Top 20 Most Awkward TV Bloopers

20 Most Awkward TV Bloopers

Caitlin Johnson

Welcome to WatchMojoUK, and today we’re looking at the cringiest blunders and moments-gone-wrong on British TV.

#20: Falling Apart

“Countdown” (1982-)

Anything can happen during the frenetic action of the numbers game on “Countdown”, including this apparently. Why they stick a sheet of whiteboard paper up instead of using an actual whiteboard is anybody’s guess, but the shine firmly came off the programme when the whiteboard fell down on top of Rachel Riley. She was left holding it up with her hand while she finished successfully solving the equation. It then fell off completely when all the magnets packed in at once, forcing a member of the crew to intervene and carry the sheet away. It just goes to show you what can go wrong when you’re doing mathematics too vigorously.

#19: The Weather Map Breaks

Sky News

Another mishap with the set, a piece of paper falling onto you is certainly less dangerous than a big tile from the weather map. Meteorologist Francis Wilson over on Sky News learnt about the dangers of indoor showers the hard way. While boasting about how continental Europe was going to be hit with rain while everything was sunny in the UK, part of the screen fell off. He had to pick up the stray tile and carry it away, continuing with the forecast. In another memorable blooper, Wilson couldn’t get the map working at all, leaving it frozen with Britain obscured by rainclouds. It then broke completely and switched itself off. Or perhaps that was just the night time forecast.

#18: Fanny Chmelar

“The Chase” (2009-)

Sometimes you get a question on “The Chase” that makes you wonder whether it’s even real, or whether it was just put there to try and trip up Bradley Walsh, who’s known for often losing his composure during the recordings. In this case, Fanny Chmelar WAS real, and she might by now be the second most well-known skier in Britain after Eddie the Eagle – not bad for a German. More awkward than Brad losing it, though, was when he was pranked by Michael McIntyre, who brought Fanny Chmelar into his bedroom early one morning to mock him for this most infamous of TV gaffes.

#17: Lady C Flashing

“I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!” (2002-)

Who doesn’t want to witness a nip slip from Lady Colin Campbell? Well, actually, we can imagine that very few people want to, including Ant and Dec. Lady C had her head stuck in a cube full of unpleasant, stinging green ants for a bushtucker trial, which she was absolutely not enjoying when they kept trying to climb into her nose. She did it, but while trying to rid herself of the ants, she revealed a bit too much skin, stripping down in the jungle. She turned away from the camera so that the audience didn’t see, but the whole situation WAS extremely awkward.

#16: Landing Carbug

“Red Dwarf” (1988-99; 2009-20)

After ten years off screens, “Red Dwarf” was back, and the first order of business was travelling to a parallel universe where “Red Dwarf” is just a television show. They commandeer a car designed to look like Starbug, but can’t quite get used to the fact that it’s not a space shuttle. In this scene, the bloopers just keep going, with Danny John-Jules constantly missing his cues and flubbing his lines. The other three got increasingly frustrated, stuck in the car while they tried to get the scene done. According to Craig Charles, it was boiling hot in there. When they finally finished, there was cheering all round.

#15: Not on Camera

BBC News

Somehow, this has happened more than once with Martine Croxall, and it makes you wonder exactly what they’re playing at in the BBC News studio. As the broadcast begins, you can see Croxall off to the side waiting in a different part of the studio, but when the programme starts properly, the cameras are left focusing on her empty chair at the newsdesk. Clearly, somebody told her the wrong mark for the beginning of the show. She was left vamping while she walked back over to get to the chair and the teleprompter, resuming the broadcast with an item about how well Lewis Hamilton’s racing career was going. He probably wouldn’t have won all those races if he’d forgotten to sit in the car, though.

#14: Gillian McKeith Faints

“I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!” (2002-)

It took until the 2025 series for ITV to finally admit that there was a problem with letting the public vote for whoever they liked every single time, since it led to incidents like this. Following in the footsteps of Katie Price, who’d also been voted to do the trials over and over again, Gillian McKeith proved to be more entertaining when she was whimpering about the live animals. So, the public kept putting her in, and she kept losing the challenges, meaning the other celebs were all going hungry with no stars. Eventually, enough was enough: McKeith faked a fainting fit and escaped doing another challenge. She insists to this day that it was genuine, though.

#13: Rugby Kits

“Blue Peter” (1958-)

While this item was specifically about how difficult it was to take off the new shirts in the England rugby kit, it definitely got out of hand. Matt Baker ended up being dragged along the muddy floor as they fought to get his kit off, demonstrating the shortcomings of the latest uniform. And it wasn’t the only time he had a difficult time getting sports gear on or off. In a later episode, he struggled to put on an American football kit. In both instances, the crew and other cast members can be heard laughing off camera as he struggles to get himself properly attired.

#12: Delicious Dick

“Saturday Kitchen” (2002-)

It’s always chaotic on “Saturday Kitchen” thanks to it being a live broadcast at the weekend, though it does make use of pre-recorded segments to give the presenters a break. In this one, we were treated to an old roast pork recipe from Rick Stein, with James Martin in the live studio tasked with linking the segments together. Unfortunately, he made a Freudian slip about what, exactly, looked delicious, causing everybody else in the studio to break. It was awkward because it was so lewd, with the celebrity guests struggling to keep it together nearby. We can’t imagine that the booze they’re plied with on “Saturday Kitchen” helps with blunders like this.

#11: Gorilla

“BBC Breakfast” (2000-)

Somebody in the gallery got their visuals mixed up here, with “BBC Breakfast” introducing its two items on the agenda that morning in the wrong order: the Scottish independence referendum and a gorilla that escaped from London Zoo that week. The gorilla in question, Kumbuka, was unrelated to Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, with Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty hastily apologising for the blunder. But all we want to know is what does Kumbuka think about Scottish independence? And should gorillas and other zoo animals be given the right to vote on important issues like this?

