the epic twenty-six episode adaptation of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, commonly held to be one of the most successful BBC drama productions of all time. After Sydney Newman left the BBC at the end of 1967, Sutton was appointed to succeed him as overall Head of Drama, initially on an acting basis combined with his Head of Serials role, and then from 1969 on a permanent basis. He was to occupy the position for the next twelve years, until 1981, overseeing the entirety of the BBC's 1970s drama output. This era is commonly held to be one of the most successful in all BBC drama, described by The Guardian in their obituary of Sutton as being when "the golden age of television drama reached its zenith". Or in the words of the Royal Television Society in their obituary, "Unmatched by any other television organisation, BBC Television drama, under Shaun, offered in its schedules every shape, style and form of drama. It was a theatrical spectrum of extraordinary width and choice". Sutton's reign saw success in many different styles and genres – there were continuing long-running successful and popular series such as Z-Cars and Doctor Who; the eclectic mix of styles and stories in the much-praised anthology strand Play for Today; and prestige serials such as The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), I, Claudius (1976) and Dennis Potter's Pennies From Heaven (1978). There were, however, also low points, such as the embarrassing failure of Churchill's People (1974), a twenty-six part series based on Winston Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples. Sutton deemed the production to be unbroadcastable upon seeing the result, but so much time, money and effort had been spent on making and publicising the series that he was left with little choice in the matter. There were also controversies surrounding the 'banning' by his superiors, against Sutton's wishes, of two entries into the Play for Today strand, Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle in 1976 and Roy Minton's Scum in 1978. Nonetheless, Sutton himself was seen as having been a great success in his role, and when he finally departed in 1981 he was not short of further work in the department. He returned to front-line producing duties, taking over the BBC's The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare series, which had been initiated by producer Cedric Messina under Sutton's aegis in the late 1970s. Sutton