BBC in embarrassing subtitle blunders

Many deaf and hard-of-hearing people have been left bemused by some unfortunate mistakes in the BBC’s computer generated subtitles.

The errors asked for ‘a moment of violence’ to commemorate the Queen Mother at her funeral and mistakenly called the Archbishop of Canterbury the ‘Arch b*tch of Canterbury’.

Mistakes are so frequent they’ve prompted the creation of a website dedicated to sharing the gaffes.

Live subtitles are generated by speech recognition as someone talks into a microphone while listening to a programme, or by a stenographer typing words manually.

A news reporter visiting a farm spoke of the pigs’ habit of nibbling on wellies - but with just a single letter changed in that last word, the meaning changed completely.

Labour leader Ed Milliband was also rechristened ‘Ed Miller Band’ thanks to the slip-up-prone system.

The BBC told the Daily Telegraph: “We recognise that subtitling is a hugely important service, and we endeavour to ensure it is as accurate as possible.”

“There are occasions, particularly during live broadcasts, when mistakes will happen but we do all we can to keep this to a minimum and are constantly striving to improve accuracy.”

Emma Harrison, Action on Hearing Loss’s Director of Public Engagement said: “Access to television is really important to people with a hearing loss. We urge all broadcasters to monitor the quality of their subtitling to ensure high standards.”

Other subtitle slip-ups
- ‘Millions of puppies’ were sold for Remembrance Sunday last year.
- On their rugby coverage Ireland became ‘Island’.
- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was renamed ‘Mr Beryl Beryl’
- ‘Government 'making helpful decisions’ became ‘making holes for surgeons’
- A politician said that he did not believe in ‘soliciting’ himself, when he had actually said ‘shortlisting’.