Richard Osman addresses Gino D’Acampo’s ‘pattern of behaviour’ amid scandal

Richard Osman has weighed in on the controversy surrounding , following the TV chef’s removal from television schedules amid a flurry of allegations.

The former Pointless host delved into the topic on his podcast, The Rest is Entertainment, alongside journalist Marina Hyde, as they pondered the delayed emergence of claims against the ex-This Morning cook.

Accusations of “distressing” and “sexually inappropriate” conduct have surfaced from an ITV News investigation, with numerous individuals alleging “unacceptable” behaviour spanning 12 years.

Gino “firmly denied” the allegations in a statement to ITV News, saying they were “simply not in my nature” and describing them as “deeply upsetting”.

On his podcast, Richard – whose production credits include Deal or No Deal and Whose Line Is It Anyway? – addressed ITV’s decision to drop Gino’s programmes. He challenged the dismissive reactions seen in some media circles.

“You could look at it on one level and some of the papers have done – and certainly a lot of the commentators have done – and say, ‘Oh my God, you can’t say anything anymore, this is a huge overreaction, yada, yada, yada’,” he remarked.

“People do not lose their job just because they said a couple of things a couple of times. It’s a pattern of behaviour. It’s upset a number of people over a number of years.”

Richard then opened up about the persistent inappropriate behaviour that often leads to a fallout among staff, declaring: “We’ve said before on this show, if you’re in trouble as a presenter but actually your crew loves you and people who work with you go, ‘That’s just what they do and he’s a really decent guy,’ then you don’t get fired. There have to be a whole series of things that happen, it has to go on long enough and for it to be tiresome enough – which is the word we never use.”

Earlier in the show, Marina gave her take on why Gino’s alleged behaviour may have gone unnoticed for years, reports .

She said: “It’s interesting that nobody confronts in that situation and there’s lots of different reasons. There’s a sort of reason that it’s just Gino being Gino and there is very much a persona that he has been encouraged to play up to.”

Marina added another reason is that the shows he is involved in are not expensive to make and so taking time out of the schedule to reprimand Gino would likely derail a production by “an hour or two”.

She said: “There are these constant value judgements being made by people. ‘How bad is it?'”