Artists including Tracey Emin and Ai Weiwei have led tributes to the long-serving BBC arts broadcaster Alan Yentob who has died, aged 78. Both artists featured in Yentob’s documentary arts series Imagine, which ran mainly on BBC One from 2003 to 2023. Emin says in an Instagram post: “I am so proud to have been one of his subjects for his groundbreaking Imagine documentaries [2018]. Ai Weiwei says: “[Yentob’s] knowledge, passion, as well as his understanding of arts and culture are hard to come by nowadays. It will be difficult to fill the void after his passing.”
In the Imagine episode Without Fear or Favour (2010), Yentob introduced Ai Weiwei, who is known for his activism, as “pioneering in his art and fearless in his politics”. Ai Weiwei adds: “I have personally felt the social impact of the episode. It provided a solid voice of support and raised awareness about my situation across the society.”
In an episode, dedicated to Marina Abramović in 2020, entitled The Ugly Duckling, the performance artist spoke about her family and growing up in communist Yugoslavia. “His choices were original, vital and created a real bridge between the cultures of art and television. For us artists, he was our voice: a platform to communicate our ideas with an audience to which we wouldn’t normally have any access,” she says.
Yentob was also working on an Imagine programme dedicated to the artist Jenny Saville whose exhibition is due to open at the National Portrait Gallery in London next month. She tells The Art Newspaper: “The contribution Alan made to British culture was immense. A wide range of international creativity became accessible to all through these documentaries.”
Yentob joined the BBC in 1968 as a trainee—the only non-Oxbridge graduate after graduating from Leeds with a law degree—rising up the ranks to become editor of the established arts show Arena in 1978. “The show managed to look at both high and low culture with the same blend of seriousness and commitment, suggesting that punk rock and Orson Welles alike were worthy of intellectual assessment,” Alexander Larman writes in The Telegraph.
Yentob became both controller of BBC2 (1987-1993) and controller of BBC One (1993-97), commissioning programmes such as the comedy Absolutely Fabulous and the panel show Have I Got News For You? His other BBC roles included director of drama, entertainment and children’s programming; in his final post, he was creative director from 2004 until 2015 when he resigned following a controversy over his role as chair of Kids Company, a charity founded in 1996 by Camila Batmanghelidjh to support deprived inner city children.
He was also chairman from 2002 to 2010 of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), the London cultural centre. His departure coincided with the resignation of Ekow Eshun who stepped down as executive director following financial difficulties at the ICA. In 2015, Yentob was appointed CBE in the 2024 King’s birthday honours list for services to the arts and media.
The artist Anish Kapoor tells The Art Newspaper: “Alan Yentob was warm, generous and understood the importance of the arts in public life. We shall miss his presence, particularly now when the arts and the public institutions that promote them are under such huge pressure from ideology-biased governments around the world.”
Alan Yentob, born London 11 March 1947; married 2020 Philippa Walker (one daughter, one son); died 24 May 2025.
