
Antiques Roadshow once made an error so huge it was investigated by the BBC. Presenter Fiona Bruce was reported to the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) after viewers complained to the broadcaster for a mistake she made in a 2021 broadcast - the first of its kind.
As part of a special filmed in the Lake District, Fiona was live from Lake Windermere, telling viewers: "The roadshow is in one of Britain's most beautiful landscapes, the gentle grandeur of its hills and the tranquility of its waters have been celebrated by writers from Beatrix Potter to William Wordsworth.
"We're on Lake Windermere in the Lake District, our largest national park."
But the UK's largest national park is actually the Cairngorms - which is larger than the country of Luxembourg. When viewers wrote in to complain about the inaccuracy, a full investigation was launched.
The BBC eventually ruled that Bruce's description "fell below the BBC's standards of due accuracy". They added that the complaint was "resolved" after acknowledging the error and adding a correction for viewers watching on iPlayer.
The ECU said at the time: "A viewer complained that the presenter incorrectly described the Lake District National Park as 'our biggest national park'.
"The ECU considered the complaint in relation to the BBC's editorial standards of due accuracy. The Lake District National Park is the biggest in England and Wales, but the biggest in the UK is the Cairngorms National Park.
"The ECU noted that, as well as the error having been acknowledged in correspondence with the complainant, a correction had been added to the iPlayer version of the programme and the programme itself had been amended for any future transmission.
"In the ECU's judgement, these steps were sufficient to resolve the issue of complaint."
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