LONDON — Succumbing to what appears to have been a disastrous urge to brag about his super-important connections, a BBC correspondent unexpectedly declared in a radio interview Tuesday that Queen Elizabeth had once told him she was “pretty upset” about the presence of a radical Islamist cleric in North London.
It is considered a shocking breach of etiquette to reveal anything the queen tells you, especially about political views, which she is technically not supposed to have. The BBC issued an abject apology, saying the correspondent, Frank Gardner, was out of line.
“The conversation should have remained private, and the BBC and Frank deeply regret this breach of confidence,” the BBC said in a statement. “It was wholly inappropriate.”
The episode occurred on BBC’s “Today,” a public-affairs morning radio show. Gardner, the broadcaster’s security correspondent, was speaking about Abu Hamza, an Egyptian cleric who settled in Britain and preached violent anti-British jihad at a North London mosque.
