BBC’s Tomasz Schafernaker shows finger to Simon McCoy

The BBC has been forced to apologise after award-winning weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker was seen giving a one-fingered gesture live on air.

The incident occurred just before 11 o’clock in a routine handover to the weather on the BBC News channel. After realising the mistake, Mr Schafernaker quickly turned the abusive gesture into one that looked like he was rubbing his chin. Simon McCoy, who was presenting at the time, commented “Every now and then there’s always one mistake: that was it”.

A BBC spokesman said: “Tomasz was not aware that he was on air, and whilst the gesture was only shown for a second, it was not acceptable. The News Channel presenter live in the studio acknowledged a mistake had been made, and we apologise for any offence caused.”

Remember Tomasz, there are two key rules when working in TV:

1) Don’t forget to take your mic off when you have finished to broadcasting

2) Treat every camera as a live camera