Two decades of on-air jokes put Walliams' reputation 'in plain sight'

A 2013 BBC Comic Relief sketch showed David Walliams, trouserless in a doctor's office, being told to contact "everyone you've been intimate with over the last year". His gasped reply — "Everyone?" — sent him on a celebrity-doorstep tour that included Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Carr, Clare Balding, David Schwimmer and Hugh Grant.

That sketch is one of many public nods to Walliams' alleged promiscuity made across the TV and comedy industries over more than 20 years. And those references are now raising an uncomfortable question: did the industry ignore or indulge claims about a bankable star?

The question follows allegations published by the Guardian and ITV News, in which several women say Walliams, 55, used his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex. Two women said they first met the star when they were 15 years old. Walliams denies any wrongdoing.

What did the industry actually say on air?

The most striking reference came at the 2004 British Comedy Awards. Host Jonathan Ross, noting the event was 15 years old, quipped: "And like all 15-year-olds, it's drunk, it's unpredictable and it's probably going home with David Walliams." The camera panned to Walliams.

Ross has since said it is "deeply shocking" to revisit the footage. He said the line was submitted by the event's scriptwriting team and that he believed the punchline referenced Walliams' publicly known dating of younger women, "exaggerated for comic effect".

TV insiders point out the joke would have passed through several production hands before reaching Ross. One insider described it as a "degree of enabling" inside the industry.

The material keeps stacking up:

• 2004, BBC Radio 1: Host Scott Mills asked Walliams: "You know what your image is, it's kind of 'womaniser'. And when you meet people, do the blokes try to keep you away from their girlfriends?" Walliams replied: "What — I'm some sort of rabid animal? No, I'm a gentleman. But no, I just … I love the company of women, you see?"
• 2006, Britain's Next Top Model launch: Jimmy Carr told ITN: "I'm only here really to meet David Walliams' next conquest … Is that the prize, to get a go on David Walliams? Or do they get a modelling contract?"
• 2009, Chatty Man: Alan Carr observed Walliams was "a bit like an illegal taxi driver: you lure [women] into a false sense of security and then you pounce".
• 2021, Motherland: A BBC character says: "I'd like to be a dad and a children's author — a bit like David Walliams, but less sinister."

How does Walliams respond?

Lawyers acting for the comedian said he had made no secret of the fact that during a period of his life "he enjoyed the company of women and acknowledges that this was a popular topic of the (tabloid) press".

Their statement continued: "[Walliams] also accepts that both he and others have joked about this period of his life. These are jokes … and are not statements of fact. Many of the jokes that you have referred to were written or delivered by [Walliams'] good friends."

What does this change for the industry?

Insiders are careful about what the jokes prove. They say the references don't suggest those making them knew of specific incidents. But one insider said the pattern showed awareness of his reputation "is there, in plain sight of everyone".

The parallel with Russell Brand is hard to miss. After Brand's conviction for rape and sexual assault, similar questions surfaced, because he and others had made numerous on-record references to his sexual advances towards women.

Who spoke up — and at what cost?

Comedian Lucy Beaumont did raise concerns. She has explained that a young TV worker told her he was asked to take young women to Walliams' dressing room. Similar allegations emerged during the Guardian's investigation. Beaumont did not witness any worrying behaviour herself.

Even Beaumont, an established comedian who has appeared on the BBC's Celebrity Traitors, fears that speaking out could affect her TV career, because people "lose work" for doing so.

"It's high-pressured, there's lots of money involved," she told Sky News. "You're very replaceable. There's lots of other people who can do your job. That's what makes you careful about what you say.

"My only point is to try and change things, because this has been on my mind for years and years."

Her account points to the mechanism that keeps such stories quiet: replaceable workers, big money, and jokes that let a reputation hide in the open. Whether the current wave of allegations finally changes that calculus inside British TV is the question the industry will now have to answer.