The head of BBC One has no plans to resign over the documentary editing ?error? which suggested that the Queen had stormed out of a photo shoot with photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Describing the mistake as a ?regrettable? misrepresentation of events BBC One controller Peter Fincham said: ?If somebody above me ? the director general of the BBC Mark Thompson ? comes and says ?you should, resign? then I will of course resign.?
He added: ?But? I think that?s disproportionate and I hope this is something we can move on from.?
The controversy erupted after a trailer for the programme A Year With The Queen apparently showed Her Majesty in a verbal exchange with Leibovitz after which The Queen is seen walking off.
Leibovitz is seen telling The Queen she will look better without her tiara – the trailer later cutting to The Queen telling her lady-in-waiting: ?I?m not changing anything. I?ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.?
Captured at Buckingham Palace Leibovitz?s portraits of The Queen were published earlier this year to mark her state visit to the United States (see AP 19 May 2007).
At the BBC’s autumn schedule press launch on Wednesday Fincham said that the subsequent TV documentary showed The Queen ?walking out in a huff? from the shoot.
The BBC said yesterday, however, that the TV clip ?was filmed before the photographs were taken’.
Explaining that it had no knowledge that a mistake had been made the corporation added: ?The footage had been supplied by production company RDF Media and the BBC had no idea it had been edited out of sequence.?
The BBC has stated that the footage was not meant to be broadcast – prompting the corporation and RDF to issue an apology to both parties.
Fincham said he had had no idea it had been edited out of sequence by production company RDF Media and had been released to the press in good faith, according to a report on the BBC News website.
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