Zodiak Media Group - Tiaragate Affair

Tiaragate Affair

In July 2007 RDF found itself at the centre of controversy when the BBC showed a trailer to journalists of an RDF documentary series, A Year with the Queen, that seemed to show the monarch storming out of a photoshoot with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. It later emerged the Queen was walking into the shoot. Stephen Lambert, RDF's Chief Creative Officer, took responsibility for making a misleading edit for a trailer that was shown to international co-producers, although the promotions company Red Bee subsequently edited the trailer that was shown to journalists. Both the BBC and ITV froze all new commissions from RDF until the completion of an independent inquiry – the Wyatt Report – into the "Tiaragate affair". Stephen Lambert resigned from the company as an independent inquiry into the affair was published on 5 October 2007. That report, commissioned by the BBC, said that no one "consciously set out to defame or misrepresent the Queen in the tape" but also that "RDF edited the footage of the Queen in a cavalier fashion". Both Peter Fincham, Controller of BBC One, and his Head of Publicity, Jane Fletcher, also resigned following the report.