BBC Newsnight guest's phone goes off four times

Joe Anderton
·2 min read
victoria derbyshire on bbc newsnight on january 31, 2023
Newsnight guest's phone goes off four times on airBBC

The BBC's Newsnight got a little bit chaotic last night (January 31), as a guest's phone went off not one, not two, not even three, but four times.

Tory peer Ken Baker was being interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire and the two were speaking about the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi after the revelations about his tax affairs, as well as the state of the Conservative party at the moment.

As Ken's phone interrupted their discussion the first time, he apologised and Victoria took it off him to decline the call. She said that she would put it on silent but, unfortunately, it went off again. And again. And again.

Related: The One Show's Alex Jones has unexpected interruption live on air

Some contacts can be set to have their calls ring loudly even when your phone is on silent, usually used for emergency contacts, and Victoria joked that someone was frantically calling to make him stop talking on live television.

Despite all the kerfuffle though, the interview mostly carried on and wrapped up like normal.

One viewer praised former I'm A Celeb star Victoria for handling the situation with humour and professionalism, and she appeared to appreciate the support as she quote-shared the tweet with an added heart emoji.

It's the second phone-related live TV drama to hit the BBC in recent weeks, as the corporation's coverage of the FA Cup was interrupted when sex noises were played on air for around 10 minutes.

Presenter Gary Lineker tried his hardest to keep a straight face throughout, and later shared a photo of a phone that had been taped to the set to his Twitter.

"Well, we found this taped to the back of the set. As sabotage goes it was quite amusing," he said. The BBC issued an official statement to apologise and explained it was investigating how the incident happened.

Newsnight airs every weekday at 10.30pm on BBC Two.

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