BBC embarrassed again as auction programme fakes scene
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Your support makes all the difference.Controversy over faked TV reality shows reignited yesterday after it was revealed that a cameraman had posed as a member of the public on a BBC programme presented by Angela Rippon.
Senior BBC managers were said last night to be furious at the new scandal. Last year the corporation was fined £400,000 for faking phone-in competitions in 2007 on Blue Peter, Children in Need and Comic Relief: production staff had pretended to be competition winners.
Yesterday it was revealed that the BBC had suspended the production company, Reef Television, behind the auction programme Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting, hosted by the former newsreader.
In the show members of the public are sent abroad to find bargains which they then try to sell for a profit on a market stall back in Britain.
An episode on Wednesday – first broadcast in July – saw two people go to Dinan in north-west France. In the UK one competitor was having trouble selling an acrylic sheet when a member of the public stepped forward and brought it for £25, at a £5 loss.
The man, however, was Craig Harman, a cameraman on the show who has also worked on the BBC consumer affairs show Don't Get Done, Get Dom.
A BBC spokeswoman said the corporation was "extremely disappointed" that the company had "misled the audience and us". She added: "We take this matter seriously and have suspended all business with them, with their agreement, while we investigate.
"We regret that the production company has failed to meet the high standards the BBC expects of its programme-makers."
A spokesman for Reef Television said: "Reef Television wishes to apologise unreservedly for misleading Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting viewers and the BBC.
"The company recognises it is a serious breach of editorial standards of which the BBC was not made aware. Reef Television will co-operate fully with the BBC's investigation and has launched its own inquiry."
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