Greg Dyke has never been afraid of making his own headlines while running television stations that broadcast the news.

And until recently, he seemed to enjoy his high profile, being seen at the heart of events. To adapt a phrase of his own, he was "cutting the crap and making it happen".

The multi-millionaire Labour Party member is friendly with Tony Blair and other senior government players. He ran things by the seat of his pants and with an exuberant natural instinct expressed in terms that could not be broadcast before the 9pm watershed.

But the David Kelly affair brought a new caution to Mr Dyke's approach, as if the weight of responsibility on the head of the world's most respected broadcaster could no longer be squared with his iconoclastic instincts.

Mr Dyke, 56, told the Hutton inquiry that with "hindsight" he would like to have handled Alastair Campbell's original complaint about Andrew Gilligan's dossier story very differently. He wished he had stopped before the row blew up beyond everybody's control.

Instead, he was drawn into one of the most damaging chapters in the history of the BBC in an effort to defend it against what he called a "significant, pre-planned" attack.

Last night, after Lord Hutton's damning judgment of the BBC was delivered, Mr Dyke apologised for the allegations that the BBC got wrong but stood by the bulk of Andrew Gilligan's claims and the BBC's right to report them.

Mr Dyke took up his post of Director-General in January 2000, amid controversy over his past donations to Labour. He already had a formidable reputation as one of the most dynamic figures in the media, built on successful spells in charge of TV-am, LWT and Pearson.

But his eventual rise to the biggest job in British broadcasting came only after he cut his professional teeth as a trainee manager at Marks & Spencer, a local newspaper journalist, and a lowly TV researcher.

Gregory Dyke was born on May 20, 1947, and educated at Hayes Grammar School. He went on to take a degree in politics at the University of York.

After a brief period with Marks & Spencer, Dyke moved on to the Hendon Mirror, beginning his media career.

It did not take long before the young livewire took an active interest in left-wing politics - an interest which later led to making donations to the Labour party and accusations of cronyism when he was given the top job at the BBC.

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