The BBC was forced to clarify a slip of the tongue that led presenter John Inverdale to say "rose-c**ted glasses" during BBC Radio 5 Live's coverage of the Cheltenham Festival.

During an interview with the former jockey John Francome and current jockey Lizzie Kellie, Inverdale made the unfortunate gaffe while reflecting on racing days gone by.

Francome said: “You get wet, you’re mucking out, and it’s hard work … but through all of that it’s a way of life that most of them wouldn’t swap, a lot of people go off and do other things and then come back to it.”

To which Inverdale replied: “This is looking at it through rose-c**ted … rose-tinted glasses from the past … [I]apologise there for a slip of the tongue, but Lizzy your love of the sport just shines through.”

A BBC spokesman said later in the day: “It was a slip of the tongue and John apologised immediately afterwards.”

It is not the first time Inverdale has been guilty of an on-air faux-pas in recent times, most memorably when criticising Marion Bartoli’s looks ahead of the 2013 Wimbledon final. Inverdale said then that Bartoli was “never going to be a looker”. Guardian Service