'It was ridiculing': Craig David once again hits out at Leigh Francis over his 'racist' sketch show Bo' Selecta! and says he moved to Miami to 'escape' it

Craig David has once again slammed Leigh Francis for his ‘racist’ depiction of him on his Channel 4 sketch show Bo’ Selecta!.

The singer, 41, has spoken out in criticism of the comedian, 49, better known as Keith Lemon, on a number of occasions amid their 20-year-feud.

And Craig has once again fumed over Leigh’s sketch show Bo’ Selecta!, which aired between 2002 and 2009, describing it as mere ‘ridicule’.

Leigh carried out impressions of Craig and other celebrities on the show, including Mel B and Trisha Goddard, and there were many instances of blackface.

Speaking about the series, Craig likened the impersonation of him to childhood bullying and said he moved to America to ‘escape’ the reaction to it.

Criticism: Craig David has once again slammed Leigh Francis for his ‘racist’ depiction of him on his Channel 4 sketch show Bo’ Selecta!

Feud: The singer, 41, has spoken out in criticism of the comedian, 49, better known as Keith Lemon, on a number of occasions amid their 20-year-feud

He told Leah Palmieri on the Spotify: Mic Check podcast: ‘[Bo’ Selecta!] sort of came at a funny time, it was a comedy show, it was ridiculing, to be honest. 

‘I’m quite grateful that it didn’t translate overseas, it was quite UK-based. Cos the UK was like home for me, it hit home. At the time, I didn’t really know how to react to it. This is home, this is my song, why is this coming at me?’

Bo’ Selecta! saw Leigh perform as Avid Merrion, a stalker who is obsessed with celebrities and featured the comedian doing impressions of various stars using latex face masks.

The name was based on the title of Craig and Artful Dodger’s song Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta) and portrays Craig as an egotistical Yorkshireman who owns a plastic peregrine falcon named Kes.
Leigh made an apology to Craig, Mel B and Trisha back in June 2020 for the way he caricatured black celebrities, making an agreement with Channel 4 that same year to take the show down from their All 4 streaming platform after deeming the sketches inappropriate.

Speaking about the comedy show, Craig went on to compare it to school bullying, saying it is a ‘trauma’ that stays with you over the years. 

He continued: ‘It was very reminiscent of days at my school, when I was growing up, when I’d been bullied, not for long periods of time but just the experience of bullying. 

‘Once you’ve experienced it, it’s like a trauma that sticks with you. Even then, it was that when the teacher’s there, you sort of lean in to that ‘everything’s OK’ and it’s a smile, and the guy’s holding you, he’s gripping you like ‘if you say anything it’s not just going to be here, it’s going to be outside the school gates’. 

‘And I felt that all over again with this, it was being ridiculed and bullied all over again on national TV. The fact that he was wearing a black rubber mask, I mean that throws open the whole thing of him blackfacing, which just wouldn’t be acceptable now.’

Sketches: Leigh carried out impressions of Craig and other celebrities on the show, including Mel B and Trisha Goddard, and there were many instances of blackface

‘It was ridiculing’: Speaking about the series, Craig likened the impersonation of him to childhood bullying and said he moved to America to ‘escape’ the reaction to it

The 7 Days hitmaker went on to say that he felt like he needed to ‘escape’ after the show aired, saying that he decided to move to Miami to do so. 

‘It was unfortunate that it became so popular, but it is what it is. At that time, I felt like I needed to find escape. A lot of people don’t know that moving to Miami was actually a form of escape,’ he continued.

‘I thought I can’t really walk down the road without this thing, not just being on TV, but following me around, so I went to Miami for my escape. It really was a healing that I needed.’

It is not the first time that Craig has slammed Leigh for the sketch show, previously branding the Celebrity Juice host a ‘bully’.

Appearing on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast in December, Craig claimed that the show was responsible for derailing his pop career because people stopped taking him seriously.

He said: ‘I think the most frustrating thing with that series is that it wouldn’t be acceptable now, For me to have gone through ten years of that, it wasn’t just the show, it was the aftermath of the show.

‘I couldn’t understand where the point of bullying was so focused in on me. It was just cheap shots all the time.’

Adding his taunts of former England captain David Beckham to the list of ‘cheap shots’, Craig recalled Leigh’s mockery over the sound of the sportsman’s voice.

‘These weren’t hypothetical characters, they were real people with lives and feelings, and it was cheap shots, that was the premise of the show.’

It seemed that the pair had put things to bed after Leigh recalled bumping into Craig at mutual friend Fearne Cotton’s 2014 wedding.

However, in November 2022, Leigh urged the singer to ‘stop talking about’ the sketch show and move forward.

Weeks after Craig branded the comedian, 49, a ‘racist’, Leigh insisted that the only way for Craig to move on from the drama is to stop highlighting it.

While Leigh assumed the pair buried the hatchet, Craig still harboured resentment as he called out Leigh for having a ‘vendetta’ against him and said he ‘normalised bullying’.

In retaliation to Craig’s recent criticism, Leigh told The Sun: ‘Most people are happy with their portrayal on Bo’ Selecta!. Apart from someone we know who wasn’t.

‘The only way it’s ever going to go away from him, if he feels people are going on about it, is to stop talking about it.

‘It’s ages ago, isn’t it? It is, 20 years ago. I wish he wasn’t upset. I bumped into him at Fearne’s wedding and we hugged it out and everything was all nice.’

Apology: Leigh made an apology to Craig, Mel B and Trisha back in June 2020 for the way he caricatured black celebrities

Bo’ Selecta! was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2002 and ran for three series until 2009, spanning several spin-offs.

In October, the Fill Me In hitmaker once again blasted Leigh for the depictions, saying they had a hugely negative impact on him.

Speaking to The Times, Craig said: ‘It felt like a vendetta and when it got a following, it became something that affected me.’

‘People would shout at me on the street and I felt the same feeling I had when I was bullied at school. Leigh Francis had normalised bullying by making it comedy.’