Emily Maitlis says Alan Johnson appearing 'from Hell', not Hull, for Newsnight interview

Journalist later described city as “rather lovely” in tweet

Presenter Emily Maitlis has laughed off the moment she accidentally confused Hull with “hell” in an on-air blunder on Tuesday evening. 

The Newsnight journalist was about to interview the former Labour politician Alan Johnson when she made the error.

“Former health secretary Alan Johnson joins us down the line from Hell,” Ms Maitlis said, before quickly correcting herself.

“I am never going to recover from that, am I?” she added.

The BBC presenter later posted the clip on Twitter along with the following comment: “For clarity I do know hull is not hell. It’s rather lovely.”

One social media user thanked Ms Maitlis for the “best laugh”, while another asked whether it was the “greatest Newsnight Freudian slip of all time”.

In the interview that followed the mistake, Mr Johnson expressed alarm that the prime minister had spoken about the army in his statement on new coronavirus measures in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The former home secretary said that “a shiver” went up his spine when he heard the army mentioned, adding that “we should not be even be contemplating having the military on our streets unless it’s to help with the logistics”.

Ms Maitlis’ error came a month after BBC weather reporter Carol Kirkwood said on-air that there were lots of “doggers” in Greenwich Park one sunny morning, when she had meant to say dog walkers and joggers.