The brilliant broadcaster behind Arena and Bake Off
Alan Yentob, who has died aged 78, was arguably the most significant figure in British broadcasting of the past 50 years, said Stephen Bates in The Guardian. Having joined the BBC as a graduate trainee, he went on to present, commission or produce a huge range of programmes, from period dramas and the influential and long-running Arena arts strand, to "Have I Got News for You", "Absolutely Fabulous", "Ballykissangel" and "The Great British Bake Off". However, as one of the BBC's most high-profile figures, appointed to a series of senior executive roles, he also became a lightning rod for internal criticism – and a hate figure for sections of the media.
Yentob was, admittedly, "easy to mock", with seemingly grand airs and a penchant for cultivating famous and powerful contacts. (His arts show "Imagine" was known to BBC insiders as "Al's Pals", because he befriended so many of the high-profile figures who appeared on it.) But the mockery sometimes had an "insidious" streak. As his friend Hanif Kureishi once asked: "A posh Jew poncing around at the public expense: what's not to hate?" Moreover, his critics often chose to overlook a vital part of the picture. "He is ludicrously vain… is unbelievably snobbish and lives a life which is completely inappropriate and silly," noted Liz Forgan, a former colleague. "You ask yourself does he deliver value sufficiently to justify all the nonsenses? And yes he does, you know, by miles."
Alan Yentob was born into an Iraqi-Jewish family in Stepney, east London, in 1947, one of a pair of non-identical twins. Soon after, said The Times, the family moved to the comfortable Manchester suburb of Didsbury, where his father ran his in-laws' textile business. By the time they moved back to London, when Alan and his twin Robert were 12, they were rich enough to take up residence in Park Lane. Sent to King's school in Ely, he sat his A-levels early, but didn't do well enough to apply to Oxford and instead went to Leeds, where he threw himself into student drama. When he joined the BBC's graduate scheme in 1968, he was the only non-Oxbridge entrant. By the early 1970s, he was working on the arts show "Omnibus", for which he made "Cracked Actor", an acclaimed documentary about David Bowie. He launched "Arena", which had a theme composed by his friend Brian Eno, in 1975. "I was never really appointed. I just did it," he recalled.
In 1987, aged 39, he became BBC Two controller. By then, he was already a household name, with his own "Spitting Image" puppet – which he later bought and installed in his study. "It probably counts as racist, but that's the nature of satire," he said. In 1993, he became controller of BBC One, where he commissioned, among other things, the Colin Firth-Jennifer Ehle "Pride and Prejudice". Committed to public service broadcasting, he was tipped to become director general – but it never came to pass, said The Telegraph: he was too shambolic (he once left a meeting to take a phone call and forgot to come back), and too much of a "maverick". He was also "mercurial" – and owing to his "style and his success", he accumulated enemies. It was often said that he looked like Salman Rushdie (who was, of course, a friend), prompting Alan Bennett to remark that the main difference between them was that "more people want to kill Alan Yentob".
Yentob weathered furious reports about his high salary and huge public sector pension, but was ultimately "torpedoed" by his involvement in the charity Kids Company. He'd become its chairman and, when it collapsed amid allegations of financial mismanagement, he was accused of having failed in his duties of oversight. He was also accused of trying to influence the BBC's coverage of the affair. Though ultimately cleared of wrongdoing, he resigned as the BBC's creative director in 2015 (but continued to present "Imagine"). In 2020, he married Philippa Walker, his partner of 40 years. She and their two children survive him.
