BBC News presenter Ben Brown has apologised after accidentally summing up the mood of the entire nation when he was caught yawning live on air.
Listen, it’s been a long old year, Ben. We’re with you.
During a live broadcast on Sunday afternoon, Ben was caught off guard when a news segment was suddenly cut short, revealing he was in the middle of a massive yawn.
“Oh, caught out there” he said with a smile, realising the candid moment had just been beamed to viewers across the nation, before going back to his usual presenting duties.
After the yawn began doing the rounds on Twitter, Ben apologised for the gaffe, suggesting he wasn’t actually supposed to have been on camera during the moment in question.
“Apologies for this dear viewers,” he wrote, in response to one tweet suggesting that “tier 4 fatigue” had set in at the BBC.
“I was at the end of a long shift after a 5am start when the director cut to me by mistake. The perils of live TV!”
OK, be honest. You’re yawning now after watching that clip, aren’t you?
The errant yawn is the latest BBC News gaffe that’s had people talking in 2020, with the events of the year leading to a number of mishaps, both technical and otherwise.
Back in May, the broadcaster inadvertently had a live interview cut short when they ran out of free minutes on the video chat service Zoom, while last month saw Matthew Amroliwala accidentally discussing a tweet that had “just been put out” by Margaret Thatcher, despite the former prime minister having been dead since 2013.