Comedy Unit and IWC in commissioning limbo until BBC row blows over

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Oct 7, 2007

THE future of BBC commissioning for television producers IWC and The Comedy Unit hangs in the balance after the BBC's report into the documentary about the Queen made by their parent company RDF.

In spite of the resignations of BBC One controller Peter Fincham and RDF creative director Stephen Lambert last week over the documentary trailer played to the press in the summer that showed the Queen storming out of a photoshoot when she was in fact walking in, the BBC freeze on RDF commissions has not yet been lifted.

There were reports that the BBC had told RDF it would never work with the company again so long as Lambert, who had previously admitted to wrongly editing the footage, worked there. Now that he has stepped down the BBC told the Sunday Herald that it will be meeting with RDF in the weeks ahead to ensure the compliance process the producer plans to put in place will prevent any such further mishaps in future.

If the ban is then lifted, it will come as a great relief to The Comedy Unit and IWC. Despite having nothing to do with the dispute, they have both felt the effects of not being able to pitch ideas to the BBC for the past three months.

The Comedy Unit, which relies on the BBC for a larger share of commissions than IWC, has felt particularly aggrieved by the ban since it does not even make factual shows of the kind that have dominated the row over television fakery. Neither company would say what effect the ban had had on them, but their end-of-year results are bound to make for uncomfortable reading.

In general, the resignations meant that television's annus horriblis continued. In a year which has seen everyone - from Jade Goody to the Blue Peter editor to Richard and Judy - in the dock over a string of controversies, it has become at least the biggest crisis of television confidence since the Hutton affair of 2003.

Observers reacted with astonishment that Fincham had taken the rap over the Wyatt report into the Queen documentary, which referred to "misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems" at the corporation.

As one said: "Lambert deserves what he gets, but Fincham is an honourable man and was not to blame."

The reason given for his resignation was that he learned that the trailer had been faked by 5pm on July 11, the day of the documentary's press launch, but chose not to say anything until the following morning, after newspapers had gone to press with the story of the Queen's walkout. His head of press, Jane Fletcher, resigned too.

Meanwhile Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision and Fincham's line manager, is said to be under pressure to stand down after Fincham told the inquiry that she too knew about the fakery the night before it was announced - a charge she denies.

Roly Keating, controlller of BBC Two, was made acting controller of BBC One, but some thought him too populist to get the post permanently. Others tipped for the post included outgoing Endemol chief Peter Bazalgette, ITV's Alison Sharman and Simon Shaps, and Discovery executive Jane Root.