She is famous for the rare occasions on which her normally calm and authoritative voice is overcome by a fit of the giggles while reading the news on the BBC Radio 4 "Today" programme. On 24 March 1997 this happened while she was reading a story about sperm whales, following a report which mentioned the name Jack Tuat (pronounced "twat"). More recently, on 28 March 2008, when a very early recording from the 1860s, which one of the other presenters had just described as sounding like "bees trapped in a bottle", was played during a news story, she collapsed in giggles while reading the next item - the obituary of Hollywood screenwriter
Abby Mann.