The late Dale Winton would have been 64 years old today, had he still been alive, a fact that appears to have slipped the mind of whoever looks after Challenge TV’s official Twitter account.
The channel sent their best wishes to the former Supermarket Sweep presenter on Wednesday afternoon, in a since deleted tweet, 13 months after the TV star passed away.
“Happy birthday to the legendary Dale Winton. Have a good one,” the channel tweeted.
It took Challenge an hour and a half to pull the plug on the tweet, which was slightly longer than it took for much of Twitter to notice...
A spokesperson for Challenge TV told HuffPost UK: “We’re sorry for any offence caused by the post on Challenge TV’s Twitter page. This was published in error and was deleted shortly after being tweeted.”
The star’s long-time agent, Jan Kennedy, confirmed “the coroner investigating the death of Dale Winton has found death by natural causes”.
Dale began his career in the entertainment industry when he DJ’ed on the London club circuit in the 1970s, before making the switch over to television in the late 1980s.
He is best-known for presenting hit game show ‘Supermarket Sweep’, which ran from 1993 to 2000, before being revived in 2007.
He was remembered at a humanist ceremony attended by a host of his showbiz friends including David Walliams, Gloria Hunniford, Christopher Biggins, Matt Lucas, Steve Allen, Anthea Turner, Vanessa Feltz, Graeme Souness, Tony Blackburn and Piers Morgan.