Michael Gove missed a BBC interview slot on Monday morning after getting stuck in a lift at New Broadcasting House.
The cabinet minister had been due to appear on the broadcaster’s Today programme at 8.10am but was noticeably absent in the airwaves.
Explaining the situation, Today programme presenter Nick Robinson said: “We were hoping to talk to Michael Gove. You might have been hoping to hear from Michael Gove at this time. He’d very kindly come into the building, so we didn’t have to deal with one of those awkward line failures.
“Mr Gove is stuck in the Broadcasting House lift. I wish I could say this is a joke it is not a joke. It is not very funny for Mr Gove and a security men who have been stuck there for some time.”
Mr Robinson said Mr Gove was “keeping cheerful” and had “even offered at one stage to talk to us on the phone” from the elevator.
He added that he hoped the communities secretary could be released from the lift so that we could “hear from him a little bit later in the programme”. The presenter joked that W1A, a series which parodies the internal workings of the BBC, was clearly “not a satirical programme”.
The Cabinet minister eventually appeared on the programme at around 8.30am, with Mr Robinson offering him “apologies on behalf of the BBC”.
Mr Gove replied: “After more than half an hour in the lift you successfully ‘levelled me up’, so I’m delighted to be here. I completely understand, these sorts of things happen. If you and I together given ammunition for Armando Ianuuchi for the next episode of W1A, then fine.”
When he was informed that a new hashtag #freemichaelgove had been coined on social media, Mr Gove added: “I suspect there are probably rather more people who are hoping I’ll be incarcerated for longer, but still.”
