PC farce: BBC forced to apologise as Alan Titchmarsh says 'b*****d trenching' on live TV
The BBC have issued an apology after gardening star Alan Titchmarsh used a legitimate green-fingered term live on their breakfast show this morning.
Alan Titchmarsh used a rude-sounding gardening term on BBC Breakfast today
The 66-year-old TV personality appeared on BBC Breakfast earlier today to promote his new TV show Love Your Garden.
Speaking about his own garden at home, Alan revealed what he does daily to maintain his "beautiful" yard.
"I don't double dig every day – digging to two spades depth. There's another name for it, and it sounds terrible, but it's called b*****d trenching. By the end of it you realise that's a very fitting name for it," he told the presenters.
At the end of the segment, host Louise Minchin, 46, said: "Thank you very much. And I just have to offer our apologies for the language used in the last couple of minutes. Apologies if people were offended."
Alan used a word that meant 'double digging'
"Oh no, no," Alan quickly responded. "It's a term in a gardening book. I shan't repeat it but it's not offensive at all."
Twitter was abuzz with reactions to the BBC's apology, resulting in "Alan Titchmarsh" trending on the social media site.
One viewer said: "Just so ridiculous apologising because gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh used a gardening term with b*****d in it."
Another wrote: "Was someone really actually offended? I can think of a lot more fundamental things the #BBC should be issuing apologies for".
"How pathetic of BBC Breakfast to apologise after Alan Titchmarsh used a legitimate gardening term to describe double digging," one person tweeted.
Alan defended his use of the word
"The fact BBC news made Alan Titchmarsh apologise for using the term 'b*****d trenching' is utterly ridiculous," someone wrote. "I mean, come on."
That wasn't the only revelation from his chat on the news show, as he also revealed that he'd bought a pair of skinny jeans.
One joker tweeted: "Alan Titchmarsh owns skinny jeans and swore on breakfast TV? #hipster".
A BBC spokesman defended the show's decision to apologise to viewers, later saying: "For those viewers who had missed Alan Titchmarsh's earlier explanation regarding the gardening term, we decided to say sorry as courtesy in case there was any offence caused."