• The BBC's director of programmes, Michael Grade, is still
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considering the fate of the controversial Arena programme "Night Moves" which was to have been shown on Friday, December 19. The programme was suspended following allegations from the Mail an Sunday that "top motor firms" had "secretly paid" for a favourable progranune on the road haulage industry.
Since then, producer Jeff Perks of Riverfront Productions, which co-produced the film with the BBC, has denied that there was any secrecy involved. "The BBC knew all along that we were raising money from a wide range of road transport sources," he says, "and no objections were raised at any time."
Perks' claim has also been confirmed by Alan Yentob, head of music and arts at the BBC. Yentob, quoted in The Independent on December 24, says: "There was absolutely no secrecy about these arrangements. I was fully
aware that funds had been raised by Riverfront from a number of sources in the transport industry, but it was made absolutely clear by the BBC that there could be no obligations to these backers, and that the BBC would exercise total editorial control in the project."
The backers — including Commercial Motor — are now awaiting the outcome of the internal enquiry initiated by Grade at the BBC, and still hope that the film will be shown in the near future.