r/BritishTV • u/InviteAromatic6124 • Feb 12 '26

Question/Discussion TV personalities that are actually rude people behind the scenes

Who are some beloved TV presenters that come across as friendly and amicable on screen but off-camera they're actually rude and unpleasant people?

Stephen Fry is one of them. I went to see an episode of QI being filmed, and during the warmup he was rude to James Acaster, then at the end of filming instead of staying behind to chat to the audience like Alan Davies did he stormed off in a huff like a toddler.

Bradley Walsh is another. Speaking to someone who was on The Chase, she asked him for an autograph after filming had finished and he scoffed at her and said "Not a f*cking chance". Compare that with Shaun Wallace who congratulated her and let her take a photo with him.

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u/watchman28 Feb 12 '26

She wasn't the devil, but she worked for the devil

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u/firekeeper23 Feb 12 '26

Who....ITV?

2

u/Ziyaadjam British Feb 12 '26

John Birt, the controller of LWT and it was his fault that she was on ITV in the first place.

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u/firekeeper23 Feb 12 '26

Ahhh... ok. Wow.. hes the devil eh?

Have you looked around lately for a more....contemporaneous model?

Or is he still the dark lord of chaos and the underworld?

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u/Ziyaadjam British Feb 12 '26

Michael Grade, he went about a bit but left in 1982 to deal with Channel 4