Despite his reputation as the luvviest of BBC luvvies, swooning in rapture at Persian poetry or an obscure operatic aria, Alan Yentob was responsible for some of the most popular TV shows ever made.
During decades in power at Broadcasting House, he gave the green light to comedies including Ab Fab and The Office, costume dramas such as Pride And Prejudice, the family favourite Strictly Come Dancing, and off-beat wonders from Wallace & Gromit to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock.
Yentob, who died on Saturday at the age of 78, possessed an improbable but nearly infallible instinct for what would appeal to ordinary viewers.
He once described Noel’s House Party as ‘the most important show on the BBC’ (a comment his colleagues never allowed him to forget), and as Controller of BBC1 in 1994 took the decision to upgrade EastEnders from two weekly episodes to three.
He shied away from sex and violence on screen, knowing millions of British families found it offensive. Commissioning a remake of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1993 with Sean Bean and Joely Richardson, he insisted there could be no more than four nude scenes. ‘It is obviously a strong story, but we have to consider what is beamed into people’s homes,’ he said.
