Happy 8th Anniversary, ‘BBC Dad’ Viral Video: See His Interrupting Kids Now​on March 11, 2025 at 8:57 pm

Remember when little yellow-clad Marion swaggered into her dad’s TV interview, followed by baby bro in a walker? 62 million people watched.Remember when little yellow-clad Marion swaggered into her dad’s TV interview, followed by baby bro in a walker? 62 million people watched. Remember when little yellow-clad Marion swaggered into her dad’s TV interview, followed by baby bro in a walker? 62 million people watched.   

Even in these days of artificial intelligence and professional TikTok humorists, one of the simplest viral videos still makes me laugh. Back in 2017, professor Robert Kelly was being interviewed on the BBC via Skype, when he innocently neglected to lock his home office. 

First 4-year-old daughter Marion strutted in, then 8-month-old James followed in his rolling walker, for all the BBC viewers to see. Adding to the merriment, Kelly’s wife, Jung-a Kim, showed up and desperately yanked the kids back out. 

That first video has now gained more than 62 million views, and earned Kelly the nickname “BBC Dad.”

This week, Kelly shared a social media update on the kids to mark the eighth anniversary of the famed video, including recent family pictures of his iconic brood.

In a tweet on X, he revealed that his daughter, the famous yellow-clad strutter, Marion, now goes by her middle name of Yena, and is almost 12 years old. Son James, the baby who rolled in, doesn’t need a walker these days — he’s 9 years old.

Kelly shared a batch of photos of the family, writing, “And here are some 2024 Christmas & Halloween pictures. I think this is probably the last time we can take James to see Santa. He’s kinda figured it out. As always, my wife & I are very grateful for all the kind remarks over the years about our children. Thank you so much. Bob.”

Read more: ‘BBC Dad’ Is Back and Still Can’t Get Work Done, Thanks to His Kids

After the video came out, Kelly had to defend himself, pointing out that he was, in fact, wearing pants. Maybe some viewers thought the reason he didn’t get up to herd the kids was pantslessness? Whatever, it wasn’t true.

In 2020, during the pandemic, the entire family gave a fresh interview with the slightly older kids still sassing it up. Marion jumped on and off of Dad’s lap, and James hopped off the chair and eventually ducked out of the room entirely.

When Kelly tried to apologize, the BBC anchor told him, “That’s one thing you can never apologize for now, it’s part of the scene, it’s what we expect.”