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BBC News viewers in stitches as Robert Kelly returns with ‘hilarious’ kids who interrupted his interview

Professor appeared on a video link with his children to discuss how difficult it is to work from home during lockdown

Ellie Harrison
Thursday 26 March 2020 09:16 EDT
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Robert Kelly and his children return to BBC News

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Robert Kelly returned to BBC News on Thursday morning (26 March), with the same children who famously interrupted his interview in 2017 – and it went down a treat with viewers.

The Professor of Political Science, who lives in South Korea with his wife Jung-a Kim and children, was giving an interview about how the country is dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

His family were invited to sit in during the interview, but his children Marion and James struggled to sit still.

In 2017, a video of the family went viral after the children strutted into the room and began to cause havoc, before Jung-a Kim dragged them out and Robert began to apologise profusely.

This time, the children wriggled around and climbed on their parents as Robert spoke about how tough the couple were finding it to keep their children indoors during the outbreak.

He said: “For us, as you can see, it’s very difficult, for employers who have employees with kids our age it’s very difficult.

“I’m getting two hours work done a day, maybe three.

“They’ve got nothing to do, they’re climbing the walls. It’s really tough.”

Jung-a Kim agreed, adding: “It’s very difficult to stay in the house for a very long time.

“We try to go out and see the flowers and the trees and they can shout and scream.”

Many viewers took to Twitter to express their delight at the family’s return to TV.

“Omg our favourite family have returned to bbc world news,” wrote one user. They added: “My favourite part of the interview was when one of the kids got bored, left and then came back with a computer game.”

“They’re just awesome,” wrote another.

A third said: “That little girl is hilarious.”

“The daughter is brilliant,” added another. “The way she just touches her dads face at intervals, KNOWING the reaction.”

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