Alan Yentob stepped down as the BBC’s creative director in 2015, over allegations that he’d tried to influence its coverage of troubled charity Kids Company, where he was chairman of trustees.
So viewers may have been surprised to see him reporting on BBC1’s News At Ten this week.
Yentob (74), was given an extended interview on Monday with Mel Brooks, the American comedian, about his autobiography.
Yentob, Brooks’ close friend, is also a surprise to viewers. Brooks is the godfather for Jacob, 30, and may even be more shocked.
‘This is the British Backscratching Corporation at its worst,’ a source tells me.
‘Viewers should have been told of Yentob’s close connection to his subject.’

Alan Yentob, right (pictured with Mel Brooks, left), is Jacob’s godfather.

In 2015, Mr Yentob (then chairman of the trustees for Kids Company), gave evidence to House Commons Public Administration Committee.
They question why, if bosses deemed the publication of Brooks’s memoir to be newsworthy, he wasn’t interviewed by one of the BBC’s many U.S. correspondents.
‘And if it was considered a job so important that someone had to be flown out at great expense some 5,000 miles from London, surely the interview should have been conducted by one of the arts correspondents?’
Yentob — who was still getting paid as much as £249,999 per year by the BBC for his arts show, Imagine, in 2018 — perhaps demonstrates that ‘star’ power still holds sway at the Corporation.
Last week, bosses were criticised for allowing Amol Rajan to front a controversial BBC2 documentary on the Royal Family, The Princes And The Press, despite the presenter being a self-declared republican who had previously called the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s public roles a ‘total fraud’ and joked about how he wanted to hurl bricks at them.
Yentob has worked for BBC since 1968 when he joined as a trainee. He is now one of the most influential and well-connected figures in the BBC.
He was described by his friend Tony Hall, the BBC’s previous director general, as the conscience of the broadcaster.
Still got it! Helena poses like it’s 1990

Helena Christensen shared this photograph of herself wearing a £395 Dolce & Gabbana t-shirt with the words ‘90’s supermodel’
Helena Christensen made her name in the 1990s — and she’s determined that we don’t forget it.
The Danish catwalk queen has shared this photograph of herself wearing a £395 Dolce & Gabbana T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘90’s supermodel’.
Christensen is younger than 52 thanks to her vibrant glow and her cropped top that shows her pregnant stomach. Unfortunately, she is not the only 1990s supermodel who has failed to do so.
Linda Evangelista, 56, who told Vogue she wouldn’t get out of bed to strut down a runway for less than $10,000, claimed earlier this year that she had been ‘permanently deformed’ and ‘brutally disfigured’ after undergoing a cosmetic procedure to freeze fat cells.
Guinness raises Glass to Vintage Suit

Arthur Guinness (pictured), went out wearing a suit made by his great-grandfather, in the 1930s
While secondhand clothes have become more fashionable, Arthur Guinness says vintage is still very much in fashion.
30-year-old brewer heir went out wearing a suit made by his great-grandfather the 1st Earl Moyne in the 1930s.
‘Eighty-eight years later, it’s in great nick,’ boasts cheese-maker Arthur, praising the tailor. ‘Well done, Mr Crotty.’
Walter Guinness (Lord Moyne), was an Eton-educated lieutenant colonel, who participated in World War I. He was also a cabinet minister.
In 1944, a terrorist group in Cairo killed him.
I’m a celebTake me away Tube

Georgia Toffolo, (pictured), is at the Boisdale Cigars Smoker of The Year 2020 event in Boisdale Canary Wharf.
SHE survived being covered in cockroaches and filling a tank with green gunge and fish guts in the jungle, but I’m A Celebrity winner Georgia Toffolo was beaten by the London Underground.
The former Made In Chelsea star, 27, arrived at Boisdale’s Cigar Smoker Of the Year awards in Canary Wharf, East London, looking distinctly flustered.
‘I didn’t realise how to get here,’ she admits. ‘I got the wrong Tube three times; it took me more than an hour to get here. I was having to run around in my glittery ball gown all through these Tube stations.’
Poor lamb!
Filming dark BBC comedy The Outlaws appears to have left its 6ft 7in star, Stephen Merchant, nursing a sore head.
‘Occasionally, you’d just hear, bang!, “Ow!”, and you’d know Stephen had just walked into a doorframe,’ says his co-star Nina Wadia.
The 52-year-old comedy actress is used to sudden knocks herself: she was the first contestant to get the boot on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, in just the second week.
Rumoured to be playing a baddie in the next James Bond film, Idris Elba appears to believe in the mantra, ‘Know thy enemy’.
According to me, the Luther star (49) has been seen at the MI6 headquarters near the Thames over the last few weeks wearing a suit that looks more Bond than Bond, and looking more like an 007 villain.
A source tells me: ‘Idris was spotted in different parts of the building at several points during the day.

It is believed that IdrisElba will play a baddie for the next James Bond movie. This has been confirmed by seeing her at MI6 Headquarters in the last week.
He was likely being treated to a private, top-secret tour and a cocktail at the bar. He seems like a nice and friendly guy.’
Doesn’t sound like a baddie to me…
Who would have thought the Marylebone Cricket Club, a stuffy and shabby old club, would host an all-night party.
In the first event of its kind, the spiritual home of cricket, Lord’s, played host to a live screening of overnight play from the first day of the Ashes in Brisbane last night.
Former cricketers Alec Stewart and Mike Gatting opened the Pavilion TV room for a drink party that began at 9.30pm.
‘This was to raise money for grassroots cricket and won’t be the start of regular all-nighters,’ insists my man in the egg-and-bacon tie.
Children might be expected to be proud of their parents becoming TV stars, but not Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain’s.
She’s revealed her 15-year-old son, Musa, is so embarrassed by having a famous mother that he will let her do the school run only if it’s dark.
‘He’s in Year Ten and I’m not allowed to go near the school,’ Nadiya says.
‘I’m only allowed to pick him up in winter when it’s dark at 4pm. That’s the rule.’