Ant Middleton Gives Controversial First Interview Since Parting Ways With Channel 4 | GMB

well special forces hero aunt middleton is part of company with channel 4 which said it wouldn't work with him again because of his personal conduct the star of sas who dares wins was criticized after controversial tweets about the black lives matter protests and coronavirus and then this morning they have emerged allegations that he made inappropriate comments to female crew members so he joins us now for his first live interview good morning to you ant how are you doing i'm always good always positive and just about to drop some truth serum so i hope you're ready well it's interesting isn't it because we found out i think yesterday that uh you were partying company your contract has not been renewed for a hugely popular show one of channel four's biggest shows sas who dares wins which has been going for five years with you as a head of the directing staff there um but your contract has not been renewed now you have put a very positive spin on this saying that your parting company and your you've got other exciting projects coming up but what is the truth behind you leaving the show yeah channel 4's statement and minnow film statement is very reckless and desperate that's the word it's desperate um you know especially backed by excuses like the blm tweet the blm tweet i've done just under a year ago um settled that three four months later i'm filming two more series of essays where you used an offensive word to describe uh blm protesters and edl protesters it was the way it was worded i didn't word it correctly and i acknowledged that but we put that under the under the carpet and a couple of months later i filmed two more series of essays essays it wins um but the excuses that keep coming like the appropriate comments i've just heard um i heard that yet last night from a media tabloid saying they're going to going to say that i don't need inappropriate comments so it's all smoke and mirrors um from the last episode of ss who there's wins when i filmed the last episode um it became a half-scripted sort of reality show you know full control was taken from me from health and safety to production and after that show i said i'm not going to film anymore i'm done with ss who dez wins i wanted a part in a in a healthy way and in a in a positive way and um they knew that i was going my future with sas uk was no more they knew i was going and all of a sudden they dropped this this bomb um about black lives matter about i've been axed and ultimately what they're doing is they're protecting their brand they knew i was going they got in there before me and everything else is smoking mirrors all these excuses that are coming out everything like inappropriate comments it's like you want to say us who dares wins you know we we say inappropriate things we um we do and we do inappropriate things that um you know if you get offended by them then then then so be it you know the the course is a hardcore course it's hardcore it's gritty you're going to see inappropriate things you're going to witness inappropriate things but it's never direct you know when it says inappropriate comments it wasn't direct it's what someone's seen on the show they've gone oh i don't know what they've done to that recruit i don't know what um like what they said about that crew and they've made made complaints like that so just to clarify on that and you there's no as far as you're concerned you were never inappropriate to female crew members for example as appears to be the implication from the mirror story today no never direct this um there's a new protocol that came in for the with their health and safety that if they feel offended or they want to complain and they can complain and honest anonymously so it's obviously something that they've seen you know they've seen a bit of military banter they've seen a bit of military humor they've seen us talk about a recruit or maybe a production member you know whilst we're in a ds dorm or something like that it's not direct it's something indirect um that they've complained about that they've that they've seen and they they've they felt offended by extraordinary just on that have you watched the show you know what you said earlier is there is so much in apparently inappropriate if you want to be offended stuff that gets aired by channel 4. you guys screaming at female recruits whatever you know fight people fighting each other you know abusing each other it's part of the show's makeup uh and as a viewer you know what you're watching but more importantly channel four know what they're airing and that's where i find this suggestion that you've been suddenly inappropriate seems to me to be just smoking mirrors it's just smoke and mirrors it's just them getting that getting in there first because they knew i was going they wanted to protect their brand and when we started this off pierce from day one um we had a great relationship with channel four different people at channel four great relationship at minnow films different people at minnow films and we said you know let us be ourselves you know whatever happens in the dear storm protect us because our humor is different our uh composure's different the way that we deal with situations is different and it allowed us to be us it allowed us to be true to the military ethos therefore to give an authentic program and over the years pc patrol have kicked in the um woke patrol have kicked in um to the point where we can't say anything we can't be ourselves we can't even act on the ground without health and safety jumping and going you can't put them in at shoulder level in the water you've got to put them at waist height and it's it's been so controlled and so managed and so so unauthentic now that i've decided if you had any warnings away from me and had you had any warnings about your as they put it personal conduct outside of the tweet storm over the blm tweet and also uh the the video you put up about coronavirus and you corrected and apologized for both of those things and then recorded more seriously well that's what i'm saying you know that had clearly been dealt with because they let you carry on making more series so putting those to side were there any other complaints made directly to you by channel 4 or by the producers about your personal conduct no the first time i've heard about it was last night from my management to say that there's going to be an article about you tomorrow morning um we dig into it and it's just saying like it's an anonymous um complaint about inappropriate comments of you on set and again i know what it will be it will be someone that's offended for what we've said about a recruit or what we've done sorry just because you're referring directly to a daily mirror report exclusive by their showbiz editor mark jefferies in which he reports at the end of last year allegations and complaints from a number of women regarding ant's comments towards them i'm quoting here from the report in the mirror towards them on set were investigated they felt the way he spoke to them was inappropriate so that's clearly members of of staff saying that the