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If you’re a middle-class man of a certain age worried about Gregg Wallace’s future career prospects, there’s no need. Honestly. It’s all going to be absolutely fine – I promise you.
Some people were surprised by the MasterChef judge’s decision to double down with a provocative statement after sexual misconduct claims – which his lawyers have called “entirely false” – continued to surface about him over the weekend. But not me. I’d wager that Wallace isn’t, as suggested from some quarters, digging himself into a deeper hole with his latest insulting rhetoric. Far from it; he’s following in the tried-and-tested footsteps of many problematic men before him.
The allegations against the former greengrocer have reached double figures now, with more being added by the day. They include accusations of inappropriate sexual comments and jokes plus inappropriate behaviour, such as asking for the personal phone numbers of female production staff, from 13 people across a range of shows over a 17-year period. He’s also been accused of undressing in front of and standing “too close” to women working on his shows.
Those who have come forward include senior BBC staff and talent: former Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, actor Emma Kennedy, executive Kate Phillips, radio presenter Aasmah Mir, producer Georgia Harding and producer and director Dawn Elrick.
Latest to share her experience with Wallace is Location, Location, Location presenter Kirstie Allsopp, who alleged that the first time she met him to shoot a pilot, he immediately told her about a “sex act that he and his partner at the time enjoyed ‘every morning’”. Allsopp tweeted: “She’d just left the room, we were filming a pilot. Did he get off on how embarrassed I was? It was totally unprofessional.” She added that she didn’t say anything at the time “because you feel, in no particular order, embarrassed, a prude, shocked, waiting for a male colleague to call him out, not wanting to ‘rock the boat’, thinking it’s better to plough on with the day, assuming you misheard/misunderstood or just don’t get the joke”.
Up until Sunday, Wallace had gone for a tactic of outright denial. But he then decided to up the ante, not by engaging with the allegations in a meaningful way and apologising, but by sharing a video in which he claimed that complaints were being made by “middle-class women of a certain age”. The implication being, presumably, that middle-class, middle-aged women are too frumpy and stuck-up to get the “joke” – unlike those game young working-class lasses he’s happily been foisting lewd remarks upon for decades without a word of dissent.
“I’ve been doing MasterChef for 20 years, amateur, celebrity and professional MasterChef, and I think, in that time, I have worked with over 4,000 contestants of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all walks of life,” he said in the Instagram post. “Apparently now, 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.”
It’s not the kind of intentionally incendiary comment that someone keen to rehabilitate their prime-time, national treasure, BBC-darling image would make. There’s no coming back from it, no way to re-establish Wallace as the cheeky barrow-boy-dun-good who might make a bawdy comment or two with a wink and a smile, but who would never dream of crossing the line into seedy. Clearly, that ship has sailed.
One might argue it’s hardly surprising that the women who felt initially emboldened to speak out are those who have power and platforms in their own right, with enough years and experience behind them to have at least a chance of being believed – rather than unknown contestants for whom there was a significant power imbalance at play between themselves and a beloved TV presenter. And the more the story grows, the less Wallace’s original assertion seems to be the case anyway, with women (and some men) of all ages, including those without much industry clout, stepping forward to share their experiences.
You may never recover your career as was by leaning into casual misogyny, but no matter – a rich seam of media work can be mined by men just like Wallace
But Wallace is a smart man. He must know this. He also must know that his choices at this juncture are limited; he’s probably all too familiar with the speed at which previously untouchable telly talent can join the unemployment line once a story like this takes hold. And although Wallace has since apologised for his “women of a certain age” comments in another social media video – saying his head was “not in a good place” and that he is “under a lot of stress” – he arguably has no option but to pursue the one strategy that’s been proven to work time and time again for disgraced and distasteful men in the spotlight. He must position himself as an anti-woke freedom fighter and defender of free speech – bravely going to war against “political correctness gone mad” and casting himself as the official Protector Of Banter And The Right To Make Sexually Explicit Jokes With Impunity Even If It Makes Other People Uncomfortable. And all the while, angling for a new job into the bargain.
No, you may never recover your career as was by leaning into casual misogyny, but no matter – a rich seam of media work can be mined by men just like Wallace if they’re prepared to carve out a lucrative line in right-wing punditry or politics instead. A number of people on social media were quick to point out the presenter’s clear path forward in this regard, with comedian Sooz Kempner tweeting: “Gregg Wallace only has one option at this point. He has to go FULL transphobe. It’s his only option. I know you can do this, Gregg. I believe in your power to be this person.” Another tweet with the caption “Find out who Gregg Wallace is, and offer him a job” above a picture of Donald Trump on the phone quickly went viral.
He’ll be far from the first to ride the cancelled-to-right-wing pipeline. Laurence Fox was an early adopter, pivoting to being a media personality and opinion spouter for hire once his increasingly vitriolic rants about trans people, immigration and women saw the acting work dry up. He even made an unsuccessful foray into politics, channelling his considerable “sad divorced dad energy” into starting the Reclaim Party.
Russell Brand followed his own strange yet somehow inevitable trajectory from “zany” comedian and Hollywood megastar to politically abstaining, vaguely socialist man of the people, to Covid conspiracy theorist to, now, conservative vlogger with a six-million-strong following who inexplicably champions the likes of Nigel Farage. This endpoint has neatly coincided with various, strongly denied, sexual assault allegations against Brand coming to light.
And then there’s public intellectual and pop psychologist Jordan Peterson, another man who went from fairly well respected in his field (in his case, academia) to right-wing talking head who rakes in inordinate amounts of money from troubling podcast appearances, after various public comments perceived as sexist and transphobic saw him rejected by members of his profession.
And if you’re still concerned about Wallace’s access to future opportunities, you need look no further than across the Atlantic, where a victorious Donald Trump will soon begin another term as president of the United States – despite accusations of sexual misconduct from dozens of women dating back to the 1970s. Last year, he was even found liable in court for sexual abuse. But he hasn’t let a little thing like that stop him from securing a job so powerful it comes with the nuclear codes, has he?
The message is clear. If you don’t object to going “anti-woke” for pay, there are no limits to what you can achieve. Or, to use a metaphor that might appeal to gourmand Wallace after all those years on MasterChef: the world is your oyster.
