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Alan Yentob: Influent BBC Executive Children's company Skandal reversed

Alan Yentob, who died at the age of 78, was an influential BBC manager who steered the creative vision of the company before the controversy led to it resigned from his role.

Yentob was born in an Iraqi-Jewish family on March 11, 1947 and was sent as a little boy at a cathedral school in Cambridgeshire before studying at the University of Leed's Jura.

In 1968 he joined the BBC as an apprentice of the World Service, where he worked through the company's ranks in 1985.

Alan Yentob and Philippa Walker at a ceremony to celebrate the wedding of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall (John Stillwell/Pa)

In 1987 he was promoted to BBC2 controller, where he revitalized the channel by commissioning extremely successful shows such as Absolut Fabulous, leading role Jennifer Saunders and lady Joanna Lumley, Arts series The Late Show and Comedy Quiz Show, I have news for you.

In 1993 he became the official BBC1 controller. His drama commissions ranged from Middlemarch and pride and prejudice-what the actor Colin Firth made a heartbeat to Ballykisslangel, while they input an ax with the failing spain soap Eldorado.

He also presented shows for the BBC, including a series about the life of the artist Leonardo da Vinci with Sir Mark Rylance and a regular art series in 2003.

Artist Marina Abramovic, novelist Bernardine Evaristo and Oscar winner Marlon Brando were among the famous faces who had episodes who are devoting herself for their life and career.

The King then Prince of Wales speaks to Alan Yentob in the Dominion Theater in London
The King then Prince of Wales speaks to Alan Yentob in the Dominion Theater in London (Sean Dempsey/Pa)

Yentob was appointed creative director to monitor the creative strategy of the BBC in 2004, and he was also chairman of the Board of Trustees for Kids Company, which was founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh from 2003 until the collapse of the charity in 2015.

Yentob became his role and claimed that he tried to influence reporting on his problems.

He always insisted that in his decision to investigate Newsnight about his investigation into the children's company, gave no conflicts of interest and had not abused my position at the BBC.

He is said to have called the BBC Two program in July 2015 because it was prepared to radiate a report in which the government would hold back further funds, unless his founder, Ms. Batmanghelidjh, resigned.

The charity organization was folded on August 5, 2015 just six days after a grant of £ 3 million in a last offer to maintain it.

Alan Yentob
Alan Yentob, who participates in a VIP screening of the Beatles: Get back (Yui Mok/Pa)

In December of this year, Yentob resigned from his job at the BBC and said that speculation about his behavior had “proven a serious distraction”.

Also in 2015, Yentob received 85,000 GBP of damages of 85,000 GBP from Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).

Despite the controversy of the children's society, he continued to present programs for the BBC and interviewed figures such as Sir Stephen Fry and Bob Geldof.

In a BBC Two program in 2024, he spoke to the author Sir Salman Rushdie about the devastating effects of the knife attack on stage, which blindly let him blind in one eye.

Yentob was married to television producer Philippa Walker and the couple had two children together.

In 2005 he received the letters from the DE Montfort University in Leicester in 2005 and was made a commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2024 by the King of the King of Services and the media.

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