FIONA Bruce has called a Question Time audience member to apologise for referring to him as "the black guy" live on air.

The BBC presenter made the blunder while chairing the topical debate programme on Thursday night.

Under the show's format, Bruce regularly picks out audience members to weigh in on the conversation.

However, in the past, she and other hosts have tended to describe questioners by their clothing as opposed to their skin colour.

Bruce, who also hosts Antiques Roadshow and is a newsreader for the corporation, apologised for "causing offence".

The BBC confirmed that she reached out directly to Roberto Gocan, 35, to express her regret.

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Mr Gocan confirmed that he received the call at 10.50am yesterday.

He told The Mirror: "I’m not going to speak too much about the conversation we had. But she called me personally and I do rate her for that."

The offending comment has since been edited out of the version of the episode uploaded to BBC iPlayer.

It came during a question on the proposed ban on mobile phones in schools, when Mr Gocan raised his hand to get involved.

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Attempting to pick him out for the technical crew to catch his comments on film, Bruce said: "The guy there in the middle… the black guy in the middle, yes you, sir."

In a statement, she reiterated her apology, saying: "I totally understand why my words last night caused offence and I apologise.

"I have spoken to the audience member directly and explained that usually I can see and describe an item of clothing or otherwise to help sound engineers with a microphone find people in the audience.

"Last night that was not the case as my view was obscured.

"In the split second I had, the easiest thing to do would have been to ignore the audience member and move on, but I felt strongly that his voice should be heard.

"Nonetheless, I feel it was wrong to identify him as I did and that's why it was removed from the later edited programme."

A spokesperson for the broadcaster confirmed that the recording had been edited on iPlayer to remove any remark that could cause offence.

They said: "We regret the choice of words used to identify the audience member.

"The intent was to ensure his voice was heard, however we recognise we should not have identified him in this way and apologise for any offence caused.

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"The show had been broadcast live at 8pm on Thursday on BBC iPlayer, and the recorded version, which was edited to remove the words, was broadcast on BBC One and is the version now available on BBC iPlayer."

Bruce has hosted Question Time in addition to her other roles since 2019, when long-serving presenter David Dimbleby stepped down.

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