BBC Breakfast's Ben Thompson saves the day with analogue clock after in-house graphics glitch

BBC Breakfast presenter Ben Thompson saved the day with his quick-thinking on Friday 26 July, when “technical gremlins” caused the show’s digital clock to be missing from this morning’s onscreen display.

After going the newspaper front pages with sports reporter Holly Hamilton and hosts Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty, Thompson whipped out an analogue clock and placed it on the desk in front of the duo.

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“Can I just say, I’ve fixed your clock problem because I know for those watching us this morning for the clock because you need to get ready for work and school, so I’ll just leave that there,” he explained.

“Are you propping it up against my coffee?” Munchetty joked, while Stayt cheekily asked Thompson to hold it in the right hand corner of camera three for the “next two hours 45.”

Thompson obliged for a few minutes, sighing: “The things I do for this programme.”

“Time was against us when we had a technical problem at the start of today’s BBC Breakfast but luckily a replacement clock was found just in time to ensure viewers didn’t miss a minute,” a BBC Breakfast spokesperson told HuffPost UK.

An insider also revealed to the publication that the Salford’s MediaCity studio has “surprisingly few real clocks” in it and that Thompson did well finding one at such short notice.

“They’re all on screens and in monitors,” they added.

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Viewers were largely entertained by the blunder, with one Twitter user writing: “Loving the clock solution! Low tech wins.”

“Technical difficulties on @BBCBreakfast means they’ve brought out an alternative wee clock for the bottom of the screen. Bless,” another laughed.

BBC Breakfast continues weekdays from 6am on BBC One and the BBC News channel.