Alan Yentob profile: BBC Creative Director who stepped down amid Kids Company controversy

Yentob has worked within the BBC for 47 years

Alan Yentob (PA)

On Thursday, Alan Yentob resigned from his role as the BBC’s Creative Director over a decade after he was promoted to the position.

Yentob cited the “serious distraction” caused by his role as chairman within Kids Company after its closure within his announcement that he is to step down.

He was widely criticised for his decision to contact Newsnight over its investigation into the charity, which collapsed in August shortly after receiving a £3 million cash injection. He has denied there was any conflict of interest because of his two roles and the BBC's director general Tony Hall said an investigation concluded he did not try to influence reporting on the charity.

Announcing his decision to step down, he said: “The BBC is going through particularly challenging times and I have come to believe that the speculation about Kids Company and the media coverage revolving around my role is proving a serious distraction.”

He will continue to host and produce the BBC One series Imagine and remain as Chairman of BBC Films.

Who is Alan Yentob?

Yentob was born in London in 1947. His family had left Iraq for Manchester and he grew up in Didsbury until he was 12. The family then moved back to London and he went on to study law at the University of Leeds, where he became heavily involved in drama.

He started as a trainee and worked his way up to Creative Director

He joined the BBC in 1968 as a general trainee and the only non-Oxbridge graduate, taking his first job within the corporation’s World Service. After working as a producer and director, he was appointed Head of Music and Arts in 1985, a position he stayed in until he became Controller of BBC Two in 1988. He was Controller of BBC One between 1993 and 1997 and announced as the BBC’s Creative Director in 2004.

He commissioned Absolutely Fabulous and The Late Show

Both of which emerged as one of the most popular series to be broadcast by the BBC. His second name was even dropped into an episode of Ab Fab an in-joke.

He became friends with Orson Wells after making a programme about him in 1982.

He is also friends with the rapper Jay-Z; “He's an entrepreneur, an impresario, a lot of things I discovered. He is also someone who is learning voraciously about modern art,” and has been close to Tony Hall and Danny Cohen, the former Director of Television.

He was paid two wages at the BBC

One for his role as Creative Director, to the tune of £183,300 annually, and a second salary for his role as the presenter of producer of Imagine, reported to be in the six figure region.

He reportedly had his own lift

An ex-Newsnight producer quoted in The Spectator described a ‘Yentob lift’ in the BBC’s Portland Place office. While the producer admitted there was nothing around it to indicate it was exclusively for his use, they “rarely” saw anyone else in the building use it.

He also once charged a £3,381 business-class flight from London to New York to the BBC. He defended this decision at the time, insisting he would be unable to do his job travelling in economy class. “When I went to New York,’ he said, "I was filming in the afternoon and I then returned within about 24 hours back to London back to work straight away. Do you think I should have travelled economy? I wouldn’t have been capable of doing the job.”

He once ran up a bill of £1,5000 on taxis

Yentob took over 70 taxis and claimed them back from the BBC, according to a list of his expenses in October 2015.