Cult comedy series has new episode cancelled due to ‘too many Gregg Wallace jokes’

Former ‘MasterChef’ host is under investigation for inappropriate sexual comments

Comedian Dave Gorman has revealed an episode of Modern Life Is Goodish featuring multiple jokes about Gregg Wallace has been axed.

Gorman’s comedy series originally ran for five seasons between 2013 and 2017 and is returning to screens for the first time in seven years. But he has said that one of four commissioned episodes wound up “in the bin”.

Speaking to The Guardian, he said: “We made four [episodes]. But one of them is 75 per cent about Gregg Wallace. It’s in the bin.”

Wallace 60, was replaced on MasterChef by Grace Dent after it emerged the presenter was facing allegations of inappropriate sexual comments from 13 people across a range of shows over a 17-year period.

The Modern Life Is Goodish episode finished filming just before the surfacing of allegations against Wallace, which instantly invalidated the “cult hero status” the sketch hinged on. Wallace has denied all claims of wrongdoing.

“It’s sort of taking the p*** out of him but in a very loving way, tongue in cheek,” Gorman said.

“There’s a routine that sets up the idea that I’ve invented a product. I need to get a celebrity endorsement for it. The punchline tying all the routines together is that he’s filmed an advert for it.”

Dave Gorman has axed a Gregg Wallace episode from new series of 'Modern Life is Goodish' (Getty)

Gorman added they had tried to remove any mention of Wallace from the sketch in order to save the episode but ultimately decided it had to be axed altogether.

“It’s a structured piece with a flow to it. Every routine connects to every other routine,” he said, before joking: “What I’m saying is: I’m the real victim.”

Wallace is currently under investigation by the BBC over the allegations against him.

Addressing the allegations, he said last year: “I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time. I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right. In 20 years, over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks, or sexual innuendo? Can you imagine?”

In December, director and producer Dawn Elrick said she sent a letter to the BBC in 2022 with a number of anonymous accounts from people who alleged they “have experienced sexism within the TV industry”.

This included the presenter allegedly making lewd comments and asking for personal phone numbers of female production staff, the claims said.

Wallace on ‘MasterChef’ (BBC)

The emergence of the letter, shared in an Instagram post by Elrick in December 2024, came as a report published by The Times claimed that the BBC had been aware of Wallace’s alleged behaviour as far back as 2017.

Shannon Kyle, who ghost wrote Wallace’s memoir Life On A Plate, also claimed Wallace touched her bottom during a television appearance and frequently rubbed her thigh whenever he changed gears in his car.

The most disturbing incident, she told BBC Newsnight, occurred when Wallace answered his front door wearing only a towel, which he then dropped in front of her as she entered his home to work on the book.

“I felt quite vulnerable because I’m on my own in a flat with a man. He’s naked,” Kyle told BBC Newsnight. She added that she had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before beginning the project.

John Torode and Wallace co-hosting ‘MasterChef’ (PA Media)

“I was worried about losing the job... because I’d given up all the work for this job. So I thought to myself... I’m just going to try and navigate this, [I’ll] just try and push on through,” she said. “It was just really revolting.”

A statement from Wallace’s lawyers to BBC News said: “Our client has denied that he has engaged in any such behaviour, and he specifically denies any sexual misconduct with Ms Kyle.”