Even nice people are bored with Alan Yentob

 
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18 February 2014

Spare a thought for Alan Yentob.

Last week the FT called his Culture Show Special on novelist Hanif Kureishi an “hour of portentous complacency”.

Jason Cowley, editor of the New Statesman, goes even further in the latest edition. “Yentob has become a hagiographer,” he says in the leader column. “Worse still, the BBC allows him to make indulgent, uncritical programmes about his close friends, such as Kureishi.”

Except not even Kureishi seemed to like him. When Yentob quizzed the author on the autobiographical content of his work, he snapped: “I don’t know why you find this question interesting!”

Yentob has even been burned by pop’s nice guy, Will Young. Defending talent shows in the Guardian last month, the singer said they were really engaging. “People do get het up about a show like Pop Idol. It’s really entertaining. You’re not watching Imagine with Alan Yentob,” he said, the yawn barely stifled. Will anyone spring to Yentob’s defence?

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