A BBC radio show has been slammed by furious viewers after it played a song which features a racial slur.
The controversial song, Scottish singer Thomas Fraser’s cover of the 1940 song The Mississippi Shore, was played by presenter Cerys Matthews, who happily introduced it.
It was aired by the 51-year-old radio host at midday and contained racial slur “darkies” on 6 Music.
The Welsh star said to listeners before playing the track: “Shall we take a trip, virtually anyway, to the Isle of Burra and it’ll be around 1940s and 1950s and we’ll be sitting in our croft after a busy day working the land or fishing.
“And we’ll have a reel-to-reel set up in front of us, we’ll pick our guitar up, we’ll press record and we’ll start to sing this.”
Cerys Matthews introduced a controversial song which features a racial slur (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Usually the radio show features a commentary between songs but after the song finished it went straight to an ad break.
Listeners took to Twitter to share their anger and concern towards the song being used live on air.
Alison Leeming tweeted: “But was there a deeply inappropriate lyric in there? Or did I mishear?”
Cerys has since apologised for playing the song live on air (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
She added: “I’m struggling with the line before the one about guitars.
“I’ve just listened again on Spotify and it’s clearly what I thought. I’m sure it was a horrible error but a tweet of apology would be a good idea.”
Cerys responded on Twitter: “Checking now. It shouldn’t have passed through of course. It’s a huge priority for me. Thanks for heads up.
“It shouldn’t have got through. Trying to redact it now.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “Unfortunately an unedited version of this song containing an offensive term was broadcast in error on 6 Music.
“We apologise for any offence caused and will work to ensure this does not happen again.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “Unfortunately an unedited version of this song containing an offensive term was broadcast in error on 6 Music.
“We apologise for any offence caused and will work to ensure this does not happen again.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
