BBC Breakfast stepped back in time on Friday after a technical hitch saw them replacing their usual on-screen clock with a good old-fashioned wall clock.
The show was forced to improvise when their usual digital timestamp failed during the live broadcast.
Quick-thinking correspondent Ben Thompson proved what an asset to the team he is when he propped a wall clock up on the desk in front of presenters Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty, so that viewers would not be late for work or the school run.
A BBC Breakfast spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “Time was against us when we had a technical problem at the start of today’s BBC Breakfast but luckily a replacement clock was found just in time to ensure viewers didn’t miss a minute.”
Journalist and TV critic Scott Bryan also quoted a BBC insider who claimed producers actually had trouble sourcing a clock for the studio as there are “surprisingly few real clocks” at the show’s home at Salford’s MediaCity.
“They’re all on screens and in monitors,” the souce said.
The failing of the on-screen clock came just weeks after the BBC refreshed their graphics package across their news programming, which drew a mixed response from viewers.
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays from 6am on BBC One and the BBC News channel.