BBC Radio 4 show ‘in serious breach’ of guidelines for including Queen sex jokes

The episode was broadcast on the Queen's 90th birthday

An episode of a BBC Radio 4 show has been found to be “in serious breach” of editorial guidelines for making a joke about the Queen’s sex life.

An episode of the comedian panel show Don’t Make Me Laugh, which aired on the Queen’s 90th birthday, received over 100 complaints after it included the subject “The Queen must have had sex at least four times.”

Those on the panel included presenter David Baddiel and Russell Kane. The BBC apologised the next day.

The BBC Trust found jokes pertaining to the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh having sex to be “personal, intrusive and demeaning”.

The BBC Trust exists as a governing body of the corporation.

Trustees also said the offence felt by the subject was compounded by the timing of the programme’s transmission and deemed it a serious breach of the Editorial Guidelines for Harm and Offence.

A BBC Radio 4 spokesperson told the Independent it has noted the Trust’s findings.

“While BBC Radio 4 comedy is a broad church and often pushes boundaries, we would like to apologise for this broadcast of Don’t Make Me Laugh. We never intended for the scheduling of the programme to coincide with the Queen’s birthday and are sorry for the offence caused by its timing and content.”