The BBC One controller Peter Fincham rejected calls to resign today after being forced to apologise to the Royal Family for misrepresenting the Queen.
In a series of television interviews this morning, Mr Fincham claimed that he had briefed journalists in good faith this week that the Queen had walked out “in a huff” during a BBC1 fly-on-the-wall documentary, which is due to be screened this autumn.
He said that he had no way of knowing that the scene of Her Majesty’s apparent walkout - in a promotional video given to the corporation by the independent programme makers RDF Media - had been inserted in the wrong place.
As a result, the scene during the documentary which appeared to show the Queen storming out of a photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz was, in fact, a shot of her walking in, and the supposed walkout never happened.
There have been calls for an inquiry after the BBC was forced to apologise to the Queen, and the BBC Trust has demanded an explanation from the director general, Mark Thompson.
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Mr Fincham said this morning, however, that he would not resign unless Mr Thompson asked him to.
“If Mark Thompson wants me to resign, I will, of course, do so. As a matter of fact, Mark Thompson has sent me a message of support in this, that he doesn’t want me to resign,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“A mistake was made down the line. We were supplied by an outside company with footage that, extremely regrettably, misrepresented a scene involving the Queen.
“We are obviously not very happy about that, but that is, in fact, what happened.”
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Fincham added that it was wrong to link what he claimed was an honest mistake together with other high-profile incidents of misleading viewers, including the £50,000 fine dealt out to the BBC by Ofcom for fabricating the results of a Blue Peter premium-rate phone-in competition, in which 40,000 children had entered.
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“This was not a case of misleading viewers,” he said. “It’s been linked, of course, to other incidents which have happened lately, but it is in a different category.”
Mr Fincham won backing from the former BBC chairman, Michael Grade, this morning, who claimed that media organisations were increasingly at the whim of young producers who did not properly understand the necessity to tell audiences the truth and edit accurately.
“I think we are all vulnerable,” Mr Grade, who now heads ITV, said. “We are in an age today where there has been a huge influx of young talent into the industry as it expands. They have not been trained properly, they don’t understand that you do not lie to audiences at any time, in any show - whether it’s news or whether it’s a quiz show.
“I feel sorry for the BBC. They have been deceived, and it could be us tomorrow.”
He added that the training for young journalists should be improved. “It’s all of a part with the telephone scandals and so on, and the corners that have been cut,” he said.
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“It’s desperately important that we restore trust and that the programme-makers get to understand - whether through hard lessons or through training or a combination of both - that you do not lie to audiences under any circumstances.
“Trust is the one thing that the broadcasters have going into the digital world which gives us a huge advantage, and we dilute that at our peril.”
RDF Media, which earned the trust of the Royal Family after producing the behind-the-scenes BBC One series about Windsor Castle, took the blame for the episode last night. It said that the extracts shown were from “an early assembly of the footage”.
“This assembly was never intended to be seen by the public or the press. Unfortunately, this was given in error to the BBC personnel who were preparing the autumn launch tape,” a spokesman said.
In a joint statement with the BBC, it said that the clips “were not intended to provide a full picture of what actually happened or of what will be shown in the final programme”.
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The Times disclosed this morning that the BBC had called on its staff last night to inform their managers about programmes that they feel have misled or deceived the public, in an attempt to re-establish public trust.
A memo to staff, signed by Jana Bennett, the corporation’s head of television, said: “It is crucial if there have been any other instances in which audiences have been misled that I find out about them now.”
It added: “The principal mistake on Blue Peter was the deception of its audience. This issue is clearly not exclusively related to the use of premium-rate telephony. However, it is central to maintaining audience trust in the BBC.”
The Palace was said to be “dismayed” over the affair, which made headlines around the world. Sources said that the Royal Family felt let down after giving the film crew “unprecedented access” for a year.
In the controversial footage, the Queen walks into a room in Buckingham Palace, cluttered with camera equipment, wearing her crown and her Order of the Garter robes.
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Leibovitz tells her: “I think it will look better without the crown because the Garter robe is so . . .” But before the photographer can finish saying “extraordinary”, the Queen gives her an icy stare and replies: “Less dressy? What do you think this is?”
The next sequence shows the Queen walking down a corridor, saying to a lady-in-waiting: “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.” This sequence, however, actually preceded her arrival at the shoot.