The dead thing in question is not equine, but a frequently reported corpse.

Yesterday on the Today Programme, the lovely Charlotte Green was reduced to helpless sniggering by an incontinent producer's larky remark in her earphone.

Fair enough - we are all entitled to such human responses. What I find irritating is how this has made its way to the status of a real news item. It was re-broadcast later in the same programme by listener request (sad gits); then it made the ITN News at 10pm the same evening (a gloating affair complete with interviews with actors about corpsing and how to avoid it), and was mentioned this morning in the newspaper reviews again so it has spread to the print media too. And now I've compounded the error by reporting it here.

People are being murdered in Iraq, starving in Zimbabwe and Somalia, ruthlessly oppressed in Tibet - and we are obsessing about a minor gaffe on the radio. Dear God.

For a real treat, listen to the infamous leg over incident from Test Match Special - click the audio clip next to the late great Brian Johnston's photo.