Nobody fools with the twelve strokes of midnight on the 31st of December when millions of Spaniards gulp down one grape per stroke to bring good luck in the coming year… but Canal Sur did!

To give you an idea of just how ‘sacred’ this tradition is, thanks to a retransmission error from the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, a top TV channel head has just resigned.

Twenty five years ago a TV presenter mixed up the quarter chimes with the twelve strokes of midnight, causing half of Spain to lose count and now, this year, Canal Sur managed to switch to an advert right in the middle of the strokes – six million Andalusians nearly choked on their grapes! It couldn’t be happening. But this happened not once but twice during the sequence.

Whoever was supposed to be controlling the sequence from the control room in Sevilla finally managed to get the image of the clock face in the said Madrid square back on the ninth stroke whereas most of his fellow Andalusian had far more than three grapes left on their plate

What a disaster!