Derek Thompson: 'I simply assumed it was a woman and still laugh about it now'

On a quiet afternoon's racing at Hereford 13 years ago Derek Thompson, who was presenting in the At The Races studio, handed over to his ice-cool companion Robert Cooper, who was ready to interview the clerk of the course for a going report. Although they did not know it, they were about to create an iconic TV moment.

Tommo, with his classic charm, handed over to Cooper by saying that he was joined by "a beautiful lady", only for Cooper to respond with an instant, deadpan: "It's a man actually, Derek."

The man who was mistaken for a woman by Tommo remains a mystery to this day, but the clip resurfaced a decade later and became such a viral social media hit that it took pride of place on prime-time television on BBC1's Graham Norton Show.

Derek Thompson, racing broadcaster

It was a crazy experience, and in fact it's been made even crazier that we still do not know the name of the bloke I mistook for a woman – he still remains nameless to this day, despite him being one of the stars on a clip that has been viewed across the world!

Because you are looking ahead at the camera, I casually glanced behind quickly to see where Bob was, for example to see if he was at a fence or with a horse, then you can personalise the introduction to the presenter. I just happened to glance around and see this blonde hair and quickly assumed it was a woman. It was as simple as that.

I immediately thought 'Oh s**t' – I nearly said it on-air! When they cut to the outside broadcast they also cut the sound inside the studio and I think those words came out, but it didn't come out on air. There's always one good thing to realise, thank goodness I did not get it the other way round, because that would have been even worse!

It wasn't done on purpose. It was purely to try to make it more colourful, rather than 'Bob's at boring old so and so' with a straight piece to camera. Bob is always good, he can hit the ball back over the net and I knew he would come back with something. I did not realise he would come back with that, it did shock me well and truly.

I was watching the Graham Norton show live when it went on and I was shocked, but it got people laughing, it got people happy and it wasn't done on purpose. It didn't offend anybody, it was funny and in this day and age, we all need a laugh to cheer ourselves up.

It was a one-hit wonder for the bloke we interviewed, he made number one! It was incredible and there's been hundreds of thousands of hits to this day. That's the beauty of social media, when it works it's wonderful. I still laugh about it when people still send it to me on Twitter, I was sort of quite proud about it because it's not something a lot of presenters would get wrong. It was a totally off-the-cuff moment and we've had some hits on the line since then!

Robert Cooper, Sky Sports Racing presenter

It's amazing the actual gap between when it happened and when it came to life. I think it happened on the second inception of At The Races with a fresh-faced Mick Fitzgerald as our guest in the studio.

Two things like this have happened at Hereford, because I remember once when Richard Pitman was in the old racing channel studio and Jodie Mogford, who is now assistant to Graeme McPherson, was a jockey and Richard handed over in saying a similar sort of thing thinking Jodie was a girl, who is in fact a bearded man.

I remember it because the clerk of the course had a great mop of hair and hadn't been in the role all that long, he left pretty soon afterwards too. I'd never spoken to this chap before and I never thought anything of it at the time and it was forgotten about straight away, I doubt we even replayed that at the time.

My immediate thought was 'Tommo's wrong again'. You can't plan a response and at the time when it came out, I thought it sounded quite good. The poor clerk of the course had no idea what was going on. He was quite nervous because he had not done a going report on air and when he heard me say 'It's a man actually, Derek' he must have thought 'what the hell is he talking about?'

The clip gathered dust on a shelf for 13 years and the first I knew about it was two years ago, when an At The Races producer sent it to me while I was doing some work at home, I thought nothing of it. Since then it's kept snowballing, it went completely bonkers. I got so many texts about it and like all those things on social media, it spiralled even further. I still have no clue how it got out on Twitter!

I'm amazed it's made it across the world. It was an Alan Partridge moment and Steve Coogan was actually on the Graham Norton Show it was featured on and he loved it. That programme went out a few weeks after Christmas time and I had thought that it was all starting to die down, but I remember waking up one morning seeing loads of texts messages saying I was on Graham Norton last night and I thought what on earth were they talking about?

Even to this day, I was at a family wedding during the summer with my wife and there were a few racing fans there, they said 'who's that beautiful lady with you?'. You know how I had to answer. There were great cheers from the table so it's lovely to know that clip has certainly done the rounds.

Read more

Hayley Moore: 'It was a random thing to do. I didn't expect it to go viral'

Luke Harvey: 'It very soon dawned on me that I was part of television gold'

Ultimate Daily - our daily newsletters from Racing Post's experts, exclusive to the inbox of Ultimate Members' Club subscribers. To receive the newsletter subscribe at racingpost.com/members-club