The BBC has paid a controversial Tory donor caught up in the Kids Company scandal for the use of his lavish clifftop estate which features in a hit new BBC spy thriller.
But last night the Corporation refused to say how much licence-payers’ cash had been given to Lord Lupton so that they could shoot scenes for The Night Manager at his family’s spectacular 232-acre holiday estate in Majorca.
La Fortaleza, a 17th Century fortress, is said be Spain’s most expensive property. In The Night Manager, it is the lair of ‘the worst man in the world’ – billionaire arms dealer Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie.
Holiday estate: La Fortaleza, a 17th Century fortress, is said be Spain’s most expensive property
But critics said the broadcaster should come clean about its dealings with the peer, given his links to Kids Company, the collapsed charity chaired by former BBC grandee Alan Yentob.
Lord Lupton, an investment banker who has given £2.9 million to the Conservatives since 2009, accompanied Kids Company boss Camila Batmanghelidjh to lobby Ministers. They later gave her charity a £3 million grant when it was on the brink of financial ruin.
One MP said: ‘I’m sure there will be lots of raised eyebrows given the links between Kids Company and Alan Yentob. The BBC needs to be transparent about this.’
Last spring, the crew filming The Night Manager – the BBC’s £20 million adaptation of John Le Carré’s thriller – spent more than a week at La Fortaleza. Sources said the BBC had paid the ‘going rate’ to use the palatial estate – although it is not clear how much that is.
Last year, a week-long stay at the property was an auction prize at the Conservatives’ Black and White Ball fundraiser – and one bidder paid £220,000 to secure it.
Lord Lupton, pictured receiving the CBE from the Queen in 2012, let the BBC film at La Fortaleza, a 17th Century fortress
Tom Hollander and Hugh Laurie in The Night Manager - a hit new BBC spy thriller
Production designer Tom Burton told The Mail on Sunday that the property had been sourced by local firm Palma Pictures, which had been asked to find ‘the biggest and best houses we would have access to’.
The fort was built in 1628 to defend Majorca against invaders. Lord Lupton’s family bought it for £30 million in 2011, by which time the estate had been expanded to include two swimming pools, a helipad and seven villas.
Tory Party co-treasurer Lord Lupton, who received the CBE from the Queen in 2012, last night insisted that there was no connection between the BBC’s use of La Fortaleza – which was not owned by him personally – and his support for Kids Company.
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