The presenters of Blue Peter were forced to apologise on air yesterday after it emerged that the programme faked the winner of a phone-in competition.

Nearly 14,000 children called to answer a question posed on November 27 last year and were charged 10p a time, but a technical failure prevented the BBC from picking a winner during the programme.

It is understood that, in panic, a member of the production staff randomly picked a girl who was visiting the studio to call from behind the scenes to give the correct answer.

When the girl went on air she declared herself to be “calling from London” – in reality she was in the same studio as the presenters. The child was then given a toy as a prize. She has not been named and is understood to be blameless.

The corporation now faces an inquiry from Icstis, the premium-rate phone line regulator, which can levy a fine of up to £250,000. Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, has been told to brief the BBC Trust about how the corporation is dealing with the issue.

Richard Deverell, the BBC Children’s Controller, made an “unequivocal apology”. He said: “Whilst I am satisfied that there was no premeditated attempt to deceive or mislead viewers, the decision to put a child on air in this way was a serious error of judgment.”

A spokesman for the BBC conceded that there had been a “serious breach of editorial standards” and said that it would not hide behind the technical problems. “The issue here is not that something went wrong, but what people then did about it. The phone-in should have been held over for another day.”

The problem emerged after a Radio 5 Live listener who had witnessed the incident e-mailed in on Friday after a discussion about the growing phone-in scandal that has affected all principal broadcasters.

The phone-in was held to raise money for children orphaned by Aids in Malawi. Unicef received 3¼p from each call, or £450.52. Telecom Express, the call handler, received £207.93, but donated it to the appeal. The line provider, Cable & Wireless, kept £727.25.

Don Foster, the culture spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: “When it’s reached the point that even Blue Peter has been implicated in this sorry mess then I think it’s fair to say there has been a serious failure with the regulator.”

The BBC is considering scrapping all premium-rate phone-ins on children’s television.

Jana Bennett, the BBC’s director of vision, has begun an emergency review into the incident. The inquiry is to be led by Andrea Wills, a former BBC employee, and will touch on whether it is appropriate to ask children to phone in. The BBC says that it rarely does so and does not seek to make a profit on callins as a matter of policy.

It is the second time that the BBC has been implicated in the premium-rate row, after it emerged that a supposedly live episode of Saturday Kitchen was pre-recorded. Premium-rate services are regulated by Icstis, which has been struggling to keep up with the revelations. The Channel 4 Richard and Judy, The X Factor (ITV) and the Five Brainteaser game show have all been implicated.

The BBC said that a new winner for the Blue Peter competition would be randomly selected from those who took part, under the supervision of an independent solicitor.

It has provided a special question-and-answer statement for parents on its website.

The statement

What happened?

A technical hitch prevented staff from randomly selecting one of the competition entries. As the member of staff thought no one was getting through, they asked a studio visitor to stand in as the winner

Who was the girl?

She was a Blue Peter Team Player who was visiting the studio after winning an unrelated competition.

Did she really know the answer?

Yes, but since she had been in the studio, she had an unfair advantage

Did she receive the prize?

Yes but only as a thank-you for standing in. She didn’t receive the competition winner’s badge or the formal letter that would normally accompany it

Have any other Blue Peter competitions been fixed?

Absolutely not

Source: Blue Peter website

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