Viewers were prevented from watching their favourite BBC shows online for more than 24 hours over the weekend, when the corporation’s popular iPlayer video-on-demand service was hit by a technical glitch.

The problems began on Saturday morning and continued into Sunday, affecting the iPlayer and other online services including the BBC.co.uk homepage, one of the UK’s most popular websites.

Users of the iPlayer took to Twitter to complain about not being able to access programmes online, including highlights of Saturday’s Formula One qualifying for the German Grand Prix and Sunday morning’s Archers omnibus.

On Sunday afternoon, the BBC.co.uk homepage was displaying a message warning users that “due to technical problems” it was operating a “simplified” version. The issues also affected publication of videos on the BBC website.

The BBC News website appeared to working normally again on Sunday afternoon. However, over the weekend some online users reportedly found error messages when accessing BBC web pages, including SpringWatch and World Cup 2014.

A BBC spokesman said: “We’re aware of an issue which means some people can’t access certain parts of BBC Online. We’re working hard to fix this as soon as possible.”