Comedian and Mock the Week presenter Dara O'Briain and has hit out at Andrew Neil, after the political broadcaster tweeted that that the comedy series "deserved" to be axed. The Irish comic, aged 50, took issue with a statement that Paisley-born presenter Neil made when tweeting a story from The Spectator, of which he is the chairman.
Sharing the article Andrew tweeted: "Mock the Week deserved to be cancelled."
Dara took note of this and hit back, taking a swipe about Neil's short stint on GB News, after he left the BBC in 2020 to join the right-wing news station. Dara tweeted: "Still, at least I didn’t bail on it after two weeks and f*** off to my house in France, eh Andrew? All the best! X"
The tweet was in reference to a leave of absence that Neil took just a fortnight after the channel launched. The journalist and broadcaster then quit GB News altogether eight months after joining.
Dara's tweet has been liked by nearly 50,000 people and received hundreds of quote tweets and comments, with fans mostly siding with the comedian. After responding to Andrew Neil, Dara later tweeted: "Have really enjoyed all the chat about Mock today. It’s been really sweet, thank you,"
Mock the Week will be ending after 17 years, with a BBC spokesperson saying: “The next series of Mock The Week will be the last. We are really proud of the show but after 21 series we have taken the difficult decision in order to create room for new shows.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here.
