Savile producer warned on damage to BBC The BBC was on Monday facing even more serious questions about the decision to pull a Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile and his abuse of teenage girls. The producer responsible for the investigation says he warned his bosses they would be accused of a cover-up if they blocked the programme last December. In a Panorama programme to be broadcast on BBC tonight, it will be claimed that George Entwistle, now BBC director-general, was told that if the Newsnight programme ran, he might have to change his Christmas schedules because they included tributes to the recently-deceased DJ. The Panorama programme will bring into focus explanations given this month by the most senior figures at the corporation about the reasons for not broadcasting the Newsnight episode. Meirion Jones, the Newsnight producer behind the Savile investigation, told Panorama he had warned his editor, Peter Rippon, that the BBC could face accusations of a cover-up and reputational damage. He said the programme was more advanced than Mr Rippon has claimed and, crucially, that he was looking into evidence that Savile had abused many under-age girls and not, as senior managers have suggested, into whether prosecutors had decided in 2007 not to pursue the former radio DJ over sex offences because of his age. Savile was then 80. Mr Jones told Panorama: "I felt sure the story would get out in some way and the BBC would be accused of a cover-up." John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons" culture, media and sport committee, told the Today radio programme that allegations the Newsnight programme was dropped risked doing more damage to the BBC than the original scandal. What happened 30 years ago was terribly serious, it must be investigated, but the damage at the BBC today has been done by the investigation and the suggestions that the Newsnight investigation was dropped and various individuals were made known about it and did nothing. The main accusation arising on Monday against the BBC, which has now ordered two investigations into the Savile affair, including what happened with the Newsnight report, is that it made misleading statements about the original investigation. At the beginning of this month, the BBC said the Newsnight investigation was about a 2007 Surrey police inquiry into Savile and why it was not followed through by the Crown Prosecution Service, but Mr Jones denied this, telling Panorama he did not find out about the police inquiry until after he had started his investigation. Panorama will broadcast evidence that Mr Rippon was encouraging Mr Jones to finish his programme on November 25 last year, that four days later the internal unit responsible for publicising BBC programmes was expecting its broadcast, but that on November 30 Mr Rippon said he was not convinced the investigation had proved any failure by the CPS and therefore was not yet strong enough for broadcast. Mr Jones is quoted by Panorama as saying that he told Mr Rippon on December 7 that "the story is strong enough" and by not running it there would be "substantial damage to BBC reputation [sic]." Panorama will say that on December 2 2011, in a conversation lasting no more than 10 seconds, Helen Boaden, the BBC's head of news, told Mr Entwistle, who was then in charge of television, that if Newsnight ran, he might have to change long-planned Christmas schedules which included expensively-produced tributes to Mr Savile. Mr Whittingdale commented: "If you were the director of Vision and you were told at the time when you were commissioning programmes paying tribute to Jimmy Savile that Newsnight might be about to reveal a bombshell, you wouldn't just have a 10-second conversation. You'd say "well, tell me more, I'm about to go public putting out these programmes making out that Jimmy Savile was a saint." But it appears from this he didn't even ask a question about what the Newsnight investigation was about. Mr Rippon said in a blog on October 2 this year that the Newsnight investigation had not produced new evidence and that its main thrust was into the CPS decision not to bring charges against Savile. Mr Entwistle, himself a former Newsnight editor who is now director-general of the BBC, repeated this claim in an email to all BBC staff on October 5 and Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, said he believed there was no corporate cover-up and supported Mr Rippon's reasons for not going ahead. Mr Entwistle faces a stormy appearance on Tuesday before MPs to answer questions about the scandal.