Charlotte Green is famed for her on-air slip-ups. Her Today programme meltdown after hearing the “oldest recorded voice” is a classic in the art of “corpsing”. But the popular Radio 4 newsreader’s latest bizarre mishap prompted winces rather than giggles.

Green was saying goodnight to studio colleagues after a corpse-free reading of the Radio 4 midnight news. On her way out, she managed to get her foot entwined in the headphones cable. It gets worse.

Green tripped and fell on a tape recorder in the studio. The unfortunate announcer gashed her shin, and was taken to A&E by a programme editor.

She is suspected to have suffered two cracked ribs and is now taking two weeks off to recuperate after the incident, which took place last week.

A BBC spokesman said: “We’re sure all Charlotte’s colleagues and listeners wish her well. We wish her a speedy recovery and look forward to hearing her dulcet tones soon.” On this, we can agree with the Beeb.

Jarvis Cocker entertained BBC One Question Time viewers with his views on Jacko this month. Now producers have their eye on the biggest star in the pop firmament. Warming up the audience before last week’s Schools special, David Dimbleby made reference to “Trisha” joining a future panel and asked if they would recognise her from her TV moniker. “It’s like ‘Sting’ or ‘Madonna’,” he said, adding: “We have asked Madonna to be on.” Producers hope the material girl will appear this autumn — but a source close to Madge is unconvinced.

“I wish they all could be Camden girls?” California has been the 50-year muse for Brian Wilson’s hymns to sun and surf. But the recent heat wave has prompted the Beach Boy to consider a change of view. Wilson performed a private gig in a sweltering Bloomsbury club to launch That Lucky Old Sun, a pop art book collaboration with the artist Sir Peter Blake. Wilson told us: “London is so hot and sunny these days — it’s better than California. I might just come over and write a new album.”

After the triumphant premiere of his opera Prima Donna, it may have been unwise of Rufus Wainwright to stroll into the Manchester night still dressed as Verdi, complete with a white silk scarf and black top hat.

A group of local youths jostled Wainwright and his partner Jorn, dressed as a young Puccini, shouting obscenities. The duo escaped into a waiting vehicle while their tormentors chanted “Cantona, Cantona”, banging on the windows. Such is the standard of opera criticism in the home of Oasis.

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