Transcripts from the Pollard review reveal some senior executives were 'queasy' about tribute programme
The BBC misled the public by broadcasting glowing tributes to Jimmy Savile although key managers knew he had "dark sides" to his personality, detailed interviews with BBC staff reveal.
Celebrations of the life and work of Savile that were aired on the BBC after his death helped to continue to mask his criminal behaviour and hide the damage he had left behind him, aside from the now notorious dropping of the planned Newsnight investigation into his crimes at a children's home.
The BBC inquiry transcripts that were made public on Friday show that those who commissioned programmes about the late radio DJ and television presenter were "queasy" about portraying his personality. Interviews given by top BBC executives to last year's inquiry panel, chaired by Sky's Nick Pollard, have now laid bare the extent of the corporation's communication failures and errors of judgment when it came to telling the truth about Savile.
Helen Goodman, the shadow culture minister with responsibility for media reform, called this weekend for a thorough review of BBC policy on communication about potentially difficult programmes. "The transcripts reveal the total chaos at the BBC's higher management when it came to communication. Some people seem to have known, while other people were busy working on tributes."
New evidence shows that Jan Younghusband, the BBC's head of music and obituaries, told George Entwistle, who was then in charge of television output, that she had been asked not to make an obituary "because of the darker side of the story". Nick Vaughan-Barratt, the BBC's head of events, who had worked closely with Savile, informed colleagues that he was "queasy" and told Younghusband the BBC should not make a straight obituary film because they could not cover his personal life. A tribute to his broadcasting career was thought preferable.
"We have to be clear at that point I didn't know what that dark side was," Younghusband told Pollard's panel. "I just thought he was a creepy guy." She went on to explain that "In the entertainment industry all kinds of things happen, but if they were going to celebrate his television career at that point I knew nothing that would prevent you celebrating his television career."
She told the inquiry she had a suspicion that "he was into boys".
Savile was being lauded elsewhere in the media, she told Pollard, explaining that she could not make a film based on rumour. Pollard replied: "But you could refrain from making an unalloyed celebratory film if there was a dark side, even if you hadn't defined it completely?"
Younghusband made no film, but was given a tribute to run, put together by the TV production company, True North. "The half hour, I imagine, was taken because it was available," she told Pollard. "And it was convenient to take it, and inexpensive."
Later Younghusband emphasised that, had she known of Savile's crimes, she would have demanded the tribute was cancelled.
Labour's Goodman said this weekend that new evidence shows the BBC dodging responsibility for Savile. "The difference between an obituary and a tribute would be lost on most people watching, to be frank," she told the Observer. "I don't think they should have been playing about with these words. They should have got control of the situation much earlier."
In his evidence to Pollard the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman blamed the BBC's "aloofness". "They have never felt comfortable with popular culture and they have therefore given those who claim to perpetrate it too much licence," he said.
Alan Yentob, the BBC's creative director, denied the charge that the programme makers are aloof and told the Observer that Danny Cohen, the head of BBC1, and other commissioning editors, including Younghusband, have repeatedly reviewed what went wrong and are changing procedures following the death of controversial figures.
"In the world of blogs and tweets on the web there is just so much rumour out there about celebrities, much of it anonymous, and so it is even harder now to handle these issues. It is more difficult to authenticate things," Yentob said.
"But you do have to interrogate such rumours and, at the point you take them seriously, you then have to pursue an inquiry."
The psychologist Oliver James said that rumours abound about celebrities who behave badly, so it can be hard to draw a line. "But the BBC is riddled with micro-managers and when there is an issue like this it becomes a question of micro-blindness," he said.
When Pollard published the findings of his report last December he said Cohen and Entwistle were guilty of mishandling the tribute shows, but transcripts now show that grave doubts about Savile's personality were widespread. Younghusband was one of the few to raise the issue explicitly.
The evidence of Liz MacKean, the former Newsnight reporter who wanted to investigate Savile, reveals that BBC website moderators took down a succession of negative comments about Savile following his death, including a number that accused him of paedophilia. Website moderation, or monitoring, Entwistle explains to Pollard's panel, is done by an independent company.
One experienced BBC production insider told the Observer the divisions in the BBC have made it malfunction. "If everyone on Newsnight knew it was true that Savile was a paedophile, it should not have run a tribute to someone who was molesting girls in wheelchairs before they went on to Top of the Pops. A culture of secrecy has taken over at the BBC that would make the Greek Junta of the 1960s green with envy."
Entwistle, who left the BBC after 54 days as director-general, told Pollard that the question of how to handle the death of a celebrity with a dubious personal life was one of judgment. "You might feel that the key thing was that you wanted to get it out as fast as you possibly could, because the fact that there was one popular attitude to Savile needed to be corrected by the journalistic revelations that would indicate that another attitude should be taken," he said.
He later added he had no sense that Savile commemoration was "a massive part of our Christmas plan" in the TV schedules.
The BBC has formally advertised for directors of TV and news, as its incoming director-general, Lord Hall, assembles a new team.
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