A TV director has called James Corden the “most difficult and obnoxious presenter” he has ever worked with.
Craig Duncan worked with the 44-year-old in 2013 when he was the host of Sky One series A League Of Their Own.
Recalling his encounter, Duncan talked about working with Jack Whitehall, Freddie Flintoff, Jamie Redknapp and Corden for a Masterchef-style segment outside the studio.
Duncan said that ahead of working on the show, he was warned about working with “difficult presenters.”
Sharing a detailed account in a new YouTube video, he said: “The most difficult and obnoxious presenter I have ever worked with was James Corden.
“I was asked by his production company [if] would I be willing to direct a challenge that was gonna be part of their A League of Their Own show. It was season seven, episode three, and I’ll never forget it.”
He continued: “They said, ‘How are you at working with difficult presenters?’ I say, ‘Oh right, OK. Well, I’ve filmed the Three Tenors before, and you can’t get more of a prima donna than an opera singer.’”
Duncan explained that he was later invited to a rehearsal of the show and said the presenter’s demeanour was less than stellar when commenting on a writer’s joke.
He claimed: “It came to a point where he had to read from a card.
“[There was] kind of a joke in there, and he just looked at it like, ‘That’s not funny, that’s not funny. It’s s**t. We have to rewrite that’.”
Assuming Corden was having a bad day at the time, he agreed to film the upcoming segment but soon came to realise his attitude at the run-through wasn’t a once off.
Explaining one part of the challenge, Duncan continued: “We get to the part where the chef has to pick the winner and we had like five or six minutes left.
“I got all the camera crew round to have a huddle to discuss how we’re going to shoot this in five minutes.
“We were working it out to save time when old bug-a-lugs pipes up: ‘What the f**k is going on here? It’s obvious what you do. You put a camera there, camera there, camera there.’ He comes up, shows the dish, goes back to the table, he comes up, shows the dish…
“‘It’s so obvious how you shoot it! You’re stupid!’
Duncan claimed that at the time, he jokingly told Corden he was “right”, but that the shooting set-up he said had already been the plan.
He concluded: “We shoot it exactly as we were going to shoot it. He was 45 minutes late from his schedule and I’d have had him done in six.
“So, cheers James. You got your way, well done. Well done for treading all over my toes. I don’t care. I get paid at the end of the day and I hope I never ever work with him again.”
The Standard has contacted James Corden’s rep for comment.
