Radio 4 used to be the welcome retreat for world weary listeners wanting to escape the hustle and bustle of the modern world, but DJ Laurie Taylor turned the stations world on it's head when he used a rather unsavoury play on words during a discussion on a rowing team.

The presenter was speaking on the Thinking Allowed afternoon show when he read out the phrase, which had been used in a listener’s email. The message had been sent in to the show in response to a previous item about the sacking of a cox from a rowing team. One crusading listener found the play on words particularly offensive - describing it as a “grossly offensive play on words” - and alerted the BBC's management to issue a complaint.

After the singular complaint was ignored by the corporation's management, the listener then went to the BBC Trust, who, whilst acknowledging that the comment was meant only as a light-hearted play on words, said that the comment could also be mistaken for a “seriously offensive word” and ruled that it was a breach of the BBC’s broadcasting guidelines.

The broadcasting house said in its official enquiry into the on-air fumble that it was “highly likely to have been misheard by a significant part of the audience as ‘c*cksuckers,’” and because of the 4.15 pm broadcast time the show may have been heard by some vulnerable children whose parents were doing the school run. There has been no word on what punishment will be handed out to Taylor, or whether SWAT teams will be sent to arrest the person who sent in the original email, however the corporation's decision is imminent.

The email in question had thanked the programme for its “insight into the social dynamics of the Cambridge boat race crew...Heavens to Betsy, what a bunch of cox sackers.”