Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow has apologised for making a joke while interviewing a friend of Alan Rickman on the day the Harry Potter actor died.
Snow asked actor Richard Wilson, who directed Rickman in a play in the 1980s, whether he knew the 69-year-old had cancer.
"Did you know he was dying?" Snow asked, to which Wilson replied "I did".
Snow then referenced Wilson's catchphrase on comedy One Foot in the Grave by adding: "So it wasn't a case of 'I don't believe it'?"
Wilson did not appear to take any offence to the remark at the time, but some viewers did.
In very poor taste Jon Snow: "I don't believe it" joke about death of #AlanRickman to Richard Wilson. Not good #c4news
Jon Snow's usual sure footedness temporarily absent with the 'I don't believe it' question. #c4news
Jon Snow is a news legend but the 'I don't believe it' he shoe-horned into an interview with Richard Wilson on Alan Rickman was poor taste.
Jon Snow @Channel4News just asked Richard Wilson if, when he heard Alan Rickman had died, it was a case of ' I don't believe it' Not good.
However, Snow wrote in a series of tweets on Saturday that he apologised unreservedly.
I guess I can only say sorry... https://t.co/uqT13EkvXI
pologies all round sometimes in the heat of the moment one just gets it wrong https://t.co/7jPAcE1VU3
yes,agreed..I'm sorry https://t.co/7jPAcE1VU3
He wrote that the joke was a "mistake in the heat of a sad moment".
I apologise unreservedly it was a mistake in the heat of a sad moment https://t.co/3DnFGgOEPX