Turning the airwaves blue: BBC presenter's gaffe over "spreadsh*t Phil"

It is not exactly a nickname to which many of us would aspire. But it seems there are actually worse things to be called than “spreadsheet Phil”.

Phillip Hammond was dubbed “spreadshit Phil” on live radio yesterday.

The mistake was made by Nick Robinson, the BBC presenter, on the Today programme as they analysed the Budget.

He said: “This is basically spreadshit Phil…spreadsheet Phil, I should say, as he’s known in the Treasury…basically holding his nose and saying ‘there’ll be row but it’ll pass.’ “

Last night Robinson went on Twitter to suggest, perhaps in jest, that he had been misheard all along, tweetin: “I’m very very worried about your hearing. I clearly said SpreadSHEET Phil …didn’t I?”

But Twitter some users weren’t too angry at his slip up. “You got it right first time,” wrote one user no doubt dismayed by Mr Hammond’s budget.

While another echoed the sentiment, writing: “You said ‘spread SHIT Phil’. For once you got it absolutely correct.”

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Another said the gaffe had “brightened my morning considerably” while another described it as “glorious”.

It is not the first foul-mouthed slip-up by presenters on the flagship Radio 4 programme. On Robinson’s first day on the show, the pips were crashed when Jim Naughtie whispered “shit”.

But the most embarrassing clanger came in 2010 when listeners spluttered into their cornflakes as the former presenter accidentally replaced the first letter of cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt’s surname with a ”C”.

The on-air stumble sent the presenter into a coughing fit, and attracted a slew of emails from listeners who were either amused or angry.

Naughtie proceeded to interview Mr Hunt without incident, but later issued several apologies for his Spoonerism.