The BBC has been on the receiving end of harsh criticism after an episode of Lily Allen And Friends aired video footage showing a pupil pulling a teacher’s trousers down.

The footage was shown on the chatshow on Tuesday night as part of a selection of “funny internet clips”.

“Now it’s my favourite, it’s kegging – pulling someone’s trousers down in public when they least expect it,” Allen explained, before airing a clip that appeared to show a student running up to the front of a classroom and pulling a man’s trousers down.

In response to the clip, Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, said, “we can only imagine how that teacher must have felt about what happened to him at that time.” The BBC condoning a showing of the clip had made it “hundreds of times worse” for the teacher, he added.

Andy Brown, a fellow teacher and national teachers’ union executive said that the decision to show the video footage was "completely and utterly irresponsible".

Lily Allen and friends has also come under fire for achieving drastically low ratings since it first aired in early February. The first episode managed to draw only 255,000 viewers.

(by Hazel Sheffield)