Jonathan Ross responds to Walliams allegations as broadcasters review programmes
The presenter says he knew nothing of alleged misconduct as David Walliams denies wrongdoing and faces action from broadcasters, his agency and the Labour party.
By Hassan Ellis ·
Jonathan Ross has said he had no knowledge of alleged misconduct by David Walliams, as footage of a joke he made at the 2004 British Comedy Awards comes under renewed scrutiny. His response follows allegations by several women that Walliams used his fame and influence to pursue young women and teenagers for sex. Walliams, 55, denies wrongdoing.
The Guardian and ITV News reported the allegations following a joint investigation lasting three years. Publication came after a court rejected Walliams’s attempt to block the reports. At the 2004 ceremony, Ross linked the awards’ 15th anniversary to a joke about a drunken, unpredictable 15-year-old going home with Walliams.
Ross said he understood why the footage was shocking. He explained that the awards’ writers had supplied the joke and that he understood it as an exaggerated reference to Walliams publicly dating younger women. Describing it as tasteless, he said he would no longer make such a joke about anyone. Ross said that any suspicion it referred to real events would have led him to refuse it and reconsider his personal and professional relationship with Walliams.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy described the allegations as part of a succession of reported abuses of power. She pledged to meet senior figures in media and entertainment to address harassment and abuse. Referring to the revelations about Jimmy Savile and the #MeToo movement, she called for meaningful action in industries marked by significant power imbalances and careers dependent on reputation and connections.
Independent Talent Group has dropped Walliams as a client, saying it was deeply disturbed by the allegations. Fremantle UK, which produces Britain’s Got Talent, also expressed concern. Walliams served as a judge on the programme between 2012 and 2022. Sky said it would cease holding the licence for Fing!, a film written by and featuring Walliams that had been expected to arrive in 2027.
The BBC is taking some programmes, including Little Britain, off its platforms while reviewing material featuring or written by Walliams. Downing Street called the allegations deeply troubling, and his Labour party membership has been suspended.
Labour MP Jess Phillips, a former safeguarding minister, welcomed the court’s intervention allowing publication. Speaking to Times Radio, she said suppressing the allegations could have established a precedent that other powerful men would seek to use through injunctions.
Walliams remains in a psychiatric hospital. In a letter to journalists from the Guardian and ITV News, he denied the allegations and described their effect on his mental health. He acknowledged sometimes acting thoughtlessly towards people with whom he had casual sexual relationships, but denied abusing the power associated with fame. He also denied being a sexual predator or breaking the law, while saying he was devastated that some women he met 10 to 20 years earlier had expressed hurt or anger. His lawyers said he denied sexual harassment and inappropriate workplace behaviour.
