Richard Osman's honest feelings on MasterChef before John Torode slam

Richard Osman was a "religious viewer" of MasterChef before judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode were both hit with scandal. Now the former Pointless host has hit out at Torode, who is alleged to have made a racist remark in a social setting by one of his colleagues - claiming "that's not true".

On his podcast The Rest is Entertainment, Osman fumed: "John Torode, I think, in The Sun, said a couple of things. He said, 'The first I knew about it was I read it in the papers.' And my understanding is that's not true - the first thing he knew about it was when he was told it." He added: "He used, I think, probably the worst racial slur there is.

"And they found that to be substantively true. They found evidence that they were happy with - that that was true. He is saying, 'I definitely didn't do it. I certainly can't remember it,' but that one was upheld."

But before he lost it with the star, Richard was actually a fan of MasterChef. He admitted to MailOnline: "I don't cook at all. lack both the concentration and the hand-eye coordination, and it's not something that's ever come naturally to me. I'll religiously watch MasterChef, but I couldn't cook most of the food, nor could I eat most of it."

He was also a keen watcher of Gregg Wallace's Inside the Factory, tweeting about it several times. One such tweet from 2019 read: "Gregg Wallace at a pencil factory? Yes please BBC2. If you like Gregg Wallace, and you like pencils, then it's perfect."

He added: "I will watch [Gregg] in any factory." He was still watching the show in 2023, but later apologised for defending Wallace. Richard "stuck up" for Gregg after his viral 'day in the life' piece, but later said: "If I can start with a Mea culpa, because a while ago we talked about him, because he had that boring day in the life and I stuck up for him because I think being boring is fine.

"Also, I did ask around, and any show he's ever been on that I've been involved with, everyone had nice things to say about him. So I was like, oh no, absolutely, it's fine. I did think, oh, he's just a big personality, and I hadn't heard stuff.

"But now, listen, I definitively understand, I have heard stuff. I apologise for that."