BBC newsreader finds herself ambushed by the giggles

To millions, Charlotte Green is all that is best about BBC radio - the calm, authoritative and unflappable voice of news. But that reputation temporarily dissolved amid fits of giggles while Green was reading out an obituary on the eight o'clock news yesterday.

Her steadfast composure deserted her on the Today programme. After playing a clip of the oldest known recording of the human voice, she lost control while reading the subsequent item about the death of Oscar-winning script writer Abby Mann. Green, 49, had to be rescued by presenter James Naughtie. However, Naughtie himself struggled to suppress giggles when introducing the next report, about Iraq.

"Apparently the BBC press office is in meltdown with calls about it," co-presenter Edward Stourton said.

"We hope that the family of Abby Mann will understand that it obviously wasn't intended as any slight towards him." The BBC audience unit said it had received 33 appreciations regarding Green's collapse and seven complaints.

She became distracted when an unidentified Today staffer whispered in her ear that the quaint female voice singing in an 1860 recording of Au Clair de la Lune sounded like a "bee buzzing in a bottle", said Stourton; both he and Naughtie deny responsibility.

"I'm afraid I just lost it, I was ambushed by the giggles," Green said later. "I did feel slightly embarrassed, knowing I have this reputation that I am prone to getting the giggles. People have been very sweet and everyone has come up to me and said how much it has cheered up their Friday morning."

Today's editor, Ceri Thomas, commented: "When Charlotte loses it, she really loses it."