BBC scraps outdoor broadcasts in Beijing 'because reporters are too sweaty'

It appears the heat has driven the BBC's top team indoors – emerging for as short as time as possible to do their pieces to camera.

Presenter James Pearce revealed in his blog that conditions had got so bad it left him 'in no fit state to broadcast'.

James Pearce looks a little hot under the collar as he delivers an outside report in Beijing

He added: 'Maybe I just don't have the right deodorant, but I think the problem is far more fundamental than that.'

Earlier this week Mr Pearce admitted he pulled out of a broadcast from the Bird's Nest Stadium after the ten-minute walk there left him perspiring heavily.

He added: 'Now a little perspiration never harmed anybody, but I do feel obliged to have some sensitivity for the TV viewers.

'The last thing that anybody wants to see on their television is a reporter drowning in his own sweat live on air.

'To be blunt I was in no fit state to broadcast. If I'd gone on air then terrified viewers would have been rushing for their remote controls. I was a mess!

'Common sense prevailed and we headed back inside, having explained to our bosses back home that "technical difficulties" were making the broadcast impossible.'

While the weather is expected to be overcast in Beijing tomorrow, the temperature is still expected to top 32 degrees.

But while the presenters may be unhappy, Beijing's climate could boost the brain functions of athletes, scientists claim.

Britain's Olympic women's hockey players were evaluated during a workout on a treadmill in environmental chamber simulating China's summer heat.

When asked to carry out various mental tasks, the players were able to complete them quicker when under heat stress, a study by Nottingham Trent University found.