Legendary comedian Frank Skinner has revealed how he once had a cameraman fired from his hit chat show for putting a camera up a colleague’s skirt.
Skinner, 68, hosted his self-titled Frank Skinner Show for ten years, between 1995 and 2005.
First airing on BBC One, it was a combination of celebrity chat and stand-up routines, punctuated with comedy sketches and musical routines.
It then moved to ITV in the year 2000, running for another five years. During this time he interviewed celebrity giants Jamie Lee Curtis, Ozzy Osbourne and Britney Spears… alongside British showbiz figures Matthew Kelly, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown and Jo Brand.
The Brummie comedian has reflected on his time hosting the show, recalling an incident in which he was forced to have a cameraman sacked for his ‘horrible’ behaviour.
‘I think if you’ve got the power to do something about that, you need to use it,’ he asserted.
In an interview with The Sun, Skinner described the incident as ‘horrible’ and a form of ‘bullying.’
‘He thought it was funny to put the camera up a make-up woman’s skirt and it got big laughs in the studio,’ he said.
‘I wasn’t in the studio, but I found her crying in a room and she told me about it. I asked around. And because I was a big-time comedian, I was able to say: “Well, look, either he goes or I go”.
‘I don’t want to get anyone sacked, but I did get him sacked. I tell that story not to make myself sound like some big hero and good guy, but just that I had the power and I did something,’ he added.
Skinner rose to fame on the stand-up circuit in the 1980s, before making he television debut in the 1990s.
Since then, he’s rarely been off the box, appearing in sitcoms Shane and Blue Haven, while hosting Room 101, The Frank Skinner Show and Frank Skinner’s Opinionated.
He is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with fellow comedian David Baddiel, with whom he co-wrote and performed the football anthem Three Lions.
As part of their long-term partnership, they also hosted TV shows Fantasy Football League and Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned together.
One TV show format which wasn’t for Skinner was Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox – an experience he described as ‘not enjoyable.’
‘There’s a place in Wareham in Dorset called Monkey World, and it’s beautiful because they’re often monkeys that have been rescued from unkindness on the continent, and a lot of Spanish, in particular, there’s a thing of having your photo taken with a monkey,’ he said during an episode of his Frank off the Radio: The Frank Skinner Podcast.
‘The way to make them behave – and you can see this when you get close – is they’ve got cigarette burns on their skin that they use to make them do what they want them to do. And doing Gogglebox was a very similar experience.’
Lest we think he’s being overly dramatic, Skinner clarified: ‘We’re sitting watching the telly and we start talking, and a voice says “Say something about his jacket”. Then it would stop, and they’d say “Can you not go into digressions, it’s funny if you keep it close to what’s actually happening”.
‘And pretty soon I’m thinking “just please make this stop”.
Skinner – who married long-time partner Cath Mason earlier this year – continued: ‘When I left – I’d made it pretty clear in a politer way – I said “Sorry, I thought this was going to be like enjoyable”.’
As for Skinner’s Celebrity Gogglebox co-star and long-time friend, Baddiel has worried that comedy might one day kill him.
‘Stand up and making people laugh live is psychologically very all-consuming, and you sometimes think, I don’t think I can keep doing this until I die because it’s going to kill me,’ 61-year-old Baddiel said during an appearance on Good Morning Britain last year.
‘But actually, it’s very hard to give up at the same time,’ he said. ‘It’s very addictive and when you do it you feel like you are bringing a lot of joy.
‘It’s an amazing buzz and also it feels like a great thing.’
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