Red faces at Radio 4 as tweet calls Best an England legend

THE BBC has come under fire for mistakeningly describing George Best as a “legendary England player” in a tweet accompanying a radio interview with Sir Michael Parkinson, who was discussing his memoir about the late footballer.

Sir Michael was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday when the show’s official Twitter account posted the misinformed tweet.

It read: “George Best was the ‘greatest player I ever saw’ but our relationship with the footballer was ‘dominated’ by his love for drinking and partying, says Sir Michael Parkinson, who was a friend of the legendary England player.”

The tweet was later changed to “legendary Northern Ireland footballer”, with a BBC spokesman confirming to the Belfast Telegraph that the tweet had been amended soon after.

“This was an error which was quickly corrected,” they said.

However, the correction did not escape some eagle-eyed Twitter users, with one noting: “Alas, it would seem George is not a ‘legend’ to the youngster who wrote the original piece.”

Another Twitter user posted: “That’s better, a Northern Ireland player, not English as tweeted earlier.”

Sir Michael (83) was on the flagship radio show to promote his new book, George Best: A Memoir, in which he writes frankly about Best’s battle with

Michael Parkinson and Radio 4’s embarrassing tweet calling Best (above) an England player

alcoholism. “Defending him was difficult, but loving him was easy,” he told the Today programme.

“Watching that inevitable decline in a friend as dear to me as he was, was just an awful thing to do.

“In a sense that’s my tribute

to him, just observing, warts and all.”

Further into his discussion with Today presenter John Humphreys, Sir Michael revealed that his friendship with Best had been dominated by drink.

“For a time I joined him on that mad journey of booze and I had my own problems to deal with,” he explained.

“So then I understood him more, I think, than many people might have done.”

He continued: “He wasn’t a cry baby, he was very frank about his problems, very frank about the way that he dealt with them... being an alcoholic is not fun, and George discovered that towards the end.”

The broadcaster, whose eponymous chat show ran from 1971 to 1982, then from 1998 until June 2007,met‘Bestie’whenhewas17 in Manchester in 1963.

He first interviewed him in 1971 and again in 1973 when the ‘Belfast Boy’ first quit Manchester United. They met again for television in 1981 as Best was being treated for alcoholism after the breakdown of his marriage to Angie and his faltering career in America. Their final interview was in 2001 after Best had been waiting for a liver transplant — four years before his death in 2005 from multiple organ failure, aged 59.

Sir Michael will host a launch event for George Best: A Memoir at Titanic Hotel, Belfast, on November 25 at 7pm.

❝ This tweet was an error which was quickly corrected