Andrew Marr faces new BBC bias probe after telling those disinterested in Prince Philip's funeral: 'You're wrong'

The complaints centre around the Glasgow-born journalist and author's monlogue in which he commented on the level of interest shown in the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral.

The BBC has already defended the level of coverage of the Prince Philip's funeral and the suspension of programming that was decided on on the day of his death.

Mr Marr in opening his politics show said: "One story really only on all the front pages, and one thought, 'The Queen left alone, Alone in her Grief', says the Sunday People.

"I'm not going to share all this on the front pages, because basically they have the same idea.

"I say to anyone who is not interested in yesterday's funeral, two things.

"First, you're wrong. There's a lot to reflect on and a lot to learn.

"And second, avoid the Sunday papers."

One complainer said: "Ridiculous. No doubt it is big news, but quite a few people are republicans and don't believe we should have a royal family. That is a perfectly legitimate view - what a patronising thing to say."

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Another who tweeted Mr Marr said: "Who do you think you are exactly having the right to say people not interested in the royal funeral yesterday are wrong?! It’s not your call to make, it’s family tragedy, of course, but so many have lost their loved ones. We don’t need someone like you judge us."

The Duke of Edinburgh was buried beneath St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday, April 17, with 11 million people tuning in to watch the coverage, led by broadcaster Huw Edwards, on the BBC alone.

But having had to open a complaints line about the extent of coverage of Prince Philip's death, the BBC was also hit with complaints over the coverage of Prince Philip’s funeral after dedicating six hours of its schedule to the service.

The BBC received 110,000 complaints about its coverage on the day of the duke's death, after it cleared its schedules and put mirrored coverage on BBC One, BBC Two and its News Channel.

The complaints about the extent of the coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh's death was the highest number ever published in the UK about television programming and made coverage of Philip's death the most complained-about piece of programming in BBC history.

The MasterChef final, The One Show, Have I Got News For You and The Graham Norton Show were all dropped for programming dedicated to the royal instead. The BBC was forced to set up a complaints board solely for backlash against the level of coverage.

BBC Two did not air coverage of the funeral, instead showing the Snooker World Championship.

BBC4 halted live coverage of the France vs England women's football international and diverted viewers to the BBC iPlayer, where it was available. In its place was a caption, and audio and video of fans cheering.

ITV gave the event three hours' coverage, anchored by Tom Bradby and Julie Etchingham and featuring guests including Philip's goddaughter, India Hicks.

Channel 4 showed episodes of reality show Four In A Bed, while Channel 5 aired the film A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger.

The BBC has already dismissed three other tranches of bias complaints about Mr Marr in the past months including over 100 about his interview with Nicola Sturgeon on November 29.

During the November 29 show, the Scots presenter suggested there was a "gap" between reality and her public claims about both the Alex Salmond scandal, her government's coronavirus record and the state of education in Scotland.

Mr Marr was then accused of presenting an attitude towards the First Minister which some compared to an “attack dog” who was aiming not for a political interview but a “character assassination”.

At the end of January, the publicly-funded broadcaster dismissed a tranche of some 2000 complaints over perceived bias against the Prime Minister Boris Johnson on The Andrew Marr Show on January 3.

Complaints stated that Mr Marr showed bias against the government, interrupted Mr Johnson too much through 'intrusive interrogation' or were unhappy the Scots journalist summarised his interview with the Prime Minister as "an Englishman talking to a Scot".

Others complained that Mr Marr appeared to be stating an opinion in questions about the possibility of a Scottish independence referendum.

Andrew Marr's Prince Philip commentary.

But the BBC stood by Mr Marr's impartiality in response to the criticisms over the Boris Johnson interview.

At the end of December the BBC dismissed a fresh set of complaints about December 13 edition of The Andrew Marr Show - raising concerns that the presenter appeared to be defending the government over Brexit while interrupting former Labour leader Ed Milliband too much.

At one point the Glasgow-born journalist and author described as "mealy mouthed" Mr Milliband's comment that Labour would have to look at the detail of any trade deal with the EU before deciding to fully support it.

In February, the BBC confirmed it was dealing with a new round of complaints about perceived bias by Marr involving the First Minister, the the health secretary Matt Hancock, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy and Israel.

The BBC said they have received a total of 115 complaints about bias. It has not divulged how many of those complaints were about his interview with the First Minister, who was confronted over her possible resignation in the face of allegations she may have misled the Scottish Parliament about the Alex Salmond affair.

While the public broadcaster has not specified what the complaints were about, social media complaints about Mr Marr's treatment of Ms Sturgeon referred to what some described as "insulting" behaviour which was contrasted to his treatment of Matt Hancock on the same show.

In the broadcast, Ms Sturgeon appeared angry after being questioned over her possible resignation in the face of the possibility that that she may have known about harassment allegations made against her predecessor Alex Salmond earlier than she had claimed.

She insisted she did not mislead parliament about when she learned of the allegations.