TV company suggest flying squaddies’ babies to war zone for TV show then blame office junior?

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The popbitch messageboard today recorded an incident involving a TV production company and Arrse, the British Army Rumour service – an online forum for those interested in army stuff. Princess is famous for shows such as daytime TV phone-in, The Wright Stuff (e.g. “Foxy Knoxy: Would Ya?”), Got To Dance and Lily Allen and Friends.

A researcher posted a message on the forum about a new show pilot – “a combination of Surprise Suprise and Flashmob”, and soldiers serving in Afghanistan…

“The show is going to be a combination of Surprise Suprise and Flashmob (the current phenomenon made famous by the T-Mobile advert). So we are currently looking for incredible people who could be the recipients of the surprise of their lives, a massive super-sized celebration to say thank you, give someone a huge send off, ask somebody to marry them or reveal some exciting news.

We thought it would be a lovely idea to surprise soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan. Maybe they are yet to meet their newborn babies. We would like to give them a huge surprise by flying the baby and all the family over for a massive moral boosting exercise and chance for him to cradle the son or daughter he has never met. We also want to treat the soldiers to a huge flashmob style thank-you from all the British public for the on-going work they are doing.”

As you can imagine, the soldiers had some strong ideas about this. You can see more of the exchange here

An apology followed, rather lamely blaming “a junior member of staff”

“Princess Productions would like to apologise unreservedly for the letter posted on the British Army Rumour Service website which has just been brought to our attention and we have requested be taken down. A junior member of staff, who has been with the company less than a week, took what was a well-intentioned but hopelessly misguided decision to post this note. It was an appalling mistake for which they are truly sorry. The concept as described would never have been pursued at all and we once again apologise absolutely for any upset or offence caused.