Fans of the HBO drama Succession, about a ruthless billionaire media mogul whose children must scheme against each other for his favour, will know that when he says he is getting on and it’s time he stepped back and let someone younger take charge then this will almost certainly never, ever happen.

The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty
BBC2

Fans of the HBO drama Succession, about a ruthless billionaire media mogul whose children must scheme against each other for his favour, will know that when he says he is getting on and it’s time he stepped back and let someone younger take charge then this will almost certainly never, ever happen. You don’t get to be a billionaire media mogul by letting someone else take charge.

And so it is with Rupert Murdoch (inset, with Donald Trump), on whose family Succession is loosely based and who is now, aged 89 and, after 60 years, still at the helm of a media empire that covers the globe. The BBC’s new three-part documentary series on Murdoch and his family opened with footage from 1995 of rumpled executives, editors and politicians in smart leisurewear clambering off small planes, clutching their briefcases, summoned to the tropical paradise of Hayman Island to meet with the master. Among them was Tony Blair, leader of the Labour Party, who had brought his short spoon; two years later, thanks to the endorsement of Murdoch’s Sun (who also maintained a helpful torrent of Tory sleaze stories), he was prime minister.

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