BBC under pressure to apologise after Prince Harry drugs dig on Have I Got News For You

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Prince Harry is qualified to command an Apache attack helicopter (Picture: REUTERS)

The BBC is under pressure to apologise after Jo Brand joked about Prince Harry taking cocaine on Have I Got News For You.
Comedian Brand, who was a guest presenter on the BBC1 show, was joking about the names of Prince George’s godparents on Friday.
She then quipped: ‘George’s godparents include Hugh van Cutsem… I presume that’s a nickname as in Hugh van cuts ‘em and Harry then snorts ‘em.’

Have I Got News For You regular Ian Hislop, who captains one of the two teams, then joked: ‘Have we lost the lawyers?’
Brand has since insisted that she would not apologise for the dig as she was reading from an autocue.
She told The Daily Telegraph: ‘I didn’t write it. I read it out from the autocue. I thought it was funny. I don’t really understand what the fuss is about.

Jo Brand was a guest presenter on the show (Picture: BBC)

‘I am not going to apologise. I didn’t write it but I did say it so I am culpable in some way.’
Brand is a member of Republic, a group which campaigns to abolish the monarchy.
A spokesman for the BBC said the comment was just part of the show’s ‘irreverent humour’.
He said: ‘Have I Got News For You is a satirical news quiz and the audience is used to the often irreverent humour. This was clearly a tongue-in-cheek comment.’
But former head of the Army, Lord Dannatt, slammed the dig as ‘inappropriate’.
He said: ‘It might have been said as a joke but the suggestion is outrageous. It is a very unfortunate joke to make and most inappropriate.
‘The Army operates random drugs tests. Drugs and being an attack helicopter pilot don’t go together.’
While Anna Soubry, the Conservative defence minister, blasted the joke as ‘disgraceful, shoddy, appalling and out of order’.