Host asked listeners to try to guess killer’s identity from musical clues including Psycho Killer and Suffer Little Children

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The BBC has apologised after one of its local radio stations ran an entertainment game feature based on the Moors murderer Ian Brady to the disbelief of listeners.

On Sunday BBC Radio Leeds’s Nathan Turvey asked listeners to try to guess the identity of a “well-known person who has been in the news this week” from a series of musical clues.

They included All the Young Dudes by Mott The Hoople, the theme tune to the Brady Bunch, Suffer Little Children by the Smiths and Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.

Announcing the winner, Turvey said: “I think most of you worked out the answer was Ian Brady, which is someone we’re talking about this morning of course, who died earlier in the week.”

On social media, listeners expressed their disapproval and said the feature was in bad taste. In a statement issued to news organisations, the BBC said: “This is clearly unacceptable and we apologise. We are looking into how this has happened.”

The clip has also been removed from Facebook and iPlayer.

Duane McAnally (@DuaneMcAnally) @radiofail @AccidentalP surely even this is beyond Partridge

Mr P (@Paramore1979) @radiofail That's genius. I almost couldn't listen - It gets worse with each song. That cannot be real, surely? Surely?!!

James Woodland (@james_woodland) @radiofail OMG, surely that's not real!? Is it...?

Brady and his accomplice, Myra Hindley, tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965, and buried four of their bodies on Saddleworth Moor in the south Pennines. He died last week aged 79 at Ashworth secure hospital in Maghull, Merseyside.

The victims of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley Read more

Detectives continue to search for the remains of one of the victims, Keith Bennett, from Longsight in Manchester, who went missing aged 12.



“Whilst we are not actively searching Saddleworth Moor, Greater Manchester police will never close this case. Brady’s death does not change that,” Martin Bottomley, the head of Greater Manchester police’s cold case review unit, said.

Keith’s mother, Winnie Johnson, died in August 2012 without knowing the location of her son’s body, despite a near 50-year campaign to find him and give him a Christian burial. Brady repeatedly refused to say where he had buried Keith.

Last week Brady’s lawyer said his ashes will not be scattered on Saddleworth Moor after a coroner sought reassurances that the killer’s body would be disposed of in a “right and proper” manner.