BBC Breakfast host forced to step in as correspondent is heckled live on air

03 October 2023 , 08:33

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BBC Breakfast host forced to step in as correspondent is heckled live on air

BBC Breakfast host Sally Nugent was forced to step in and distract viewers after a man was shouting "slash the licence fee" in the background of a live news report.

The journalist, Peter Ruddick, was reporting from Manchester Piccadilly station when a passer-by noticed the cameras and started yelling his opinion in to the camera - which completely disreputed the live report. Peter was left flustered as he tried to continue with his segment but it soon became noticeable that this was a pointless task. The reporter was in the middle of talking about the potential loss of the Northern leg of HS2 to Manchester.

Sally Nugent was forced to intervene (BBC)

After weeks of speculation, the high-speed rail line between Birmingham and Manchester is set to be shelved, according to reports. And it was at this point that the report was cut short and Sally, 52, took over from the studio and she said soon after: "Peter having a bit of unwanted attention there so let's move on shall we for a moment."

Predictably, viewers were quick to point out the blunder as they took to Twitter to voice their opinion. One person wrote: "Most sensible thing said in TV this morning 'scrap the tv licence fee." Another penned:"Scrap the tv licence fee was what the guy was saying #BBCBreakfast."

Trying to feel sorry for the TV news programme, another person commented: "Oh dear #BBCBreakfast." But this, it seems, was just the start of things to come for Sally and her co-host Jon Kay. The presenters introduced Lisa Stockdale who was from the Jenner Institute at Oxford University to discuss the development of the cheap malaria project.

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News reporter Peter Ruddick was interrupted by a man who was yelling "slash the licence fee" to the camera

But when Jon kicked off the interview both presenters soon realised that there were technical difficulties which prevented Lisa from being heard. Jon started off by saying: "How significant could this vaccine be?" And after a long pause, Jon added: "I'm sorry, we don't have sound on you there. I don't know whether Lisa, despite all her medical expertise and scientific genius, has maybe left it muted. We've all done that."

But Lisa returned within minutes and provided the news segment with an update on the the malaria vaccine, which is now the seond vaccine to be developed.Malaria can kill mostly babies and infants. And according to reports, there are alreay agreements in place to manufacture more than 100 million doses a year.

It has taken more than a century to develop effective vaccines against the disease which is spread by the bite of mosquitoes. And the reason why it is so deadly is because it hides from the human body's immune system by constantly changing shape.

Earlier this week, Sally was forced to step in again when Jon was speaking about Les Dennis ' exit from Strictly Come Dancing. Instead of calling him by his name, Jon called him Len Dennis, confusing his name with Sir Lenny Henry who had been on the news programme earlier.

Lucretia Munro