BBC Two to air tribute night to Alan Yentob

The evening will see Yentob’s last interview broadcast as part of the celebration of his life and work…

Alan Yentob, who died on May 24th, will have his final work broadcast this weekend. In his last interview, When Alan Yentob Met Jenny Saville, Alan speaks extensively to Jenny who is one of the most successful figurative painters working today, first coming to prominence as part of the YBA movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She has been reluctant to discuss her work for many years on television, until now.

When Alan Yentob Met Jenny Saville will be broadcast tomorrow, Sunday 8 June, on BBC Two. Alan Yentob was working with Jenny on a film for his imagine… strand and earlier this year, they met in Vienna on the eve of two major exhibitions she is mounting. This was the last interview Alan Yentob conducted in a career spanning six decades at the BBC, bringing many of the world’s leading artists and creatives to the screen. Alan also persuaded Jenny to allow cameras into her painting studio for the first time in almost three decades.

Suzy Klein, Head of Arts and Classical Music TV:

“Alan Yentob was a titan of arts broadcasting and a passionate supporter of so many of the leading creative artists of the last half century. His final interview, in conversation with Jenny Saville, is testament to his relentless curiosity and advocacy for the arts across many decades – part of a night dedicated to celebrating his work as a programme maker, channel controller and visionary television executive.”

When Alan Yentob Met Jenny Saville airs as part of a tribute night on Sunday on BBC Two alongside some of the legendary programme maker’s best loved films, including imagine… Mel Brooks: Unwrapped, imagine… David Bowie: Cracked Actor, Salman Rushdie: Through a Glass Darkly, imagine… Diana Athill: Growing Old Disgracefully, imagine… Tom Stoppard: A Charmed Life, and Ella Fitzgerald at Ronnie Scott’s, as well as Alan’s famous ‘2’ BBC Two idents, from 9.15pm.

Jenny Saville:

“Alan and I were beginning to work on a documentary about my paintings from across the years. It was an honour to know Alan, who I’d met in my early twenties and we reconnected to make this film.”

Watch When Alan Yentob met Jenny Saville on BBC iPlayer