A BORED Securicor guard on an early-morning shift at a cable television centre who was watching a raunchy video inadvertently pressed the wrong button and transmitted scenes of sexual intercourse into Sunday's Breakfast with Frost political interview featuring the President, Mrs Robinson.
Two thousand viewers of East Coast Cable in Ipswich, Suffolk, and the surrounding area found the opening debate between David Frost and Mrs Robinson interrupted shortly after 9.05 a.m. by exchanges of a different nature. The video played for about five minutes, mainly featuring a couple having sex on a kitchen table, before horrified technicians realised what was happening and rushed into the communications suite to switch the machine off.
A fellow employee of Securicor Guarding said the incident happened at the cable TV headquarters on the Severalls business park in Colchester, Essex. He explained: "Severalls business park is probably one of the most boring places in the world, particularly on a Sunday morning, and the man thought he would watch a video to pass the time. He made the mistake of pressing the wrong button on some very sophisticated equipment which sent it down the line and replaced the BBC 1 Frost programme.
"There's been a lot of fuss about it. The guard has been sacked."
A spokesman for East Coasts Cable said it was an unfortunate incident for which it had apologised to viewers who complained. The guard had obtained unauthorised use of a video machine. A formal inquiry is to be carried out by the Independent Television Commission.