How bad do things have to get before the BBC does the right thing and bins MasterChef?
The return of the long-running culinary contest, after the sacking of its disgraced presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode, is an insult to licence-payers and a slap in the face for all the participants and crew who have been belittled and abused over the years.
Series 21 is to air in full, supposedly because cancelling it would be unfair to this year’s 60 contestants – even though one of them, Sarah Shafi, called for it to be axed. Instead, she was edited out of the show, a move that left her ‘flabbergasted’.
After watching the first episode, I’m flabbergasted too. It’s as though the production company, Banijay, has watched the playbacks and thought: ‘Don’t panic! There’s at least an hour of footage where Gregg has his trousers on and John says nothing racist. We’re good to go!’
If you’ve sidestepped the furore leading up to this broadcast, you might suppose I’m being facetious. But the extraordinary truth is that, following multiple complaints, Banijay carried out an investigation into Wallace’s behaviour.
The majority of the 83 allegations against him related to ‘inappropriate’ sexual language and humour – though that raises another question of whether the producers think sexual remarks and jokes are ever appropriate on a TV set. Perhaps they don’t understand that ‘food porn’ has nothing to do with nudity.
Wallace certainly didn’t. Of the 45 complaints against him upheld, one related to ‘unwelcome physical contact’ and three to being ‘in a state of undress’.
In the course of their enquiries, Banijay also learned that Torode had used a racist slur.
Despite protesting their innocence, both men were dropped from the show… and yet, here we are, with Wallace and Torode once again the judges.
I do not believe for a second that BBC executives feel compelled to air the series as a favour to contestants, as the Corporation has suggested. The TV industry is not that sentimental.
It’s much more likely to be about money. The Beeb has paid for MasterChef and now it wants its pound of flesh, lightly seared and served on a bed of herby potatoes with a scatter of grated walnuts.
Even now, it is entirely within the BBC’s power to cancel the series. The Government would certainly support that, as would its union paymasters.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says she won’t be watching. Downing Street has welcomed the BBC’s decision to ‘sever ties’ with Wallace. And the broadcasting union Bectu has said the presenters ‘should not be rewarded with prime-time coverage’.
There is strong precedent, too. BBC One removed episodes of The Repair Shop from its schedule last year after presenter Jay Blades was charged with coercive and controlling behaviour against his estranged wife.
Yet dozens remain on iPlayer, even though Blades faced two much more serious charges of rape this week. Whether he will be edited out of old episodes if found guilty, the BBC has not said.
It has to be emphasised, of course, that neither Wallace nor Torode has faced a police investigation, much less criminal charges. Yet, strict action has been taken over other controversies.
In 2020, Sky chiefs were horrified to realise a heavily tattooed contestant on a forthcoming reality show was actually flaunting neo-Nazi symbols.
It was only when trailers for woodworking competition, The Chop, featured contestant Darren Lumsden that social media users pointed out that elements of his body art were coded displays of support for Adolf Hitler and white supremacy.
Sky could have fudged the issue. Instead, they did the right thing. The Chop got the chop.
The BBC lacks the common sense to follow suit. Its solution is to sieve out all but the blandest moments featuring Wallace and Torode. We see them asking innocuous questions about dishes and then grinning silently at the answers. Almost all his cheesy banter has gone.
As a result, the hour is as tepid and flavourless as the water strained from a pan of spaghetti. The judges might as well be a pair of AI robots.
And if MasterChef is to continue, perhaps that would be the Beeb’s safest option.
