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In 1973 he became a producer and director working on the high-profile documentary series Omnibus, for which in 1975 he made a famous film called Cracked Actor about the musician David Bowie. He went on in 1978 to initiate another famous BBC documentary series, Arena, of which he was to remain the Editor until 1985, and the series itself still returns for semi-regular editions as of 2004.
He left Arena to become the BBC's Head of Music and Arts, a position he occupied until 1988 when he was promoted to Controller of BBC TWO, one of the youngest channel controllers in the BBC's history. His time in charge of the BBC's second channel was seen as a great success, with a wave of new successful shows being fostered under his ageis, in particular the popular satirical new quiz Have I Got News For You.
Yentob was rewarded for his success in 1993 when he was promoted to Controller of BBC ONE, responsible for the output of the BBC's premier channel. His time here was seen as another success and he remained in the post for four years until 1997, when he was promoted again to become BBC Television's overall Director of Programmes.
This appointment was only a brief one, however, before a re-organisation of the BBC's Executive Committee led to the creation of a new post, filled by Yentob, of Director of Drama, Entertainment and Children's. This placed Yentob in overall supervision of the BBC's output in these three genres across all media - radio, television and internet. He remains in this post at the time of writing, February 2004 and has also recently begun fronting BBC programmes as a presenter. These have included a series on the life of Leonardo da Vinci and a new regular arts series, Imagine.