Walliams in threat to quit BGT over job for arch enemy Piers

BRITAIN’S Got Talent judge David Walliams threatened to walk off the ITV talent show rather than share a stage with Piers Morgan, The Mail on Sunday has been told.

The Good Morning Britain host had been touted as a temporary replacement for Simon Cowell as head judge while he recovers from surgery after falling off his electric bike. But the prospect is said to have enraged Walliams, who has a famously acrimonious relationship with Morgan, his predecessor on the ITV talent show.

‘I heard that David threw his toys out of the pram,’ a source said. ‘Imagine David and Piers sitting on either end of that judging panel – what great TV it would have been.’

Morgan confirmed that he had been approached about a return to the show, which he left after the fourth series in 2010. He was also on America’s Got Talent for six series.

Writing in his weekly column on page 47 of this newspaper, the outspoken star said that, after hearing of Cowell’s accident, ‘ my first thought... was genuine concern for my old mate, who should have stuck to the Zimmer frame that I bought him for his 60th birthday last year.

‘My second thought, seconds later, was that there was now a vacancy for head judge on BGT.

‘Amusingly, I was quickly sounded out to see if I was potentially available but had to explain that if I was confined to the same close quarters as that insufferable twerp David Walliams, it wouldn’t end well.’ The feeling appears to have been mutual with Walliams, 49, making clear his displeasure at the prospect of Morgan, 55, being parachuted in for the semi-finals and final.

The pair fell out after Morgan noticed that the Little Britain star was ‘ liking’ critical tweets about him.

Last night the semi-finals began after a four- month delay due to Covid- 19 with Amanda Holden taking Cowell’s role as head judge. They will continue all week and the final will take place next month.

A BGT spokesman said: ‘The decision regarding who would step in as guest judge was made solely by the producers and Simon with Ashley Banjo the top choice to take part.’