Comedian and voice of Love Island, Iain Stirling, spilled the beans on his unique experience while working at CBBC, where he had to prep for a rather sombre announcement.
Chatting on the Some Laugh podcast with fellow comedians Marc Jennings, Stephen Buchanan, and Stuart McPherson, Iain delved into the BBC's detailed protocol in case the late Queen Elizabeth passed away during his live presenting stint.
Iain, who graced the CBBC screens from 2009 to 2013 and made a brief comeback in 2015, disclosed that he would practice the Royal announcement annually. He even had a black shirt stashed under his desk just in case.
On the podcast, Iain recounted: "When I was at the BBC, for kids TV, we used to rehearse every year for what would happen if the Queen died, because we were on live TV. So I genuinely had a box under my desk with a black t-shirt in it."
Stuart probed about the specifics, asking, "What would happen? You and the dog singing 'God Save The Queen? " To which Iain responded: "Every time we rehearsed they insisted on having the puppet dog in it, and trying to make that not offensive, which is impossible."
"So I would go, 'Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth has sadly passed away.' The dog would go: 'Ohh. No! ' And some producer would be like: 'Cut! '", reports Wales Online.
"And then they tried doing him not talking. So I go: 'The Queen's passed away,' and he would be sobbing... If the Queen had died when we were hosting kids TV, what would've genuinely happened was, it would've been me and then they made the dog stand in a corner facing the wall."
During his time on CBBC, Iain was known for presenting alongside his notable co-stars Hacker T. Dog from the CBBC TV show Scoop, Dodge the Dog, 'The Toad of Wisdom', and 'Pig with 'Tasche'.
Queen Elizabeth passed away at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, on September 8, 2022. She held the crown for 70 years and 214 days, making her the longest-serving British monarch and female sovereign.
