Newsreader's accident of mirth

Newsreader Charlotte Green descends into a fit of giggles while announcing a death on Radio 4's Today programme.

Descending into a fit of the giggles whilst trying to deliver serious news is a newsreader's nightmare, but that's what happened to BBC radio's Charlotte Green today. She fell victim to that performers' enemy "corpsing". The term was first used by theatre folk, but today touched that bastion of middle-class values Radio 4. Here is our arts reporter Stephanie West.

In the world of comedy, corpsing has always been an acceptable hazard, for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, who practically lived to reduce each other to a hip, it was a moment the audience's waited for. But today, unplanned giggles did for the composure of Radio 4. The sedate voice of Charlotte Green, voted the most attractive on the air waves by Radio Times' listeners, was reduced to a strangulated whimper, after she heard the earliest recording of a human voice played in her news bulletin.

"The Award winning screen writer Abby Mann has died at the age of 80,he won an Academy Award in 1961 for "Judgment at Nuremberg", Abby, excuse me,sorry....Abby Mann also....." The fight the final news item was about the death of an award-winning screen writer, only added to the horror, but she struggled on for more than 30 seconds more. "....for a film which featured....." Judging by an audible man snort and news, one of the anchors had his head in his hands, we understand Jim Knocktie and Edward Sterton were rendered unable to help. It's ten minutes past eight.

Corpsing is Thespian slang for murdering a scene with uncontrollable laughter, but there was sympathy at THE KING`S HEAD Theater in Islington today, where the artistic director described corpsing as contagious as yawning, with a remedy that would surely only have exacerbated Charlotte's woes. One of the techniques to stop yourself from corpsing, if you feel a corpse is coming, obviously you look down, you do anything you can not to corpse and not to pass the contagion on, and one thing you can do is swallow really hard or you can pinch yourself, or you can you know pull your finger, anything to distract your mind from the laughter that's about to erupt from you.

And while surrendering to uncontrollable mirth might look like fun as illustrated in Rikky's guy to corpsing here, many performers say, they regard it as a weakness. And it's not till you are there and the camera is switched on ,and something is said and it set you off and you can't stop. "Give my pen." "Yes,take it."

bastion: n. If a system or organization is described as a bastion of a particular way of life, it is seen as being important and effective in defending that way of life

corpsing: n. Corpsing is a theatrical slang term used to describe when an actor breaks character during a scene by laughing or by causing another cast member to laugh

strangulated: adj. if someone's voice sounds strangulated, they sound as though their throat is being pressed
whimper: n.A feeble intermittent cry expressive of fear, pain, or distress, a low complaining sound.

exacerbate:v.If something exacerbates a problem or bad situation, it makes it worse.

contagion:n.If something exacerbates a problem or bad situation, it makes it worse.