Comedy show's 'sleep' clip rapped

Chat show host Jonathan Ross fronted TV's Greatest Moments

The BBC's governors have ruled that footage of narcolepsy sufferers should not have been shown as part of a comedy clip show.

The footage, showing members at a Narcolepsy Association meeting falling asleep, was greeted with laughter by the audience of TV's Greatest Moments.

The clip was originally part of a documentary first screened in 2002 which examined the sleep disorder.

The governors ruled the clip, shown out of context, was inappropriate.

The complaint was made by a member of Narcolepsy Association UK regarding the inclusion of the footage in the prime-time Saturday night clip show TV's Greatest Moments, fronted by Jonathan Ross.

The entertainment programme featured TV highlights of 2002 and was broadcast in 2003.

Originally the issue was dealt with by the BBC's head of programme complaints who concluded that the footage was acceptable.

Traumatic

However, the matter was then passed on to a select group of five BBC governors, who upheld the complaint.

The committee ruled that it had been inappropriate to show the clip out of context.

"In the original programme the audience had been attuned to the situation faced by the principal contributors. They had been made aware of how traumatic and debilitating narcolepsy could be for sufferers," the committee said.

"The audience of 2002 Greatest TV Moments knew nothing about the condition or the effect it had on sufferers' lives. Because the clip had been presented out of its original context, the audience had reacted to it with laughter."

The same complainant raised other concerns about the original documentary Nap Attack and a BBC Two Horizon programme, Living Nightmare, on the same subject but these complaints were not upheld .