Alan Yentob obituary

Alan Yentob, who has died elderly 78, had critical claims to being essentially the most influential broadcaster in Britain over the past 50 years. There are only a few a success displays at the BBC – with whom he spent his whole occupation – which didn’t endure his affect as manufacturer, commissioner or presenter. They vary thru top tradition to showbiz, from the Arena and Imagine arts documentaries to the extra demotic Noel’s House Party, Strictly Come Dancing, Holby City and Ballykissangel, taking in Have I Got News for You, Bake Off and Absolutely Fabulous at the approach.

It was once a powerful observe document, resulting in a chain of govt positions inside the company, which nearly inevitably created critics on the BBC and, extra poisonously, the conservative press. Its steady denigration of him and thru him the bigger goal of the BBC itself, in the long run contributed to his resignation following his outdoor chairmanship of the Kids Company charity, which collapsed in a welter of debt in 2015.

A famously disorganised determine, extra excited by programme concepts than management, at all times looking out to domesticate and befriend the tough, and apparently with a type of grandiosity, he was once simple to mock.

Liz Forgan, the previous chair of the Scott Trust, homeowners of the Guardian, who labored with Yentob on the BBC, informed the paper in 2016: “He is ludicrously vain … is unbelievably snobbish and lives a life which is completely inappropriate and silly. You ask yourself does he deliver value sufficiently to justify all the nonsenses? And yes he does, you know, by miles.”

More insidiously, his pal the novelist Hanif Kureishi famous in the similar article: “A posh Jew poncing around at the public expense: what’s not to hate?” In reality, the meant extravagance, on exam confirmed Yentob underclaimed on bills. There have been darkish tinges within the mock reversal of his identify to Botney, first in Private Eye, then inside the BBC, the place he was once additionally parodied through some because the Oily Levantine.

“I always looked as if I was having too much fun,” he informed the Guardian in 2016. “It is very good I said that because it’s true. But they have certainly done their fucking best to make it feel as bad as possible.” No one ever doubted Yentob’s devotion to the humanities on the other hand, or to public carrier broadcasting through the BBC.

The son of Iraqi-Jewish oldsters, Alan was once born together with his dual brother Robert in Stepney, east London, to Flora (nee Khazam) and Isaac, referred to as Kay, Yentob, a former beverages salesman who labored for his brother-in-law’s textile trade and moved his circle of relatives to Didsbury, in Manchester. They moved again south once more a decade later, to an rental on Park Lane.

The sons have been despatched as boarders to the King’s college, Ely. Alan spent a 12 months at Grenoble University sooner than taking a regulation stage at Leeds University and, on commencement in 1968 was once the one non-Oxbridge entrant to that 12 months’s BBC traineeship scheme.

His ascent during the ranks as a manufacturer was once fast: from World Service radio at Bush House to a manufacturer and director on tv arts options. On the flagship sequence Omnibus he made his identify in 1975 with a documentary on David Bowie known as Cracked Actor. It was once the primary time the BBC had trustworthy a whole programme to a pop superstar, and it was once rebroadcast within the Imagine sequence in 2013.

An indicator of Yentob’s option to programmes was once his include of a large definition of tradition. His meticulous option to manufacturing values, running laboriously during the evening on motion pictures, slumbering in his place of job, making his concepts paintings, emphasized his dedication.

He was once additionally ready, as he received affect and standing inside the division, to fee complete programmes on one character or artwork shape: a three-hour movie on Orson Welles was once one such in 1982, a are living broadcast of Verdi’s opera Stiffelio from Covent Garden in 1993 was once any other. There have been additionally separate programmes reminiscent of an interview with the playwright Arthur Miller and a paean to the Ford Cortina.

Inevitably the celebrities changed into pals – Mel Brooks and his spouse Anne Bancroft have been godparents to his youngsters – and the outdated arts mag structure embracing portmanteau topics pale away.

There have been dress dramas he commissioned too: Pride and Prejudice (1995) was once one, Life on Mars (2006-07) any other, and in 2002 there was once an entire new channel: CBeebies.

The award-winning good fortune of such programmes – Baftas 3 years working (1982-84) for the Arena documentaries of which he was once editor, programming supremo of the 12 months on the Broadcast Production Awards in 1997 – was once accompanied through development up the Corporation ladder: head of tune and humanities (1985-88), controller of BBC Two (1988-93), BBC One (1993-96), director of programmes (1996-97), director of tv (1997-2000), director of drama, leisure and kids’s programmes (2000-04) and inventive director (2004-15), answerable for 2,000 folks and an annual funds of £500m.

The most effective promotion he lacked was once director common – he was once too disorganised for that. Increasingly as an alternative he seemed in entrance of the digicam as a presenter and interviewer, developing his public profile. This all made him a vastly tough determine inside the BBC and broadcasting usually, shaping and personalising tv’s evolving option to the humanities.

He may just unquestionably have made extra money somewhere else, in business broadcasting or in the United States, however he selected to stick inside the company, really well remunerated however now not stratospherically paid.

Then got here the Kids Company affair. Yentob first changed into interested by 1997 with the organisation serving to disadvantaged inner-city youngsters in London, run through the charismatic psychotherapist Camila Batmanghelidjh. It was once the inventive paintings the charity was once doing with the youngsters that appealed to him, and he changed into chair of trustees from 2003 because it expanded exponentially sooner than collapsing in 2015 as investment was once decreased. It had had common money crises sooner than the federal government pulled the plug on its reinforce.

A parliamentary inquiry asserted that the charity were run on wishful pondering: Yentob replied that it was once now not “boxtickable” – “it was not run like other places, so you had to believe in it.” Critics stated that his involvement was once very similar to the best way he ran arts on the BBC: superstar supporters and heedless use of investment.

The tabloid press, which had up to now lionised Batmanghelidjh, became at the organisation and on Yentob individually. It didn’t assist that the BBC was once negotiating the renewal of its constitution on the time.

Anthony Wall, Arena’s editor, informed the Guardian later: “I am not saying Alan hasn’t pissed people off over the years, but there was something else going on as well. There are people who are going to profit hugely from the destruction of the BBC.” Yentob had made himself a very simple goal.

He was once accused of paying inadequate regard to the working of the charity and likewise, inside the BBC, of pressurising colleagues at Newsnight to downplay its issues. He seemed outdoor the Today programme place of job as Batmanghelidjh was once being interviewed, and it was once those incidents that in the long run ended in his resignation in December 2015. Yentob was once therefore cleared of the fees following an investigation through the BBC Trust and likewise later of overseeing maladministration on the charity.

He will have been off-staff however he didn’t stop to paintings for the BBC, presenting and generating documentaries for the Imagine sequence from 2003 as much as the tip of his lifestyles. Last 12 months he was once appointed CBE. Among his different involvements was once the board of administrators of Riverside Studios, the British Film Institute manufacturing board and chairmanship of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (2002-10).

Yentob’s spouse for 40 years was once the documentary manufacturer Philippa Walker, with whom he had two youngsters, Jacob and Bella. The couple married in 2020. She and their youngsters live to tell the tale him.