diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/bbc.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/bbc.py
index 7cd4446b44..6f5f9aa3a0 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/bbc.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/bbc.py
@@ -523,6 +523,12 @@ class BBCCoUkIE(InfoExtractor):
 
         webpage = self._download_webpage(url, group_id, 'Downloading video page')
 
+        error = self._search_regex(
+            r'<div\b[^>]+\bclass=["\']smp__message delta["\'][^>]*>([^<]+)<',
+            webpage, 'error', default=None)
+        if error:
+            raise ExtractorError(error, expected=True)
+
         programme_id = None
         duration = None