Alan Yentob shows himself as a man incapable of admitting his failings
On Thursday, The Financial Times’ popular and usually excellent column ‘Lunch with The FT’ opted for Alan Yentob as its dining companion.
In doing so, the paper’s columnist gave Yentob – a man whose tenure at the BBC has brought with it significant decline and a man now best known for his links to the disgraced “charity “Kids Company – another opportunity to pontificate and in that regard he did not fail.
Naturally, for the interview, Yentob opted to dine at the River Café and naturally its owner Ruthie Rogers happens to be “one of his dear friends”. There are star dropping references to how he’s been “at Alan Rickman’s funeral” and his chums David Attenborough, John Birt, Stephen Fry, Harold Pinter, Philip Roth and Orson Welles get mentioned too. “If name dropping were an Olympic sport”, suggests the FT’s Henry Mance, “Yentob would be suspected of doping”.
“Opportunities to interrupt Yentob are like turnings off American freeways: if you miss one, there is often a long wait” according to Mance whilst when the TV executive was asked about his excessive £300,000 salary as creative director of the BBC, he is reported to have screwed his face “with indignation”.
The worst example of Yentob’s arrogance, however, is found when he is confronted about his connections to the dastardly Camila Bamanghelidjh and Kids Company. Instead of humbly admitting he was wrong to support this scam, Yentob expresses “regret we closed”. He claims he “didn’t know” about the Grade II listed mansion with a swimming pool paid for by the charity and concludes he will “carry on being driven by curiosity and friendship” A man plainly incapable of accepting responsibility for his own choices, Yentob is nothing but a man of straw. For that reason, we make this nitwit our Wally of the Week.
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