I really want to see this clip as well. But it will also be repeated on C4 won't it? Sunday lunchtime?
And as for the cut itself...
It isn't uncommon to cut different SIDES of a shot these days. A lot of movies do it now. For movies, directors can have one take edited into the left side of the frame and another take edited into the right side, to get the best performances from both actor sinto the same shot. So I assume it is also possible for TV video editing as well. The only question is: WHY? What was their purpose? From the way you describe, it looks like a mundane static shot, with no need to do anythign complicated to tweak things.