BBC1 controller Fincham resigns over Queen documentary

Published Friday 5 October 2007 at 15:55 by Matthew Hemley

BBC1 controller Peter Fincham has resigned following an inquiry into how inaccurate footage of the Queen publicising a new documentary was screened to the press.

The footage, apparently showing the Queen storming out of a photo shoot to promote a documentary made by RDF Media called A Year With the Queen, was presented to press at a briefing held earlier this year to highlight BBC1’s autumn schedule.

It was later found to have been edited into the wrong order, prompting an inquiry into how the BBC allowed the images to be shown and subsequently waited for so long to correct the story.

The inquiry, held by former BBC deputy director general Will Wyatt and ordered by director general Mark Thompson, found that there were “misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems” within the BBC.

Following publication of Wyatt’s report, Fincham has written to Thompson, saying he has decided to resign with “very great regret”.

At the same time, RDF Media Group’s chief creative officer Stephen Lambert, who was responsible for editing the footage, has also resigned.

In a statement issued today, he said: “The edit that I originally made for a different trailer to show to a few co-production partners in April was not intended to be seen in public, should never have been included in the BBC1 autumn launch tape, and was not intended to suggest that the Queen stormed out of any situation. But my action was the first step in a chain of carelessness and misunderstandings which had very serious consequences. It was therefore right that I should go.”

The report said a fuse was “inexcusably lit” when RDF edited footage of the Queen. It also criticised Fincham and BBC1 head of communications, Jane Fletcher, for failing to question what the sequence appeared to show and its news value.

However, it also found that no one involved in the documentary “consciously set out to defame or misrepresent the Queen” and added that there was no chance “the misleading sequence” could have been included in the finished documentary.

Speaking about the report, Thompson said: “Although I take some comfort from Will Wyatt’s conclusion that no one consciously set out to defame or misrepresent the Queen in respect of the BBC’s preparation for the BBC1 launch, the fact is that serious mistakes were made which put misleading information about the Queen into the public domain. That is why we are determined to take all necessary steps to address the shortcomings set out in this report.”

The directors of the Corporation’s vision, audio and music, nations and regions and marketing, communications and audiences divisions are to appoint a senior executive with specific responsibility for leading on editorial standards and compliance across their output in response to the report.

BBC2 controller Roly Keating will act as controller of BBC1 until a successor to Fincham is found.