Botched Royal Doc Leads to Fincham, Lambert Resignations

LONDON, October 5: Peter Fincham, the controller of BBC One,
and Stephen Lambert, the chief creative officer at RDF Media, announced their
resignations today following the publication of a report into the botched
trailer for A Year With the Queen.

The trailer for the RDF-commissioned documentary was shown
to reporters this summer as Fincham unveiled the BBC One fall schedule. It
appeared to show the Queen “walking out in a huff” from a photo session with
Annie Leibovitz. The news made headlines worldwide, before it was revealed that
the trailer had been edited out of sequence. The scene depicting the Queen
leaving the shoot was in fact one of her walking in.

The incident prompted a review of about 1 million hours of
BBC output, as well as a block on future RDF commissions until a full report on
what went wrong. That report was issued by former BBC executive Will Wyatt
today. He concluded that no BBC or RDF executives “consciously
set out to defame or misrepresent the Queen in the tape which was prepared for
the BBC One season launch. Nor was there ever a possibility that the misleading
sequence could have been included in the finished documentary to be broadcast
by the BBC.”

However, Wyatt added, “the
incident reveals misjudgments, poor practice and ineffective systems as well,
of course, as the usual helping of bad luck that often accompanies such sorry
affairs.”

In a letter to BBC Director-General Mark Thompson, Fincham
said, “It is with great regret that I have concluded, following Will Wyatt’s
report, that I should resign.”

In a statement, Thompson said of the Wyatt report: “I accept
his findings and recommendations in full. It is important that the BBC learns
all the lessons from this matter and takes steps to ensure that nothing of this
kind is repeated. 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 BBC One 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.”

Those steps include the appointment of senior executives to
take the lead on editorial standards and compliance at the Vision, Audio &
Music, Nations & Regions and Marketing, Communications & Audiences
divisions. In addition, the Director of Marketing, Communications & Audiences
is to implement a comprehensive set of actions to address the weaknesses of
communication and co-ordination with other divisions revealed by this incident.
David Jordan, Controller of Editorial Policy, has been named Director of
Editorial Policy and Standards with immediate effect.

RDF said in a statement that it accepts “the criticisms of
the group,” and that it is “acting promptly to address the issues that the
report raises.” Lambert is to leave the company immediately. His resignation
statement said that he was "taking responsibility for RDF's involvement in
the BBC's so-called 'Queengate' affair. It was clear to me several weeks ago
that, regardless of the inquiry's conclusions, it would be in the best
interests of RDF that I should resign once the report was published.”