The BBC has pulled David Walliams’ shows from its iPlayer service, including Little Britain, and bookshops across Britain and Ireland have begun removing his children’s books from their shelves, as the fallout grows from serious allegations of sexual misconduct published this week. The comedian and author, 55, strongly denies any wrongdoing and says he has done nothing unlawful.
The allegations were published on Tuesday by The Guardian and ITN after a three-year investigation, with multiple women accusing Walliams of using his status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex. According to The Guardian, the claims include that he groomed fans who were as young as 15 and harassed female colleagues over a number of years, and one woman specifically accused him of sexual assault. Walliams had attempted to secure a High Court injunction preventing ITN and The Guardian from publishing the reports.
Broadcasters and bookshops act
The BBC confirmed it is removing a number of programmes written by Walliams from iPlayer while a review is under way. “We are in the process of removing some programmes, including Little Britain, while this review is underway,” the broadcaster said. Waterstones confirmed it will return the small number of Walliams’ books currently held by its stores to publisher HarperCollins, while The Works and TGJones have stopped selling his titles altogether, according to The Bookseller.
In Ireland, Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street in Dublin removed Walliams’ titles from its shelves on Tuesday, staff told The Irish Times, and a similar move appeared to have been made across the Waterstones chain. Eason’s flagship store on O’Connell Street still had around 10 of his titles available. Walliams is the third bestselling children’s author on record in Ireland, ahead of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, according to NielsenIQ BookData.
A career unravelling in stages
The latest moves follow a longer unravelling. HarperCollins, which published all 23 of Walliams’ children’s books — more than 60 million copies sold worldwide — decided in December 2025 not to publish any new titles by him, and in September 2026 confirmed it had dropped his backlist and would phase out remaining stock. He was also removed from the Waterstones Children’s Book Festival line-up, and his literary agent has now dropped him. Last week, Alton Towers confirmed that an area of the park inspired by his stories has been permanently closed. No finding of wrongdoing has been made by a court, and Walliams says he is taking legal advice. The Rings of Power season 3 premiered today to divided reviews, while The Body premiered today on Netflix with Sofia Wylie leading.
