Queen Elizabeth killed off by DJ

May 18, 2010, 12:02 GMT

Britain's Queen Elizabeth was jokingly killed off by a BBC radio DJ.

DJ Danny Kelly of BBC WM station played the national anthem half-way through his two-hour afternoon show yesterday (17.05.10) before making the shock announcement that the 84-year-old monarch had died.

Danny, 39, somberly told up to a quarter of a million listeners in the West Midlands that he had some '"astonishing news" to deliver, before stating "Queen Elizabeth II has now died".

Within seconds, producer Mark Newman jumped on air, saying: "You can't say that".

Mr. Kelly then clarified that he'd actually been referring to a friend on his Facebook page who called himself "Queen Elizabeth II", but who had vanished from the website.

A BBC spokesman has since condemned the comments, saying: "Although made as part of a light-hearted piece about social media friends, and corrected on air immediately after it was made, this comment was entirely inappropriate and the BBC apologises unreservedly for it. There was no intention to offend. Action is being taken."

Vivienne Patterson, chairman of radio and television watchdog Mediawatch, claimed the DJ's comments were incredibly "sick".

She said: "I think because it's the queen and they treated it like a big announcement it makes things worse. It's a bit sick actually. It's the BBC we are talking about here and there's a certain expectation from them."

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace declined to comment last night (17.05.10).