Queen Mother error man is under a cloud

WAYNE HANSON, the Sky television technician who killed off the Queen Mother, said last night that he had 'no bitterness' over his subsequent sacking.

'The Queen Mum's got her health, I've got my health, I suppose that's what matters,' he said. 'But I'm on the dole queue - there's a lot of people unemployed and I've joined their ranks.'

It was last Thursday night that Mr Hanson, 26, made the telephone call to his mother in Australia that lost him his job as a videotape editor after more than three years with Sky. He had seen a presenter announcing that the Queen Mother was dead, and he thought his mother - an ardent royalist - should know the news. She passed the information on to a local radio station; within minutes the news was broadcast by television stations across Australia. But Mr Hanson had been watching a dummy run.

'I knew only moments afterwards what had happened and how far it had gone. But it was too late. I said later that night 'I suppose I'm out of a job, then', and they said 'Yes',' he said. Sky has dismissed him, without financial settlement, for 'gross misconduct'. But if Mr Hanson has any regrets, it is that losing his job may finish his work on a life-saving invention.

Last summer in Spain he rescued a young man who was drowning in the sea. A trained life-saver, he has been working on a motorised surf board to enable helpers to reach people in trouble off beaches and bring them back to shore swiftly. 'I've produced four prototypes and sunk all my wages, apart from living expenses, into the project,' he said.

Though 'what happened to me could have happened to anyone', he does not want to criticise Sky. 'I've been fired in a way that has been so public, that it's going to be very tough for me to get a job.'

And how does his mother feel? 'She's very pleased that the Queen Mother is alive and she's very concerned about my job. But the Queen Mum comes first.'