Comic praises Channel 4 in evidence to peers

COMEDIAN JOE Lycett said he believes only Channel 4 would have commissioned his consumer rights TV show.

The Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back presenter spoke of his pride in the programme, which helps people who have been scammed.

The 33-year-old was giving evidence to the House of Lords Committee on the Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud.

He said: “I’m very grateful to Channel 4 for commissioning the show in the first place because our show is not something that a commercial broadcaster would have approached.

“The BBC said no to it. It’s sort of quite risky legally.

“It’s only really Channel 4 that would have commissioned the show and it’s, I think, an important part of the ecosystem of shows that help people with being scammed.”

The Government confirmed on Monday it will proceed with plans to privatise Channel 4, which has a Leeds base and which has been publicly owned since being founded in 1982 and is funded by advertising. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries previously said that while Channel 4 holds a “cherished place in British life”, she feels public ownership is holding the broadcaster back from “competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon”.

Lycett, inset, told the hearing he is “very proud” of his show, adding:

“It can shine a light on it and it does it in a fun and light-hearted way, but at the core of it is a very serious thing, which is that people are being wronged on a kind of massive scale by these fraudsters and scammers.” It comes after it was revealed that there are divisions in the Conservative Party over the privatisation of Channel 4, with the plans likely to face a bumpy ride in Parliament.

A string of Tory MPs and peers, including Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee Julian Knight, and former Cabinet Ministers Damian Green and Jeremy Hunt publicly questioned the plans.

The Yorkshire Post revealed that three Conservative MPs from Yorkshire – Kevin Hollinrake, Jason McCartney and Alec Shelbrooke – urged Boris Johnson to rethink the plans and warned the move is “contrary to the goals of our levelling up agenda”.

Plans for the sale will reportedly be set out in a White Paper later this month and will be included in a new Media Bill for next spring.