New behind-the-scenes clip appears to confirm BBC anchor’s story for showing middle finger on air

A newly released behind-the-scenes video shed light on what happened moments before a BBC News anchor became a viral internet sensation by flipping the middle finger live on air.

The 13-second clip, which emerged on X Friday, shows Maryam Moshiri, one of BBC’s “chief presenters,” apparently joking with the crew in the studio by using her fingers to count down the seconds until the beginning of the broadcast last week.

A smirking Moshiri starts by displaying both her hands with the fingers spread and then one by one bends her digits.

She pulls a face when she shows the camera two fingers with the palm facing her — a gesture that is widely considered obscene in the UK and Australia.

As the countdown winds down, she thrusts her third finger in the air, punctuating the universally recognized rude motion by tilting her head sideways and widening her eyes for a dramatic effect.

Moshiri then immediately pulls herself together and launches into the news program as if nothing happened by crisply announcing, “Live from London, this is BBC News.”

The veteran newsreader later issued an apology for her cheeky prank, which catapulted her to internet stardom, claiming she was only “joking around a bit with the team.”

“I was pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0 including the fingers to show the number. So from 10 fingers held up to one,” she wrote in a post on X before the release of the BTS video, which seemed to confirm her account.

“When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realize that this would be caught on camera,” she added.

Moshiri said she was sorry her inside joke with staff was caught on camera, but she insisted that she was not “flipping the bird” at her viewers.

“It was not my intention for this to happen and I’m sorry if I offended or upset anyone,” the anchor stated.

Moshiri was back on air three days after the viral debacle, which inspired an avalanche of humorous hot takes and memes. She then took to X to thank those who have sent her supportive messages.

“Totally love my job and the team at @BBCNews,” the presenter enthused, seemingly responding to commenters who speculated that she may have been grumpy at work, or feuding with a colleague.

The release of the full video Friday caused another stir on social media, with several jokesters calling for Moshiri to get a raise, and others arguing that the longer clip proved she meant no harm.

“This makes it even funnier,” one X user wrote. “Most news is bad, gotta keep their spirits up somehow just like the rest of us. Nice to see the human-ness of this.”