He was also formerly the controller of BBC One, the primary television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation,[1] until his resignation on 5 October 2007, following criticism over the handling of the Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work debacle.

He joined the Cambridge Footlights production team as musical director, alongside a committee which included Griff Rhys Jones, Jimmy Mulville, Rory McGrath and Clive Anderson.

At the time the company, which was founded by comedians Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, produced radio programming, television advertisements and corporate videos.

[4] Fincham became the company's managing director in 1986,[4] and in 1989 oversaw the move of TalkBack into fully-fledged television production when it produced its founders' sketch show Smith and Jones for BBC One.

[4] He also helped to establish TalkBack as a noted producer in other genres, with the company moving into drama with Stephen Poliakoff's Shooting the Past (BBC Two) in 1999.

[5] Fincham was regarded in some quarters as a surprising choice as controller, as prior to his appointment he had never worked for either the BBC or any other broadcaster, having spent his career in the independent production sector.

[10] However, Davina was a critical and ratings disaster,[11] which Fincham subsequently admitted was personally his fault, although he defended the strategy of experimenting with the BBC One schedule.

"[16] Fincham was involved in a further controversy in July 2007, when introducing a press conference to publicise BBC One's forthcoming autumn season programming for later in the year.

It showed the Queen apparently storming out of a session with American photographer Annie Leibovitz over a disagreement about what she should wear, but the BBC subsequently admitted that one of the shots used in the trailer had been edited out of order.

In December 2011, he took the unilateral decision to remove a song from The Jonathan Ross Show that was commissioned especially for the programme by the comedian and songwriter Tim Minchin.