Alison Hammond 'feared she'd killed a man' after This Morning stunt went wrong

In 2018, as ITV's This Morning celebrated its 30th anniversary, Alison Hammond wreaked havoc with an on-screen mishap that lead to one of the shows most talked about moments

As This Morning brought back the floating weather map for a special 30th anniversary segment on 3 October 2018, Alison Hammond created what has gone on to be one of the shows most iconic moments. But she initially feared the worst.

Speaking on the What If podcast with ITV's Lorraine Kelly and her daughter Rosie about the fateful moment during that morning's coverage, she explained how the incident unfolded: "I was on (the map of) Great Britain and I jumped over, I was grabbing his arm to try and steady myself and at which point, he went off."

But she did feel that the sailor might have secretly played a part in her error: "Sometimes I look at it and I think, did he purposely try and do that to me, to get his moment?"

"I was absolutely mortified, absolutely mortified. Honestly, I was just thinking to myself 'I hope he's alright', because I didn't want anything to happen, plus it was live television." she added.

Earlier in the podcast, the much-loved presenter revealed that at one point she thought she had even killed the man, saying: "I actually thought at one point I killed him. It was literally about three seconds of thinking, have I killed that man."

But, after he had been rescued and brought to safety, Alison said that she couldn't have been any more more apologetic: "I was terribly sorry. I was very chivalrous and gave him my coat because it was so cold."

And, Lorraine cheekily quipped that such an incident was to be expected all along: "That's what happens when you have a map of Britain in water and you have to jump from England to Ireland."

After appearing on Big Brother in 2002, Alison would go on to start presenting and reporting for This Morning in the same year. Since then, her career has continued to flourish with various other tv roles soon to follow, including participation as a contestant on Celebrity Masterchef, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.