The TV fakery scandal claimed its biggest scalp yet today when Peter Fincham, Controller of BBC One, resigned over a doctored documentary trailer which misrepresented the Queen.

Mr Fincham announced that he was quitting after an investigation by a former BBC executive, Will Wyatt, criticised the corporation for "misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems".

The inquiry had been commissioned by Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, after Mr Fincham wrongly told a July 11 press launch that a forthcoming documentary would show the Queen storming out of a sitting with the celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Mr Fincham discovered by 5pm that day that this was untrue, but the BBC did not correct it until the following morning after prominent stories had already been made public in a number of newspapers and television stations - and only issued an apology at noon that day.

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It is hard not to read this document and conclude that heads had to roll

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Footage of the Queen apparently "walking out in a huff" following a row with Leibovitz had, in fact, been a scene of her walking into the photoshoot.

The scene had been spliced together incorrectly by a production house working for RDF Media, the company which the BBC had commissioned to produce the documentary, whose creative director, Stephen Lambert, also resigned today. The BBC has placed a "pause" in comissioning work from RDF, which the corporation says will remain in place until it is convinced the company's compliance procedures are robust.

Mr Wyatt's report said that the BBC had given too much power to RDF, which it also criticised for "inexcusably" lighting the fuse by editing footage of the Queen in a "cavalier fashion".

It said the BBC should have asked someone who specifically worked on the series to check the tape before the press launch, and that - having realised the magnitude of its error - it should have corrected it sooner.

"Those handling the issue were slow to appreciate the magnitude and import of the mistake and consequent press story, and failed to involve enough people swiftly enough," it said.

"The decision, taken with the Buckingham Palace press office, to delay a correcting statement until the following morning was a mistake by the BBC."

The report concluded: "The incident reveals misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems as well, of course, as the usual helping of bad luck that often accompanies such sorry affairs."

In a letter to Mr Thompson announcing his resignation, Mr Fincham said he had taken the decision "with great sadness".

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