Maria Miller: BBC has lost public trust over Jimmy Savile More than three weeks after Savile's paedophilia was exposed by an ITV documentary, Mr Entwistle yesterday appeared before MPs to face a public grilling over the BBC's failure to stop the presenter's child abuse and its decision to shelve the Newsnight film after his death last year. The BBC has faced repeated questions over whether the film was dropped because of pressure from managers who had already prepared several tribute programmes to Savile. Mr Entwistle's appearance before the culture, media and sport committee raised yet more questions as he revealed that Mr Rippon had discussed the film with Helen Boaden, the BBC's head of news, and her deputy, Steve Mitchell. He insisted that Mr Rippon had not been "sat on" but could not disclose the nature of the conversations between Mr Rippon and his immediate bosses because he had not spoken to them about it. Ben Bradshaw, one of the MPs who questioned Mr Entwistle, said the management of BBC News was now left with "serious questions" about whether Ms Boaden or Mr Mitchell had put pressure on Mr Rippon to drop the film. He said: "I think we need to hear from them or through this inquiry what was said." Ms Boaden, Mr Mitchell and Mr Rippon are expected to be summoned before MPs after an independent review of the Newsnight controversy has reported its findings in four to six weeks" time. Mrs Miller, who succeeded Jeremy Hunt as Culture Secretary last month, said in her letter: "Following today's select committee hearing and the revelations that have emerged about the factual inaccuracies in the BBC's explanation about why the Savile item in Newsnight was pulled, very real concerns are being raised about public trust and confidence in the BBC." Lord Patten responded: "You know how seriously the Trust takes the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile and the need to maintain public trust in the BBC." He said the inquiries would be "comprehensive and independent." The leaked email which alleged that Mr Rippon dropped the exposé on Savile after telling his staff he regarded the alleged victims as "teenagers, not too young" was obtained by Channel 4 News, and was censored from a Panorama documentary by the BBC's lawyers. The comment was contained in an email Liz MacKean, who was working on the exposé, sent to a friend last December explaining that Mr Rippon had become "lukewarm" about the programme and was "trying to kill it."