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14/11/2026
Inside our five-year investigation into a staple of British culture
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| Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief |
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For the past two decades, David Walliams has been at the heart of British culture. The star of the hit BBC comedy show Little Britain, he spent several years as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent and became an internationally successful children’s author. Until last year he had a lucrative contract with top publisher HarperCollins and was often referred to as a modern-day Roald Dahl. This week the Guardian revealed that Walliams had been accused by multiple women of using his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex. He denies any wrongdoing.
The investigation, by Maeve McClenaghan and Rachael Healy, and edited by Rachel Oldroyd, was a collaboration with ITV News. Like so many of these deeply reported projects, it is the result of years of work. Our investigations team first began following leads about Walliams’ alleged misconduct in 2021. The following year, we published a story revealing Walliams had made derogatory and sexually explicit remarks about contestants on Britain’s Got Talent, resulting in his dismissal from the show. But it would be another four years before we could tell the full story of his alleged grooming of young women, some as young as 15.
In recent months, we faced another challenge: after we approached Walliams for comment, he sought a high court injunction to block the Guardian and ITV News from publishing the story, arguing, in part, that doing so risked him taking his own life. This was a complex ethical and legal case, for both the court and the media organisations involved, and it was one we all weighed with great care. The judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, refused to grant the injunction, and on Tuesday, the day of publication, we explained in our editorial the reasons we went ahead.
We also launched an extended video episode of Today in Focus, hosted by Nosheen Iqbal, which included an interview with one of the women who had bravely come forward to tell their stories. On Thursday, Maeve and Rachael reported with media editor Michael Savage on claims that years of on-screen jokes about Walliams’s behaviour suggested his reputation was hiding “in plain sight” in the entertainment industry.
The investigation raised serious questions for the media companies that worked with Walliams, including his publisher HarperCollins and Fremantle, the company that makes Britain’s Got Talent. It also, in recent days, led to other British celebrities including talk show host Jonathan Ross distancing themselves from someone they had previously been close to.
We believe that publication of such stories is in the public interest. As Justice Nicklin said in his ruling, impeding publication would not merely have been “an exceptionally serious interference”, it would also have silenced the alleged victims, who have the right to tell the public about their experiences. The value of doing so was made plain within 24 hours, when the government signalled it was willing to regulate the entertainment industry unless it introduces better protections to prevent abuse and harassment. On Friday, the Metropolitan police announced a criminal investigation into Walliams, who has denied breaking the law, over allegations it said were separate from those reported by the Guardian and ITV News.”
If you don’t already, please consider supporting the Guardian’s independent investigative reporting by clicking here.
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My picks
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The UN’s important annual climate summit, Cop31, kicked off in Turkey this week. Fiona Harvey wrote a detailed scene-setter on what’s at stake. Cop is also a good moment to remind ourselves of the bigger issues at play through our series This is Climate Breakdown, which features first-person stories of the impact of extreme weather events.
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As heavy rains and high winds hit Gaza, Seham Tantesh spoke to witnesses to a landslide triggered by the November weather that buried five people in a camp for families displaced by the war.
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More than a week after a blue wave swept the US midterms came the news that Scott Colom flipped one of Mississippi’s Senate seats to become its first Democratic senator since 1982 and its first Black senator since the Reconstruction era. I loved Adria R Walker’s knowledgable reporting capturing the independent energy of Colom’s campaign in this deep-red deep south state.
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In a dramatic moment for the AI industry, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang resigned after reports of extramarital affairs with an alleged Chinese spy and two company employees. Given the global economic implications of Nvidia’s stock tumbling, opinion writer Moira Donegan explored why Huang’s midlife crisis is a problem for us all.
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Luke Harding, reporting from Lviv, spoke to the first soldier in Ukraine to be evacuated from the frontline by a purpose-built drone. When all other attempts, including four land robots and a stretcher team on foot, had failed to reach him in the “kill zone”, Artem Lytvyn’s only hope of survival was in a coffin-like capsule carried by a giant drone on a perilous 18-mile journey to safety.
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In a strong piece of opinion writing, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett examined the Russell Brand case as a mirror on the attitudes of the 2000s, with the expectation that women should suffer abuse in silence, while Helena Kennedy, chair of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, said more must be done to protect junior employees preyed upon by powerful superiors, and explained its ability to help even those who have signed NDAs.
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Eight years after the Australian cricket team was caught tampering with a ball with sandpaper during a South African Test match, the scandal raised its head again this week after former player Usman Khawaja published a book claiming the three players who were sanctioned at the time were scapegoated and that the whole team was aware of the practice. Jack Snape summed up the “saga that never goes away”.
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Justine Jordan wrote an authoritative appreciation of this year’s Booker prize-winning book, The End of Everything, while Lisa Allardice interviewed its author M John Harrison, who has finally exploded into the mainstream, aged 81.
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I also enjoyed this gallery of era-defining ska and 2 Tone photographs by Janette Beckman from the late 70s and early 80s; and Arifa Akbar’s confessional adventures attending plays in London’s West End in fancy dress.
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And don’t miss the return of our food podcast Comfort Eating, with hilarious new host Siobhán McSweeney, this week featuring the also hilarious Asim Chaudhry.
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One more thing …
Ahead of an upcoming visit to South Korea and Japan, I’ve been relishing reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a very enjoyable novel about one Korean family and how they navigate the personal and political struggles of the 20th century. Magnificent!
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Your Saturday starts here
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Watch this | Michael Lewis on the ‘blockers’ who stood up to Elon Musk’s Doge – Today in Focus
What happens when Elon Musk and a bunch of tech bros try to rip up the US government? Journalist Michael Lewis – the acclaimed author of Moneyball and The Big Short – talks to Nosheen Iqbal about his new book Blockers, which tells the story of the civil servants who stood up to Musk’s ‘department of government efficiency’ as it tried to dismantle the US government.
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And finally …
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The Guardian’s crosswords and Wordiply are here to keep you entertained throughout the weekend – – and don’t forget to try Film reveal and On the ball on the Guardian app.
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When it comes to breaking news and live coverage of the events shaping the world, we think our journalism is second to none. But there’s so much to explore on our website and app.
Have you tried one of our brilliant daily puzzles like Wordiply? Or cooked with Feast, our constantly-updated recipe app that’s packed with thousands of recipes from chefs such as Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha and Rukmini Iyer. And, from sports and lifestyle, to relationships and culture, you’ll never struggle to find anything good to read on the subjects you love.
All of the Guardian’s journalism is powered by the financial support of our readers and the fact that we’re independently owned by the Scott Trust. By supporting the Guardian you are directly supporting quality journalism at a time when it is most needed, and keeping it open to those who aren’t able to pay.
Support us today with any amount, or from just $5 per month.
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邀请您观看 Freight forwarder & logistics provider 的相册： huoyun huoyun 2013年3月24日 提供者： Freight forwarder & ...
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