BBC to question senior executives over Royal documentary controversy

London, Oct 7 (UNI) The BBC trust will question its two senior most executives later this month over the controversial documentary on Queen Elizabeth II.

The decision came following the resignation of the Controller of BBC1 Peter Fincham on the same.

BBC's Director-general Mark Thompson and his deputy Mark Byford will be asked to account for the mistakes made at a hearing by the Trust's editorial standards committee.

Yesterday, Mr Fincham resigned after it was revealed that footage which purported to show the Queen walking out of a photographic shoot ''in a huff'' had been edited in the wrong sequence.

Despite Fincham's resignation, the BBC was struggling to draw a line under the controversy this weekend. Jana Bennett, the director of BBC Vision and in charge of the largest television production team in the world, could face fresh questions on her role in the affair.

Last week's report by former BBC executive Will Wyatt into the mishandling of the documentary pointed out a serious discrepancy between the story told by Ms Bennett and of Mr Fincham.

The controller claimed he told Bennett about the serious nature of the error on the day he discovered the trailer for the documentary had been put together in the wrong sequence by its makers, the independent production company RDF.

Ms Bennett said she was not aware until some time later that the footage had been edited to give a false impression. By then, news of the Queen's supposedly irritable outburst had made headlines around the world.

Mr Fincham's resignation is the darkest hour so far in the BBC's own ''annus horribilis''.

''It is very sad. Peter would never have wanted to leave like this. People feel it has been totally unfair to put all the blame on him,''Fincham's former colleague in the independent sector Producer Daisy Goodwin was quoted as saying by the Observer.

The former Chief Creative Officer of RDF Stephen Lambert has admitted editing the controversial footage in the wrong order.

Lambert also resigned yesterday.

UNI