Immeasurably privileged

Many regular readers will be delighted to learn that Alan Yentob is this year's winner of the Media Society Award.

Geraldine Sharpe Newton (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), president of The Media Society said "Alan’s contribution is immeasurable. As producer, director, controller and presenter, his formidable skills, have engaged, explored and encouraged our intellects, at all levels, across the broad sweep of art and culture."

"We have watched him coaxing the Pythons, swimming in Surrealism and peering into the brain. We have all wondered what Jay-Z made of Yentob’s, relaxed, innocent, curiosity, how he kept Grayson Perry to the point and why it was necessary to be taken to Gilbert and George’s hat maker. Eventually all is revealed. As for the journey he took through Leonardo da Vinci, this chronicler of the arts has always taken us on deceptively perceptive journeys of careful discovery, in which all is revealed. His cultural programming has quite simply helped us think and grow."

"His gentle curiosity has created a treasury trove of all the arts. For this and more, the Media Society is deeply privileged to pay tribute to Alan Yentob."

Yes, the controller, director, editor, and commissioner who's asked himself to make more programmes than anyone else in the history of BBC coverage of the arts and culture is being honoured with a black-tie dinner on December 9th at the Millennium Hotel. I'll let you know the ticket prices as soon as I can.