BBC One goes down during Panorama

Journalist describes technical fault as a ‘disaster for those who had made the show’

BBC One went down during an episode of Panorama on Monday evening, with the broadcaster citing “major technical issues”. 

When viewers tuned into watch the programme, they saw an on-screen message which read: "We are sorry for the break in this programme and are trying to correct the fault."

The continuity announcer told viewers: "We are working very hard to get our programmes back on air."

A BBC spokesperson later said: “Unfortunately major technical issues delayed the start of Panorama this evening. The BBC One schedule is now running 5 minutes late - we apologise to viewers for the disruption.”

In response to the outage which lasted roughly 10 minutes, Scott Bryan, a TV critic who co-hosts a podcast on BBC 5 Live, tweeted: “An episode of Panorama never started.

“Ten minutes later, no show has still aired. It’s a disaster for those who had made the show.” he added. 

Other social media users were also quick to share their reactions to the technical difficulties, with Jennie Gow, another BBC journalist, sharing a picture of the error message on Twitter. 

In an accompanying message, she wrote: “This takes me back...proper old school transmission fault @BBCOne - as a former continuity announcer this is where you made your money. 

"Filling aimlessly while technicians fiddled around. Longest hold I ever did was 20 mins talking about the week’s schedule!” she added. 

Elsewhere, Susanna Reid, the Good Morning Britain host, tweeted in jest: "2020 has claimed BBC One."

The programme affected by the fault was “Can Biden Unite America?”,  which featured Trump supporters being interviewed about whether they could ever support the new president-elect. 

At the end of the programme, the announcer said: "Well, do accept our apologies for the problems we had bringing you tonight's Panorama on BBC One."

EastEnders started at 8.15pm, ten minutes later than scheduled. 

Additional reporting by Press Association