The BBC is coming under pressure to remove David Walliams from its Christmas television schedule.
The broadcaster yesterday appeared to rule out any further projects with the children’s author after he was dropped by his publisher HarperCollins amid allegations he harassed and behaved inappropriately towards female members of staff.
Walliams has denied any wrongdoing and says he was not informed of any allegations or party to an investigation. He is currently taking legal advice.
One MP told The Telegraph the BBC ‘probably would be better being safe than sorry’ and remove 54-year-old Walliams from its schedule.
However, a spokesman for the BBC said ‘we’re not making any changes to the festive schedules’ before adding that ‘we have no future projects directly involving David Walliams’.
The BBC is set to broadcast two TV adaptation from Walliams’s books, as well as a Boxing Day festive special of Would I Lie To You? where he appears as a panellist.
But this recording, too, became mired in controversy after the author performed two Nazi salutes during filming.
CBBC will air TV film Mr Stink, adapted from a 2009 Walliams book, at 9am today, while The Boy in the Dress will also show later in the day.
It is understood the BBC also has no plans to remove any content featuring Wallace from iPlayer.
The Daily Mail has contacted the BBC and Walliams’s representatives for further comment.
It comes as Walliams enjoys a pre-Christmas holiday 5,000 miles away in the Maldives with his 12-year-old son, Alfred.
In a series of what appear to be sponsored Instagram posts, Walliams is shown scuba diving, swimming and enjoying afternoon tea while tagging the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa resort.
One clip sees Walliams scuba diving with a turtle, set to music from the Bond thriller You Only Live Twice and posted with the caption ‘a dream’.
A second post is captioned ‘floating in heaven’ while a third describes the resort as Walliams’s ‘new favourite place in the world’ and ‘complete and utter perfection’. The resort has reshared his posts on their own Instagram page.
Photos show the former Britain’s Got Talent judge enjoying tea, cocktails and biscuits at the resort, where villas for this week cost as much as $6,105 per night – around £4,563.
HarperCollins said on Friday it had taken the decision ‘not to publish any new titles by David Walliams’ following its internal investigation.
The decision to drop Walliams comes after the sudden departure of former UK CEO Charlie Redmayne in October. Mr Redmayne has since been replaced by Kate Elton.
A spokesman for Walliams denied any wrongdoing. They said: ‘David has never been informed of any allegations raised against him by HarperCollins.
‘He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions. David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately and is taking legal advice.’
A spokesman for HarperCollins said: ‘After careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams. The author is aware of this decision.
‘HarperCollins takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously and has processes in place for reporting and investigating concerns. To respect the privacy of individuals we do not comment on internal matters.’
The children’s author, who began writing books in 2008, has published more than 40 works which have been translated into 55 languages and sold more than 60 million copies.
HarperCollins published his first children’s book, The Boy in the Dress, in 2008, while some of his other books, including Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, have also been adapted into television films.
While Mr Walliams was once TV royalty, a string of scandals in recent years have seen him step back from the spotlight.
The comedian left Britain’s Got Talent when vile sexual comments he made about female contestants emerged.
In 2022, a leaked transcript revealed that he called one auditioning contestant a ‘c**’ and said of another: ‘she thinks you want to f*** her, but you don’t’.
The comments, made in January 2020 during auditions at the London Palladium, were picked up on the programme’s microphones.
Mr Walliams apologised at the time the comments became public and acknowledged they were ‘disrespectful’, adding they were part of a private conversation that was ‘never intended to be shared’.
He later left the show and sued the production company Fremantle for misuse of private information and breaching data laws. The company apologised and Walliams is thought to have walked away with about £5million.
It was revealed by the Daily Mail last week that alarm bells were also raised with ITV bosses after they learned Walliams had a habit of inviting fans back to his dressing room and dishing out cupcakes.
He has not truly returned to primetime since, despite his books continuing to be a hit and reportedly making up more than 40 per cent of revenue for HarperCollins’ children’s department in 2018.
By 2019, it was estimated that he and HarperCollins had sold £100million of his books.
But his book sales have since been on the decline, falling by more than 60 per cent this summer.
The showbiz giant behind the show, Simon Cowell, is said to have since gone to great lengths to distance himself from Mr Walliams, with the pair ‘no longer on speaking terms at all’.
In June this year, it was reported the author made two Nazi salutes during a recording of the Christmas edition of the BBC’s comedy panel show Would I Lie To You?.
The comedian apparently ‘jokingly’ made the salutes while Call the Midwife actress Helen George was telling a story from her time on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015.
The host, Rob Brydon, condemned Walliams and reminded him that the show went out before the watershed.
However, as George continued to explain her Strictly story, Walliams is said to have made the gesture for a second time, this time with a sexual twist.
Walliams’s team captain, Lee Mack was said to have looked unimpressed while one audience member revealed the salutes landed ‘awkwardly’.
