BBC presenter sorry after unfortunate slip of the tongue turned show X-rated

02 September 2023 , 11:27

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A BBC presenter has apologised after an unfortunate slip of the tongue live on air which has since gone viral.

Chris Arnold was standing in for Mel Everett on BBC Radio Somerset when he made the X-rated error right at the beginning of the show. It all started off well when he said: “Hello, good evening. Chris Arnold here until 10pm. Hope you’ve had a good day.”

The DJ then accidentally turned the air blue when he followed up with: “Lots of come... lots to come tonight.” After an awkward pause, Chris tried to recover and said “right ok” as he got on with presenting the rest of the show.

But the slip up didn’t go unnoticed by fans – and Chris took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to poke fun at himself afterwards as he shared the clip while issuing an apology. “I can only apologise profusely to the listeners for this deeply unfortunate slip of the tongue on the show this evening.”

And the clip gained even more traction when BBC Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Greg James shared it and wrote: “Urm. This is one of the one of the all time greats.” Chris responded by saying: “My consummate radio professionalism being recognised by one of the best in the business.”

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BBC radio presenter Chris Arnold's awkward blunder went viral (Twitter)

Greg later played the snippet to listeners on his breakfast show and said: “Let’s now go to BBC Somerset and Chris Arnold who was having a great time last night on the show.” Calling the blip “fantastic”, he added: “I hope you enjoyed that round-up as much as he did.”

Praising Greg for supporting local radio presenters, Chris then joked: “Well, I’ve made it on to @BBCR1 folks. Wasn’t quite the way I hoped to be appearing on Radio 1, but here we are.”

Fans were also quick to give their opinions on the awkward blunder, with one saying she “snorted on my coffee” after hearing the clip. Another commented: “Would have loved to see your face during that awkward pause. Thanks for this, made me chuckle.”

A third joked: “Never knew radio cummerset was such good fun,” as a fourth wrote: “I suspect there’s a few people a bit salty about it.” And a fifth chimed in: “I hope the show had a happy ending.”

One follower posted a clip from another radio blunder on BBC Radio Scotland a few years ago, in which a presenter is heard saying: “Him and his wife are off on their holidays this coming July to Northern Ireland and he’s going to Bangor for a fortnight!”

BBC News presenter Rajini Vaidyanathan made a gaffe about Donald Trump last week (BBC)

Just a few days ago BBC News presenter Rajini Vaidyanathan made an awkward gaffe when reporting on Donald Trump’s court case – and accidentally referred to him as Donald Tramp.

She carried on a like a pro but, needless to say, the clip of her howler quickly made its way onto social media. And none other than Radio 1’s Greg James – who is turning into a bit of a blunder spotter - was quick to comment.

He said on his breakfast show: “Thank you to the person who’s just messaged in to tell me ‘Greg, Greg - something’s happened on the news.’ On closer inspection, this is actually the BBC News channel and it’s Rajini Vaidyanathan who used to be on Newsbeat here. She’s an amazing journalist, she’s so so good. I love Rajini. She’s doing the news today and Donald Trump is in the news, but she decides to call him Donald Tramp."

Rajini is in good company after BBC News colleague Gareth Barlow also made a mistake last week. During the opening line of his broadcast, he said: "Hello! I'm watching..." before realising his error and quipping to himself: "I'm watching News? I'm Gareth Barlow." Correcting himself, he then added: "You're watching BBC News."

Giving his verdict on the recent ‘blunders’, Greg added: "It’s been a really good couple of weeks for BBC News. I really like it when you get to know the real BBC newsreader and you get to know they’re not always slick, they’re not always news robots but real, fun people.”