On Wednesday, the BBC issued a public apology after pornographic sounds were overheard on air during live broadcasts of an FA Cup match. The incident occurred when sounds interrupted former England striker Gary Lineker’s report of Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Liverpool at Molineux Stadium.
According to the reports, the sounds were supposedly generated by a cell phone hidden in the studio by a prankster. “We apologize to any viewers offended during the live coverage of the football this evening,” the BBC stated in a statement.
Following the event, Gary Lineker tweeted a photo of a cell phone, stating that it was “taped to the back of the set” inside the stadium. He tried to chuckle it off as he hosted the show in a studio at Wolverhampton’s Molineux Stadium with experts Paul Ince and Danny Murphy.
“Somebody’s sending something on someone’s phone, I think,” he remarked as he cut to colleague and fellow former England striker Alan Shearer on the commentary gantry. “I’m not sure if you heard it at home,” he added. He happened to share the tweet when the match started. “Well, we found this taped to the back of the set. As sabotage goes it was quite amusing,” the tweet read.
Lineker subsequently said on BBC Two’s Newsnight that he originally assumed a video had been delivered to one of the panelists’ phones. But it was “too loud,” he added, and that’s when he realised it was all a joke. When asked how loud the sound effect was in the studio, the broadcaster stated he couldn’t hear what anybody was saying in his ear, which made it “quite difficult” to continue with the pre-match build-up. Lineker still saw the humour in it, calling it a ‘good’ prank, and wondered why the BBC issued an apology.
“If you told me this morning that tonight I’d be on Newsnight talking about a porn scandal. I would have been terrified,” he added laughing. The event was extensively posted on social media on Tuesday evening, and it did not go missed by viewers. Later, Daniel Jarvis, a YouTube prankster, claimed responsibility for the act, uploading a video on Twitter that looked to show him at Molineux.
Reports mention that Jarvis was handed a suspended sentence in October after being convicted of aggravated trespass for colliding with England batsman Jonny Bairstow while storming the Oval pitch in south London during a Test match.
He received an eight-week jail term suspended for two years and was barred from attending any athletic event in England or Wales for two years. He was also barred from travelling overseas for a year and ordered to participate in rehabilitation activities.