Evans Naked Allegation Feature2

Top Gear’s Chris Evans Faces Nudity And Bullying Claims

By Miles Goslett | 3:58 pm, April 30, 2016

Top Gear co-presenter Chris Evans is facing questions after a group of ex-colleagues alleged that he used to expose himself to them at work and was prone to bullying.

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Swapping memories in sometimes lurid detail on a publicly available Facebook page found by Heat Street this week, the group claimed that when they worked with Evans in the 1990s on Channel 4 show The Big Breakfast, he would routinely appear naked in front of staff.

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Nicola Waddell, who worked on the show between 1992 and 1993, was the first to dredge up the unpleasant memory by writing on April 26: “I’ve seen him [Evans] naked…”

 

Ms Waddell’s former colleague Steven D Wright replied: So have I (and most of the Big Breakfast crew). Occasionally I can still see it when I close my eyes…”

This prompted the following graphic description from their former colleague Rowan Somerville: “I remember those naked days… that first naked moment…it wasn’t yet dawn at [The Big Breakfast studio] Old Ford Lock and then it was there…an emanation of orange, like autumn come early… as if there was a russet coloured burst of light from a not very dangerous firework…. “

To this, TV producer Nicola Gooch answered: “Yes Rowan I was subjected to that. Though for me it was more like a baby minnow helplessly flapping for life on a pile on beech leaves.”

When asked by Nicola Gooch if he exposed himself often, Nicola Waddell wrote: “Yes, regular as clockwork with lots of wiggling. As SW [Steven D Wright] says, it was an early morn ritual. POOR Liz Gaskell still reeling xxx”

Evans LeBlanc Stig Top Gear
Matt LeBlanc and Chris Evans pose with The Stig in a promo shot for the new Top Gear season

 

Nicola Gooch then wrote: “well let’s see how long before this gets out and whether the BBC will want to cover up – figuratively speaking – again. I was supposed to be running the show when he it it [sic] and felt v embarrassed and undermined – f*** knows what a young runner must have felt about it. Or did everyone just laugh and think it was funny?

Steven D Wright replied: “he did [sic] to EVERYONE at 2 Lockkeepers Cottage [the Big Breakfast stuido]…”

Ms Gooch then wrote: “Did he really!!!?? FFS! He did it to me once but I didn’t talk to anyone about it. Even really junior people? That is so s***.”

Wright then explained: “He’d had a bath so dropped his towel and stood stark bollock naked for ten minutes while I prepped his next iv with Zig & Zag. I looked down at it then continued talking. I could tell he was annoyed I never ‘reacted’ and afterwards the Make Up girl (Debbie?) congratulated me on my sang froid. It was a classic bit of bullying but didn’t affect me although it would have been different if I’d been a young female runner though…”

Ms Gooch answered: “I thought the same thing. You are right about it being bullying. Total f****r.”

Evans has admitted that he used to expose himself to staff in the past.

In 2005 he gave a newspaper interview in which he said he would sometimes unzip his trousers during meetings of his company Ginger Group Media to show off his penis to colleagues.

At the time he said: “I haven’t done it for a while, but I will do it again… If you get your willy out, it’s the funniest thing in the world.”

However, the fact that some of his former colleagues continue to feel anger about it could present a problem for the BBC, which is still recovering from the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said: “Chris Evans has previously discussed in a newspaper interview his bizarre habit of exposing himself to colleagues. These new Facebook posts suggest some of his colleagues didn’t find it remotely amusing. In the post-Savile age the BBC has a duty to investigate Evans’s past behaviour and decide what action to take. If it doesn’t, it will be guilty of double standards.”

Evans is one of the BBC’s highest-earning presenters, thought to be paid about £2 million per year as a Radio 2 host and, from next month, as presenter of the new series of Top Gear alongside Friends actor Matt LeBlanc.

It is unclear what, if anything, LeBlanc knows of his penchant for stripping off.

Top Gear will be screened on BBC2 and BBC America.

Another post, from Nicola Gooch, said Evans was “an unpleasant and abusive bully.”

To this, Facebook contributor, Peter Hayton, opined: “The man is famous for being a total and complete s***. Ask anyone who knows him.”

However, it seems some may have got their revenge on Evans already.

Victoria Mills wrote: “I remember he [Evans] used to like a bath run for him (the actual bath in the BB [Big Breakfast] house). I also remember a certain runner that used to like to pee in that bath whilst preparing it.”

The BBC refused to comment.

A BBC spokesman provided Heat Street with a number for Michael Foster, saying Mr Foster is Evans’ agent. When Heat Street rang the number, registered in Cornwall, the man who answered the phone claimed his name is not Michael Foster but is in fact John Smith.

After a five-minute conversation Mr Foster/Mr Smith also refused to comment on the claims, having called them an “old chestnut”.

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