Mo Farah wasn’t in Liverpool for his shock win at the Sports Personality of the Year awards last night because he was looking after his sick son.

And in a slightly chaotic end to the night the star runner’s acceptance speech was cut short - because of a power cut .

Farah, 34, appeared via video link to accept his prize but the technical failure means that viewers were treated to just a blue screen and only those in the ECHO arena heard his acceptance remarks.

Heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua was a 1-10 favourite for the award on Sunday, and it looked like Farah - who had previously finished third in 2011 - wouldn’t be anywhere near the award.

Speaking via video link from St Mary’s University in Twickenham, close to the Sir Mo Farah Athletics Track, his first interview with presenter Gabby Logan was completely upstaged by his son Hussein, who grabbed his microphone before eventually being taken away by Farah’s daughter Rhianna.

Farah, who has retired from the track to concentrate on marathon running, revealed he could not be at the awards show because his son is poorly.

He said: “It would have been nice to be there, but my family is my most important thing and my son is ill.”

Farah explained in a later interview that he could not hear any of Gabby Logan’s questions.

The show was already over-running, with 7.5m people watching on BBC 1 when Farah was announced as the night’s shock winner by former LFC manager Kenny Dalglish.

Viewers at home saw a shocked, speechless Farah handed his prize, before the screen went blue

In a statement, the BBC said: “At the end of the programme there was a technical fault at an outside broadcast caused by a generator failure.”

With The Apprentice final about to be broadcast, the programme then abruptly ended. The link came back up again for the audience in Liverpool to watch the interview with a clearly-stunned Farah.

He said: “It’s amazing. I can’t stop staring at the trophy.

“I came out tonight, thinking maybe the top three and we’ll see how it goes because we have got some amazing sports stars in the field - Anthony Joshua, Johnny Peacock.

“The last 10 years I’ve been lucky to have the career I’ve had. I’m shocked, I didn’t prepare any speech.

“I never thought, having come so close in 2012 that I would ever win. I just owe it to the public for supporting me and just having my name on this trophy like Seb Coe, David Beckham, so many legends have won it over the years.”

Speaking of poorly Hussein, he said: “While I was in the other room, he was throwing up everywhere. I just want to thank everyone who has voted for me.”

List of winners

Sports Personality of the Year: Mo Farah

Overseas Sports Personality of the Year: Roger Federer

Team of the Year: England Women’s Cricket Team

Lifetime Achievement Award: Jessica Ennis-Hill

Coach Award: Benke Blomkvist, Stephen Maguire and Christian Malcolm

Helen Rollason Award (for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity): Bradley Lowery

Young Sports Personality of the Year: Phil Foden

Unsung Hero Award: Denise Larrad