A storm in a BBC teacup?
It shouldn’t happen to a TV Weatherman – what a great series that would be. Imagine following the highs and lows of the MET Office’s finest, from Michael Fish’s denial of the 1987 hurricane to, well, yesterday’s incident with Tomasz Schafernaker and his middle finger.
Indeed, understanding the dark art of weather prophecies does not grant one immunity from ‘getting caught out’ it appears … and yesterday, Mr Schafernaker got caught out, on live TV (albeit on a rolling news channel, not proper telly) … how annoying.
BBC News Channel anchor Simon McCoy delivered a jovial link along these lines: “Now we’ll have the weather forecast in just a minute. Of course it will be 100% accurate and provide you with all the details you could possibly want.”
Whilst McCoy was speaking, the director cut to Schafernaker, who clearly didn’t know he was on camera and reacted to McCoy by ‘giving him the bird’ as we used to say as kids.
Realising he was ‘on’ Schafernaker tried to disguise his finger swearing by scratching his chin, but it was all too late …
McCoy didn’t try to paper over the cracks, but tackled the problem head on, immediately saying: “Every now and again there’s always a mistake and that was it.”
A BBC Spokesperson said: “The News Channel presenter in the studio acknowledged a mistake had been made, and we apologise for any offence caused,
“Tomasz was not aware that he was on air, and whilst the gesture was only shown for a second, it was not acceptable.”
Schafernaker, who in 2007 called the Western Isles and the west Highlands “nowheresville” during a weather report later wrote on his blog:
“Prior to a live weather bulletin, I made a gesture off camera joking with my fellow presenters and without warning the camera went live to the weather studio.
“I am very sorry for any offence that might have been caused by my actions.”
Shocking BBC Weather related shenanigans continue!
Here’s the video:
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