Don’t bother reading or listening to this if you are of a sensitive disposition or don’t appreciate puerile nonsense. As much of an excuse to try out Audioboo embedding in the blog but giggling this morning when James Naughtie introduced Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary on the Today Programme with an heroic slip of the tongue…
As you can hear, his attempts to keep himself together while introducing the news were commendable, but not particularly effective… If it hadn’t been for the stifled giggles, I would have put it down to me mishearing though my daughter showed admirable linguistic skills coupled with touching concern. It was hard to hear everything that happened next as my daughter (7) was keen to know why someone would laugh at someone else for having a ‘rude name’. She felt it most unfair. There seemed to be a barrage of email and calls to the BBC Switchboard complaining about the ‘terrible lapse’ etc etc.
Just to show how easy such slips of the tongue are, Andrew Marr then managed to repeat the original faux pas on Start the Week:
James Naughtie can take succour from the fact that he wasn’t the first and he certainly won’t be the last to fall prey to Dr Spooner. Trevor McDonald famously started a story on the Kent Countryside by getting his letters mixed up.
Even Robin Day has fallen prey…
Don’t know why, but it reminded me of the fabulous letter the British Ambassador to Moscow wrote to Lord Pembroke in 1943, before the Internet was invented.
