A memoir? No, my memory's too bad, says Alan Yentob

 
20 February 2013

BBC creative director Alan Yentob has been dubbed “the Zelig of our times”, so when will he write his memoirs and spill the beans about his four decades at the Beeb?

Yentob, who is friends with everyone from Steven Spielberg to Salman Rushdie, told me at a recent BBC party that in spite of unofficial approaches from publishers he won’t be writing his autobiography or publishing his diaries just yet.

“I don’t keep a diary and I don’t have much down on paper,” he told me. “I have quite good recall but it can be erratic. You get reminded of something and then it comes flooding back.”

The same failure to attend to detail saw him being investigated, quite unfairly, for expenses irregularities in 2004. What he dismissed as a malicious whispering campaign saw him totally exonerated following a two-month inquiry. In fact, the investigation found that rather than claiming too much he had probably not claimed enough.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in