Michael Barrymore to return to ITV 16 years after being axed following swimming pool scandal

Michael Barrymore is set to make his return to ITV 16 years after he was axed.

The presenter was sacked in 2002 following the death of Stuart Lubbock in the swimming pool of Barrymore’s home the previous year.

Barrymore will be back on TV as part of the ITV3 documentary tribute to the late Larry Grayson, Shut That Door, set to air over Easter.

The pair performed together on The Generation Game, and Barrymore can be heard telling cameras: “He had an amazing career out of just being Larry Grayson. He was unique.”

Last year the comedian won damages in the High Court on suspicion of Lubbock’s rape and murder in 2007 after police launched a new enquiry into the incident.

Grayson took over hosting duties on The Generation Game from Bruce Forsyth in 1978, with Barrymore as his warm-up act.

He tells viewers: “I was warm-up man for him. He fumbled his way through the programme, you were never sure he was going to get through to the end of the show in one piece. But he always did.”

In the programme Barrymore visits Grayson’s dressing room at the London Palladium where he performed in the 1970s in Grayson’s Sandals.

“Larry would’ve sat here and pinched himself and said, ‘I’m here, I’ve made it’,” Barrymore says.

Shut That Door airs Sunday, April 1 at 9pm on ITV3.