It was hard for Peter Fincham, the BBC One boss, to contain his excitement as he unveiled his scoop to an audience of jaded journalists in the bowels of the Covent Garden Hotel.
“Definitely a memorable bit is Leibovitz getting it wrong,” he said, “and the Queen losing it a bit and walking out in a huff.”
Unfortunately Mr Fincham did not realise that the clip, supplied by an independent production company, had been manipulated and his words catapulted the BBC into a fresh crisis over audience trust.
Producers are asked to supply their most eye-catching material to the 15-minute promotional clips trail that broadcasters use to advertise their forthcoming wares.
RDF Media, producers of A Year with the Queen, provided a sequence of clips that showed President Bush praising Her Majesty and images of other royalty. Then the screening audience sensed a story as Annie Leibovitz, the celebrity photographer, was seen urging the Queen to remove her crown for her portrait shot.
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The Queen gave her unamused response and the clip cut to a scene of her walking down a corridor, accompanied by aides, saying: “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.”
By the time the truth emerged, the footage and the story had gone round the world. In fact, the Queen had been speaking to the lady-in-waiting as she walked in. She had not stormed out of the sitting in a rage. The images were spliced together out of sequence, making an already juicy story even better.
The position of Mr Fincham, the multimillionaire comedy producer behind Ali G and Alan Partridge, came under serious threat as the truth emerged and the BBC was forced to issue a grovelling apology.
In an interview with Sky News last night a contrite Mr Fincham, who is credited with reviving entertainment on BBC One, issued an apology blaming the fiasco on human error. He is overseeing the resurgent Doctor Who and created new Saturday night hits through the search for a stage Maria and Joseph.
He said it was “regrettable” but “things like this can happen” adding: “It was a particularly unfortunate one because it involved the Queen.” Mr Fincham, a former Cambridge Footlights performer and chief executive of the producer TalkbackThames, said they had taken the clips from RDF Media in “good faith”, adding that they “had not set out to deceive the public”.
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Addressing the media on Wednesday, he had trumpeted the channel’s recent ratings successes but said that the challenge was to attract younger audiences. He denied claims by Nick Ross, the former Crimewatch presenter, that BBC One was using increasingly sensationalist tactics to lure that audience Mr Fincham, 50, the former chief executive of the producer TalkbackThames, did not need the £250,000 salary when he took the job of Controller of BBC One in 2005. He cashed in when Talkback, set up by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, was sold to Pearson TV — now FremantleMedia — for £62 million in 2000.
He promised to steer a path between popular ratings-winners and public service programming. This week he trailed a new Michael Palin travel show and the return of Dame Judi Dench to BBC One costume drama.
But it is unclear whether he will now be allowed to see his schedule through to the screen.
Fast forward
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–– RDF Media Group was founded in 1993 and floated on AIM in 2005
–– It featured in the Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast-Track Top 100 in 2001, 2002, and 2003
–– It has offices in London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol, Santa Monica and New York
–– Key shows include Wife Swap and Location, Location, Location
–– Broadcast magazine gave its Best Production Company Award to RDF in 2002, 2004 and 2006
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*Source: Times database