BBC IN A MESS OVER GREG WALLACE BUT THE PRESENTER COULD STAGE A COMEBACK, SAYS ROGER BOLTON

THE BBC has made a “complete mess” of handling complaints about Greg Wallace – but the presenter’s career may not be over, according to former BBC presenter and executive Roger Bolton.

Speaking to GB News, he said: “They’ve employed Greg Wallace because he’s different, because he comes from a working class background, because he’s got this gift of the gab and so on and but he doesn’t have a self-censoring device.

“And all the efforts that have been made, and they may not have been adequate, they can’t get him to self-censor. I don’t think he can help himself.

“If you look at what he was trying to do yesterday, the sort of damage limitation. I mean, it’s all damage and no limitation, isn’t it?”

He told Isabel Webster and Ben Leo: “It’s a complete mess. I don’t think he’s been thrown under the bus.

“I think he’s almost committed career suicide, but if he’s been paid very well, the other thing you have to say about all these things…on the whole, television presenters get paid pretty well and one of the conditions is that the tap can be turned off pretty quickly.

“… If you’re going to stand up and against an older man who’s a star around whom a shoe is built and complained about his behaviour, you really have to have a a lot of courage and really believe that the organisation, the BBC will, or independent companies, or ITV or Channel Five for whom Greg Wallace has worked, you’ve got to believe that they will back you up

“At the moment, the industry, the way it’s constituted, makes it very difficult to speak out. And the BBC, with his latest review, and they always seem to have a review, really have to do something special.

“But I would say one thing about Greg, and then perhaps it’s an unpopular thing to say, he’s a very genuine guy. There are lots of good sides to him. He’s made disastrous mistakes, but he’s not, how can I put it? He’s not a hypocrite.”

He added: “One of the things that BBC has been criticised for by Ofcom and by the government is not doing enough, if you like – programs are not reaching enough to working class people.

“This was obviously one of the attractions of Greg Wallace. A guy came from being a greengrocer and done it himself and so on, a real role model in some ways and they’ve been encouraged to get more of these people on screen, and yet they need to be protected.

“But the fact is Greg has been at this for 12 to 14 years. He should have known by now, he is the architect of his own downfall, but he may, if he can realise the seriousness of what’s happened, there’s maybe a way back for a different sort of show in three or four years’ time.”