David Walliams has sparked outcry after giving two Nazi salutes during a recording of BBC series Would I Lie To You?’s Christmas special.
The former Little Britain star, who quit ITV series Britain’s Got Talent when he was caught making lewd comments about contestants, is said to have shocked host Rob Brydon, his fellow celebrity panellists as well as audience members with the gesture.
Walliams reportedly gave the offensive salutes while filming the episode earlier this week. It’s believed they occurred after an anecdote that was shared by Call the Midwife star Helen George, who was a contestant on Walliams’ team, led by captain Lee Mack.
Multiple outlets report that the incident occurred after George claimed she once sprained her wrist “from waving too much during the Strictly tour”; the actor toured with the BBC dancing competition in 2016 after competing on the series the previous year.
When George tried to convince David Mitchell’s opposing team that her statement was true, she was asked to give an example of the wave, with her rival contestants asking her “to make a grander gesture”.
According to an audience member present at the filming, this was when Walliams joined in, allegedly proceeding to do a Nazi salute, which went down “awkwardly”.
Team captain Mack was reportedly left “distinctly unimpressed” by Walliams’s actions.
The outlet reports that Brydon immediately “reprimanded” Walliams – but later on in the round, the controversial star and children’s author “made the gesture a second time”.
Journalist Sebastian Topan, who was in the audience, told the outlet: “There were gasps from the audience and the other panellists all looked very uncomfortable.”
Topan continued to the BBC: "I think Rob Brydon wanted to get past it as quickly as he could. David Walliams' teammates looked unsure what to do and were not laughing.
“It was like an elephant in the room after that as the incident was early on in the recording and so the remainder of the show felt weird."
Another audience member wrote on X/Twitter after the recording: “I didn’t have David Walliams doing a Nazi salute at the Would I Lie To You? Christmas taping on my 2025 bingo card.”
A BBC spokesperson told The Independent: “The use of such an offensive gesture is completely unacceptable and we apologise to all at the recording for the offence caused.” The Independent has also contacted Walliams for comment.
A spokesperson for Banijay UK, which oversees the game show’s production company Zeppotron, said: “Any attempt at humour regarding this deeply offensive gesture, whether broadcast or not, is completely unacceptable in any context.
“It was immediately acknowledged during the recording that this segment would not be broadcast under any circumstances and we apologise to those who were at the recording for any offence caused.”
Walliams was a judge on Britain’s Got Talent from 2012 up until his departure in 2022, when it emerged that he had made sexually explicit and derogatory remarks about some of the contestants during a recording at the London Palladium in January 2020.
Walliams’s comments were picked up by the microphones on the desk and were seemingly not intended to be heard publicly – and he sued FremantleMedia, the production company that makes BGT, for the leaking of his private remarks. The matter was settled in November 2023.
He decided to leave the show after issuing an apology.
When the recording of his inappropriate comments was made public in 2022, Walliams told The Independent: “I would like to apologise to the people I made disrespectful comments about during breaks in filming for Britain’s Got Talent in 2020. These were private conversations and – like most conversations with friends – were never intended to be shared. Nevertheless, I am sorry.”
Fremantle, while announcing it had reached a settlement with Walliams, issued its own apology, stating: “We are sincerely sorry that his private conversations when a judge on Britain’s Got Talent were published, and the great distress this caused David.
“We have reviewed our production practices on the show to ensure they fully respect the expectations of our talent whilst satisfying the requirements of the show. We have enjoyed a great relationship with David over many years.
“We thank David for being an important part of the Britain’s Got Talent family and the enduring success of the show and hope to have opportunities to work with him in the future. We are pleased that we have achieved an amicable resolution of this dispute with David.”
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