BBC pulls MasterChef Christmas specials after Gregg Wallace allegations

By Craig Simpson

The BBC has pulled its MasterChef UK Christmas specials after allegations against Gregg Wallace.

The 60-year-old presenter had been set to appear in two episodes on BBC One later this month.

A BBC spokesman said: "As we have said, MasterChef is an amazing competition, which is life-changing for the chefs taking part, and the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals is continuing as planned."

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"The celebrity Christmas specials are obviously a different type of show, and in the current circumstances we have decided not to broadcast them," the spokesman continued.

One show was a Celebrity MasterChef Christmas Cook-Off, and was set to feature Max George, The Wanted singer, and Amy Walsh, the Emmerdale actress.

Another was a BBC crossover called MasterChef Meets Strictly Festive Extravaganza, which had been set to feature Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden, Gorka Marquez and Motsi Mabuse.

Wallace's lawyer has stated that he denies allegations of sexual harassment, and the presenter took to Instagram to defend himself against the accusations from "a handful of middle-class women of a certain age".

Downing Street led a backlash against the comments, saying Wallace was "misogynistic". He later apologised, saying he was under a "huge amount of stress".

Three episodes of BBC Two's Inside the Factory, which are repeats, are also coming out of the schedule, the BBC said.

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The decision to pull Christmas episodes comes after Bectu, the TV workers' union, said the airing of MasterChef "as normal" would be upsetting and could cause "stress and anger" for staff who may have been treated inappropriately in the workplace.

Rupa Huq, the Labour MP, also warned that continuing to broadcast the show would "send the wrong signs".

The BBC has so far refused to remove a cache of programmes fronted by Wallace on iPlayer.

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The presenter "stepped away" from the cooking show in the wake of allegations published by The Telegraph as part of a four-month investigation into his alleged behaviour.

Last week, Banijay, the producer of MasterChef, said it was conducting "an immediate, external review to fully and impartially investigate".

The Telegraph's investigations team heard from a former colleague who claimed that Wallace held her head and thrust his body towards her, mimicking a sex act, when she was kneeling in front of him cleaning a mark off his trousers.

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One complainant claimed that Wallace walked into the MasterChef studio "completely naked except for a sock pulled over his penis" before doing a "silly dance".

It has emerged that some complaints dated back more than a decade. Emma Kennedy, who won Celebrity MasterChef in 2012, claimed she had seen the presenter "grope" a camera assistant during a photoshoot in 2012.

Writing for The Telegraph, Aasmah Mir, who appeared on the show in 2017 and complained about inappropriate comments Wallace made during filming, said: "The BBC made me feel that things would be fixed; I naively believed they would sort this.

"Subsequent allegations, not just on MasterChef but on two other shows, would suggest I was a fool."

© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2024

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