Transmitter fault hits 5m BBC viewers

Five million TV viewers in south London were left without a BBC signal when a transmitter failed.

The BBC switchboard was deluged with hundreds of calls last night from viewers wanting to know what had gone wrong after the signal was lost on BBC1 and BBC2 after 9.30pm. Viewers from Sevenoaks to Saffron Walden were affected.

Those tuning in to see Red Cap, starring Tamzin Outhwaite, were shocked to see fizzing screens. By 10pm engineers had repaired the BBC1 signal but BBC2 was hit for nearly an hour and a half, losing Posh Nosh, with Arabella Weir and Richard E Grant and Happiness.

The BBC blamed the fault on its transmitter at Crystal Palace. A spokesman said the cause of the failure had not yet been identified.