Star radio presenter James Naughtie caused a minor on-air storm yesterday when he accidentally referred to the Culture Secretary as Jeremy C***.
The minister, whose actual name is Jeremy Hunt was appearing on Radio 4’s Today programme just before 8am when Naughtie made a hash of his introduction.
“We are going to be talking to Jeremy C***, em, Hunt, the Culture Secretary, about broadband,” said Naughtie before coughing and giggling embarrassedly. He then pulled himself together long enough to interview Hunt about the Government’s new £830 million broadband policy.
He later apologise profusely, describing the gaffe as “the most unintentional thing imaginable”.
“Sometimes things happen in live broadcasting that you deeply regret. I’m very sorry to anyone who thought it wasn’t what they wanted to hear over their breakfast – neither did I, needless to say”
Later BBC presenter Andrew Marr made the same mistake live on air when he was retelling the story.
The verbal blunder of mixing up the sounds of words – in this case mixing up the “C” of Culture with “H” of Hunt – is quite common and is known as a Spoonerism.
The BBC was forced to issue an apology for both verbal slip-ups after being bombarded with complaints.
“James and Andrew have both apologised for their verbal tangles on air.”
