Tributes from throughout the UK’s arts and cultural panorama have been paid to long-serving BBC producer Alan Yentob, following his loss of life aged 78.
Yentob’s spouse Philippa Walker paid tribute to her husband, calling him “curious, humorous, annoying, late and inventive in each cell of his physique” and added that he was “the kindest of males.”
And the BBC has reported director-general Tim Davie’s tribute. Davie remembered Yentob as “a cultural pressure” and “inventive visionary.”
Davie mentioned: “To work with Alan was to be impressed and inspired to suppose greater. He had a uncommon reward for figuring out expertise and lifting others up – a mentor and champion to so many throughout the worlds of tv, movie and theatre.
“Above all, Alan was a real unique. His ardour wasn’t performative – it was private. He believed within the energy of tradition to counterpoint, problem and join us.”
Jeremy Clarkson, who Yentob needed to sack from High Gear following the presenter’s altercation with a producer on the set of the hit motoring present, remembered his colleague, saying on X:
“Alan Yentob is the man who known as to finish my profession at High Gear. He knew what had actually gone on although and two days later, we had dinner. Nice man. Beloved and understood tv. My like to Philippa.”
Veteran information correspondent John Simpson wrote on the identical platform:
“Very unhappy to listen to that my good good friend Alan Yentob has died. He was such good firm, and a beautiful interviewer and documentary-maker. I shall miss him enormously.”
Piers Morgan remembered him, writing: “RIP Alan Yentob, a large of British tv, an excellent interviewer, and an important character – at all times brimming with allure, intelligence and mischief.”
Yentob was a big determine in British tradition, each on display screen – the place he offered dozens of programmes profiling topics from David Bowie to Beyonce, Orson Welles to Mel Brooks – and off, the place his roles included channel commissioner for BBC One and BBC Two, in addition to the BBC’s inventive director and head of music and humanities.
His memorable 1975 Omnibus function noticed him accompanying David Bowie on a tour to the US, The programme known as ‘Cracked Actor’, noticed Bowie, then underneath the affect of medication, give a revealing interview behind a limousine the place he talked about his creativity but additionally the psychological value of his excessive profile. It was heralded as a brand new frontier in profile-making.
Yentob’s prodigious profession noticed him turn out to be controller of BBC Two in 1988, making him one of many youngest channel controllers within the company’s historical past. He presided over a golden period for arts protection throughout the organisation.
He went on to turn out to be controller of the flagship TV channel BBC One from 1993 to 1997, earlier than he labored as tv’s director of programmes. He subsequently labored because the company’s inventive director for greater than a decade. He was awarded a CBE in 2024 for providers to the humanities and media.
