A TV show was forced to axe one of its episodes as it was “75% about Gregg Wallace” according to the show’s creator. Dave Gorman revealed that an entire episode of his upcoming series ‘Modern Life Is Goodish’ is “in the bin” because the focus of the episode was around now disgraced TV presented, Gregg Wallace.
The sixth season of the show, which has returned to screens after a seven-year hiatus, was originally intended to have four episodes, but now will only run with three. Speaking to The Guardian, Gorman said: “We made four, but one of them is 75% about Gregg Wallace. It’s in the bin.”
The episode was filmed and finished just before Wallace was accused of inappropriate behaviour. Last year, 13 women who had worked with Wallace came forward to accuse the 60-year-old of sexual harassment.
Wallace’s lawyers denied the accusations, saying it was entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature. Masterchef’s production company Banijay UK has since launched an investigation and said Wallace is co-operating.
Gorman explained what the episode was about: “It’s sort of taking the piss out of him but in a very loving way, tongue in cheek.
“There’s a routine that sets up the idea that I’ve invented a product. I need to get a celebrity endorsement for it. The punchline tying all the routines together is that he’s filmed an advert for it.”
However, following the controversy around Wallace, it was deemed inappropriate to air the episode in the upcoming series, which launches on February 24, on Sky.
Meetings took place in an attempt to rescue the episode by removing all mentions of Wallace, but it didn’t work: “It’s a structured piece with a flow to it. Every routine connects to every other routine.”
During his interview, Gorman joked: “What I’m saying is: I’m the real victim.”
Back in December, after the accusations against Wallace were made, the MasterChef judge shared a video to Instagram where he hit out at the claims, blaming them on “middle-class women of a certain age”.
“I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years – amateur, professional and Celebrity MasterChef – and I think in that time I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life,” Wallace said. “And apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time.”
A day later, Wallace apologised for his remarks, saying, “I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people.
“I wasn’t in a good head space when I posted it, I’ve been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under siege yesterday when I posted it.
“It’s obvious to me I need to take some time out now while this investigation is under way. I hope you understand and I do hope you accept this apology.”