AUNTIE’S HIGH PRIEST OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
IF Danny Cohen had not forged a career in television, he might have done well in politics.
The BBC director of television is expert at skirting controversy, helping him to chart an ascent that has been nothing short of meteoric.
at 33, he became boss of BBC3, pedalling ‘yoof’ shows with trashy titles such as Snog Marry avoid, **** Off, I’m a Hairy Woman, and Hotter Than My Daughter.
It was an odd fit for the Oxfordeducated television executive, who is described by colleagues as serious and cerebral. But Mr Cohen, who is also supremely ambitious, knew that it was necessary for him to get ahead.
His plan worked and he was soon promoted to run BBC1, becoming – at 36 – its youngestever controller. a few years later, he became director of television, earning £327,000 a year. The next goal, friends say, is to succeed Lord Tony Hall as director general.
Certainly, Mr Cohen has the impeccable liberal credentials that usually go hand in hand with the top job at the BBC. The 41year-old executive is married to noreena Hertz, a beautiful Cambridge economics professor six years his elder. The pair have spent years living together in Bohemian splendour in notting Hill, forming one of West London’s most impressive power duos.
When the couple married in March 2012, actress Rachel Weisz was a bridesmaid, and the guest list included Charles Saatchi and nigella Lawson.
at the BBC, Mr Cohen does his best to avoid offence, often by speaking in television jargon or metaphors – he famously once described BBC3 as a ‘young dolphin’. He has also made it his business to champion ethnic diversity at the BBC, backing controversial quotas to make sure more minorities are hired.
all of which goes some way to explaining why Mr Cohen is less willing than some of his BBC colleagues to tolerate Jeremy Clarkson’s outrageous and sometimes racist behaviour.
‘He’s quite a moral character, so it is very uncomfortable for him,’ said a friend.
But was his eagerness to evict Clarkson from the BBC entirely down to a strong moral compass? Perhaps Mr Cohen’s personal ego and fierce ambition are very much at play here too.
The BBC’s golden boy wanted to suspend or sack Clarkson last year, after he used the racist word ‘slope’ on a Top Gear special in Burma. However, Mr Cohen was overruled by Lord H, forcing him to let Clarkson off with a ‘final’ warning. ‘It was humiliating for him,’ said a colleague.
It is not the first time Mr Cohen’s ego has been bruised of course, nor that he has had a frosty relationship with a presenter.
In 2012, when he was still running BBC1, the television executive was snubbed by Jessie J, the singer who became a household name after he made her a judge on The Voice.
Mr Cohen went to greet the bisexual pop star in her dressing room at one of the shows, but instead of welcoming him and thanking him for her big break, Jessie J is said to have refused to allow him in. Instead, she allegedly told staff to inform him that
‘Rid of him once and for all’
she was asleep, leaving him outside ‘like a lemon’.
For the most part, though, Mr Cohen has made a career of sidestepping contentious issues that could leave a lasting stain on his reputation. Insiders are still incredulous he managed to avoid any blame for the BBC’s apparent cover up of the Jimmy Savile scandal. The Corporation axed Panorama’s expose of the sexual predator, which had been scheduled to air on BBC1, while Mr Cohen was controller. The apparent cover-up eventually cost the executive’s boss, former director general George Entwistle, his job.
Having dodged those scandals, Mr Cohen is hardly going to allow Clarkson’s antics to threaten his plans to reach the top. He has seen his chance to get rid of the Top Gear presenter once and for all, and this time, colleagues say, he will do all in his power to seize it.