peter is the Fit Controller, a slim 41-year-old who commutes from his Oxford home to his London office every working day with a portable television, which he watches on the train.

When you are planning a seasonal schedule, you have to watch a lot of programmes. And to do so, you need a lot of tellies. Thirteen, in Peter's case.

He has five at the office, five at home, a couple of portables and one in the car. No doubt about it - he's the man to ask if you want to know what's on the box.

He's not a man to try and pin down on the phone, though - watching 13 tellies means you have to arrange your prospective telephone conversations in lists. And the last time I checked, I was occupying the number seven slot on the Salmon schedule. Auntie is clearly a demanding mistress.

A year after taking office, Peter is about to launch his first season of programmes. He says he's confident that a strong, ratings-winning package has been put together which should keep viewers sticking with BBC1 right through until March - and beyond.

Certainly the Salmon track record is impressive. He was born in Burnley and graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in English and European Literature. After working as a local newspaper reporter in darkest Kent, a government press officer and a teacher with Voluntary Service Overseas, he moved into television, rising to Granada's director of programmes.

While he was there the station produced a string of hits, including Cracker, Reckless, Hillsborough and Cold Feet. He spent three years as head of features at BBC Bristol and another three as controller of factual programmes at Channel Four, where his programme-makers won a wheelbarrow-full of awards. As a programme-maker himself, he produced, among others, programmes as diverse as Crimewatch UK and Wallace & Gromit's The Wrong Trousers.

So much for the track record. But what will be the highlights of the next five months on BBC1?

Well, there's Vanity Fair, for a start. There has been a lot of money thrown at this co-production and the word is that it shows. Natasha Little - formerly of This Life - takes the leading role as the social-climbing and manipulative Becky Sharpe, heroine of Thackeray's oft-filmed novel.

If costume drama is your thing, then you'll love this. And the same could be said of The Scarlet Pimpernel, another BBC1 autumn highlight masterminded by Mr Salmon. This version has Richard E Grant as the daring Englishman sought by Frenchies here, there and everywhere.

Elizabeth McGovern is his glamorous co-star. It also has Martin Shaw, but you can't have everything.

Comedy-wise, the situation looks promising (if you'll pardon the expression). Victoria Woods and Julie Walters team up again in Dinner Ladies, a sitcom written by Wood and set in the canteen of a northern factory. Celia Imrie also stars.

As you might expect from the Beeb, wildlife programmes and natural history documentaries both feature strongly. The Life of Birds is a new series from David Attenborough, certain to appeal to twitchers and lovers of our feathered friends everywhere.

And wildlife fans who remember DiDi the orang-utan will be pleased to discover that a follow-up to last year's programme - this one entitled The Burning East - will be hitting the screens shortly, presented by Michaela Strachan, who goes in search of the cuddly primate in the forests of the Far East. And that's the high spots of the Salmon schedule. I did make a final effort to have a brief word with the Oxford-based controller, but the word from his office was that he would be out for the rest of the week.

Portable telly in tow, no doubt.

And the constantly busy Mr Salmon will be hoping that his new season of programmes ends up occupying higher places in the ratings than I managed to reach on his list of people to phone back...

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