BBC to Queen: We're so sorry, ma'am!

Oops! Brave and brilliant security correspondent Frank had a private chat with the Queen. Then he divulged the contents of it to BBC colleagues on Radio 4. Now the BBC has had to apologise.

It's not just any old apology too. It's an unreserved one. The BBC website reports: "Frank Gardner told listeners on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Queen had expressed her own concerns over the Abu Hamza affair to the previous Labour government. He revealed that the Queen had told him in at a private meeting how she had been pretty upset that Abu Hamza could not be arrested. He said the Queen had told him she had spoken to a former home secretary about the case. In a letter to Buckingham Palace, the BBC says that the conversation should have remained private and the BBC and Gardner deeply regretted the breach of confidence. The letter adds that the revelations were "wholly inappropriate" and that Gardner was extremely sorry for the embarrassment caused and had apologise."

So the chances of Gardner being at next summer's Garden Party appear to have taken a major hit.