Adrian Van Klaveren, the former Radio 5 Live controller who lost his job following Jimmy Savile scandal, will head up the BBC’s World War I Centenary coverage next year.

Van Klaveren will oversee all of the corporation’s related programming across TV, radio and online in 2014. He will also coordinate BBC events around the country.

‘The First World War had an enormous impact on individual people’s lives, society as a whole and world politics and it’s vital that our coverage reflects that,’ said Van Klaveren.

Incidentally, he was one of the temporary BBC News management team – put in place after the Savile scandal to deal with issues relating to the disgraced TV host – that approved Newsnight’s erroneous report on Lord McAlpine.