way you spoke to them directly not not complaining about some of the behavior on screen but the way that you spoke to them directly was inappropriate is that susannah i've been i've been butting heads with production i've been putting heads with health and safety i've been button heads with the ropes team i've been button heads with the channels um since for the last two three series since they've been taking more and more control away from me i've been butting heads with them and yeah i have said look i'm gonna walk off set this is absolutely horrendous you know how do you expect me to do my job if you're gonna act like this if you're gonna do this this is bs you know yeah i have butted heads with a lot of people over the last two series and that's why i have walked away from the series um but you know you can take that inappropriately as you want and you can interpret that as you want yeah probably haven't been easy to work with but it's only because the the course has wasn't what it was wasn't what i created what it wasn't isn't the direction that i wanted to go in and therefore yeah due to my passion for the show and to keep the authenticity behind it it's very important that we keep it authentic that the viewers see the authenticity um yeah i i like to take control and i like to make sure that it's done correctly and i will butt heads with people on set offset channels whatever it may be to make sure that i get the best work done that i know what i can do and when she's the authenticity of the show when channel 4 told you they were not going to renew your contract what specific issues did they give to you then as to the reason why um i know why it is it's because they got in there before me because they knew i was going what i mean is do they what did they actually what did they actually tell you when they said we're not renewing the contract when they dropped the news article that was the first i heard about it i didn't i only found out about this two days ago well you found out from the media that you were being you found out from the media yeah not channel four not me no films it was my agency said and they're putting out an article to say that you've been active you've been fired so that's why i say it's so reckless it's so desperate it's so um it's just not right but listen i don't want to butt head heads with them anymore um if they want to go about like the way they've gone about it then let them do that that's their bad not mine but um listen yeah it's last couple of days it's just been a media storm do you think if you make a show where you you cast real life sbs sas guys who are obviously you know killing machines let's just put it out there this is what you did for a living do you think if you're trying to create an authentic show about what it takes to be in the sas sps do you think you have to take a lot of rough with the smooth for one of a better phrase and that maybe they got more uh touchy about it as it went on as the atmosphere about behavior changed first of all if you're sensitive if you're a snowflake if you're easily offended you do not belong on a set of sas who dez wins so that goes into prior preparation and planning from the production company today this isn't a dancing on ice this isn't a celebrity big brother even though it's turned into that um this is sasudez wins you're gonna you see things that are uncomfortable you're gonna hear things that are uncomfortable you've got a group of alpha males military alpha males that are going to put people through a grueling process an authentic process and you know if you don't like what you see then don't come and work on the set you know it's not it's not for the light-hearted this show but now it's turned into this pc woke sort of everyone in their safety bubble if you hear anything that you know that offends you then make sure you complain that's the show gone that's the show given well i was going to ask you given where you think the show has gone and the fact they've now got rid of you because of the behavior that they perceive to be now inappropriate should the show itself be cancelled do you think it's gone so far the wrong way as far as you're concerned in terms of authenticity they should cancel it well it needs to have a stamp on it now doesn't it it needs to go from that factual entertainment it needs to go into reality because that's exactly what it is it's a reality show now the pc patrol taken over the world patrol have taken over it's like you know you can't be yourself you can't give an authentic experience you can't give an authentic course because it is too brutal and it is too raw and i think that you know it doesn't belong at channel four i think you know it's um if the channel four the way that their views and uh and um visions are then yeah i don't think it does belong at channel 4 but you know if they're going to put a new stamp on it it needs to it needs a new stamp on it because it cannot stay authentic like it is because it's obviously offending people people are getting upset it's a brutal alpha male military course deal with it or move on okay and we said we'd give you time to have your say you've certainly had that be very interesting to see what channel four have to say there's no way what a statement now uh ann middleton will not be taking part in future series of sas who dares wins following a number of discussions channel 4 and minnow films have had with him in relation to his personal conduct it has become clear that our views and values are not aligned and we will not be working with him really interesting isn't it that he was aligned with them for so long and then suddenly he's inappropriate i've watched that show when you watch that show you could say almost everything in it is inappropriate i think uh sorry just briefly just in that statement they say they've had a number of conversations with you um about your personal conduct you say that they haven't is that no well the personal personal talks of me yeah they've had personal talks with me about the way that i deal with the crew when when they're trying to take control the way that i'm butting heads with health and safety because i'm always arguing with health and safety always pushing the boundaries always trying to keep it authentic it's the same with production i'm sorry don't get involved in my course leave me with my playground you stay only out do not get involved in my bubble do not break that authenticity because the recruits will find out um and they will think that it's just some reality show and it will ruin the authenticity of the course so yeah i've been putting heads with them for for a while yeah i think they could have probably told you when they when they got rid of you before the media why they were getting rid of you that might have been more excited about his yeah we're going to leave it there you certainly had a a good say and we'll get a reaction and see how this plays out but good to talk to you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 1,220,469

Rating: 4.757319 out of 5

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic

Id: kdpfC8aXa-E

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 03 2021