Preening your hair, straightening your clothes and chatting with colleagues is something many of us will do while getting ready for work. But Emma Baker was left rather red-faced when her innocent banter in the Anglia News studio was beamed in to thousands of living rooms across the region.

Preening your hair, straightening your clothes and chatting with colleagues is something many of us will do while getting ready for work.

But Emma Baker was left rather red-faced yesterday when her innocent banter in the Anglia News studio was beamed in to thousands of living rooms across the region.

The presenter was all lined up for her 8am bulletin during GMTV when gremlins got in to the system and caught her off guard in front of unprepared Norwich cameras.

Instead of seeing Emma read the news with her normal professionalism, viewers got a glimpse of her fiddling with her hair and clothes and chatting with the team for several minutes, totally unaware she was being watched.

Emma was able to see the funny side of the gaffe and joked that her "disaster" - on the first anniversary of her joining the station - could easily end up on TV again as a hilarious outtake.

"It was a bit of a shock," said Emma.

"When I looked back I realised I spent an inordinate amount of time preening my hair for practically the whole time it was going out - the viewers will think Emma Baker is obsessed with her hair.

"Everyone's had plenty of jokes at my expense and are really amused by it.

"You have to see the funny side of things like this, you don't expect it to happen to you - I think it's a lesson that you shouldn't talk about anything controversial in the studio and luckily that didn't happen.

"You are always taught never to say anything that you wouldn't want others to hear because you can go on air at any moment.

"There are all sorts of things that can happen - you could be swearing or talking about colleagues."

Although the technical glitch has not been fully explained, it appears a problem with a transmitter meant GMTV cut to regional news studios unexpectedly early.

The team were poised to go on air shortly after 8am and were still hearing a countdown from London that warned them they had several minutes to go when in reality they were going out live across East Anglia.

"I went down to the studio at about two minutes to 8am, and I had my earpiece in, and I was stood there I didn't realise that we were on," explained Emma.

"After about a minute we realised what had happened, and I started reading the bulletin for about a minute and half, then I got cut off again, and then they came back to us as normal and I started it from the beginning.

"It all happened so quickly I didn't have the chance to work out what had happened to be able to tell the viewers why they had seen Emma three times in less than six minutes."

By sheer coincidence, the slip-up happened a year to the day since Emma joined Anglia from ITV in London and was followed by faultless bulletins at 11.50am and 1.50pm.

"I felt more nervous and was very quiet in the studio, quieter than I normally am," she admitted.

"The tape has already got around the newsroom so it's a bit too late to make sure it's safe.

"I've had a few e-mails from viewers who were thoroughly amused at what happened.

"One woman said she thought it was hilarious and thanked us for the entertainment this morning, so it's nice to think I've brightened up somebody's day."

Jim Woodrow, head of regional affairs at Anglia News, said: "This morning a switching error led to viewers seeing light-hearted banter between our presenter Emma Baker and our production team.

"There was nothing said that we feel might have upset viewers but we are sorry that our normal, professional service was compromised.

"Ourselves and GMTV are carrying out an investigation to understand what happened and to take the necessary steps to make sure it doesn't happen again."