The departure of David Walliams from Britain’s Got Talent has been addressed by Matt Lucas.
After leaked recordings surfaced of Walliams, 52, making derogatory comments about auditionees at the London Palladium in 2020, it was announced that Bruno Tonioli would take over the programme.
While reacting on his Little Britain co-elimination star’s from BGT on Thursday, Lucas, 48, didn’t bring up the audio leak.
Lucas, who will co-star with Timothée Chalamet in Wonka later this year, instead claimed that Walliams had “left” the show.
In an interview with BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show this morning, Lucas confirmed that he and Walliams had begun writing their top-secret new project.
‘Me and David Walliams have started writing together again. We just thought it was time so we quit our jobs and decided to do that,’ he said on air, suggesting Walliams’ BGT exit was purely down to his desire to explore new projects.
When Lucas claimed he “left” his work, he was probably referring to his departure from The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4 late last year.
‘We just started last week. We got together and we started brainstorming. We’ve got an idea for a new show and we need a few more brainstorming sessions but we know what we want the show to be, what the concept of it is,’ Lucas continued.
‘We’re really excited about it. It will be a show with us playing lots of characters. But we have to write the treatment for it and we have to go and pitch it and see if anyone wants to make it. But if someone wants to make it, we’ll be thrilled to do it.’
Ball tried to get Lucas to spill the beans about Paul King’s Wonka, which is set to hit theatres in December, but Lucas was much more cagey.
‘The Wonka movie is out in December and of course I signed a contract where I can’t say too much about it,’ the star shared.
‘But it’s a musical and it [stars] Timothée Chalamet as a young Willie Wonka and there’s some great people in it.’
When Ball asked: ‘Can you even say if you will be singing? It’s a musical, we know you can sing,’ Lucas replied: ‘I sing a little bit, yes. It’s one of those huge films where you’re on it for five or six months and yet you’re probably in it for seven minutes.’
After weeks of anticipation that Walliams might be leaving the panel, shooting for the new season of BGT began this week in London with former Strictly Come Dancing judge Tonioli.
A comedian who was caught on tape in 2020 repeatedly cursing at an elderly performer on a talent competition issued an apology for his “disrespectful statements” regarding auditioning candidates last year.
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