#10: Welly Wanging

“This Morning” (1988-)

Have you ever welly wanged? With Ben Shepard stepping in to co-host “This Morning”, the broadcast turned back to the topic of welly wanging, which he and Holly Willoughby had tried the last time he’d been co-presenting. Apparently, he got a taste for this great British pastime, and had been enjoying it for months, even filming a new segment for “This Morning”. But then Holly went and said the one thing she was trying desperately NOT to say. This all came after the added awkwardness of her breaking part of the set the first time they wanged, and then later pretending to break another just to trick the producers in the gallery.

#9: Lemurs

BBC News

Of all the animals to try and work with, lemurs are perhaps some of the worst. Alex Dunlop learnt this the hard way, grappling with a gang of menacing ring-tailed lemurs. He was trying to record a segment about zoos doing their annual count of animals, and somebody had the bright idea to let the lemurs loose while he did. Considering lemurs are known for their mischief, this went about as well as you’d expect. They climbed on him, scratched him, bit him, and leapt all over the place. Thank god this wasn’t going out live, because he even ended up swearing a few times while he was besieged by primates.

#8: Snake Charmer

“Catchphrase” (1986-2004)

This just kept going on and on throughout this legendary episode of “Catchphrase”, with the contestant unable to guess what the show’s mascot, Mr Chips, was doing behind those squares. They tried to contain themselves at first, but they couldn’t solve the puzzle, and the clip just got more lewd every time a new part of the image was revealed. The audience was also losing their grip, trying to work out whether Mr Chips really was engaging in a spot of self-pleasure in the crude cartoon. After all that, it turned out that he was charming a snake. Don’t worry about what he was doing that was so charming.

#7: Laughing Fit

BBC News

More uncontrollable laughter, Louise Lear was having a terrible time of it when Simon McCoy passed to her for the weather forecast. We have absolutely no idea what had set her off laughing, but she already had tears in her eyes by the time Simon introduced her. She fought through the weather forecast, with Scotland and Northern Ireland getting hit by heavy rain and 30 to 40 mile an hour winds. It was probably the longest minute of her career, and we still don’t know what was so funny. Maybe she’d remembered something amusing, or maybe the gallery was making trouble in her earpiece. If you’re watching this video, Louise, let us know what happened!

#6: Nadine Dorries & the Teleprompter

“Piers Morgan Uncensored” (2022-)

The former Secretary of State for Culture briefly decided to try her hand at broadcasting, filling in for Piers Morgan on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” when it was still being broadcast on TalkTV. But she just couldn’t get to grips with the teleprompter. You’d think that she was used to parroting party lines and being told what to say, but clearly not, because whatever she said came out completely unintelligible. If you didn’t know that Dorries was a prolific author of subpar romance novels, you’d wonder whether she even knew how to speak English. And to think, this was the woman briefly in charge of regulating the media.

#5: Dog on the Beach

“BBC Breakfast” (2000-)

More weather, veteran presenter Carol Kirkwood was sent to a beach in West Wittering at eight o’clock one morning to report, when she was interrupted by a dog. The dog, on an early morning walk, sniffs around the sand and then stops to do its business right behind her. The studio erupts in laughter while the dog continues. But Carol turns around too late and doesn’t realise that the dog was going to the toilet, which makes the whole thing even more fraught. Charlie Stayt is left to try and get things back under control while the dog walks away, utterly oblivious to the chaos it’s just caused.

#4: Finger Food

“Saturday Kitchen” (2002-)

What could be more awkward than accidentally cutting off your finger on live television, having to continue presenting the programme while you slowly bleed all over the food? Donal Skehan experienced this first-hand during another edition of “Saturday Kitchen”, cutting into his finger while trying to chop some parsley. He roped in celebrity guest Julian Clary to finish chopping the parsley while he wrapped his finger in a nearby tea towel. We don’t get a good look at the injury but it must have been surprisingly severe for the others to react the way they did. He was no worse for wear in the end, though.

#3: Interruption

BBC News

Stalwart presenter Ben Brown was out on the streets of Bradford talking about Jeremy Corbyn’s recently launched manifesto in the lead up to the 2017 election, when a passer by decided to get involved. While talking about Corbyn, she interrupted and gave a thumbs-up to the camera, but Brown, not looking, went to push her aside, grabbing her breast in the process. She didn’t take the accidental grope lying down, slapping him on the arm and then walking off. It was a mistake, but definitely humiliating for the woman, especially when Brown just kept going rather than apologise. Really, if anything deserves an on-air apology, it’s this.

#2: Sailor in the River

“This Morning” (1988-)

Seasoned weather presenters get things wrong all the time, so what did ITV expect getting Alison Hammond to do the weather on a big, floating island live from Albert Dock? She was set up on a big model of the UK, but when she had to cross the sea to talk about the weather in Northern Ireland, she knocked one of her sailors clean into the water. That was after she’d nearly destroyed the Welsh Dragon by mistake. He certainly wasn’t expecting to take the plunge like that. She just about finished and luckily the sailor, Chris, was fine. Alison let him borrow her shawl just in case his white trousers turned see-through.

#1: Guy Goma

BBC News

The man, the myth, the legend: we’re sure Guy Goma was feeling EXTREMELY awkward during this infamous case of mistaken identity. He was probably already nervous since he was there to attend a job interview, but when he realised he was on live television and had been mixed up with a technology expert, he was left to either fess up or try to play it cool. He chose the latter, talking about how iTunes was going to be the future for music. He was right, but the situation only gets more awkward: a few years ago, he announced he wanted to sue the BBC for royalties over his appearance. And he never got that job, either.

Let us know in the comments which cringe-worthy bloopers we missed.