Greg James takes action over Gregg Wallace after BBC MasterChef allegations

Radio 1 star Greg James has quietly removed Gregg Wallace from his BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show amid misconduct claims. On The Breakfast Show, BBC Tailenders star Greg typically began the programme with a soundbite of Gregg saying: "Fire 'em up, let's go!"

Today, the broadcast instead played a clip of Daniel Craig speaking on US sketch series Saturday Night Live where he says: "Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend." The BBC confirmed that 13 people who worked with him across a range of shows over a 17-year period have made accusations of sexual comments - something Gregg strongly denies.

One woman who worked with Wallace on the travel show Gregg Wallace’s Big Weekends in 2019 told BBC News that Wallace made “lesbian jokes constantly”, was “fascinated” by the fact she dated women, and asked her the “logistics” of her relationships.

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Another woman, who worked on the same programme in 2019, said the TV personality regularly talked about sex and about domination and spanking. “[It] was highly inappropriate,” she said. Another woman said Wallace had showed her photos of a woman in her underwear on his phone.

On another occasion, she alleged that while filming in Italy he had shown her his outfits for the next day in his hotel room, had taken his top off and said “let me give you a fashion show”. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday, the former BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey, who was behind the high-profile sackings of Richard Bacon and Angus Deayton, said broadcasters and programme makers had to “stop treating the presenter as if they’re a special case”.

She said: “They are just one person in a huge team that gets a show on air, and they are neither more special nor less special than anybody else. Somehow we’ve got a culture … of pandering to those who are in front of camera and letting them get away with the kind of behaviour that other people in teams wouldn’t be allowed to get away with.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “We are always clear that any behaviour which falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated. Where an individual is contracted directly by an external production company we share any complaints or concerns with that company and we will always support them when addressing them.”