BBC1 is to show a documentary about the final days of the charity Kids Company early next year, following its controversial collapse this summer.
With a working title of The Rise And Fall Of The ‘Angel Of Peckham’, the hour-long documentary charts the final days of the company headed by Camila Batmanghelidjh, which collapsed this summer following allegations of financial mismanagement and wrongdoing.
The BBC said that Alan Yentob, the BBC’s creative director and chair of trustees for the charity Kids Company, did not commission the film by award-winning filmmaker Lynn Alleway. He may still appear in it, however, as a spokeswoman said: “With the programme still in production it is too early to discuss who has been approached to contribute.”
Yentob has been criticised for contacting the team on BBC2’s flagship news bulletin, Newsnight, about its planned story about Kids Company, although he has denied any conflict of interest. Both he and Batmanghelidjh remain strong supporters of the work done by the charity.
Alleway was commissioned by BBC1 controller Charlotte Moore, its documentary commissioning head, Patrick Holland, and commissioning editor Maxine Watson after she spent a year with Kids Company in 2005 for a film Tough Kids, Tough Love.
The idea was bring the story up to date “at a time when many charities were struggling under financial pressures”. During filming the charity collapsed amid government recriminations.
In a statement, Alleway said: “I was filming with Camila Batmanghelidjh when the Kids Company story first broke and I continued to film from inside of the organisation whilst a media storm erupted around us – it’s a story that no one has yet seen.”
She was also responsible for the film about her “friend” Carole Caplin, called The Conman, his Lover and the Prime Minister’s Wife.
