Making a few Bob
BBC profit from Monkhouse ad
Bob Monkhouse’s widow has criticised the BBC for charging her thousands of pounds to help make a charity ad.The corporation charged widow Jackie £3,250 for the rights to use footage in the campaign for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation.
Clips were spliced together with new material and voiceover from an impressionist to make it appear that Monkhouse had risen from the dead.
The ad would have cost £750,000 to make – but the work was donated free, except for the BBC rights, which70-year-old Jackie had to pay for.
She told The Sun: ‘It doesn’t look very good for the BBC.’
The BBC said it could not give away the footage but charged a reduced rate.
Monkhouse died at the age of 75 in 2003 after contracting prostate cancer, one of the biggest killers of British men.
Click here to watch the commercial.
Published: 15 Jun 2007
