One of the BBC’s highest profile radio presenters has apologized for comments about people with glass eyes in a recent video to promote his new children’s book.
Greg James, who presents BBC Radio One’s flagship breakfast show, and former newsreader Chris Smith appeared in a video to promote The Twits Next Door, their co-written book inspired by Roald Dahl’s famous characters The Twits.
Viewers watched them discuss how to make their fictional characters “more revolting… really gross and horrible.” The BBC reports that when illustrator Emily Jones suggested giving characters a glass eye, Smith responded: “That’s it. What a disgusting pair of Twits.”
After the video appeared, criticism of the pair included a statement from The Royal National Institute of Blind People, which the BBC quotes as saying:
“When there’s positive representation of disabilities in children’s books, children with disabilities feel seen and heard, and their friends and classmates treat everyone the same.
“There is nothing at all revolting about prosthetic eyes, we think they’re brilliant.”
James later posted on X (formerly Twitter) his regret at the comment, writing:
“We are so sorry to have caused offence with the launch video. It was absolutely not our intention. And we apologise unreservedly. It’s now gone.
“We understand that words matter and we pride ourselves on championing and welcoming everyone into the magical world of children’s books. We would never dream of deliberately setting out to exclude anyone. With the glass eye comment, we were attempting to pay homage to one of the Twits’ most famous pranks involving a glass of beer in order to remind people of Dahl’s infamous terrible two. It’s in no way a suggestion that this forms any part of the plot of the new story nor was it our intention to suggest that it was in any way disgusting. It’s unfortunate that the word disgusting appears to be a direct comment on that. That’s an error on our part. We are devastated that it’s come across like this but completely understand why there is anger. And we appreciate everyone rightly calling it out. We hear that fully, we’re so upset that we made a mistake but we’re still incredibly proud of this book and we’re excited to get out there and share it with young readers all over the world x
James and Smith have co-authored The Twits Next Door – one book in a new series commissioned by the Roald Dahl Story Company. Netflix purchased the rights to the Roald Dahl estate in 2021.