BEAR FACED CHEEK; Beeb scrap all competitions as six bogus TV scandals are exposed.

Byline: By Nicola Methven

PUDSEY BEAR was last night caught up in the growing scandal over fake TV phone-ins after the BBC admitted a bogus contest was shown on Children In Need in Scotland.

A BBC inquiry found that fake competitions were also broadcast on Red Nose Day in March this year and in Sport Relief in 2006.

And the probe uncovered dodgy phone-ins on kids' show TMi and two radio music programmes.

BBC director-general Mark Thompson announced yesterday that he was suspending all the Corporation's phone-in contests until he was sure they were being honestly run.

He vowed to sack anyone caught faking contests in future but refused to quit himself.

The scandal follows a string of shocking revelations about dodgy phone-ins on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and GMTV.

Watchdog Ofcom fined the Beeb pounds 50,000 last week after Blue Peter producers asked a child visiting the studio to pose as a contest winner.

And the BBC apologised to the Queen for a trailer which wrongly claimed she stormed out of a Buckingham Palace photo shoot.

In the wake of the Palace stitch-up, Thompson ordered a inquiry to find out if any more producers were guilty of faking.

Bosses checked a million hours of TV and radio broadcasts and the six new scandals were exposed.

The probe revealed that in the BBC Scotland section of Children In Need in 2005, acontest based on kids' show Raven was faked after a technical glitch stopped genuine entrants getting through to the studio.

Producers invented a winner's name and it was read out on air.

The inquiry also found that the "winner" of a contest on this year's Red Nose Day was actually a member of the production team.

Prizes in the Comic Relief contest included apair of Sharon Osbourne's shoes. Incredibly, the faking episode took place two days AFTER the Blue Peter scandal broke.

The probe revealed that producers of Sport Relief in 2006 pulled a similar con trick on viewers.

TMi was implicated in the scandal when it emerged that a production team member posed as a contest winner in 2006.

And the inquiry further revealed that two BBC radio shows were guilty of faking.

Recorded editions of The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music were passed off as live in 2005 and 2006.

All the contests on the shows were fakes, and all the "winners" were production team members or their friends.

The final offenders were the producers of music show White Label on the BBC World Service. They broadcast fake winners' names more than once after contest prizes went unclaimed.

Thompson revealed the six scandals yesterday in a meeting with the BBC's governing body, the BBC Trust.

He admitted that the inquiry was continuing and "further incidents could emerge".

After the meeting, Thompson said all phone-in contests on the BBC would be suspended from midnight.

He admitted the BBC had let the public down and added: "The behaviour of a small number of staff, who have passed themselves off as viewers and listeners, must stop. We must swiftly put our house in order."

Thompson said 16,500 BBC employees would be forced to attend a new training programme on "honesty with audiences".

In an internal BBC broadcast, he told staff: "There is no excuse for deception. We have to regard deception as a very grave breach of discipline which will normally lead to dismissal."

Thompson said some producers would be suspended while bosses investigated why they failed to report the fake contests.

And he said the BBC would "pause" their commissioning of new shows from RDF, the production company who accepted blame for the trailer which stitched up the Queen.

A separate inquiry into the trailer is continuing.

Thompson insisted that the vast majority of BBC staff were honest with viewers. And he stressed that donations to Children In Need were not affected by the fake phone-in.

Asked if he was considering resigning himself, Thompson said: "My task today is not think about my own position but to roll up my sleeves with the rest of the BBC and make sure we sort this out."

The Children In Need scandal follows a string of revelations about dodgy phone-ins on other TV shows.

The first hint of trouble came when it emerged that nearly half the entrants to Richard and Judy's You Say We Pay contests on Channel 4 had phoned in after the winning entries were chosen.

The company who organised the premium-rate contests were fined pounds 150,000 earlier this year by regulators.

Later, it emerged that ITV's X Factor had overcharged text voters by pounds 200,000. Problems were also uncovered with viewers' votes on Soapstar Superstar and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

ITV's quiz channel, ITV Play, was slammed for running contests which viewers had little chance of winning.

In one competition, organisers included "a balaclava" and "rawl plugs" in a list of items likely to be found in a handbag.

ITV temporarily axed all their phone-ins while procedures were reviewed. Bosses shut down ITV Play but its programmes stayedon air during the night on ITV1 and ITV2.

In April, GMTV promised to pay back viewers who entered phonein contests when they had no chance of winning. Bosses sacked the company responsible for running the contest.

The BBC didn't escape the controversy. The Saturday Kitchen cooking show was condemned for asking callers to ring in "live" to a show which had been pre-recorded.

Then came the Blue Peter scandal. The pounds 50,000 fine handed to the corporation was the first they had ever received.

RECORD VIEW: Page Eight

THE SIX FAKES

BBC production staff have passed themselves off as genuine viewers and listeners on six occasions since January 2005

COMIC RELIEF

BBC One March 16 2007

Viewers were invited to donate money to Comic Relief and were told that by calling in they could win prizes which belonged to a famous couple. These included two pairs of shoes and a dress owned by Sharon Osbourne. The first two callers taken on air gave incorrect answers. A third caller was heard successfully answering the question.

This caller was not a viewer but a member of the production team.

TMi

BBC Two/CBBC September 16 2006

Following a production problem with a live TMi competition for games and toys, including a spaceship and a pogo stick, viewers were led to believe that an audience member had won. In fact, the caller was a member of the production team.

SPORT RELIEF

BBC One July 15 2006

Viewers were led to believe that a member of the public won a Sport Relief competition for a behind-the-scenes tour of EastEnders and Coronation Street. The caller was, in fact, amember of the production team.

The BBC have found evidence that this action was planned in advance because technical difficulties meant incoming calls could not be accessed by the production team. Warnings about potential difficulties in conducting the competition were ignored.

This incident was not referred up nor was it declared to a BBC audit in March.

CHILDREN IN NEED

BBC One Scotland November 18 2005

In a segment called Raven: The Island in the BBC's Children In Need Scotland broadcast, viewers were led to believe that a phone-in competition to visit the set had been won by a viewer.

In fact, due to a technical mistake, calls from the public did not get through and the name of a fictitious winner was read out.

LIZ KERSHAW SHOW

BBC 6 Music 2005/2006

In pre-recorded shows by Liz Kershaw, left, presented as if they were live, a competition was announced which appeared to feature genuine listeners. In fact, there were no competitions or prizes. All the callers were members of the production team and their friends.

Anew producer took over in December 2006 and stopped the practice.

WHITE LABEL

BBC World Service

On more than one occasion on White Label, a weekly pop preview programme, a fake winner was announced for the CD prize when no winning entries had been received.

'The behaviour of a small number of staff must stop'

CAPTION(S):

BIG ACT: Raven, played by James Mackenzie, was involved in fake TV scandal