BBC Breakfast's Charlie Stayt issues apology after technical error in Gene Hackman report

Independent

28-02-2025

BBC Breakfast presenter Charlie Stayt has issued an apology after a technical error disrupted a report about Gene Hackman during the show on Friday (28 February).
The Oscar winner was found dead at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, aged 95, alongside his wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, and one of their pet dogs, a day earlier.
New Mexico authorities said the deaths are 'suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation' and are yet to announce the couple's cause of death.
The investigation was discussed in a pre-recorded segment on BBC Breakfast, with a photograph of Hackman concluding the report.
However, the picture of the Oscar winner remained on screen even as Stayt moved to the next story on the programme – a controversial BBC documentary about Gaza, narrated by the son of a Hamas leader.
'The BBC has apologised for serious flaws in the production of a documentary about the war in Gaza,' Stayt began to say, before realising the error.
'Apologies, let's just get, err, that bit straightened out,' he stalled as the image was taken off screen.
Although the photo of Hackman had been taken down, the technical blunders continued as the broadcast beamed to a journalist waiting to report from Kyiv.
'Work experience trainee producing #BBCBreakfast this morning?' one person asked on X/Twitter after the series of errors played out on the show.
It comes as the BBC has apologised for 'serious flaws' in the making of the programme Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, and added it has no plans to broadcast the documentary again or return it to iPlayer.
The corporation removed the documentary after it emerged that the child narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture.
The broadcaster, which has now conducted an initial review of the programme, said independent production company Hoyo Films, who made the documentary, told them the boy's mother had been paid 'a limited sum of money for the narration'.
After the discovery about Abdullah Al-Yazouri, who speaks about life in the territory amid the war between Israel and Hamas, the BBC added a disclaimer to the programme and later removed it from its online catch-up service.
A BBC spokesperson said its review 'has identified serious flaws in the making of this programme'.
They added: 'Some of these were made by the production company and some by the BBC; all of them are unacceptable. BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the corporation's reputation. We apologise for this.'
Former BBC One controller Danny Cohen, who was among those wanting the BBC to pull the programme, said: 'The BBC has now acknowledged the very serious journalistic failings of this documentary and the damage it has caused to the BBC's reputation.'
He added: 'The BBC must allow a full independent inquiry to investigate the processes that led to this documentary being produced.'
On Tuesday, protesters gathered outside Broadcasting House in London claiming the BBC had aired Hamas propaganda.
The BBC also faced criticism in pulling the documentary, with Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, Riz Ahmed and Miriam Margolyes among the more than 500 media figures who had condemned the action.