Radio 4's commissioning editor also discussed the matter with Boyle's agent, who confirmed she had in turn raised the issue with her client.

BBC: apologises for Frankie Boyle joke

Radio 4's arts commissioning editor Tony Phillips said the station would "find a way to put it on air without compromising Harrison's poem at all".

BBC: Tony Harrison to perform controversial poem V on Radio 4

What about newspaper editor William Randolph Hearst commissioning himself as a foreign correspondent and sailing to Cuba on his own steamer, complete with two weeks' worth of champagne?

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