Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Rebecca Cook

Susanna Reid blushes as Ed Balls makes racy gags over Gary Lineker's X-rated BBC prank

Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid was left red-faced on Wednesday morning as her co-host made a string of gags about the sex noises that interrupted live FA Cup coverage.

Gary Lineker was presenting live on Liverpool's clash with Wolves when porn noises began to play loudly on air in the BBC studio on Tuesday.

The embarrassing gaffe occurred while presenter Lineker was trying to bring in colleague Alan Shearer, as he told viewers: “Somebody's sending something on someone's phone, I think. I don't know whether you heard it at home.”

Good Morning Britain reported on the gaffe on Wednesday morning, after the BBC apologised to viewers who were ‘offended’ by the coverage.

As news presenter Charlotte Hawkins cut back to the main hosts in the ITV studio, former politician Ed Balls made a series of jokes about the incident, beginning: "Did it go to extra time?"

Ed Balls made a series of jokes about the incident. (ITV)

Susanna initially responded: “I was going to say, very tastefully done,” she said before a pause and then adding: “But… We had an Ed Balls intervention.”

Ed then joked: “Did it go to penalties?” as Susanna mildly cringed and added: “I’m not even going to ad-lib on this story, Ed.”

A gleeful Ed responded: “Come with me on this journey. Come with me. Golden goal.”

Susanna then appeared keen to end the conversation as she tried to make a hard pivot to Laura Tobin’s update on the forecast.

Susanna then appeared keen to end the conversation (ITV)

She said: “Let’s…Can we find out what’s happening with the weather? Can we just bring it all down a bit?”

Lineker has since explained the apparent cause of the interruption, as he shared a picture of a mobile phone on Twitter alongside three laughing emojis.

He wrote: “Well, we found this taped to the back of the set. As sabotage goes it was quite amusing.”

Speaking on BBC Two's Newsnight later on Tuesday, Lineker explained that he initially thought a video had been sent to one of the pundits' phones.

Lineker has since explained the apparent cause of the interruption (ITV)

He said: “I have to say I think it's funny. The BBC have issued some sort of apology, I know not why. It's certainly got nothing to apologise for.

"It was quite hard to carry on the pre-match build-up and take it seriously when this was going on in the background.

“It added to the whole game actually. I don’t think anyone cared for the game. We had a screamer of a goal which was kind of the tone of the whole show in some ways.

“As pranks go, it was a good one and credit to them. It was funny I thought.”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.