To tell you all that David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher Harper Collins?

It was his show while he was presenting it, though, and it's difficult to do retrospectives celebrating the history of the show without stumbling upon footage of him. It would be better to do a complete rebrand and call it something new, if the BBC were ever to bring back a similar show.

I don't think they would though. Radio has largely taken over that niche, and streaming has decentralised everyone's listening habits so much you can't really do a Top 40 show anymore.

There was talk of them bringing it back, in that stage when JS had died but before all of the revelations hit the fan. I heard Jimmy Carr suggested as host, though, which I'm not sure would necessarily have been the best choice... unless they were insistent that it had to be another Jimmy?!

I think Alan Carr would have done a really good job, actually - he seems to have a lot of empathy, and in virtually all of the rebooted gameshow specials he's hosted, he's been much better than the original hosts! Failing him, I think Mel & Sue, Claudia W or Alison Hammond could have done a really decent job of it.

I used to love Jim'll Fix It as a child. Not him himself - he was always quite creepy - but the idea of the show caught my imagination.

TOTP was never 'Jimmy Savile's show', though - it was much bigger than him and he was only one of many DJs who presented it over the decades (although one of them was John Peel, granted).

It's a shame with Jim'll Fix It, though, as it was a simple but enjoyable programme idea that could have been hosted by anybody - although younger children probably did believe that 'your Uncle Jim' had singlehandedly arrange it all, rather than a whole team of backroom people doing all the actual work... but for those of us of a certain age, it will ever be associated with him.

Maybe, in a number of decades from now, when all of us now who are old enough to remember it are gone, some young TV producer might unwittingly have that same 'brand new idea' and children of that day will get in touch in whatever modern way exists then, in the hope of fulfilling their dreams.

That's true. Mind you, knowing what we know about how many of them were targeted by Savile, that might not be a bad thing. There are probably women out there today who have kept their experiences quiet and would be really upset if a well-meaning friend said "Look, it's you! I never knew you were at TOTP!"

I imagine it would blow the lid on a lot of memories people would rather not confront. I always think of that footage of the young woman he was molesting on camera, and no one could see his hand up her skirt. Her frozen smile and body language were awful. It must have been horrible to have that moment watched by everyone she knew, who kept telling her how lucky she was to be on TOTP. I can't even imagine.

Savile was such a prolific offender, I still don't think we know the half of it. I could never look at those crowd scenes without wondering, personally. I think that's an instance where it's better to let them fade from memory.

The Savile era of TOTP was before my time, so I can't say how easy it would be to edit him out of it. That one does make more sense to me though, as it was his show and it was wasn't something that was originally designed with repeat viewing in mind.

I'd compare it to Animal Hospital, which I did love as a child, but which you can't really separate Rolf Harris from, and was very much designed to make him seem like a lovable figure children would feel safe around. He was this warm-hearted Aussie grandfather who drew funny pictures and always had a cute new pet to show you. It was a whitewash of him as a person, just as TOTP was for Savile. I wouldn't feel comfortable showing it to kids today, knowing that.

I do think the Doctor Who question is different though. That's a work of fiction designed for longevity. DW and HE have very minor roles, and are portrayed in a neutral or negative light. I don't know if it's right that everybody else's hard work on the show, and the value the themes still have to offer young viewers, should be thrown out just because these of guys. It's losing something 99% good for the sake of 1% bad.

The show also has a significant adult audience, who are able to make that judgement call in their heads. I do the same thing when watching the first series of The Thick Of It, for example. Or when I'm watching the Lord of the Rings movies and see Harvey Weinstein credited among the producers. Engaging with this content doesn't make me think any better of those men. It's just one of those things you have to weigh up and deal with. I would feel differently if the movie was a biopic of Harvey Weinstein designed to whitewash his image, though, or if The Thick Of It hadn't changed up the cast after that first season.

For me, there are different categories to all this, and it is something that should be approached with nuance. The Huw Edwards Doctor Who episode, for example - that was pulled off iPlayer for a long time while the BBC tried to edit him out of it. The episode gets derided as a bit of a dud among Doctor Who fans, but it's worth pointing out that at its core, it's the story of a young black girl and her mother trying to recover from domestic abuse. That has value. There will probably be families, and children, who that episode helped. Was it right to remove it entirely, because a news presenter who briefly appears in the background was involved in a scandal? Does the good outweigh the bad in that? I'm not sure.

