The opening seconds of the 12pm live news programme on the BBC News channel didn’t go quite to plan today.
Viewers tuning in to the channel will have been surprised to be greeted by a one-finger salute from presenter Maryam Moshiri.
A short video clip of the incident posted on The TV Room’s Twitter/X account this evening has gone viral.
UPDATE: responding to The TV Room’s tweet, Maryam wrote: “Hey, I’m so sorry about this. I was having a private joke with the team in the gallery and pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0, including the fingers to show the number.
“When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera.
“It was a private joke with the team and I’m so sorry it went out on air!
“It was not my intention for this to happen and I’m sorry if I offended or upset anyone.
“I wasn’t ‘flipping the bird’ at viewers or even a person really. It was a silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates.”
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PICTURED: BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri. COPYRIGHT: BBC.