The third of five daughters, Jana Eve Bennett was born on November 6, 1955, in Henniker, New Hampshire, where her father was Dean of Admissions at New England College. When he moved the family to Britain to set up a branch of the liberal arts college in Arundel, West Sussex, in 1969, she attended Bognor Regis Comprehensive School before reading PPE at St Anne’s College in Oxford and to take a master’s degree at the London School. of Economy.

Joining the BBC as a news intern in Sheffield in 1978, she quickly rose through the ranks, first in current affairs on The Money Programme, Panorama, Nationwide and Newsnight, then, at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. in 1986, in science. programming. In 1987 she created and edited Antenna, one of a rotating series of “inspiring programs designed to hurt your brain” and which examined science and technology with an edge on current affairs.

In 1990 she became the first female editor of BBC2’s Horizon science strand and, as the first female head of science in 1994, sought to make science programming more accessible by introducing for the first time animal shows such as Animal Hospital.

Joining the Executive Management Board, the BBC’s main policy forum, in 1997, she was promoted to head of production, the BBC’s highest creative position ever held by a woman. “Auntie has succumbed to Girl Power,” exclaimed Broadcast magazine. ” My God ! Whatever’s next – a freeze like dg?!”