David Walliams chats BGT
David Walliams takes us behind the scenes on the new, socially-distanced, no-cowell version of Britain’s Got Talent
David Walliams possibly speaks for all of us when he ponders this year of pandemic unpleasantness, “When this all started, I remember thinking, ‘This will be a weird couple of weeks,’ and then it went on and on and on, and it’s still going on and on and on…”
Back in the spring of this year, when COVID-19 was beginning to take over our lives, the latest series of BGT got underway in traditional style with the audition shows (recorded in January), and then ground to a halt while everyone involved tried to work out what to do next. The usual live semi-finals with thousands of people in the audience were an impossible dream under lockdown.
Now months later, we’re finally getting to see the 40 acts competing to reach the final in weekly pre-recorded shows, which started at the weekend. But just as ITV and the production team had finalised how to proceed with these semi-finals, complete with a virtual audience of hundreds of viewers on a video wall (described by David as “a giant Gogglebox or Zoom call”), news broke that Simon Cowell had crashed his new electric bike in Los Angeles and needed emergency back surgery. So the semi-final shows have had to go on without him, while he recovers at home – with Simon asking Ashley Banjo, from legendary BGT winning act Diversity, to take his place. Quite a lot for David and the gang to deal with, all things considered.
We caught up with David just after the filming of the first semi-final, to get the exclusive lowdown on the new-look, Cowell-lite, Covid-compliant BGT…
HEALTH & SAFETY
How is it making BGT in the COVID era? It takes a little bit of getting used to, because there are quite a few differences – we aren’t doing the show live, and we have an audience, but they’re on a big screen behind us rather than being in the same room. And Simon Cowell isn’t there, but Ashley Banjo is. So it’s all quite different, really. Any of those things individually would have been quite interesting to deal with, but all of them happening together is quite a big change to the show. But I have to say it is still a lot of fun.
Has the lack of a live audience affected the tone?
Less than I thought it would. We all agreed beforehand that the show needed to be as fun and silly as ever. And at this semi-final stage, the onus is on the acts, and it’s already so impressive to see how they cope with performing in this new environment. All we judges have to do is sit there and react. I thought it would be harder for the comedians to perform to only a handful of people, though I have experienced that myself when me and Matt Lucas first started! But, in fact, we had the comic Steve Royle on the first show and I couldn’t detect any difference in his performance from his audition.
Is it harder for you without the audience to bounce off?
Well I’m used to playing to silence and hearing the tumbleweeds when I make a joke. [Laughs.] But, actually, in a way, it wasn’t so different, because I’m always trying to make Ant & Dec laugh, as well as the other judges and the crew and contestants, and because these shows are prerecorded, we have more time, so I can be a bit looser and there might be more of a chance of finding something funny to say. Although viewers may well disagree. And Ant & Dec are still super-funny, of course.
What special health-and-safety measures did you have to take?
We’ve got separate desks now, so we’re apart from each other, and Ant & Dec are further away from us than usual, which makes them seem even smaller than they actually are, and they are already really small. All of that was strange to begin with, but I got used to it quite quickly. I’m just really relieved that we’re still doing this stage of the series, because it would have been really weird to just have all these acts auditioning and not see them get to the next stage of the show.
NO SIMON What was your first reaction when you heard Simon had injured himself?
I thought there’s bound to be a conspiracy theory claiming I’m responsible! Actually, when I heard he’d broken his back, that was really worrying, because that can be really serious. So it was shocking initially, and kind of bizarre to be woken up by a text from the BGT producers telling me what had happened. Then I got in touch with Lauren [Silverman], his partner, who’s always very quick to respond – unlike Simon, I have to say, who says he hasn’t got a mobile phone, but maybe he has got one and just hasn’t given me the number! Anyway, Lauren immediately put my mind at rest, saying that he had a serious injury, but that he was going to be alright.
Do you think he’ll be absent for a while?
Well, back operations do need a very long period of recovery, and while I do, of course, miss him being on the show, I am actually quite pleased that he is for once taking some time out to recover and look after himself, because he’s often working on multiple shows at the same time both here and in America. He said one of the advantages of COVID was that you would have to keep a safe distance from him… Well, as soon as normal travel resumes, I’ll be getting the first
‘Ashley is actually too good looking’
plane to LA! At one point, the plan was for him to be on the show via a video link, but I worried about that because there was bound to be some technical problem with the link, and I also worried about the time difference with us in London and him in LA, thinking we’d have to wait for him to get up in LA before we’d begin recording, because he is famous for being a late riser. I was expecting to have to wait for him to roll out of bed in LA. If I wrote an autobiography now I’d call it, Waiting For Simon, because that’s what I spend much of my life doing. So it is a relief that now we don’t have to wait for him. But we do miss him.
BANJO & SCOOBY How is Simon’s replacement, Ashley Banjo?
He’s been brilliant. He’s obviously a very different character, but he’s very honest and he has total credibility, because he’s such a talented and creative guy. I’m enjoying getting to know him. And he’s not Louis Walsh, which is the best thing about him. I’m sure Louis was waiting in the wings to parachute in, but instead we’ve got Ashley, who’s perfect. In fact, if I could criticise one thing about him, it’s that he is too good-looking. He’s taller than me, as well, which is rare, so he’s physically very impressive and beautiful and talented and he’s a really nice guy. Quite annoying. Your mum could have come back as a judge… Yes, my mum did ask about that, and I think she would be up for a return to the show, so maybe next year, if Simon is still incapacitated, she can come back. She was good on the show, although her dancing ability is admittedly not as good as Ashley’s – although she has done a lot on the street dance scene over the years.
In general, how was lockdown for you?
Well, I know that it’s been incredibly difficult for most people, but while I really missed my mum and the rest of my family, I was very lucky to be able to spend more time with my son. We’ve watched a lot of movies together… and a lot of Scoobydoo. I’ve always been obsessed with Scooby-doo, and there’s a new movie called Scoob!, which we watched. But just as I was enjoying it, up pops Simon Cowell! He’s in the movie voicing an animated version of himself. I thought, “I can’t escape from this man!” It made me so angry, because I love Scooby-doo and then suddenly up pops Simon to ruin it. ■
The Britain’s Got Talent semi-finals continue on ITV, Saturdays, 8pm