• Argued that there is no woman that can’t be cured’ from homosexuality.'
• Comments made during the live quiz show Fighting Talk on Radio 5 Live
  
• Invited contestants to debate why she should be made to present topless
  
• the BBC ‘apologised unreservedly’ for any offence caused by the show

By Ryan Kisiel

PUBLISHED: 17:39 EST, 2 June 2013 | UPDATED: 08:35 EST, 3 June 2013

The BBC was at the heart of a homophobic scandal last night after a radio programme asked how lesbian presenter Clare Balding could be ‘turned around’.

Broadcast before the watershed, the show also argued that ‘there is no woman that can’t be cured’ from homosexuality.'

Contestants were also invited to debate why Miss Balding, who works across a wide range of BBC programmes and other television channels, should be made to present racing coverage topless.

The offensive comments were made during the live quiz show Fighting Talk on Radio 5 Live on Saturday at 8.30pm - half an hour before the 9pm watershed.

Last night the BBC ‘apologised unreservedly’ for any offence caused by the show but it was still available through their iPlayer service on the internet.

It comes six years after the Corporation received 50,000 complaints from listeners disgusted by the obscene phone calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter on Radio 2.

In the latest bout of bad taste Colin Murray asked contestants, during a section called ‘Defend the Indefensible’, to argue: ‘Give me 20 minutes with her and I’m pretty sure I could turn around Clare Balding’.

Comedian Bob Mills then stated that the former jockey and racing presenter was a ‘horse woman’ who ‘appreciates power between her thighs’. He added: ‘And we all know, there is no woman that can’t be cured’.

His response was met by loud groans from the large audience that was watching the show at the Liverpool Echo Arena as part of the stations Big Day Out event.

During a later episode of the same show broadcast at 11pm, host Murray asked another tawdry question involving Miss Balding.

He set as the subject for the same Defend the Indefensible debate that Channel 4 should get Miss Balding to ‘present the Derby topless’.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay rights pressure group Stonewall, described the comments as ‘canteen bullying from the 1960s’.

He added: ‘We have warned the BBC for some time that there were problems in their live sports programmes because they have not formally trained staff in what is simply wrong.

‘The BBC should be doing better than this. Given that Clare is employed right across broadcasting and doing loads about the gender gap in sport single handed, we would have thought the BBC would have wanted to keep her happy.’ 

It is not clear why Miss Balding, who is the daughter of the Queen’s former horse trainer Ian Balding, and is the civil partner of Alice Arnold, a Radio 4 newsreader, was targeted by the show.

She had been leading Channel 4’s coverage of the Epsom Derby that day and has recently signed a deal with BT to head the presenting of its new sports coverage with a weekly show.

Miss Balding has previously appeared on Fighting Talk and is friends with the show’s host and some of its comedians.

Last week, the 42-year-old presenter, said that women on television were judged by their looks while male colleagues on their knowledge.

She said: ‘We look at women and we judge, whereas we listen to men and we judge. Their voice as in what they say is stronger than their look.

Ms Balding, who recently won a Bafta, also added that she has been criticised for how she looked, but that she tries not to let it affect her.

She said: ‘I know that when I’m on TV, I’ll get a lot of comments about my personal appearance. It’s demoralising but it shouldn’t be destructive.’

Jonathan Ross was forced to resign after he and Russell Brand left for veteran actor Andrew Sachs, of Fawlty Towers fame, during a BBC Radio 2 show, referred to his granddaughter Georgina Baillie, who had an affair with Brand.

Ross shouted in crude terms that Brand had slept with the burlesque dancer. The national scandal forced the BBC to into an internal investigation and public apology.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘The comments were made during a round called “Defend the Indefensible” which asks panellists to comment on topics which, by their very nature, are blatantly indefensible.

However, we would like to apologise unreservedly to anyone who was offended by the live broadcast.’