Robert Kelly is a professor of political science at Pusan National University in South Korea, and with recent events in that country – the ouster of Park Geun-hye as the South Korean president, specifically – he’s the kind of subject matter expert that TV news organizations wish to call on. So the BBC did yesterday, hoping to get a smart segment on the politics of the Korean peninsula.

But Kelly, who has a Skype studio set up in his home office, suffered what work-from-homers fear most – the pouring-in of one’s domestic life…

This BBC interview is amazing. Just wait until the mum rushes in… pic.twitter.com/LGw1ACR9rg

— JOE.co.uk (@JOE_co_uk) March 10, 2017

As a writer and pundit working out of my house, I can certainly sympathize. I’ll do radio all the time, and with a rather rambunctious boxer living here with me I’m always nervous about the various background noises Bingle can inflict on my work. Thankfully, now that he’s two years old he’s developed a sense of decorum, but when he was a puppy he had a penchant for breaking into song.

Literally. He’d get hold of a squeaky toy, find inspiration and there would be melodious howling which could be clearly heard in another room. And I’d be on the air by phone with a radio station in Shreveport, or Salt Lake City, or somewhere, and almost have my brilliant takes drowned out by a singing dog – and I’d have to explain that my office sometimes doubled as an opera.

So our sympathies and best wishes to Professor Kelly – as well as a reminder to lock that office door when he’s going to go on with the BBC.