Pupils duped in BBC contest to meet McFly

2:47pm Friday 20th July 2007

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SCHOOL pupils were duped into entering a BBC competition to meet boy-band McFly.

The BBC has apologised for misleading youngsters who emailed its North West Tonight programme stating why the chart toppers should visit their school.

Managers of McFly, who are fronted by Danny Jones, from Bromley Cross, informed the BBC shortly before the winning school was chosen that the band would only be able to visit a school in Greater Manchester.

They blamed the "tight schedule" faced by Danny, Tom, Harry and Dougie.

But viewers were not told by the BBC, which is facing a crisis in trust after suspending all its competitions following evidence of "fake" phone-ins.

BBC spokeswoman Claire Rainford said that the viewers were able to enter the competition back in February by email only and that nobody had parted with any cash.

She said: North West Tonight launched this competition in good faith for all its viewers.

"We later discovered that McFly's schedule meant they could only visit a school within the Greater Manchester area.

We should have told viewers that we had changed the rules, but we didn't.

"We would like to apologise to all our viewers for this error.

"Nothing matters more to the BBC than audience trust, and yesterday the Director General announced a series of measures to prevent further breaches of editorial guidelines."

McFly eventually surprised pupils at Manor Green Primary School in Denton, Manchester, with a visit after one of its teachers won competition.