THE BBC has said sorry for using a computer-generated image of Griff Rhys Jones during the opening credits for the series Mountain, on a mountain he had not actually been up.

After the fake phone ins and the competition cons, a string of news programme errors and the cock-up over the Queen, some people believe the BBC is suffering from ‘compulsive honesty’ and a ‘culture of apology’.

But there are yet more allegations.

The BBC states:
‘After an initial investigation BBC wishes to make it clear Emily’s cat Bagpuss was not – repeat, not – a real cat and it was never the intention of the programme makers to mislead viewers into thinking it was.
‘Indeed, the words ‘saggy old cloth cat’ were included in every programme in an attempt to avoid precisely this misunderstanding.
‘However, the BBC now accepts many people do own cats that are saggy or old or both, and that the use of only the word ‘cloth’ over an entire series was plainly insufficient.
‘It was never the aim of the BBC to give the impression Bagpuss was not only magical and important, but had a life outside the programme and we wish to apologise to anyone who believed that to be the case.
‘Similarly, the BBC regrets that, in making the popular series The Clangers, none of its production crew or writer and narrator Oliver Postgate – who also created Bagpuss – actually made a single journey to the moon.
‘Having spoken to Mr Postgate we confirm filming was done in his garden shed.
‘Obviously, it is not acceptable that a programme purporting to show what life is like on the moon was actually shot on a table-top.
‘At no time was the BBC made aware this was the case.
‘The BBC has taken the immediate step of removing all of Mr Postgate’s programmes from our schedules while it considers the very serious allegations that Mr Postgate has been deceiving viewers since the late 1950s when Noggin the Nog, though obviously a cartoon, was first shown and it is now claimed not to have actually been based on historical characters.
‘Should these accusations prove to be correct then the BBC will take appropriate action. In the meantime we are very, very sorry indeed.’

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