BBC Breakfast’s Dan Walker had to correct this awkward subtitle error

Live-subtitling is pretty perilous work, as the viewers of BBC Breakfast discovered yesterday.

A seemingly harmless report on the decline of fishing along England’s coast became unexpectedly awkward due to a subtitle blunder, which did not look very kindly on the small Norfolk town of Cromer.

As news stories go it was pretty tame, until reporter Jayne McCubbin talked about how the number of fishermen in Cromer – which is famous for its crabs – has declined.

But did the subtitles say crabs? No. No they didn’t, they said “crap” – as one eagle-eyed viewer pointed out…

I see BBC Breakfast is not a fan of Cromer. pic.twitter.com/5ylVFalIZR

— Paul Hughes (@Mr_Hughesy) September 6, 2017

BBC Breakfast’s Dan Walker quickly reassured everyone that they had been talking about “crabs”, not “crap”.

"Someone call Dave in subtitles… CRABS… we said CRABS" ???????? https://t.co/gQUBqiHlGq

— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) September 6, 2017

It is the latest in a series of subtitle mistakes, which make for very entertaining alternative news…

'Queuing'… I said 'queuing' ????
Well spotted by @james_seber this morning @BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/ZfLfqMFL3a

— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) July 3, 2017

When subtitles go wrong… #ChineseNewYear pic.twitter.com/kac2gqkMQL

— Tina Daheley (@TinaDaheley) January 31, 2014

How to spell Benedict Cumberbatch according to BBC subtitles pic.twitter.com/MFGd18lqk4

— Кати (@farmfeatures) March 19, 2014

Budget cuts hit the Royal Family transport budget. pic.twitter.com/ow1uUSyD9w

— Andy – 2E0GPU (@andytuk) June 14, 2014

Bit of a subtitle fail from the BBC… Nobody tell Bilbo, he won't be happy. #poorhobbit pic.twitter.com/ESGP5rN0wv

— Danielle Atkinson (@RoxyMartinique) March 4, 2014