BBC sorry for Bloom’s ‘slur on travellers’
BBC Radio 1 apologised after Orlando Bloom claimed on air he was a ‘pikey from Kent’.
The 40-year-old Lord Of The Rings actor, who was privately educated in Canterbury, made the comment on Nick Grimshaw’s Breakfast Show yesterday when talking about his new film Unlocked.
Grimshaw, 32, asked: ‘There’s a bit where you go downstairs and batter those two police guys. That is really cool and I’m guessing you can do that in real life?’
Bloom said: ‘I’m still a pikey from Kent, boy, I’m still a pikey. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of me, boy.’
The word is regarded as an offensive term for gipsies or travellers.
Grimshaw later said: ‘Apologies if you were offended by anything that Orlando may have said.’
Author: Daniel Binns
