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either stare blankly into the lens or verbally falter. But a rare few broadcasters manage to rise above the gaffes, as if nothing could ruffle their media-trained feathers. So this one’s for you, Jeremy Paxman – we salute you, you sarcastic, unflappable bastard!

Accidents Happen
    If you’re in charge of a live broadcast the number one lesson to be learnt is: accidents can – and most probably will – happen.

    ‘Here at Over Farm in Gloucester you’re never short of things to look at and things to do. There are so many wonderful anima— [two enormous pigs are accidentally caught mating on camera] …er, haha!’

    Unknown newscaster for a UK local news report

    ‘I can’t hear a word. I don’t know what’s being said to me.’
    Political broadcaster Robin Day, proving live links are rarely a good idea

    ‘… and if you’re wondering what that noise was, it was my desk lamp falling over.’

    Sarah Montague on Radio 4’s Today programme
Don’t work with children, animals …or buses
    A live broadcast in Cincinatti, Ohio, was interrupted in January 2012 when a bus almost mowed down a gathering of reporters. The assembled journalists were there for a press conference on, of all things, workplace safety, but were rudely interrupted when a bus barged into their throng. The vehicle’s driver tried in vain to reverse her oversized chariot; when she couldn’t she dismounted and gave the reporters a piece of her mind. Telling her attendant victims she was ‘just trying to do her job’, the lady bus driver added, ‘If this group of people hadda moved out of the way, I wouldn’t have ran into this truck!’

    ‘The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel.’
    AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Watch your back
    Clocking the global trend for light-hearted news stories about cute animals, Saxony Zoo knew it was on to a good thing when it discovered Til, a bunny rabbit born without ears. A press conference was duly called in February 2012, but the rabbit’s time in the spotlight was brief to say the least. During filming a cameraman took a wrong footing and stepped on the bunny, killing it instantly.

    ‘I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one marked “brightness”, but it don’t work, does it.’
    COMEDIAN LEO ANTHONY GALLAGHER
Naughty Newscasters
    Those television professionals can be a cheeky, childish bunch, as these tales will attest.

Up yours!
    A Russian news anchor raised her middle finger at President Obama when she thought the cameras weren’t on her.

    After reading out the US President’s name during a news piece, loose-fingered Tatyana Limanova flipped up her middle finger in full view of the camera. Although she tried to claim her gesture had simply been ‘a signal’ to the autocue, the award-winning senior journalist was fired shortly after the incident.
Sleep easy
    BBC News presenters are sometimes so bored by their programmes they fall asleep at their fancy news desk.

    In March 2012, cameras panned onto fifty-year-old BBC Breakfast news presenter Simon McCoy when he had his head on the desk, apparently snoozing. Although McCoy later denied everything to his Twitter followers, saying, ‘I was not asleep!’, his co-host tweeted, ‘Intravenous caffeine now being administered to @simonmccoy.’

Inveterate prankster
    When he worked for Irish national network RTÉ, veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan used to burn his co-hosts’ scripts while they were live on air.

    Wogan admitted to it on the BBC’s Would I Lie to You? , revealing that much of his early career involved quite a bit of pranking.
Jeremy Paxman: Cross Him At Your Peril
    Author, broadcaster, journalist, angry man: Jeremy Paxman tells it like it is.

    ‘Good evening. If the autocue was working I could now read you something. But as it isn’t, I can’t.’

    Jeremy Paxman, during the opening of BBC