Alan Yentob(1947-2025)

Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks are godparents of his children.

[on the death of Bill Cotton] Under his leadership in the '70s the BBC commissioned and produced a raft of entertainment and comedy which set a benchmark for these genres which has rarely been surpassed. From Monty Python (Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969)) to Morecambe And Wise (The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968)), from The Generation Game (Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game (1971)) to Dad's Army (1968), these shows and others like them have helped to define not just a genre but a generation. Bill Cotton was always there to remind us that the BBC mission to entertain could be just as ambitious and aspirational as our commitment to inform and educate.