BBC apologises after Gary Lineker and Match of the Day hit by rude prank

The BBC has apologised after its coverage was interrupted by pornographic noises during its live broadcast last night.

The sound, which Gary Lineker later tweeted had played from a phone "taped to the back of set", was emitted several times during the BBC show.

The presenter commented during the broadcast: "I don't know who's making that noise... somebody's sending something on someone's phone I think – a joke."

The BBC issued an apology over the pre-match incident, with a spokesperson saying: "We apologise to any viewers offended during the live coverage of the football this evening. We are investigating how this happened."

Lineker wrote in a tweet during the first half of Wolves v Liverpool that the phone to blame had been found, with a jokester hiding it in the studio. "As sabotage goes, it was quite amusing," he added.

Shortly afterwards, YouTube star Daniel Jarvis took responsibility for the stunt, which took place during Lineker's on-air chat with pundits Paul Ince and Danny Murphy, posting a video of himself in which he claimed to be in the studio before the broadcast.

Speaking on BBC Two's Newsnight after the show, Lineker said that he initially thought the noise – which is used as a common prank sent via WhatsApp – had started playing from one of the pundits' phones but realised that it was "too loud" for that to be the case.

"If you'd have told me before this morning that tonight I'd be on Newsnight talking about a porn scandal, I'd have been terrified," he joked.

"I have to say, I think it's funny. I know the BBC have issued some sort of apology – I know not why. We've certainly got nothing to apologise for," he added.

"It was deafening. It was quite hard to just carry on the pre-match build-up and take it seriously when this was going on in the background."

Liverpool won the third round FA Cup replay fixture against Wolves 1-0.

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