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Wales Online
Lifestyle
Eve Rowlands

Richard Osman says 'I'm so sorry' after pulling Alexander Armstrong up on Pointless Celebrities

Pointless Celebrities was back on Saturday, June 17 on BBC1 and at the start of the show, host, Alexander Armstrong, was left slightly red-faced when Richard Osman - who still features on the celebrity edition of the BBC series - picked him up on the way he pronounces the word 'transatlantic'.

Explaining the opening round and the show's first category, Alexander revealed it was transatlantic pop - phonetically said tr-ahns-atlantic pop - and they needed to find the most niche answers to 'Solo artists that were number one on both sides of the atlantic'.

In response to this explanation, 52-year-old author and comedian Richard queried: "Did you say 'transatlantic'?" as he elongated the vowel, 'a' as an 'ah' in the word.

Read more: Sophie Evans shares odd feedback Simon Cowell gave her after being snubbed on The X Factor

Alexander replied: "Yeah," to which Richard said: "Wow! Trahnsatlantic. I always say transatlantic [making the 'a' a harsher sound]." Referencing Alexander's way of saying the word, Richard added: "That's classy."

Questioning it, Alexander said: "I don't know. It sounds rather silly, but yeah." "Oh no, not at all," Richard reassured him, "if that's how you say it then that's how it should be said."

Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman presenting Pointless Celebrities (BBC screengrab)

Explaining how the round would work - the song titles would appear with only the initials of the artist who sang it and the year it came out and the celebrities needed to guess the nichest musician - Richard ended by repeating the category, using Alexander Armstrong's pronunciation.

Taking offence - jokingly - Alexander huffed: "Well now! Here's our first board of seven clues for transatlantic solo artists" - slowly saying transatlantic as Richard would.

While both of these two pronunciations are correct, the House Of Games frontman soon felt bad and said: "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that!" before brushing this under the carpet and carrying on with the quiz.

Richard left the original Pointless television show in 2022 after being there for 13 years having joined in 2009. Clarifying the reason for his exit, he took to Twitter to post the news. He wrote: "Some news! After 13 wonderful years I'm leaving daytime Pointless, to concentrate on writing. Will still be doing the celebrity shows and 'HouseOfGames'. It has been the GREATEST pleasure and I can't wait to start watching as a viewer. Thank you to everyone!"

He later thanked BBC viewers for their support, and added: "Will miss the whole team, especially the incomparable @XanderArmstrong. Thank you to everyone who watches, it really has been a dream, and I know the show will continue to go from strength to strength.

"#TheThursdayMurderClub has become such a juggernaut around the world I simply couldn't keep up with my schedule. Delighted I'll still be involved in Pointless Celebrities though. I will still always be your Pointless friend."

Since Richard left the original show, a revolving roster of celebrity guests have been taking it in turns as Alexander's sidekick. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.

Pointless Celebrities airs on BBC1 on Saturday nights while Pointless airs weekdays at 5.15pm on BBC1.

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