Even by Piers Morgans' standards, this rant was a bit unhinged.
The perennially outraged Good Morning Britain host flew off the handle on air this morning...over Fireman Sam.
It all started when Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service's chief explained why he stopped using the character for recruiting in a bid to get more people into the profession.
Les Britzman branded the character ‘outdated’ and ‘not inclusive’ and suggested more fire services would use the character if it was labelled ‘Firefighter Sam’ to encourage more women to apply.
“Many women don’t want to be firefighters because of images like Fireman Sam,” he said.
It was all too much for Piers. He's gone off on one over the same thing before back in March - and it's clearly still bugging him.
“No woman has ever refused to join the fire service because of Fireman Sam,” he shot back.
But that wasn’t the end of it - during the ITV programme Piers had a couple of his trademark meltdowns about the issue, much to so-host Susanna Reid’s frustration.
He moaned: “I think there are certain professions that attract a certain gender than others. I imagine that 95% of the world's coal miners are probably blokes. Women don’t really want to be coal miners. I’ve got no problem with that.
“In London, apparently, the last recorded figures, there are nearly 5,000 male firemen, and there are 300-350 women doing it, despite having a woman in charge.
“It just might be not Fireman Sam’s fault, it might be that women don’t particularly want to be firefighters.
“Why does everything now have to be 50/50 for the sake of it? Why can’t we accept that in certain professions…”
“That men dominate,” added Susanna helpfully.
But Piers wasn’t done. He continued following Richard Arnold’s entertainment report.
“87% of nurses are women. Women want to be nurses. Could that be just a fact. Women are more attracted to nursing than they are to firefighting,” he ranted.
“Why is that a problem. When did it become a problem. When did we have to change that because we wanted more representation of the other gender in whatever it is.”
Lorraine Kelly, giving her daily programme update on GMB, offered her opinion.
“Piers, if I was in a burning building I really don’t care what they want to call themselves as long as they get me out of it,” she said.
“Maybe more women would do it if they knew about it.”
GMB airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.
