A BIRMINGHAM radio station DJ has been sacked after he joked live on his Christmas show that the Queen “should be executed”.
Comedian Tom Binns, 39, lost his job at BRMB after listeners complained about his show, in which he interrupted the Queen’s Speech and called it “boring”.
He later called one of the complainants off-air and sent him a series of abusive text messages.
Cutting off the speech, in which Her Majesty paid tribute to soldiers serving in Afghanistan, Mr Binns said: “Two words: bor-ing” and joked about her “squeaky voice.”
He said: “That’s the Queen on BRMB and that’s probably the last thing I’ll ever do before I’m fired.”
He suggested the main reason for having a monarchy was tourism, adding: “The French beheaded their Royal family and they still get a lot of visitors to Paris.
“Maybe we should think about executing them and see how that does.”
Outraged listener Dave Humphries, 41, was having Christmas dinner with his partner when they heard the outburst. The plasterer, from Bartley Green, said: “My partner’s twin sister recently passed away and we put the radio on to have a bit of music in the background, so it wasn’t so quiet and sombre. We heard the Queen’s Speech and stopped eating to listen. When we heard what he said we couldn’t believe it.
“It wasn’t going to be the greatest day anyway, but this wrecked it.”
Mr Binns explained his comments were made in jest. He admitted he “flipped his lid” and contacted Mr Humphries off-air to “try to bring some sense and logic into him”. “You don’t mind people not liking your jokes but he went a step too far,” said the DJ. “I don’t regret it.”
He insisted the Queen’s Speech had been played in error and he was forced to take an “editorial decision” to cut it early. He said: “I’ve never heard the Queen’s Speech in my life and I didn’t know how long it would go on for.
“I was on my own in the studio and, rather than blame the station for the mistake, I decided to pretend to take it off myself.
“I’m a comedian making a joke. I don’t understand why anyone could get offended.”
David Lloyd, BRMB’s group programme and marketing director, confirmed the decision was taken this week to sack Mr Binns.
He said the speech was played in error but the freelance presenter had “misjudged” the situation in making a joke of it.
“We had a handful of complaints and one was fairly direct.”
Mr Lloyd said he personally called up the complainants to “assure people that we do take comments very seriously”.
