The BBC was said to have been "inundated" today after a newsreader collapsed in a fit of giggles in the middle of a bulletin.
Charlotte Green had just introduced an item about the oldest known recording of the human voice on the Radio 4 Today programme's 8am news bulletin.
As the recording of a woman singing the French song Clair de Lune, made in 1860, played, somebody in the studio apparently whispered in her ear that it sounded like a bee buzzing in a bottle.
The result was an uncontrollable fit of the giggles as Ms Green struggled to make it to end of the next item - a report about the death of the Hollywood screenwriter Abby Mann.
Presenters Ed Stourton and James Naughtie both denied responsibility for the unfortunate whisper which caused Ms Green such hilarity.
Her embarrassment however clearly amused the listeners. Mr Stourton said that the BBC had been besieged with calls begging them to play it again.
"We have been inundated with hundreds of emails asking us to play that again. Apparently the BBC press office is in meltdown with calls about it," he said.
He added: "We hope that the family of Abby Mann will understand that it obviously wasn't intended as any slight towards him."
"I'm afraid I just lost it, I was completely ambushed by the giggles," said Green.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article