BBC boss in hiding

by ANDREW WILKS and AMANDA PERTHEN, Mail on Sunday
Last updated at 14:45 09 January 2005

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The BBC executive behind the decision to screen Jerry Springer - The Opera last night has fled his home with his young family after receiving death threats.

BBC2 controller Roly Keating, his wife and their three young children were driven out of their £1million house after a Christian group posted his private address and telephone number on its website.

They fled yesterday morning after security experts decided the threat to kill Mr Keating if the programme went ahead was a credible one.

A security firm employing former members of the Armed Forces was brought in to guard his Victorian terraced house in North London. It is believed the homes of six other BBC executives were also under guard last night following similar threats. They included director of television Jana Bennett, creative director Alan Yentob and BBC1 controller Lorraine Heggessey.

'He was told if the show ran, he would die'

Concerns about the safety of BBC executives emerged in the run-up to last night's 10pm screening of the obscenity-strewn West End musical, which has angered Christians with its "blasphemous" content. The show, which attracted a record 45,000 complaints before its broadcast, is based on the brash American talk show and features a reported 8,000 swear words, dancing Ku Klux Klan members and a nappy-wearing Jesus confessing he is "a bit gay".

A BBC source said Friday's phone threats were made to Mr Keating's home and office - and contained a specific threat against him: "He was told that if the show ran, he would die." The BBC reported the calls to the police, who are investigating.

Mrs Keating and the couple's children, who are aged four to 11, left their home yesterday morning for a secret "safe house".

A neighbour said: "Caroline left with the children. She looked very stressed. The family have gone away for a few days."

Mr Keating, 43, was at his desk yesterday but is understood to have joined his family later, leaving a burly security guard sitting in a Land Rover outside his home.

The Corporation has employed Rubicon International to provide a round-the-clock watch on the property, as well as the homes of the other BBC figures.

A BBC security source said: "The BBC are taking this very seriously and have employed Rubicon to mount 24-hour watches on the homes under threat. The watch on Mr Keating's home was put in place just hours after the death threat was received and will remain in place until we consider it safe. Mr Keating arrived for work at the BBC while his wife left the family home with the help of a security guard and, as far as we know, she is safe. The police are involved but they haven't the resources for a 24-hour watch, and that's why we've drafted in a security firm.

"However, the police visit the address regularly to make sure everything is all right. I think it was the police who advised them to leave the house for their own safety. I know Caroline is very worried."

Low profile

Last night a BBC spokesman said: "We have contacted the police about some of the phone calls which our staff have been receiving."

A spokesman for Rubicon added: "We are assisting them in looking after these premises, but we are not providing bodyguards to executives.

"The BBC have sensibly told everybody to keep a low profile and the executives aren't at those locations. Anybody who rocks up there is going to be wasting their time."

At Mr Yentob's £3million, threestorey Georgian home in West London there were no visible signs of security last night, and the nearby home of Ms Heggessey appeared deserted.

Mr Keating and Ms Bennett's home details were posted on the website of campaign group Christian Voice on Friday morning, but were removed later that day after BBC lawyers got in touch.

The group's national director Stephen Green, who has led the protests against the show, said: "The BBC just do not take any notice when we go through the normal channels.

"They hold ordinary people in contempt. The idea was that here's a way to actually get straight to the people who make the decisions. But sadly it does appear certain other elements have picked up on it. In retrospect it seems a mistake to have put those details up on the website."

The BBC spokesman added: "Lawyers acting for us contacted Christian Voice on Friday night and requested the offending pages be removed to prevent the publication of private addresses and phone numbers of staff, which they have done."

Meanwhile, Conservative deputy leader Michael Ancram added his voice to the protest, accusing the BBC of adopting shock tactics.

He said: "You choose to go to the theatre. That is where you go to see freedom of expression. Public service television has another duty and that is to exercise a degree of caution. What [the BBC] is trying to do is get people to watch it because they think it is going to shock them. I don't think it is the duty of the BBC to do that."

'This will count against them'

John Beyer, director of lobby group Mediawatch UK, added: "It's a great pity the BBC have decided to ignore the protests. When it comes to renewing the licence fee, this will count against them."

Yesterday afternoon two dozen peaceful protesters handed out leaflets outside BBC Television Centre in West London calling for the "vile" programme to be withdrawn.

Mark Wheedon, pastor of Worthing Tabernacle in West Sussex, said: "The programme is crude, offensive and blasphemous. It is defamatory to Jesus Christ."

Christian Voice had called for vigils in London as well as studios across the country.

The exact number of obscenities in the show, which stars former Starsky and Hutch actor David Soul, was disputed. The 8,000 figure is calculated by multiplying the number of profanities by the number of actors singing them.

By counting just the number of times a word is featured, the BBC insists there were fewer than 300 offensive words, including 117 mentions of the F-word and seven of the Cword.