Weathergirl loses sunny disposition

London Evening Standard/London

BBC London’s Wendy Hurrell had just given Londoners the good news that warm weather is expected all week when her mood changed.

As the 31-year old presenter finished her report during the 10.30pm bulletin, the camera stayed on her as her smile faded and she rolled her eyes with a flick of her hair.

It sparked a Twitter storm as viewers aired their views, with many believing she was showing her contempt for her news anchor Riz Lateef.

Hurrell later took to the social networking site to insist she was reacting to a technical failure and was not showing her feelings towards Lateef.

She wrote: “The roll of the eyes was because I had to do the whole forecast without being able to see any graphics — it wasn’t at Riz Lateef! And clearly I was kept cut up in frame while I took out my frustration on the nearest inanimate object.”

Referring to Will Ferrell’s hit comedy film about a San Diego news team, she added: “It is actually really funny, even I have to admit. Our world is just like Anchorman,” and blamed “blimmin technical faults”. One viewer tweeted: “You should wait till the camera is off you before you pull the ‘I couldn’t give a damn face.’”

Hurrell responded directly, saying it was more like a “’I wish I could get my job done without all the technical niggles’ face.”

Viewer Michael Wrigley posted: “Nice look of disgust from Wendy Hurrell on BBC London news tonight... It won’t be alright on the night.”

Lateef even took to Twitter, defending her colleague. She said: “I can indeed explain, poor Wendy had to do the weather without any graphics at all and I think had had enough of tech fail. Thankfully it (the eye roll) was not at me, phew!”