'Pointless' host Alexander Armstrong apologises for "insensitive" joke after mining disaster

Alexander Armstrong has apologised for cracking an "insensitive" joke on television.

The TV presenter and comedian, who hosts Pointless alongside Richard Osman, said that the episode of the show aired on the same day that four Welsh miners died in a tragedy that showed him making a gag about mineshafts must have seemed sick to viewers but insisted that it had been filmed earlier this year.

Armstrong wrote on his Twitter page: "I gather there was a joke on Pointless today about mineshafts which must've seemed horribly insensitive in light of the Welsh mining tragedy. Obviously we filmed this series months ago so couldn't have known but even so it will have upset some people for which I apologise sincerely."

One Twitter user wrote to Armstrong on the microblogging site: "I'd like to point out that the joke just made about mineshaft was awful, considering there are Welsh miners trapped," to which he replied: "Sorry, that introduction was filmed some time ago, but someone should have remembered and cut it out. Apologies to everyone."

Osman later admitted that the jibe should have been cut from the show altogether rather than a BBC voiceover man announcing that it had been pre-recorded.

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Watch Digital Spy's interview with Alexander Armstrong below: