This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

The BBC Trust has described as "unfortunate and regrettable" a moment in an episode of BBC2 quiz show QI in which host Stephen Fry recited a limerick about paedophilia minutes before a Newsnight report on the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Viewers complained in January that Fry's limerick "trivialised the subject of paedophilia" when it was aired less than three minutes before a damning Newsnight report on the Savile saga.

The BBC Trust's editorial standards committee said on Thursday that the proximity of Fry's limerick to the news broadcast was "unfortunate and regrettable" and "capable of causing offence".

However the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee ruled that the programme was not in breach of the corporation's editorial guidelines, adding: "[The ESC] considered this was at the margins of acceptibility given the heightened sensitivities surrounding the Jimmy Savile case."

The ESC said that the decision to air the limerick was "finely balanced", but concluded that most viewers would not consider the the content strong enough to link it to Newsnight's Savile report.

The QI programme was produced in May 2012 but broadcast on 11 January, two minutes and 50 seconds before a Newsnight report summing up the allegations made in a police report against the former Jim'll Fix It host.

The limerick, which Fry recited as the last item of the comedy quiz show, went:

"There was a young chaplain from King's

Who talked about God and such things;

But his real desire

Was a boy in the choir

With a bottom like jelly on springs."

The ESC concluded that the limerick "would not have exceeded generally accepted standards" given the audience's expectations of QI and Fry.

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