Mel Giedroyc claims her co-presenting accomplice Sue Perkins was groped by Keith Harris’ puppet Orville the Duck on an episode of Mild Lunch.
The duo co-hosted the Channel 4 lunchtime chat present when the alleged incident occurred in 1997 when the puppeteer and kids’s entertainer Harris – who died in 2015 aged 67 – appeared on the programme along with his nappy carrying, inexperienced duckling.
Mel, 57, advised comedians Rob Beckett, 39, and Josh Widdicombe, 42, on a current episode of the Parenting Hell podcast: “We’re again within the Naughty nineties – woof! Weren’t they naughty – they have been a really naughty decade.
“It was the ’90s, there was lots taking place – it ought to have been known as Heavy Lunch
“Essentially the most memorable of all of the lunches, we had three puppeteers with their puppets for lunch. We had Keith Harris with Orville, who received a bit naughty with Sue! Nicely, Orville did.”
“Sure. Harris by way of Orville received a bit ‘Naughty Nineties.’”
The revelation prompted Parenting Hell podcast co-host Rob to ask: “After all you neglect there is a hand in there.”
Mel replied: “There is a ruddy hand.”
Rob’s podcast co-presenter Josh added: “They’d get away with it by claiming it was a gray space.”
Agreeing, Mel stated: “Precisely.”
Rob added: “It isn’t a gray space. It is a hand in a beak. Get off my t**!”
Keith was joined on the episode by fellow puppeteers Roger De Courcey, 80, with Nookie Bear and Matthew Corbett, 77, with Sooty.
Mel says there was a stress on set on account of knowledgeable rivalry between Roger and Matthew as a result of the latter did not consider the kids’s TV star was a correct ventriloquist like himself and Keith who did stay exhibits and will additionally entertain adults with their antics.
And Mel says all three wished to flirt with Sue.
She shared: “Then we had Roger de Courcey with Nookie Bear who used to work a little bit of blue materials – they have been somewhat bit late evening – and we had Matthew Corbett plus Sooty.
“I had a robust sensation that Roger de Courcey did not like Matthew Corbett very a lot as a result of he felt that Corbett’s puppeteering was not the total deck.
“So there was actual animosity around the desk. There was a frosty environment around the desk. Harris is in the course of it throughout Perks’ grill.
“She was the honey entice, I used to be simply the fly type of buzzing spherical the sting moderately desperately. They bloomin’ cherished Perks, all of them.”
Mel and Sue have fond recollections of Mild Lunch – which started in 1997 and led to 1999.
This included the time when Mel snogged the programme’s runner – a then unknown Dermot O’Leary, 52, who at present presents ITV1’s This Morning alongside Alison Hammond, 50.
Mel and Sue, 55, additionally went on to current The Nice British Bake Off on the BBC from 2010 till 2016 earlier than it moved to Channel 4 in 2017.
