Following the scandal over Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace’s salty remarks to female contestants and production staff, the BBC has launched an internal enquiry into how a working class person came to be in front of a TV camera.
It’s emerged that Wallace was originally hired as a background artist/extra for EastEnders, to add authenticity and local colour to the street market in Albert Square. However, he was given the wrong directions by someone on the front desk and ended up in the Masterchef studio, where executives made the crucial mistake of finding his cheeky patter amusing and charming, and decided to hire him.
“I now realise that I didn’t find him charming at all,” said producer Jeremy Shirtsleeves, “and what I felt was in fact revulsion and disgust at his appalling misogyny. Oh, but in that case why did I hire him… hang on, can we start again?”
The enquiry has concluded that working class people should from now on be kept to behind the scenes roles such as electricians, set-builders and toilet cleaners, and must only be allowed in front of camera in strictly limited circumstances, such as playing lovable cockney chimney sweeps.