It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man without possession of the facts, will get a telling off from his wife.
And so it proved for Nick Robinson on Tuesday, who earned the ire of Today programme listeners – and his wife – for seemingly mixing up the author Jane Austen, on the 250th anniversary of her birth, with another literary heroine.
While discussing Jane Austen Day with his co-presenter Anna Foster, Robinson, 62, said he was ‘game’ to do a live action reading of her works on the Today Programme and would even don some historical clothes for the occasion.
But he seemed to confuse the Pride and Prejudice author with Emily Bronte, as he added: ‘I will pop out and get my Heathcliff costume’.
He was soon inundated with complaints informing the presenter, who earns £410,000 for his work at the BBC, that Heathcliff was in fact a central character of Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights.
The author Adrian Hilton said: ‘I’m still trying to work out why for a recital of Jane Austen, Nick Robinson said he would ‘pop out and get my Heathcliff’. Does he think she wrote Wuthering Heights?’
Later in the show, Robinson said that one woman in his household was particularly displeased with his mistake revealing that Pippa Robinson, his wife of 34 years, had been in touch.
He said: ‘My wife has texted me, along with quite a lot of other people who’ve messaged, saying ‘Don’t dress as Heathcliff, you fool!’
Nick Robinson on Tuesday earned the ire of Today programme listeners – and his wife (pictured) – for seemingly mixing up the author Jane Austen, on the 250th anniversary of her birth, with another literary heroine
English author Jane Austen (1775-1817) in a portrait of the celebrated writer
Robinson later made a further blunder when he told listeners: ‘I should just say that when we’re focusing on BBC standards, can you imagine someone on Jane Austen Day would then promise to dress up as a Charlotte Bronte character?’
Mixing up Charlotte, who wrote Jane Eyre, with her young sister Emily.
Robinson then appeared to mock US President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC, when he apologised for the gaffe and said: ‘If there is a Jane Austen charity, I promise to pay five billion dollars in compensation to them for the offence that I have caused to them and all her supporters.’
In September, thousands of fans from around the world descended on Bath to take part in the Jane Austen Festival, celebrating the author’s 250th birthday.
Ms Austen, who wrote Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma, became synonymous with Bath, having lived in the city from 1801 to 1806.