BBC MasterChef producers issue major Gregg Wallace investigation update

BBC MasterChef bosses have announced a Gregg Wallace probe update and issued a promise after complaints. MasterChef producer Banijay UK has announced the appointment of law firm Lewis Silkin to lead the investigation into alleged misconduct by presenter Wallace during filming of the BBC cooking show.

A Banijay UK spokesperson said: “Lewis Silkin is a major City law firm with a highly experienced specialist investigations team which has overseen a broad range of high-profile workplace investigations. Banijay UK has been impressed by the firm’s rigorous, in-depth, and impartial analysis and reporting.”

They said anyone wishing to raise further concerns could contact the investigation team via atbanijayinvestigation@lewissilkin.com. The spokesperson added: “All information will be handled sensitively, and names of those providing evidence to the team will be kept confidential.”

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Wallace is facing allegations of inappropriate sexual comments from 13 people who worked with him across a range of shows over a 17-year period, according to an investigation by BBC News. On Thursday MasterChef’s production company, Banijay UK, said it had launched an investigation.

It came after the BBC received complaints about Wallace’s behaviour and said the 60-year-old was “committed to fully cooperating throughout the process”. The presenter Kirsty Wark, who was a Celebrity MasterChef contestant in 2011, told BBC News that on two occasions during early morning filming Wallace told stories and jokes of a “sexualised nature” in front of contestants and crew.

She said she felt strongly that the comments were “really, really in the wrong place”. There were similar complaints from the likes of Sir Rod Stewart, whose wife, Penny Lancaster, who appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021.

Sir Rod used his Instagram account on Thursday to comment on Wallace’s break from the show. Stewart called Wallace a “tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully” and said the presenter had humiliated his wife.