BBC News presenter caught making mortifying noises while thinking microphone was turned off
Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: TV And Film, UK News, BBC
Jess Hardiman
Hilarious footage captures the moment a BBC News presenter started making bizarre noises off-camera, supposedly believing her microphone was off.
We’ve all had the fear that we’ve accidentally had a Zoom call on while dancing away in our pyjamas or ranting about someone we shouldn’t be.
But for newsreaders, things are even harder, as they’re not always sure when the camera is on them or when their mic is turned on in between segments – an issue one BBC presenter had recently.
Advert
Samantha Simmonds, 43, was presenting the news just before 5pm when it was time to update viewers on the weather.
"Now it’s time for a look with the weather,” she said.
“Here’s Chris Fawkes.”
The camera then cut to Fawkes, who began: “Hello there. The first week of July, temperatures have been a little bit below average for most of us...”
However, as he continued with the weather report, we could hear Simmonds’ voice – initially making a high-pitched sighing sound, before she said: “Yes... [inaudible].”
Tyla has reached out to the BBC for comment.
Back in May, Simmonds’ BBC colleague Lukwesa Burak had a similar experience when she was caught doing a strange pose, not realising she was on camera at the time.
Lukwesa had just finished a news report and thought she had a few moments to stretch while a pre-recorded segment played.
However, the feed cut straight back to her, much to her surprise.
"And that was Bethany Bell in Belgrade there," she told viewers as a segment on vigils being held for the nine victims of Belgrade school shooting wrapped.
"Around the world and across the UK, this is BBC News."
The BBC News title sequence then played and the text 'Across the UK' appeared on screen before showing a split second of a pre-recorded news segment involving bagpipes.
Cameras then unexpectedly cut back to Lukwesa in the studio, who was seen stretching her arms over her head and muttering to herself 'Okay!'
When she realised what had happened, she quickly dropped her arms and turned her head down to the notes on her desk.
For some time, she sat staring down at her desk in silence, before she looked back up at the camera and filled viewers in on a round-up of the top stories of the day.
Then there was that other time, also during May, when we all almost died of second-hand embarrassment as someone could be heard saying 'b***h' during segment about Queen Camilla during a Good Morning Britain segment.
The moment came as part of special special live coverage of King Charles III's coronation.
Petronella Wyatt later took to Twitter to clarify that not only is she the commentator who let a swear word slip, but to also give some context about how she used the word too.
The post reads: "Oops. Was off air this morning @GMB when a mike picked me up having a private chat about how a royal had been unfairly smeared in some quarters as a b….. apologies if anyone thought it referred to them. It didn’t!!"