Sick comic facing axe
Whitehall could be dropped as presenter at TV awards as C4 repeats vile quiz
COMEDIAN Jack Whitehall is facing the axe as the presenter of a prize at the National Television Awards following the growing controversy over his lewd behaviour on a Channel 4 panel game.
The star has been booked for the ITV show to be broadcast later this month, but it has emerged that a key figure on the programme believes he should not now appear on the awards show.
Channel 4 yesterday ignored the protests of viewers and said the Big Fat Quiz of 2012 – which featured vile jokes about the Queen and Susan Boyle – will be repeated unedited on the main channel tomorrow. It also aired on one of the broadcaster’s other channels in the early hours of yesterday.
This emerged as it was revealed that complaints to Ofcom and the broadcaster had now reached 165.
At least 80 viewers have complained to Ofcom about the show, which featured puerile sexual jokes and innuendo just minutes after the 9pm watershed. Some 85 have complained directly to Channel 4.
The complaints centre around a string of offensive jokes from Whitehall and James
‘Bow out gracefully’
Corden who were drinking red wine and appeared to be drunk by the end of the two hour show on Sunday.
Targets of their humour included the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, sprinter Usain Bolt, Barack Obama and singer Miss Boyle.
The programme, presented by the controversial comedian Jimmy Carr, was pre-recorded and cleared for broadcast by lawyers at Channel 4.
Last night co-executive producer of the National Television Awards, George Mitchell, said he would be having a ‘ summit conference’ on Monday about whether Whitehall should still present a prize at the awards.
Mr Mitchell said the controversy could ‘ run and run’ and his view was that it would be better if Whitehall waited for the situation to ‘die down’.
He said he would like to offer him the chance to ‘bow out gracefully’ and ‘give him the chance to withdraw’. But he admitted other bosses on the show may not agree with him.
A spokesman for the awards last night said the comedian had been booked and would be presenting an award as planned.
Conservative MP Conor Burns, a member of the Commons Culture Select Committee, has written to Channel 4 bosses demanding to know why the decision was made to broadcast the quiz so soon after the watershed.
It emerged yesterday that another festive Channel 4 show – The 50 Funniest Moments of 2012 – also triggered complaints after it included footage of a male farRight Greek politician punching a woman in the face and strong swearing just after the watershed.
Some 40 viewers contacted Ofcom about the programme, most of them angry at the suggestion that a woman being punched in the face was funny. Viewers described the decision to keep the item as ‘brainless’ and ‘horrible’.
Ofcom said it was assessing complaints on both shows but had not launched an investigation at this point.
A spokesman at Channel 4 confirmed the repeat broadcasts of the Big Fat Quiz of the Year were going ahead as planned, stating that they would be preceded by a warning about strong language and adult humour. Last night Margaret Morrissey of the campaign group Parents Outloud demanded to know why Channel 4 hadn’t taken the complaints of viewers into consideration.
She said: ‘If Channel 4 are going to repeat this show after there were so many complaints about the first broadcast what it the point of the complaints system.’ The show is due to be repeated tomorrow at 11.35pm on the main channel and was broadcast on 4seven in the early hours of yesterday. It will be shown in a similar slot on Tuesday.
Former Gavin and Stacey star Corden, 34, and Marlborough-educated Whitehall, 24, were seen drinking red wine during the show and host Carr commented that they had drunk a bottle each.
Their behaviour was egged on by Jonathan Ross, 52, who lost his job with the BBC for his role in abusive phone calls to the veteran actor Andrew Sachs during a radio show.
Vivienne Pattison of Mediawatch
‘Totally inappropriate’
UK said: ‘This programme should have always been broadcast in the late night 11.35pm slot, putting it out at primetime was totally inappropriate. Children are far more likely to be watching at 9pm, especially when you consider it was the Christmas holiday.’
Mark Price, a non- executive member of the Channel 4 board yesterday said he had not seen the broadcast. He said: ‘The board don’t make creative decisions. That is for the creative team to do.’ The chief executive of Channel 4 David Abraham was unavailable for comment.