A man interviewed live on BBC television after being mistakenly identified as an IT expert spoke on Tuesday about the glitch, which happened when he went to the broadcaster for a job interview.
Guy Goma was mistaken for IT expert Guy Kewney at the BBC’s west London offices last week and found himself in a BBC News 24 studio being quizzed on a legal battle between Apple Computer and Apple Corps, the Beatles’ music publishing company.
Thinking it was part of the job interview process, Goma allowed himself to be fitted with a microphone and positioned in the studio after wrongly raising his hand in reception when a producer called out the name of Guy Kewney.
In an intentional BBC interview on Tuesday, Goma said: ”When I was on the set already and we started with the presenter I could not stop. It would be the worst thing … So at that time I said: ‘Okay, keep going and we will see’.”
When he realised what was actually going on, he recalled: ”That shocked me straight away and I thought: ‘Oh dear, what am I doing?’.”
The May 8 mistake caused much hilarity in the media because the uneasy-looking black man on the screen bore no resemblance to the white, bearded, ginger-haired technology pundit, though he did his best to answer questions from BBC consumer-affairs correspondent Karen Bowerman.
Goma, a graduate from Central Africa, was given the opportunity on Tuesday to speak to the real Guy Kewney by telephone about what happened.
”I just want to say sorry. I came for a job interview,” he said.
Goma, who was initially identified as Kewney’s taxi driver, eventually had his job interview and is still waiting for the result.
Proving he was able to give an opinion on any topic, a BBC presenter asked him whether he thought European Union membership for Bulgaria and Romania was a good thing.
Goma replied: ”Hmmm, not really.”
The real Guy Kewney was good-humoured about being left in reception to watch his namesake answer his questions.
”It was one of those moments when you think ‘Good God, what is going on?”’ he told the BBC, putting the confusion down to the bad weather, which had resulted in him arriving late at the studios. — Sapa-AFP