It’s difficult to say who was squirming the most – Terry Wogan or the TV viewers.
The BBC veteran presented Sunday’s Points of View in a pair of moleskin trousers which clung relentlessly to a certain area and left little to the imagination.
The corporation has received a flurry of complaints about 69-year-old Sir Terry’s wardrobe malfunction.
And the Linford Christie award for worst supporting trousers goes to Sir Terry
And there was speculation that he might be forced to report on the widespread dismay in the next edition of the audience feedback programme – not to mention Auntie’s Bloomers, his show featuring TV faux pas.
Viewers were initially placed at ease when the avuncular Irishman appeared on screen in jacket, shirt and tie for the teatime show – well before the 9pm watershed.
But then the camera panned down to reveal mustard-coloured slacks which offered him little in the way of, ahem, support and evoked memories of sprinter Linford Christie’s infamous ‘lunchbox’.
Even Sir Terry’s most ardent female fans appear to have found the experience a little unsettling, if the BBC’s on-line message boards are to be believed.
One said: “I have just watched Points of View with my daughter and my husband. When the camera panned out on Terry Wogan, I didn’t know where to look.
“Both my daughter and I (who are in no way prudish) were totally embarrassed to see Terry with very revealing trousers on. I’m sure we can’t have been the only ones to notice.”
A fan of Sir Terry, who earns £800,000 a year, leapt to his defence, saying: “I think the cameraman was taking the proverbial.
“Terry isn’t usually framed that way. He probably thought it was the usual waist-up shot and wasn’t giving a thought to the lunchbox.”
Another added: “Can’t the man have a mid-life crisis in peace? In the animal kingdom such displays often attract a willing mate.”
Sir Terry, who was knighted in 2005, appeared to be taking the furore in his usual light-hearted manner yesterday on his Radio 2 breakfast show. He read out a message from a listener which asked him if he had borrowed the trousers or whether he had got ‘someone else to fill them in other vital areas’.
It advised: “Try crossing your legs when in full shot – if you can do that without wincing. Try something a little more roomy in the which-side-do-you-dress department and try not to sneeze.”
Wogan insisted they were his own trousers and defiantly added: “Everybody’s an expert – you can’t appear on television without a crowd of idiots telling you look like something the cat dragged in.”
This is the latest controversy for Wogan after he was criticised for being paid to present the Children In Need charity event. He received nearly £10,000 for fronting the seven-hour show in 2005.
Earlier this year he also came under fire when he blundered on the results show for the UK entrant into the Eurovision Song Contest by announcing the wrong winner.
Wogan and co- host Fearne Cotton simultaneously announced different winners.