ITV chef and presenter James Martin has been accused of bullying and intimidating behaviour towards his TV crew.
Deadline - who originally reported the story - revealed that broadcaster ITV had stepped in to tell Martin to ‘change his behaviour’ after it received complaints about the chef’s conduct from some of his colleagues.
Specifically, the complaints were regarding Martin’s behaviour on the set of James Martin’s Spanish Adventure - the chef’s most recent travel cooking show. He has been accused of berating and belittling staff, reducing them to tears, as well as changing schedules at the last minute, sometimes giving crew just a few hours of sleep before starting work again the next day. Meanwhile, it’s understood that Martin himself arrived an hour late to filming commitments the next day.
An ITV spokeswoman said to Deadline: ‘Following a complaint we received in May from members of the Blue Marlin production team about the filming of James Martin’s Spanish Adventure, we contacted Blue Marlin to discuss these concerns and to understand how the issues raised were being addressed and what actions were being taken.
‘As a result, we made a number of recommendations for Blue Marlin to implement as soon as possible, sharing best practice of some of our own relevant procedures around staff welfare and reiterating our Supplier Code of Conduct.’
This is allegedly not the first time that ITV has been made aware of Martin’s bullying on set. In 2018, Martin allegedly ‘launched a foul-mouthed tirade’ at his staff after a drain became blocked on his property during the filming of James Martin’s Saturday Morning - Martin’s regular saturday morning cooking show.
That behaviour provoked a formal complaint to Martin and his agent Fiona Lindsay, as the latest of ‘repeated incidents of inappropriate, intimidating and bullying behaviour’.
Martin’s Blue Marlin production company responded, saying: ‘An unfortunate incident occurred after filming James Martin’s Saturday Morning in 2018 where James’ home was badly damaged. Blue Marlin accepted responsibility. James was shocked by what had happened and on reflection acknowledges he responded emotionally, which he wholly regrets. James apologises for any offence or upset caused, as he did at the time to the crew involved.
‘Following this and some issues filming James Martin’s Spanish Adventure, James and Blue Marlin Television agree that lessons have been learned which have been discussed with members of the team and with ITV. Blue Marlin Television and James Martin have taken on board ITV’s recommendations and their sharing of best practice, and are in the process of fully implementing.’
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