Sign language TV star 'made lewd requests to interpreter'

Gregg Wallace asked a British Sign Language interpreter to sign "big boobs" and "sexy bum" in front of a live audience at the BBC Good Food show, an attendee has told the Guardian.

- Alexandra Topping

A MasterChef fan who was at the show at the NEC Arena in Birmingham in 2012 said Wallace had asked the interpreter if she had to sign everything he said before making the comments.

The woman who was in the audience said she had been "appalled and aghast" at "sexist" behaviour by Wallace during the live event in front of about 400 people.

"There was a British Sign Language interpreter there and he wandered over to her and just said: 'Do you have to sign everything I say?' And she said: 'Yes,' and then he just started saying: 'Big boobs', 'sexy bum' - this sort of thing, in order to get her to sign it. It was like he could control her, I suppose," said the woman, a professional in the cultural sector.

"The BSL interpreter is there to interpret what is being said for deaf people," she said. "They're not there as a source of entertainment. I just found that deeply disrespectful to [her] and deeply disrespectful to her profession."