Alan Yentob passes away (1947 - 2025) (UK) - UK News - 25/May/2025

Описание: x2 reports. Alan Yentob, the long-serving BBC arts broadcaster and documentary-maker, has died aged 78 (yesterday). (11 March 1947 - 24 May 2025).

Yentob profiled and interviewed a wide range of important cultural and creative figures over the years, including David Bowie, Charles Saatchi, Maya Angelou and Grayson Perry, for TV series such as Omnibus, Arena and Imagine.

He also served as controller of BBC One and Two, and the organisation's creative director and head of music and arts during a long and varied career.

Paying tribute to her late husband, Philippa Walker described Yentob as "curious, funny, annoying, late and creative in every cell of his body" and added that he was "the kindest of men".

Obituary: BBC TV's creative giant, on screen and off
Alan Yentob is seen in a head and shoulders photo against a blue background
BBC director-general Tim Davie called him a "creative force and cultural visionary" who championed "originality, risk-taking and artistic ambition".

He added: "To work with Alan was to be inspired and encouraged to think bigger. He had a rare gift for identifying talent and lifting others up - a mentor and champion to so many across the worlds of television, film and theatre.

"Above all, Alan was a true original. His passion wasn't performative - it was personal. He believed in the power of culture to enrich, challenge and connect us."

Yentob was known for his connections in the entertainment industry, often befriending his famous film subjects who included music stars Jay-Z and Beyoncé, actors and filmmakers Orson Welles and Mel Brooks, and author Salman Rushdie.

Synonymous with the BBC, Yentob was seen by viewers engaging in an arm wrestle with Rushdie while listening to opera in a scene taken from W1A - a sitcom which satirised life at the corporation.

Yentob's famous 1975 Omnibus feature, Cracked Actor, about David Bowie, showed the drug-affected star opening up to him in the back of a limousine at an "intensely creative time", the filmmaker later recalled, but also at the singer's most "fragile and exhausted".

Yentob became controller of BBC Two in 1988, making him one of the youngest channel controllers in the corporation's history.

He oversaw a popular and influential period for the channel, with commissions such as hit sitcom Absolutely Fabulous - where his name was dropped into the dialogue of one episode as an in-joke

Other shows launched during his tenure included The Late Show and Have I Got News for You.

Yentob's success in the role saw him promoted to controller of BBC One from 1993 to 1997, before a stint as BBC television's overall director of programmes.

He was announced as the corporation's creative director in 2004, a role he filled for more than a decade. But he continued to step in front of the camera to front more Imagine programmes, including the final episode of that series, a profile of comedic duo French & Saunders.

His commissions also included a TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and children's channels CBBC and CBeebies.

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Wikipedia:
Alan Yentob was a British television executive and presenter. He held senior roles at the BBC including head of music and arts, controller of BBC1 and controller of BBC2.