BBC chief resigns over misleading footage of queen

BBC1 CONTROLLER Peter Fincham resigned yesterday in the wake of a damning report into misleading footage of Queen Elizabeth II.

The most high-profile casualty in a string of TV fakery scandals, he was forced to go after the independent inquiry revealed a catalogue of “misjudgments, poor practice and ineffective systems” at the corporation.

The trailer for forthcoming series A Year With The Queen appeared to show the monarch storming out of a photo shoot after photographer Annie Leibovitz suggested she remove her crown.

Mr Fincham aired it to an audience of journalists at a press launch on the morning of July 11 and said it showed the queen “walking out in a huff”. By 7pm that night he was aware the trailer had been misleadingly edited by production company RDF — footage of the queen apparently walking out of the shoot was actually of her walking in. But he delayed issuing a correction until the following day.

An apology was eventually made at noon on July 12, only after the story had made headline news and caused serious embarrassment to the BBC.

Stephen Lambert, head of RDF and the man personally responsible for editing the footage, also resigned yesterday. The report called his behaviour “cavalier”.

Mr Fincham had resisted calls to quit but yesterday announced “with great sadness” that he was leaving the post he had held for the past two years.