Night the News at Ten fell silent ... for 4 minutes
It began at ten as usual. But viewers of the BBC’s flagship programme didn’t get any news on tuesday night until almost five past – after a technical fault left Huw Edwards sitting in absolute silence for four minutes.
Viewers watched the 55-year-old – who was seemingly unaware the cameras were rolling – writing notes, twiddling his hands and raising his eyebrows interspersed with flashing ‘break- ing news’ messages. the message ‘We are sorry for the break in this programme and are trying to correct the fault’ then appeared onscreen
Programme editor Paul Royall later tweeted: ‘FYI technical system crash seconds before 10. Director had to switch to a back-up system ASAP. @huwbbc doing great job.’
At the end of the show, Edwards apologised for the ‘problems at the start of the programme’. He then tweeted a photo of a can of ale with the words: ‘I think I’m going to enjoy this little beauty after that ten. Iechyd da [Welsh for ‘Cheers’]!’ Afterwards viewers took to twitter to praise his performance, with one writing: ‘Watching Huw Edwards do nothing on BBC news is kind of absorbing, like a lava lamp.’
ItV’s Good Morning Britain was also plagued by technical problems. It was forced off air at 7am yesterday after rising temperatures caused its transmission equipment to overheat.