There's also the question of the entertainment industry being so awash with terrible people that once you start censoring content like this, it just goes on and on.

Its bit unfair on people who were in the TOTP studio. They never get to see themselves.

I hope the BBC don't do what they did with Hew Edwards and pull the episode from streaming though.

I agree. I can see why they do it, but it's so frustrating when an entire episode is pulled because an actor playing a minor/peripheral character falls sharply from grace. The BBC has removed an episode of Still Game ('Hatch') from iPlayer for this reason and it's such a shame... although it is still available on YouTube (and we're old-school, so we still have every series on DVD!)

I still don't see why the BBC had to pull every episode of TOTP that featured Jimmy Savile in its entirety - surely they could have just removed his (mainly pointless) links between the songs; or have got somebody else to add a voiceover/overlaid text on the screen if necessary?

I do like watching Gangsta Granny when it comes on, though. Joanna Lumley is fab as the Queen.

The God Complex - great episode.

I've just remembered that David Walliams appeared in an episode of Doctor Who, back in season six. It was probably the best of that series, actually - the one about the minotaur that trapped people with their fears in a mock hotel.

It's quite interesting to think about, because he was cast a sort of craven mole person (an alien) who seems too timid and fearful to be a threat for most of the episode. But by the end you realise that exterior hides a nasty self-interest. He gives up one of the group to die and everyone is disgusted to see his true colours. Not so innocent after all.

This would have been 2011 or 2012, I think? I can't help but wonder if someone involved was trying to make a point about him. This would have been one of his first forays into children's entertainment. I wonder if it was a case of "write us a part for David Walliams" or "David Walliams wants to be on the show, what have you got for him?" Or if it's all just a strange and fitting coincidence, that that was the role he ended up playing.

I hope the BBC don't do what they did with Hew Edwards and pull the episode from streaming though. DW's role would be impossible to cut out of the episode, so it would probably disappear forever if they decided to remove it. He's not the main character however, is in heavy prosthetics , and is not portrayed in a favourable light. Quite the opposite. It would be a shame for everyone else's work on the episode to go to waste on his account. The theme of overcoming different types of fear really resonated with me when I was younger, and there are some really moving scenes in it.

The problem with "separating the art from the artist" in this instance appears to be that the art (both TV and books) very much does reflect the kind of person the artist is.

His books are awful anyway, waste of good paper. My child won't be reading them.

No one could know the truth.

However it is interesting - maybe mysterious even - how some artists seem to be able to bask in the privilege of the separation of art and artist whilst others are condemned to opprobrium.

The surprise would be that he has not,

Yes definitely, they were marketed to look like Dahl and it worked, though Dahl was a hundred times better writer than Walliams. If Walliams actually wrote any of his books - I'm still not clear on that.

I think having Quinton Blake onboard helped massively too. People saw the covers and instantly thought ‘Roald Dahl’.

Even if you passionately believe in separating the art from the artist - as the BBC clearly does with Eric Gill (although they don't ever show any old episodes of TOTP with JS in them) - why would you want your child to read such unpleasant books filled with horrible stereotypes?

I would counter-argue that it's exactly because of the 'artist' that these books gained purchase in the first place. If the same books had appeared on shelves with an unknown author's name shown on the cover, I reckon a lot of people would have strongly criticised, complained about and refused to buy them; but it's because it says DW on the cover that he got a free pass. Parents thought "Ooh, it's that fun chap from the telly - he's known for being a bit cheeky and irreverant with his humour, isn't he?!"

But if you buy the books you support him directly... Have you been listening to a lot of Gary Glitter since his conviction?

Walliams of the massive ego. Really fancied himself. Revelled in fame. Knew how to make a few a bob off the back of his very limited talent

Saw the WDYTYA programme a while back. Celebrating big time a couple of well dodgy ancestors.

Awful off putting, creepy persona.
Hope he gets his just deserts.

It certainly feels as though something is brewing. I imagine he's got Russell Brand and Bear Grylls on speed dial ready to baptise him in the Thames.

I think there is a serious problem with his books. I used to read them to my son until I realised that every mother or mother figure seemed to be evil

GGScot - well said in response to erssie’s post.

As far as DW is concerned, I, for one, won’t miss him.

2011 is 15 years ago! Not exactly 'recent.' It's almost a generation.

It is recent enough for it to be astounding that the BBC agreed to fund and show a program with blackface characters.