Am I going deaf or...

Am I going deaf or is there an increasing number of presenter errors in broadcasting these days?

There is little point repeating the double faux pas of James Naughtie when he inadvertently re-named Jeremy Hunt (the Culture Secretary) live on air, as that got plenty of coverage at the time.

Similarly so with the famous Cricket story where Cricket commentators Don Mosey and Brian Johnston were in the commentating box for the BBC World Service in a test match between West Indies and England at the Oval. Batsman Peter Willey was at the stumps, bowler Michael Holding was at the crease, when Johnston said:

"...We welcome World Service listeners to the Oval, where the bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey."

On may way from home from London yesterday evening I caught the end of the 10 o'clock news on Radio 4, when I heard a news item where the newsreader spoke of how the army in Bahrain were using "cheer" (I really don't think she said "tear") gas on protesters! When you think about it this could be a great strategy, and if this is not a real gas, what a difference there could be if they were able to use laughing gas for example!

I also heard Melvyn Bragg refer to the historic 'Taiping' rebellion in China. Now I'm sure the experienced Mr Bragg got the pronunciation spot on, but what I "heard" was the 'Typing' rebellion, and could only imagine secretaries across China going on strike!

And so the week comes to an end and one thing that doesn't seem to be a mistake or misunderstanding is that we are still top of the Oxfam Trailwalker UK's fundraising leader board for the second week running.

They have credited us with raising £800 to date, but thankfully everyone is catching up. Thankfully because we just want as much money to be raised as possible!

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