BBC suffers embarrassing subtitle blunder during royal coverage
During its rolling royal coverage since Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday, the BBC made an embarrassing blunder in its audio subtitles which misheard a key word.
The British Broadcasting Corporation uses a system of automatic subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing and there are often errors in the words that are transcribed the system on screen.
On Friday, during coverage of the new King – Charles III – and his wife Camilla as they landed in London from Scotland the subtitles flashed the word “vagina” instead of Regina. It was to explain that Camilla will not be Queen Regina, or a reigning queen, but a Queen Consort as the partner of the new monarch.
“BBC subtitles spectacularly mishearing the words “Queen Regina” during a conversation about Camilla just now,” one eagle-eyed viewer commented on Twitter soon after spotting the awkward moment on television.
Many others followed suit on social media to say that the state broadcaster needs to be more careful with its audio subtitles.
Most news channels in the UK suspended their usual programming the moment the 96-year-old monarch passed away “peacefully” at her Balmoral Castle residence in Scotland. In the coming days, the Queen’s coffin will depart her Balmoral estate for the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh – the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland.
It will then be taken in procession to St Giles’ Cathedral in the city, where the Queen will lie at rest, allowing the public to view her coffin. The coffin will then move to London, ready for lying in state for around four days before her funeral.
On Saturday morning, the Queen’s son and heir Charles was formally proclaimed King in an ancient ceremony televised for the first time in hory.
“My mother’s reign was unequalled in its dedication and its devotion,” said King Charles III in his first official address.
It followed his first televised address to the nation on Friday evening, during which he thanked his “darling mama” for her 70 years of service to the nation and the Commonwealth as he pledged to follow in her footsteps with “loyalty, respect and love”.
