After making a joke about Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Alexander Armstrong risks never being invited back onto the This Morning sofa again.
The 53-year-old guest hosted Friday night’s edition of Have I Got News for You, during which the subject naturally drifted to King Charles III’s coronation, which is set to take place on Saturday, May 6.
When asked about the celebs likely to attend the historic occasion, the Pointless presenter stated, ‘There are a lot of TV personalities on the coronation guest list, including Bear Grylls, Jay Blades, and Ant and Dec.’
‘Holly and Phil will also be up there at the front, even though they haven’t been invited,’ he joked.
Of course, Alexander is alluding to last year’s ‘Queue-gate,’ in which Dancing on Ice stars Holly and Phillip were chastised for ‘jumping the queue’ to see Queen Elizabeth II, who was laying in state in London’s Westminster Hall.
The presenting team sparked fury when it was discovered that they were brought to a press gallery for a separate viewing while Susanna Reid and David Beckham waited in waiting for up to 13 hours to pay respect to the late king.
In response to the upset, This Morning shared a statement on their Instagram page.
‘Hello everyone, we would like to clarify something’, they began.
‘We asked Phillip and Holly to be part of a film for this Tuesday’s programme.
‘They did not jump the queue, have VIP access or file past the Queen lying in state – but instead were there in a professional capacity as part of the world’s media to report on the event’.
Have I Got News For You couldn’t help but rip into the scandal at the time, with host Richard Ayoade saying: ‘This is the national scandal over the queue for the Lying-in-State. It’s the biggest thing that’s happened.
‘ITV’s Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield apparently just appeared in Westminster Hall on Sunday…’
Roisin Conaty joked: ‘Just appeared? Like a haunting?’, before Richard added: ‘Exactly, without having spent the previous 36 hours queuing.’
When asked what the average queuing time was, Ian Hislop joked: ‘It started at about 14 hours, then 15, and in the end it was… six years.’
He added: ’People liked the experience of queuing, they liked being there and then when they thought someone had jumped the queue they got very cross.’
Have I Got News For You airs Fridays from 9pm on BBC One.
