Charlotte Green had a fit of the giggles this morning on the 8am bulletin for the Today programme. Charlotte reported the news of an American researcher team who have discovered the earliest known still playable voice recording, which predates Edisons effort by 17 years. Recorded with a phonoautograph, which records sound on smoke blackened paper, the 10-second clip features a scratchy though audible rendition of ‘Au Clair de la Lune’. At the conclusion of the piece, listeners heard the clip played back, before Charlotte launched into an obituary piece for Richard Widmark. Moments into the obituary Charlotte started to stutter and stumble over her own fits of laughter, presumably highly amused by the mildly bizarre song. I’m sure nothing could be more embarrassing then ‘corpsing‘ during a serious news item, but sometimes you simply can’t help yourself. I know I’ve been set off my the smallest of things, then sat grinning and giggling until tears stream down my face and my jaw aches. Poor Charlotte.