OMEN
02-04-2009, 10:50 AM
Carol Thatcher has been axed from the BBC's 'The One Show' for making an offence off air remark about a tennis player
The daughter of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher referred to a tennis player as a "golliwog" backstage during filming of the show
Thatcher was immediately challenged about the comment, but apologised only yesterday and dismissed it as a "joke".
Her position on the show is understood to have become untenable after she declined to issue an unconditional apology to those she had offended.
A BBC spokesman said last night: "We will no longer be working with Carol Thatcher on The One Show."
The remark was made during a conversation about the Australian Open tennis tournament, in reference to a player who had recently been knocked out of the men's singles draw.
BBC sources said the remark caused great offence to those who heard it at the time and those members of the production team who heard about it later on.
Crowned queen of the jungle in the 2005 series of 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!,' she is a regular contributor to the magazine show and the programme's website praises "her dry, self-deprecating wit and tenacious spirit".
Thatcher's job as a roving reporter required her to report on a wide variety of issues and to meet a range of people throughout the country, many of whom were unlikely to agree that her comment was acceptable even as a joke, the sources said.
They added her removal from the programme did not mean she was banned from the BBC as a whole, but was simply no longer able to fulfil her current role on the show.
RTE
The daughter of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher referred to a tennis player as a "golliwog" backstage during filming of the show
Thatcher was immediately challenged about the comment, but apologised only yesterday and dismissed it as a "joke".
Her position on the show is understood to have become untenable after she declined to issue an unconditional apology to those she had offended.
A BBC spokesman said last night: "We will no longer be working with Carol Thatcher on The One Show."
The remark was made during a conversation about the Australian Open tennis tournament, in reference to a player who had recently been knocked out of the men's singles draw.
BBC sources said the remark caused great offence to those who heard it at the time and those members of the production team who heard about it later on.
Crowned queen of the jungle in the 2005 series of 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!,' she is a regular contributor to the magazine show and the programme's website praises "her dry, self-deprecating wit and tenacious spirit".
Thatcher's job as a roving reporter required her to report on a wide variety of issues and to meet a range of people throughout the country, many of whom were unlikely to agree that her comment was acceptable even as a joke, the sources said.
They added her removal from the programme did not mean she was banned from the BBC as a whole, but was simply no longer able to fulfil her current role on the show.
RTE